Fresh Horizons


Ranma and Ranko took advantage of the freedom that Ranma felt in his
new-found confidence in Ryouga. Ranko's success in tracking Ranma's
chase of Wen strongly indicated the correctness of her belief that they
would be able to magically locate Ryouga if he did get lost, and their
mutual experience in tracking Ryouga recently reduced the likelihood
that even that much would be required. The magical residue from Ranko's
spell would more than counterbalance the lack of prints for those with
the ability to see or sense it. Besides, Ryouga had managed to maintain
a straight course without error until his sense of smell led him astray.

So, while sparing a slight bit of attention for their own keen noses,
Ranma and Ranko took to the trees again, beginning once more their
high-speed chase, racing forward then circling back, orbiting around
their slower, nearly ground-bound companion, as he paced steadily
forward to the coast.

Though they still maintained their human form, knowing that experience
and training in this form was most effective, they remained within the
neko-ken most of the time. Occasionally, when one of them picked up a
strong lead, momentary though that might be, they would drop the
neko-ken, picking it up again at the approach of the other.

Watching Ranma during one of her turns at chasing him, Ranko realized,
as he seemed to miss his grasp and momentarily lose control of his
flight, sending a shower of wood chips flying, that Ranma was trying to
take advantage of the ability she had discovered of their ki claws,
which ordinarily seemed to cut through anything and everything in their
path, to behave more like a physical blade, sticking in the tree and
actually supporting them. He was trying to manage it on the fly, instead
of requiring concentration.

She picked up the play with him as he reversed course. She focused on
her claws, then sunk them into the next tree, letting the drag they now
imparted slow her, spinning her around the tree. A quick thrust of her
legs sent her hurtling once more after her fleeing target, her laugh
echoing in the air as she realized that she had just managed in her
first try what Ranma had still not quite worked out. That was an
achievement to savor, as she knew it would often be the other way
around.

The character of the forest itself was changing as they raced across the
countryside, but they paid it little attention until they found
themselves quite suddenly on the side of a road. Ranko successfully
caught the tree she was about to leave, and held herself back, but
Ranma's claws, though he tried to do the same, tore through the bark
without pause, and he landed on the gravel of the roadbed.

Ranko wondered, as she slipped down the tree trunk, whether his lack of
success had more to do with being either closer to the cat, and
therefore manifesting the neko-ken more strongly, or perhaps merely more
power, more ki to fuel it, such that even at a lower, more limited
output, his claws were as strong as hers at full strength.

The sudden appearance of the road before them might have had little
effect on their course were the road empty, but as chance occurred, it
was occupied. A cart drawn by two donkeys was being driven down the
gravel road by an elderly man. Beside him a young girl sat, and she
cried out in surprise when Ranma landed in the road ahead of them.

The cart drew to a halt as Ranko drew back into the foliage to watch. As
is often the case, the verge of the road was much more thickly overgrown
than the deeper paths of the forest, for here the road allowed the sun
to reach the ground, whereas the treetops shaded most of the forest
floor, reducing, if not eliminating the ground-cover. This made
concealment easy for her.

They likely would have noticed this particular change, and been prepared
for the road, had they not been racing along between nine and twelve
feet above the ground. Ranko risked a look back and breathed a silent
sigh of relief when she saw no sign yet of Ryouga's approach. Hopefully
they would have this incident dealt with and behind them before he
reached the road. She turned back to see how Ranma was handling the
situation.

"No, honored elder, we are not robbers! We are wandering martial
artists. We have come from the north, and we are just passing through."

Startled at his words, Ranko examined the pair on the cart more closely.
Sure enough, the surprise she had perceived in the girl's voice was now
seen to be alarm, while the old man was angry and frustrated.

"And do wandering martial artists make it a habit to leap out before the
carts of innocent villagers? To frighten young children and old men?"

"I did not mean to startle you," Ranma placated, "we were chasing each
other, as a way to pass the distance without boredom, and we were not
expecting the forest to end so suddenly." For indeed, so it did. The
road was not a mere interruption in the forest, but rather, served as
its border. On the other side of the road a rice paddy stretched away
into the distance, though this was apparently a fallow year for it, as
only here and there were growing the occasional clump of rice, and most
of the field was choked with reeds.

"You speak as if there were more than one of you. If you and your
companions be not robbers, why do you conceal yourselves?"

Ranma held up a hand near his hip surreptitiously, signaling Ranko to
hold her place. "One of my companions is under a curse. He is following
more slowly, and Ranko is watching for him. His appearance can be
frightening at times."

Ranma held up his hands when their eyes drifted nervously towards the
forest. "Ranko will catch him before he comes out. Don't worry."

They waited then, in relative silence. Ranma was somewhat surprised that
the pair remained, rather than moving on, but he suspected that it might
have to do with the fact that the elder had been quick to assume that he
was facing highway robbers. The old man might be waiting in the hope
that if they were speaking the truth, he would be able to persuade them
to aid the village in ridding itself of a band of robbers. If there was
an active group of bandits in the area, it would explain the man's
behavior quite tidily.

Finally a noise in the roadside brush drew their attention, and Ranko
emerged, leading Ryouga by a rope tied to his belt. The fanged boy was
looking quite sheepish and a bit annoyed at having to be led, but he was
fully human. The old man's eyes brightened when he saw the three, and
Ranma followed his eyes. He was looking at a pair of camp pots that
Ryouga carried tied to his pack instead of in it, probably there to make
it easier to make lunch without having to disturb his pack. Ranma nodded
to himself. It made sense that the old man would be reassured by that.
Bandits would not carry their camping equipment with them, since they
would have some fixed or only occasionally moved hideout in the woods,
and would travel lightly, so as to strike fast and hard and then fade
back untraceably.

"Very well," the old man said, "I see that you were speaking truth.
Come, join me on my cart, and visit my village. Master Po will be
glad to offer you his hospitality, I am sure."

Ryouga and Ranko looked to Ranma, and he realized that they were
expecting him to decide whether to accept the old man's offer. Ranma
grinned. He doubted that the local bandits would pose that much of a
threat, but it was at least possible that, as had happened before on his
trip through China with his idiot father, the bandits would be renegade
martial artists, led by a disgraced monk or a master whose dojo had
fallen to a dojo destroyer.

"Sure," Ranma agreed, "we'll join you for the night. We don't need a
ride, though."

The old man did not question him further, but merely twitched the reins,
at which the donkeys resumed their progress. Ranko and Ranma kept pace
with the cart now, with Ryouga trailing just a bit, keeping the line
between himself and Ranko taut so as to not jerk her off her feet when
he got distracted.

Ranma noticed the little girl casting glances at Ranko and himself, and
decided to entertain her a bit, and get some practice in himself, since
they could no longer practice their neko-ken skills. 

With his foot, he caught a large stone and kicked it up, catching it in
his hand. He did this twice more, then began juggling the three stones.
He glanced at the girl, and was delighted to see that he now had her
full attention, while the old man next to her had cast a wry look his
way.

Ranma increased his pace slightly, pulling ahead of the small group,
then turned mid-stride, and began walking backward. The little girl
clapped at the way he sent the stones up and turned around them, seeming
as if the stones, for all their motion, were fixed in space and he had
rotated around them.

Now walking backwards, Ranma popped a stone up off the road, sending it
high enough that by the time it came down, it was now in front of Ranko,
rather than himself, and she caught it cleanly, grinning at him.

She motioned for another, and he obliged, and then again, until she was
juggling three. They continued this for several minutes, mixing it up by
occasionally firing a stone higher, or up from behind their back, or
letting it fall almost to the roadbed before kicking it back up again.

Then Ranko nodded at him, and tossed one of her stones his way. He
reciprocated, and though their first few catches were a bit of a
stretch, they soon got used to the adjustments needed to match their
throws to their pace.

The little girl, whose name Ranma realized he still did not know, though
the old man had introduced himself as Lo Huang, was watching them
enthralled, and gave a deep sigh of contented awe when they finally let
the stones fall, as they passed the first building they had yet seen on
the road.

Turning to face his direction of travel again, to avoid backing into
anyone, now that the road was no longer clear, Ranma got his first look
at the village.

It was larger, he guessed, than the one they had so recently liberated,
but in far better shape. If they were suffering from bandits, at least
as yet, bandits had not taken the town. They were doubtless making
travel hazardous, but he saw no fear in the eyes of the people. Even
looking on these three strangers, they displayed nothing but quiet
curiousity.

He dropped back with Ranko, to allow Lo Huang to guide them. They passed
several houses and other buildings, remaining on the main path, before
Lo Huang pulled his cart to a stop before a larger walled structure.

"This is Master Po's school. I expect he will be willing to give you
shelter for the night, as well as tell you tales of our bandit
troubles."

All three of the Japanese youths had to take a second look as the gates
opened, and the old man called out in greeting, "Master Po, I have
brought you some visitors."

The man that had appeared in the space between the gates was very young
for a master, perhaps twenty-five at the outside. The respect in Lo
Huang's voice when he had mentioned Master Po, his own advanced age, and
their own expectations had all lead them to expect an elderly or at
least middle-aged master.

Ranma glanced at Ranko, wondering what her take on this was, and saw
that she was looking down towards the master's feet. Following her gaze
as the man approached, he realized that the man's leg was slightly
misshapen, and he was walking with a limp.

As he took the man in completely, Ranma learned quite a bit more than he
consciously realized. Though he recognized and understood that the man's
leg had been broken and had healed poorly, and that the man nonetheless
moved with the smooth grace of a trained martial artist, his trained
eyes and long history with masters told him quite a bit more, of which
he was oblivious.

Ranko, on the other hand, had both her own lifetime's experience, plus
Ranma's memories to draw upon, as well as an outsider's perspective, to
see more clearly what they were telling him. So she recognized the signs
that Ranma unconsciously observed, the indications that the man's leg
still pained him, the stoicism with which he concealed that pain and
lived a calm life, not railing in bitterness at a promising career cut
short. She saw the signs in him of early training in a hard art,
followed by retraining, probably after his injury, in a soft style of
redirecting blows.

Master Po, as things turned out, was not the only master at the school,
nor were his students incapable of defending the town. Unfortunately,
neither the other master, nor their better students, were present, as
they were on a government-funded trip to Zhengzhou, capital of Henan
province. Somewhat amusingly, given the purpose of the trip was martial
arts, Zhengzhou was not the destination because of the famous Shaolin
temple there. Instead, it was merely because it was a central city
(central to the more populous Eastern China, at any rate), accessible by
rail from Beijing and other important cities, and possessed of a
generally temperate climate.

The trip was an important one for the school, but the celebratory mood
of the leave-taking festival had not lasted long after. Apparently the
preparations had gathered the attention of a group of bandits, eager to
take the opportunity to squeeze funds from the small community.

Master Po had not suffered directly; the bandits were smart enough not
to beard a master in his school, injured or not, but he could not
venture out to deal with them.

Though Ranma had later, when it was again just the three of them,
brought up the question of whether it might be best to attack at night,
Ranko had dissuaded him. 

"By accepting their hospitality, we show both that we are trustworthy,
that we would not sneak away in the night, and that we trust them, not
to sneak in and harm. But, more to our point, if we eat their food,
and sleep within their walls, then when we clean out the bandits, we
get two benefits. First, we'll be repaying them, and defending our
friends, in the eyes of the kami, not striking without need, or
wasting our powers on those unworthy of the gifts we have been given.
And hopefully, if we can play it off to the townspeople as repaying
their generosity, they won't try to repay us with gifts and such. I'd
rather not be seen as mercenaries."

"Alright, I guess that makes sense. I don't think Lord Fey would mind
one way or the other, but if it will avoid trouble with other kami, a
good night's rest won't hurt any."

With that they settled down in an inner room where futons had been laid
out for them by the younger students. As the time was not yet late,
dinner being only shortly over, they took the opportunity of a peaceful
sheltered night to bring out their gifts; at least, Ranma and Ryouga
brought out theirs, to begin reading them.

Ryouga, thinking of Ranko's gift, reminded them of the feat of magic
they had accomplished outside the temple. "If you can grow a jungle like
that, do you think you really need to look for someone to care for those
seeds? Couldn't you do it with the magic?"

Ranko shook her head, her brow furrowed. "I am sure that
Bastet-megami-sama would surely have known that we had been given access
to spells. After all, we used them during our little 'quest.' She said
we need to find someone skilled in growing, and I expect we will have to
do so. Probably they won't have their full effect if grown magically, or
have to absorb energy slowly, or something like that."

"Ah, I suppose that makes sense," Ryouga conceded, before pulling open
his own scroll.

"We should probably not practice anything ki-related while we are here,"
Ranko advised. "We don't want to affect the wa of the school."

Ranma snorted in amusement. "You better not try any of yours either,
Ryouga, or we'll have to hunt for you instead of bandits."

---

Having searched for Ranma for several years on her own by now, after her
seaside training in preparation for the search, Ukyou was well used to
travel, both country and city, and wasted little time finding the area
where Ranma's mother lived once she had the address in hand.

Her stealthy observation of the Saotome home paid off quickly, but she
had difficulty believing her eyes. She was unable to believe the
red-haired elegant kimono-clad woman could possibly be the wife of the
slovenly liar and thief that was Genma in her memory, faded and warped
though her image of him might be. She had merely been admiring the
confident and self-assured stride of the older woman, only to gape in
disbelief when she turned in at the Saotome home.

"That . . . that can't be her," Ukyou muttered, confused and uncertain.
Perhaps the woman had been a friend of Nodoka? She could hardly believe
that her father would have arranged for her to marry someone without
pure Japanese blood . . . not that it bothered her, particularly, but
her father was always so adamant about honor and giri.

Continued observation over the next several days would eventually
confirm that the red-haired lady was the only person coming and going
from the Saotome home.

At this point in time, however, Ukyou was content to have found the home
she was looking for, and confirmation that there was a woman occupying
the property. With that knowledge in hand, she turned her attention to
finding a suitable location to open a restaurant.

She had used some of the money given to her by Fey to obtain a hotel
room. Locating an apartment would have been a waste, since she intended
to look for a restaurant property with an attached living space, if one
could be found.

Between short stints watching Nodoka's house, and always seeing only the
same woman there, and canvassing the area, from a first rough pass just
to get a feel for the relative wealth of the different areas, to a
series of deeper investigations, she spent almost a week before settling
on a property.

It had several advantages, being not too far from Nodoka's home, along a
route she had seen the older woman travel several times, as well as
being near a high school, and in an area that was underserved as far as
fast-serve restaurants went.

She would probably experience more competition from street vendors near
the office sector than from the other sit-down restaurants, but she had
not observed any vendors in the direct vicinity of the school, and while
street-vendors certainly had their place in serving the after-work
crowd, as she well knew, having filled that niche herself, she also knew
that there would be many students and salarymen who would appreciate
being able to rest their weary feet while getting an inexpensive but
tasty and quick meal. 

Without Fey's investment in her, she would have had to wait until she
could tell her father that she had Ranma in her sights before he would
agree to helping her set up in a fixed location. Even then, he would
probably have only covered the down payment and possibly a few months
rent, whereas with Fey's money, she was actually able to purchase the
building outright, saving substantially on what she would have paid . .
. assuming that she would be here for at least five years.

It needed some work, but she was used to that, and it had an attached
apartment that actually came partially furnished. While the cookware in
the restaurant kitchen would need some updating, and a few pieces would
need to be pulled out to be replaced with her griddle, it had just the
sort of open kitchen with a bar that she preferred, as it made it feel
more like cooking and serving from her okynomiyaki cart.

The meagerly furnished apartment was a definite step down from the
elegant hotel room she had lived in for most of a week, and with the
work to be done, and the permits she needed to open, it would be another
week or two before she could really focus on Nodoka, but based on what
Fey had told her, she should have enough time.

Her first three days in her new home went fairly smoothly, as she
obtained her starting supplies, arranged for the gas and utilities to be
placed in her name, and obtained the application papers for the
restaurant's license. She made a start on both the financial books for
her new business, and her own private books on suppliers, where she
would track the quality and prices of the available suppliers, to help
optimize her purchases.

This was something she had studied under her father years ago, but had
never had the chance to practice. Always on the move, and only needing
enough supplies for the next two or three days for her cart, as she
could not pack and move more, she had not had any leverage for
quantities or supplier relationships, and she had simply had to take
what she could get. Now she would finally get to put those skills to the
test.

She had not been too worried about not meeting Nodoka yet, feeling it
would be soon enough once she had managed to open her store. Events,
however, were not inclined to follow her plan.

After a nearly five hour wait in the district office arranging to have
the necessary inspectors visit her site, Ukyou was drained. A long walk
home was not something she was looking forward to, but to walk past
Nodoka's house was only one block out of her way, a short enough
distance that wasting the opportunity by grabbing a taxi seemed foolish.

Unfortunately for Ukyou, rain started shortly after she left the
district office. It was not bad at first, but Ukyou kept her eyes open
for a taxi, cursing softly at her own poor planning. Not seeing any open
vehicles, Ukyou swore louder and started to run.

Thin streets and high buildings built the wind's speed quickly, leading
to strong gusts even in the residential areas. As the rain thickened,
making seeing ever more difficult, Ukyou drew her baker's peel, trying
to shield her face from the driving rain.

With the peel blocking her view upwards, but improving her vision
straight ahead, she picked up speed. It was too late to get out of the
rain and be at all dry; Ukyou was now thoroughly soaked. She just wanted
out of it. She may only have a simple shower instead of a full furo in
her small second floor apartment, but a nice hot shower would feel much
better than these icy needles.

Up ahead, one of the homes had suffered in terms of home repair. With no
husband and no skill in maintenance, Nodoka had done the best she could,
but that was only so much. In the high winds, an ornamental stone lamp
had cracked free of its foundation.

It slowly rolled off its perch, followed quickly by a clang, a startled
cry, a thud, and silence.