Ranma awoke to silence. Uncertainty kept her still and breathing evenly, showing no signs of her awakening, as she strained her senses in search of a threat. Finding none she shifted slightly as she cracked her eyes. She was in a bedroom, she realized. She winced as her skin complained about the rough weave of the sheet that covered her.
Glancing down and drawing one hand from her side up to grasp the sheet and lift it slightly confirmed that her clothing had been removed at some point. She rolled on to her side to look about the room and the feel of the cloth sent her eyes back to the sheet covering her slight form. What had they covered her with, sackcloth? Yet what met her eyes was no rough and poorly made cloth but a comfortable looking cotton sheet.
Warily she retreated within her mind, thinking that her senses must have been heightened by the presence of the cat, as the memory of the earlier events returned to her. To her surprise she realized that she could sense the cat but that it slept. Furthermore, the ki technique of the Neko-ken lay equally dormant.
Returning her attention to the room she looked about but saw no sign of her clothing. Thinking back to her memories she realized that her pack was probably still lying in that cleft in the rock face, while the clothes she had been wearing were somewhere in the hands of the women who had found her.
Instead of a logical consideration of where she was and what she should next do, Ranma found herself unexpectedly overcome by a sense of loss. She struggled against the startling strength of emotion, tears collecting in her eyes as a voice in her mind bemoaned the loss of her clothes, the absence of the soft silks that would feel so much better against her skin than the harsh cloth of the bedcoverings.
She threw off the covers in a sudden fit of anger, swinging her legs out over the edge of the bed and sitting up. The anger passed as quickly as the sense of loss had, though the tears lingered still in her eyes, and left in its place a sudden longing for the comforting arms of the girl that had held her. The sudden realization that she could no longer run through the castle halls and find comfort from Alana or Mairi or any of the other women who had always been there for him hit her hard and she sank to her knees as a terrible loneliness swept over her.
The murmur of distant voices caught her ear and she leapt to the door of the room. It was with a great effort that she held herself from rushing through the door to find the source of the voices even as she reminded herself that she was without clothing. She turned from the door, her eyes catching on the simple dresser that stood against a wall. The room was mostly empty, devoid of any personalization giving her the sense of a guestroom, but they just might have provided clothing. She was stopped by the slowly nearing voices as they came close enough to be discernable and comprehensible.
"I was startled, as you can imagine, when Perfume returned and said that the Jusenkyou Guide had indeed seen such a person come from the pools." Ranma recognized the voice as that of the old woman the girls had taken her to.
"But I thought you said that it had been voluntary?" The second voice was also female though it sounded younger and stronger.
"I think the initial change was voluntary but as she did not change when I doused her I think she must have run into the Musk and the Chisuiiton, their locking ladle. That would explain the state she was in when Shampoo found her; being locked may have made her realize that she was not as ready to be a woman as she had thought, or it may simply have been too much for her in too short a time."
"And what of the cat-fist?"
"I do not see what else it could have been, but though the child behaved in a very feline manner, she reacted to my test with a move that is not in any description of the cat-fist that I have seen. But come, we'll speak no more of it for now, we are getting over close and soon we'll be within hearing distance of the child's room."
Realizing that they were indeed coming to her room Ranma turned away from the door, ignoring the dresser for now, and climbed back into the bed. Forcing aside the rough feel of the cloth Ranma managed to scrape together enough concentration to put herself back to sleep.
Though her intent was merely to remove any suspicions the women might have of her having been able to hear them, her action had an unexpected and unintended consequence; the noise of the women entering the room awakened the cat while she still slept.
Lotion and Cologne had barely entered the room when Ranma sprang from the bed only to collapse in a heap on the floor, tangled within her sheets. Without Ranma awake to supply an overwhelming diet of emotion, the cat was not particularly interested in the people that had just entered the room. Clawing the sheets away she sat up and proceeded to lick her hand, pointedly ignoring the women.
When they refused to take the hint and leave, Ranma blurred into motion, springing out the door and down the hall, her cat self not the least bit self-conscious about her nudity, which was, after all, a cat's natural state. The women followed hurriedly behind, noting in passing the blank-eyed stare of Shampoo's father.
They burst from the house to see Cologne's heir staring open-mouthed at the little redhead, who was leaping about beneath a tree, happily swatting at falling leaves.
Seeing that they were beginning to attract a crowd, Cologne signaled Shampoo. When her heir approached, Cologne ordered her to entice the cat back inside the house. Shampoo dutifully stepped into the open doorway.
"Here kitty, come here kitty," she called. Ranma glanced at her for a moment before returning to her play. Shampoo felt a presence behind her and glanced back to see her father. She gratefully accepted the small platter of fish that he had handed her. Grabbing one of the thin slices, she tossed it, aiming carefully just as Ranma leapt again. The fish slapped wetly against Ranma's cheek then fell to the ground.
A jeering comment from one of the bystanders awoke Ranma. She was too disoriented to be feeling much of anything but she quickly realized that she was still unclothed and looking about, spied the nice cuddle toy in the door of the house several meters away. A single powerful leap sent her and Shampoo tumbling into the house. They fetched up against the far wall even as Cologne rushed back inside in fear for her great-granddaughter.
Cologne slowed then came to a halt watching as the little redhead licked Shampoo's face while Shampoo tried to fend her off, with little success. Once more Cologne received an impression of genuine skill, for the slight girl was avoiding Shampoo's defensive hands with casual unconcern.
Shampoo finally gave up trying to hold off the girl and simply looked pleadingly at her great-grandmother, while her father collapsed in laughter. Cologne shot him a dark glance but said nothing. He was not familiar with the cat-fist and she had to admit that had she not known the danger her heir was in, the scene would have been quite amusing.
When Shampoo saw that her great-grandmother was making no move to aid her she gave in and began stroking the brilliant red hair of the oddly behaving girl. She was quickly rewarded, for the girl immediately stopped licking her face, and dropped her head, rubbing it against Shampoo's belly while Shampoo stroked her hair.
Soon it was obvious that the cat-like girl was falling asleep. Both Cologne and Shampoo were startled when just after the girl's eyes finally closed into sleep, she rolled off of Shampoo's lap onto her knees and bowed low to Shampoo.
"I thank you, kind stranger," the girl said in a high, clear voice. "Please forgive my behavior, I am not quite myself."
"So I had assumed," replied Cologne. The girl swiveled to face her, raising her head to meet Cologne's gaze steadily. "Given that you have so recently suffered the curse of Jusenkyou."
The girl flushed and looked down. "It... it was not that. I... I am on a journey of self-discovery and the second step on that journey was to tear down all the barriers I had built up around my emotions." She raised her head again, her eyes azure pools of sorrow without end.
Cologne nodded. That fit with the Guide's description of a willing victim, but that also meant... "Why then, child, did you not change when I splashed you with hot water?"
The girl flushed and looked down again, obviously embarrassed. "You are right, I'm sorry, I'm still not thinking clearly. The meditation was the third... no, the fourth step, not the second."
"What's that got to do with her question?" put in Shampoo, frowning in confusion.
The girl flushed even harder. "Sorry, I... The second... no, I mean, the third step... was to master the curse... then I broke the barriers."
Cologne felt a shiver race down her spine, a cold chill that settled in her bones. "Master the curse? What do you mean, child?"
"Well," answered the girl, raising her head, eyes glistening with the hint of tears, "I can't very well learn to be a woman if I change back to a man constantly, now can I?"
"You... you have control of your curse?" Cologne's voice shook and Shampoo stared at her in amazement then turned her attention back to the little redhead.
The girl nodded. "Yes, I locked myself. I will not leave this form until I am capable of fulfilling my duty."
"Your duty?"
The girl flushed unaccountably. "I... I cannot speak of it," she said, her voice quavering, tears beginning to slip down her cheeks and drip to the floor. She bowed still further. "Please forgive me," she said, choking back a sob. "I can't..."
She seemed to curl in on herself, shivering suddenly. Before her eyes, where only she could see, hovered the image of her Lady, suspended, seemingly lifeless, in the depths of a pool waiting to be freed. "It's all my fault!" she wailed suddenly, sobbing and rocking back and forth, "all my fault," she sobbed again.
Shampoo glanced at her great-grandmother for permission and then for the first time she deliberately gathered the delicate redhead to her, comforting her as best she could, stroking the girl's fire-red hair and rubbing her strongly muscled back. She glanced up at her great-grandmother, thinking about what she had just heard. "Was boy, before?" she asked, mouthing the words. She grinned when her great-grandmother nodded. She wondered what kind of a man it took to produce such unbelievable beauty from the springs. A slow smirk grew on her face as she considered it. She had a man that none of her competitors even knew existed, a martial artist skilled enough to successfully defend against her great-grandmother while in the depths of sorrow, who, if what she had understood was correct, had mastered the curse of Jusenkyou within an hour of being cursed! And when he was ready to change back, well, then maybe she would have her Airen, and stupid Mousse would finally see that he would never have her.
"Shhh," she crooned, "it's okay, it's not your fault." She shifted slightly, pressing the girl's tear-stained cheek against her bosom. The girl had been a boy such a short time before, she would still be vulnerable to Shampoo's charms, assuredly. If she became familiar with them while Shampoo comforted her, what of it? She would remember them, when she took back her old form.
Her great-grandmother gestured at her and she nodded. Shifting, she worked her legs under her and then wormed her arms beneath the girl and lifted, rising easily to her feet. She followed her great-grandmother down the hall, but when the withered old lady turned into the guest bedroom, Shampoo shook her head and kept going. Cologne smiled knowingly as Shampoo laid her burden down upon her own bed, then pulled the silk sheets from beneath the girl and tucked them back in about her. She stroked the red hair out of the girl's face to look at it, then turned and ran back to the front room, where she spun to face her great-grandmother.
"What a man he must be!" she cried out. "I hope his eyes are that same blue."
Cologne smirked at her again. "Careful, Shampoo. You don't want your competition learning the truth about her, now do you?"
Shampoo shook her head, eyes sparkling as she pictured her handsome soon-to-be husband. "No, but don't you have something that can show me what he looks like?"
Cologne hmmed, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "I am not sure, Shampoo. Perhaps. It will take some time to find, if I do... in the meantime, you must care for the child. She needs affection while she is learning to deal with her changes. Keep her inside or, if that becomes impossible, make sure she is clothed before she leaves. She does not need additional trauma from some foolish male who believes that outsiders have no rights."
Shampoo nodded and hurried back to her bedroom. The redhead was not asleep as Shampoo had expected. Her eyes were red from tears but they had stopped falling and she was sitting up, watching the door. She offered Shampoo a hesitant smile, which strengthened when Shampoo responded with a strong smile of her own.
"No worries, we will help you," she said, flouncing over to her dresser and pulling out a drawer. "But first, since you are awake," and she tossed a grin and a wink over her shoulder at the other girl, "we should get you dressed. You don't need to have worry about jealous women coming after you because you turned their husbands into drooling wrecks with another show like this morning's." She smirked as she drew out panties and a bra and tossed them to the bed, waiting for his reaction, which she expected to be amusing. Men could be so fun to tease.
After a moment she turned around, pouting involuntarily, to see the little redhead already wearing the panties. Her grin returned as she watched the neo-girl struggling with the bra. It snapped and the girl jumped with a yelp then glared at the offending garment. Shampoo giggled and bounced over, taking it from her and showing her how to put it on properly, taking the opportunity to rub her bosom against his arm. She knew she needed to catch his attention and his attraction before he grew accustomed to his female hormones. She was not planning on letting any chances of snaring this man pass unheeded, unless Cologne found a way to show her his male form and it turned out to be ugly. That was so unlikely as to not even be worth considering.
Stepping back and looking at the result--the blushing and embarrassed redhead, clad in panties and a bra, her lithe, powerful form otherwise fully displayed, Shampoo thought about Perfume's earlier comment. Maybe waiting was not really necessary. Learning that she was actually a man had led to a frank reappraisal of the girl as husband material. It was not difficult to take that a step further and consider the girl as a lover. Definitely something to think about, Shampoo decided. It might well cement her hold.
"Shampoo?" The shy question brought Shampoo's attention back to the here and now and she fought back a blush as she realized that she had been staring. She nodded as if she had simply been making a decision, and turned to her dresser, pulling out a silk cheongsam and silk pants to wear beneath it.
"Here, I think these will fit you," she said, holding out the garments with a smirk. The little redhead did not rise to the bait. She rose from the bed in silence and taking the clothes, began to put them on. Shampoo sighed as she moved to help the girl put them on properly. It would be more fun if she realized she was being teased, or at least reacted to it. How can she be so stoic about it, when she was so emotional before?
When the girl was properly attired, she sat back down on the silk sheets of Shampoo's bed. Shampoo sat beside her. "So, do you have a name? Or should I just call you Little Redhead, hmm?"
The girl blushed, looking down. "Sorry about that," she apologized, then paused as if considering what name to give.
"Worry about a girl's name later," Shampoo laughed, guessing her quandry, "What is your given name?"
"Ranma," the redhead replied. "Fey Ranma."
"Xiao," Shampoo said, "Spirited Horse... or Chang Ma, maybe... but I don't know what Fey means."
"But it's still a guy's name," protested Ranma softly, smoothing out a wrinkle in her cheongsam as if to emphasize her current femininity, though the gesture was perhaps marred by the way it widened the thigh high slit, revealing the concealing silk pants beneath.
"We could call you Lie Fa," Shampoo offered, "Fiery Hair is close enough to little redhead, don't you think?"
Ranma nodded, raising her head and grinning, and though her eyes were still reddened from the tears she had shed earlier, they were dry, and sparkling with amusement. "That'll do, I guess, Shampoo. Thanks." Then she sighed, her shoulders hunching in as she clutched her elbows. "I... uhm... I kinda didn't wake up until just before I jumped on you out there... Would... would you mind telling me what I did? I didn't hurt anyone, did I?"
Shampoo shook her head slowly, not knowing what to make of Leaf's curious statement. "No, you just ran out of the bedroom, outside, until you got distracted by the leaves falling from a tree, and started batting at them."
Ranma, now Leaf, breathed out a sigh of relief. "I'm so glad. I hate waking up from that, never knowing what I've done, whether I've killed . . ." Her voice trailed off, her eyes becoming shadowed and unfocused. A chill ran down Shampoo's spine, as she considered Leaf's words. It sounded to her like Leaf had, at least once, awakened to discover she had killed someone.
Shampoo knew, from her lessons, that her first kill of another person, which she had not yet made, would have a profound effect on her. Everyone spoke in hushed, pained tones of their first, and she had seen the effect it had on one of the girls two years ahead of her, though generally the girls going through that trauma were brought quickly and silently into the village and isolated from their unblooded peers until they were emotionally balanced again.
She remembered the fear for her she had seen in her grandmother's eyes several times around Leaf, as well as Leaf's curious words. She had clearly been awake from the moment she left her room, so what did it mean when she said she woke up just before she had pounced on Shampoo like a cat on a mouse?
She felt a presence behind her and glanced over her shoulder. Her great-grandmother was in the doorway, balanced on her staff, looking at Leaf with what looked startlingly like compassion in her eyes.
"You know the Neko-ken," Cologne said, stating it as a fact.
Leaf nodded, raising one hand and looking at it with a strange expression in her eyes. "Yes, I know it. I had mastered it, years ago, mastered the fear and been able to use the technique at will, the spirit of the cat kept locked within no matter what happened." She sounded contemplative, as if she were speaking more to herself than to anyone else that might be hearing her. "But when I tore down the walls of ice in my mind, my emotions were too much. I think I lost myself for a while there. Whatever the reason, I broke the barriers around the cat, as well."
She looked up then, meeting Cologne's eyes. "I don't think I'm terribly dangerous that way right now, though. I'm not sure, but..." She heaved a sigh again. "I think, maybe, that the cat's reputation is partly due to the way it only got let out after a bout of intense fear. Right now, it is like it is just sleeping, and waking, not quite in sync with me."
"It woke up first," Shampoo interjected, not knowing a tithe of what her great-grandmother knew about the Neko-ken, but able to put Leaf's words together with what she herself had observed to come quite close to understanding, "that's what you meant when you said you didn't wake up until you jumped on me... and when I," she blushed unaccountably, looking at the top of Leaf's head to keep from meeting her great-grandmother's gaze, "when I stroked your hair, it put the cat to sleep, not you."
"Only because I was trying to stay awake, I think," Leaf replied. She looked at Cologne. "When we're both awake, it's like... it's like the cat's thoughts are on top of me, or underneath mine." She flushed. "The cat...," her eyes dropped unwilling to meet Colognes as she continued, "the cat thinks of you like a toy, Cologne-san... uhm... inedible, but fun to play with." Shampoo giggled, putting her hand to her mouth and glancing at Cologne as if fearing retribution, but unable to stop herself.
"And Shampoo?" Cologne asked, setting aside her irritation at the redhead's characterization of her in favor of her own concern and curiousity about her great-granddaughter's safety around the redhead. Promising though the child might be as both a martial artist, and a marriage prospect for Shampoo, if her great-granddaughter was in genuine danger, she would do whatever it took to ensure her safety.
Leaf's flush deepened and she snuck a glance at Shampoo before looking down again. "Uh... it uh... kinda thinks of her like a pet... someone to cuddle and stroke it."
Cologne cackled as both girls' faces flamed.
---
A tremor ran through the photograph in Cologne's hand and it was only the old woman's iron will that kept tears from her eyes. "Oh, my poor Shampoo," she thought sadly, "this will devastate her." There was no choice though, no alternative. The law was as clear as the photograph. The beautiful and skillful and delightfully easy to teach girl that Cologne had taken into her home was not only in fact a male, as they already knew... she was a werecreature. A weretiger, from the looks of it.
"I should have pushed that change in the laws through when I first learned of the werecheetahs, and their ideals. Not all were-creatures are evil, and I knew it. If I had only... but it is too late now. I am so sorry, my child." Cologne said nothing aloud but raised her eyes from the picture and passed it to the elder to her left.
She offered no reaction to the gleeful, malicious look of her primary political rival amongst the council. There was little doubt in her mind who to blame for this. She did not know who had taken the photograph but there was little doubt in her mind that the original accusation stemmed from Mousse, the frequent victim of Shampoo's protective instincts for Ranma, and Ranma's for Shampoo.
When the last elder held the photograph in her hand, Cologne's rival did not waste any time on asking for a concensus. The lack of an objection from Cologne had already sealed Ranma's fate, and they both knew it. She moved immediately on to the next piece of her plot.
"The accusation has been made," the elder said, calming her face to at least the appearance of disinterested objectivity, "that the warrior, Shampoo, has already fallen under the influence of the vile beast, coming to love it by its arts."
Cologne shook with fury but said nothing, already knowing what was coming and knowing too that there was little now that she could do about it. "I am sorry, Shampoo," she thought sadly.
"Therefore let that warrior prove herself by dispatching the beast before the assembled council!"
---
Shampoo stared at her grandmother in abject horror and disbelief. "No, no, it cannot be," she protested. "She is kind, and..."
Her grandmother cut her off. "You must make no protests, child. We have no choice now. If you defend her, they will only see it as evidence that they are correct, that you are in her thrall and must be exiled yourself."
Shampoo opened her mouth and shut it again, her eyes wide, her hands trembling. Finally she gave a tremulous nod.
When the elders gathered, they found Cologne and Shampoo already in the werebeast's room, Cologne just stepping back from having placed one of the Amazon's artifacts on the delicate redhead's stomach. A small jade figurine, when activated by a trickle of ki, it would paralyze anyone that touched it except the one who charged it, and would not accept a new charge until it fully drained, after several weeks.
When the elders were fully assembled, one of them stepped forward, holding out on hands covered by a single cloth, a sword of surpassing beauty, gleaming silver. Shampoo recognized it at once, from their legends. It was a weapon of power, wielded in times of demon resurgences by the strongest warrior of their people. She accepted it with no sign of emotion, but inwardly she was weeping, for it was also a blade of judgement. Against demons, it would cast them back into the pits. Against a normal opponent, so it was said, it would cast out their soul, removing them from the cycle of reincarnation and ascendance, sentencing them to wander as spirits.
Cologne stepped forward then, tapping a tsubo to bring the child to full consciousness. Reaching out, knowing that Ranma could not move, she gently brushed the girl's eyelids, opening her eyes so that she could face her accusers, even though she would be given no opportunity to present a defense.
She stepped back and another crone moved forward, holding a scroll, from which she read in a thin, high voice. "Outsider, evidence has been presented proving you to be a werebeast. Know that for such an accursed creature to cross the boundaries of our land, there is only one punishment." She looked up with a wicked smile. "Death!"
Ranma could not see everyone in the room, being unable to move her eyes. It was with shock and sudden despair that she saw Shampoo step into her vision bearing a sword, her face stoic, showing no signs of distress. She wanted to cry out to her. "You know me, Shampoo! I'm your friend, I'm not some beastly thing like Krall! It's just a technique." But she could say nothing.
Ranma stared up her eyes burning, tears of disbelief and pain collecting. How could they so easily believe this of her? Did the friendship she had offered mean nothing? She tried to summon up the energy to destroy them, thinking that a single unfocused burst of ki should probably undo whatever pressure point they used to freeze her. She might not make it out alive, knowing the years upon years of experience held by the ancient warriors facing her, but she could take some of them with her at least.
She could not find it in herself, though, to harm Shampoo nor Cologne, both of whom she had come to love as family. She could scarcely credit that they were going along with this, but she knew of Krall, and what he had done to her people. If they had been similarly treated by werebeasts... she wondered how it would have felt if Krall had been a trusted advisor when his depradations were uncovered, and imagined they must be feeling no less pain right now, no less a sense of betrayal. She gave herself over to the coming death, resigning herself to it with the realization that at least her beloved Alana would finally be freed.
She tried but failed to catch Shampoo's eyes, for her own would not move to meet them. "At least, then," she decided, "let me make it easier for her, for she has not seen it."
The collected elders gasped as one, as even as Shampoo's sword pierced into Ranma's breast, slicing cleanly through on a hard thrust that would spear her heart, she grew, swelling into a felinoid form, causing the sword to cut a gash down her chest, ending with it piercing her stomach. The jade statue shivered and toppled. Even as the elders rushed forward to prevent the beast's escape, two things occurred simultaneously. Ranma's soul was ripped out, cast from his body, and the flare of ki at the unexpected pain cutting beyond his physical body triggered the next stage. They stared in aghast wonder at the lifeless body of the slain female dragon, realization coming all too late.
Shampoo lost it then, staring at the unbelievably beautiful body of the one that should have been her husband, blatantly more powerful than any male brought into the tribe in the last century, now lifeless, dead at her hand. She threw herself across it, sobbing uncontrollably. Cologne's face turned grim as her rival saw her advantage waver and vanish like mist.
---
Ranma's spirit was torn from her body with terrible force. She finally came to rest, her spiritual flesh seeming to hang in rents from her battered frame, only a few feet from an unimprinted spring in Jusenkyou. Even as she struggled to stand upright, she could feel the waters pulling at her, eager to take her, to imprison her forever. Shivering in fear and pain, she stumbled away, avoiding the water solely by the hungry feel of it, shambling through a white haze that obscured everything.
"I'm dead," she muttered in dismay. "So why does it hurt so much?" She stumbled, a cold metallic chill freezing her skin, pain radiating from ragged cuts and bone-deep bruises. An ominous clanking sound echoed her fall and she stared down at herself. Her eyes widened, filling with tears, as her hands slowly rose to clasp the frigid chains that wrapped around her, searing her skin with a cold beyond that of ice or snow. For the barest instant she had hope that this was merely some form of punishment, but as her eyes followed their course, she could see the chains vanishing into the distance.
"I'm dead, she should be free!" she screamed, pounding her fist against the ground. She grabbed at the chains and tried to pull them away then screamed in agony as they reacted, freezing her hands. The pain was intense beyond anything she could remember. Screaming still, she jerked back and her hands shattered like fragile crystal. She stared at the white on white stumps, her voice failing her, and she collapsed in a dead faint.