The Amazon and the Moneylender: Episode 5, Part 2:
Kodachi takes the Astral Plunge
-------------------------------------------------------
Saffron-Ken wasn�t having the level of success he
had hoped for in facing off against Akane. The winged
man frowned as he round-housed over Akane�s ducking
form, and subsequently had to block a flurry of
enraged attacks.
"I don�t get." Mousse thought to himself, watching
from a tree nearby. He could already tell that Akane
had the edge in the battle. "Saffron was beyond any of
us, only luck brought Saotome victory."
"Enough playing around!" Saffron-Ken shouted using
his wings to carry him out of Akane�s immediate range.
The collected audience oo-ed and ahh-ed, but did
nothing else.
"I thought Saffron was supposed to be a lot more
powerful than this," Sayuri noted.
"I hope Akane wins," Yuka said, quietly.
The false phoenix reared back his hands in
preparation for an energy blast, he looked down in
surprise as Akane leapt up toward him. Then through
forward and�nothing happened.
"She�s not fighting with any more skill than
usual," Mousse commented. "She�s channeling an insane
amount of battle chi, though, which explains the
enhanced speed and strength. But why is Ken having so
much trouble with the Saffron form?"
"What-!?" Akane�s foot, wrapped in battle chi,
snapped into his face bringing him downward back to
earth.
"Have you figured it out yet, Baka!!?" Akane
shouted as she landed and smashed into the
shape-changer. The dazed Saffron-Ken barely managed a
half-effective defense against Akane�s attacks. "I�m
going to kill you Ken, do you get it?"
"Oh, I understand now," Mousse laughed. "You�d
think Ken wouldn�t make such a mistake."
"Saffron was the greatest warrior any of us have
ever faced!" He dodged away, regrouping and made an
attempt to regain the initiative.
"No heat, no blasts," she caught a punch and
twisted his arm, snapping it. "And I�m betting no
regeneration. You. Never. Were. Anything. But. An.
Image." Every word was punctuated with a punch, a
kick, and finally a throw.
"Your chi stays the same!" she shouted, following
him. The battered Saffron-Ken, managed to roll out of
his uncontrolled flight. Akane halted and watched the
stumbling landing of the fake phoenix. "No phoenix
chi, no phoenix power." She stalked forward, still
glowing.
"She really is going to kill him," Mousse realized
suddenly. The kerchief came out again, and a beaten
Ryouga was standing there. "Akane, stop!! You�ve won!"
"I never did know where my limits where,"
Ryouga-Ken snickered. "Bakusai Tenketsu!" The ground
in front of Ryouga-Ken exploded into a cloud of flying
dirt. When it passed Ken was nowhere to be found.
"Get back here, coward!!" Akane shouted. "You
aren�t getting away with this." Mousse landed behind
her, grabbed her arms.
"Akane, he�s gone!" the boy shouted. "He�s gone!"
Akane shrugged him off and punched into the ground.
"I thought you were taking the antidote to Ranma!"
"I came back in case you lost," Mousse explained.
"Kodachi went on ahead, she should be there by now."
"Kodachi is going to bring Ranma the antidote?" she
shouted, grabbing the nearly blind martial artist
"Akane," Mousse answered desparately. "you ordered
her to." He sounded more than a little bitter. The
battle aura faded from Akane as she calmed down.
"You�re right, I�m sorry. I�m just a little upset,"
Akane said.
"A little?" Mousse asked himself quietly, he looked
to the mini-craters pock-marking the field. They had
all been produced by Akane�s battle aura-enhanced
footsteps.
"So much has been happening recently, nothing makes
sense. Look at this, usually I�m the one in trouble
and Ranma saves me!" Her face became determined again.
"Well, I�m going to be there when he wakes up!" She
rushed off towards the dojo, running full speed.
"Hey Mousse," the martial artist looked over after
breathing a sigh of relief.
"Kasumi Tendo? Miss Unryuu?" Yuka and Sayuri stared
at each other, momentarily confused.
"Not really," Yuka said. "It�s Sayuri and Yuka. You
haven�t seen Shampoo and Nabiki around have you? We
seem to have a lot of news for Nabiki."
"You are late, Shampoo," Cologne lectured as
Shampoo walked into the store. "Where have you been?"
"I training, great-grandmother," Shampoo, lied.
"Lose track of time. Where Mousse?"
"He and the Kuno-girl left to follow Akane Tendo."
Shampoo tied the waitress apron around her waist.
"They hurt Nabiki-sister?" Shampoo asked,
concerned. Cologne eyed her granddaughter carefully.
"And you are worried about your rival for Ranma�s
affections?"
"Nabiki not like people mess with her family,"
Shampoo said. "Other than her any way."
"Have you been with the Tendo girl again," Cologne
asked. Shampoo sweated a little.
"Great-grandma say no see Nabiki again," Shampoo
answered.
"I see," Cologne said. "I may have to speak to the
Tendo girl myself. Shampoo, I can handle the caf� for
now, perhaps you should see what�s happening at the
Tendo dojo. I think my son-in-law might be in
trouble."
"Yes great-grandmother," Shampoo said happily.
Cologne was no longer sure that her daughter was
thinking of Ranma.
Ranma groaned as he saw another world come into
focus. He hadn�t yet found a way out of this mess.
Every world that came up was another disaster. Each
time he had lost Akane in some way, and virtually any
other chance of happiness as well. In one dream he�d
been stuck as a girl forever, and Akane of course left
him. Then he was cured, and Akane still left him. His
two forms were split twice, with Ranma stuck in one or
the other. Once Akane chose Ranma�s male form over the
female, and the other time it was Ranma�s female form
over the male. She�d been poisoned by Kodachi, killed
by Shampoo, Ukyou, and even Akari�s pig! She had
married Ryouga, Kuno, Sanzenin, Mousse, and the list
went on. Ranma had ended up in any a number of
situations ranging from prison to, he shuddered,
married to Kodachi. Every new dream was a nightmare
waiting to happen, and Ranma was by now very tired of
it. The individual dreams didn�t effect him much
anymore, but the idea of being asleep forever was
starting to take hold. He half wondered if killing
himself in this dream would do any good.
"Great, Kodachi again," he grumbled as he saw the
gymnast sort of stumble around the corner down the
imaginary street. He ended the dream early, not
wanting to deal with her just at the moment. When next
the world reformed he saw two Kodachi�s, one of them
was the leering psychopath that he had seen in all the
previous dreams. The other was more like the real
Kodachi, which Ranma had to admit was much less
extreme than the nightmare versions.
"Is this the way you see me?" the "normal" Kodachi
asked dryly.
"Who are you, woman, that you dare to mock the
noble beauty of I the Black Rose of St. Hebereke?" the
psychotic Kodachi shouted, hissingly. The dream world
fluctuated suddenly and the psychotic Kodachi vanished
with a wailing shriek. Ranma arched an eyebrow, this
was different.
"Okay, so what�s the game this time?" Ranma
demanded. "Poison Akane, slip some sort of love potion
in her soup, have her family sent to debtor�s prison?"
The scenery began to solidify as Kodachi�s less
protected mind began to vent a variety of worries that
lay in the back of her head.
"Whatever are you talking about?" Kodachi demanded.
"I�m here to rescue you, my beloved."
"Rescue me�yeah, I believe that�sure�"
"Well, well, Saotome and the lady Kuno," both
turned to face a demonically leering Copycat Ken. "I
guess the noble bitch delivered the antidote after
all." Ranma was confused, so far there was nothing
directly related to his problems.
"But Mousse stayed to fight you," Kodachi stammered
in denial.
"Wait a minute," Ranma muttered.
"Yes, he did," Ken agreed. "Did you think either he
or the Tendo girl could actually stop me." Ranma had
assumed all this time that he was trapped in his own
mind.
"That isn�t a fake Kodachi," he realized. "And this
is her nightmare. I�ve been going about this all
wrong." He watched as the fake ken tossed a shattered
pair of glasses at Kodachi�s feet.
"Nooo!!!!"
"Great, I�m stuck in the spirit world with a
lunatic," Ranma muttered.
"You are pathetic sister, perhaps you should train
harder."
"Kodachi, Mousse is fine," Ranma said. "Your
brother is in hiding. This is a dream."
"But, but�."
"It�s no dream Saotome," the dream Ken asserted.
Ranma rolled his eyes.
"You came here voluntarily, right? You�ve haven�t
woke up yet have you?" Ranma slashed his hand back and
it passed through Kodachi�s dream-Ken. "It�s not
real." We walked over and grabbed Kodachi by the
shoulders. She didn�t even try and glomp him, which
told him exactly how scared she was. "Say it."
"It�s not real," Kodachi repeated, shakily. Ranma
swallowed, there was no way Kodachi would have lasted
long in what ever place this was.
"Mousse is fine," Ranma said patiently.
"Mousse is fine," Kodachi repeated. Ranma breathed
a sigh of relief, here�s where he hit the experimental
part of his plan.
"There is nothing here," Ranma said, imagining
nothing.
"There is nothing here," Kodachi repeated. The
scenery vanished around them, shattering into
darkness. Ranma was no longer running story variations
in his head, and he was doing his best to keep
Kodachi�s mind blank as well.
"Okay, I have a plan," Kodachi groaned in the
darkness. "This one�s a good plan!" he protested.
"I should not have taken that drug away from
Nabiki, ne?" She asked, calming down.
"Never a good idea to get in Nabiki�s way," Ranma
agreed with a laugh. Then he was serious again. "Okay,
now getting back. Uh, think of home." The scenery
began to shift around him, into the Kuno estate.
"Stop! Stop! Nothing here, nothing here." The area
settled again into darkness.
"What was that supposed to accomplish," Kodachi
demanded irritably.
"Hey, I�m doing the best I can okay!" Ranma
retorted. "Okay, other ways to possibly describe going
home."
"Ranma-darling," Kodachi asked shakily.
"What is it, Kodachi?" Ranma asked, resignedly as
he tried to ignore her clinging to him.
"What is that?" Ranma turned around and saw
something moving through the darkness. He could barely
discern it was there, as if it was invisible or
something.
"Nothing there," he said to himself. "Nothing
there."
"Fortunately for you there is," the figure moved
and then a head appeared, floating in the nothing. The
head seemed familiar to Ranma, but he couldn�t quite
place it.
"Who are you?"
"Someone who can lead you home."
"So now we have two comatose martial artists,"
Ryoga shouted.
"It�s not my fault!" Nabiki countered.
"It�s the same as before," Kasumi sighed. Her
father was sitting to the side wailing. "They�re
bodies will just waste away."
"You always know what�s going on around here,"
Ukyou snarled. "Everything follows some plan of
yours."
"I didn�t want this, why would I want this?"
"Oh my son, how could you have fallen so low?"
Genma shouted to nobody in particular.
"There�s probably some money it for you somewhere."
"You think I�d do this for money?"
"Sugar, you�d do anything for money, don�t deny
it."
"Where�s the money in this?"
"Then what�s your explanation? How�d this slip past
the great Nabiki Tendo?"
"I don�t know," Nabiki shouted. "I don�t know. I�ve
missed a lot of things recently. I�ve been
distracted." She winced, wrong thing to say to two
people that thought she was dating Shampoo.
"Oh I get it now," Ukyou steamed.
"Ukyou�" Ryouga tried to verbally restrain the chef
without much success.
"What do you get?" Nabiki demanded quietly and
dangerously.
"You�re too busy going to the movies�"
"Ukyou, we promised not to say anything."
"You promised, I never did."
"That again?" Nabiki shouted. "Get it through your
head, Shampoo is a client! She hired me to get Mousse
off her back! She�s not even a friend, got it? I don�t
have friends, if I went looking do you think I�d start
with an air-headed bimbo like�"
"Nihao?" Nabiki suddenly choked, she turned around
slowly.
"Sh-Shampoo? I didn�t mean�"
"What Shampoo care?" Shampoo snapped angrily.
"Shampoo only here to check on Airen." The Amazon
glared at Nabiki with that word, she hadn�t even
turned to look at Ranma yet. "Great-grandmother say
something might happened to him. What you know about
it?" Nabiki backed off a few steps and then slumped,
staring at the floor.
"I�m sorry, Shampoo," she whispered, Shampoo
flinched in surprise when she saw the other girl�s
shoulders begin to shake. "I�"
"Mousse!!" everybody leaped as Kodachi woke up with
a scream. "Where�s Mousse?"
"She�s awake!!" somebody shouted.
"I heard Akane went to fight Ken," Everybody turned
their attention to Ranma who was sitting up and
working the crinks out of his joints. "Where?" He
still wasn�t certain this wasn�t another dream, but he
decided to chance it.
"The fight is over Saotome," Mousse stood in the
doorway.
"Mousse!!" The master of hidden weapons blinked in
surprise as Kodachi clutched at him. "I thought that
freak had killed you!"
"Ranma!!" Akane rushed across the room and nearly
engulfed him in a hug of her own. "You�re awake."
"Shampoo?"
"I�m Kodachi you sightless idiot!"
*thwack*
"Akane?" Ranma answered. "It is you, right, Not
another dream or something."
"Baka," Akane responded playfully.
"Kawaiikune," Ranma answered, happy to be out of
that nothingness. They snuggled, oblivous of the
others around them.
"But what happened?" Genma asked. "Did Kodachi
bring you back?"
"Some woman in black led us back," Kodachi
answered, Mousse dizzily stood up behind her.
"A woman in black," Kasumi gasped. Soun looked up
as well.
"You actually saw her," he said.
"Yeah, there was something familiar about her,"
Ranma said, him and Akane disengaging and trying to
recover a little dignity. "Wanted to warn Nabiki, said
Nabiki�d get lost if she �projected� right now."
Kodachi watched them restraining themselves and left,
Mousse looked from where Kodachi exited to Ranma,
confused. Then he followed the noblewoman.
"Wait, Kodachi!"
"Does that mean anything to�" Akane paused as she
looked for her sister. "I thought Nabiki was here
before."
"She was," Ryouga answered. "Did anybody see where
she went?"
"No care where money-girl went," Shampoo hmphed.
"She must have slipped out while we were busy with
the four of you," Ukyou decided. Kasumi left and soon
walked back in carrying a note.
"I have things to do, I hope to be back. � N."
"Intentionally uninformative and vaguely
threatening," Genma said. "This is definitely from
Nabiki."
"There�s more, here on the other side," Kasumi
said. "Shampoo � Gomen nasai, you didn�t deserve
that."
Shampoo stared at the eldest Tendo and then walked
through the wall, heading home. The sound of the wall
collapsing was pretty much ignored by everyone else.
"What was that in there?" Mousse demanded. "You�re
supposed to be getting into Ranma�s good graces."
Kodachi stared blankly for a very brief moment, then
laughed.
"He�s was too concerned with Akane," Kodachi said
quickly. "Perhaps a little jealousy would help?"
"So you just used me then?"
"I thought maybe it would work for Shampoo as
well," Kodachi mumbled.
"Oh," Mousse muttered.
"You didn�t really think I was worried about you,"
Kodachi asked. "I knew you could beat that fraud."
"Actually, Akane beat him." Kodachi blinked.
"She�did?" Kodachi blinked, a bead of sweat rolled
down from her forehead.
No one seemed to pay him much attention as he
stepped onto the plane, probably noticing the sling he
had his arm in, but that wasn�t very surprising. Lots
of people took advantage of recovering from such
injuries by going on vacation. He glanced about
cautiously from behind a pair of black sunglasses.
"Damn that girl," he thought to himself. "Damn
Saotome, damn all of Nerima!" He decided that this
place was his curse. When the fighters had used more
traditional techniques he'd been fine. Now, however,
Akane Tendo was correct, the abundance of chi attacks
left him vulnerable. He needed to do some actual
training if he wanted to even think about taking on
the Nerima elites again.
He sat in his assigned seat and continued to
grumble.
"Excuse me," he looked up to see a tall girl with
streaks of dyed blonde and an incredibly dark tan. She
looked familiar, but he couldn�t quite place her.
"This is aisle 24, right?"
"Yeah, what of it?" he asked. The girl arched an
eyebrow at him.
"I�m not in the mood, that�s my seat over there,"
she pointed at the window seat.
"I apologize, apparently we�ve both had a bad day,"
Ken stood up and let her past. He was suspicious,
there was something dangerous about this girl. He sat
back down eyeing her carefully. "So what�s your
story?" She glared at him for a moment and then
shrugged.
"I just discovered the love of my life," she said
nonchalantly. "But there�s no way they�ll ever notice
me."
"Uh�okay," Ken shrugged, and leaned back, keeping a
suspicious eye on her, but avoiding further
conversation.
=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
Signed
He of Too Many Names (Thrythlind/Thryth/Luke/Hyperbole/Pika/Pooka)
http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
http://im.yahoo.com