Okay, this _is_ the first side arc. This used to be in part of chapter three, from whence I have
removed it to help the flow of the chapter. If nothing else, I'd like to know whether you think that it does that or not.
Other C&C also gratefully accepted.
Disclaimer: The playground is by Rumiko Takahashi, I'm only
swinging on the monkey bars. Remember to leave the grounds
cleaner than you found them and please don't feed the
Trolls.
This story is archived at http://www.kawaiikunee.com/slp/
Release 1.0 (Sept. 20, 1999)
------------------------------------------------------------
Ranma and Akane: A Love Story
Side Arc: Telling Stories
Chapter 1: Ranma's Song
------------------------------------------------------------
At or around The Third Day, late afternoon.
------------------------------------------------------------
Ranma flowed out of the way of Akane's kick and thumped her
on the head, then called a halt. "Break, Acchan, I've got
what I needed, and you're getting sloppy."
She put her back to the dojo wall and placed one foot
against it, crossed her arms, and considered Akane, waiting
for her to regain her breath. "And besides, I think your
sister wants something."
Nabiki moved out from the entrance where she had been
lurking just out of view. "Looking good, Akane-chan, what
were you doing just then?"
Ranma answered, "Just general assessment work Nabiki-san. I
want to make sure that I know where Acchan is _now_, so I
can figure where she needs to go. It's the first time I've
really had a student, and I want to be sure I get it right."
Nabiki raised an eyebrow, and Akane stopped panting long
enough to wheeze out, "You talk to Nabiki-oneechan, Ranchan,
I'm gonna lie down and pant for a while." She walked to the
wall and sat down beside it, then flopped down on her back
and lay panting.
Nabiki raised the other eyebrow, 'Acchan? Ranchan? Geeze,
what went _on_ in that furo, anyway?', but allowed no other
sign to cross her face; instead she sweetly inquired,
"Should we get out of your way and let you take a nap,
Akane-chan?"
Akane turned half over and red-eyed her, "Biiiii-da!"
Ranma smirked, "Was there something you wanted, Nabiki-san,
or is this just one of those sibling rivalry things?"
Nabiki turned back to her, and turned serious at the same
time. "Yes, Ranma-san, there was. It's about that monster
this morning. You acted as though you knew him."
"That would be because I did know him, Nabiki-san." She
pushed her tongue into her cheek for a moment, "Mind you,
the last time I saw him there was nothing left but bones,
which had just been buried under the ruins of a stone tower,
underneath which were several tons of gunpowder. Which went
off immediately thereafter. So I didn't really suspect that
I'd ever see him _again_, but...."
She considered Nabiki's face for a moment, "But I suspect
that what you actually _want_ is the story, ne?"
Nabiki buffed her nails for a moment, "Why, yes Ranma-san, I
believe it is. Unless," she added calmly, "you would prefer
not to tell it?"
"No, no, it's not secret. It is kind of long though. It
might be a good idea to have Kasumi-san make some snacks and
tea. Since I suspect that she might wish to hear it too."
"For some odd reason," Nabiki refrained from smirking, "she
has, in fact, just finished making some."
Ranma arched an eyebrow of her own. "Preplanning. The sure
sign of a conspiracy. Come, Acchan, we are summoned to Tea."
Akane groaned, "What do you mean, 'We', barbarian?"
"I mean _we_, shirker. As in _you_ and _I_. Because _I_ am
summoned by your sister, and _you_ are summoned by me."
Akane groaned again, and rolled over, coming to her knees.
"Ohhhh. My sensei is a bully."
"All sensei are bullies, Acchan." Ranma bopped her on the
head,"It's the notable trait of the type."
And Kasumi came through the door with a tray.
------------------------------------------------------------
The girls were seated in a circle around the tray, sitting
in the middle of the dojo floor. Ranma blew softly on a
teacup to cool it, and crooked a grin through the steam at
the others.
So. The story. I should start at the beginning, I
guess. And the beginning .... (Her eyes focused on
something far away, or perhaps long ago, then
refocused on the girls.) The beginning starts with
my Dad. Oyaji. And the things you need to know
about Oyaji number three.
First, he's a Martial Artist.Second, he is of Low
Moral Character. And third, he's an Idiot.
Nabiki *snrrked* and Akane frowned, glaring at someone
non-present.
(Ranma grinned crookedly.) Because he's a Martial
Artist, he wanted me to be one too. Because he's
an Idiot, he just knew that this noble goal could
not possibly be attempted around my mother. So he
took the opportunity, when I was five, to take me
away on a long training trip, and never bring me
back. And because he is of Low Moral Character we
spent the next six and a half years running from
place to place. Generally, I realize now, to
escape some debt or other, or get away from the
blame for some theft or scam.
Now, when I was eleven or so, Oyaji found, or
bought, or stole, or _something_, this book. These
books, actually -- there were two of them.
The first was a Chinese ... guide to training
grounds, I guess. It had only been translated a
little and most of the text was still in Chinese,
which Oyaji didn't know how to read, but he still
got all excited about 'the marvelous possibilities
to seek out strengthening struggle in the service
of our Art'. (Ranma's voice went very pompous for
a moment, then returned to normal.) Feh.
Anyway, the _other_ book was a manual of 'Rare and
Forbidden Training Methods'. One of these was the
'Neko-ken', a supposed way to train a subject in
an Invincible Martial Arts Special Technique.
(Ranma's mouth twisted momentarily, and she
sighed.)
What you do, the book said, is you take the
trainee, and the younger the better, and you cover
him or her with fish sausage. Then you find
yourself a pit, and put a bunch of starving ca-ca-
... cats into it. And then you take the trainee,
and you throw him, or her, in. In the pit, in case
that wasn't clear.
(Ranma's face was still and far away, Akane's and
Kasumi's were nearly identical masks of horror,
and Nabiki's was as set and still as stone.
Ranma's eyes refocused suddenly, and she
continued.) Then, on the next page of the book, it
says that the _reason_ this technique is 'Rare and
Forbidden' is that; One - it doesn't work, and Two
- only a complete idiot would try it in the first
place.
The trouble is, Oyaji _is_ a complete idiot, and
he didn't _read_ that far. (Ranma's mouth twisted
again, and she sighed.)
Nabiki's face was terrible in its stillness, but her voice
was gentle, "So what _does_ the training do Ranma-san?"
Ranma's voice was equally gentle. "It makes you afraid of
cats, Nabiki-san."
Kasumi buried her face in her hands, and Akane's face began
to twist in anger, as Nabiki's control broke at last. "No! I
never _would_ have guessed that!" she snarled, "So what did
the _genius_ do then?"
Ranma smiled sadly, and quirked an eyebrow.
Why he devoted the full force of his Martial
Intellect to the problem, of course. And quickly
determined the source of the error.
It was quite clear; the author of the book had
_hidden_ the critical detail! Oh, yes! It simply
had to be a question of the _bait_ you used, you
see.
And he set out to resolve the detail in the finest
scientific fashion. Oh, yes! He repeated the
experiment, only using fish cakes, instead.
And then he tried dried bream.
And then he tried salmon.
And then he tried varied sushi.
And then he tried octopus and squid.
And then he tried octopus _by itself_.
And then....
Akane broke, and hurled herself into Ranma's shoulder,
wailing. Kasumi turned her head, sobbing muffledly into her
hands. Ranma gently massaged the back of Akane's neck and
*hssh*d.
Finally, it developed that, if you pursue your
course with unrelenting intensity, you will, in
fact, teach the trainee an Invincible Technique.
The fact that the training will have driven her
psychotic by that point is surely a minor detail
by comparison, ne?
"So, what happened then?" Nabiki asked, soothing Kasumi.
Well, I managed to avoid killing him about three
times in the next week ("Damn!" Nabiki
interjected.) but I knew that I couldn't do it
forever.
The problem, you see, is that the Invincible
Technique works by turning part of your soul into
the soul of a cat. And it's the cat that controls
the technique. A cat that doesn't have a bunch of
stuff it wants to have -- like fur, and a tail --
and does have a bunch of stuff it doesn't want to
have -- like hands, and upright posture -- and
which is trying to contend with being half-human
as well, and which is, therefore, Righteously
Pissed Off.
"So what did *snnf*, what did you do, Ranchan?"
I beat him up, (Ranma shrugged) and told him that
I was leaving. He'd had six and a half years to
train me and see what I'd gotten from it. Then he
wailed and whined until I said I'd come back in
another six and a half years and see which of us
had done a better job.
If I could beat him, he'd acknowledge me as the
head of the school, and go back to work to help
support it until I got it back on its feet. If I
lost I'd go back to training under him at whatever
he wanted.
He said he'd meet me at this training ground in
China he'd just found in the _other_ book he'd
got: a place in Qing-hai province up against the
Byankala range. Said it was named Jhusenkyou. I
promised I'd be there and left. That was five
years and eleven months ago.
Ranma poured herself another cup of tea and blew on it,
gazing at the sisters through the steam until a measure of
calm was restored.
When I left Oyaji I went hunting something that
could help me with controlling the cat. I finally
wound up at a Zen monastery in northern Hokkaido,
where I spent the next six months.
When I left the monastery, I had managed to stuff
the cat down under deep control and the Neko-ken
with it. Although I _am_ still afraid of cats, I
don't go berserk unless I can't get away from
them.
Then I headed into China, and made my way north,
to Jhusenkyou. The idea I had, you see, was that
-- if this place _was_ the wonderful training
ground Oyaji was so fired up about -- then I could
study there. If it wasn't I'd still have gotten an
idea about the lay of the land, maybe enough to
give me an edge in case Oyaji actually managed to
put up a fight.
There isn't much to say about the trip ... well,
actually that's not true. There's a lot to say
about the trip, but that's not the story I'm
telling, so I won't digress into it.
Ranma paused for a moment, and sipped her tea.
The only item of real interest to _this_ story
happened when, one day, I was walking along a road
in Qing-hai itself. I was trying to find out where
the bloody training ground actually _was_, and I
came round the corner of a hill, and nearly walked
into this girl.
She had purple hair, was wielding these
silly-looking mace thingies, I later learned that
they were a local weapon called bonbori, and was
trying to stare down a tiger.
Now, it's an interesting thing to say, but the
'training' Oyaji put me through did seem to have
_one_ good effect; I'm afraid of cats, yes, but
only _house_ cats. Other kinds, like tigers, don't
affect me at all. Plus which, the phobia about
cats seems to have sucked up all the fear I have
in me. On the one hand, that means that when the
nekophobia hits it hits _hard_; but on the other
hand, I don't have much left for anything _else_,
so when I get into situations like that I don't
panic.
Which was a good thing, at the time. Anyway, I
remembered about some animals making themselves
look bigger and louder to frighten off an
attacker, and figured that I didn't have much to
lose. So I jumped up _way_ high and _yelled_ at
the top of my lungs. And it must have worked,
'cause the tiger turned and ran off like his tail
was on fire. (Ranma gave another grin) Anyway,
that was how I met Shan Pu.
Shan turned out to be the champion-apparent of the
village of Joketsuzoku -- which is part of the
ancestral holdings of the Strong-Women-Hero-Tribe,
sometimes called the Chinese Amazons -- and by the
time we got back to her village, she was the
second friend I'd ever made. So I spent some time
in the village, and learned a few tricks, and it
turned out that they _did_ know where Jhusenkyou
was, only they didn't want to tell _me_.
It seemed, they said, that the whole valley of
Jhusenkyou was cursed, and anyone who went there
would probably get cursed too. Well, I reckoned
that I was too smart to fall for an obvious dodge
like _that_, and one night I snuck out of the
village and traveled to the valley where
Jhusenkyou was.
I've always wished (Ranma's eyes were far away
again) I'd listened to Cologne-obaasama; I might
have spared myself a lot of grief.
She'd been right, you see, the valley of
Jhusenkyou _is_ cursed, and if you go there you
probably _will_ end up cursed too. I don't know
what all the curses of Jhusenkyou do, but the one
thing that they _all_ do is the one thing that
really makes them curses: after you go there, you
live in interesting times.
Ranma paused a moment and sipped more tea.
And I don't mean 'nice' interesting either. _Not_
nice interesting is the order of the day, here. If
you stumble, you fall down a hill. And there's a
dung-heap at the bottom, too. And you don't even
get to break your fall, oh no, there's a rock
waiting under it, you can bet.
If anything falls out of the sky, it lands on your
head. If you go through a bush, you find the
thorns, and if it doesn't _have_ thorns there'll
be a bramble growing there, instead. If somebody
shoots an arrow at you and ten other
people,_you're_ the one standing in the way.
Well, I already knew that the Joketsuzoku didn't
have any way to cure the curses, and I was too
embarrassed to go back after I ignored their
warnings anyway, so I wandered back south instead.
I never did find a cure for the curse in China,
but I did finally end up in a place that led to my
eventually finding one elsewhere, and also to my
meeting that noble gentleman we entertained
earlier today, and to a bunch of other stuff as
well.
The reason is this, (she opened her shirt
slightly, and took an amulet of silver from around
her neck, laying it in the center of the circle)
and how and why I got it is a story in itself.
Nabiki picked up the amulet and examined it, showing it to
Akane and Kasumi. It was made of fretted silver, about 3
inches across, chased with interlocking dragons and spirits
around the outside. Mounted so as to entirely take up one
face of the amulet was a small, cracked mirror. Mounted on
the other side was a triangular piece of pottery, perhaps
two inches on a side, covered with patterns that looked like
stretched cords or ropes. Nabiki turned it over and about in
her hands as Ranma went on.
The place I ended up was Hong Kong, and in order
to understand the story I'm about to tell you have
to know the one cardinal thing about my character
at the time: I was a barbarian.
Nabiki raised an eyebrow and smirked, "_At the time_,
Ranma-san?"
"Of course, Nabiki-san. Now, I'm only _uncivilized_."
"Ah. I see. Do go on."
Ranma smirked, herself, and did so.
I hadn't been around people much at all, 'cause
Oyaji'd moved around so much, and I was what you
might call 'sheltered' about a lot of things as a
result. So, when, just after I got to the city, I
saw this girl who was wearing about half of
nothing -- and that mostly torn -- all _I_ thought
was, 'isn't that _cold_?'
Nabiki sniggered and both Akane and Kasumi blushed.
And when this guy came out of an alley (Ranma's
grin turned crooked) and pushed her up against a
wall, all I thought was that he shouldn't use that
knife to make a girl cry like that. So I took the
knife away from him and broke his arms in a couple
places and ran him off.
Then I went to see if the girl was alright. Her
name turned out to be Masuda Kee, and she was half
Japanese, a geisha -- well, a hitoyodzuma really -
- and as far as _I_ could see, badly in need of
someone to tell her to come in out of the rain.
Now, at the time, I didn't know the difference
between a geisha, a hitoyodzuma and a fish-seller;
but I did know something about surviving on the
road, and on the streets as well. As it turned out
later, Kee-'moutochan did not, being of that
temperament that fails to concentrate on business
because it gets too caught up in its work.
Nabiki was keeping her face straight with an effort, and
Akane and Kasumi were reddening alarmingly, but Ranma merely
grinned more crookedly yet.
She had offended several of the local street trash
by being insufficiently grateful for their
'protection' and had attracted far too much
attention -- and customers -- for safety. So I
appointed myself as her 'older' sibling, and began
trying to figure out where to go to hook up with
someone who could keep track of business for her,
and put a roof over her head.
In the process I managed to offend someone myself.
This led to my inadvertently eating a plate of
mushrooms that had been drenched in LSD and laced
with about 20 grams of pure opium.
Fortunately I didn't eat the whole thing, but it
was enough to addict me badly, and the trip was
.... (Ranma shuddered breifly)
Kee-chan put me to bed and kept me off my feet
when I was raving, long enough to work through the
trip. And it turned out to be the solution to her
problem, because she rented a room from -- and
explained her problems to -- someone on the shady
side who knew someone who knew someone who knew
someone, who mentioned it to the okaasama of the
Dream of the Jade Pagoda of the Golden Door of
Infinite Bliss.
Nabiki choked briefly, "The Dream of Jade? That's the best
pleasure house in Hong Kong!"
Ranma raised an eyebrow, "Why, yes it is Nabiki-san. And
we're all wondering how it is you came to know that."
Nabiki blushed, but held her chin up. "I keep my ear to the
ground," she said, attempting to retain what was left of her
dignity.
"Of course you do," Ranma said, straight-faced, "that's
perfectly sound business practice."
Nabiki disdained to reply, and Ranma grinned and continued.
Liang-okaasama decided that Lee-chan should go to
work for her, since the best-- or at least most
enthusiastic -- geisha in Hong Kong should
obviously be working for the best pleasure house
in Hong Kong. Or the other way 'round, depending.
So that fixed Lee-imoutochan's problem, and
provided me, after I recovered, with an
opportunity to expand my education a bit.
Ranma's eyes twinkled wickedly and Akane's blush expanded
visibly. Kasumi, on the other hand, had achieved the
determinedly unaffected countenance of one who Is Not
Hearing This.
Nabiki coughed, and squeaked "You mean...?"
Ranma fixed her with a very speaking look, and asked, "What
would _you_ have done? Besides, can you think of a _better_
time or place?"
Nabiki muttered something about "twelve", but did not seem
otherwise inclined to reply to this question. Akane was
bravely fighting off unconsciousness from excessive blood
drain to the face, but surprised herself with a giggle.
Kasumi was still in the land of the selectively deaf, and
therefore Ranma went on unhindered.
That aside, however, and continuing with my story,
it was at the Golden Door that I met Oniichan Kai.
He was a genin for the Black Wave Yakuza, (Nabiki
started) and he used to bring his wife and their
daughter to the Golden Door's restaurant for
dinner.
He sort of adopted me at the time, and I always
looked on him as the big brother I'd never had,
and I was friends with Oneesan Asako too.
Imoutochan Kaiko was my little sister along with
Kee-chan and for a while there I thought that I'd
found a family and wouldn't need to go anywhere
else while I waited to beat up on Oyaji.
I'd made contacts with the local Temples too, and
I'd go to train there, or Kai-oniichan would use
his contacts to get me some lessons with one of
the wandering masters, or he'd train me himself,
or Liang-okaasama would use her contacts or....
Ranma's eyes were fixed in time and space, looking at
something far away. She sighed and a suspicious glimmer
began to gather at the corner of her eye.
I suppose I should have known better.
Liang-okaasama had made the Golden Door a neutral
ground in the Hong Kong underside and the city's
major underworld clans were sort of united around
it. Not so much in coalition, as in a mutual
understanding that violence and unrest was bad for
business.
The Black Wave was one of the three most powerful
Yakuza clans in the city, along with the Silver
Skull and the Golden Sword, and they and the most
powerful of the Triads enforced a sort of peace on
the more ... 'established' parts of the
underworld, as it were.
Needless to say, some of the _less_ established
parts were not too happy about that, and one day
we found out that this guy named Master Po had
organized a war. He had been a master in one of
the older Triads, and was some kind of sorcerer
too, so he had a fairish amount of support just on
his own hook; and then he'd organized most of the
little gangs and rings and such into an army, too.
Alongside that, he'd made an alliance with the
powers of Darkness, and he could command or
bargain with the undead, so he had about 30 or 40
vampires as shock troops.
Ranma put down her teacup and leaned forward, sighing again.
The whole thing was very quiet, but it was also
extremely ugly and for a while there we were hard
pressed. But Kai-oniichan organized the enforcers
of the major organizations into a counter-army,
and the temple monks and priests made a bunch of
peachwood swords and wards and things that the
vampires couldn't handle, and I got the
street-folk organized to use them and some basic
weaponry and we killed all the vamps that didn't
run and we drove the upstarts back to the wall.
Then we were betrayed.
Nabiki spoke up hesitantly, "Ranma-san, I'd heard some
rumors about a big shake-up in one of the major Hong Kong
clans a while back, but no one ever had any details. Could
that have been...?"
Ranma nodded, pricking tears.
Oyabun Mikoji died very suddenly. It might have
been natural, he was about 80, but I've always
suspected that Po got to him somehow. I _know_ he
got to others, 'cause Mikoji-dono's successor
suddenly decided that Master Po had the secret to
'Eternal Life' and the Black Wave and the Fire
Harmony Triad switched sides.
Maybe Master Po was a vampire himself, and he
turned the leaders, I don't know. What I do know
is that suddenly the dead started rising up around
our feet, vampires started coming out of the
walls, and half our soldiers were on the other
side all of a sudden and knew our plans to boot.
Ranma shivered for a moment, eyes again far off.
The only way out that I could see was to take Po
down before he could consolidate, and hope that
the shock dispelled all the zombies and things, or
at least slowed them down. So I organized what I
could get my hands on and we went through the
front of their defenses.
It helped that I'd gotten one of the zombies
restrained, 'cause I showed the thing off to the
Black Wave troops on that section and three
fourths of them changed sides again.
Anyway we broke the defense of Po's sanctum and
went in to get him, but we discovered that he'd
called all his proteges in for a conference, and
they'd brought their guards. So we plowed into
them, and when it was over the only two left
standing were me and Kai-oniichan, who'd been
commanding the guards.
Akane gasped in sympathy, "Ranchan, why didn't he switch
sides too? Didn't you tell him ...?"
Ranma looked at her through gathering tears. "Because he was
a Samurai, Acchan, and wouldn't leave his Lord's side."
Akane nodded, eyes also dimmed by tears, and Ranma
continued.
So I knew Po and the others were just beyond him,
and I knew he wouldn't get out of my way, and I
knew I couldn't beat him. So I turned loose the
cat, and the last thing I remember before I woke
up in the middle of the pile of corpses that had
used to be Master Po and his lieutenants and the
traitors was batting Kai-oniichan out of the way,
and he went through a wall trailing blood.
Akane gathered Ranma to her, and the redhead nestled her
face into her friend's shoulder for a long minute, silently
weeping. When she regained control she sat back and wiped
her eyes, and continued.
We never did recover Oniichan's body, but the
place had been pretty badly damaged in the fight
and the whole thing burned down and exploded right
after that, so that's not too surprising.
Anyway I couldn't stay in the city after that, so
I made what arrangements I could for Asako-oneesan
and Kaiko-imoutochan, and got ready to leave. Then
the Abbot of the Silver Mist Temple took me aside
and told me that the they'd been guarding
something for a couple centuries now, but he felt
I was worthy and he wanted me to have it. (Ranma
gestured at the amulet in the center of the
circle.)
Well, I didn't _feel_ worthy, but the Abbot said
that it could help me find what I needed so I took
it anyway. What it was, was the mirror set into
that amulet there, and the Abbot said it was the,
or maybe _a_, Nanban Mirror, and it was a magic
mirror of travel.
So I put it in my pack, and took some of the money
I had, and came back to Tokyo at last. I was
deeply depressed, still in shock, and had no idea
what I was going to do with my life, or even if I
should bother. I was thirteen years old. So, just
after I got back, I took a trip to see Fuji-san. I
was completely bummed out and seeing the happy
people all around didn't help, and I had this
stupid mirror in my pack and it wasn't doing
anything at all. So I found this little clearing
and took it out and yelled at it. It didn't do
anything, and finally I started crying, and that
was how I found out how it works.
Akane frowned, "You mean...?"
Yep. Tears. (Ranma nodded firmly) Tears or blood.
Drop them onto the mirror and it'll take you away.
_But_. You see that the Mirror's cracked? So
sometimes it takes you where you ask to go.
And _sometimes_ it takes you where you _want_ to
go.
And sometimes it takes you where you _need_ to go.
And sometimes -- if you're unlucky -- it takes you
where you _deserve_ to go.
Nabiki asked "Can anyone use it?" as Akane overrode her
with, "So where did it take you, Ranchan?"
Ranma smirked and answered Nabiki first. "Maybe once,
Nabiki-san, but not any more. I've spilled too much blood on
it, and it'll only work for me until I die."
And as to where it took me.... Well. I knew as
soon as it happened that it had done _something_,
but I didn't know _what_.
So I started looking around, and I noticed that
Fuji-san was smaller. Now I was standing in the
same place and hadn't moved as far as I could
tell, but still I could tell it wasn't the same
place at all. So I started walking around, and I
noticed that whether I'd moved or not some of the
landmarks weren't there, and others were changed,
and there wasn't any sign of people around at all.
Eventually I found an open space in the woods, and
followed that to a stream. I followed the stream
along for a day or so, and finally broke out into
a cleared field.
Now I'd been seeing the right trees and plants for
the area all around me, and Fuji-san was still
there so I knew I must still be in Japan, but I
also knew it wasn't _my_ Japan. So when I walked
around the outer edge of the field and came in
sight of the village the field was a part of and
found that it was all primitive houses and stuff,
and that the people in it were Ainu, I wasn't as
surprised as I might have been otherwise.
Nabiki started and Kasumi gasped, "Ainu! Near Fuji-san?
Kami, how far back did you go?"
From research I did later, Kasumi-san, (Ranma
smiled her crooked smile) I figure about 2500 to
3000 years.
Akane shook her head in shock and Ranma grinned at her.
So I was walking along the edge of the field, not
looking at the ground, and I trod on something and
it dug into my foot. I picked it up, and took it
into the village.
Now the village didn't know what to do with me at
all, and it didn't help that I was pissed off, but
they figured that I must be a spirit or something
and sent for the shaman. The shaman was a smart
old bugger, and we figured out how to talk to each
other a little bit. I asked him what the hell they
thought they were doing to leave things like that
out where they could bite people, and he said that
it wasn't theirs.
They just popped up, he said. They'd been made by
somebody back at the dawn of time, and then they'd
all gotten broke and scattered about when the
world came to an end. Or something like that,
anyway.
So I said that if they gave me a place to sleep
and some food I wouldn't be mad at them. So they
shared what they had, which wasn't much, and it
was good that they did, 'cause that night some
bandit types came out of the forest and I had to
run them off.
I'd had to kill a couple of the bandits, (Ranma
poured herself another cup of tea.) and the next
morning I tried to talk to the shaman again. It
turned out that the village didn't actually have
anything to take except a little food, but the
bandits would take anything they could get.
Later that night I looked at the pottery piece I'd
stepped on -- that's it on the back of the amulet
-- and I noticed something.
The piece had been broken off its pot when
somebody hit it with an axe. If you look you can
see the signs at the top. So I used the mirror to
go back to Tokyo, and went to a museum.
The guy I talked to there said it was a Jomon pot,
and figured that it must be 5000 years old at
least.
And I sat down _that_ night and thought about it
some more. And I realized that some poor guy had
made this pot the best he could, cause he'd needed
it for something. And some other bastard had come
along and broken it, and probably killed the guy
that made it too. And it had waited 2000 years in
the ground so it could come up and bite my foot,
so I would stay in a little village where little
people lived who hardly had enough for their
families to eat. And then another group of
bastards had come out of the forest to break all
_their_ stuff and kill _them_, but I'd stopped
them instead.
And I'd just come from 3000 years ahead of when
those little people lived their lives in that
little village; where I'd been living in a city
with another group of little people trying to get
on with their lives; and yet _another_ set of
bastards had come out of the wilderness and tried
to kill and mess up _them_, just so they could
steal what _they_ had.
And it came to me that, if I went wandering around
living with groups of little people trying to get
on with their lives long enough, probably any set
of them that you cared to name was eventually
going to have some set of bastards or other come
out of the wilderness and try to kill them and
break all their stuff so they could steal whatever
they had. And if I was there, then I could stop
them from doing it. And that was about as good a
road to travel as I was ever going to get.
So I took the mirror and had it mounted in the
amulet, and had the guy put the pot-shard on the
other side, to thank it for the lesson. And then I
asked the mirror to take me to somewhere I could
learn to become a protector, and cut my arm and
bled on it, and off I went.
Akane's eyes were bright and she leaned forward. "So where
did youend up that time, Ranchan?"
Well I ended up on top of a hill, and when I tried
to get my bearings I tripped and rolled down it
and when I reached the bottom of the hill I ended
up at the feet of this tall, handsome,
noble-looking guy with a samurai's swords and
topknot and the clothing of a wandering ronin.
Except he was a rabbit. And that was how I met
Usagi.
"W-wait just a minute, Ranchan. A rabbit?" Akane blinked in
confusion.
Ranma nodded.
Usagi's world is basically Japan in 1620 CE or so,
except most of the people are - what's the word?
-- anthropomorphs! That's it. You know,
human-shaped animals, like in a manga. So there's
Bulls and Bears and Cats and Rabbits and Foxes
.... Daimyo Noriyuki is a _Panda_ of all things,
for instance.
So, to continue, Usagi-dono, that's Miyamoto Usagi
by the way, had been a samurai in the service of
the Daimyo Mifune. Mifune was the enemy of Daimyo
Hijiki, and about five or six years before I'd met
them, in the last part of the battles for the
Shogunate, they'd come to blows.
Lord Mifune would probably have won, but Hijiki is
a plotter, and he plotted well. Two of Mifune's
allies turned traitor, along with one of his
generals and the commander of his bodyguard. Usagi
was away from his side acting as a courier at the
time and he got back too late; Gunichi had run off
and Lord Mifune was mortally injured.
A samurai's loyalty doesn't end just because his
lord is dead, and so Usagi wanders serving his
master's cause as best he can as a ronin.
Akane sniffed and wiped her eyes and Ranma smiled wistfully.
It's all very sweet and touching and honorable,
and Usagi-dono is handsome and noble and kind, so
I was more than willing to follow him around and
train with him.
Nabiki grinned twistedly, "Get lucky?" Akane bopped her on
the head.
No, darn it! (Ranma pouted) There's such a thing
as being _too_ noble. Although I see now that he
was basically already taken anyway. And I did
manage to retain _most_ of my dignity.
But I learned a lot about combat, and honor, and
the sword; and traveling with Usagi is good for
putting polish on young warriors if it's good for
nothing else. I met a number of his friends and
acquaintances, and managed to spend a month or two
with a few of them as well.
After that, I left and used the mirror to go a few
years later in our own Japan for a while and then
jumped back and forth to here and there training
in whatever Art was available wherever I went. But
I would go back to the wanderer's road to check on
my friends from time to time.
Nabiki quirked an eyebrow. "Just to check, hmmm?"
You get better adventures with Usagi and company
around, and they _are_ my friends. Plus, to be
honest, it's enormously liberating to be so free
that the only thing that you have to worry about
is if there's an inn in the direction you woke up
facing, and that only because it's the direction
you're walking now.
At least until the first couple of times you spend
a wet, cold, fireless night 'cause there _wasn't_
one, anyway. And that takes a while.
Kasumi and Nabiki had acquired far-off looks, and Akane
looked slightly wistful. "So what about Jei-san, Ranchan?"
Jei's from Usagi's world of course. He used to be
a samurai or some such. I ran into him several
times and didn't enjoy any of the experiences, but
they weren't like today. As for what he is? (Ranma
bit her lip lightly.)
The first couple of times I met him he seemed
completely human, or wolf, or whatever. Mad as a
monk in a morass, mind you, but human. He's always
claimed to be the champion of the gods and such,
but _which_ god he's never said. If he knows.
Generally he speaks of a 'sacred mission',which
always involves mayhem and slaughter of some type,
and says that when he completes it he will be
lifted up and granted divinity. He has before been
shown to be fast, strong, damn good with a sword,
deadly with a yari, tough, possessed of some kind
of tracking sense if he's hunting you, and very
hard to permanently kill -- he always seems to
come back.
Ranma rubbed her chin for a moment and considered.
The first time I met him, he just started ranting
and attacked me. Since I was with Usagi-dono and
Tomoe-dono -- Noriyuki- sama's chief retainer --
at the time, that was a particularly stupid thing
to do. It wasn't really much of a fight and we
left him by the roadside, dead, as we thought at
the time.
He came back on us and kidnaped the son of the
headmaster of Usagi-dono's old village to get
Usagi-dono to fight him. Usagi-dono did, and sent
him over a cliff with his yari in his side.
The third time that I met him was the only time I
ever managed to get close to Hijiki-yaro in a
fight. Hijiki-yaro's not nearly the fighter that
he is a plotter, and I nearly had him, but Jei-san
came out of nowhere and saved the bastard. I cut
Jei-san's heart in two for it, but I didn't get to
see what happened to him after that, because
Hijiki-yaro took advantage of my distraction and
did this (Ranma indicated her throat, and the scar
she bore there).
Ranma tapped her chin with her index finger for a moment.
The last time that I saw Jei-san before this
morning ... Was about a year ago in my time-line.
I had run into the little bugger unexpectedly, on
the road, and had dueled with him a little. Then
he broke off and started moving. I thought it was
weird and pursued. It worked out that he'd been
sent or moved by his patron or something, because
about twenty miles away or so I ran into Usagi-
dono.
He was with Gennosuke-san and Zato-ino-san and
about thirty or so Neko clan Ninja. They were
preparing to assault this castle, the fortress of
a moderately important lord named Tamakuro, and
Jei had gone for the fortress like he'd been
pulled by a string. Tamakuro-san, according to
Usagi-dono and the leader of the ninja -- a
warrior named Shingen -- had gathered together a
store of about three hundred arquebuses and a
couple tons of ammunition and was preparing to
rebel against the Shogun.
We found out later that Hijiki-yaro was behind it
in some way, but as usual he didn't leave any
evidence you could use.
Anyway we attacked the place and broke through the
wall. Usagi-dono went off hunting for Tomoe-dono,
who was imprisoned there, and Gen and Zato-ino-san
got pinned down holding off about half the
garrison near the main gate. This left it up to
Shingen-san and I to lead the ninja against the
armory.
We did alright for a while, but then Jei-san stuck
his nose in. He smashed into the side of our
assault and killed Shingen-san and a dozen or so
ninja, which threw the rest into confusion, but
then I went after him and chased him up into the
fortress proper.
Usagi-dono had found Tomoe-dono and he and she had
rallied the ninja and mounted another assault on
the armory; but Tamakuro-san had gained enough
time to regroup and bring reinforcements to the
central defense and they were driven back.
In the meantime I had run into Jei-san and a
samurai I knew to be one of Hijiki's chief knives
preparing to lead more of the guards to trap the
rest of our side inside the castle.
I scattered the guards and got involved in a fight
with Jei-san and Akkhoto-san that damn near killed
me, but I maneuvered them into one spot in front
of the central tower and called the dragon wind on
them. _That_ time it worked -- it didn't this
morning -- and Jei went down with the tower
falling on top of him.
About that time I got a very strong impulse to
beat feet and so I did. Which turned out to be a
good thing, 'cause something had struck a spark or
something in the ammunition room and the whole
damn place blew sky high.
Now that was the first time that I knew A) that
Jei had not only been mortally injured but had
actually _died_, and, B) that the body was
destroyed and not lost track of.
Ranma paused for a moment and sipped the last of her tea.
I don't really know how he got out of that, but
his showing up _here_ just confirms what you could
get from the fact that he showed up at all; which
is that he has some _major_ supernatural backing.
That, combined with the abilities, weaknesses and
immunity to damage he showed this morning makes me
think that he may have been turned into a Chiang
Shih. That would mean that someone had done
something to his higher 'hun' soul and then
corrupted his 'po' soul ... or replaced it
altogether, now that I think of it.
He was definitely slower and less skilled than he
should have been, which would fit, 'cause his
'body soul' would be messed up and wouldn't have
all the same skill and 'feel' he'd be used to.
He'd also be damn near impossible to permanently
damage, which definitely fits.
Normally you'd also expect him to be vulnerable to
sunlight, but he obviously wasn't. This is
probably due to the power he was throwing around -
that green fire. It showed all the signs of being
a serious yin ch'i manifestation, and from the way
it acted I'm betting it was the main thing holding
his body together.
"Which would mean what?" Nabiki asked softly.
Ranma's eyes were focused on the problem, rather than the
girls.
Which would mean that he was something closer to a
demon than a Chiang Shih per se, Nabiki-san. He'd
be using the body only as a means to move his
power around and not really be connected to it at
all .... (her eyes narrowed and her voice went
soft).
Not connected ... now that I think about it I
didn't see any sign of his 'hun' soul at all did
I? I cut out the 'po' soul and _it_ was in the
heart instead of the lungs, but I didn't see the
'hun' at all.
Which could mean that he was using the power to
animate the body and the body to contain the power
and the 'po' soul to control it all ... and that
would explain why the body blew up like that when
I took the soul out ... but the 'hun' soul had to
be _somewhere_, and if it wasn't _there_ ... then
he must have been given a way to run the body
'long-distance', as it were ... which would mean
.... that _it_ might _not_ have been affected by
the demise of the rest of his body .... which in
turn would mean ....
"Which would mean that he could come back, wouldn't it,
Ranchan?", asked Akane very quietly.
Ranma frowned worriedly. "Yeah, it would."
Nabiki was also very quiet. "If it does come back, what can
we do, Ranma-san?"
Ranma's gaze was level. "You can hide, Nabiki-san. And if
you can't hide, then you can run." She transferred her gaze
to Akane, who met it levelly. "_You_, I'll work with, since
I don't suppose I can convince you to be sensible and keep
out of it."
"No, Ranchan, you can't. As long as you're fighting it, I
will be too."
A quiet settled over Akane and Ranma, who were sitting with
their gazes locked on each other's eyes. Nabiki and Kasumi
quietly stood up, gathered up the tray and tea things and
left the dojo.
Eventually Ranma leaned forward and ran her thumb in a
circle around Akane's forehead. "Marked with the sign. Just
like me." Standing up, "Come on, Acchan, you haven't done
anywhere near enough training yet."
Akane moaned theatrically as she rose. "Ohhhh. My sensei's a
bully."
"All sensei are bullies, Acchan." Ranma bopped her on the
head,"It's the notable trait of the type. Assume."
"Oh, Kami."
"Kumite."
"Help."
*Hsssh*, *shrk*, *th-thmp* *shrk* *hssh*. *rtch-THUMP*.
"Ite!"
"Slacker."
"Bully."
"Shirker. Assume."
"Baka. Friends?"
"Friends forever, I promise. Kumite."
*Hssh*, *rtch-thp*, *th-thmp**shrk*, *thmp-thmp-SPLT*
"Ite!"
"Which does not, however, get you out of getting beat on."
*rtch-thp*, *shrk-hshh-shrk-rtch*.
"Wouldn't want it any other way."
*th-thmp*, *shrk*, *thmp-thmp-THAP* *whhsh-rtch-THMP!* "HA!"
"Good one."
*THUMP-WHAP-WHAM*
"Ite!"
"Just don't get cocky."
------------------------------------------------------------
Notes: Spun this off from Chapter 3 proper 'cause it's
mostly just talking heads. I'll continue this arc as seems
indicated.
Next: Tomorrow, Side arc 2, Training Sequence, and Chapter 4.
Yours very respectfully,
Eric Hallstrom, CC, PhD, UBIP,etc.
--
www.kawaiikunee.com/slp/index.html
www.kawaiikunee.com
hallcon@mindspring.com
kawaii@kawaiikunee.com