************
Parallel Lives #4:
Confrontation
by John Biles
Other chapters available at
http://www.tass.org/~rhea/Stories/PL
************
Ranma-chan yawned and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.
What a weird dream, she thought. She'd had a horrible
nightmare about being a mech pilot with two complete weirdos
for partners. One of them was a spineless boy who reminded
her of Gosunkugi, except without any good points, while the
other looked sort of like his second cousin, Arimi-chan, but
without any emotions. I wonder what Arimi is doing right now,
anyway, Ranma-chan wondered. I bet she'd freak if she knew
about my curse.
She looked out at the snow-shrouded landscape outside
the cave, and laughed faintly. "Not much danger of her finding
out anytime soon."
Ukyou mumbled, "Not much danger of me finding out
what?" He rolled over and rubbed his eyes.
"Not you, my second cousin, Arimi."
"Huh?" Ukyou sat up and stared at his flat chest. The
only good thing about being stuck in this boy body is that it
makes sleeping on your stomach a lot more comfortable, he
thought. He went to scavenge some food to make breakfast. "I
had a weird dream, Ranma. I...uh...got a message from a past
life about a treasure trove."
"Doesn't do us much good even if it's true, since we're in
the wrong world for any of your past lives to have left a
treasure hanging around." Ranma-chan got up and began doing
some stretching exercises. "The snow's stopped."
"A white Christmas," Ukyou said, smiling. "The treasure
trove's in this world, though."
"How did one of your past lives get here supposedly?"
"I dunno. It seemed so real, though. I also went to where
the False Dragon is living, in the dream, and found a map with
KANJI written on it. In Akane's handwriting."
Ranma-chan spun, looking excited. "So you know how to
find it?"
Ukyou tinysweated. "It wasn't a very good map." He
started a fire and put a few more spices in the broth of last
night's soup. "And I...uh...sorta wished myself there in the
dream."
Ranma-chan sighed. "I know there's some kind of Aes
Sedai trick for hopping around in dreams and stuff, but no one
knows how to do it anymore." She paused. "Or maybe they just
don't tell anyone. There are people in the Tower who could eat
Happousai for breakfast, but no one ever teaches you anything
unless they have to, or unless they want to bribe you into doing
something you shouldn't be doing."
"So it's like an entire school of Happousais in dresses?"
Ukyou asked, laughing a little.
Ranma-chan laughed. "Yeah, I guess it was sorta like
training with Happousai would have been if he wasn't a pervert.
More like an entire school full of Colognes, really." She
returned to her exercises, which were comfortable from long
practice. Talking and exercising at the same time was child's
play for her.
Ukyou shuddered. "So they only train women there?"
"Men who channel go mad." Ranma-chan paused in her
exercises and fell silent.
"But you..."
"Girl-form only. I couldn't channel a candle alight in
male form and I'm glad." When it didn't gall her, anyway. It
was completely unfair. "The last time they fought the Dark
One, who's this big nasty evil guy they locked up under a
mountain or something, he somehow buggered up magic for all
guys. Drives them all mad and they kill everyone they know."
Ukyou suddenly didn't feel so bad that he couldn't
channel. "But isn't the Dragon a male channeler?" He stirred
the rabbit stew slowly as it warmed.
"Well, you kinda go mad by inches, I guess. Rand seemed
pretty sane when I met him." Ranma-chan said, returning to
her exercises.
"But isn't this False Dragon probably Akane? She's been
channeling for months, it seems and so..." Ukyou's stomach
churned. I want Ran-chan, but I don't want to get him because
Akane-chan drove herself mad because of some curse on magic.
It just...if we find her like that...
Ranma-chan's eyes widened. "Shit." Clearly, she hadn't
even thought of that. "AKANE!" She turned and sprinted off
into the snow.
"Ran-chan!" You don't even have your coat on, Ukyou
thought. He took off after Ranma.
********
Alyssa snuggled close to Kaneda, feeling the warmth of
his body. He was still sound asleep, and she let him slumber,
pulling the covers back up over their bodies. I bet you're tired
out from hauling all those presents, she thought. Or maybe
from our celebration.
A thought had been haunting her for a while, and she
continued the process of screwing up the courage to bring it to
life, so to speak. I want to marry you, Kaneda, she thought.
Even though we may not have a lot of time together. Alyssa
knew what happened to male channelers. She'd seen one hauled
into the Tower, and seen him dwindle away after he had been
gentled. The reds had made them study several more who had
gone on destructive rampages. While she had never met a red
she liked, she respected them for being brave enough to face
rampaging powerful channelers and for guarding the world
from another breaking. She knew that sooner or later, Kaneda
would snap.
She didn't care. She had had other loves, but not one like
this. He was so kind and gentle and understanding. Sometimes,
he seemed more like a girl than like any boy she had ever met.
She had quite personal proof that he was no boy, though. Not
that he was experienced, mind you. She was quite certain she
had been with more men than he had been with women. His old
fiancee and he might have slept together, she thought, but that
was it. Even that didn't seem very likely, although it was
somewhat confusing. He had known what to do to give her
pleasure, but hadn't seemed to really have much of a clue of
what to do with his own body.
It scared him. Sex, that is. She could tell. Once he got
started, he was quite enthusiastic and happy, but just before
they got into it, she could always see that he looked very
nervous. Maybe he was just modest. Even when he started it,
which was becoming more frequent, he seemed scared. None of
her other lovers had ever been scared. On the other hand, they
had mostly been rat-bastards in the end, so perhaps it was a
sign of a good man that sex scared him. It certainly scared her
sometimes.
She ran her fingers up and down his chest, which was
smooth with just a little chest hair. Kaneda was much less
shaggy than most men she knew. His leg hairs looked strange
as well; where his chest had little hair, his leg hairs were
thicker and fuller than was normal for men, as if he had been
in the habit of shaving his legs, although he had never shaved
them that she knew of. His arms were the same way. Maybe he
did long distance swimming at one time, she thought.
He could have been kidnapped by trollocs and had extra
hairs implanted in a Shaol Ghul torture room for all she knew.
Despite being his lover, she knew little about Kaneda's past.
He had grown up in a village of super warriors, had been
engaged to a girl named Ranko who had gone to the tower, who
Alyssa had met there, had a father named Soun, and two
sisters named Kasumi and Nabiki.
Alyssa wasn't certain, actually, that the Ranko she knew
was the same Ranko who had been engaged to Kaneda. For one
thing, the Ranko she knew had NO interest in men whatsover,
and hadn't acted much like Ranko did in the few stories that
Kaneda had told about her. I wonder what their relationship
was like, she thought. A pang of fear struck her once more.
Sometimes Alyssa would wonder what Kaneda would do if
Ranko ever found them...assuming she was still alive. Kaneda
had never been sure if she had survived whatever accident had
seperated the two of them, which was another topic he would
never talk about. Alyssa worried whether she was just
someone Kaneda had turned to in order to avoid being lonely
until Ranko showed up.
I don't know what I'd do without you, Alyssa thought. I
love you so much, Kaneda. I want to be with you forever, to go
wherever you go. And yet...as long as he held back, she would
never be sure. She had no secrets from him, but she didn't
know how to pry out his secrets...or if she should. The unhappy
thoughts pelted her and she began to cry from frustration. I
don't want to think about this. This should be a happy day. I'm
with the man I love...I shouldn't be crying. The tears simply
came harder.
Only one thing could stop them, and that thing did. A
hand came up and brushed her cheek, tracing a line under one
eye. Kaneda's hand. He mumbled, "What's wrong, Alyssa-chan?"
She wondered again what a 'chan' was, although it was
clearly a term of endearment, for he only used it with her.
"N...nothing..." She tried to wipe her eyes with the edge of the
blanket.
He sat up, wiggling about to place her in his lap,
wrapping his arms around her, kissing her cheek. "People don't
cry before breakfast for no reason." Sometimes AFTER
breakfast maybe, he thought, then tried to not think about his
own cooking skills. "Did you have a bad dream?"
She gulped hard, then decided to be honest. She had to
know. "Kaneda-kun, do you still love Ranko?"
His eyes widened and for a moment, he looked like she had
bashed in his head with a two-by-four. "If Ranko was going to
show up, she'd have shown up by now. She must think I'm dead."
He was certain of that now. It had been months, and he refused
to think of the alternative.
"Kaneda-kun, that doesn't answer my question." He got
evasive sometimes when he didn't want to answer a question.
For a moment, she wondered if he had trained in the Tower, but
at her most paranoid, she knew better than that.
"Would you be sitting in my lap if I loved another
woman? Do you think I could really do that?" He said. "I love
you, Alyssa." Loving another man...now that's another question,
he thought, then sighed mentally. He had never quite been
certain of what exactly the relationship between he and Ranma
had been. If Ranma did show up, did take him back to their
world, enabled him to be a girl again...he didn't know what he
would do, or what it would be like. Not like it was. The
fiancee thing would have to be settled. After Alyssa, he could
never go back to the way it had been.
So am I lying to her?, he asked himself. It was hard to
think clearly about Ranma anymore. Okay, it had NEVER been
possible for me to think clearly about Ranma, Kaneda thought.
More and more, his mind seemed to be bifurcating Ranma and
'Ranko'. Ranma was increasingly a phantom memory. It was
getting harder to remember how he sounded, how he acted, how
he had felt about Ranma. 'Ranko', on the other hand, was quite
vivid.
He could tell at times, that he was remembering Ranko
doing things that he KNEW Ranma had actually done as a boy. It
had been Ranma, not Ranko, who had seen hi...her naked on the
day they met. It had been Ranma, not Ranko, who had helped
her fight the horde of Trollocs that attacked her ever day
before school. It had been Ranma, not Ranko, who had
challenged Mikado for trying to kiss her. It had been Ranma,
not Ranko, who had played King Aemon to her Queen Eldrene in
the school play 'The Fall of Manrethen'. She could clearly see
him waving his sword as their classmates pretended to be
dying around him, while she stood up on the balcony that was
supposed to be part of the capital, watching the battle from
afar. Although how Queen Eldrene had seen hundreds of
miles...well, that wasn't important. It was just a play, after
all, if a historical one. But its events had happened 2000 years
ago, so who knew how it had REALLY gone, right?
And yet, it was Ranko she thought of as being her fiancee.
After all, I'm a boy. No, I'm a girl!, she told herself, but she
knew it was a losing struggle. Her body, her lover, the people
around her...even the air she breathed sometimes, told her that
she was a boy now. Holding Alyssa in her lap would have
scared and probably disgusted her once, but now it was a turn-
on. She loved Alyssa in a way that would have been impossible
for her before her trip here. Intensely familiar with what it
felt like for a man to be aroused, she could no longer remember
except in the most abstract way what it had felt like to be
aroused as a woman, not that she had ever done anything like
this in her girl-body. The one time that Akane, rather than
Kaneda, had come close to having sex, she had been in her boy-
body anyway, and Ranma had basically been insane, and in his
girl form.
I wonder if Kunou feels like this, she thought. I love
Alyssa, but I can't get Ranko...Ranma out of my head. Maybe if
we'd had some kind of real breakup...but not like this...but I
can't tell Alyssa that. Ranko will almost certainly NEVER
show up, and I refuse to spend my life waiting for her. Alyssa
deserves better than me being a bozo when I can be her
boyfriend. He steeled himself and kissed Alyssa fiercely. "I
can't say I've forgotten her; I don't think I could if someone
used the Power and wiped my brain, but I love you. I won't
abandon you, Alyssa."
Alyssa's sobbing slowed and stopped. The kiss was
sweet on her lips, and suddenly, she yearned for him terribly.
She wanted to say something, but she suddenly knew that
anything she said would sound twice as corny as the romantic
novels she had read when she was younger. Maybe four times
cornier...they had been professional authors, after all. Another
kiss was more enjoyable than speaking, and might have lead
further, except that then...
Her eyes widened. "I feel channeling. It must be REALLY
powerful unless somehow an Aes Sedai snuck into the castle."
Kaneda blinked. "Which way? How close?"
She pointed off towards the front gate and away off
down the path that lead up the mountain slope to it. "That
way."
"Get dressed. We have to check this out." The trembling
in his voice had stilled and become a voice of command. He
kissed her cheek and scrambled out of bed, then froze in place.
"COLD AIR!"
She giggled and started looking for her clothing, wishing
it hadn't been lying on the floor all night.
************
Corwin stared off down the mountainside, trying to make
out the two figures he could see coming up it at high speed.
One of them was screaming louder than humanly possible,
although he couldn't understand what she was shouting. What
did 'Akane' mean? Maybe it's the Old Tongue, he thought.
The voice sounded loud enough to be in his face, but the
woman was little more than a dot. He couldn't tell which one
was the woman, or whether both of them were women, for that
matter. One seemed to be chasing the other. Maybe the woman
running away was named Akane? He had already sent Charl to
alert the Lord Dragon, but he gripped his quarterstaff tightly.
The woman might need help...
Her voice continued to echo off the mountainside, and he
saw the snow shake slightly. He frowned, the snow shook
more, and he stopped frowning for a second until his brain
reassured him he hadn't caused that by frowning. "Surely she
can't cause an avalanche just by shouting."
He almost fell over the side of the wall when Tyr said,
"Yes, you can...especially if you're that loud. If we can hear her
from here..." He shuddered. Tyr was a young blond prospector
from Ghealdan. At least supposedly. He didn't look
Ghealdanese, or sound like it, to Corwin, anyway. With that
hair, he probably has some Andoran blood, Corwin thought.
Corwin was from Amadicia himself.
Several more people were crowding up onto the wall, as
did the Lord Dragon Kaneda and his consort, Alyssa Sedai. At
least, Corwin assumed she was an Aes Sedai. She claimed she
had left, or been thrown out, or something, but he didn't
believe it. She was too good with the Power to have been some
kind of failure. On the other hand, would a real Aes Sedai
become the lover of the Dragon? He wasn't sure of anything
anymore, but the Dragon had saved his sister's life, and Corwin
was ready to follow him to Shaol Ghul and back if need be.
Kaneda looked down at the two figures, mumbling strange
words under his breath. More Old Tongue, Corwin guessed. I
never realized he was a scholar too.
Alyssa said, "That's Ranko! I recognize her voice? But
what does Akane mean?"
Tyr said, "Whoever she is, if she doesn't stop shouting,
there's going to be an avalanche."
Kaneda's eyes widened. "Alyssa, link with me!"
They grasped hands. Corwin's arm hairs stood on end, and
like everyone else, he stood back a step. He might not know
anything about channeling, but like everyone else, he knew how
to read their faces to tell if they were channeling. Kaneda got
this creepy blank look as if he had lost all his emotions, and
Alyssa always looked like a girl who had just been kissed. I
wonder if he does that in bed, he thought, then laughed at the
thought. When several people stared at him, he realized he
must have laughed out loud, so he tried to look even blanker
than Kaneda so they would think they'd imagined it.
The two of them turned to the mountainside too late, as it
almost shrugged and a huge wave of snow flowed down it
towards the tiny figures below. Corwin caught a glint of
sunlight off some sort of metal axe strapped to the back of the
pursuing figure and just barely heard a male voice that might
have belonged to it before the ocean of snow swallowed both
of them.
Several people shouted inside the castle, and they turned
and saw the snow had slid down into the castle as well, down
the slope of the mountain that formed its rear wall, pooling up
against the walls of some of the buildings.
For a moment, all was silent, then Kaneda lifted Alyssa
into his arms, gave a scream that curdled Corwin's blood, and
leaped over the wall to the ground below. Alyssa gave a cry of
surprise, and the snow around them melted to steam in an
instant. They whispered something, then began to plow
through the snow, clearing a road.
Cerise, a female tanner from Amadicia and one of the
Dragon's prize pupils in the fighting style he had been teaching
everyone, turned to the people gawking from the wall.
"Alright, looks like the Lord Dragon is going to take care of
this. Let's get the snow out of our town. Tyr, go organize
everyone who isn't up here." She turned to Corwin. "Corwin,
pick a small group to go help the Lord Dragon." Turning back to
the others, "Everyone else is going to go grab a shovel and
come help move the snow out of the castle."
Corwin picked a few volunteers and took off. At least it
will be easy to find them, he thought.
*********************
Ukyou finally understood why Akane had hit Ranma so
many times. The concept of strangling Ranma was looking
REALLY good. He was buried in snow, and slowly smothering as
he tried to dig his way out, and at the same time, he could feel
Ranma's abject terror. If it had been terror over being buried
alive, it would have been some small comfort, but Ranma-chan
had been feeding terror through the bonding link from the
moment she'd realized Akane might be going mad.
She's also channeling too much, Ukyou thought. Ukyou
only had a very vague idea how dangerous this could be, but
Ranma-chan seemed to have forgotten entirely. I wish I could
channel. Going mad would be better than freezing to death
because Ranma-chan decided to become the loudest woman on
Earth.
Cold was numbing his body, but he struggled to dig the
snow out of the way. It was loose and compacted easily, but
he had no idea how deep he might be. Or if his air would last
long enough.
How long he kept digging, he never did know. Before he
died, but after he felt like he should die, the snow suddenly
parted and two slender arms pulled him up out of the snow,
while more snow flew away from him, struck by
invisible...somethings.
A quite attractive woman, dressed in yellow clothing
that shouldn't have been warm enough, stood in front of him.
Her blond hair matched her dress, which did have long sleeves
and a skirt to the ground, but looked like cotton, not winter
wool. She didn't have a proper cloak on, even. Long hair
couldn't really make up the difference. Ukyou knew this from
experience. Her face was worried, and her eyes were a soft
blue. "Hello, I'm Alyssa." She looked at Ukyou, then said, "Are
you Ukyou?"
Ukyou blinked. She knows me? "Um, yeah. Do I know
you?"
"I hadn't realized you were a boy from the stories Kaneda
has told us," Alyssa said. "You looked like a girl in the
picture, but..."
Ukyou laughed nervously. "I...uh...have a twin sister. With
the same name." That must be the most incredibly stupid lie
anyone has ever told in the history of the universe, he thought.
"It's a weird custom from our w...town. I'm Ukyou-kun, she's
Ukyou-chan."
Alyssa started for no apparent reason. She stared at
Ukyou as if trying to read some secret in his face. "So a chan
is a female twin?"
"Among other things, yes." Shut up before you bury
yourself deeper, Ukyou told himself.
"Or a...t...term of endearment?"
Ukyou nodded seriously. "Yeah." Smart girl, he thought.
Now that he was no longer freezing to death, the little Ranma-
chan that now lived in his head filled his attention. She was
nearby. He turned and saw Akane-kun, kneeling by an also
kneeling Ranma-chan, who was crying and pounding on Akane-
kun's chest and babbling incoherently about not going mad.
Akane-kun's back was to Ukyou, so he couldn't tell how Akane
was reacting.
Alyssa turned and looked very sad. She must have a crush
on Akane-kun, Ukyou thought. I bet she'd die if she knew the
truth. He got up and went over to her. Akane's going to kill me,
but I have to help her, he thought. He would have done it even
without the little Ranma-chan in his head, but having her there
made it imperative. He could just barely think through her
panic. He knelt down and wrapped his arms around her, and
through Akane as well, effectively, almost crushing Ranma-
chan in a sandwich between them.
He heard Alyssa give a tiny cry, and heard footsteps in
the distance, but he ignored them, trying to beam reassurance
to Ranma-chan through his bond, although he had no idea if that
was possible. "Don't worry, Ranm...Ranko. We've found he...him.
I won't let him go mad. A little of my home cooking, and he'll
be fine." Ukyou was babbling now, and knew it. "I'm sure Dr.
Tofu knows a pressure point or something..."
Akane-kun finally spoke with a deep voice. "Ukyou's
right, Ranko. I'll be just fine. Don't worry. Dr. Tofu will fix
me right up, no doubt." His voice was wobbly.
Alyssa slowly came over. She was crying, although
Ukyou had no clue why she would look so miserable. "R...Ranko?
Is that really you?"
Ranma-chan turned her head and stared almost
mindlessly through tear-blurred eyes. "Alyssa? Is that you?
Wh...what are you doing here? I...I must be starting to
hallucinate...no, I'm going mad too!" Ukyou had never heard
Ranma sound so terrified until today. He hadn't thought it
could get worse, but now it was getting worse. His head was
throbbing with her fear and he could scarcely think.
The tears slowed and compassion began to struggle with
anguish for control of Alyssa's face. "By the creator, what's
happened to you, Ranko? I've never seen you so scared." She
leaned forward, and her arms began to come up to mid-body,
then dropped down again.
Ukyou looked up at Alyssa and tried to beam the thought
to hug Ranma into her head. He scooted around a bit and so did
Akane-kun, who seemed to have gotten the thought he tried to
send Alyssa. Alyssa knelt and wiggled her arms in, resting her
forehead against Ranko's head. "Don't worry, Ranko. You're
safe here."
"But...they threw you out of the Tower. What are you
doing as one of the Sitters?" She stared at Alyssa. "You've got
to help me, Alyssa! Akane is going to go mad from channeling!
I don't know what to do...if she doesn't channel, she'll wither
away and die, but if she channels, she'll go mad and break the
world!"
For a moment, Alyssa looked intensely confused, then
compassion won the war for control of her face. "Don't worry,
Ranko. Everything is going to be alright. The Amyrlin Seat
will take care of everything."
"No! You can't tell her! She'll have to gentle Akane, and
she'll DIE! I don't want her to die! She's my fiancee!" Ranma-
chan shook Alyssa, who looked baffled again.
Despite her bafflement, she spook soothingly, "Don't
worry, Ranko. Only men go mad from channeling. If Akane is
female, she'll be fine. She just needs to go to the Tower for
training."
A light of hope dawned on Ranma-chan's face. "Really?
You...you'll help her, won't you?"
"Of course I will." Alyssa's hands brushed the hair out of
Ranma-chan's eyes. "You'll help her too, won't you, Ranko?"
There was a small knot of people lead by a
weatherbeaten man wrapped in a black cloak standing over
them now. This group hadn't rushed off into the cold without
adequate clothing, Ukyou thought. Ukyou relaxed a little, for he
could feel Ranma relaxing. I can't believe we were lucky
enough to find someone Ranma knew in this world, he thought.
It must be a blessing from the Kamis.
Ranma-chan almost shrank as the tension flowed out of
her, and she sounded like a small child as she said, "'Course I
will. Getting that tomboy to obey the Tower rules though...the
first time an Accepted gives her an order, she's gonna pull out
a mallet and whack her in the head. She'll probably try and
clobber the Amyrlin Seat." Her voice was fading as her body
relaxed. Ukyou could tell Ranma-chan was exhausted and
sinking into sleep.
Akane-kun was laughing faintly. He muttered, "I never
thought I'd be happy to be called that." A little louder, he said,
"Corwin, may I borrow your cloak?"
The cloak was off the leader of the group of standing
people faster than Ukyou would have thought possible, and into
Akane's hands. He wrapped it around Ranma-chan, then stared
at Ukyou for a moment and said, "Hari, yours too, please." Hari
was a little slower than Corwin, but soon Akane-kun had the
second cloak, which he put on Ukyou. He helped Ranma-chan to
her feet. She was clinging to Alyssa and drowsing, mumbling
something about pulling someone's braid. Alyssa stepped to
one side, holding Ranko, and Ukyou and Akane-kun stared at
each other silently for a moment. The men and women of the
posse, or whatever it was, stared at Ukyou too.
Silently, Akane-kun suddenly lunged forward and hugged
Ukyou, who blinked and hugged back. "You're alive. You're all
alive. I thought you all died." Now Akane-kun began to cry as
he gripped Ukyou tightly.
Ukyou didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry we took so
long, but..."
Corwin cleared his throat. "Heavens forbid I tell the Lord
Dragon what to do, but perhaps we should...go to the castle
where it is warmer."
Akane-kun laughed and released Ukyou. "Please, call me
Kaneda." He turned and faced Corwin and the others. "These
are friends of mine from my village, everyone. This is Ukyou
and Ranko...Sedai."
There was a gasp of disbelief from the group, who
couldn't believe they had seen an Aes Sedai in such a state of
hysteria. Ukyou could hardly believe it himself. He studied
Akane-kun. Something was different about him. The way he
carried himself. It was a confident stance, and his voice was
confident too. "Uh, nice to meet you all," Ukyou said.
"Alyssa, take Ranko to our quarters. Ukyou and I will join
you in a little while." Akane-kun thought for a moment.
"Corwin, you can go back to watch duty. Everyone else, I guess
we need to go clean up the mess inside the castle, then. I'll
come help once I get Ukyou settled in."
Ukyou noticed a woman in the group was eyeing him
appreciatively. She was tall and thin, with long black hair.
Ukyou recognized the kind of look she was giving him and
blushed just a tiny bit. I wish Ranma-chan would look at me
like that, he thought.
Akane-kun turned back to Ukyou as the crowd started off.
"So tell me about your adventures on your way here. Anything
exciting happen? What..." He hesitated. "What took you so
long?"
Alyssa walked ahead of them, half-carrying Ranma-chan,
who looked zoned out. Ukyou glanced at Alyssa, then whispered
to Akane-kun, "Does she know about...the curses and all?"
Akane-kun turned beet red. "Since I can't change back, I
didn't ever talk about it. Everyone would have...uh..," he
whispered.
Ukyou nodded and whispered, "I can't blame you. We
haven't told anyone we've met here either. And of course, you
know about Ranma in the Tower...how he pulled that off, I don't
know. Anyway, time seems to flow faster in this world than
ours. It took us a week or so to figure out what went wrong,
and it's been months here, I guess."
Akane-kun whispered, "I'll get us a private room so we
can discuss this without having to whisper, okay?" Ukyou
nodded, and Akane-kun went up and whispered to Alyssa, who
nodded in the affirmative. They spent the rest of the walk to
Akane-kun's house getting what passed for a guided tour.
***************
Ranma-chan woke up on a nice soft bed with a nice soft
pillow and stretched. Her head hurt like she had drunk an ocean
of sake the night before. Are we at an inn? She had a dim
memory of screaming a lot and running through snow. "Ucchan,
did I bump my head on something?"
"Your friend is in the living room with Kaneda, Ranko," a
voice said.
Ranma-chan remembered the voice vaguely. Alyssa? Am
I back in the Tower? "My head hurts."
Someone grasped the Source and brushed Ranma-chan's
forehead gently with her hand. The pain washed away for the
most part, leaving only a dull roar. "Is that better?"
"It is you. Am I back in the Tower? Was this all a
dream?" Probably some Brown tried to make me wash her cats
again, Ranma-chan thought.
"It's not a dream, Ranko." It was Alyssa, as Ranma-chan
found out when she turned her no longer aching head. She was
smiling, but she looked nervous. This didn't surprise Ranma-
chan too much...being nervous was Alyssa's natural state as far
as she could tell. "You called an avalanche screaming for
someone named Akane. Who is that?"
"No one you know," Ranma-chan said. I guess this
'Kaneda' IS Akane. I hope. Or I'm going to bury myself pretty
deep here. "Where is Kaneda?"
Alyssa frowned slightly. "Your...fiancee?" Her
shoulders sagged slightly.
"Has he really...set himself up as a Dragon?"
"He is our leader." Alyssa paused, and stared at the
wall as if trying to read a cue card. "And he may be the Dragon.
We plan to go confront Al'Thor and settle the matter in the
Spring."
"Al'Thor IS the Dragon. I saw him draw the Sword that is
not a Sword. I helped him fight Ishmael. I was there when the
Stone fell. And more importantly, I've known ...Kaneda for a
long time, and there's just NO way he could be the Dragon."
Surely the Dragon would be a better cook, Ranma-chan thought.
"Ranko....can I ask you a question?" Alyssa sounded
scared now, but there was an edge of determination creeping
into it.
"You just did," Ranma-chan said.
"..."
Ranma-chan laughed. "Didn't Nene-sedai ever do that to
you? Every time we had class, she'd pull that on someone. The
most whacko Brown I've ever met."
Alyssa laughed at the memory. "Maybe that's why I saw
Karla Sedai chasing her down the hallway with a stick that
time. She had no sense of humor."
"I don't even want to THINK about her," Ranma-chan
said, shuddering. Karla Sedai had nearly caught her in boyform
in the Tower once after a bathing accident. She also had four
cats. Luckily, they couldn't talk. She hoped.
"Anyway..." Alyssa took a deep breath. "Do you still
love Kaneda?"
Okay, Kaneda has to be Akane, unless this is the
coincidence from Hell, Ranma-chan thought. Of course, my life
is full of coincidences that come back and bite my head off.
Creeping paranoia began to set in. Why's she even asking me a
question like this? Unless she... Ranma-chan could be dense,
but she wasn't a moron. Sometimes, anyway. She must have a
crush on Kaneda, Ranma-chan thought. I know Alyssa. She
won't even be able to try to give him a flower while she thinks
someone else is ahead of her.
Poor girl, Ranma-chan thought. She doesn't have a
chance, and she doesn't even know it. Even if Akane liked girls
like that, which she doesn't, she's going to be leaving. Which is
another reason Akane can't be the Dragon. Wait...Akane is in
charge of these people? Urk...they're not going to like it if we
take her...what do I say?
For that matter, Ranma-chan had never given this
question a straight answer under better circumstances. "Well,
I...uh...er... we...she...I mean he...uh ...our parents....engagement..."
She put a hand behind her head and tried to pull herself
together. "I...uh...why do you want to know?"
Alyssa looked a little worried. "Are you okay? Maybe
you need to lie down again. You're babbling."
"I'm fine." Ranma-chan tried to figure out what to tell
Alyssa. "It doesn't really matter who I love, anyway. My dad
engaged me to two men. I can't marry both, and I can't marry
just one, so it doesn't matter which one I prefer." And now one
of them is in my head. The little Ukyou that now rode around
with her everywhere let her know Ukyou was on the other side
of the wall and feeling pretty good. She smiled a little. "The
other one is Ukyou, who you just met. He...He's my warder
now."
Alyssa perked up a little, and smiled.
She must think I prefer Ukyou, and that's why I bonded
him, Ranma-chan realized. Whew. Situation defused. I don't
have to tapdance on her dreams anymore than taking Akane
away will, anyway.
"Ranko, then...would you...mind if your fiancee problem
was...solved?" Alyssa was hesitant, but hopeful.
Ranma-chan decided to play dumb. "Huh?" Then again,
maybe this isn't over yet.
"You see...I...I..." Alyssa clutched the sheets of the bed
with one hand and stared at them. "Ka...Kaneda and I...We...In
this...I love him, Ranko. We...We sleep in this bed together."
Her voice was trembling, and her body was shaking. "I'm afraid
he's going to leave me for you, but...if you...if you want to let
him go..." She gulped and looked up at Ranma-chan.
Ranma-chan stared at Alyssa in shock.
They...they...sleep together? Akane and Alyssa? Akane with a
girl...with someone else...with a girl....This can't be Akane...it
must be some other person...yes, that has to be it. Ranma-chan
began to laugh nervously, sounding like every trace of mind had
drained out her ear and puddled on the floor, then been drunk by
a passing wildebeast.
Alyssa's shaking slowed, and she started to look
concerned again. "Ranko?"
"You...you and Akane? In a bed? Together? Like..."
Hysterical laughter overwhelmed Ranma-chan's vocal cords.
"Akane? Is that a nickname for Kaneda? I don't know
any Akanes..." Alyssa's eyes narrowed a little. "Ranko, I think
you DO need to lie down and rest. You're acting strange."
"Hahahahahahhaha. Strange? Me? No, I'm just a guy
who turns into a girl engaged to a girl who turns into a guy and
is sleeping with a girl I met while I was in the tower
pretending to be a girl so I wouldn't die from learning magic
and now I'm sitting on a bed where my fiancee made love to a
girl. HAHAHAHAHAHA HAHHAHAHAHAHAH. This is perfectly
NORMAL for my life!" Ranma-chan stood up on the bed and tried
to grab the source so she could go on a destructive rampage,
but hysteria is not an ideal state for trying to grasp the
Source, whatever your sex.
"Ranko, you're getting hysterical." Alyssa grasped the
Source and prepared to wrap Ranko in air if she had to.
"You...you need rest." She sounded like she was trying to
convince herself.
Ranma-chan lunged forward and grabbed Alyssa's
shoulders since she couldn't seem to grab the Source. It kept
hiding from her. "I guess next you're going to tell me that Pop
engaged me to you too, and then you're going to turn into a boy
and make love to me like I wish Ukyou and Akane would!" Her
breathing was speeding up and she laughed hysterically again.
"And maybe that cute guy...was his name Tyr? Heck, invite ALL
the men! If I'm going to start sleeping with guys like Akane is
sleeping with girls, I'm gonna have to go WHOLE HOG!"
Alyssa began to wonder if there was some way that
female Aes Sedai could go mad from using the Power the way
men did. A stab of panic and her old feelings of helplessness
tried to flood over her, but she fought them back. I wish I'd
stayed long enough to learn how to help someone who is like
this, she thought.
**********
Akane-kun and Ukyou sat down in some simple wooden
chairs in the 'living room', which was basically a combined
kitchen and dining room with a simple table, some counter
space, a large tub of water, and a fireplace with chimney.
Ukyou had just finished explaining the whole situation to
Ukyou as best he understood it. "Anyway, before we go...we
might want to check out that mountain I saw in my dream. If
it's real, it might have some important stuff. Probably it was
just a dream, but I thought I saw the mountain way off in the
distance as I was chasing Ranma here." He sipped what passed
for tea here. It was fairly bland, although the sugar was nice.
Akane-kun drank his tea and nodded. "Could be
ter'angreals, or angreals, or...a sa'angreal." So much I could do
with one of those...if I could figure out how to use it. I'm
strong, and so is Alyssa, but we both wear out fairly quickly
and there's pretty sharp limits, even linked. "We could use
them for our trip."
Ukyou blinked. "We can't wait too long to take you home,
Akane. Dr. Tofu wasn't sure how long you would last,
seperated, and..."
"I can't go home," Akane-kun said quietly.
Ukyou blinked. "What?"
"One, they need me. I can't desert my people. They're all
here in the middle of nowhere, and I can't go anywhere until
they're safe."
"But you're going to die! If you don't go back to our world
and rejoin your female side, you'll both die!" Ukyou was in
shock.
"There's a second reason. I'm going to die anyway.
Every male who channels slowly goes mad and dies. At least
my female side won't have to go through that." He stared at
the floor. "My only hope is to stay here and try to find a cure."
"But it doesn't happen to people who use magic in our
world! So if you go back..." Ukyou said.
"Then I'll slowly wither away because I can't
channel...once you start, you can't stop," Akane-kun whispered.
"I think Ranma's going to have this problem too...you should be
glad you can't channel, Ukyou. It's the most wonderful thing in
the world...and the most horrible." His voice strengthened a
bit. "I'm sorry. I just...I can't go. I want to. I want to see
everyone, but there's so many reasons I have to stay. I
just...I'm so glad that you're all alive." His voice was steady
but quiet now. "I was afraid you all died. That there was no
one left to remember us all but me."
"There has to be some way you can come back with us."
Ukyou said, thinking hard. Suddenly, she realized that Ranma-
chan was becoming hysterical. "Something's wrong with
Ranma." He stood up. She was just on the other side of the
closed door that lead to the bedroom, Ukyou could sense.
Ranma-chan screamed something incoherent. All they
could hear of it was, "If I'm going to start sleeping with guys
like Akane is sleeping with girls, I'm gonna have to go WHOLE
HOG!"
Ukyou stood and stared blankly at the door. What? Now
what's she babbling about? After a moment of shock, he
sprinted for the door.
Akane-kun wasn't far behind him. He had a weird blank
look on his face, and Ukyou wondered how he could be so calm.
Ranma-chan was frozen in a weird pose on the bed like
she was trying to rip off her own clothing, but had fallen over
in the middle. Alyssa was hovering over her, looking worried.
"I...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything...this is my fault.
I...I didn't realize she'd freak out...I should have let her get
more rest first..."
Akane-kun put a hand on Alyssa's shoulder and looked
into her eyes. They stared at each other, and Alyssa nodded. Is
Akane-kun telepathic now, Ukyou wondered. Akane-kun sat
down by Ranma-chan on the bed. "Ranko."
Ranma-chan stared at Akane-kun, and stopped her
hysterical screaming. "Akane..."
"Sleep," Akane-kun said quietly, and brushed her eyelids
with his fingers. Ukyou could feel Ranma-chan's hysteria,
which was starting to infect him, wink out like a snuffed
candle. Her body relaxed, though it remained in the odd pose
for a few seconds, then sagged into a more comfortable
sleeping position. He sighed. "I should have known she
wouldn't be happy...but I just...I didn't realize it would be this
bad."
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything until she had
enough rest to deal with it...this isn't like her." Alyssa leaned
on Akane-kun, who stood up and embraced her.
Ukyou wondered for a moment if they had forgotten he
was here.
Akane-kun gently kissed Alyssa on the lips. "I should
have dealt with this. I should have been there, waiting for her
to wake up. This wasn't the right way to do this. I'm sorry."
Ukyou stared at them kissing and felt bits of his brain
exploding. Ranma would die if she saw...she must have told
Ranma, Ukyou realized. No wonder she freaked, Akane's in love
with a girl...As his knees crumpled, Ukyou finally realized what
it was like to faint at shocking news.
*********
Kaneda sighed. Ranko's gonna do something whacko when
she wakes up, he thought. I can't blame her...I'd have been just
as whacko if I'd gone on a long quest to find Ranma and then
found Ranma had hooked up with some guy. He sighed more, and
Alyssa hugged him. "I'm going to need to talk to Ranko in
private when she wakes up," he said quietly. "Even though I
think I'd rather go charge Shaol Ghul with a butter knife."
Alyssa nodded. "I'll entertain your friend Ukyou when he
wakes up." She looked Ukyou up and down. "Is everyone from
your village so gorgeous?"
Kaneda laughed a little. "I suppose so. Happousai's ugly,
though."
Ukyou woke up faster than Ranma-chan did. "Did I really
just faint?" Ukyou asked.
Alyssa took Ukyou by the hand. "Come and talk with me.
Kaneda needs to talk to Ranko."
Ukyou frowned and looked at Kaneda, who nodded
nervously at him. "If I sense she's freaking out," Ukyou began.
"You can feel her emotions through the bond?" Kaneda
asked.
"Yeah. Whether I want to or not...having someone
hysterical inside your head...isn't fun." Ukyou sighed. "C'mon
Alyssa. You can tell me how you and Mack Daddy Kaneda here
hooked up."
"HEY!" Kaneda said. "I am not a...uh...whatever that is."
Ukyou grinned and walked out of the room with Alyssa,
then stuck his head back in. "And you'd better not call her
kawaiikune, or she'll mallet you."
Kaneda stuck out his tongue at Ukyou, who scampered off
laughing. He looked down at Ranma-chan, who was sleeping
peacefully, her bangs down her face as usual. He hesitantly
reached over and brushed them away, staring at her face. I
never thought I'd see you again, Kaneda thought. I've missed
you so much. He sat down on the bed by her, almost taking her
hand, then pulling his hand back. I can't take your hand. I don't
have the right, he thought.
What am I going to do? I can't leave...I want to...I want to
see my family, my friends...but they need me here. And if I
leave, I'll die anyway. Either the power kills me, or this kills
me, or I go back and I wither away because I can't use the
power that would kill me. Kaneda's thoughts whirled about his
three potential fates. Of course, Ranma may kill me when she
wakes up, and spare me the trouble.
Ranma-chan's arm twitched and drew his eyes. For the
first time, he realized her arms were covered with fine hairs.
He laughed faintly. Of course Ranma doesn't shave her arms, he
thought. When the curse came over him, his arms became silky
smooth like he had just shaved, but apparently the hair would
grow back if Ranma stayed female long enough, just as Kaneda
had learned that he would grow facial hair if he stayed male
long enough.
Kaneda ran a finger up and down her arm, although he
knew he shouldn't. It was just so reassuring. It made her real
to him. You're alive. Alive!
Ranma-chan stirred and muttered something incoherent.
Kaneda drew his hand back hurriedly. "You awake,
Ranma?"
"Potato." Ranma-chan replied, her eyelids fluttering.
"What?"
Ranma-chan said, "We found you..." Her voice was faint.
She turned her head and stared at Kaneda, then smiled a little.
"I had the craziest dream."
Kaneda smiled and leaned a little closer. "About what?"
"I knew this girl in the tower. Her name was Alyssa. She
was really nice, but shy and kinda got bullied a lot, so I
watched out for her. I dreamed she was living here, and that
she told me that you were her boyfriend." Ranma-chan laughed
a little louder, and her voice came up to a more normal level.
"Musta whacked out a little after I hit that snowbank...okay, I
was acting a little nuts before that. I was just so worried
that you'd go mad before I got to you. Pretty nuts, huh? Not
like you'd go mad in one day."
"I haven't done anything half as nuts as you did, calling an
avalanche down on yourself. You nearly burnt yourself out with
the Power too." Kaneda felt his arms goosepimple. She must
be touching the Source, he realized.
"I'm fine. Did Ukyou tell you she dreamed about some kind
of treasure trove? Anyway, we gotta get you home before you
die from being split in two." Ranma-chan sat up. "Assuming
we can remember that rite Dr. Tofu taught us."
"I can't go, Ranma."
Ranma-chan blinked. "What? You've got to go! You'll die
if you don't! Sure, your female self is a great cook, and really
cute, and we stopped fighting...but I don't want you to die...I
mean...uh..." Ranma-chan got the 'I'm going to get malleted'
look.
Kaneda smiled a tiny smile, then sighed. "I have
responsibilities, Ranma. These people are counting on me, and
I can't abandon them. I don't think I'm really the Dragon, but
they need me." Alyssa needs me. He couldn't quite bring
himself to say that.
"You won't do them any good if you're dead." Ranma-chan
stared at Kaneda for a long moment, then said, "If you want to
come back after we fix you, then I'll come with you. I can fight
AND I can use the Power."
"That's another reason I can't leave," Kaneda said quietly.
"If I didn't come back, I'd wither away and die because I
couldn't reach the Power. It'd be just like being stilled." He
paused. "So you may not be able to stay if you go back either.
At least Ukyou isn't caught in our trap."
"There has to be some way to get around it. I was fine
when I went back."
"For a week. Do you really think you could live without
the Power for the rest of your life?" Kaneda stared intently at
Ranma. "Especially given it doesn't leave you with a bad taste
in your mouth like it does for me?"
Ranma-chan's face paled slightly. "The Taint...I...there
has to be some way to fix it."
"I hope there is...but I also know I'm not likely to find it."
Kaneda stared at the floor. "I never expected my life to come
out like this."
"Look, why don't you come back, we reintegrate you, then
you can come back here and we can try to find a cure for the
Taint so you don't go mad?" Ranma-chan said. "Then we're all
happy. I'll come back with you. Also, I can help you hook up
with the real Dragon. I've met him."
"You've met Rand al'Thor?"
Ranma-chan grinned. "We kicked Bel'al's ass together."
Her grin faded a bit. And then Rand killed him. And Moraine
balefired Ba'alzemon. They play for keeps here. That made her
uncomfortable. Ranma-chan didn't like killing. Trolloc
stomping was one thing, but the Forsaken were human. So evil
they made Happousai look like Kasumi, but it still bothered her.
"You shouldn't brag."
"I used the Hiryuu Shouten Ha on him, tossed him into the
ceiling of the Stone, then Rand burned him to death." Ranma-
chan's voice was quiet. Part of her was proud, but another part
was ashamed. At least this time, I didn't abandon him, she
thought. I did the right thing, dammit. I shouldn't feel guilty.
Not over a murdering bastard like Bel'al. "Rand drew the Sword
that is not a Sword. He IS the Dragon Reborn."
Akane nodded. "Do you think he'll accept us?"
"I think he'll take any help he can get. We've heard
rumors that he's offered asylum to male channelers." Ranma-
chan said. "So how strong a channeler are you, anyway?"
Kaneda grinned. "You want a demonstration?" He
grasped the Source. It came easily to him now. Weaving fire,
he formed an illusion of Ryouga kicking Ranma's butt, then
surrounded them with a panorama of images: the Dojo in
miniature, Kasumi sweeping, Nabiki selling pictures to Kunou,
Kodachi handing a bouquet to Shampoo who was passing out,
Gosunkugi pounding a voodoo doll into the wall, Koucho shaving
Miss Hinako, Soun and Genma playing Shogi. "Illusions are my
strongest talent. I think I'm best with Fire and Air."
"Water and Air for me," Ranma-chan said quietly. She
condensed the moisture in the air into a tiny cloud, which
rained on Kaneda's head for a few seconds, then effectively
died, since such an act was suicidal on its part. The water
suddenly slorped out of Kaneda's clothing and formed a puddle
on the floor, which condensed into a small sphere and rolled
about, then froze to ice.
Kaneda applauded. "Wow. I wish I could see how you do
that."
"Well, maybe I can teach your female side to channel once
we get you back together again." She thought for a moment.
"Yeah, then you could use the Power and not go mad!"
Kaneda nodded. Ranma was right...I do need to
reintegrate myself...If I could do that...Then I wouldn't have to
fear the Taint. Although everyone would freak...Well, I
shouldn't lie to them forever...Alyssa...what is she going to
think? What am I going to think about her when I'm a girl
again? And what is Ranma-chan going to think? I have to tell
her. Kaneda steeled up his strength. "I have to tell you
something, Ranma."
"What?"
"You didn't dream Alyssa. She's really here, and I'm really
in love with her."
"You...you're...in love...with a girl?" Ranma-chan was
staring in shock.
"We've been lovers for over a month now. And I had
feelings for her for a while before that." Kaneda was shaking.
Guilt, fear, and faint stirrings of desire were running through
him. Memories of what he and Alyssa had done in this bed
flitted through his mind, and a brief fantasy of himself doing
the same things with Ranma-chan flitted into his mind.
"It must be because you've been a boy for too long. It's
making you like girls. No wonder I..." Ranma-chan suddenly
clammed up and looked guilty. She was shaking as well. "Well,
once we get you back with your female self, you'll be back to
liking boys, and everything..."
"I don't want to stop loving Alyssa," Kaneda said quietly.
"Although she'll probably dump me when she finds out I turn
into a girl."
"You don't turn into a girl! You're a girl who turns into a
boy! And I'm a boy who turns into a girl!" Ranma-chan said.
She reached out and took Kaneda's hand. "Even though your boy
form is really...Anyway."
"Did you hear me? I said that I love Alyssa."
"That's just 'cause you're nuts right now because you're
just Akane's boyside. Now come with me and..." Ranma-chan
got up off the bed.
Kaneda frowned. "RanKO, right now, I'm a boy, and you're
a girl, and that's it. Neither of us can change, and while we
may remember having been a girl and a boy instead of a boy and
a girl, I'm not NUTS because I love a girl." He was starting to
get angry. Having Ranma be mad because he loved someone else
was one thing; being told he was insane was something else.
"You're really a girl! I'm really a boy! Even if we both
got stuck like this for ten years, it wouldn't change how we
were born!" Ranma-chan shouted. "I'm a boy! A BOY!"
"It doesn't matter if I'm really a potato, Ranma. I love
Alyssa and I don't want to stop loving her. Maybe I will. Maybe
once I'm a girl who turns into a boy again, I won't love her.
Maybe she won't love me. But I love her now. We've had sex,
Ranma. And I liked it. I liked it a lot." His voice shook a little.
"And the more we do it, the more I like it." He stared into
Ranma-chan's eyes. "And I bet you'd enjoy it, if you made love
to a guy."
Ranma-chan turned beet red, and her voice held a
mixture of embarrassment and anger. "I would NOT enjoy it. I
have NOT thought about making love to Ukyou or you." She
paused and turned even more red. "I'm a boy! A boy!"
Kaneda was getting angrier. "Is that all you can think
about? If you could never love a boy, how could you marry me
or Ukyou? We both turn into boys, and that's not likely to
change!"
"But...but...that's different. I'm really a boy. You're really
girls. So it doesn't matter." Her voice was unsteady.
"What if we were stuck this way? If we could never be
girls again?" Kaneda closed in on Ranma-chan.
"But that's not the case!"
"I've been a boy for eight months, Ranma. I can only
barely even remember what it feels like to be a girl. I could
have been a boy forever for all I knew. Did you expect me to
never love anyone? Or to find some gay guy?"
Ranma-chan shook. "You're a girl," she said faintly.
"Akane's a girl. But I'm Kaneda. I remember Akane, but
I'm not sure if I'm really her anymore. And if you stay a girl
long enough, you're not going to be so sure you're Ranma
anymore." He put his hands on Ranma-chan's shoulders. She
was shaking almost as much as him.
"We just have to take you home. You'll be back to normal."
Her voice was wobbling. "You have to go home. You'll die if you
don't. I...I don't want you to die. I want you to live, Akane.
I...I...l..."
"Would you love me if I was a boy most of the time,
Ranma? Or always?"
Ranma-chan shuddered.
"I'm part of Akane too, Ranma. You can't love her if you
don't love me." Kaneda took a deep breath. "Just as I couldn't
love Ranma without loving Ranko."
"You said you love Alyssa," Ranma-chan said faintly.
"I do love Alyssa. But part of me loves you too." Kaneda
could hardly believe he'd admitted that. "Did you ever realize
you're nicer when you're a girl, Ranma? You can be a lot worse
too, but some of the moments I've loved you most came when
you were a girl. That was one reason I could never admit how
I felt. Especially after I started turning into a boy. I had
moments when I'd look at your girl body and it would turn me
on." It was turning him on right now.
Ranma-chan crossed her arms over her breasts and
hugged herself. "I don't want to turn men on. I'm a boy. A boy.
Boys don't turn other boys on."
"Do you not find me attractive at all then?" Kaneda
stared intently at Ranma-chan. I have to make her understand,
he thought.
Ranma-chan gulped. "You're very handsome as a boy."
Kaneda slid a hand down Ranma-chan's right arm, then
grasped her right hand with his. "But do I turn you on?"
Ranma-chan would have turned beet red, but she already
was. "A...an uncute girl like you? No way."
Kaneda would have gotten mad and malleted Ranma at
this point, once upon a time, but the person who would have
done that was long gone. "I won't let you wiggle out like that.
Do I turn you on? Do you want me? Do you love me?"
Her answer was a tiny whisper. "I can't want you. I'm a
boy. Boys don't want boys. But...I...I..." Her left hand clenched
and unclenched, and her right hand tightened around his hand.
"I...do you...want me to like boys?" she whispered.
"What I want isn't the question. Do you love me, Ranma?
Do you want me to give up Alyssa for you? Or are you just
opposed to me liking a girl?"
Ranma-chan stared at the ground. "I...d...Do you think I
would have come all this way if I didn't care about you?"
"But do you love me? Can you love me both ways? As a
boy and as a girl? Because that's what I am."
"Can Alyssa love you both ways?"
Kaneda sighed. "I don't know. This may all be moot. She
may stop loving me as soon as she finds out. But will you love
me if she stops? Can you love a boy?"
Ranma-chan shuddered, on the verge of crying. "Why am
I crying? I want to get angry, but I can't...I'm so scared...I can't
believe I just said that...Maybe I'm going mad instead of you."
"You need rest. A LOT more rest." He sighed. "And I'm
pressuring you. This may all be moot soon. We can have this
fight again when we're both back to normal. But I tell you this
now. I love Alyssa. I AM going to come back and let her decide
if she still wants me. And I HAVE to come back. I can't
abandon her and I can't abandon my people."
"Okay, okay," Ranma-chan said shakily. "I'm hungry."
Her stomach rumbled.
"Now THAT, I can do something about," Kaneda said.
*************
Kaneda was brooding when Alyssa returned from
escorting Ranko and Ukyou to the 'guest house', which was
really a store house, but would have to do, since none of the
houses in the castle really had much spare room. He was
waving one hand back and forth like a conductor, and little
flame people were dancing around the fire place to the beat.
Little illusionary people were scattered about the room,
playing out various tableaux. One especially caught her eye. A
tiny teenager with short black hair, who bore a strong
resemblence to Kaneda, except for being female, was chasing a
tiny Ranko round and round Kaneda's chair, bopping her in the
head with a mallet over and over.
A faint chill ran through Alyssa. Is this how he's going
to go mad one day? Will he just sink into a haze of illusions
from inside his mind? No! He's not mad yet. He can't be. I
won't let him. "Kaneda?"
Kaneda started and looked around at the illusions, then
cursed loudly. "Dammit." They vanished like popped soap
bubbles.
Alyssa walked over to him slowly. "They're settled in
okay."
"We haven't seen each other for months, and we had a
fight right off the bat," Kaneda said quietly. "But not as bad
as our old ones." In some ways, anyway, he thought.
Alyssa sighed, then got a chair and pulled it over by
Kaneda's. "Because of me."
"Don't blame yourself. Ranko and I would find a reason to
fight if we were the last humans on Earth." He sighed. "We
have a weird relationship. We never said 'I love you', but we've
risked death and crossed...gone anywhere anytime, for each
other. And fought constantly."
Alyssa listened and tried not to cry. She had a feeling
she knew where this was going. "Like her trip to come find
you?"
"I should have known she'd show up...she always does.
You can't count on her to do her chores, but you could count on
her to fight an army by herself to save you. Weird, huh?"
Kaneda's voice was very quiet and calm, though it was a
strained calm.
Gulping, Alyssa said, "So what is this going to do
to...us?"
"I don't know," Kaneda said quietly. "She's probably going
to do something crazy like challenging you to a duel with the
Power, with me as the prize." He sighed. "I love you, Alyssa.
I...I don't know if you'll still love me when this is all over,
but..."
Alyssa cocked her head. "What?"
"I can't explain. Not yet. I have to...I have to go
somewhere. As soon as I'm back, I'll be able to explain
everything." He sounded pained. "I wish I could explain, but I'd
sound crazy. I have to have proof."
"Proof of what?"
Kaneda took a deep breath. "You trust me, don't you,
Alyssa?"
She nodded slowly. He looked relieved. "I can't tell you
yet. I'm sorry. I swear I'll tell you everything."
Alyssa could hardly sleep that night as her mind dreamed
up a million paranoid fantasies.
********************
Ukyou couldn't sleep either. He lay in the large lumpy bed
they'd rigged up, and stared at the ceiling. At first, he'd been
quite content that Akane had apparently fallen in love and had
no intent of abandoning that person. Akane was his biggest
rival for Ranma, after all. And she seemed to be happy with
this girl, Alyssa, who seemed nice enough.
The fact that Akane was dating a girl didn't bother Ukyou
at first. What Akane did with her love life was Akane's
business. After listening to Ranma babble, and thinking about
how her body had been aroused a little by some of the more
attractive inhabitants of the castle, however, he was starting
to wonder if the same thing was going to happen to him that
had happened with Akane. Ranma-chan's body was increasingly
arousing him, but he didn't entirely count Ranma-chan...He was
already in love with Ranma before being stuck in boy form for
this last month while on this quest.
I shouldn't be worrying about this, Ukyou thought. We're
going back to our world tomorrow. I'll be a girl again. And
Ran-chan will be a boy and everything will be okay.
All the assuring words to himself in the world didn't help
him sleep, though.
************
Kaneda had made all the necessary arrangements. As
best he could without quite explaining what was really going
on. They believed he was taking a brief trip with the Power to
visit his father, using a ter'angreal that Ranko had. He hated
lying to them, but the truth would have sounded far too insane.
He was nervous about the whole thing. I shouldn't be
leaving, he thought. Only the fact that he was coming back
immediately let him reconcile himself to the idea of leaving
even briefly. He'd use the D-hopper to come back. It would be
several months before the group could leave Castle Mist,
anyway.
He had another reason to be scared. The idea of turning
back into a girl terrified and excited him at the same time.
Only tiny bits and pieces of what it felt like to be a girl were
left to him. He was sure that part of that was that he literally
was 'Akane's boy-side' and that scared him as well. What is
this going to do to me?
He loved Alyssa. Would a reintegrated Akane still love
Alyssa? He hadn't ever felt this way about a girl before being
split. What was meshing two sets of memories, of feelings, of
identities going to do to him? Would girl-Akane just swallow
him up and destroy him? Would they merge somehow? He had
changed since coming here, and not just loving Alyssa. They
were good changes, and he didn't want to lose them.
And yet...he wanted to be Akane. If only for a day or two.
To be a normal person, with no worries, no duties, except those
of any teenage girl. The thought of just chatting with Yuka and
Sayuri, of going to class, of seeing his father and sisters
thrilled him.
Ukyou finished drawing the big runic circle on the floor.
"Okay, we get in the middle." He was reading from a book.
"Follow my instructions."
Kaneda and Ranma-chan did so. The ritual was long and
rather silly, reminding Kaneda of the sort of dances you
learned from watching shows for five year olds. He half
expected to have to sing 'I love you, You love me.'
As it continued, the world began to blur outside the
circle. They kept chanting, and then a burst of light devoured
the universe.
**************
Kaneda found himself standing outside the Tendo Dojo.
The street was strangely silent. All the buildings of the area
looked fine, but they seemed lifeless. He ran inside. "I'm
home!"
Hot water, he thought. I have to get hot water to change
back. He went to the kitchen, and doused himself with a handy
kettle. Nothing happened. Oh great, he thought. The ritual
probably buggered up and dumped me back in Nerima and my
girl-side is confused in Castle Mist.
Wait a second...where's Ranma and Ukyou? Shouldn't they
be here? He ran out to the living room. No one was there,
although there was a half-finished game of shogi on the shogi
table. Someone was singing in the garden. He couldn't
recognize her voice, but she was a fine singer. "Hello?" he
shouted, heading for the porch.
The girl said, "Hello? Ranma?"
Kaneda laughed and opened the porch door. "It's me."
He found himself face to face with...himself. Or
herself...it was girl-type Akane, clad in a pretty blue sundress
decorated with yellow flowers and a big blue floppy sun hat.
She was singing with a karaoke machine on the porch. Putting
down the microphone in her hand, she said, "I never realized I
sounded like that in boy form."
Kaneda was shocked to realize he hadn't recognized his
own girl voice. Although when he combed through his
memories, it just didn't sound right. I always thought my
voice was a little deeper.
"I always thought I sounded deeper." Akane said.
Kaneda blinked, then laughed, and so did Akane. "This
isn't what was supposed to happen, was it?"
"I don't think so. I was at Dr. Tofu's, snuggling with
Ranma-kun," Akane blushed a little, "and then suddenly I was
here. I was all alone and I couldn't find anyone, so I got the
karoaoke machine and sat down to wait for someone to find me
or come home."
"Maybe we should go down to Dr. Tofu's," Kaneda said.
Suddenly, they were in Dr. Tofu's. No one was here,
although there were signs of some ritual that had been
performed there, with runes all over the place and a familiar
circle on the floor. "I think we're the only people here," Akane
said. "I already did this once."
"You're quick," Kaneda said. "You did that and came back
and moved the Karoake machine in the time it took me to get
some hot water and find you."
Akane looked Kaneda up and down. "No good barbers in
that universe?"
Kaneda blinked, then laughed. "I had other things to do."
He stared intently at Akane. "I guess it's time to...uh...merge
together, or whatever happens next."
"I haven't got a clue." She reached out a hand hesitantly
and clasped his. "Your hands are rough."
He laughed nervously. "Yours are soft...geez, we sound
like we're in a shojo manga or something."
"Concentrate on being one person?" Akane guessed.
Kaneda fought down a surge of fear. "Right." Join.
Merge. Wonder twin powers, deactivate, he told himself.
Alyssa...I swear I won't forget you.
He felt her hand quiver, and then he felt her mind. Or
heard it. Smelled it, maybe. Their thoughts intermingled. I
love you, Ranma. I love you, Alyssa. I won't forget that. I'm
going to turn into a girl/boy again. I feel so strange. Will I
forget who I was? My body, it's tingling. I can feel the change.
Will I still be able to cook? Will I still be able to channel?
Oh, Daddy, I've missed you so much. My arm hair is gone. I
can't believe I have such hairy legs.
Kaneda felt the change rush over him for the first time
in seven months. His body was changing into a girl. He had
breasts. His body hair was mostly gone. She had different
balance, a different height, a different way of walking.
Akane felt the change rush over her for the first time in
a week. Her body was changing into a boy. Her chest was flat,
her arms and legs were hairy, and his panties didn't fit right
for obvious reasons. He felt stronger, his balance was awry,
and the tight waist of his skirt was trying to cut him in half.
Thoughts and memories flooded Akane and Kaneda's
minds. Love for Alyssa. Love for Ranma. Memories of playing
in the park with Kasumi and Nabiki and Mom. A disastrous
effort to make Valentine's Day chocolate for Ranma. Picking
flowers in a field for Alyssa. Spending the night at Yuka's
house and sneaking out to take a cab to the beach and
swimming under the stars. Growing her hair out long enough to
match Kasumi. Teaching Cerise a martial arts move and being
proud when she mastered it. Singing Karaoke at the Christmas
party. Kissing Ranma. Making Love to Alyssa. Chasing off a
bully who tried to beat up Sayuri. Fighting the horde of boys at
the school gate. The first time she saw Ranma change form.
The first time she changed form.
And then the change rushed over Akane again. Back to boy
form. And to girl form at the same time. She was in two
bodies at once. She was Kaneda. Kaneda was Akane. She
closed her eyes, because looking at herself was too
disorienting. Her minds and bodies whirled, trying to reconcile
with each other, but clashing on the rocks of contradictions.
They were no longer entirely the same. Boy form and girl form
had seen different things, done different things, felt different
things. And yet...
They wanted to be one. Most of their memories were the
same, both were born of the same person, and their seperation
had not yet become irreconcilable. So many memories were
important to both of them. So many people.
And so the change washed over them, again and again,
faster and faster, blurring their sense of self. Akane was
Kaneda was Akane was Kaneda was Akane...
The merry-go-round suddenly stopped, and someone flew
off it.
**************
Akane groaned and clutched her head. I feel like
elephants just did the tango on my brain. She opened her eyes
and looked around. She was still in her house. Her house as
Kaneda, that is. It was her house. She was Kaneda, after all.
As well as Akane. She was wearing Kaneda's clothing, but she
was definitely a girl. It didn't fit right at all.
Looking around, she could see Ranma-chan sprawled out
on the ground, and Ukyou-kun crashed out nearby as well.
Ranma-chan very feebly muttered something about freight
trains, and Akane laughed just a tiny bit. Time to test if this
ritual actually reunited me, or just body switched me for real,
she thought. Although it FEELS like I'm reintegrated.
She wobbled a tiny bit as she went to the 'kitchen' part
of the 'living room', and got some water. Her body felt just a
tiny bit alien to her, although she was fairly comfortable with
it. She dumped the water over her own head, and felt the rush
of the change strike her.
Akane-kun gave a sigh of relief. Now I have to heat this
up...this is gonna take forever. And why are we here?
Shouldn't we be back in our world? At least I won't have to
worry about getting back, but...I wanted to see Daddy. And
Nabiki and Kasumi and Sayuri and Yuka and everyone. He sighed.
Ranma and Ukyou probably won't be too happy being stuck here.
Wait...I can heat the water quickly! He grasped the
Source, gargling on the taint, and quickly heated the water
with it, then released it. Next time, I'll wait, he thought. He
walked over to them, and poured some hot water on each of
them. Nothing happened.
He blinked, and then something did happen. They both
woke up, but Ranma-chan stayed female, and Ukyou-kun stayed
male. Ranma-chan said, "You didn't have to make it so..." She
looked down at herself. "I didn't change."
Before Akane-kun could do anything, Ranma-chan
emptied the entire kettle over her head. She still didn't
change. Akane-kun's arm goosepimpled as the hot water
suddenly formed up into a large ball and rolled up Ranma-
chan's side and poured over her again. Still no effect. Ranma-
chan babbled wordlessly. The water went flying again. Still
no change.
Ukyou simply stood and stared. "I don't understand."
Akane-kun looked at himself. He grasped the Source
again, and drew some of the hot water over to himself. The
change rushed through his body, and he became a girl. The
Source vanished, and she staggered. "Well, now I know not to
do that," she muttered to herself.
"Why can you change and I CAN'T?" Ranma-chan howled.
Ukyou said, "Maybe it's because...uh...all the magic got
eaten up putting Akane back together? Maybe if we do the
ritual again, it'll reintegrate all of us and put us back in our
own universe?"
They tried the ritual forwards, backwards, and even
with 'I love you, you love me' thrown in for luck. They didn't
have any. An hour later, they were all exhausted, and Ranma-
chan was sitting and staring at the floor.
"Wait!" Ukyou said. "We could use the D-hopper!"
"I didn't bring it, because I didn't think we'd NEED it!"
Ranma-chan shouted.
"Maybe that cache of stuff I dreamed about would have
something that could help," Ukyou surmised. "Assuming it
wasn't just a dream, but still...it seemed so real."
Akane-kun walked over to Ranma-chan. "Don't worry. I'm
in no danger of dying now. We have lots of time to find a
solution. I'm sure Ukyou is right, and we'll all be able to get
home in no time, or at least get you back able to be a boy."
Ranma-chan perked up. "Right. Let's go find that
mountain."
It was, of course, not that easy.
********************
End Part 4
John Walter Biles : MA-History, Ph.D Wannabe at U. Kansas
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu
rhea@tass.org http://www.tass.org/~rhea/falcon.html
rhea@maison-otaku.net http://www.maison-otaku.net/~rhea/
Clever Nabiki sighed. Magic wouldn't do the trick, either. The
next day, she tried putting poison in the ogres' food, but everyone just
ended up thinking Princess Tomboy had tried to cook it.
"The Tale of Clever Nabiki", by Hans Christian Anderson