The bell of time 
rings with the blow 
that we all felt that day.  

Life goes on 
lest we forget 
the purpose of our journey,
we mourn our friends 
and lift our chins 
and continue on our way.  

But, it ain't the same.


James and the Bluejay
--------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer at end of chapter:  No gerbils were harmed in the 
writing of this fanfic.  However, some are complaining that
the spotlights give them headaches.


                     ASHES - A Cinderella Story

                           Chapter Ten

                           Monster Mine




   Threads that tie us, threads that bind
   Guide the shuttles of our mind
   Let us tap, and clog, and then
   Reel away with Chapter Ten.


BEATINGS I BEFRIEND ADORE YOU:

"-Cinderella!  I challenge you!-"

Suddenly the street was too narrow.  The utility poles, the trees
surrounded by their tidy little borders, the stone fences beyond
the walk - everything seemed to be closing in on me.

I was sore all over from Kuno's glomping, and my palms ached
because I was clenching my fists so tightly.  The worst pain was
in my heart.  Kidori was challenging me.  All our friendship, all
our singing and dancing together, meant nothing.  She was
prepared to beat the stuffing out of me.

The little voice inside my head protested that this was not
Kidori.  This was some monster who had taken over Primrose, was
using her body but not her heart.

"-Will you fight me, Cinderella?-" The masked Primrose asked,
with a plaintive note, "-I have seen how you move.  You have
great ability, and I yearn to match my skills with yours!  You
must fight!  I need to have someone who can give me some
competition!-"

"You are not Kidori!"  I cried.  "You are a warrior who is
controlling her with the mask!  Kidori is much too nice to hurt
people!  Take the mask off!  You don't have to do this!"

For a moment she faltered and I caught a glimpse of a familiar
expression in her eyes before she closed them and held a hand to
her forehead.  "Cinderella?"  she wavered in a normal voice.

Then I remembered Cologne's warning, that in struggling with the 
mask, Kidori would fail.  I blurted, "No, Kidori!  Don't struggle!
You'll only make it worse!"  Which did I want her to do?  How
could she escape the mask if she did not struggle?  I watched,
helpless, as she fought herself.

"I can't do it!" she cried, "You have to help me, if you love me!"

"Acckk -" I froze, my blood congealing about my heart.  Was she 
really asking Cinderella to want her?  Or could she somehow see the 
real me, the male Hiroshi, beneath the surface?  "I...lo...lo...that is, 
I like, you, but -"

The tension blinked away from her face and her eyes glowed redly
again.  "-You will fight me!-" she cried in the monster voice.
"-You will fight or I will crush you where you stand!-"  With
that, she rushed toward me with a fist drawn back to strike.

My wish-powered abilities kicked in and time slowed, allowing me
to desperately squirm out of the way, although the wind force of
her missed swing sent me stumbling backward.  Primrose changed
direction and came after me, making me dodge and twist again.

She punched a hole in the fence with her next blow.  Again she
charged, this time slapping her foot down at my knees, and again
I wriggled out of the way as she stomped a pothole into the
street.

"-Stand and fight!-" she demanded in that booming monster voice.

"I won't!" I cried, "You are not Kidori!  You are a monster!  You
are a cowardly monster, afraid to attack anyone but girls!"

She responded with a scream of rage, redoubling her speed and
strikes.  I could not get away from all of them, she was hitting
so fast and hard.  There were scratches on my arms and sides from
near misses, and a dull ache in one hip where she had grazed me
with a kick.  I could not keep away from her forever. I was
getting tired, and she was not slowing down at all.

"Coward!" I cried.  "You are a man controlling a girl.  And you
can't fight guys because you are too chicken!"

"-Liar!-" she screamed.  "-I am a woman!  I am Kidori of the 
Nokimara village!-"

We were poised, she to strike, me to run, shouting insults back
and forth while I caught my breath.  "I don't believe you!" I
cried, "You are using that mask to dominate Kidori so you can
hurt innocent people!"

"-No!-" she said, lowering her voice to a mild boom.  "-I am not
doing this to merely hurt people!  I do not attack those who are
not able to defend themselves!  These are my enemies, and I must
overcome them, so that I might live again!-"

"But you are using Kidori's body!"

The red eyes gleamed.  "-The mistress has promised!-" she said.
"-When her enemies are defeated, I shall live again!-"  Saying
these words, she leapt forward, too fast for me to dodge, her
doubled fists striking me solidly.  I felt the ground leave me,
I hung in the air for an eternity, and then I scraped and tumbled
over the concrete until the curb stopped me.

-------------

"-Why don't you fight, damn you!-"  The voice boomed distantly,
somewhere far away.  "-Get up!-"

I did not feel like moving.  The curb was nice and comfortable,
like a pillow, and I spent what little strength I had in trying
to find a softer spot.  Closer, I could hear another voice,
pleading, and I recognized it as Kidori, saying, "Fight, please,
Cinderella!  Defend yourself before I have to hurt you!"

While I was down, it seemed like a good time to review what I had
done wrong.  To aid me in my analysis, I recalled all the tricks
my father had taught me about fighting.  Somehow, Pops' voice got
mixed up in the noise, calling advice to me.

"Fight back, boy!  What's the matter?  Where's your spirit?
Hit'em!  Kick'em in the gonads!"

Come to think of it, Pops was never really much on the details of
fighting.  All he ever really taught, in the way of a technique,
was to attack the other fellow's masculinity.

"Pops - " I tried to say, "She's a girl!"

Then, too, there was the other side of my father's philosophy
concerning manly actions.  Pops' voice came back at me with his
demon's head blare, "What have I told you about hitting girls?
Girls are weak, defenseless creatures!  The noblest thing you can
do is to protect them!"

"I can't protect her," I responded weakly. "She's kicking my
butt!"

"-Fight!-" boomed the voice of the mask.  "-Defend yourself,
coward!-"

"Stop!" cried another voice, and I guessed it was Akane, for she
lifted my head and yelled again, "Stop!  Can't you see she's
hurt?"

"I'm not hurt," I tried to say.  "I'm just resting.  Gimme a week
and I'll get up."

Primrose cried, "-You stay out of this!  You've already been
beaten!-"  With that, she pulled Akane away from me and flung her
down the street.

Turning back to get me, Primrose stopped and slapped her hands
over her ears, staring straight ahead.  My heart lurched within
my chest.  It was Kidori, straining to protect me, struggling
with the ghost.

I wanted to tell her not to fight, but my words caught in my
throat.  It looked like she was holding her own.  She pulled her
arms to her side and stepped back, but it was only because the
ghost was recovering her strength.  Her eyes glowed red again and
she started forward, only to stop and contort her face in agony.

Ranma materialized between us like an exploding missile.  "What
have you done to Akane?" he demanded.

"I'm alright!" Akane called, from the tree she had landed in.
"Don't worry about me!"

"It ain't you I'm worrying about," Ranma spoke grimly, cracking
his knuckles as he faced the thing that had been Kidori.

With Ranma as a threat, the ghost regained her purpose.  Primrose
came at him with a bellow of hatred, striking him before he could
react, knocking him onto me.  We went tangled to the ground.
Ranma was up and away quickly, though he delayed long enough to
block a blow that was clearly intended to strike me while I was
down.

I could see that things were going to get worse.  Primrose had
power - loads and loads of power - but she did not have speed.
Ranma had speed and power.  He simply had not gotten around to
using the power, yet.  When he started flinging chi attacks
around, someone was going to get hurt.  I was betting that
someone would be Kidori.

"-Begone!-" the Primrose-thing bellowed, "-I get nothing from
fighting you!-"

"Tough," growled Ranma.  "Ya picked on my fiancee.  Not that I
should worry about a macho tomboy, but that does make it kinda
personal."

"-Then die!-" screamed Primrose, and she struck with a
thunderclap of blows that staggered Ranma, following with
overhead chops which he was strained to counter.

Ranma flipped back out of the way and launched a pattern of kicks
that forced her back.  He still had not struck her, except in a
defensive manner - 'blocking' - but the forcefulness of his
defense was arguably as effective as a frontal attack.

Primrose came at him again, and this time she scored a glancing
blow on his head.  He repulsed her, slamming her body into a
nearby building, almost demolishing the shed.  I knew Ranma would
not take much more before he got angry enough to really hurt her.

So, I stepped into the fight.

Baka.  Double baka.  Baka to the tenth power!

I know.  She was a monster.  Yet, I reasoned, behind that monster
was my girl, and she was frightened by this fighting, and she was
going to be the one to remain hurt when the mask was taken off.
She might be a monster right at the moment, but she was my
monster.

My muscles complained, but I kept going until I was between them.
"Stop it!" I cried, and my voice was not loud enough for them to
hear over their battle fury.  "Stop it!"  Still, they paid me no
heed.

So, I tripped Ranma when he went past, unaware of my intentions.

In the split second before he could recover, Primrose leapt in to
take advantage of his spill.  I intercepted her and took a
ringing blow to my head as she tried to get past me.  There was
no softness to her body.  She was tensile steel, swift and
strong, and I saw madness in the glowing eyes.

Then, as swiftly as she had attacked, she drew back and the glow
in her eyes diminished.  "Cinderella!" Kidori cried, "I am so
sorry!  I can't stop myself!"  Then the red lambent flame
returned and she came at me again.

Using a primitive turn-and-toss, I leveraged her strength against
her, tumbling her into a chain-link fence, where she got tangled
in the broken mesh.

Lucky moves, against her and Ranma - they were not expecting me
to intervene.  With the advantage of surprise lost, I stood
between them and contemplated the multitude of methods of suicide
I could have chosen instead of this one.

Ranma raged at me, "Get out of the way!  I don't wanta hit ya,
but I will if ya try to help her!"

Of course I barred his way.  I could not let him past me.  "She
was trying to keep from killing me!" I cried, "Don't hurt her!"

I could see that he had decided to go over me by the way he
moved his head to locate both me and Kidori.  He saw an opening
and sprang into action almost as one motion.

My mind raced as he swept toward me, leaping into the air.  He
was master of aerial combat, most powerful in his mid-air
assaults, capable of landing many blows in the brief instant that
his arc carried him past me.  It occurred to me that he was also
at his most vulnerable, for he had his attention on Primrose and
was not expecting me to try anything.  Taking advantage of this
lapse, I rolled away from his reach, lashed out with a long
shapely leg, and was rewarded with a solid blow to his side.
Unbalanced, he hit the wall beyond me, knocked over a barrel of
water, and was instantly girl.

Ranma, as a girl, was shorter than me, but that in no way
diminished her determination.  She came up smiling, hardly fazed
by the collision with the wall.  She was probably enjoying it.
Meanwhile, I was in trouble. I could not use the same trick again
- and all I had succeeded in doing was getting her attention.
Ranma flicked a piece of concrete from her check, smiled even
more grimly, and came at me again as I strove to block her.

Having decided that she could not get around me, Ranma tried to
push me aside.  At first I could stop her by catching her
forearms and warding them off, but soon the thrusts and grabs
came so rapidly I could not evade them all, and machinegun jabs
battered past my guard.

It dawned on me that she was really upset.  Ranma was hitting
someone she thought was a girl!

Gasping, I retreated, watching for the pale yellow form.  Kidori
was safe for the moment, if she would only get away.  Instead,
she stood spraddle-legged in the center of the street, screaming
and struggling with the mask.  Finally she stopped, gave me one
long last look, and fled.

I was elated.  Ranma might batter me within an inch of my life,
but Kidori was safe.  Her eyes were no longer gleaming red.

"Com'on!" Ranma growled at me, "Let's finish this!"  She readied
her stance.

I sagged to the pavement, presenting myself before her, unprotected 
and vulnerable.  "I quit,"  I said.

"_What?_"

"I was only trying to protect Kidori," I explained.

She nearly exploded.  She clenched her fists, the tendons in her
neck strained like wires with wanting to fight, but she overcame
the urge.  "You were trying to protect _that_?  After she tried
to kill you?"

"She couldn't help herself.  Besides, I lo...lo...like her."  

That brought Ranma upright.  "Don't tell me yer troubles," she
growled.  "Ya better get outta here and go home, where-ever that
is.  I ain't exactly happy with you, y'know."

"I tell you, I could not let you hurt Kidori.  I had to protect
her."

"Hmmph.  Y'sound like someone else I know.  He likes her, too."

"Yeah, I do," I sighed.  "I guess I do."

Ranma was well versed in the mental disciplines, at least as far
as they applied to fighting.  She looked at me more closely this
time, using more than her conventional eyesight.  "Y'remind me
of...Hiroshi?"

"Hi."

"Dang!  Hiroshi?  Really?"

"Yep," I said, studying the pavement.  "I am your old pal,
Hiroshi.  I can tell you this and you won't remember a thing
about it, tomorrow.  I wish you would forget it."

Ranma harrumphed in appreciation.  "How'ja do that?"

"Long story.  It was magic.  I made a wish.  The rest is obvious.
And I'd rather not talk about it."

She sat beside me on the pavement, having caught her breath, and
said, "Man, this is weird."

I raised a shapely eyebrow.  "Look who's talking."

"I never thought I'd be fightin' _you_!" she grimaced.  "Nice
scrimmage, by the way.  Had me goin'.  Where'd ya learn that?"

I shrugged again.  "Magic."

"All of it?"

"Everything better than Primrose."  I sighed, "Except maybe when
she had that mask on."

She scratched her chin.  "Yeah.  That is one bad-ass mask.  I
could feel the chi rolling off it.  Maybe the old ghoul was
right, and it really is a haunted mask.  I gotta tell ya, though,
that hadta been one cold-hearted bastard that made that thing."

"That was what I felt," I shuddered.  "But it was a female ghost.
She's made a promise to some fiend and she intends to take over
Kidori's body when she fulfills that promise.  It's going to
devour her.  I have to save her!"

"I knew there was something going on when you stepped in to
protect her at Ucchan's.  Did you see her aura?"

I looked, and Ranma's aura was gleaming blue. "That night, you
and Ukyo were yellow and Akane was blue."

"What color was Kidori's?" she prompted.

I gasped, remembering clearly, "There was none!  She didn't have
an aura!"

"Actually, she did.  But it was so faint I could barely see it,"
Ranma said softly, her face grim.

"Ranma!" cried Akane as she ran up to us. "Are you okay?  Did she
hurt you?"

"Whatcha think I am?" snarled Ranma.  "What could a girl do to
me?"

"I was worried, you jerk!"

"Well, quit it.  I wasn't having no trouble!"

"Okay, then, why were you fighting with Cinderella?  She was only
trying to help!"

Ranma glanced at me and snorted, "Yeah.  Right."

"We were only sparring," I said, brightly, trying to defuse the
situation and maybe lower the pressure.  It did not work.
Somewhere there was a steam valve that seemed to have been left
open.  The hissing became a roar until it hurt my ears.

"Ranma!" Akane boiled over, "How dare you spar with her when you
won't spar with me!"

"W...what!" Ranma sputtered. "For your information, I was not
sparring with...." she stopped to remove the park bench Akane had
balanced rather forcefully on her head.  "It was a fair fight!
Cinderella got in the way!"

"I am not interested in your excuses!" Akane sniffed, taking my
arm.  "Come along, Cinderella-chan, we're leaving.  And as for
you!  Until you learn to treat us girls equally, you can walk to
school by yourself!"

As Ranma's jaw hung open, I leaned behind Akane's back, caught
Ranma's eye and waggled my brows.  I mouthed the words, "Us
girls?"

Ranma got tickled, which angered Akane, which tickled Ranma even
more.  When I left, Ranma was guffawing and Akane was chasing her 
around and hitting her with whatever she could get her hands on.




LOKI:

As the girl in yellow ran away, two figures emerged from the
shadows.  They remained unseen and unheard by the youths in the
street.

"I don't see how this is going to work," the platinum haired one
spoke.

"Leave it to me.  I am good at this sort of thing, I must say."

"Loki-baby, I can't tell you how warm and secure that makes me
feel.  It was your meddling that caused it, in the first place."

The second person twisted his mouth to say, "The bead-counters
caused it!  Insisting that everything be set back to perfect!
Dot every 'i', cross every 't'."  In a nasal, whining voice he
added, "'You mustn't upset the order of the universe!'  Bah!
Bead-counters!"

He turned to his companion, "It's all your fault! Because you
blabbed, I found myself standing tall before Kami-sama, Himself,
while he did a parade ground inspection on me.  He criticized me.
Me!  In front of everyone!"

"Really?" the platinum haired goddess chuckled, "How many
demerits?"

"Two.  Smudge on my left ankle bracer and a gravy stain on my
best bear-skin jacket.  What would you expect?  I didn't know I
was going to be called in front of Him."  The speaker chewed his
lip absently, remembering. "I _hate_ it when He is in one of
those moods."




HIROSHI:

After the fight I found myself farther from home.  My way back
took me past the front of the Cat Cafe, where I met Shampoo.

"Great-grandmama very surprised to see you," Shampoo said, the
expression in her eyes one of curiosity and wariness.  "She call
you 'tool of the gods.'  You explain to Shampoo?"

"Can't," I replied, trying to get past her on the sidewalk.  She
blocked my way.  She was silken curves, long hair and big eyes,
and if I had been in another shape I would have been panting to
have her pay this much attention to me.  Right now I was tired,
tired and sore from being pawed by Kuno and beaten on by Primrose
and Ranma.  All I wanted was to get home.

"She not say Shampoo could not fight new girl.  Maybe we
practice?  You show move you use on Shampoo other night." She
produced bonbori and moved casually into a ready stance.

"Look, are you still upset about that?  I was only trying to keep
you from doing something stupid!"

Anger flared in those huge, dreamy eyes.  "You call Shampoo
stupid!?  Maybe Shampoo remember Amazon law about Kiss of Death!"

"No!  It's not like that!  I couldn't let you beat Kidori up! She
was - " I stopped, feeling the soreness in my muscles.  Kidori
was a victim, but she was not innocent.  "It was a mistake!  You
saw her!  She was not ready to fight!"

"Shampoo ready to fight now!  We see who stupid!" She rushed me,
weaving deadly patterns with heavy bonbori, until she came close
enough for me to push her back.  After this, she dusted herself
off, recovered her weapons, and shook her head dazedly.

Having decided that I was more of a threat than she had
anticipated, Shampoo became more cautious, feinting high and low
with her bonbori, trying to provoke me into responding.  I
watched her without reacting.  For once, my ignorance aided me,
for she was moving too fast for me to follow.

Suddenly, she backed off, gazing beyond me.

I was puzzled.  Was there someone behind me?  Was this just a
trick to get me to look?  Taking a chance, I turned around, to
find I was staring into lenses several centimeters thick.  At the
same time my arms were pinned to my side while my ears were
treated to a howl of delirious joy.

"Fear not, my dear Shampoo!  I shall protect you from this
incredibly evil masked girl!  You are safe in my arms!  Oh,
Shampoo!  To hold you at last!"

"You are holding the wrong one, Jerk!"  I shifted my feet,
rotated, and he wound up head down in the Cat Cafe trash bin.
Aware that I had left myself wide open to an attack from Shampoo,
I whirled about to face her.  She stood there, mouth set in a
long-suffering grimace, again looking beyond me.  What could she
be seeing this time?  I had dealt with Mousse.  Or so I had
expected, but I had not counted on his resilience.

"So, you are the foul, masked creature who would dare attack my
darling Shampoo?  Die!!!"  Mousse bellowed as he opened the gates
of adversity.  He produced from beneath his clothing a variety of
chained, wired, barbed, and generally sharp items which he
proceeded to fling in my direction.  I was too busy dodging to do
anything creative until the blizzard of hardware let up, and then
I did what I always do best.  I fled.

--------------

On the sidewalk near my home, I practically stumbled over a
huddled blob of humanity, sitting on the curb and holding his
hands cupped before him in deep meditation.  It was Basho.

"What are you doing here, this late at night?" I stopped to ask.

"Ah, the companion of the unfortunate one.  Another
responsibility," Basho sighed.  He blinked up at me, his
heavy-lidded eyes peering through me as if I were transparent
glass, seeing right through my change in appearance.

"I seek the ultimate truth," he explained.  "It lies almost
within my grasp, a pebble to be plucked from the beach, a handful
of Jell-O awash in the tide, almost to be discerned.  But so
terribly elusive."

"Sure, sure," I said, plopping down onto the curb beside him,
elbows on knees, chin in hand, feeling the cool of the concrete
upon bare skin.  "I seek that all the time myself. Unspell any
more trees?"

He shrugged.  "The demoness seems to have decided to pursue
directly."

"Yeah.  I know," I made a face.  "Talk about ugly...."

Basho took a closer look at me and asked, "But, why are you a
girl?"

"I made a wish," I explained.

Raised eyebrows.  "That much is obvious."

"I wanted to be famous.  Now, whenever I say the words, 'I want
to be a rock star,' this happens.  In fact," I added, my voice
growing shrill in anger, "Whenever _anyone_ says that, I change
into a girl.  I am at the mercy of complete strangers!  And everyone 
wants to fight me!"

Basho twisted his mouth into a sympathetic frown.  "Perhaps I can
help," he said.

"Right.  Go ahead," I stood, having thought of a place where I
might find Kidori.  "Give it your best shot."

---------------

I knocked on the doors and looked in the windows, but Kidori was
not at the practice hall.  

So, I gloomed back home and slipped in the front door, unseen, 
while Mom was in the kitchen fixing supper.  She was humming lines 
from her favorite opera as she cleaned vegetables.  Pops was 
bumbling around, trying to help and getting in the way.  When she 
told him he was doing a good job he strutted like a game hen.  
I didn't get it.  Had he already forgotten how sick she was?

I locked the door and sat cross-legged on my bed, waiting for the
wish to wear off.  I was whiling away the time by popping blue
ribbons into existence when the door slid open and the weasel
came in.  Oddly enough, I didn't mind the intrusion.  I snapped
out another ribbon and she caught it.

"Oh, look!" she squealed, "This has words on it!  'Cinderella
loves....'"  Her eyes grew very round.  With tears brimming, she
turned to me.  "Oh, Cin-chan!  Thank you!  Thank you!"

"Hey, Shrimp," I said, feeling like a small animal in the fast
lane of a freeway, "It's me!  Hiroshi!  All I did was snap out a
ribbon, no big deal!"

Hainoko slammed into me with a bonecreaking hug.  "It is to me!"
she said in a muffled squeak, "Thanks, Hiroshi. I will treasure
it forever!"

"Uhh, yeah, whatever. Easy on the arm, there. I'm kinda sore."

I extricated myself and checked the door again.  Locked. How did
she get in?  When I looked at Hainoko, she smiled innocently.

"Mommy and Daddy were looking this way.  I think they heard you
moving around," she explained.  "If you'll give me another
ribbon, I'll go keep them busy until you can change back."  She
slipped out the door, clutching her two ribbons tightly as if
they were precious.

I shook my head, wondering about little sisters.  She was more
excited about a couple of strips of fabric than she would have
been about a new video game. I picked up the glossy ribbons that
I had snapped out earlier. Blank. Sighing, I snapped out a few
more.

-----------------

I had a dream that night.  I don't usually dream, or at least I
don't usually remember my dreams.  Except for the good ones, but
Pops always says that 'men are supposed to dream that sort of
stuff.  It shows that they are manly in their desires.'

But this dream was, well, peculiar.

Now, I like the old samurai movies, where armies clash and brave
warriors battle with swords all over the place.  This dream was
sort of like that.  There were soldiers, and there were men in
armor, and there was mounted cavalry.  They weren't
swordfighting, however.  Some of the men on foot were wearing
farmer's clothing and they were fighting with hoes, rakes,
billhooks, and scythes.  The men with swords were chopping about
as if they were in a slaughterhouse.  No swordplay, just plain
cold and efficient butchery.

At first I could see none of this, since I was enjoying the sight
of clouds floating above in a brilliant blue sky.  I could hear
the sounds of battle, the screams and cries of combat, and the
distinct noise of sharp blades cleaving bamboo armor...and other
things.  Then someone stepped on me.  No pain, only pressure.
After this, I rolled over onto my side to see the battle, but it
soon drifted away.

Someone called a name, "Haji!"

Since I knew no Haji, I contented myself with measuring the beat
of my heart.  It seemed to be slowing down, while my clothing
felt sticky and wet.

The someone came closer.  It was a girl, and she screamed,
"Haji!" again, just before she clutched me against her.  I did not
mind, for I had noticed that it was Kidori, and she felt warm and
comforting. "Haji!" she cried, one more time, "They have killed
you!"

Wup.  Bummer.  Must be one of those floating type dreams.

"They will pay!" she cried, and she pulled a sword from beneath
me, where I had been lying on it.  No wonder I was uncomfortable.
"I will avenge you!"

I opened my mouth to protest.  I did not need avenging.  I was
quite comfortable where I lay.  Except that I was very weak.
Barely able to move.  Being weak was not good.  In fact, being
weak was tantamount to saying that I was not a man.  Kidori was
going to fight my battle, because I was too weak.  The tears of
my shame burned down my face like molten lead, because I was a
weakling.  It was all I could do to pull myself into a position
to see what was happening.

Kidori faced a man, and they fought.  The man swung his sword
like a meat cleaver, and Kidori's armor shredded.  When she met
his blade with hers, she had to give ground.

My eyes greyed for a moment.  When I could see again, Kidori was
gone and the warrior stood still, savoring his victory.

"Aaaiiiii!" I awoke in a cocoon of horror.  Kidori was dead, and
I had been too weak to make a difference.

"Hiroshi-chan!  Is anything the matter?" Mom could make it from
her room to anywhere in the house in a split-second, in the
darkest of pitch-black night.  She held a cool palm against my
forehead as Pops straggled into my room, switching on the light
as he entered.

"I'm fine, Mom," I protested.  "Just a bad dream.  Nothing to
worry about."

"My _baby_!  Where did you get those bruises and scratches?"

"Huh?" I thought fast.  "It was nothing, Mom!  I fell down in
soccer practice!  It doesn't hurt, really it doesn't!"

Pops gave Mom 'that' look, and Mom turned pale.  She said, "Go
back to sleep, Hiroshi-chan.  Leave the light on."

"Mom, I'm not a kid."

"Please?  For me?"

"Oh, all right."

"Are you _sure_ it doesn't hurt?"

"No, Mom.  It's only a few scratches.  Happens all the time to us
manly guys."




END:  CHAPTER TEN

Disclaimer: Rumiko Takahashi and Viz and a whole bunch more have 
dibs on Ranma et al, Fujishima Kousuke and Animeigo takes credit 
for associating Urd of Norse mythology with kawaii features and 
a computer engineering degree, Cinderella is an old fairy tale,
which leaves me with Hainoko and Kidori, who are derivative and
belong to everyone.  Basho belongs to himself. Not to worry,
since I don't figure on making any money off this anyway.




As always, C&C greatly appreciated.  The rest of the story is at:
http://www.wanderway.com/cinder/ashes.htm
Comments to:  jeeades@wanderway.com

sig?  okay.  here goes: --------------------------------------
ain't is a legitimate word, often badly used.
it is a contraction of 'am not', as in "I ain't happy."
"It ain't the same" is not good grammar, but it says what it means.


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