[FFML] [Ranma][SI] Hybrid Theory Chapter 8

[Aaron Peori]

Attached find chapter 8 of Hybrid Thoery. If, for some reason, you can't
read it properly formated please go to our website for the properly edited
copy -and- some neat-o bonus stuff (such as fanart).

---------------
Epsilon



-- Attached file included as plaintext by Ecartis --
-- File: hybridtheory08final.txt

C&A Productions Presents

A Work of Blatant Self-Insertion


Hybrid Theory


Chapter 8: Pushing Me Away



What was it Dave Barry had written about flying JAL first class?
'Feeling like one of the more decadent Roman Emperors'...yeah, that was it.
Of
course, there were probably more luxuries involved in a trans-Atlantic
flight,
but this was still pretty damn nice.
Pink, sitting 'next' to him (or the closest equivalent in the wide,
semi-private seats), certainly seemed to be enjoying the experience, helping
herself to the complimentary treats with gusto. She'd been more than
willing to
help herself to the complimentary alcohol as well, but Chris has hastily
waved
the flight attendant on with a 'no thanks, we're underage' before that could
happen. The smiling twin had pouted briefly - seeing the two expressions
juxtaposed was odd - but had apparently gotten over it. Which was good,
since
the last thing Chris (or the other passengers) needed was a tipsy sadistic
poisoner around.
Honestly, he hadn't expected to be returning to Japan by such a mundane
method of transportation, instead thinking vaguely of crossing the Sea of
Japan
by some plant-assisted means, or perhaps the twins and he would bribe/drug
their
way onto a ship. He'd been surprised to find the twins in fact had papers
in
good order, but hadn't looked a gift horse in the mouth. A few bribes and
two
more plane tickets later, and they were on their way. He wondered how
they'd
gotten to Japan in the manga.
Overland, the trip had been uneventful, if rather longer than his solo
one. Since the twins couldn't match his pace and of course had to sleep, he
rented carts and later cars for them as much as possible, and passed the
idle
times writing in his journals. Of course, Pink had promptly tried to peek
at
those when she thought his attention was elsewhere, but had been
disappointed to
find the contents were written in English.
"And what are you thinking about, over?" came the voice next to him. He
glanced over and met Pink's gaze, seeing amused curiosity in her eyes.
"About you," he replied honestly, and smirked a bit himself as Pink
looked taken aback. "Nothing too serious," he reassured her, "Just
wondering if
there was anything else I needed to tell you. Which, in fact, there is.
When
we arrive, you should know that people we meet probably won't know my real
name.
So they - and you when around them, please - will call me Kodachi."
Pink nodded, but on the other side of her, Link looked over at him for
the first time since the flight had begun. "If that's not your name, who's
the
real Kodachi, over?"
Chris sighed. He knew this had probably been coming. "I am. Or
rather," he corrected, looking down at Kodachi's body, "this is." For a
moment,
the twins stared at him uncomprehendingly. Then Link's eyes widened as
realisation sunk in. She opened her mouth, but he cut her off before she
could
say anything (or scream). "Hear me out. That's why I want to preserve this
body for as long as possible: so I don't need a new one. However, you
needn't
worry. Kodachi was a nasty, nasty person. At -least- as bad as Shampoo.
That's the only sort I could bear to take the body of, you understand?" Or
at
least that was the plan from here on in. "And that's why I'm looking for a
cure, as well. So hopefully it won't even by a problem for much longer."
Link didn't exactly look reassured. She hissed something in Chinese to
her sister, and the two quickly got into an argument in hushed voices, the
contents of which he could guess. He waited silently for the outcome,
thankful
there weren't so many people in first class that anybody had likely caught
more
than bits or pieces of the conversation. As for the disagreement between
Pink
and Link, there was no help for it. They would have figured it out sooner
or
later anyway, and if the promise he'd given them wasn't enough, there was
nothing more he could do to make them stay. Hell, he wouldn't even blame
them
if they dropped the whole thing. He wasn't sure -he- would have stayed with
himself, no matter what the promise was.
The argument had heated up. He heard 'Shampoo' several times, mostly
from Pink. Finally they seemed to reach a resolution, as Pink declared
something with finality. Link still didn't seem pleased at all, but made a
sound that might generously have been construed as affirmative and then
resumed
not looking at him.
Pink, however, turned to him and grinned. "You'll have to excuse my
sister. She's a little bit...nervous, over."
"I don't blame her. I'd be nervous too."
Pink shrugged. "It's not your fault what you are. You have to do the
best you can. In your situation, I'd do the same, over."
Well, do the same minus the 'only kill bad people' part, he more than
suspected. But then, that -was- the same as him, wasn't it? Still, he
relaxed,
feeling a weight lifting from his shoulders. "Thanks," he said, and meant
it.
"Though I wish I hadn't dumped all of this on you so suddenly."
"Don't worry-" Pink began, and then cut off as the plane hit some
turbulance. Some clanking came from the bag Chris had under his seat. He
wasn't letting that - with the journals and cursed water cargo - out of his
sight, and yet another sizeable bribe had kept the customs official from
giving
it more than a cursory glance. Chris had decided there were definitely some
advantages to corrupt dictatorships.
He glanced back at Pink, expecting her to continue her previous
sentence, but she was now looking at the bag with undisguised curiosity.
"So
what exactly do you have in there? I wouldn't think corpses needed to carry
much in the way of supplies, over."
He laughed. "Well, that was direct. Well, I'll tell you, but keep out
of it. The contents are rather dangerous, and besides, I plan to keep it
permanently within eyeshot. And I don't even blink." Pink didn't look too
concerned about the warning, but he'd expected that. "Before I came to your
village, I stopped off at a place called Jyusenkyou, and-"
He was cut off by a piercing shriek that DID get the attention of the
few other first class passengers, and proved himself a liar by blinking as
Pink
shot out of her seat and backed away from him to stand beside her sister.
Link
was also looking at him once again, but the expression of horror and disgust
on
her face this time wasn't directed at him, but instead at the bag.
"Keep that away from us, over!" Pink snapped.
"Sure..." he said slowly, "But what's the big problem? I guess you've
heard of it, but the water I took is in sealed containers."
"Not good enough," Link growled. "Jyusenkyou is... it's cursed. Nobody
with any sense goes near it, over."
"I have many dollars, but few sense," he quipped, but then seriously
added, "It can't affect me. But it IS magical, so I wanted to take some
samples. It might be able to help somehow, or to bribe someone else who can
help."
The twins exchanged glances; something seemed to pass between them, but
he couldn't tell what. A really extreme reaction. Was Jyusenkyou that ill-
rumoured? Or something else? He made a mental note to find out later,
after
they hopefully trusted him a bit more. After a moment, Pink returned to her
seat, though her good mood had seemingly evaporated and she had slid a
little
farther away from him. "I understand," she said shortly. "But just make
sure
you be careful. And keep it away from us, over."
"I was planning to anyway, so don't worry about it." The conversation
seemed to be at an end for a moment, so he leaned back, preparing to relax
for
the rest of the flight. Strange girls. But then, he knew that. And he was
pretty strange himself. Chris smiled a bit. Things would be fine.


*


"... and then the battle became serious when... ah damn," Ukyou groaned
out loud. She had just reached the end of the page, and the article had one
of
those handy little 'continued on page A-5' notes. In a way it was
flattering.
Almost a week later and still appearing in the papers. It was also the best
free
publicity she could ever ask for. If she ever got around to opening her
restuarant,
(Hey, remember that, my dream before you screwed up my life?)
(Yeah, yeah...)
then she would hardly need to advertise. It was also annoying, because
her other hand was currently occupied with her lunch and that made flipping
the
paper with one hand, especially her bad one, rather difficult. Normally,
eating
an okonomiyaki with one hand was nearly impossible. But Aaron had suggested
thinning up the crust and rolling it up like a burrito, stuffing it full of
all
the meatstrips and vegetables, and for once, Ukyou had listened to him. The
result was rather nice, actually. The batter was a little soft; maybe she
could
crisp it up, make it more like a crust... add noodles...
Ukyou cut off that line of thought. Speculating about food was nice. It
was still her greatest dream, and something she planned on throwing herself
into
fully once this whole mess was resolved. But it wasn't what she came out
here
for. So she focused her attention back on finding a way to flipping the
pages of
the newspaper while keep the grip on her lunch. The trouble was she couldn't
just put one down to free up a hand. That was the problem with sitting in a
tree, no storage space.
Aaron spotted their targets approaching. Ukyou sighed and folded the
paper up before deftly depositing it in one of the many interior pockets of
her
trenchcoat. She took a large bite of her lunch while sliding to her feet.
She
had to bend slightly to avoid hitting her head on another branch.
Thankfully,
Ukyou wouldn't have to stand like this for long, as the two were approaching
quickly.
"Hello, can I have a minute of your time?" Ukyou called down once they
were directly below.
Usagi stumbled to a halt with a startled squeak. The street she was
walking down was practically abandoned at this time of day, a fact Ukyou was
well aware of. The girl must be wondering where the voice that had called
out to
her had come from. Not really wanting to play with her too much, Ukyou
cleared
her throat loudly and called down, "Up here."
Usagi looked up, her long blonde pigtails whipping audibly and her large
blue eyes blinking in confusion. The cat cradled in her arms looked up as
well.
It had human eyes. They weren't even slitted like a cats. For a moment,
Ukyou's
focus drifted, and she felt like she was falling. Then she shook her head
and
the feeling evaporated.
"Do you mean me?" Usagi asked in a small voice. Sometime during Ukyou's
mental hiccup, Usagi had recovered from the shock of seeing a boy standing
above
her in a tree. She was even pointing timidly at herself, and her cheeks were
red. Ukyou wondered if the wind made it seem colder when you weren't
sheltered
by a tree.
"Actually no, I was talking to your cat," Ukyou pointed out in a deadpan
voice. Usagi laughed. The girl probably thought Ukyou was joking. Ukyou
chuckled
herself, remembering her brief conversation with Ranma this morning.
("I'm going with you!" he insisted.
"You really don't want to do that, Ranma."
"Yes I do."
"Trust me, you don't."
"What makes you think that?"
"I'm going to have a long conversation with a talking cat."
"Have fun! See you this evening!")
"I guess I have a few minutes to talk..." Usagi breathed with a small
giggle. "If Luna doesn't mind." She held up the cat towards Ukyou, and the
beast
obligingly meowed. Ukyou rolled her eyes. She stepped out of the tree,
plummeted
four meters to the pavement below and landed on one foot without so much as
a
tremble. She felt her coat flap and billow behind her as it settled in the
breeze her fall had created. Usagi made a small gleeful noise.
"That was so cool!"
"Uh, if you say so." Ukyou transferred her lunch to her bad hand and ran
her freed fingers through her bangs. Seeing Usagi's eyes follow the motion,
Ukyou held the surprisingly tasty concoction towards her. "I'm pretty full.
You
want the rest of this?"
"Sure!" Usagi cried and snatched it from her hand. Luna gave a screech
of protest as she was unceremoniously dropped. Still the cat managed to land
with some semblance of grace. Usagi was blushing even harder now as she
sniffed
the okonomiyaki roll and bit into it. "Wow, this is really good," she said
after
chewing for a few seconds.
"Thanks," Ukyou replied with a short laugh. Maybe she should look into
refining that recipe after all. "It's just something I came up wi-"
"Oh god! Your arm!"
Ukyou blinked at the girl's sudden exclamation. Then she remembered and
looked down at her left arm. She guessed it would stand out. It wasn't like
she
could roll her sleeve down over it, with the fifty needles sticking through
it
at every angle, making it look like someone had turned her arm into a
pincushion. Then again, if Doc Tofu hadn't been able to use his techniques
to
hold the arm together while it healed, it was likely it never would have.
But
even when the bones fully healed, the scars would remain. Five parallel
gouges,
the phantom remnants of the fingers of Jadeite as they had melted into her
flesh.
"It looks worse than it is," Ukyou explained as she curled and uncurled
the fingers of her wounded arm. "The needles are actually quickening the
healing
process."
"Wow..." Usagi stretched a finger towards on of the delicate silver
needles and Ukyou jerked her arm back.
"They're very sensitive," Ukyou lied quickly. Remembering just how much
of a klutz Usagi was, she wasn't about to risk it even if Tofu said touching
them was safe. "I have to keep them relatively undisturbed."
"Oh..." Usagi backed away. She looked up at Ukyou's face and then down
again, blushing suddenly. Ukyou tilted her head to the side, wondering what
that
was about. "You came to see me? Aren't you that boy from the papers and..."
Oh. That must be it. "Ah. Well, we've already been introduced but I
guess we can do it again, if you insist," Ukyou shrugged. She stepped back
and
made a short bow. "I'm Ukyou Kuonji. And you are Usagi Tsukino, also known
as
Sailor Moon, also known as Princess Serenity also known as etcetra
etcetra..."
"What?!" the girl shrieked and stepped back, her hands flying up. Ukyou
watched her okonomiyaki-roll fly into the air and tumble towards the
pavement.
With a sigh she snapped her hand out and snatched it.
"You dropped this," she pointed out as she handed the food back again.
Usagi blushed again and grabbed it, clutching it with both hands so it
wouldn't
slip from her grasp again.
"You must have me confused with someone else..." Usagi mumbled out.
"No. No, I don't," Ukyou shrugged. "But I didn't come to speak to you.
Like I said, I came to speak to the cat." Ukyou turned her attention from
the
flustered girl and quickly spotted the small black cat standing nearby,
watching
her warily. Ukyou kneeled down and held her good hand out, palm up while she
flashed her most winning smile. Luna quirked her head in a distinctly
cat-like
gesture, her ears flicking slightly. The golden cresecnt on her forehead
caught
the afternoon rays of the sun just right to make it sparkle a bit.
"Meow?" Luna said inquisitively. Ukyou let Aaron take over for a bit: he
was always better with animals than with people. He fished a little treat
from
his coat and held it out to Luna, still smiling.
"Don't be coy with me," Ukyou said with a mock pout. "We can hardly have
a civil discussion if all you do is meow at me." Aaron offered the treat
again
and Luna seemed to consider it before walking over and licking it from her
hand
with her ticklish little red sandpaper tongue. Aaron flicked her fingers
quickly
and began to scratch the cat behind the ears. Luna rolled her head to the
side,
nudging a little closer and purring. "As much fun as this is, Luna, we
really
need to have an adult conversation."
The cat merely meowed and purred a bit more as Aaron used hands trained
from twelve years of cat ownership to scratch and pet the moon cat with
practised ease. Ukyou looked up at Usagi, who shrugged helplessly.
"Well, how do you get her to talk to you?" Ukyou said with a smirk.
"Its getting her to shut up that's usually the problem!" Usagi laughed
nervously.
Aaron scooped up the cat in the crook of his arm before it had a chance
to scamper away and used Ukyou's bad hand to get to some serious petting.
Not
too hard, but not too soft either. In smooth, rythmic strokes. That was the
ticket. The little hedonist stretched and purred at the attention,
occasionally
shooting an accusatory 'why don't you do this' glare at Usagi.
"Luna, there's really no need to play at being a normal cat," Ukyou
explained patiently. "I know all about you, the Sailor Senshi, the Silver
Millennium and on down the line. In fact, I know more about all this than
you
do, which is the point of this meeting." She paused but Luna only looked at
her
and meowed. "Okay, if you don't want the Ginzuishou, I guess I can find some
use
for it... maybe a paperweight or something..."
"The Ginzuisho!" the cat in her arms screeched aloud suddenly. Ukyou was
taken aback for a moment. Luna sounded much too young... then she remembered
that in the original Japanese the voice actress had gone for the typical
saccharine headache-inducing voice, rather then the English version's
mature,
vaguely British matron's voice.
"It does speak," Ukyou laughed.
"Uh, surprise?" Usagi gulped.
"Don't worry, kid," Ukyou shrugged and allowed Aaron to resume petting
Luna. "I'm on your side. Up until Jadeite decided to make this personal, I
was
content to sit out this little war. I think... no, I KNOW that you're more
then
capable of winning it on your own. I just want to tip the odds in your favor
to
repay this little debt the Dark Kingdom owes me." Ukyou waved her needle-
perforated arm.
"How do you know all this?" Luna asked. It was weird watching the cat
talk.
"I've seen the future," Ukyou shrugged easily.
"Really?" Usagi gasped. Luna looked more doubtful.
Addressing the cat, Ukyou explained. "You know about Sailor Pluto and
the time gates. It's possible to travel back and forth to the future, so why
can't I have seen it?"
"I suppose it's possible," Luna mused. "But the question then becomes
how..."
"I just woke up like this one day." Ukyou frowned and looked up at the
sky. The sun was drifting behind some thick white clouds. She hated thinking
back to the day she had woken up with Aaron trapped in her skull. The day
her
life as she had known it had ended. "I didn't ask to be who I am now, I
guess.
Who does, really? I just have to learn to move forward, stop asking 'why?'
and
keep thinking 'what next?'"
"That's so deep," Usagi sighed. Ukyou shot her a look, but the girl had
her eyes closed so she missed it completely. Ukyou shrugged it off, however.
Usagi was destined to fall for Tuxedo What's-his-name, so it wasn't like she
could be developing anything besides a harmless crush on her. And Ukyou was
fine
with women who let their gazes linger on her from afar. As long as it never
really went beyond that... but that line of thought was making both her and
Aaron uncomfortable, so she quashed it.
"The point is that I can help you, a great deal," Ukyou continued. "Now
you can look this gift horse in the mouth, or you can trust me and make this
war
of yours a lot shorter and easier."
"I suppose we can trust you..." Luna murmured uncertainly.
"Great!" Ukyou scratched her just under the chin as a reward. "I don't
blame you for being apprehensive, I certainly would be, if the roles were
reversed."
"What do you want for this help, anyway?" Luna asked sharply.
"Nothing," Ukyou replied with a shrug.
"Nothing? You can't expect me to believe that." Luna frowned. It was a
far too human expression. She really did look nothing like a cat at all, at
least when it came to her face.
"Believe what you want," Ukyou responded coolly. "Let's get down to
business. First Luna, we'll need the... uh, Rainbow Moon Wand? Cutie Moon
Dream
Rod? I keep forgetting the name of that thing..."
"The what?"
"Just a sec..." Ukyou knelt down and deposited the cat on the ground.
Once her good hand was free, she slipped a hand into one of her many
interior
pockets and retrieved her small sketchpad. "This thing," she said as she
flipped
it open to the correct page. She displayed the picture to Luna. It was
crudely
done, by her standards, but showed all the important features. The crescent
moon
top, the delicate handle, the circular connection with the three gems inset
and
so on.
"The Moon Stick..." Luna blinked.
"That's it!" Ukyou smiled. "Could you do the backflip thing and give
the... stick to Usagi here? We're going to need it if we're going to fetch
all
the Rainbow Crystals." Ukyou paused and looked over at Usagi. "You might
want to
transform, we're going to be busy today and it'll require a lot of
explaining if
I have to carry you from place to place."
Ukyou turned back to Luna before she could note Usagi's reaction. She
was just in time to see the cat finish her graceful backflip. A swirl of
silvery
sparks floated in her wake like a tiny galaxy, coalescing together in a
single
point. With a final flash the 'Moon Stick'
(God, what an awful name)
materialized. The gaudy device floated just above the pavement.
"Well, it's your royal heritage, Sailor Moon." Ukyou stood up and ran a
hand through her bangs. Usagi stepped forward, reaching out with a trembling
hand, and retrieved the device.
"This stick is a very dangerous weapon," Luna pointed out to Usagi as
she held it up. "But also a miraculous tool for peace. Its function depends
on
the character of the user as much as the magic within it. Having it and
using
it are great responsibilities, and you should take them seriously."
"And you work on remembering how to use that thing to remove the Rainbow
Crystal from someone without turning them into monsters," Ukyou shot to Luna
as
she put away her sketchbook while retrieving a similar note-pad from one of
her
other pockets. "Now, we have to meet with a man known as Game Machine
Joe..."

*

Shampoo sat in the small room. The chair was uncomfortable, and she
knew that was deliberate. She had been waiting, she guessed, for over two
hours, and that too was certainly deliberate. That, however, wasn't what
made
her angry.
Angry? No, that wasn't a strong enough word. Enraged. That was what
she was. Every time she closed her eyes, even to blink, she saw that face,
that
face she hated more than anything else in the world.
Ranma. Ranma. Ranma. That damnable foreign girl. Who had come to her
village uninvited, eaten the feast Shampoo had won for once again becoming
the
champion of the Nyuuchezu's village tournament, and...
Humiliated her. Humiliated HER. Shampoo! The greatest, most promising
warrior of her village! That damn girl had accepted her outraged challenge,
and, before she had known it, Shampoo was beaten. Just like that. In front
of
the entire village, her victory had turned to ashes, her pride into shame.
She had thought she couldn't possibly hate Ranma even more, that there
was nothing the foreign girl could do to possibly shame her further. But
she
had been wrong. Which was why she was sitting here now. Because of Ranma.
That damn coward! But it wasn't the end. Not yet. She wouldn't let it end
like this, no matter what happened. She closed her eyes, seeing that
smirking
Japanese face before her.
Shampoo was going to enjoy watching Ranma die.
"Great-granddaughter, have you come home to fight a battle? I warn you;
I won't tolerate your wrecking my furniture."
Shampoo's head snapped up, her eyes opening again. Great-grandmother
Cologne was there now. She hadn't heard the old woman enter, but that was
normal. Great-grandmother was perched on her staff; Shampoo couldn't read
her
expression, but she got a sense of displeasure from her body language. But
then, that wasn't surprising, under the circumstances.
"Let us get straight to the point, great-granddaughter. Why have you
returned?"
Shampoo felt her cheeks burn. She hadn't wanted to come back, to
compound her humiliation. But the only alternative was unacceptable. "I
had no
choice. The girl, Ranma," she spit the name, "escaped across the ocean to
Japan. I..." She gritted her teeth. It was hard to admit her failure. "I
am
unable to follow her there, as I don't know their language. I need help if
I'm
going to find her."
Great-grandmother took a long draw on her pipe, and then exhaled slowly.
Her face crinkled a bit. "I believe there once was a little girl who
informed
her elders that she did not NEED to learn Japanese."
Shampoo flushed further. But then, great-grandmother was right. She
hadn't thought anything like this could happen. "I am sorry, great-
grandmother."
"Sorry about not learning Japanese, or sorry for invoking an ancient
custom you now cannot wriggle your way out of?"
"I will NOT wriggle out of it!" Shampoo snapped. "I will hunt down-"
"Then, if you are not trying to wriggle out of it, why have you returned
empty-handed to ask for my help?"
Shampoo swallowed her anger as best she could. "I want to find Ranma.
I will find Ranma. But in that foreign country, I can't ask anyone of her
whereabouts. I need some way to communicate. I know you can help me with
that,
so I am humbly begging..." She rose from the chair and then kneeled before
the
elder. "I am humbly begging for you to help me."
Great-grandmother paused for a moment, obviously considering. Shampoo
remained in her supplicant position. She had almost prostrated herself,
but...
even for great-grandmother, even for this, she couldn't do that.
When the elder spoke again, her voice was toneless, revealing nothing.
"Precisely what do you know of this... Ranma?"
Shampoo blinked. Why did she ask that? "I... don't know very much,
great-grandmother. She is a fast, tricky one. Many times I thought to have
caught her, but she and her pet panda would vanish right from under my
nose."
She paused, considering what else she had observed. "She's a shameless one.
Once I found her after bathing; she was strutting around topless for anyone
to
see."
"Right after bathing, you say?" Cologne's voice was sharp. "Bathing
where?"
"Umm... why do you want to know?"
"Because there are things about Ranma that I suspect."
Shampoo was beginning to worry about her great-grandmother. Perhaps old
age was finally beginning to tell? "I... don't really know where. It was
in a
river...close to Shanghai?"
"A river, hmm? Interesting..." The old woman puffed seriously on her
pipe.
Perhaps it would have been better to simply sneak in at night and borrow
what she needed. Except Shampoo didn't really know what she needed...
Cologne looked at her again. "Tell me... you've fought this girl
several times. Has she ever done anything... strange in your battles?"
"Umm... strange?"
"Things that normal girls don't do to other girls. Especially when
fighting."
At first, Shampoo had thought great-grandmother was acting a little
senile, focusing on meaningless trivia. Now, she didn't know -what- to
think.
"Umm... no. Not that I ever noticed, no."
"What about the panda?"
"Umm..."
"Stop saying 'umm', child, it's undignified."
"Great-grandmother, are you feeling all right?"
"Yes, yes, perfectly fine," she snapped impatiently. "Now answer the
question."
"I never... uh... noticed the panda doing anything strange, no. Except
for the fact it walked around on it's hind legs and talked to Ranma using
signs.
And ate human food. And drank human tea... in fact, it also MADE the tea."
Now
that she thought about it, it really was a very strange panda. But why on
earth
did great-grandmother care? "It kept running away with Ranma, too. It was
very
fast, for a panda."
"Shampoo, what would you say if I told you that this person you've been
trying to kill is actually a man?"
Shampoo stared. Wonderful. Great-grandmother had totally lost it. Why
couldn't she have waited just one more day for senility to set in? "Great-
grandmother," she said in her most patient tone, "That is silly. I told
you, I
saw this girl almost naked."
"Yes, yes, but that hardly matters, child."
Shampoo felt the beginnings of a headache coming on, but kept her voice
steady and tried not to grit her teeth too much. "Yes, great-grandmother,
it
does. She was not at all fat enough to have those on her chest. It was
definitely a girl."
The old woman chuckled. "Ah, the naivete of youth. Just for a moment,
Shampoo, forget what it was you saw and believe what I say. What would you
do,
if Ranma were a man?"
She decided to play along, for now. Needed to get the help. Had to
remember that. "Well... I guess, if Ranma were a man, then I'd have to
marry
him." Except it would be hard to marry a corpse, which Ranma was very soon
to
be, but she kept that to herself.
"So that would be your decision?"
"No," she said firmly. "That's the law. My decision is to hunt down
Ranma and pin her to the ground like a squealing pig, then-"
"Yes, yes, child." She waved absently. "But what I'm saying is that if
this Ranma is a boy, you are going to marry him, for that is the law, and
you
chose to observe the ancient laws?"
Shampoo sighed. "If somehow that was true, I... suppose I would have to
do it. But I'd rather just kill him...HER! Now you've got me saying it!"
she
added a little resentfully.
"Well, then, that settles that, I suppose." Cologne nodded vigourously.
"Now that this game of make-believe is over, can you please help me,
great-grandmother? I want to be back after Ranma as soon as possible."
"Of course I can help you, child. We leave in the morning."
Shampoo blinked. "We?"
"We."
"But why would you come along?"
"If you can tell me the true secret of Jyusenkyou, I will answer that
question for you."
Shampoo wanted to break something. A lot of somethings. Violently.
She wished her favourite identical twin punching bags were here.
"Jyusenkyou is
a forbidden place. Nobody goes there, so who cares what secrets it has?
What
does that have to do with anything?"
"I fear that is a question you will have to discover the answer to
yourself, child."

*

The water rolled over her body in a gentle river. The soft trickle of it
was soothing, almost hypnotic. Her eyes almost closed from their own weight
once
or twice as she lay there waiting. Her body felt weak. Weaker than it ever
had
before. She could feel her physical self, her very essence, threatening to
unravel. That was why she could not allow herself to fall into sleep. Sleep
was
death. Sleep was giving up. Sleep meant she would never have her revenge.
Her hand clawed at the porous stone around her, finding thin handholds.
Moaning, she pulled with all her strength and slowly her face and then her
entire body emerged from the soft trickle of the grey water. Her other hand
reached out blindly, groping until she felt it settle on one of the iron
rungs
of the nearby ladder. The ladder led up to the light. The unforgiving
light...
She took stock of her surroundings with a single glare. Tethys was not
familiar with human customs, but even she could recognize a sewer when she
saw
one. She snorted. It was an appropriate place. She hardly even remembered
dragging herself to this dank pit to escape. The last clear memory she had
was
of ripping the ward from Jadeite's...
A shudder ran up her body. What was this feeling? Sorrow? A human
failing! No, it must be anger and rage, but unlike any she had felt before.
And
the reason for that was equally clear. Always, in the past, she had been the
cat
with the mouse. When her anger grew, she merely killed the mouse and was
done
with it. But now that was beyond her ability. The mouse was beyond her
reach,
and her anger was growing. This feeling, then, was anger gone sour from age.
The
all-consuming need for revenge. Yes, if she could revenge herself upon those
who
had taken everything from her, she would feel better.
She tapped her critically low reserves and forced herself to begin
climbing. She would never get her revenge in this sewer. Tethys needed
energy to
restore herself to her full strength. And she needed more than that. Jadeite
had
been brimming with power, power she had hardly seen even in the hands of
Queen
Beryl, and he had still lost. Clearly, power alone was not enough.
So what secret did this Ukyou command that would allow her to topple so
mighty a man as Jadeite? Tethys forced down another bout of sour rage at the
thought of his ignominous death. She had not seen it herself, but she knew
the
truth of what had happened. All she needed to know now was the method.
Metal rasped against stone as Tethys lifted the cover of her sanctuary
free. As she climbed into the air, she noted it was dark out. That too
suited
her mood. She stumbled over to the nearest wall and leaned against it. She
was
taking a great risk by coming out in the open like this. In her natural
form,
she was quite conspicuous and lacked any ability to blend in with the
humans.
But the need outweighed the risk. She appeared to be in some narrow, dirty,
untraveled backroad of the city anyway. There were no humans to see her.
As if summoned by her thoughts, she felt two radiant energy sources
enter the alleyway. She shied back, hiding behind a trash receptacle. She
need
not have bothered. The humans were totally intent on each other. The male
was
draped over the female. His rumpled suit was partially removed. The female
wore
very little herself, and what she did wear seemed designed to come off with
very
little force. Tethys would have sneered, had she a mouth with which to do
it. It
appeared she had stumbled upon a human mating ritual.
That was good. She knew from long study that one of the human energy
peaks occurred during their mating. It was so unlike mating with her kind.
For
the youma, sex was about dominance and power. You took who you wanted when
you
wanted, to show that you were higher on the magical food chain than they
were.
Humans seemed to get some bizarre pleasure out of it for its own sake,
without
it proving anything. She almost pitied them.
She would have no better opportunity than now. Gathering up the very
last of her reserves, Tethys stepped around the dumpster and strode
purposefully
towards the pair. They were much too involved in their activity to notice
her.
That suited her fine. Once she reached them her hands pistoned out and
grabbed
both by their necks. Screams died stillborn in their throats as Tethys cut
off
their oxygen. Then she began to feed.
The essence of the two humans flowed into her body in a viscous cloud.
She felt the strange tang of human arousal in their energy, now mixed with
the
sweet ambrosia of human terror. She drank in their power, growing slowly in
strength. She continued feeding long after the humans had lost
consciousness,
long after their bodies died. She continued feeding until there was nothing
left
of these two fools but withered husks that she dropped to the pavement.
It was glorious. She hadn't fed like that... since... since before
Serenity had banished all her kind beneath a cold arctic prison. She paused
to
exult in the feeling of it. Why had she denied herself like this for so
long?
The answer came to her immediately. Because for millennia, there had
been nothing to feed off of but her fellow youma. And while destroying your
fellows was permissible in certain circumstances, it had become a serious
crime
once Queen Beryl realized that such cannibalism only weakened her forces in
the
long run. So they had all learned to feed in moderation. To hold back their
hunger. They had become so good at it that ritual had become habit had
become
instinct. Now, if she had a mouth, she would have smiled. To hell with that
lesser feeding. From now on, she would feast!
Tethys laughed as she evoked her glamour and cloaked herself in the
appearance of a human being. She then strode out into the neon-lit streets
of
the human city. So many meals... no. She had to be quiet. The Sailor Senshi
still patrolled this city, and they had an unsightly talent for turning up
at
the worst possible times. She would have to feed sporadically, never in the
same
place twice. It would not do to encounter her adversaries again until she
was
ready.
That left her only with the need to find some place to stay. Once, she
could have simply returned to her home, but she knew that would now be
suicide.
Even if Queen Beryl did not vaporize her on the spot for being part of such
a
disaster, Zoicite would never forget what Tethys had cost him, and his
revenge
would involve a much more agonizingly slow demise. She was on her own. Just
her
versus the human Ukyou.
She started down the street, whistling a tune that had ceased to exist
on this planet thousands of years ago. She would find out the secret of
Ukyou's
power and turn it against the boy. Strong and resourceful he might be, but
he
was still just a human. Once the playing field between them had been
leveled,
there could be only one outcome to their next encounter.

*


"Mysterious Hero Saves City!"

That's what the headline said, emblazoned in a huge typeface right above
the picture of Ukyou battling with Jadeite that took up about half of the
front
page. The other, more "respectable" papers had been a little less overtly
enthusiastic. They'd also cribbed from Ran Hibiki's - that added Rival
Schools
to the series' he knew existed - original story without shame (or credit).
Chris wondered if that backhanded acknowledgement had pleased or annoyed
her.
The other papers had toned things down, left out a few details, or given
different spins on the facts of Ran's article, but they were faithful enough
that Chris figured Ran's original 'extra special publication issue' had to
be
fairly accurate. And that was something that worried him a great deal.
From the story and accompanying photographs, he had gotten the gist.
Nearly a week ago, Ukyou, Ranma, Akane, Ryouga and the Sailor Senshi (well,
the
first three Senshi) had fought Jadeite and some youma, to rescue Nabiki.
That
-should- have been an unholy beatdown, and in fact it was, but on the wrong
end.
Jadeite was somehow superpowered, and he took out pretty much everyone
before
Ukyou had made a 'miraculous' come-from-behind victory. The next part, only
Ran
had mentioned, and she was very vague on the details, but apparently there'd
been some sort of argument between Ukyou and her friends and the Senshi,
then
they'd gone their separate ways.
He leaned back in the chair, massaging his temples. What a lovely mess
to come home to. First off, Ukyou was apparently assembling herself a nice
little army to go fight menaces with, which didn't exactly make him feel
terribly secure. Even more importantly, Ukyou was messing around in the
Sailor
Moon plotline. Chris really didn't know the series very well - certainly
not
compared to Ranma 1/2 - but he did know that they would be responsible for
saving the world from destruction not once, but several times. As well, the
sort of foes they fought were generally paranormal magical beings of great
power; not, by any stretch of the imagination, Ukyou's area of expertise.
So
what was she thinking, messing around with the plot of a series upon which
the
fate of the world rested?
"Hey," came the voice from over his shoulder. "You've been staring at
those papers ever since you got that weedy little guy to get them. Do you
know
that person, over?"
He glanced back, unsurprised to see Pink. "Yeah, I know her, more or
less. I just don't know what happened, or why."
"Well, seems like what happened is pretty weird," Pink noted. "Does
stuff like this happen in Japan all the time, over?"
He turned around in the chair with a shrug, noted idly from the corner
of his eye that Link was at the back of the room, apparently talking in a
low
voice to a potted plant. "More or less," he replied to Pink, "It's pretty
weird
here."
"So what's the problem? If you know her, go ask her what happened,
over."
He chuckled. "I'd try, but she'd probably attack me on sight. Not
everyone's as tolerant of my condition as you are." Pink seemed to find
that
very amusing. "I take it you two have looked around by now, then. How did
you
find the gardens?"
"Acceptable, over," noted Link curtly. She didn't look at him.
"You have some interesting plants," grinned Pink, "even if they're all
pretty normal, over."
"Good good. You two can plant whatever you like, as long as you leave
the plants I noted alone. I need them on occasion."
"So you need to paralyse people," Pink smirked. It wasn't a question.
"I wonder what for, over?"
"Not for what you think," he quickly replied. "It's simply a good way
to keep me out of fights I don't want to get into."
"Of course," came the smug response. "And speaking of that, what are
you going to do about your little problem, over?"
"Actually," he said, rising to my feet, "I think I have an idea about
that." It was true Ukyou probably wouldn't even listen to him, much less
answer
his questions...but there was someone else who might. "I'll need to go out
for
a little bit. Don't get into trouble while I'm gone."
"Of course not, over," said Pink, and smiled.


*


"...the only thing that makes sense!"
"Ranma, first off, that's crazy. Second off, you're crazy for thinking
that up. Third off, you're even crazier if you think I'm going to entertain
the
idea for a minute."
"Then I hope you have a better idea, because that's all I can come up
with."
"Don't you believe the explanation Ukyou already gave us?"
"Of course I do but... oh, hi, Nabiki."
Nabiki nodded in acknowledgement. Ranma had come around the corner
first, followed shortly thereafter by her little sister. The two rarely even
talked to each other during school hours. Except to talk about HIM. Nabiki
felt
her neutral expression turning sour as she thought about it.
"So, uh, nice day and all, huh?" Ranma shot his mouth into the
uncomfortable silence that had descended over the three of them. Nabiki just
turned around and began to walk in the other direction. She did not need
their
empty pleasantries. She definitely did not need to be reminded of how
conversations about Ukyou stopped the moment she entered the room.
"Nabiki, wait up!"
Nabiki didn't stop at her sister's shout. She did not stop until Akane
grabbed her elbow and pulled on her gently. Only then did Nabiki pause and
look
down at the offending hand. Akane snapped it away quickly, a distinct
metallic
'ching' sound accompanying her movement. There was some sort of bulge under
the
sleeves of her uniform, something she was hiding.
"What do you want, Akane?" Nabiki allowed a layer of frost to coat her
words. Akane blinked but smiled.
"I just wanted to talk. We are still sisters, aren't we?" Nabiki refused
to look at her little sister's smile any longer. The smile was infectious.
Akane
had been flashing it all over the house the last few days. She was always
finding some excuse to be close to Nabiki and talk to her like they were
suddenly best pals. And the topic of conversation always returned to how
Akane
was going to 'be there' for Nabiki when she needed her. It always focused on
how
Akane wanted to 'look out' for her and 'make sure you're safe' and how
'thanks
to Ukyou, I'm a lot stronger now!'
"I think your friend is waiting for you." Nabiki pointed with her chin
over Akane's shoulder. Sure enough, the man of the hour was standing at the
gate, or on it to be more precise. Everyone was gathered around the pedestal
he
had climbed up on, shouting and waving for his attention, but he ignored
them.
His attention was entirely fixed upon Ranma and Akane... and her. Nabiki
knew
that it was impossible at this distance, but she imagined their eyes met for
just a moment and Nabiki saw mockery in those eyes. It wasn't much of a
stretch.
Ukyou had made no secret of his feelings for her.
Nabiki remembered clearly how she had walked, alone, into Ukyou's
hospital room. The boy had been leaning against a pillow, his arm filled
with
tiny needles. He had looked over at her, and before Nabiki could say
anything
had opened right up with "You don't need to apologize, Nabiki. Just never
fuck
with forces you can't understand again. Okay?"
Apologize! The nerve of that arrogant little prick. Her hand tightened
on her bookbag until her knuckles turned white.
"Nabiki, it doesn't have to be like this," Akane sighed. "Ukyou is a
nice... guy, and if you just give him a chance..."
"I'm certain he is," Nabiki stepped away from her sister and turned her
back. Hearing her sister defend that man made her nauseous. "So go have fun
with
him, if he's so nice. And take my 'fiancee' with you."
Nabiki heard Akane call out to her a few more times before she rounded
the corner of the building, but there was no pursuit this time. Once she was
out
of eyesight Nabiki turned and placed her hands against the wall. She
squeezed
her eyes shut, forcing back the tears she knew were threatening beneath her
eyelids. Nabiki hated feeling like this. She hated feeling like she didn't
know
what was going on. She hated being lied to. She hated...
She hated feeling afraid.
There, she'd admitted it. She felt afraid and helpless. She knew better
than to blame her recent string of humiliation and life-threatening dangers
directly on Ukyou, but he was their source nonetheless. He was the one who
had
dragged her kicking and screaming into his world. He was the one who had
made
her - Nabiki! - into the victim in his little dramas. Well, it was time to
stop
being the helpless one.
She took one final cleansing breath and stepped away from the wall. She
glared around her at the few loitering students who had been watching her,
and
they scattered. She dismissed them from her mind. Her reputation in this
school
was already shot to hell; there was little else she could do to ruin it now.
Despite her best efforts, her 'engagement' to Saotome had leaked out, and
his
curse had also leaked out. Now that she found herself tied to him, and
through
him to Ukyou, she was the target of all the school's gossip and not the
source.
She had heard every rumor imaginable. From those which suggested that Nabiki
was
Ukyou's secret lover, to the ones which suggested that the only reason she
was
with Ranma was because of his female side. The latter had grown a strong set
of
legs, considering how much Nabiki went out of her way to avoid Ranma at
school,
where he managed to maintain his manhood most of the time.
These thoughts flew through her head and were dismissed as unimportant.
She quickly strode back into the school. The halls were empty but not
silent, as
the unlucky students were still within their classrooms cleaning them up.
She
walked briskly past the doors to all the classes without pausing. Then she
walked straight into the library.
The library was one of the few parts of the campus that was open after
school hours. Along with the gymnasium, the library had its own entrance and
exit into the school grounds, and students were allowed - indeed, encouraged
-
to come after hours to cram for finals or work on near-due projects. The
librarian was a sleepy, fat little man with an awful comb-over and a nasal
voice. But he spent all his time behind his desk playing solitaire and
ignored
everything that happened in the rest of the small library. So Nabiki was not
worried about him interfering with her.
She spotted her prey easily and walked quickly over to him. Zaitochi was
a rabbit of a boy. His build was slim, his eyes beady and his nose had a
tendancy to twitch when he got nervous. He was also a fabulous sprinter,
thanks
to his years of evading pursuits from bullies in one school after another.
Despite all that, he was a gregarious and intelligent boy. He often helped
others with their homework, charging only mild fees for his impressive
tutoring
skills.
"Zaitochi," Nabiki called once she was standing behind him. The boy
started and spinned his head to see her. His nose twitched, and his entire
body
tensed as if to flee. Then he saw her and relaxed.
"Nabiki," he sighed. "Don't sneak up on me like that."
"I need it."
Zaitochi raised an eyebrow at her simple statement. Then his eyes
widened and he thumbed the side of his nose as comprehension dawned.
"I'm not finished translating."
"How much have you finished?"
"Almost all of it, actually," he admitted as he turned back in his seat.
He produced a bookbag from under his table and placed it next to him. A few
seconds of blind groping within and he pulled out two manila folders. Nabiki
strode around to the other side of the table and sat herself down. It would
look
to any curious onlookers as if she was just getting homework advice. "The
trick
is reassembling all the damaged portions. Some of it is beyond retrieval,
but
not all of it. I have to use a lot of educated guesswork to fill in the
blanks.
Unfortunately, the fire left it so that without that educated guesswork, a
lot
of it's been useless."
"You've been reading it," Nabiki said with a frown. Of course he had
been reading it. How else was he supposed to translate it? She had also
forgotten about Zaitochi's inquisitive streak. But he was the only person
she
knew who spoke fluent English - a legacy of his grandfather, who had been an
American soldier.
"Some of it is very fascinating," Zaitochi explained as he flipped open
one of the folders and pointed to the top page. "This, for instance, seems
to be
a timeline... for events that haven't happened yet."
"What?" Nabiki grabbed the paper and swung it around to face her.
Zaitochi's neat, simple handwriting had translated a list out in kana, with
dates and notes attached.
"Yes," the boy leaned forward and his nose twitched. "It talks about the
election in America this fall. Claims Clinton is going to win." Nabiki only
paid
passing attention to American politics, but since she knew Bush was the
current
president, she guessed Clinton was the other guy. "It also has the results
for
the next two elections, and the elections in Canada as well. It also has
some
data on who is going to be prime minister of England, Germany and even
Japan.
Though the data is missing or lax on a lot of countries, but that might be
because of the damage."
"That isn't anything special," Nabiki pointed out. "Just someone playing
at politics."
"And sports, and economics, and warfare," Zaitochi pointed out. "Look at
this." He tapped a part of the paper.
"Tokyo, 1996... Sarin Nerve Gas Attack In Subway...?" Nabiki read aloud.
"What is this?"
"I don't know," Zaitochi admitted. "But there is a lot of other stuff in
there. And a lot of it is pretty specific. Stuff about a 'dotcom crash' on
Wall
Street, some sort of big terrorist attack in New York in 2001, wars in
Serbia
and Mogadishu and Afganistan and Iraq... pretty scary stuff."
"Scary stuff," Nabiki repeated as she read down the page, and the next
five pages as well. There was too much data here, covering too many
different
things, for this to all just be speculation. But what did it mean? "What
else
was there?"
"A profile of you," Zaitochi said as he flipped the page for her.
"Nabiki Tendo; Age Seventeen, Middle Tendo Daughter... Mostly Harmless?"
"That's what it says."
"But... mostly harmless?" Nabiki didn't know whether to feel insulted or
not.
"There was a picture that accompanied the profile," Zaitochi pointed
out. "From what survived of it, it looked like a good likeness."
"Were there more?"
"Yes. profiles of your sisters, and Ranma, and Kunou... and profiles of
people I've never met before." He looked up at her. "Do we have a principal?
I
can't recall ever meeting him."
"He's on some sort of extended leave of absence." Nabiki shrugged. "Has
been since before I came here. The vice-principal runs the school, and seems
to
be doing an okay job. I think there are statues of the guy somewhere on
campus."
"Well, I think whoever wrote this has met him," Zaitochi flipped a few
pages. "Here: Principal Kunou; Age Unknown, Father of Tatewaki Kunou, Hawaii
fetish, obession with haircuts, general nuisance." Nabiki gave him a long
look.
"I'm not the one who wrote all this. A lot of the profiles were badly
burned. I
have some names to go with some pictures and a few snippets of
descriptions."
He leaned back and laced his hands behind his neck. "But you may want to
keep flipping forward. I put a special surprise a few pages in. I'm sure
you'll
realize what it is when you get to it."
Nabiki gave him a long look but complied. He was right, it didn't take
her long to figure out what the surprise was. It was a single piece of the
burned notebook, almost intact. On it was a picture of a man, or three
pictures.
One facial shot, one full body shot and a profile. Next to it was a stream
of
neat little english letters. Zaitochi hadn't translated the english to kana
on a
seperate page, he'd just written down the translation in the ample white
space
left over.
"Jadeite," Nabiki read to herself as her stomach sank. She recognized
that face. She still saw it in her nightmares. Saw it leaning across the
table
from her with dark hunger in his eyes... She shook off the image and
continued
reading. "The first of four Generals of the Dark Kingdom. Prefers to engage
opponents through proxy by use of 'youmas', a sort of parasitic malevolent
entity. Jadeite is defeated for the final time at the Narita Airport..." she
trailed off. "No way."
"Heh, my thoughts exactly," Zaitochi said from behind a grin. "You gave
me this notebook three whole days -before- the battle at Narita."
"Who are you?" Nabiki said as she looked down at the notepaper in her
hands. Zaitochi didn't catch the meaning of her question, so he remained
silent.
Finally Nabiki stood up, reached into her pocket and extracted a large roll
of
bills. She slammed it down on the table. Normally, getting her to actually
pay
her own money for something was like pulling teeth. Not this time. "Have
you
finished translating all the text?"
"Technically, yes," Zaitochi said with a frown.
"Then I have no further need of your services."
"But what am I supposed to do about..."
"Nothing," Nabiki said as she gathered up both folders. "Forget you ever
saw these."
"I can hardly do that," the boy chuckled.
"I suggest you figure out a way," Nabiki advised icily. "I have a little
sister and a fiancee who can help me survive this insanity. Do you know
anyone
willing and able to do the same for you?"
Zaitochi blinked, staring at her for a moment. Then slowly his face
drained of all color. "You mean..." he croaked.
"Keep this to yourself, don't speak of it to anyone but me." She paused.
"In fact, you'd best not ever speak to me again. You should forget you ever
saw
this. It's too dangerous."
"I see..."
Nabiki didn't wait to see his reaction. She had already stowed the
papers in her bookbag and started towards the exit. She really did hope the
boy
followed her advice, and never tried to follow-up on what he had learned
from
this notebook. Just being associated with Ukyou Kuonji was dangerous, triply
so
for mere mortals like herself and Zaitochi. What danger could you lead
yourself
into if you knew his secrets?
Nabiki fully intended to find out. She would go carefully, but she would
go forward. There was simply no other conceivable direction.

*

Tofu Ono balanced the tray of drinks with one hand, pocketing a jar of
burn ointment with the other. He nodded politely to one of the workmen as he
stepped out of the way. The men Ukyou had hired to work on getting his
clinic
rebuilt were decent, hard-working fellows from what he could tell, and they
seemed to be working ahead of schedule. He called out a cheerful greeting to
a
few of the people in the neighbourhood as he walked around the block to the
vacant lot. He was glad everyone had understood his circumstances. It meant
he
wouldn't lose any customers, at the very least.
"Doctor Tofu!" Tsubasa cried out as she stepped out of a mailbox along
his route. Ono took her appearance in good humour. After seeing the young
Saotome boy change gender at the slightest shower, he figured there was no
reason to be surprised about how strange Ukyou's friends were. "Are you
going to
visit Ukyou?"
"Bringing her friends and her a drink," Ono replied as he continued
along. Tsubasa fell into step behind him. She was a rather cute girl, with
her
long brown hair decorated by a single large yellow bow. She was wearing a
deep
navy blue school uniform, which fit her well but left her looking curiously
underdeveloped for a girl her age. At least she wasn't wearing the giant
mutant
street sign with the suction cup feet outfit. That one had been vaguely
disturbing.
The first thing Ono heard as he stepped into the clearing was the
crackle of the bonfire. Ranma sat cross-legged in front of it, staring into
the
flames that roared slightly taller than his head. Sweat rolled down his
cheeks,
but whether it was from the heat or from his obviously intense
concentration,
Ono couldn't say. He noted the boy's aura was much more focused today than
it
had been the day before. Despite his own incredulity, Ukyou's training
seemed to
be producing results.
"Hey, Doc," Ranma called out as he looked up for a minute. He grinned,
and cracked his knuckles. "Check this out!" Ono obliged him and paused while
Tsubasa stepped around the fire without stopping. Ranma reached back with
one
hand and then thrust it into the bonfire, again and again. Ono could follow
the
motion of his hand, but only after reflexively enhancing his vision with a
bit
of chi. To a normal human, Ranma's arm would have disappeared into a red
blur.
"Gotcha!" Ranma cried triumphantly as he held up a double handful of
steaming chestnuts. "Heh. This ain't so tough."
"Very good, Ranma." Ono coughed politely. "Your sleeve is on fire."
"ACK!" Ranma dropped the chestnuts back into the flames and began to
beat at his burning clothes. Unfortunately, his frantic waving was only
fanning
the flames. Sighing, Ono flipped one of the glasses from his tray towards
the
boy. Seconds later Ranma was female and covered in sticky lemonade, but at
least
he wasn't on fire.
Ono still found the transformation itself fascinating. If he could study
how it worked, he could expand his knowledge of magic a great deal. Of
course,
he doubted Ranma would like being treated like a guinea pig. Therefore, the
subject had never been brought up.
"Thanks, Doc," Ranma grumbled. She rolled up her charred sleeves, trying
to salvage some of her outfit. Ono noted the burns on her palms and knuckles
and
refrained from clucking his tongue in disappointment. His father had passed
that
habit along to him, but Ono always made sure to repress it. The less he
acted
like his father, the better, all things considered.
"Don't worry about it, Ranma," Ono called. He fetched the burn ointment
from his back pocket and handed it to the boy as he passed. "Here." Ranma
thanked him as Ono stepped past the bonfire into the clearing proper.Ono
wasn't
really worried about the boy injuring himself. Not only did he have a chi-
enhanced resistance to damage, but he healed with amazing alacrity.
"-don't think so much about your attacks, Akane," Ukyou's voice faded
into hearing as Ono stepped away from the roaring flame. The girl was
dressed in
a pair of loose slacks and a button-up shirt. As usual, she was concealing
her
feminine traits with remarkable ability. Akane was on the ground at her feet
and
Ukyou was offering the other girl a hand up. Akane's yellow training gi was
stained with dirt and sweat, and her forehead shone with a light sheen as
she
took deep breaths. Ukyou appeared immaculate in comparison.
"Easy for you to say," Akane groused good-naturedly.
"It isn't about knowing your enemy, Akane," Ukyou pointed out once the
other girl was back on her feet. Her voice had taken on the strangely gentle
steel edge that Ono had begun to call her 'teaching voice'. "It's about
knowing
yourself, and trusting in that. You can't be second-guessing yourself in the
middle of a battle. You have to commit yourself totally to an action. If you
don't... your chi won't respond."
"So when I try to hit-"
"Do or do not, there is no try," Ukyou quoted happily. "You can't doubt
that your attack is going to hit." Ukyou stepped away from her and began a
slow
kata. Ono watched her, as her aura snapped tight and focused. "The key to
accessing your chi is knowing that it will respond." She began to speed up
her
technique. Her aura snapped and crackled around her body. It was taut and
focused, with barely any leaking away from her body. Ono was impressed. He
had
never actually gotten a chance to see Ukyou use her aura like that. All his
tutelage had focused on imparting knowledge of the accelerated healing
techniques to her. He hadn't even taught her about his Five Chakra theory,
but
she was defintely focusing almost solely through her Wind Chakra. "Chi is
not a
force we bend to our will, Akane. It does not come to our command. It flows
to
match our desire! You can't just want it, or wish it... you have to need it,
rely on it... make it a part of you!"
By the time Ukyou completed her speech she was blurring through the
motions of her kata. Her aura had leaked into the visible spectrum and it
sheathed her body in a quiet white glow. But there was something... an
emptiness
in her spirit that Ono could just barely make out. But before he could focus
further, she had ceased her exercise and turned back to Akane. Her aura
returned
to its normal state.
"Wow! That was way too cool, Ukyou!" Tsubasa cried as she ran up to her
old friend. Ukyou seemed to brace herself for the girl to leap on her, but
Tsuabasa stopped a few steps away and just clasped her hands together as she
bounced on her heels.
"Hey, Fungus," Ukyou said in her deadpan tone. Akane had asked Ukyou
about that nickname a few days back, but Ukyou had just responded that it
was 'a
long story' and refused to explain further. Tsubasa always frowned when
Ukyou
called her that. "Okay... let's go through the list." Ukyou held up five
fingers. "One; I will not go out with you today. Two; I will not change my
mind.
Three; yes, just going for a walk counts as a date. Four; I am flattered by
your
love letter, but can not accept it. Five; I am not interested in talking
about
any of the above." Ukyou lowered a finger after each point until she was
holding
up a fist. "Does that about cover the usual idiocy?"
"Ukyou, you can't mean to be so mean!" Tsubasa pouted. Her eyes brimmed
with unshed tears. "Ever since I found you again, you've done nothing but be
mad
at me."
"Ever consider the reason I didn't leave a forwarding address was
because I didn't want to be found by you?" Ukyou grumbled and sat down.
"Ono,"
Ukyou called as she turned her attention away from the girl. "Why don't you
sit
down while I start up lunch?"
"Ukyou, look... you're making Tsubasa cry," Akane pointed out in a
slightly chiding tone.
"Some people just don't understand gentle rejection," Ukyou said with a
glare at her old 'friend'. "I've been turning down Tsubasa for almost three
months."
"But I love you, Ukyou!"
"Indeed?" Ukyou crossed her arms. "The only reason you pursued me so
much was because you were the only person at my old school that knew my
secret."
"Wait a minute..." Ono was slightly surprised to see Ranma sitting
nearby. He had missed the boy's approach somehow. "You know Ukyou's not a
guy?"
"Well, of course," Tsubasa said. She then did a double take and stared
hard at Ranma's breasts. "Wait... weren't YOU a guy?"
"And I still am!" Ranma growled and made a fist. Ono smiled, but
concealed it by pretending he had lost his grip on the lemonade tray. Ukyou
didn't bother to conceal her smile as she set up her mobile grill.
"Wow... that's impressive!" Tsubasa smiled and leaned forward. Ranma sat
in a sort of stunned horror as the girl reached out and began to massage
both of
Ranma's breasts vigourously. "They feel so real!" she chirped. "Soft and
warm
and-"
"Ah, that's quite enough..." Ono cut the girl off as he snatched her
hands away from Ranma. The girl had turned as red as a fire hydrant and her
eyes
had taken on a hollow quality. Her left eyebrow twitched, once. Akane took
one
long look at Ranma's face, then broke out into a fit of laughter. This
snapped
Ranma out of her stupor.
"I wouldn't laugh, you! Don't think I forgot about what happened in the
dojo!" Ranma snapped at her. Akane's laughter choked off and she blushed
deeply.
"Wait? Who did what in the where now?" Ukyou cried in confusion as she
looked up from their lunch.
"I see now..." Tsubasa had, at some point during all this, begun to
glare at Ranma. "So you think you can replace me in Ukyou's heart, do you?
Just
because you have better breasts than I do!" Tsubasa stood, pointing
accusingly
at Ranma. Ranma blanched.
"What? Are you insane?"
"Don't deny it! Well I know you won't replace me! You're ugly and have
absolutely NO sense of fashion!" Tsubasa accused imperiously. She ended her
brief tirade by smirking and placing her hands on her hips.
"You take that back!" Ranma shouted and leapt to her feet. "I'll have
you know I am incredibly sexy!"
"Oh please, you couldn't even get a guy to ask you out on a date..."
"I could too!"
"Ranma," Ukyou interupted in a flat, laconic tone. "Think for just a
second about what you are saying."
"I knew he was a pervert all along," Akane stage-whispered to Ukyou.
"Like... take the Doc here!" Ranma grabbed Ono's collar and dragged him
down to her eye level. "You've seen me mostly naked. I have a fantastic
body,
one that any guy would drool over. Agreed?" From the tone and the dangerous
glint in her eyes, Ono thought it best just to nod. Ranma smirked and let
him
go.
No sooner was he released than Tsubasa was holding him by the lapels and
pulling him towards her. "Yes, but that's just because of his massive chest.
You
agree that far more men would be interested in a girl with an adorable face
and
killer fashion like me. Correct?" Her tone and the glint of her eye almost
exactly mirrored Ranma's. The mute nod Ono gave her exactly replicated the
one
he had given Ranma.
Ono found himself released again, only to feel someone tap on his
shoulder. It was Akane. She was staring at him with earnest, wide eyes.
"Doctor
Tofu... do you... really find girls like them attractive?" Her tone wasn't
dangerous, but Ono somehow sensed there was a deeper subtext to her
question.
What that subtext could be, he hadn't a clue.
What had he done to get dragged into the center of this?
Ono looked to Ukyou for support. Ukyou had always shown a remarkable
level of maturity for her age. Sometimes, when they talked late into the
night,
Ono felt as if he could close his eyes and he would be sitting across from
someone his own age. But Ukyou was no help. Her face was a stony mask.
Except
for the violent twitching of her lips as she tried to suppress her smile.
Her
hand continued to go about the mechanical act of preparing her specialty
food
without pause, but the rest of her body shuddered slightly as laughter
attempted
to squeeze out her mouth.
"There's only one way to settle this..." Tsubasa hissed dangerously as
she glared at Ranma. Ranma glared back. Ono scrambled back a few steps as he
saw
their auras clashing and sparking off each other like two storm fronts.
"Is that a challenge?" Ranma grinned. "Because if it is... then I'm more
than ready for anything you got!"
"Then it's agreed? We'll settle this like honorable men!"
"You're on! Name the time, name the place!"
"WHAhahaHOAHAHAHAHAAAH!" Ukyou collapsed, unable to keep it in any
longer. She had managed to finish everyone's meal first, even Tsubasa's.
Everyone turned to her as she rolled about helplessly on the ground,
clutching
her stomach. She was laughing so hard now that nothing but a strangled
whistle
escaped her lips. Her cheeks were turning blue, Ono noted with some concern.
"She can't breathe!" Akane cried in alarm.
"I'll give her mouth to mouth!" Tsubasa shouted and leapt for Ukyou.
Ranma intercepted the girl by catching the back of her collar.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Saving her life?" Tsubasa offered hopefully.
"I think she made it clear she don't want nothing to do with you," Ranma
noted dryly.
"So I was right, you ARE trying to replace me!"
"Okay... okay... I think this has gone on long enough," Ukyou gasped
between breaths as she finally recovered. She rolled to a sitting position.
"Ranma, are you really feeling your femininity is threatened by Tsubasa
here?"
"What? No... I..."
"Good. Because I can assure you that you are more of a woman than
Tsubasa will ever be," Ukyou said with a chuckle.
Tsubasa backed away from Ukyou, her body frozen and her hands held up in
demon-warding gestures. "Can... can it be..." she gasped.
"Because Tsubasa is a guy," Ukyou pointed out when she saw Ranma's
obvious confusion.
"A guy?" Akane gasped.
"Yes... in drag," Ukyou chuckled. "You know, dressed up to look like a
girl."
"So you mean she, I mean he... I mean... Tsubasa is really a MAN!?"
Ranma waved his hands helplessly in the tranvestite's direction. Ono gave
the
'girl' another look. How could he have missed something like that? He was a
trained doctor. He was supposed to have developed skills of observation,
both
mundane and mystic, that should have made such a ruse impossible. But as Ono
focused his attention on the boy, he began to see how he had pulled it off.
It
was... a field of chi. Very unfocused, totally uncontrolled. It was the same
kind of unconsciously strong chi aura he had seen in concert violinists or
exceptionally well-liked politicians. Tsubasa wasn't aware of it, but he was
using chi to 'smooth' out his disguise. Now that Ono knew what to look for,
he
could see past the subtle illusion to the boy's adam's apple and other
physical
features. Ono had never considered such an application of chi control... the
repurcussions were fascinating.
"Oh, like you didn't know," Tsubasa said cattily. "With the amount of
work you must have put into that, you had to have picked up my tells."
"Put into what?"
"He's trying to imply that you're a cross-dresser, Ranma," Ukyou
explained in level tone. But she was smiling in a manner that reminded Ono
of a
cat playing with a mouse.
"I am NOT!" Ranma shouted and picked up Tsubasa by the lapels. "I don't
care if you are a guy or a girl or whatever, nobody calls me a fairy!"
"Geez, you should come out of the closet..."
"You freak! Take that back!" Ranma shouted and pulled the boy in girl's
clothes off his feet. She held Tsubasa up with one hand, seemingly without
effort. Tsubasa had begun to look distinctly nervous. Ono stepped forward,
intending to intervene before this got out of hand.
"You're just a violent brute!" Tsubasa shouted back. "You don't deserve
Ukyou!" Apparently his nervousness wasn't going to hold back Tsubasa's
tongue.
Ono reached out and gently placed a hand on Ranma's shoulder. His artful
fingers
prodded a few pressure points there without being seen and Ono let his chi
flow
into the Saotome boy's. Almost immediately the angry energy began to shrink
in
Ranma's aura. Ranma was beginning to lose her furious scowl.
"And who said I was yours?" Ukyou replied calmly. At the same time, she
bapped Tsubasa on the back of the head. Ono blinked, having completely
missed
her standing up behind the cross-dresser. He saw Tsubasa's eyes loll back
and
then the boy went limp. Ono recognized the technique: he had taught it to
Ukyou
himself. "Stupid fungus, never could take no for an answer..." Ukyou walked
back
to her grill. "Just get rid of him, Ranma."
"Uh... right..." Ranma began to look around for someplace to 'get rid
of' the unconscious body in her arms. Ono ignored him and considered having
a
very stern talk with Ukyou about how she was treating Tsubasa. He even
remembered the first time they had met. Ono had managed to get out of his
own
bed and into Ukyou's room. There, with all her friends (including some girl
with
a camera whose name Ono couldn't recall) he had waited for her to awaken.
When
she had, she had seemed pleased to see everyone. And they had been pleased
to
see her recover.
Then a nearby cardiac monitor had sprouted arms and a face and joyfully
proclaimed how glad it was that Ukyou was okay. That had been Ono's first
introduction to Tsubasa, though he hadn't have learned her... his name until
a
few days later. Ukyou had stared at the cardiac monitor/girl hybrid that had
clutched onto her for a few seconds, then calmly raised her good hand and
hit it
about ten times in the head until Tsubasa was thoroughly unconscious. Ono
was
still trying to digest what was going on when Ukyou had asked Akane to open
the
window to her hospital room. Mechanically, Akane had done so. This allowed
Ukyou
to toss Tsubasa out the window... her third story window.
Horrified, Ono had asked what was going on. Ukyou had only laughed and
said "That's just the Fungus. He'll be back. Unfortunately." Ono hadn't been
able to think of anything to say to that. Considering he had been ambushed
by
extra-dimensional energy vampires only a day ago, he was willing to accept
anything. And the thing was that Tsubasa HAD come back, the next day and
every
day since. And always Ukyou would put up with him for about ten minutes,
then
she would hit him and toss him away. Ono wasn't sure if that was a decent
way to
treat another human being, but he really had no idea what to say about it.
Finally, after seeing Ranma toss Tsubasa onto the back of a passing
truck, Ono sighed and resolved to deal with this problem like he dealt with
so
many other problems: he ignored it. He sat down and enjoyed the fine meal
that
Ukyou had prepared for the four of them. They ate in comfortable silence for
a
few minutes, Ranma taking a triple serving that Ukyou was more than pleased
to
serve. She was a very good cook, especially when it came to her favorite
food.
She obviously enjoyed it, too. Once she had told him that when 'this'
(whatever
this was) was all over, she was going to open her own restaurant. He fully
believed her. She hadn't let him cook his own meals since moving in with
him,
and he wasn't about to complain.
"I'm glad to see everyone is doing so well with their training," Ono
said to break the post-meal silence. He still couldn't believe that his
student had two students of her own. Especially one that was so obviously
more
advanced in the art than she was.
"Heh, this is a snap," Ranma grinned as he wolfed down his second
helping. Well, that might have been what he said, it was hard to tell from
behind his mouthful of food. Ranma swallowed. "I'm just not sure what the
point
is. Grabbing chestnuts and all, I mean."
"I already told you," Ukyou said in a level tone. "It's tantric
training. Half the point of doing it is to figure out WHY you are doing it."
Ukyou allowed a grin to emerge on her usually impassive face. "Or are you
saying
you can't get it?"
"No way!" Ranma growled and slammed a fist into the dirt. "I can handle
any training!"
"Uh, doesn't that hurt?" Akane asked, pointed down at the large burn
Ranma was grinding into the dirt.
"Not at all," Ranma moaned as tears emerged in the corners of his eyes.
"Why do you ask?"
"Just curious."
"Well, I wouldn't want to step on Ukyou's toes..." Ono mused aloud. "But
I think she's trying to increase the chi flow through your Wind Chakra."
"My who in the what now?" Ranma blinked.
"You never taught me about anything like that," Ukyou said as she
blinked.
"I didn't, did I?"
"No."
"Huh," Ono removed his glasses and cleaned them on the edge of his
shirt. "Well, that's odd. The Five Chakra theory is just the entire basis of
my
theory on martial arts and chi control." He grinned and put his glasses back
on.
"I guess, with all the excitement, I kind of forgot about teaching you about
it!"
Ono's head rocked back on his neck as Ukyou bapped him lightly on the
forehead. The girl rolled back to a kneeling position, her fist still
clenched
and her eyes narrow and dangerous.
"In my own defense, you seemed so intent on learning the rapid healing
technique that I didn't really want to slow you down with a lot of pure
theory,"
Ono cried as he held his hands in front of him to ward off another attack.
"I wanted to learn chi theory!" Ukyou grunted as she crossed her arms
over her chest. "That was the point of you teaching me. I know about
specific
training techniques..." she trailed off into a sigh. "No, it's not your
fault."
Ukyou gestured with her left arm. "I'd still be in the hospital if you
hadn't
taught me as much about accelerating healing as you did."
"Wait... Chakras? Chi theory? Accelerated healing?" Akane waved for
attention and everyone turned to her. Strangely, once everyone was, she
blushed
and refused to look at Ono directly. Instead she addressed Ukyou. "I think
you've lost me. Dad never taught me anything like this."
"Yeah." Ranma tapped his fingers against his knees. "Pops never
mentioned nothin' about Chakra either. He just sort of... taught me stuff,
ya
know? Like he kept punching me until I learned to block or dodge it."
"Hmm, well I guess a little primer wouldn't hurt for everyone," Ono said
before chuckling to himself. He looked around and located a long thin piece
of
wood. He snapped it up and tested it in the dirt, finding it served as a
good
pencil. Nodding, he quickly sketched in a human diagram. "Let's see... well
you
all know what chi is, right?"
Seeing everyone nod, he proceeded, "Beyond the basic concept that chi
exists, people have always been working on finding ways to measure, classify
and
otherwise divide chi down into a more useful form. The ways they have done
this
have variated across the cultures. Western theory proposed four alchemical
elements; fire, water, wind and earth. Chinese alchemy had five; wood,
metal,
fire, water and earth. Taoist philosophy divides all chi into yin and yang.
Other theories divide chi into hot and cold flows, heavy and light and every
flavour in between.
"I think that all these theories understood a part of the truth, but not
the whole picture. I started from the base of the old secrets and worked
from
them. I combined them. I've come up with my own theory, through rigourous
application of the scientific method and years of trial and error. The
difference between my theory and the old ones is mine always works!"
Ono coughed and chuckled. "Sorry if I sound a little egotistical. But I
am very proud of my work. I've been trying to get it accepted for years
and..."
he trailed off. "Never mind that, I'm rambling now. Back to what's
important."
"My theory seperates chi into five natural channels in the human body,
each of which is linked to a certain type of chi and a certain type of
natural
task." Tofu drew a line to the brow of the diagram and quickly labeled the
line
with a symbol and some text. "This is the Wind Chakra, located in the
temple.
It's through this chakra that we draw the energy which enhances our
intellect
and our speed and agility." He drew a second line to the sternum of the
figure.
"Just here, is the Water Chakra. Water chi is our link to health and
vitality.
Next, we have the Earth Chakra." Ono drew a sign linked to the stomach of
the
figure. "Traditionally seen as the seat of chi itself, I believe this is
because
of the stability of the Earth Chakra. This chi leads to stamina and
resistance
to disease." He drew a final line, this time into the crotch of the figure.
"And
here we have the Fire Chakra, which is the link to passion and strength."
Ono leaned back, making sure he had gotten all the details right. Not
that he needed to worry in such a crude picture, and there was a lot more to
it
then he had said, but the basis was all there.
"Wait, you said five chakra points... where's the fifth one?" Ukyou
asked. There was something about the way she asked the question that made
Ono
look at her sharply. Akane was looking at the diagram in puzzlement, and
Ranma
was only giving it a passing glance. Ukyou, however, was staring at the
diagram
intently.
"The fifth Chakra is not actually located in the body." Seeing
everyone's puzzled expression, he elaborated, "The fifth Chakra is an
invisible
one that surrounds us from every direction." He drew a circle around the
diagram. "It is the barrier that seperates what is US from what is not us.
Our
sense of this chakra is what makes for our perceptions of things outside our
body. Mainly, this Chakra is defined by what it is not. So I named it the
Void
Chakra." He labelled the final part of the diagram and put the stick aside.
"Earth, Fire, Water, Wind and Void..." Ukyou said, her voice taking on a
slightly incredulous tone. "You're not serious... are you?"
"Quite serious."
"Stop pulling my leg, Doc," Ukyou said from behind a deep frown. "It
isn't funny. You must have taken a peek at my journal and I don't appreciate
that. Rubbing it in my face like this is kind of low."
"I.. have no idea what you're talking about," Ono said with a blink. He
was genuinely cofused. This was the first time Ukyou had ever been mad at
him
directly. Looking into her impassive eyes, he felt just slightly
intimidated.
"You mean... you really did come up with this totally on your own?"
Ukyou suddenly shifted from anger to confusion.
"That's what I said," Ono agreed. "Though I also spent a good deal of
time studying previous theories, refining them and..."
"No," Ukyou shook her head. "That's not possible..."
"What isn't possible?" Akane asked, her tone curious.
"It's just that..." Ukyou looked up at the sky. "It's nothing. Not
important."
"No, it is something," Akane insisted.
"It's nothing!" Ukyou growled back. "Just that what Ono was describing
sounds remarkable close to... something someone told me once."
"Really?" Ono asked, enthused. If someone else had come to the same
conclusions about chi, entirely separate from him, that was great. It would
be
like parallel development. It would reinforce his own theory. And maybe if
this
person was well-respected, it could even allow Ono to bring his theories to
the
mainstream! "Can you tell me who?"
"He's dead now," Ukyou said softly.
"Oh..." Ono trailed off. There was no sorrow in Ukyou's voice. More... a
kind of quiet anger. He probed her aura and saw it swirling with the
familiar
kinesthetic greens and reds, all in dark shade... some so dark they had
turned
black. It was an aura that looked sickly to his eyes. He had seen that aura
on
Ukyou the first time she had woken up in his clinic. Not before that. When
she
slept, her aura calmed down to a uniform grey. But that aura had been with
her
since the first time he had met her, and it had only grown more violent
since.
But Ono had spent so much time looking at books and studying arcane history
that
he didn't know how to talk to her about it. He could be polite to people,
even
charming in his own way. But the thing was that he didn't really
-understand-
them. He had barely passed his mandatory psychology courses in university.
So,
like most problems related to people, he ignored this one too.
After all, Ukyou would be fine.
"Well, like I said, the type of chi determines what kind of activity
it's best suited for," Ono continued his explanation, deciding to let
Ukyou's
odd statement pass. "That isn't to say that you can't use one type of chi to
accomplish virtually any task... but you will find it's really inefficient.
The
reason I've been teaching you to meditate on your heart beat and the flow of
your blood is because that ties into your Water Chakra, which is linked to
your
overall health and makes it easy to regenerate the damage you have taken.
But if
you wanted to increase your speed, you'd be focusing on your Wind Chakra,
your
Fire Chakra is for strength and your Earth Chakra is for stamina. The Void
Chakra is used for esoteric skills and perception."
"Indeed..." Ukyou nodded, but her nod was perfunctory. It was like
someone hearing something they already knew confirmed.
"So, all you have to do is learn to use the right Chakra to do the right
skill?" Akane asked.
"Well, it's more complex than that." Tofu sat back and rubbed his chin.
"You see, each person has a natural inclination towards one kind of chi over
the
other types. Whether this is an inborn trait or a result of personality and
development I can't say, as I don't have enough data. But the important
thing is
that this inclination exists. What that means is that it is much harder for
a
person to use chi not compatible with their natural inclination and much
easier
to use chi techniques based on it. For instance: if you were a natural Wind
aspect, you would find yourself hard-pressed to gain access to Fire aspect
abilities. Both because your Wind chi is not suited to using Fire abilities,
and
because your Wind chi opposes Fire chi and makes it harder for you to draw
on
that Chakra."
"So it's just a fancy way of saying everyone has strengths and
weaknesses," Ranma pointed out with a shrug.
"Can you determine your own aspect, Doctor?" Ukyou asked pointedly.
"Uh, yes... quite simply in fact." Ono picked up his glass. "I'll be
right back." He walked over to the water tap and cleaned out his glass
before
filling it half-way with cold water. Finding a leaf on the ground, he placed
that atop the glass and walked back to the group. Ukyou blinked as he set
the
glass down.
"Wait! Wait!" Ukyou shot her hand up. "We test our chi with a glass of
water and a leaf?"
"Yes..."
"You don't read comic books, do you?"
"No..."
"Just checking..." Ukyou murmured and sat back.
"What you have to do is release your chi and hold your aura over the
glass for about a minute. Depending on how the water reacts, that determines
what your most natural Chakra aspect is. Allow me to demonstrate."
Ono closed his eyes and focused inward, synchronizing his breathing and
the beating of his heart. When he opened his eyes he could see the chi
flowing
down the length of his arm, gathering in-between his palms. With an
incandescent
flash, the chi passed the critical point that allowed it to be seen by the
untrained eye. He heard Akane gasp, but didn't let that distract him. Moving
skillfully, he slid his hands around the glass without touching it. His aura
flowed over the water as he breathed slowly and easily. Finally the leaf
atop
the water twitched once, then twice and at last it began to spin around in
tight
circles. Ono released his hold on his aura and the light vanished while the
leaf's spin stopped.
"As you could see, the leaf moved," One pointed out. "That means my best
aspect is the Wind Chakra. If the leaf had sunk, that would have been a sign
of
a strong Earth Chakra. If the water level rises, then you are strong in your
Water Chakra, and if it lowers you are strong in your Void aspect. With a
Fire
Aspect there is no obvious visual sign, but you can tell by the fact that
the
temperature of the water increases. Why don't you all give it a try?"
He was then subject to three blank stares.
"Uh... how do we do that?" Ranma asked, finally seeming to have taken an
interest in the conversation for the first time.
"Oh, uh... you just sort of release your aura between your hands..." Ono
gestured lamely. "Let's see." He paused to think about it. "Okay, try to
clear
your mind and focus all your attention between your hand. Don't try and
force
anything, just let yourself go. If you have any personal ritual for when you
access your chi, you might want to try using that first."
He watched as the three shifted position and pushed their arms in front
of themselves. For the next few minutes the lot was silent save for their
slow
breathing and the soft rustle of the breeze through the grass. Ranma was the
first to open his eyes with a cry of glee as the nebulous white light formed
between his palms. Ukyou followed shortly thereafter, though she greeted her
achievement with only a satisfied nod. Akane opened her eyes to gaze at
them,
only to close them again and screw her face up into a frown. Her brow
furrowed
and a bead of sweat trickled down her nose.
"You can do it, Akane," Ukyou said softly as she clapped the other girl
on the shoulder. "Like he said. Don't force it. Just feel it."
Akane looked at her friend, grinned and nodded. A minute later, Akane
cried out in delight as the light began to flicker between her hands.
"Well, let's all see what we are." Ukyou gestured for her friends to go
first.
Ranma eagerly slid forward and placed his palms around the cup. He
smirked and summoned up his aura. It didn't take long before the effect
became
obvious, as water began to spill over the lip of the cup. Ono stopped him by
pulling the cup away before the leaf could float off.
Ukyou let Akane take the next turn. It took a little longer for Akane to
summon up her chi than Ranma, but she seemed much more comfortable doing it
the
second time around. Ono waited as a minute passed with no obvious effect,
then
stuck his finger in the glass. He nodded at what he had suspected all along.
"You're a Fire aspect, Akane," he said with a smile.
"Oh... I was kind of hoping for Wind..." She frowned.
"There are no good or bad aspects, Akane."
"Yeah, you should be proud to have the crotch chakra!" Ranma chuckled.
Seconds later he was chuckling through a layer of dirt with Akane standing
over
him brandishing Ono's discarded drawing stick. Or at least part of it. It
must
have splintered in two when she hit him.
"I guess it's my turn," Ukyou said from behind a wry smile. She
retrieved the glass and placed it in front of her. Ono watched as she
summoned
her aura, noting with some pleasure that while Ranma had created a chi aura
far
faster, Ukyou had created one that was much brighter and more stable. Then
Ono's
eyes widened as the water in the glass suddenly turned from a pristine
picture
to spinning maelstrom. Everyone stared as the leaf spun like mad around the
glass, before it suddenly hit the bottom. There was no water left. "Huh...
what
does that mean?"
"Do it again," Ono ordered as after he filled the cup with more water.
Ukyou complied and the results this time were much the same. But Ono
distinctly
saw the water both spinning and shrinking away. He stopped her before the
water
could disappear entirely. "I've never seen anything like that before. Now
granted, I haven't done it on a wide scale... but it looks like you have an
equally strong Wind and Void Chakra. Which shouldn't really be possible."
"But I guess it is," Ukyou pointed out. "Because we just saw as much."
"It's still strange..." Ono murmured.
"If you say so." Ukyou stood up and dusted off her hands. "But we really
should get back to serious training now, don't you think?" The question was
addressed to Ranma and Akane, who both nodded. Ono sat back and watched them
drift off towards their various pursuits. He was sure what he had just seen
was
not possible. Maybe he could talk with her more about it later...

*

Akane groaned as she stepped into her room and slid her door closed
behind her. Ukyou, she decided inwardly, was a madwoman. And Doctor Tofu,
good,
sweet, friendly Doctor Tofu, was a madman. And when the two of them got
together, they were madness incarnate. Case in point, the huge lead weights
that
Akane was even now removing from her arms. She was tempted to let the
damnable
things fall, but she wasn't convinced the floor could survive the impact. So
instead she crouched down and gently laid them down. Thankfully, this gave
her
easy access to the weights attached to her ankles, and Akane gratefully took
the
chance to remove them. She spent the next few minutes trying to rub the
feeling
back into her legs.
Akane wasn't sure she was ready to go through with this. All this talk
of chakras and mantras and sutras and tantras and foci and dragon paths
and...
it made her head rattle when she tried to grasp it all. The worst part was
how
easily Ukyou seemed to be grasping it. Akane had even caught Ranma staring
in
befuddlement as Ukyou and Tofu threw ideas back and forth like pros at a
tennis
match. She definitely wasn't used to working out this much, which was to say
she
wasn't used to working out constantly.
But Ukyou had insisted. 'If you want to break past the limits of your
art as it exists, Akane, you have to go beyond seeing martial arts as a tool
or
a means to an end, and more as a lifestyle,' Akane heard her mental
reproduction
of Ukyou say (perhaps the voice was slightly more condescending than the
real
one, but Akane wasn't being fair at the moment). 'These weights will turn
the
act of walking, of picking up a pencil, even the simplest acts into
training.
Once you can move around in them like you could without them, we increase
the
weight. And then again, and then again. Eventually when you take off the
weights, you'll be ten times as strong as before.'
Akane could almost see the logic in it. But that hardly mattered to her
now. What mattered was that she was sixteen years old, and this kind of
physical
exertion was only the tip of the torture sessions that was her daily
training
with Ukyou and Tofu. She just hoped they never expected her to stick her
hands
into a bonfire like they were making Ranma. No chestnuts could be worth
that.
Akane smiled a little and shook her head. Now that she was thinking more
clearly, she realized how... childish? Yes, childish, that was how she
sounded
even to herself. Akane had asked to be trained in the same level that Ranma
and
Ukyou trained, and she would just have to endure the pain to do so. The way
Ranma hadn't even batted an eye while he was set to his own tasks made Akane
just a bit cranky, however. It would help if Ukyou didn't spend her days
either
sitting with Tofu in quiet meditation or getting them to attack her while
she
danced around that spiral she had drawn in the ground.
Akane yawned and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. Fatigue hit
her suddenly and she felt the concerns drain from her mind. She realized she
was
even too tired to change into her nightclothes. Oh well... she would just
have
to iron her dress in the morning. Stretching and yawning she half-walked,
half-
crawled over to her bed and pulled back the covers.
The paper that fell from them to the floor almost escaped her attention,
but Akane still caught it out of the corner of her eyes. Some note from
Kasumi?
Maybe even Nabiki? The latter thought sent a thrill through Akane. Maybe
Nabiki
was finally willing to start talking to her again. The cold shoulder
treatment
her sister was giving her, and everyone else, was beginning to worry Akane.
She
would have raised the issue with the others, but to what end? Ukyou made her
dislike of Akane's elder sister plain, and Ranma's distrust for his
'fiancee'
was nearly legendary around the school.
She picked up the note and sat on her bed. Oh man, this bed was
comfortable. Maybe she could read the note in the morning and just sleep a
little right now? Her muscles said yes, but the better part of her nature
said
no. Thus Akane scanned the note, her eyes widening with every sentence.

"Akane Tendo,

I really need to talk to you. Ukyou or Ranma would likely attack me if
I tried to talk to them, so I'm hoping you'll be willing to listen. Just
listen, that's all I want. I'm not going to attack you or kidnap you or try
to
harm anyone. If I wasn't sincere in this, I wouldn't write this note, would
I?
So please don't scream or try to get Ranma, because then we'll never be able
to
speak peacefully. I am above you.

Chris"

Above her? Was that some sort of backhanded insult? Then the meaning
struck Akane, and her head snapped up, her long forelocks flashing in the
corner
of her eyes, as she stared at the ceiling.
The figure above her was mainly hidden in the shadows, but was still
clear to an alert viewer. She was spread-eagled, bracing her limbs against
the
beams in Akane's ceiling, removed shoes clutched in the tips of her left
hand's
fingers. Her long ponytail dipped down over her shoulder and she was wearing
a
loose white t-shirt and tight blue jeans. Her skin appeared remarkably pale,
but
that might have been the light. Chris. He... she... it was back. Akane
opened
her mouth to scream for help... then snapped it closed.
Maybe it was the weariness, or the sincerity of the note, or Akane's own
recent thoughts about building bridges with her sister... but Akane remained
quiet.
"Hi," the dead woman above her whispered in Kodachi's voice. "Mind if I
come down?" Akane shook her head mutely. Chris dropped feather quiet to the
floor, landing with grace and panache. From the way he was smirking, he was
obviously enjoying the abilities he had stolen from the girl along with her
life. Akane forced that thought aside. True as it was, getting into a
shouting
match here would do no good. She would never forgive Chris for what he did,
but
she would... forget it, for now.
"Thank you," Chris said in a low voice. He sat cross-legged on the
floor, carefully setting his shoes aside. "I'm sorry I had to sneak in here
like this, but I couldn't think of another way to talk to you alone."
"If you want me to trust you" - Akane crossed her arms, trying not to
let the wince of pain the motion caused show on her face - "this wasn't the
best
way to do it." Akane kept her voice low. "Now what do you want?"
He sighed, and sounded genuinely regretful in so doing. "I can see you
haven't exactly forgiven me. Well, I suppose I can't blame you. I'll try
to
make this short so I can let you get to sleep." Akane nodded curtly, and he
sighed again before continuing. "Shortly after we last saw each other, I
headed
to China in order to look for some people and places that might help me find
a
solution to my problems. This took me about a week, so I only got back
earlier
today. Shortly after returning, I found out about what had happened at the
airport, and it concerned me quite a bit."
"Why would it do that?" Akane asked, partly suspicious and partly
genuinely curious. Akane wondered how much Chris had heard about it, or
about
her own involvement. She blushed a bit as she thought of getting to be the
hero
for a few minutes there. It was that night, more than anything else, which
kept
her putting on those damn weights every morning. A part of her even resented
being almost entirely left out of the articles Ran had written about the
fight
except as 'the poor victim's sister' and 'Ukyou's true and loyal friend'.
"I'll admit I was a tad concerned about the fact Ukyou seemed to have a
large ally group now, but I think that's just paranoia on my part. The real
problem is bigger than that, and bigger than me. The Sailor Senshi..." he
paused. "Did Ukyou tell you who they... no, she probably didn't. I'm not
sure
what she told you about how I knew so much about you guys, either. But I
know
about them, too. The Sailor Senshi are...important. Very important.
That's
what really concerns me. Because if someone messes with them, and it goes
wrong...it could doom the entire world. You, me, Ukyou, everyone else,
gone.
So I don't understand why Ukyou's getting involved in their..." he paused
again. "Let's say affairs. Please note, I'm not saying Ukyou's trying to
kill
everybody or anything, but she might not realise how dangerous the situation
is." He frowned, as if suddenly thinking of something, but seemed not about
to
say anything further for the moment.
Akane rolled her head to the side, and irritably reached up to push one
of her hairlocks from her face. Man, long hair was a pain... But Akane
didn't
know what the living dead girl was meaning. Ukyou had warned them about the
Sailor Senshi, about the Dark Kingdom, and told them the entire history of
their
conflict. "Ukyou didn't choose that fight," Akane said slowly. "It chose
her."
Akane considered elaborating, but decided against it. Friendly as he was
being
now, Chris was still a dangerous enemy and a potential threat. She decided
to
keep things close to her chest, for now.
"So I heard. Jadeite kidnapped Nabiki and all that. I don't blame you
for going to the fight then. But...it doesn't explain why Ukyou was
involved
with the Senshi in the first place. I mean, they're from a different,"
another
pause, "...part of Tokyo. Why would she be involved in their battles?"
"You wouldn't know... I guess," Akane frowned slightly. What harm would
it do in telling him just this much? None that Akane could see. Maybe it
would
even scare him off. "The Dark Kingdom is after the energy of human beings.
Or,
as we martial artists have learned to call it, our chi. And we martial
artists
are like giant batteries of chi to them. Just one of us seems to have more
energy than an entire roomful of normal people. So they come after us."
Of course, Akane didn't even bother to voice Ranma's particular opinion
of that. The idea that Ukyou was secretly some sort of demon-slaying
legendary
warrior was... patently ridiculous. The idea that she was training the two
of
them to be her partners, even more so. Ukyou certainly wouldn't keep
something
like that from them. She certainly would NOT drag them into that kind of
situation without at least asking them what they thought first. Would she?
Chris, meanwhile, seemed to be greatly relieved, and his whole frame
relaxed and slumped visibly. "Superhuman martial artists are chi
batteries...
that makes sense. Wonder why they didn't notice before...? But anything
could
make the difference, I suppose." He looked up at her, smiling a bit. "If
that's the case, I feel a lot better about it, and I'll trust Ukyou to have
the
discretion not to screw anything up for them. Thank you for telling me."
Akane had a brief moment of hope that this would be the end of the whole
conversation, so she kept silent. When it became clear from the thoughtful
frown
on Kodachi's face that Chris wasn't finished, she remained quiet more out of
social inertia than anything else.
Finally, he spoke. "Just one more thing, then. I was thinking about
something. I'd like to share a secret with you. If you know it, it might
make
things a bit easier on both of us, and may even help prevent any further
conflict. Or it might make no difference. But because it involves things I
and
Ukyou know are going to happen, it might make you uncomfortable. So I won't
force you to listen. It's up to you if you want to hear it." He looked up
at
her, his expression unreadable.
Akane stared. Wow. Maybe he could have been more vague, but he would
have had to try hard. Akane tried to parse the sentence, figuring out eactly
what she was or was not saying no or yes to. Finally, she gave up. "What are
you
talking about?" she snapped in frustration.
He blinked in confusion, then laughed a little. "I'm sorry. Okay, I'll
try to phrase that in a less convoluted manner. Something is going to
happen.
Ukyou and I know about it. What Ukyou doesn't know is that I have to do
something about it. If I tell you what I'm going to do, hopefully you can
help
make sure Ukyou and I don't end up butting heads. But because it requires
me
telling you what's going to happen in the future, it might make you
uncomfortable, so I wanted your permission to tell you. Did that help?"
Akane remembered now... Ukyou's ghost was supposed to be from the
future. Just like this boy. Maybe... maybe he was trying to do something to
prevent the accident that would kill him in that future? Something that
would
stop the whole awful series of events before it even started? Possible...
but
still, there seemed to be something wrong with that conclusion. It was
impossible to read the eyes of this dead woman, but her voice didn't betray
any
sense of urgency about it like Akane would have expected.
Once she dismissed the possibility of this being an urgent thing, Akane
began to really consider the proposal. She had never really thought about it
up
until now, but Ukyou, and Chris, they had knowledge of the future. They
might
know many things about her and everyone else. Things that Akane could learn
and... and what? She remembered once, when Ukyou and she had been brawling
in
the park, back before Ranma arrived. Ukyou had put her to the ground once
again,
overwhelming her with her superior speed and strength. Akane had asked,
half-
jokingly, why Ukyou was so willing to spar with Akane when she obviously
wasn't
at her level. Then Ukyou had stopped, and her face had grown serious and
thoughtful. She reached out and clasped Akane firmly on the shoulder and had
said to her, 'Because I see potential in you, Akane. Potential that goes
beyond
how fast you throw a punch, or how well you take a hit. I see you not just
for
who you are, but for who you could one day be. And I want to be the friend
of
that person, just like I'm your friend now.' Akane had walked away from that
interlude with a deep and secret joy in her heart. Now... now she wondered
if
Ukyou was speaking metaphorically. Or was Ukyou instead talking about some
future Akane she had seen...
Akane held her hand to her forehead. The implications of this... did she
really want to know her future? "Before I answer you, I want to ask one
question," Akane said slowly. "Is the future you know... is it... fixed?
Stuck?
Can we change our future?"
He bit his lip, seeming to consider his words carefully. "I can't say
for certain whether you can, but I expect, with knowledge of what will
happen,
you could change nearly anything. Ukyou and I can, I know. I, of course,
have
already changed the future. And Ukyou...Ukyou has already, apparently,
changed
one of the biggest things your future was going to hold. So no, I don't
think
it's fixed for either of us."
"Then I don't want to know," Akane said before she realised it. "The
future... if the future isn't fixed, then I don't care what you saw in it."
Akane waved him quiet as she continued. "If you want to give a message to
Ukyou
about this, I have some paper and pens on the desk next to my school
supplies.
Write it down, fold it up and I'll deliver it to her in the morning. Then
she
can decide whether she wants to listen to you or not."
He stood up, shaking his head. "No. I'll just do my best to stay out
of Ukyou's way. It's not a large thing...it wouldn't even concern Ukyou
much,
except I think she's inclined to think the worst of me and thus could try to
stop me without even trying to find out what I was doing, or why." He
looked
down at her with a small, sad little smile. "It's not your problem, in any
case. I don't blame you for not wanting to know. It's probably an
intimidating
thing, or at least one with vast implications, to know even the tiniest bit
of
your own future."
Chris stepped towards the window, white fingers reaching up to slide it
open. A few strands of Kodachi's black hair flipped in the breeze as she
stared
out into the night. "As I promised, I'll leave you alone. And I'll try my
best
to make sure not to intrude upon your life from now on. Nonetheless, thank
you,
Akane. Thank you for listening, and for telling me what you knew honestly.
You're a good person. And, I realise, I don't know that because of anything
I
read, but because of what I've seen, and it means more for it. I'm sorry we
couldn't have met under different circumstances."
And with that, he flashed out the window and was gone.


*

Ukyou leapt over the wall of the Tendo compound in a single bound. The
door was usually closed this early in the morning, but Ukyou had never let
that
stop her from visiting. Usually, if she did, she brought along some
breakfast
okonomiyaki to treat the house to, but today she was getting ready for other
business, so hadn't bothered. Today was a day to be keeping promises.
"Good morning, Ukyou," Kasumi called from the kitchen window as Ukyou
strode past. "I was just making breakfast, did you want to join us?"
"Nope," Ukyou shook her head and stuffed her hands into her pockets.
"Got some serious business today with Ranma. Thanks, though." Ukyou didn't
really like Kasumi, but she admitted the girl was nice, and treated her
kindly
in return. Aaron was as close to despising Kasumi as he was capable of, but
as
with so many of Aaron's desires, Ukyou ignored this.
Ukyou found Ranma behind the main building, sparring with his father.
She spent a few seconds watching the two of them hover in mid-air. Each
stroke
and counter was meant to steal momentum and lift from the opponent, tricking
gravity into allowing them a few more seconds of flight. Ukyou felt a touch
of
jealousy at the ease they showed.
Noticing that Genma was gaining something of an upper hand, Ukyou smiled
diabolically. "Genma!" she shouted in her angriest tone. The man somehow
spun in
mid-air, his entire body tensing to flee. Ranma's eye glinted as Genma
turned
from him.
"An opening!" the black-haired boy shouted as he spun his body in a
perfect mid-air axe kick. Genma didn't have a chance as the blow struck him
in
the back of his skull