Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction, I do not claim any rights to any of the characters or concepts created or owned by Viz Video or Rumiko Takahashi. This is just the work of one fan to the others. The only characters or concepts that I claim are the ones I created or introduced. That said, I bring you:
Broken Mirrors, chapter 43
Wednesday, January 14th. The Saotome Residence, 6:30 PM.
Kodachi looked at the bowls of soup sitting before her, and back at the grinning pair of Akane and Ukyo while Ranma stood placidly to the side. "Why, exactly, am I sitting here with two bowls of soup right after we had dinner?"
Akane piped up with a chipper sound to her voice. "It's chi manipulation training. Learning to control and circulate chi. It's annoying, but it teaches you some incredible things, once you get past the initial hurdles."
Ukyo nodded. "It's how we can run as fast as we can, for as long as we can. Learning to circulate and control chi leads to being able to actively channel it into your body."
Ranma spoke at this point, as the cook brought out three more sets of soup bowls. "You do know that we are going to have to demonstrate the technique to her, and we can never get too much practice. Especially some of us." He pointedly did not look at the suddenly blushing Akane.
"I've only blown up a few bowls, and not recently!" Akane said in her own defense.
Kodachi blinked and gave a slightly worried look at Akane. "You… Exploded a bowl. Of soup."
Akane toed the ground as she looked down shyly. "Just one or two. I pushed a little too much hot chi into it, and it sort of… Exploded. But, that is how I took care of that cat-thing, so it's good! It's good, right?"
Ukyo giggled and side-hugged Akane. "It's good, Sugar. We have to tease you, just a bit. But Ranma's got a point, you can never practice too much, and we need to show her how to do what she needs to."
Akane sighed and nodded as she cast a look at Ukyo. "You're such a teacher's pet."
Ukyo laughed and nodded. "You know it!"
Akane rolled her eyes and laughed as she gently pushed Ukyo away. "Shouldn't we get to teaching Kodachi how to manipulate her chi?"
The group settled in as they started to show Kodachi how to circulate her chi through the bowls of soup. After a bit, Kodachi laughed and let out a frustrated sigh.
"I don't get it. What am I doing wrong?" Kodachi said as she placed the bowls down.
Akane looked up and creased her eyebrows. "It takes some practice to be able to do it at will. But, when you get it… It's kind of life changing."
Kodachi nodded as Ukyo spoke up. "It took me a little longer than the other two, but I don't practice the Art as often as the others do. I can't quite do what they can, but it's interesting."
"Could you elaborate a bit, please?" Kodachi asked.
Akane nodded as she held up her bowls and slowly breathed out as her bowls started to steam and boil.". I'm better at hot chi, it's part of your nature. Ranma though…"
Ranma breathed out slowly as he let out a puff of cold air, then slowly turned each bowl upside down. No soup spilled out, as Kodachi had expected. Instead, Ranma had frozen both bowls solid. There was even frost and ice clinging to the outside of the bowls. He righted them and they slowly warmed back up.
Ukyo smiled as she spoke up. "Ranma is calm and controlled, still and immovable. Like a pond that is frozen over in the winter. Akane is hot and passionate, like a hot spring. I'm just somewhere between. So, you just need to tap into who you are, Sugar, and learn how to channel what you are into the bowls."
Kodachi nodded as she took a few, deep breaths. She could manipulate chi to some extent already, but for her her talents lay in drawing in chi from others. It was how her kind fed, for the most part. Unlike many of her kind, she preferred to passively draw on the yang chi of her, well, meals. Others, though, would actively drain it, sometimes to the point where their targets weakened, sickened, or even died.
And that was just her very particular kind. There were others that fed on yin chi, and those would routinely kill their victims so that they could absorb as much of their dying life force as they could.
In her experience, the more you fed the greater your hunger became. She thought it might have something to do with how their bodies processed chi, or perhaps they didn't generate it to the same level as other creatures? It honestly hadn't been something that she had ever wondered about, before she came to live in this world cut off from the other Mirror worlds.
How and why this world, and this world alone, had been cut off was something that she had also wondered about, but she was pretty sure she knew who had done it. The bigger question, then, was why? Of all the infinite reflections of the Mirror worlds, why this one? What made this one world so important that the Mirror Magus herself would interfere directly?
Those were questions for another time. Here and now, she had to start to work on figuring out how to project her chi, instead of feeding on the chi of others. And regardless of what you called it, chi, ki, qi, or lifeforce, even soul, they were all basically the same energy when you got down to the root of it.
Kodachi shook her head as she blared at the two bowls that were still resting in her hands, and thought back to all the strange things the trio of martial artists had said to her. Understand the true nature of the soup. Realize the soup is neither hot nor cold, but that it simply is. To feel the flow of her own energies as they flowed through her. The ebb and flow, rise and fall of the energy.
She thought she felt… Something. A stirring in her palms and an answering echo from the bowls, then the barest hint of something spicy, like cinnamon, caught her nose and she lost her concentration.
When Kodachi opened her eyes, she could still smell a lingering trace of that scent, and as she looked at the others it was hard to not notice the slight flush, the slightly faster breathing and she immediately had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. The tantalizing taste of yang chi in the air almost made her mouth water and stirred her hunger. She took a long, slow breath as she ran through the techniques that Akane had started to teach her to control her… Addiction.
Kodachi resisted the draw of Akane's rampant yang chi, and skirted around the much more balanced flow of Ukyo's, as solid and comforting as it seemed to her. Instead, she focused her senses on the wall of yin chi that surrounded Ranma's blazing pillar of vital yang chi. It was soothing, in it's own way, and she could feel her hunger fading back into the background, and with it the pulses of her own yang infused essence that seemed to have been seeping out of her.
Kodachi slowly opened her eyes again, and smiled at the three. "I think I'm getting closer… Would it be possible for me to try this… soup training… at home? I want to see what I can do when I'm not distracted?"
Ranma eyed Kodachi for a moment and then nodded. "I think that would be acceptable, as long as you are careful not to blow anything up." He said in that calm, serious voice of his, and Akane nodded along for a moment, before she cast a sharp look at the implacable master of the Saotome clan, and let out a sigh and nodded as well. It was always hard to get mad at Ranma like this, but she could imagine how aggravating and frustrating a more…. Energetic and outgoing… Ranma could be. Luckily, HER energetic and outgoing Ranko was not quite so… Smug.
And much cuter.
After Kodachi had gotten a pair of covered bowls of soup and left for home, the trio made their way towards the baths, and discussed the events of the day. Akane was the first to broach a subject that all three had noticed, but only one had an idea for the cause.
"Did anyone else notice a strange smell? Like… Cinnamon mixed with honey?" Akane asked tentatively.
Ukyo nodded slowly, as she glanced to the side at Ranma. "Yeah, Sugar.. I did, just about the time I started to feel a bit.. Warm."
Akane nodded and looked over at the silent Ranma. "Did you notice anything?"
Ranma shrugged non-comitably as he placed one arm around Ukyo's waist. "Possibly. It could be something about her nature, I suppose."
Akane thought about that, and matched it to what she knew of Kodachi's personality and sighed. "It's possible, I guess? I mean… None of us are experts on how a person's chi can affect those around them. No harm seems to have been done, so I guess we can just write it off as a quirk of hers."
Ukyo and Ranma nod in agreement, then the trio splits up, with Akane heading into one bath on her own, while Ranma and Ukyo head into the other so that they can 'wash each other's backs.' Akane doesn't buy that excuse for a moment, but she can't really fault them. The nature of the siblings means that you really have to make the most of the time you have with them. It's something that Ukyo and Akane had accepted, and decided was worth it to have their partner's in their lives.
Even if sometimes it did get lonely being the odd one out.
Akane soaked in the bath and smiled softly. When those two finally got around to starting a family, then Aunt Akane would get to spoil their little bundle of joy absolutely rotten. It was a comforting thought, getting to be part of the family like that.
It would be even better if she could legally be part of their family.
Friday, January 16th. The Saotome Residence, 6:30 PM.
All that week, they had practiced and exercised with Kodachi in attendance. She had even joined them for their morning run the previous day. That only made her absence even more notable, but the reason for her absence was likely the nervous priest who continued to look over his shoulder like a scared rabbit waiting for the wolf to appear and gobble him up.
Of course, that analogy was a bit too true for Gosunkugi's sake.
"We promise you, she isn't here. We even called her mansion, and they said that she had business to attend to, and she wished to express how sorry she was for not being able to visit." Akane said as Ukyo brought out a cup of tea for the nervous man.
Gosunkugi looked at them both intently, then wrapped his hands around the cup and took a couple of slow sips. He had relaxed somewhat by the time Ranma walked into the room and sat down with the aid of his cane.
"Thank you for taking the time once again to check on us, and the work you have done for us, Gosunkugi. We have not had any more… Visitors since you placed your wards." Ranma said in his somber voice.
"It should keep out any unwanted entities…" Gosunkugi said, then looked deep into his cup. "But it won't keep out anything you are foolish enough to invite in."
Ranma nodded. "We will make sure that we are fully aware of the nature of anything or anyone we choose to let in, I assure you."
Gosunkugi gave Ranma an intense look, then seemed to deflate as he rubbed one hand over his bald head and lifted his dark, sunken eyes to regard Ranma. "She does seem to be behaving herself, at least."
Akane and Ukyo shared a look before Ukyo laid a hand on Ranma's shoulder. "She hasn't tried to steal my fiance even once, so I don't think we have to worry."
Gosunkugi sighed again and stood up and stretched. "I will walk the wards one more time before Shiro takes me back. Would… You care to accompany me, Ms. Tendo?"
Akane nodded and smiled that megawatt smile of hers. "As long as you call me Akane. Would you like me to call you Hikaru?"
Gosunkugi seemed to shrink in on himself. "Just… Gosunkugi, or priest Gosunkugi works… I don't think I can handle more than that."
Akane nodded and walked off with Gosunkugi in two as she talked with him, and tried to gently pull him from his shell.
Ukyo and Ranma watched the unlikely duo until they left their view, then Ukyo chuckled, a look of pride on her expressive face
"Would you believe that she used to be a hot-headed, violent tomboy?" Ukyo said, and at the questioning look she received from Ranma she pressed on.
"She changed a lot after a therapist stepped in to help the family. Who knows how they would have turned out. It's the reason she started into the line of work she chose. And if she hadn't, she would have never met Akane." Ukyo said with a smile.
"I started into physical therapy for my own reasons. When I was very little, my dad and I ran a traveling food cart. I probably would have picked up the family business, as well, if dad hadn't pushed himself too hard one day and threw out his back. He was laid up for a while, and an older specialist helped him get back into shape. It impressed me enough that I started to look into it. As amazing as making food was, taking an injured person and bringing them back to health seemed miraculous. It inspired me to be better." Ukyo said fondly.
"And it led me to you." Ranma said with a slight smile.
"Yes, and it led me to you." Ukyo said before she leaned in for a kiss.