Ranma slowly lowered himself to the ground, leaning his back against a tree. He felt tired, moreso than he had for a long time. It wasn't really a physical tiredness, though he had just escaped another long chase. The chase throughout Nerima, with most of his enemies and fiancees joining in, had become a regular routine.
What he was feeling now was more of an emotional exhaustion. Everyone around him talked about love, constantly claiming that he or they did or did not love someone. No-one ever seemed actually willing or able to tell him what love truly was, however.
He had thought, at Jusendo, when he held Akane in his arms and saw her lying in the peace of death that he loved her. He wasn't sure, he wasn't even certain what love was, much less whether it was what he was feeling. Still, he had known at that moment that he had felt a deep pain at her loss, and thought it might be love.
Now he was not so sure. After realizing that he might actually care for Akane, might even love her, if love was what he thought it might be, he had made a conscious effort to be nicer to her.
In spite of the effort he made to be nice, to avoid insulting her, she still seemed to mallet him at every turn. Twice in the last week she had malleted him before he even saw her and later malleted him when he asked why she had malleted him in the first place. She never did tell him why, and she continued to accuse him of leading on his fiancees and of committing perverted acts with them, even though he had given them the cold shoulder ever since they returned.
He hadn't eaten at Ucchan's or the Nekohanten since their return from Jusendo, but still, every time he returned to the house, she accused him of going to see them.
He had for a time wondered if Nabiki might not be deliberately antagonizing Akane while he was gone. He knew she'd done so before, and with Akane's suspicious and angry nature, Nabiki certainly had little enough difficulty manipulating her. He had considered confronting Nabiki about it, though he had decided it wasn't worth risking. Then he had overheard a conversation between Akane and Nabiki... in which Nabiki had been berating Akane for her actions toward him, and supporting him. That had been a shock and a half and had caused him to revise his opinion of them both.
He was tired of it, tired of the unending suspicion, the constant malleting, the interminable insults. It was really kind of strange... while the others were still chasing him occasionally, they all seemed to have cooled down. Even Mousse and Ryouga were nicer to him now, and their fights were far more like sparring matches than the angry brawls they had been. Of course, he still couldn't resist teasing Ryouga to make him angry. Ryouga was somewhat like Ranma in that respect; both of them were well able to channel their anger into constructive uses and when angered, they fought better, with more skill. Of course, Ryouga also tended to lose perspective at the same time and become a danger to those around him, but at least he could give Ranma a good work out.
The only one who seemed unchanged by the whole affair was Akane. No, that wasn't really right, was it? She's not unchanged, Ranma thought sourly. She's getting worse.
Ranma shook his head, trying once more to clear it of the depression that threatened to overwhelm him. Raising his eyes, he looked around the park. It wasn't the park he usually went to, in Nerima. He wasn't actually sure where he was, though he knew he wasn't in Nerima any longer.
There were a number of people there and his eyes quickly locked on a group of young kids, playing. For a time he watched them and his spirits lifted, as he remembered his youth, playing with Ucchan.
They hadn't just fought, though their fights had been regular and enjoyable. After their morning bout, they had sometimes been allowed to run off and play together. Ranma hadn't had many opportunities to play and he learned a lot from Ucchan. Hide and seek, tag, and other games that he'd never had the chance to play again.
Those had been the good days... before the Neko-ken. "The Neko-ken seemed to change more than just me. Oyaji used to actually smile sometimes, used to tell me I was doing a good job, before that," Ranma thought. "Afterwards, he just said I wasn't doing as badly. As if it was my fault the Neko-ken was such a screwed up technique. Baka oyaji." He shook his head almost angrily.
"Damnit," he muttered, "I'm supposed to be cheering up, not getting all depressed again." He tensed his legs and rocked forward to get clear of the tree, then rose gracefully to his feet. He was thinking about performing a few kata to clear his mind when from his new height he saw someone on the other side of the playing children.
She caught his eye because she had an almost wistful, wishful expression as she watched them, much as he imagined he had had moments before. He paused a moment, studying her, before suddenly tensing as if expecting a mallet and quickly looking away.
He strode away quickly, keeping his head down, but in his mind's eye he saw her still. She looked young, younger than himself, with short dark hair and a pretty though solemn face. She had also been alone, a fact that he really hadn't registered at first.
Lonely, that's what she had looked, lonely and wishing she could be playing like they were. He felt like that a lot and he wondered sometimes why he was so constantly lonely, surrounded by people as he was.
It didn't make sense, but then, so few things did. Girls, including his mother, school, math, the Kunos, the Amazon laws, Ukyou's sudden reversal of intent, so many things made no sense that Ranma had long since given up any hope of figuring them out. Akane . . . Akane most of all.
"Do you want to be friends?"
She had seemed so nice that first day, so open and inviting; the only friendly face he'd seen since long before Jusenkyou. After Jusenkyou he hadn't really expected to see any again. After all, what was he now? A freak.
Ranma kicked at a stone on the path he had made his way to as he remembered that first bout. "She always complains that I don't take her seriously," he thought, "but she didn't take me seriously then either. As if I was automatically supposed to be worse than her. Why would she think that? I had been on a ten year training trip and she knew that, so why would she expect me to not be as good as someone who only trained occasionally and didn't even have an active sensei?"
Two years had passed and he understood her no better now than he had when they first met. Can you really be in love, he wondered, with someone you don't know?
He thought again of that girl he had seen. He wondered if she wanted a friend, a real friend, as much as he did. He would have liked to have gone over and talked to her. Maybe he could have cheered her up. Maybe she could have cheered him up. Maybe he could have played again, as he had so long ago.
But he could not. He could not have friends, could not make friends, especially not with girls. His fiancees were too jealous to allow friends. Any girl near him was instantly a competitor. Not that it was so much better with the guys. He did not have any real friends there, either. They were all too jealous of his luck with the girls. That was something that he really did not understand. Could they not see how miserable the girls made him? Why did they envy that?
He thought of Ucchan again. I wish she had stayed my friend, he thought, feeling a hot, burning sensation in his eyes. He held the tears back, much as he wanted to just let go. Have to be a man, have to be strong, men don't cry. Not even when they lose friends.
Though he found his parent's insistence that Ukyou's engagement simply did not count because they did not want it to count to to be dishonorable, he had to admit that she did not have a true claim. Her dowry had been lost to the Gambling King before Genma ever stole it, so technically, her dowry had not been stolen; at least, not by Genma. That did not change the fact that there had been a verbal agreement and that was all the Tendos had, but the Tendos did have a dowry to offer, while Ucchan did not.
He shook his head sadly. He would never tell her that, of course. No matter how much he wanted to have his best friend back, he could not hurt her like that.
Ranma had some hopes for Shampoo. After Jusendo he felt sure that he could eventually convince Cologne that his defeat of Saffron was sufficient to allow Shampoo to return without losing face for not having brought him back. After all, they could not expect her to be able to kill a god, right? So they would have to accept that he was far enough beyond her that it was no dishonor to fail to capture him. He hoped.
As for Akane, he was growing daily more certain that she hated him. That was one of the reasons he had never taken more direct action to resolve the fiancee situation, even when he found possible honorable ways out. He did not want to force her into a marriage with someone she hated.
He had his head down in thought and so he completely missed seeing the woman standing by the park entrance in a well-tailored suit. Until, of course, he bumped into her, just as a passing car sent a sheet of water his way. Somehow she didn't get splashed at all, though Ranma was of course not that lucky.
"I'm sorry, ma'am. I wasn't looking where I was going."
He looked at the woman he had bumped into and was surprised to realize that she had green hair.
"That's alright," she said with a soft smile. "You look like you have something weighing on your mind right now."
"Well, uhm, yeah, kinda," replied Ranma uncertainly, fidgeting a bit when he realized the woman was looking at him . . . er, her, rather intently.
"You look very healthy, young lady, so I assume it's not a physical problem. Are you an athlete?"
"I'm a martial artist," Ranma said proudly, standing straighter.
"Oh, are you very good?"
"I'm the best," Ranma boasted, earning an arched green eyebrow. "I'm Saotome Ranma of the Saotome branch of Anything Goes Martial Arts," she said, then she blanched suddenly. Damnit, why'd I forget and use my male name?!
"I see," replied the woman, her smile broadening, "I've heard of you."
Ranma groaned inwardly.
"Doctor Ono praised your skill most highly," she continued and Ranma's eyes popped wide.
"You know Doc Tofu?"
"Indeed. He is a colleague of mine, or was, before he moved on."
"You're... you're a doctor?" Ranma sounded skeptical.
She nodded and held out her hand. "I'm Meiou Setsuna. It's a pleasure to meet one of Ono's students."
Ranma shook her hand but still looked uncertain. "How... how'd you know I was one of his students?" Not even Nabiki was aware of Ranma's studies in ujubitsu under Ono Tofu.
"He spoke most highly of you, as I said before," Setsuna responded. She looked around. "Would you like to step over to that cafe, and continue this conversation over a cup of tea? I would very much like to hear some of your stories first hand. Dr. Ono told me many stories but I'm sure there were many details he never learned."
Ranma glanced around nervously. The request had made him realize that she was in fact very attractive and the fact that she looked to be at least ten years older than him would not save him if someone saw them together. Still, the chance to talk to someone who knew Tofu would be nice.
They walked across the street and stepped into a small cafe. Setsuna was surprised when Ranma held her chair for her to sit in. When she cast a questioning gaze on him, he blushed slightly as he pulled up a seat for himself. "Guess Dr. Tofu told you I'm a bit rough on the edges, huh?"
Setsuna satisfied herself with an affirmative nod.
"Yeah, well, I been trying to learn to keep my momma happy, but I can't practice around Nerima, cause Akane always thinks I'm being perverted."
"Akane is your fiancee?" Setsuna looked up as a server came to their table. They ordered tea then she returned her attention to her companion.
"Well, yeah. It was our dads' idea. She's not the only one though."
"So Tofu led me to believe. I have to say I found some of his tales hard to credit... but then, if your father was foolish enough to take you to Jusenkyou it is hard to really put anything past him."
"You... you know about Jusenkyou?"
Setsuna laughed lightly. "Come, Ranma, if Dr. Ono had told me about you without mentioning Jusenkyou, would he not have described you as a man? The fact that I didn't laugh when a girl told me she was the famous Saotome Ranma should have been enough for you to know that I knew about Jusenkyou."
"Oh... yeah, I guess so."
"He... Dr. Ono also told me," Setsuna began, then paused as the server returned with a tray. They waited in silence until the server left. Setsuna took a short drink of the hot tea then cradled the teacup in her hands. "Though I find it hard to believe that anyone could be so stupid as to do it... he told me that your father tried to train you in the Neko-ken?"
Ranma jerked when she said the word "Neko," then nodded. "Yeah, I don't think there's anything stupid he wouldn't do."
"So... he tried to train you in it... surely he didn't succeed?"
"Well, sorta... at first it just made me scared of c..c..c.. them things. He figured if he just kept throwing me in, I'd at least get over being scared of 'em. Instead I snapped. And I still do, if I'm around 'em and can't get away." Ranma's voice was subdued and he was clearly working not to think on it, not to remember the pit.
"Well, Ranma, as you may have guessed, I share a number of interests in common with Ono-san. One of them is ancient martial arts techniques... I have recently come into the possession of a scroll from an archeological site, written in ancient Egyptian. I had a friend translate it for me."
Ranma sat bolt upright. She was sure Setsuna was going to say something about the Neko-ken, after all, that's what had led her to this discussion. Ranko was practically hanging on the edge of her seat, her small hands planted on the table as she waited, hoping desperately.
"Your father wrapped you in some fish product, correct? Then lowered you into a pit of cats?"
"Threw me in, more like." Ranma's visage turned dark as he pictured throwing his father into a pit. I'd like to see how you like it, old man.
Setsuna shook her head for a moment. "That's not right, but it's close. What did he do after you reached a feral state?"
"A what?"
"After you went cat," Setsuna clarified.
"Oh, uhm... nothing, really, he just waited till I woke up. Actually I think he had to chase me down, but he just dropped the whole subject after I woke up."
"The scroll I have describe a process whereby a student is led to experience an extreme feral state and then describes the procedure whereby the attributes of that feral state are made available to the conscious mind and the fears induced by the training erased. He didn't do any of this?"
Ranma's eyes were as wide as they could get and she looked, Setsuna thought, like she was about to hyperventilate.
"You . . . you have the complete technique? You know how to get rid of the fear? Without losing the technique?" There was a fire in her eyes now and Setsuna nodded.
"That's what it seems to describe. I don't know how effective it will be so long after the training, however. It seems to have been intended to be done immediately after the student first came out of the feral state."
"Would... would you help me?" Ranma asked, giving her best kawaii give-me-ice-cream look.
Setsuna paused, as if pondering. "I am generally fairly busy," she commented slowly, then continued before Ranma could respond, "but I would certainly like to see if this scroll's technique works. I would never try such a thing myself, it would be horribly unethical, but you've already been through the worst part. The latter portions don't sound particularly dangerous," she mused.
"You will?" Ranma sounded startled, as if the idea that someone would actually be willing to help, without being bribed or blackmailed, was unknown to her.
Setsuna nodded and pulled a business card out of her purse. "Come to my clinic sometime next week, Ranma, and I'll give you an exam to set a baseline, then we'll go over the scroll together, and you can help plan the procedure. All right?"
"Yes!" shouted Ranma ecstatically, ignoring the surprised looks of the other patrons. She leapt up from her seat and hugged a surprised Setsuna tightly then danced out the door.
Setsuna sat in mild shock. It had been many many years since anyone had touched her in an affectionate manner, and receiving a hug from an excited Ranma, for whom the face-to-face meeting had only strengthened her desire, had affected her more than she expected. Leaving a sufficient amount of yen on the table, Setsuna hurried to the ladies room, where she vanished, reappearing in her apartment.
As soon as she appeared, a knife was in her hand, having been plucked from a hidden pocket in her jacket and a moment later was quivering, embedded in a dart board across the room, right in the center of the black nose of a picture of Genma-panda taped over the dartboard. She collapsed to the floor in tears of anger and sorrow. "I'm so sorry, Ranma," she sobbed, wishing once again, though in vain, that she had been able to spare him the pain of his early life with Genma.
She did nothing about the tightness of her nipples and the moistness in her panties. Aroused as she had been by Ranma's exuberant hug she felt too ashamed and saddened at the part she had played in allowing that travesty of fatherhood to raise him to feel right about taking advantage of the feelings he brought out in her.
She headed to the shower to calm her nerves as she thought about the meeting. It had gone better than she expected. She had expected him to be more skittish and she got the feeling that he was now only concerned about being seen with her because of Akane's physical reaction and not for fear of hurting her feelings. She hoped she was right.
She had not been lying about the scroll; she did in fact have an authentic Egyptian scroll describing the proper means of training a Neko-ken warrior. It was a religious artifact, a scroll that she appropriated from a lost temple to Bast or Bastet, a cat goddess worshipped in Egypt for a time.
Nor was she lying about Dr. Ono, for she had made certain to make his acquaintance. She had not wanted to affect the timeline by giving him new knowledge, so she had avoided contact until after he left Nerima, but if Ranma managed to contact him, he would vouch for her. Setsuna had been well aware of the fact that without her deliberately seeking to force the timeline to one path, the timeline that she had watched for an entire lifetime would not be precisely what occurred, particularly with her minor interferences.
She had been intensely grateful for that foresight when after making Tofu's acquaintance, she had learned that he had left Ranma and Ranma alone the means to contact him.
Stepping out of the stream of warm water, she toweled off then dressed again, in lighter clothing, before stepping to the Time Gates. There she settled in and began to replay the day, watching for signs of Nerimites in the area that she would have to neutralize. She followed Ranma first and she was both surprised and pleased when she saw him pause and watch a girl whom she recognized as Tomoe Hotaru.
"He doesn't know yet," she commented to herself, "but I guess he must have recognized the look of loneliness." For once, it seemed, chance was working with her rather than against her.
Not so for Ranma, however. She caught a young girl who had paused outside their cafe. She had gaped at the scene inside for a minute then pulled out a camera and snapped a shot . . . at just the worst moment. Setsuna was certain that the picture would show Ranma hugging Setsuna tightly, a look of brilliant joy on her face.
"Not good, not good," Setsuna muttered to herself as she sped the flow of time up while following the girl. She cursed softly when she saw the girl stop first at a phone and place a call, then head for a one-hour photo developing shop.
"I'm sorry, Ranma," she sighed, knowing that she was already too late to prevent the information from reaching Nabiki. She had forbidden herself from traveling through time to achieve her goals in this project. She could teleport somewhere to provide an influence at just the right time, but she would not alter time. That she had promised to Ranma and she would not break it, no matter how much it hurt. "I'm so sorry. If I had just come straight here..."
She rolled the timestream back to Ranma's exit from the shop and set it to follow her. "I might as well see how they took it," she sighed to herself. Momentarily she remembered Nabiki's nature and hoped that it might be kept quiet in exchange for money, then she reconsidered. It was one thing when Nabiki knew that the situation was innocent. Here, however, she might very well wonder about Ranma hugging some girl none of them had ever seen. Setsuna knew Nabiki was very protective of her family.
Ranma grinned happily as she leapt from rooftop to rooftop, heading towards Nerima. She felt like singing and probably would have, had she known any appropriate songs. Two stains on her life, two failures had haunted her and now she finally had the opportunity to lay one to rest.
Not only would she finally be free of her debilitating fear, her greatest weakness to those who knew of it, she would gain a new attack. She thought about how she had been described while in the Neko-ken and grinned widely. The only flaw in the technique had been the instinctual behavior and the ease with which the cat could be distracted. With those gone, she would probably be a match even for her father using his secret techniques.
Reaching Nerima, she raced along the drainage canal for a ways before bounding to the fence. She dimly heard Kuno but not being in the mood to play, she simply poured on the speed, glowing softly, and left him behind. She reached the Tendo residence and flipping at the end of her descent, landed lightly in front of the door. She reached out and opened it, then stopped short. Standing in front of her smirking, hand outstretched awaiting yen, was Nabiki.
"What'd ya want?" Ranma asked curiously.
"15,000 yen," replied Nabiki, arching her eyebrow at Ranma.
"What?!" Ranma shrieked, "Why would I... what for?"
Nabiki simply shook her head and gave him a look promising that he would wish he had paid her. Ranma shook her head and brushed past the middle Tendo daughter. She stepped into the living room and caught Nodoka's sharp glare. She glanced down and realized that she was still a girl. Kasumi stepped up beside her with a kettle.
"Uh, thanks, Kasumi," Ranma said, taking the kettle and pouring the hot water on his head. He heard stomping on the stairs and knew Akane was coming down to berate him for some reason or another, not that she seemed to need one, but Nabiki forestalled her.
Just as Akane burst into the room, Nabiki put a hand on her shoulder, halting her progress and drawled out, "So, Saotome, who was that woman you were with at the cafe? And why were you seen embracing her as a girl?"
Ranma winced, which of course everyone took as an admission of guilt.
"Ranma," Akane shouted, "You pervert! How dare you!?"
Soun had jumped to his feet and gone into his demon head. "Ranma! How dare you cheat on your fiancee!"
Genma followed him up. "Boy! You will marry Akane!"
"Who wants to marry that perverted jerk!? He can shrivel up and die for all I care! Go on, Ranma, go play with your hussies!"
Nodoka looked at him sternly, a tinge of disappointment in her gaze. "It's not very manly to hug a girl as a girl, Ranma."
"But . . . but I can explain," protested Ranma, turning towards Akane. As he expected, he was not given the chance. Mallet-sama was already high and it came down hard. She did not stop for some time.
When Ranma awoke, he was lying on his futon, a wet cloth on his forehead. He opened his eyes and saw Kasumi kneeling beside him. She noticed that he was awake and looked at him disapprovingly.
"It really wasn't wise to be seen with another girl, Ranma, especially behaving like that in a public place."
Ranma moved to protest but Kasumi rose and drifted from the room, leaving him to defend himself to empty walls. He felt the bandages on his chest and momentarily considered that he was actually lucky. Since Akane had been so mad at him, at least she had not had any desire to bind his wounds. That always seemed worse than what she was trying to treat.
"It wasn't like that. She was just helping me," he said quietly, knowing no-one was listening, and turned onto his side.
Setsuna stared at him through sorrowful eyes. "I am so sorry I wasn't quicker, Ranma. I'll make it up to you. Somehow."