The Jusenkyo guide looked up in surprise at the brilliant flash of white light outside his hut. A young man stood there, clothed in a tight fitting black shirt that highlighted his strong musculature, and loose pants. He was tall, six foot at least. His hair was black, and his eyes a deep blue. He was staring at the pools. "Honored Customer understands Mandarin, yes?" asked the guide.
The young man turned to him, "Very well, thank you, Honored Guide. Tell me please, which pool is the Nyannichuan?" The guide turned almost purple. Customers NEVER listened to him, never heard him until AFTER they had fallen in.
"No, no, Honored Customer, you must not go to that pool. Is very tragic story," he said quickly.
Ranma interjected, "Yes, yes, I know. Very tragic story. Now which one is it?"
The Guide sighed. Even when they listened, it did no good. He said, "Very well, Honored Customer, I see you will not listen, like all the others. Nyannichuan is this way." He led the boy on a careful path through the pools, before finally pointing to one.
He sighed, and watched, as the young man set down his pack, then waded in and dunked his head. She broke the surface, brilliant red hair glistening in the sun. The Guide gulped, and quickly turned away, as she rose. The shirt that had been tight on the young man was looser on her waist, but threatening to burst under the pressure from her chest. She looked down. "Wow," she said, then quickly stripped off the shirt. The Guide fainted. She climbed out of the pool. She rummaged in her pack for a minute or two, then found a looser shirt, and put it on. Looking over at the Guide, laying in a pool of blood that seemed to have leaked from his nose, she lifted him easily to her shoulders, then tromped back the way she had come, focusing the Juushin Jisei to keep from accidentally falling into any of the other pools.
When the Guide came to, he was lying in his own bed, a cool cloth on his forehead, being watched by the beautiful redhead. She was nearly a foot shorter than her male side, built smaller, but still well muscled. "Sorry to put you through that," she said, her voice softer and richer than it had been as a man. He gulped again in surprise. A customer apologizing to him? That had never happened before. They were always furious with him, even though he tried as hard as he could to stop them.
"You... you knew what would happen?" he asked, his fear clear in his voice.
She laughed, a delightful sound. "Yes, I knew. Now, you just lie here. I've got to do something. Don't interfere, please. It would be very bad, if you did." She stood up, and he noticed that she had drawn on the wood floor of his hut a circle in chalk, with strange symbols around it, and was standing in it. She reached behind her, and pulled off the small band that held her pigtail, and shook her head, freeing her glorious fiery hair, which fell in soft curves over her shoulders, spilling down her strong back.
She started chanting something, in a strange language, and he realized she had produced a scroll from somewhere and was reading it. How strange today was. First that crying man had come and turned into a panda, now this young man comes and turns himself into a girl and starts chanting strange things in his hut.
She seemed to suddenly have come to the conclusion of her chant. She slumped bonelessly to the ground. He got quickly out of his bed, and felt her neck. Her pulse was steady and strong. He lifted her, and placed her on his bed, watching worriedly. How strange this was.
After several hours, he heard movement outside. Leaving her, he found that the crying man had returned. He was jabbering excitedly about having finally 'felt his ki again!' and asking about a man named Ranma. When the Guide finally understood that the man was asking whether a young man had been by, he became nervous. This man was a martial artist, and the young man was now an unconscious young woman. If this crying man decided to kill or take advantage of the young lady, there would be little the Guide could do to help. He too was a martial artist, but he did not feel he was in this crying man's league.
He tried to draw the man out, slowly. He got enough of a physical description to think that this might indeed be the young man the crying man wanted... hair color and eye color were right, and he did indeed look Japanese, like the crying man. What finally convinced him was when the crying man explained that he was looking for his son, that he had been looking for him for eight years, and that he had just felt the touch of his son's ki.
He led the man into the hut, and pointed to the young girl. In broken Japanese, he said, "Young man come, ask for Nyannichuan. I try to warn, but very insistent. Finally show him, he go in, she come out."
The crying man broke down, wailing his anguish. The promise was broken, he would have to commit seppeku. The Guide had considerable difficulty understanding him, as he was wailing in Japanese, and too fast, and so assumed that the man's anguish was a natural thing for a father to feel about a son who had just been cursed. He did have to convince the man not to throw the boiling water for tea onto the young woman. "Much better when awake, you see, you see."
---
Ranma found himself sitting on a hill, looking over a valley. A stream ran down the hill from somewhere behind him, and babbled happily as it gurgled across the stony bed, before falling in a spray of color down the hill. All about, the land was green and bright. He noticed that he was male again, and wearing his tight black shirt. From behind him, he heard a tentative voice say, "Ranma?"
He spun around, coming immediately to a defensive posture, before relaxing. She was standing there, looking demure and frightened, yet truly beautiful, hair like a glorious nimbus of fire around her exotic face, with delicate features and wide slightly upturned almond shaped eyes, that sparkled a brilliant blue. She had a marvelous figure, and she was wearing a short yellow sundress.
She took a hesitant step toward him, and asked again, "Ranma, is that really you?" When he nodded, her face lit up in joy, and he felt his heart hammering in his chest. She leapt forward, wrapping her arms around him. He responded slowly, then hugged her tightly as he felt her sob into his chest. "Oh, Ranma, I've been so lonely waiting for you."
"What do you mean?" he asked. "You weren't supposed to have awakened until just now."
"No, no," she said, "I've been awake ever since that terrible pit with the cats. After... after you became the cat... the first time you woke up, the cat came here, and woke me up."
"Neko-Ranma is in here?" he asked, incredulous.
"Yes, he's ever so much fun."
"I... I... I'm sorry. I wish I had known. I've kept you caged in here for so long. I wish I could make it up to you."
"Don't feel bad, Ranma. You couldn't have known. Come with me, I want to show you my house."
He followed her down the slope of the hill, and saw a beautiful one story house of stone thatched with straw.
"Wow. You made this?"
"Oh yes. Neko! Neko, come here." She called out to the house, and the front door swung wide, and Neko-Ranma came running out, on all fours, and loped up to them, then sat and looked at them inscrutably for a moment, before starting to wind himself between their legs, rubbing up against them both, and purring.
"So that's how you recognized me. He looks just like me."
"He is you, Ranma. So am I. Come inside, please." She led him inside, and sat him down on a couch. Neko-Ranma jumped up and curled up on Ranma's lap, purring softly. Ranma petted his hair, and scratched behind his ears. She sat down beside him, and scratched Neko-Ranma's back lightly. "I've been wanting to meet you for a long time. I know what Alana told you."
"You know about Alana?," he asked in surprise.
"Yes, Ranma. I know that when Neko gets out, you don't remember. But I can see what you see, and I see what he sees. I watched him kill that man," and she saw the color drain from his face. "Ranma," she said sharply, "It wasn't his fault. That man tried to force him to kill someone else. He deserved it. Alana was right. And before you ask, no she didn't know I was awake either." Ranma sighed, and went back to petting Neko-Ranma's soft hair. Ranko considered for a moment whether to tell him that the Lady Sylia had known, but decided that he would feel less guilty if he didn't know.
"Maybe now, when you let Neko or me out, you can come here, and watch us, if you want to."
"What do you mean, let Neko out? He only comes out when I've been driven mad by cats. And that won't happen anymore. I've gotten over the fear."
"I know you have Ranma. But he's still a part of you, or he wouldn't be here. Surely you don't intend to keep him locked up in here forever, do you?" She looked at him with pleading eyes, big and blue, and glistening with tears, and he felt himself melt inside.
"No, I can't do that, can I. But I've got to be able to keep him from killing."
"But Ranma, if you let him out, then you aren't hiding... so you can be here watching, and take over if he goes too far."
"Hey, you're right! That's wonderful! And.. and that must mean that you know what I've just done," and his voice was suddenly small and scared. Here, inside his mind, he couldn't hide behind his barriers of ice, and his emotions were constantly visible on his face.
"Yes, Ranma, I know." She threw her arms about him, and hugged him fiercely. Neko-Ranma meowed piteously, trapped between them, and leapt to escape. "And I love you for it. Its more than I ever dared hope for. More than I deserve."
"No," he said sharply, "It isn't more than you deserve. You deserve so much more,... Oh dear. I just realized I don't know what to call you, Red."
"Red will do nicely, Ranma. But maybe, outside, I can be Ranko?" and she looked up at him with those glorious deep blue eyes, light glinting off a hint of moisture, and he lost himself in their swirling depths.
"Of course you can," he replied then he realized something was missing. "Where'd Neko-Ranma disappear to?"
"He went out," she said, quietly, silently pleading for him to not be angry, "do you want to go watch him?"
"Yes, please," he replied, trying to hold on to his sudden fear. That poor Guide, surely Neko wouldn't hurt him.
Red held him, and the scene changed around them, and they were sitting on a large rock, and before them was a pool, still and crystal clear, and as he looked at the pool, it suddenly clouded, and then he saw what Neko-Ranma was seeing... a panda, running away very fast, then Ranko's hand, as she licked it.
---
The Guide was still struggling with Genma about the hot water, when they both heard a low rumbling growl behind them. They turned slowly, and looked, and saw Neko-Ranko, crouching on the bed, growling. "Oh dear," the Guide said, "This never never happen before." Genma jerked away, spilling the kettle, which by this time had grown cold, and turned into a panda. For a split second, the two stared at each other, then the panda turned and fled through the open door, not daring to look behind him.
The Guide watched in stunned surprise, as the strangely behaving girl proceeded to lick her hand and use it to rub behind her ear, smoothing the hair back. She settled down, and purred at him. "Heh, heh. Nice kitty," he said, nervously, "that's a good kitty." He wanted to leap for the door as well, but he knew a sudden movement could well elicit a sudden reaction.
He didn't know about the cat's claws, but he could well imagine the father's reaction, if he came back, and found the Guide pinned under his son/daughter. He doubted any amount of explaining would save him then, especially since he had not the foggiest clue how to explain this peculiar behavior. So he did not move an inch, not even when Neko-Ranko leapt lightly down, and brushed up against his leg, purring. When no caresses were forthcoming, she loped off in the direction Genma had gone.
Genma, meanwhile, had run for several minutes, before glancing back, and realizing that he could see no signs of pursuit. The heavyset panda sat in a clearing, wondering what on earth had gone wrong with the boy. The Guide's explanation still ran through his head. Genma's form was an accident. But the boy had come and bathed in the Nyannichuan deliberately. Was it a ploy? Had the boy somehow found out about the seppeku pledge he had signed with Nodoka, forfeiting his life if he returned and Ranma was not a man among men? Could he possibly have learned of it and yet been unaware that Ranma would also have to commit seppeku? Who could have told him? Why else would he do it?
Genma was still pondering this, when he noticed the forest around him had gone eerily silent. He was wondering what it meant up to the very moment that Neko-Ranko landed on top of him, knocking him to his back. He instantly went rigid, terribly afraid, remembering what those claws could do, and realizing that there was no way he could get away from Ranma before Ranma could slice him open. If Ranma really wanted him dead, then Genma was dead.
But Neko-Ranko just stood there on top of Genma, then curled up on his chest, purring, and went to sleep. Ranma let Genma lie stiff with terror for nearly twenty minutes before asking Ranko if she wanted him to deal with Genma before she had to meet him. She nodded. "He deserves whatever you give him for what he did. But I never got a chance to know him, to have a father. I'd like to. Don't kill him if you don't have to. But make sure he understands I'm not you. I mean, I am, but not the way he would think it."
After twenty minutes, Onna-Ranma's head lifted. "Hey, Oyaji. Long time, no see." he shifted, so that he was kneeling on his father's chest. Genma sat, stiff and scared. He could tell that Ranma had continued training... even his female body was lean and strong.
"Why, boy. Why'd you do it?" Genma was terribly frightened of the answer, but he had to ask.
"For Ranko." Genma just gaped. "For Ranko, Oyaji. You locked her in my mind, trapped her there with your training. Because of you, I can't free the Lady Alana." Genma gaped some more. Who the hell was Ranko, how had Genma's training had anything to do with her, and who the devil was Lady Alana? "I know you aren't capapable of really understanding this. Just look at it this way. You had a daughter." Genma shook his head frantically.
"Don't shake your head at me old man. You are going to ACCEPT her as your daughter, got that?" He held out his hand and flicked his fingers out, and summoned Neko's chi claws, letting them hang there, visible. "I control the Nekoken now, Oyaji. I mastered it. Deny me this, and I'll flay you! Believe me, Ranko means far more to me than my worthless father, who drove his son mad." Genma nodded nervously. He had thought, for just a moment, to lapse back into the old ways of dealing with his son... but was stilled by the coldness he saw in his son's eyes. He looked in his son's eyes, and saw death, and at the same time, he was overwhelmed by a flood of pride. His biggest mistake, the stupid Neko-ken training, and his son had mastered it!
"Ranko is your daughter. She's trapped in my mind. She ain't talking to you right now, understand. This is still me, Ranma. I went and got this body, so she could be comfortable when I let her out. You make her uncomfortable about it, and I'm gonna make me some panda sausage. You got that?" Genma nodded vociferously, fear lurking in his dark eyes.
"Alright, I'm gonna get up now. You run, and I'll hunt you down. You stand up, and wait right here. I'm gonna get Ranko, and let her talk to you. I say again, you hurt her, and you're sausage meat."
Onna-Ranma stood up slowly and stepped back. Panda-Genma stood equally slowly. Onna-Ranma said, "You can't meet her like that." He pointed his arm at Genma, and a thin stream of hot water sprayed out of a previously invisible opening in his sleeve, hitting the old man in the chest, returning him to his human form.
"Hey, if you can do that, why aren't you turning back," Genma demanded. He didn't really understand what Ranma was going on about, and wasn't sure whether to believe his son, and now that he was human, and standing, he felt much more comfortable, ready to defend himself. He might have to unseal the forbidden techniques, but he could tame his wild son again.
"I told you old man," Onna-Ranma replied, popping her chi claws out again, and slicing the air with them, "You're here to meet her. You think she wants to meet you wearing my skin? Now shut up and wait." Her claws disappeared, and her eyes turned blank, then sparkled again.
Genma stared, as the solid fury of Onna-Ranma seemed to melt into diffidence. Ranko dug her foot into the ground, looking down. "Uhm.... Its nice to meet you, Genma-san." She looked up at him with kawaii eyes, big and blue and glistening with tears. "I never had a father. Will you be my father, Genma-san?" Genma nodded slowly, wonder and awe in his eyes. What was going on here? Ranko smiled suddenly, and Genma felt as if the whole clearing had been lit up, and then it didn't matter what was wrong with Ranma. He had a little girl, and she was hugging him, him, her father. He slowly hugged her back, wondering what on earth he was doing. Then again, as he thought further on it... Ranko might well be his key to controlling the strong and independent young man his son had become. Maybe he could extract some information from her, start planning his next move...
"R-R... Ranko, dear," he began, looking down at her, "Ranma said he mastered the cat-fist." She nodded happily, grinning up at him. "But, but... in the hut... You were acting like a cat."
"No Papa-san," she said, and he felt his heart swell again, to hear this beautiful little girl call him Papa, "That wasn't me, that was Neko. Ranma has mastered the cat-fist, and because he has, I have." She stepped back, and waggled her fingers, chi-claws playfully slashing the air before vanishing, "but Neko's still in there, and he wants to come out and play sometimes. You will let me keep him, won't you Papa-san?" She begged him, eyes huge and glistening, just as if she was talking about an adorable little kitten. Genma melted again. He could never refuse a kawaii little girl such a simple thing... especially if keeping her happy could restore his control over Ranma. Heh.
"Of course, Ranko, of course," he reassured her, patting her shoulder akwardly. She could display affection so easily, but it had never been easy for Genma, nor was it easy for Ranma.
"Papa-san?" she asked, looking up to him.
"Yes, Ranko-chan?"
"I know why Ranma came here, to this place. He came for me. But why are you here?"
"Oh, Ranko," and tears started trickling down his face, "I waited and searched for him for so long. But I never found him. I wanted to go home and face your mother, but I was afraid. So I kept on going with the trip. I tried to go to all the places I would have taken Ranma, pretending he was still with me. I had to send postcards to your mother, you see, or she would have been suspicious. This would have been the last training ground, the last place we would have come, before returning to Japan. Now I see that it would have been a huge mistake. But not as big as my trying to teach Ranma the Neko-ken in the first place. I thought I had lost him." He broke down sobbing, and collapsed to the ground. Ranko held him, soothing him, rocking him back and forth, until the tears finally stopped. "And now... and now I've got him back.... and I've got you... and Neko, I guess... but I can't go home again. Oh Ranma, I'm so sorry." 'Heh... now she'll do anything to help me. Women just can't resist sensitive guys.'
Ranko looked down at him. "Why, Papa-san? I want to meet my mother. I know Ranma misses her, too. Why can't we go back?"
"Oh, Ranma, Ranko, how I've failed you. When we left, I had to sign a pledge, before Nodoka would let me take you. It said that if when we returned, Ranma was not a man among men, we would both commit seppeku. So you see, we cannot go home." 'At least not until I've reasserted my control over the boy.'
"But Ranma is a man among men. Not only that, he is the Lord of Fey Castle," Ranko replied. She was confused... why was her father assuming that Ranma was not a man?
"The what? The Lord? My son's a Lord of a castle? Where? Where is the castle?" Genma asked, excitedly. 'Woohoo! Retirement, here I come! Sounds like the boy hit pay-dirt.'
"Its back on the world we went to, the world we were summoned to." Genma's face twitched. His eyes betrayed his utter confusion. 'Summoned to? What the?' "Look Papa-san, the reason you couldn't find Ranma was that he wasn't in Japan anymore. He was on a different world. He was summoned there by a powerful sorcerer." Genma twitched again. 'A likely story.' "He defeated the sorcerer, and so he owns all the lands and power the sorcerer had, and the heart of Lady Alana." Genma fell over, twitching. 'NO! He can't be married! He has to marry a Tendo!'
"The Lady? He's married?" 'Say no, say no, say no.'
"No, no, Papa-san. He's not married. But I guess you might call her his fiancee, maybe. Certainly she loves him. But he is doing all he can to set her free. That's why he's here." Genma fainted. Ranko sighed, then hefted Genma across her shoulders, and trotted back to the Guide's hut. When she got there, she found the Guide in a heated discussion in Mandarin with a little old crone with a staff as tall as she was... all of three feet. The crone turned as Ranko emerged from the brush. trotted up to them. The crone's eyes sparkled as she watched Ranko carefully set Genma on the ground.
Kho Lon watched the girl. She was quite strong, that was clear. She had no difficulty swinging the man down, so her strength was not just in her legs and back, but in her arms as well. She had a relatively low ki level compared to the norm for warriors in the village, but her corded muscles showed promise. She moved easily and lithely, with a fluid grace.
Kho Lon found it difficult to credit the Guide's story. A young man dunked into the Nyannichuan should not move so much like a girl. Especially this early after the change, he should not be so completely at ease in that body. This girl had apparently had no difficulty with her change in height, her differing distance from the ground as she slung the old man down, nor the difference in how her hips moved and where her center of gravity was as she had trotted across the field.
This girl was definitely a girl... which meant the Nannichuan, and a lying Guide. Yet Kho Lon would have sworn that the Guide believed his words. This meant that the girl must have done something to the Guide, which was extremely disturbing. Kho Lon had fallen silent as the strange girl approached, not sure whether to credit the Guide's claim that the young man had spoken perfect Mandarin, given the girl's Japanese features. Red hair was certainly uncommon for the Japanese, but her face was clearly Japanese.
"Greetings, Honored Elder," Ranko said in perfect Mandarin, turning to face Kho Lon, and bowing deeply to the old woman, then turned back to the guide, "Greetings, Honored Guide. May I have my pack?"
The Guide turned nervously towards the old lady, who nodded imperceptibly, then nodded and went into the hut, returning in a moment with Ranma's pack. "Here you are, young man," he said, handing it to her.
She looked at him strangely for a moment, then a light of realization went off in her eyes. "Oh, no sir, I am not a young man." She bowed again to both, "I am Saotome Ranko." Kho Lon gave the Guide a sharp glance, and he blanched. Ranko giggled as she turned to the Guide. "Ranma is sleeping with the cat."
I must know more about this, Kho Lon thought, I must get her to stay with us for a while. "Child, you must be tired after your journey. Please come with me, and accept my hospitality."
Ranko looked at her for a moment, then looked at her sleeping father, "Can I bring Papa-san?"
"Yes, of course, child."
"Um...," she paused, as a memory of the Lady's description of the area, and its dangers, came back to her, "are you Joketsuzoku, Honored Elder?"
"Yes, child. You have heard of us?" she asked, and glared again at the Guide, who shook his head desperately, trying to convey that he had said nothing. Kho Lon knew well enough what he intended, but held him pierced by the gaze for a moment longer, to remind him of his place.
"Yes, Honored Elder. I have heard of the laws regarding combat and outsiders. I am too young to marry, Honored Elder, and I do not wish to die, and Ranma, well, he sort of already has a fiancee."
By this point, Ranma had awoken, and retorted [I do not have a fiancee, Red.]
[But Ranma, surely you cannot become involved with another woman until you have freed Lady Alana? Until you do that, you are tied as tightly as if betrothed, are you not?]
[...sigh... yes, Red, you're right. Of course. Thanks. I definitely don't need Amazon trouble.]
Kho Lon was very surprised that this young sprout knew of the Amazon laws, and bitterly disappointed. She would have made such a perfect Amazon. Perhaps it was still not too late? "Very well then, child. I will take you under my protection. As long as you stay with me, you will be an honorary Amazon, and if a challenge comes, it shall be under the same laws that govern any challenge between Amazons. If you win a marriage challenge, then it will be your choice to marry or not."
"Oh, then I'd love to come, Honored Elder. But will my brother be under your protection, too?"
"Your brother," she asked, looking around, "of course, but where is he?"
"And my cat, will he be under your protection too?" she persisted.
"Yes, yes." 'I can't believe I'm promising to protect a cat.'
"And my Papa-san?"
Kho Lon sighed. 'As if we'd want him anyway.' "Yes, child."
"Oh, goody," she giggled, before bending over, grabbing Genma, and slinging him across her backpack. "Lead on, Honored Elder."
Kho Lon watched her sling the heavyset older man lightly on her shoulders, and recognizing that both the pack and the man must each by themselves weigh more than she did, decided that she was indeed worth the trouble.