In Enemy Arms
Diving behind Taro, to escape the sight of Cinnamon in dragon form, was far from the most intelligent thing Ranko had done lately. She realized that the moment she felt the tentacles of his cursed form wrapping around her. Unfortunately, the fear of dragons she had inherited from Fa Shen could not be controlled by reason, as her fear of cats sometimes could be—if she was not caught completely off guard.
Who in their right mind wouldn't be afraid of a dragon? Ranko asked herself silently as she began to struggle against Taro's grip. The strength of those tentacles surpassed Ranko's own inhuman strength, and for all their slimy appearance they clung even better when wet. With each limb wrapped tight in a pair of tentacles, Ranko was effectively immobilized—but with the power of the circuit flowing through her again, she felt anything but helpless. Normally, free movement was required to shape her ki attacks, but—she had learned in her battle with Herb—she had so much raw power at her disposal that it hardly mattered.
The only reason she hesitated to use that power against Taro was because it had an arousing effect on those it touched, and some part of her questioned the wisdom of charging the libido of an opponent who had threatened to rape her. The tips of Taro's tentacles were already caressing her, stimulated by contact with the ghostly flames of her aura. Fortunately, Taro was preoccupied with his effort to lose their pursuers.
As Taro ripped through the forest, Ranko could see Ryu Kumon flashing in and out of view between trees and sheets of rain. Someone else chased after Ryu, at enough of a distance that Ranko could not make out his features through the blur of constant, jerking movement. Ranko blinked the rain out of her eyes and noticed a froth of bubbles forming on Ryu's body.
"Ryu!" she cried out in warning, "the soap! It's wearing off!"
Hearing this, Taro roared in bullish laughter and turned to confront the first of his pursuers, anticipating an easy victory.
Ryu stopped as well, pausing to look down at himself, surprised at the sudden surge of foam. "What the..." he cut himself off, blurring into motion as Ranko's warning penetrated his confusion. In an instant, he had stripped off his clothes and stuffed them into a knapsack; an instant later he was transformed into a fierce tiger.
Ranko struggled to see around the bulk of Taro's cursed body, worried that the failure of the notoriously unreliable waterproof soap had rendered her former rival helpless before the hulking monstrosity of Taro.
"Ryu!" Ranko shouted out again, in concern. Ryu responded to her cry with a feline roar that sent a deathly chill down Ranko's spine. When Taro twisted to avoid the charge of the newly cursed martial artist, Ranko caught a glimpse of Ryu's tiger-striped hide and went rigid. "No!" she choked out as Ryu flew past, rebounding from a tree trunk to launch himself at Taro's back, claws extended to tear Ranko free from the tentacles. "T-t-t-tiger!"
As the grip of fear closed once more around her mind, Ranko released a surge of raw ki and crippled her captor with a flood of orgasmic pleasure. The tentacles holding her shuddered with bliss and went limp. Ranko twisted and squirmed free with absolute haste, seeming to fade into non-existence as Ryu crashed into the stunned bulk of their foe. Taro collapsed under the combined assault.
On some level, Ranko understood what had happened. She knew that the tiger was just Ryu Kumon, in his new, cursed form, but that knowledge offered no more protection than similar knowledge of Shampoo's curse ever had. So she ran. Without a single glance back, or a single thought about where she was going, she fled from her fear, clinging desperately at the last strands of her sanity.
Ryu stared at her fleeing form in absolute disbelief for one long moment and then, being completely ignorant of the traumatic episode of her childhood, raced after her. Behind them, Taro struggled to his feet, his body aching with a desire his mind rebelled against. His nerves still tingled with the echoes of Ranko's erotic ki. He did not know what she had done. He only knew that it had felt wonderful. Having felt it, he was gripped with a desperate desire to feel it again.
With a roar of challenge, he took up the pursuit, quickly overtaking Ryu and passing him.
Due to the power of the circuit running through her, Ranko quickly outpaced her pursuers. As her panic faded, she stumbled out of the forest into a cultivated field. Stopping to orient herself, she realized that she had put a significant distance between herself and Jusenkyo. Her breathing quickly returned to normal, but the raw ki that flowed through her left her flushed with arousal.
Without the distractions of her phobias or battle, she was no longer as immune to the full effects of her own power. The feeling made her instantly self-conscious. There she stood alone at the edge of an anonymous farm, vibrating with pleasure as if some invisible lover was wrapped around her.
With all the discipline she could muster, she forced the power back down, sealing it away in the warm, dark places of her mind. Having pushed this final distraction aside, she remembered what had happened to Herb.
As before, she had an immediate impulse to go to Herb's rescue. That impulse was followed with an irresistible urge to laugh. When Herb had turned her life upside down with his last-second victory, after forcing her to promise to marry him if he won, neither of them had realized the cost of his victory. The destruction of his male form, had been hidden until he fell into a Kaisuifuu charged bath earlier that morning.
Ranko had no idea what effect that was going to have on her promise. Would Herb hold her to it if he was stuck as a she? Ranko could not picture Herb volunteering to be the bride if they got married. No, Herb had raced off to visit the Nanniichuan the instant he was confronted with the loss of his male side. Eventually, Herb would recover enough to survive getting another curse. No doubt, Herb would want to regain his manhood before resuming the pursuit of Ranko.
Ranko knew that her sense of honor would compel her to help Herb become a man again. In spite of having come to terms with her female identity, Ranko's male identity was precious to her, and if she were in Herb's place, she would do anything to be able to be Ranma again.
Ranko frowned and growled at herself. The night before, she had realized that her fusion with Ranma and Fa Shen had put her in a position to be Ranma again, officially. It had been a strangely upsetting revelation. Not only could she be Ranma again, some people would expect her to be Ranma again. As her reflections had proved, however, just taking the name Ranma was not the same as really being Ranma. The real Ranma was a boy who had never been dipped in the Nyanniichuan. He was locked away in her head and unable to get out without being warped by her experiences.
Of course, she would not be who she was not if not for Happosai giving Genma the water from Togenkyo, turning her into a boy in Nodoka's womb. Without Ranma, there was no Ranko. The dragon never stopped chasing its own tail.
"I don't have time for this!" she shouted to herself in frustration, pushing the thought out of her mind and turning in the direction of Phoenix Mountain. She had always known the name and location of the mountain, named for the phoenix that had been captured there by a Musk emperor before she was born—which she now knew had been Fa Shen's mother. Nodoka, actually, if Cinnamon was correct and Pa Shen had risen from the ashes to be raised by her son, Lo Shen—under the assumed identity of Kenshin Saotome.
Ranko shook her head. Her family history was as confusing as her personal history. Focusing on the mountain ahead of her, remembering the Jusenkyo Guide saying that was where Saffron had taken Herb, she took of at a steady lope, rescue plans forming in her brain.
It had been a long time since Cinnamon had been on a mad chase through the woods. The unexpected thrill of delight seemed a bit perverse considering the situation. Somewhere up ahead, the girl he loved was running in terror from a monster. In pursuit ahead of him was a tiger that had once been a human boy, and for all Cinnamon knew, another rival for Ranko's affections. The only thing he did know about the boy was his name, and now that he was cursed. Cinnamon was too proud to consider Ryu a threat, but it was fortunate for the tiger that the dragon had caught up to Ryu just in time to see the waterproof soap wear off. Otherwise, Cinnamon might have taken him out of the chase.
Since this was the first time Cinnamon had truly exerted himself in his new cursed form, he was still a bit awkward, crashing through the undergrowth and clipping the occasional tree. From the look of it, Ryu was new to his form, because he was also struggling to keep up with the chimera. The strength and proportions of their new forms played havoc with their trained instincts. Ranko, on the other hand, moved with such speed and coordination that she had quickly sped out of sight.
Ryu was still oblivious to his pursuer. Growling in frustration, slipping and skidding around trees as the rain turned the ground to mud under his paws, Ryu was struggling to keep Taro in sight. It seemed incredible that something as massive as Taro in his beast form could move so easily through the thick forest. Every few seconds, Ryu fell another twist or turn behind. Even when he lost sight of Taro, the path of torn and twisted vegetation left in his wake was easy enough to follow. Unfortunately, there were no clear signs of Ranko's passage, and Ryu feared that the monster had her in his clutches once again.
Cinnamon's suspicions were rising too, as he realized that the chase had turned them back toward Jusenkyo. The forest was as different as a thousand years could make it, but the lay of the land was still familiar to the ancient dragon. It was possible that Ranko was leading them back to where the fight had started, but it was just as likely the beast had recaptured her and had its own reasons for returning to the cursed springs. It was an old tactic to use Jusenkyo to throw off or eliminate pursuers.
Eventually, the broke out of the forest and darted up the ridge separating the cursed springs from the neighboring hot springs. The sharper senses Ryu possessed as a tiger allowed him to continue tracking Taro to the cliff over the hot springs, where he assumed Taro had taken to the air. When the tiger came to a stop at the edge, sniffing at the edge and scanning the skies in frustration, Cinnamon finally caught up to him.
At some point, Ryu has realized that he had been followed, but this was the first clear look he had gotten. His shock at seeing a slightly older, redheaded version of Ranma was impossible to conceal, even with a tiger's face. Cinnamon did not need to read the cursed martial-artist's mind to know that Ryu was confused by Cinnamon's resemblance to Ranko's male side. The questions Ryu wanted to ask were obvious, but there was no time.
"He did not fly away," Cinnamon announced, holding a hand and pointing down at the collection of steaming pools at the base of the cliff. The tiger crouched at the edge and looked where Cinnamon was pointing, and then met his eyes. Cinnamon nodded. "There is a better escape route down there. In the main pool, under the water, there is an entrance to a river of caves. I suggest we dive in for a look, before giving up this chase." He frowned, as it occurred to him that the hot water would force him to become female, but even in that weaker form Cinnamon considered himself a match for the beast. He took a deep breath and dove into the main pool below.
Ryu dove into the water after him and they both emerged in the cave to see Taro, standing naked and aroused holding a handful of clothing.
"He's human, then," Cinnamon observed, looking briefly at Ryu for confirmation.
Once again, Ryu was caught off guard by Cinnamon's appearance. The fact that he turned into a girl in hot water was enough to prove she was not Ranko, but she looked too young to be Ranko's mother. This was not the time to explore that mystery, however. Fixing a glare on Taro, he answered his companion's question. "That's his real form, but I would hesitate to call this monster human," Ryu retorted, rapidly pulling clothes out of the satchel he had dragged along through the chase. He was scanning the cave for any sign of a captive or incapacitated Ranko. "Where is she, Taro?"
Taro snorted in disgust and casually began to step into his pants. "What kind of stupid question is that?" he asked, glaring at the woman standing next to Ryu and studying him with a deadly cold gaze. There was something odd about her appearance, but in the dim light reflected up through the water, it was not as clear that the red headed woman was a few years older than Ranko in appearance. He could tell that the clothes she wore were different from those Ranko had worn, and there was no question the hot water did not turn her male as he would expect in Ranma's case. As he jerked on his shirt, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "That isn't her, is it?"
Cinnamon sighed in relief. "He would not have to ask if he still had her." Apparently, she concluded, this Taro had given up his pursuit of Ranko and led them astray. Relaxing, she reached out with her mind, intending to pull the memory of his last glimpse of Ranko from his memories. "Where did you see her last?" she prompted gently. The first image Cinnamon encountered was the memory of a fantasy that had formed in the wake of being aroused by the effects of Ranko's ki. A harsh, rapid probing of his mind gave Cinnamon a clear picture of the fight she had interrupted, and confirmed that Taro was feeling rather tempted to follow though on his threat to rape her.
On a subconscious level, Taro sensed the violation of his mind and struggled to break free of Cinnamon's mental grip.
The instant Taro shifted into a defensive stance, Ryu attacked, charging forward at a full sprint. "Don't move!" he roared, delivering a hard kick to Taro's sternum while the older boy was still off balance. His swift attack saved Taro from instant death at Cinnamon's hands. Her fury, fueled by the image stolen from Taro's mind, was hot and savage. The clothes she had summoned to save Nodoka from embarrassment dissolved an instant before that rage prompted Cinnamon to assume her proper form. Ryu managed to deliver a series of brutal blows as Taro gaped in disbelief at the dragon that had suddenly reappeared. His arrogance vanished with a hard gulp and he turned and ran deeper into the cave.
Ryu snarled and raced after him, but after a few seconds Cinnamon pulled up short. Taro, for all his sadistic intentions, was a minor nuisance and the dragon had two greater obligations. Cinnamon had to keep her promise to protect Nodoka, first, and a more personal interest in finding Ranko, wherever she had run off to. There had been no sign of her in the cave, and from what Cinnamon could tell, Taro had given up pursuing her almost as soon as she had raced out of sight in the forest. According to Lime and Mint, the girl would be searching for Prince Herb. Why? Cinnamon would have to catch up to Ranko in order to find out. The dragon decided to leave Taro to Ryu's mercy and turned back toward the pool flooding the entrance to the cave.
Given her current proximity to Jusenkyo, the dragon decided to deal with Nodoka's security first. Exploding from the surface of the pool, at the base of the cliff, Cinnamon clawed her way up the cliff and followed the path down the other side of the ridge to the humble abode of the Jusenkyo Guide. As she approached, she spotted Nodoka kneeling placidly across a fire from the Guide sipping tea and trying to ignore Lime and Mint standing guard at either shoulder. The Guide looked up in time to see Cinnamon bearing down on them, gave out a shriek and tumbled away from the fire in a panic.
"Cinnamon?" Nodoka rose swiftly to her feet, faint alarm in her eyes as she schooled her face to remain calm.
"Your daughter escaped from Taro," Cinnamon boomed, projecting the words into the minds of everyone present. The dragon fixed her eyes on the two Musk warriors. "Unfortunately, she evaded Ryu and I as well, while we were chasing the chimera. I intend to go after her, but first I must see to it that her other is safe." Cinnamon turned her large, intense eyes back to Nodoka. "I am hesitant to drag you along on my search. I believe you would be safest among the Amazons."
"If you insist, though honestly, I would prefer to accompany you and find my daughter," Nodoka protested gently.
Cinnamon lowered her head in consideration. "If you came with me, I could only carry you part of the way. I cannot approach Ranko in this form without causing her to flee. I am afraid that we could not catch up to her, however, at a pace that you could sustain," she was forced to point out.
"This is not the only form of yours strong enough to carry me," Nodoka persisted, resisting the inexplicable urge to blush.
Cinnamon sighed. The woman had a point. The rain would turn her into an older, stronger version of her son the moment Cinnamon attempted to shed her natural form. It would not be too difficult to carry Nodoka, and it was in better keeping with the promise she had made to Cologne to keep Ranko's mother under her personal protection. "Fine. You can accompany me."
"O great dragon, we beg you allow us to come as well," Mint inserted boldly, stepping forward with Lime.
Nodoka turned toward them and shook her head. "No. I understand how you feel about your prince, but I believe you should waste no time informing his father of what you two told me," the Saotome matriarch insisted. She turned to Cinnamon and quickly summed up the tale Mint had confided. "They told me Ranko came back to Jusenkyo to stop Herb from getting cursed," she began, letting her concern show on her face. "It seems that Herb's male form was destroyed in the fight with Ranko. They discovered it this morning when these two dropped the Kaisuifuu into Herb's bath this morning. Herb came here, according to the Guide, and was captured by a man named Saffron, and Ranko is probably on her way to rescue Herb now."
Cinnamon's eyes grew wider with each shocking sentence. The loss of Herb's form was something she had feared, and had hoped to confirm in a manner less upsetting to Herb. It was not surprising to hear Herb had immediately sought out the Nanniichuan. The true shock was hearing that the prince had encountered Lord Saffron. "Is this true?" Cinnamon asked, giving the Guide and the Musk warriors each a challenging look.
"Is so, Dragon. I see with own eyes. Saffron come, knock boy in Huniichuan, jump in Nanniichuan, then face Prince Herb. This very dark day in Jusenkyo history," the Guide confirmed in grave tones.
"I am fluent in Chinese, you know," the dragon observed dryly, wondering why the Guide was speaking to him in broken Japanese.
"Ah… ha, ha. I mean no offense, Noble Dragon," the Guide gurgled in Mandarin, kowtowing in desperate haste.
The dragon snorted and dismissed the stocky man from her mind. Giving the two Musk warriors a careful appraisal, she gave a quick nod. "Mint, you are built for speed. You report to the Emperor. Lime, wait for him and then you may follow. Also, keep an eye out for Ryu. He will most likely return here once he has dealt with Taro, and may wish to come as well. If we are to march on Mount Phoenix, we will need all the help we can get. Saffron and his people are deadly and ill tempered."
"As you say," the henchmen acknowledged with a deep bow. Mint wasted no time, turning on his heel and sprinting off in the direction of the Musk Fortress. Lime watched him depart, then settled down next to the fire to wait with a fierce glimmer in his eyes.
"Very well. Let us be off, Nodoka," Cinnamon urged, crouching low so that Ranko's mother could climb once more to the spot where a human could ride safely on the dragon's back. Once she was settled in place, Cinnamon spread her wings and stretched out like a cat in preparation for the strain of taking flight. "Hold on tight, little one," the dragon warned, giving Nodoka just enough time to brace herself, before springing into the sky.
Kiima was pacing up and down the hall in front of the door to Lord Saffron's private rooms. She was furious and frustrated. When she had discovered that he had snuck out of the palace, she had all but turned the mountain upside down searching for him, and somehow, in spite of having roused half the guard to help, he had returned unnoticed a few hours ago and locked himself in his room. It was an infuriating habit, and one that suggested that he was beginning to remember his past lives and yearn for the day of his ascension. So far, there was no sign of any obsession with hot springs, but the boy was clearly feeling the urge to search for something and arrogant enough to risk his life outside the safety of the palace to find it.
The problem was, he had chosen the very morning a dragon was spotted flying from the Musk Fortress. Only the fact that it had not come straight to Mount Phoenix kept Kiima from believing that her raid to steal the Chisuiiton had caused the Musk to summon one of the ancient beings. She was desperate to report the dragon and alert her Lord to the threat it represented, but the blasted child had ignored her request for entry. For what seemed the thousandth time, she pounded on the door and shouted, "My Lord Saffron! I have urgent news!"
"Captain Kiima!" a voice cried out from down the hall, underscored by the sound of running feet.
Kiima turned toward the arriving messenger, an unpleasant knot forming in her stomach. "Report."
"Yes, Captain. The scout you sent out this morning has returned," the young man announced, wings fluttering in obvious agitation.
Kiima glanced once at the door in despair, and then returned her attention to the youth. "Fine. Stay here and watch the door. I want to know the instant Lord Saffron stirs," she commanded with a stern look. When the messenger bowed to her order, she flared the feathers of her wings, settling them into order and stalked down the hall to confront the scout.
Her temper was not much improved when she was greeted with furious quacking.
"What the flaming feathers is this?" she demanded, staring at the Hououjin woman swooping around the chamber in pursuit of a frantic duck.
"Dinner, if it would just stay in the bag!" the scout growled in frustration. The duck had been about to fly out the door Kiima had entered, and was forced to veer left to avoid crashing into her. The scout cried out in triumph, seizing the opportunity to snag the panicked bird in a net. As she dropped out of the air she realized who had spoken, and hastily knelt before Kiima. "My apologies, Captain. I am ready to report."
"I expect to hear good news, seeing as you saw fit to stop and hunt during your mission!" Kiima snapped.
The scout flushed and stammered, "I… I assure you, I did not stray from the mission. The dragon went to ground and I overshot it. I ran into the duck as I spotted the dragon taking wing behind me. I literally ran into the duck as I was doubling back."
Kiima's eyes narrowed. "Go on. Show me where the dragon went."
The scout stepped over to indicate on the map the route the dragon had flown, where she had lost it, where she had reacquired it and where it had gone. "The last I saw, the dragon was carrying a woman with red hair to Jusenkyo. I lost sight of it as we passed through the clouds," she explained, before concluding, "I suspect that the dragon bears a curse, as it seemed to disappear moments after landing."
Kiima considered that and then nodded. The scout had made a reasonable decision to return and report. The regular sentries would spot the dragon if it reappeared in the skies above Jusenkyo. If the dragon was carrying people from place to place, and showing no interest in Mount Phoenix, then it was unlikely that it had been roused by the Musk in response to her raid. It might yet be a problem, but her original fear was starting to seem unfounded. The Musk were certain to respond to the theft of one of their sacred treasures, but it seemed that they were taking their time to organize a response. As long as Saffron did not persist in his inexplicable refusal to give her an audience, she would have time to prepare for an attack from the Musk.
Kiima dismissed the scout, ignoring the duck's angry protests.
Akane, Ukyo, Ryouga, Shampoo and Cologne began to worry when Mirror missed several scheduled rest breaks in their journey. Normally, they would be let out every few hours for fresh air, exercise and bathroom breaks, while Mirror rested and ate. Cologne had begun to suspect the worst as noon approached.
"Is not like Mousse," Shampoo muttered, giving her great-grandmother's fears a voice. She stood and walked to the crystalline wall of their cell. She rested a hand gently on the hard surface and looked up at the darkened portal.
"No. Even as a boy, Mirror would not be foolish enough to leave us trapped in here without reason," Cologne commented, inserting a mild rebuke by associating Mousse with his new, assumed identity. The fiction that Mirror was a different person from Mousse was the only thing that kept the boy safe from an ancient Amazon prohibition. "If nothing else, she would want to spend a little time with you, Great-granddaughter."
"What if she lost the compact?" Akane asked in sudden alarm. Ryouga and Ukyo stared at her and then looked at each other with rueful expressions. It was not unlike Mousse to pick up a nice, flat rock and fly off to Japan leaving the compact abandoned on the ground.
"In that case, we're going to be stuck in here until someone finds the compact and…" Ryouga cut herself off. Most people would open the compact and look in the mirror, becoming trapped inside with them. "No one would think of turning it over and slapping it!" she cried out in frustration.
"Terriffic," Ukyo grumbled. At least Ryouga was too annoyed to be depressed about it. They did not have enough water to keep splashing the piglet with water to turn her human. If she had known there were going to be no rest breaks, she would have left Ryouga in pig form all along.
"What we do, Great-grandmother?" Shampoo turned to Cologne.
"Well, if we must, we could prepare ourselves to escape when the mirror is opened. While some unfortunate soul is falling in, perhaps one of us can get out," the old woman schemed, studying the dark portal. The distance was small enough that any of them could leap it. Timing was the critical factor. To escape while the portal was open, they would have to react instantly to the first sign of someone looking into the glass.
"How long do you think that could take?" Akane probed doubtfully.
Cologne sighed. Before she could ask, the world turned upside-down and they were falling through the air. In spite of trained reflexes, the entire group slapped face first onto a hard, stone floor, sprawled in an undignified pile. A quick look revealed that they were in a kitchen carved out of natural stone.
"Sorry about that," Mirror squeaked, standing above them stark naked with one hand poised to strike the back of the compact again. Hastily, she added, "Try not to make any noise. We are in enemy territory!"
"What happened, Mirror?" Cologne demanded, concern and irritation evident in her subdued voice.
"As I was leaving the inn, I was shot with a drugged dart," Mirror announced, rubbing the spot on her belly where the wound she had received had been translated during her transformation back to human form. "When I came to, I was bound in a net tied to the back of a Hououjin scout. She was planning to eat me for dinner!"
Ryouga winced and placed a comforting hand on Mirror's shoulder, while handing her something to wear. "That's rough, man."
Mirror scowled, not sure if she wanted to object to the sympathy or the gender-inappropriate form of address. She still did not know how to deal with the implied friendship such comments carried when uttered by Ryouga or Ranma. She wiped the irritation off her face and continued, "I attempted to escape, but that only made the bird-woman suspect I might be more than a duck. She dunked me in hot water, but of course the water triggers are still locked from when Herb splashed me with the Chisuiiton. As soon as she dropped her guard I used my chi to change back and knocked her out."
"We were afraid you had gotten yourself into trouble, but to be captured by a Hououjin! Mercy, Child, you could start a war!" Cologne declared, shaking her head in dismay.
"Who are the Hououjin?" Akane asked.
In response, Mirror pulled her around the cutting board and pointed at the unconscious scout. "That is a Hououjin. I had never seen one until today. I thought they were just a myth!"
"Better for all of us if they were, Child," Cologne declared, coming to the bird-woman's side and carefully touching the pressure points that would keep her incapacitated until natural sleep set her free several hours later. "I take it there was a reason you let us all out, rather than try to sneak away with us hidden in the compact?" the old woman asked Mirror.
"Yes. I am sorry, but we are deep inside the mountain. The whole of their community is between us and any chance of freedom. I let you all out so we can fight out way through," Mirror confessed.
"A far from desirable option, but none of us could pass as anything but food or foe among these creatures," Cologne confirmed.
"But how? How did these people come to have wings? Are they angels?" Akane wondered.
"They are all too human, warped as they are by ingesting cursed water," Cologne sneered with distaste. "It's a story better told when we are safely away. Akane, you are the least proficient of this group, and one of us needs to carry our things into the trap mirror so they do not encumber us."
Akane turned red with contained resentment, but managed to avoid turning male by focusing on the need to free the others hands to fight. With a crisp nod, she gathered the loose ends of the ropes that had been tied to each of the bags, casks and crates. "Okay, I am ready," she announced when she had a firm grip on the leads.
"Show her the mirror," Cologne commanded.
Mirror's arm snapped out, opening the compact with a flick of her wrist and poising the mirror in front of Akane's nose. Akane stared cross-eyed into the glass and disappeared with an involuntary squeak. Mirror snapped the compact closed and tucked it up her sleeve, into the ki twisted space where she kept her arsenal.
"I guess this is it, then," Ukyo muttered, reaching back to draw her battle spatula from its carrying rig. Ryouga and Mirror nodded, approaching the door, ready to rush out and deliver the opening blows of this battle. Shampoo hauled her bonbori out of their own pocket space and lined up next to Ukyo. Cologne hopped up onto her staff and bounced into the middle of their formation.
Cologne gave each of the girls a considering look. Two of them were properly boys, and one a female outsider, but as soon as they passed through that door into battle under her leadership, all of them were about to earn the official status of Amazon War Maidens. When she learned of it, Akane would not forgive Cologne for excluding her from the fight. The irony was, Akane was the most Amazon of them all, in spirit. It was simply a shame that the girl had been born an outsider, and never properly trained.
"It is time. Try not to get yourselves killed," Cologne told them, getting shocked looks from the three outsiders in return. "Go!"
Ranko perched on a tree branch and wiped the rain out of her eyes. The storm seemed to have kept pace with her, leaving Jusenkyo behind to keep shedding its misery on her head. Usually, when she thought of herself as a water-magnet, it was in wry humor. Having been locked in female form, she would have expected an impossible drenching in hot water, but this cold, bitter shower tormented her instead.
It would take little effort to let the power of the circuit rise and keep her warm, but the accompanying arousal would put her in no state to fight. While she was racing toward the mountain, the exertion had kept her warm enough to resist the temptation. If she delayed too long, contemplating the mountain rising into the clouds before her, her body would be wracked with violent shivers.
"I hate the rain," she sniffed, slicking her hair back out of her eyes in misery.
She shifted her weight and tucked her hands under her arms to try to warm them up. In spite of thinking of little else on the way, she had not come up with much of a rescue plan. The memories she had inherited from Fa Shen did not include anything useful about Mount Phoenix. Pa Shen had gone out of her way to keep her phoenix heritage a secret from her daughter, which had included avoiding the place where she had been captured by the Musk.
It was a tall, narrow spire. Its steep slopes made it an ideal place for winged inhabitants to reside, but almost impossible for a normal human to assault covertly. To her surprise, however, she had spotted an entrance to the mountain's interior on its lower slope. Ranma probably would not have found that suspicious at all, and charged straight in, but Fa Shen's knowledge of the tribes in this region made Ranko suspicious. These people had wings. Why would they need an entrance suited to normal people on foot?
If there was an easy way in, it would be designed for those who could fly. The flying part she could handle, but if there were any natives on the lookout, they would be able to tell she was an outsider by her lack of wings. She had already discovered that the techniques of the Umisenken would not work while she was flying, though. She could not use her ki to mask her presence while drawing on enough power needed to defy gravity.
"I guess I'll have to wait until dark," she decided aloud. The cloud cover was too uncertain. It might not extend high enough, and it might keep her from spotting sentries in time to avoid them. "It's that or retreat, go really high, and come down out of the sun. Assuming I can fly that high," Ranko quipped, tilting her head back to stare into the heavens.
The best option required a long wait, so her best bet was to do some experimenting. Ranko started to practice working the Umisenken at increasing levels of power. Getting in undetected was her highest priority. It would allow her to map out the interior and search for Herb without having to fight her way in blind. It would also make it easier to fight her way back out once she had Herb.
While she worked on refining her ki manipulation, she made her way up a neighboring peak. None were as tall as Mount Phoenix, but this one was tall enough to make a good launching point for her rescue.
Ryu had pursued Taro through the twisted knot of caverns, struggling to come to terms with the fact that the person who had joined the chase was really a dragon. It had to be the same dragon that had caused Ranko to throw herself at Taro, which made the mystery of the dragon's human appearance, both male and female, even more bewildering. By the end of the day, Ryu was going to have no end of questions for Ranko, if things continued to be so bizarre. It had almost come as a relief, when Taro led them back to the surface, to see him shed his clothes, run out into the rain, and fly away.
Ryu had stood in the shelter of the cave mouth and watch the flying, tentacled minotaur dwindle out of sight. When the rain stopped a few minutes later, he ventured out, got his bearings and then made his way overland back to Jusenkyo. When he reached the hot springs, he quickly broke down his camp and carried his belongings with him to the Jusenkyo Guide's hut. He considered using the waterproof soap, but the protection it offered was marginal at best—as Ranko had warned. He might as well accept the fact that a splash of water would turn him into a tiger and get used to it.
Finding no one inside the Guide's hut, he made his way down to the springs and found the Guide sharing tea with a burly young man Ryu had not seen before. As he approached the pair, Ryu got a better look at the stranger, taking in his sharp, pronounced canines and tiger striped outfit. He continued to stare as he approached, growing angry as he confirmed that it was real tiger fur—and feeling a bit ill as the notion of some hunter shooting him for his own pelt flashed through his mind.
"You must be Ryu," the stranger declared, rising to his feet with restrained temper. He did not know what inspired Ryu's hostility, but he did not like it.
"Yes, this Mr. Customer we waiting for," the Guide announced, lurching to his feet and approaching Ryu. "Great Dragon ask us wait here for you. I introduce you. This is Lime, warrior of Musk Dynasty, he serve Prince Herb. We also waiting for Mint, partner of Lime," the Guide elaborated, pleased to see curiosity displace the animosity from Ryu's expression.
"You serve Prince Herb?" Ryu repeated, giving Lime a thoughtful look. When Lime nodded and relaxed his own stance, Ryu nodded. "I take it we're going to go help Ranko rescue her then. Thanks for waiting for me."
"It was the Dragon's will." Lime turned to the Guide and announced, "Enough time has been wasted waiting. We must be going. Tell Mint to join us quick as he can if he stops here."
The Guide promised to deliver the message, handed them a bundle containing cold lunches and water flasks and confirmed that Lime knew the quickest route to Mount Phoenix. Ryu fell into step with Lime as he took off at a steady lope. The pace was too quick for easy conversation, so Ryu kept his questions to himself.
As they left the valley and the springs behind, Ryu looked up at the storm clouds shrouding the mountains ahead of them. He cursed at their ragged bellies, realizing that they were running into the rain.
Prince Herb watched Saffron carefully as he contemplated the story she had told. As she had expected, Saffron reacted with distaste to the news that Fa Shen had been reincarnated as a boy who had fought to preserve his manhood. She had been forced to describe her conflict with Ranma during her quest to recover the Kaisuifuu as if she had heard it second hand, but Ranma's actions spoke for themselves. Even when she saw no way to avoid telling Saffron that Ranko had become locked in female form following their last battle, again presented as second-hand knowledge, she had emphasized the fact that Ranko had been determined to die before marrying Herb.
On his own, Saffron had noted the fact that Ranma had assumed a new identity, as Ranko, rather than assume the identity of Fa Shen. Herb saw no reason to correct Saffron, and it was essentially true that Ranko derived her current identity from her experiences as Ranma. She wanted Saffron to believe that Ranko saw herself as a man.
"So, why did Prince Herb wish to marry Ranko?" Saffron finally asked, unable to fathom why any man would pursue a man in female form.
"It was his father's command. He made that very clear, when he lost the opportunity to pursue Fa Shen," Herb responded cautiously.
"Then it was fortunate for him he was destroyed in their final battle," Saffron declared, considering what he had learned and adjusting his plans accordingly. At the same time, he found himself thinking of the woman in front of him in a new light. There were other ways he could benefit from the conquest of Ranko, but if not through marriage, then he could afford to explore his attraction to the woman before him.
"What you have told me has not pleased me, but I would rather have learned this than learned it too late," Saffron confessed, rising and approaching Herb. He noticed as she blushed and struggled to maintain her composure as he invaded her personal space. If he read her correctly, then the attraction was mutual, if not entirely welcome on her part. He recalled that she had feelings for another man, a man unable to consummate their union. He smiled. By Amazon law, he had the right to assert his own claim.
"What are you doing?" Herb gasped, as Saffron's fingers danced up her arm and then cupped her chin.
"You have discouraged my affection for my intended," Saffron pointed out, allowing his fascination and arousal to show. "There is no longer any reason to object to our union in accordance with your own law."
Herb went rigid in panic. Trapped by her own lies, she tried to prevaricate, "My Lord Saffron! You cannot want this! I… I …"
"Silence, Woman. You would not break your own law, would you?" Saffron rebuked her, gently. He leaned in close, pressing his body against hers and bringing his lips close to hers, barely brushing against them as he spoke. "I have defeated you. I believe you owe me a kiss," he urged, amazed at his own insistence.
Herb did not know what to do. This had gone too far, but if she revealed the truth now, he would certainly kill her. Worse, she had an insane longing to surrender. There was something about him, something as impossible to resist as Ranko. Her dragon heritage betrayed her, left her vulnerable to the allure of a phoenix. "You don't want to do this," she protested desperately, as her arms wrapped themselves around him.
"I shouldn't, and yet, I cannot remember the last time I wanted anything so much," Saffron confessed. His hand slipped around to the back of her neck, supporting her head as he gently bent her backward.
Herb closed her eyes tight, as tears of frustration and fury welled up. The rational part of her mind was screaming at her to fight, to die if necessary, but ultimately to escape with her manhood intact. A different, deeper part, whispered that this was worth dying for. She tried one last time to protest, but her lips caught on his, and before she knew it, she had been swallowed by his kiss. Her mind collapsed into a storm of passion and animal instinct, cries of loss and discovery, and an endless flood of tears.
Ranma Nibunnoichi: Reflections – Volume 5: Paying the Price – Part 07
Author's Note: It has been a long time coming, and I apologize to all my readers for the years it has taken to complete this chapter. I am afraid that life has not been kind to me, but I have scraped by. I do not plan to let so much time pass before my next update, but I just lost my job and will have to find another quickly. I refuse to abandon this story, but I know better than to make any promises when things are up in the air. All I can say is, I hope this chapter is worth the wait.