A Pony by Any Other Name
Preface
Some might get the wrong idea when they see "kami" and how it's used. It shouldn't be confused with "god," in the sense that it's a creator-of-everything or just a powerful being. "Kami" can refer to various kinds of entities, usually spiritual in nature, both significant and insignificant.
Anyway, you'd be right to assume that this story was inspired by how commonly Ranma is associated with a horse in fan-fiction, even in terms that go beyond his name. That, and how often the subject of friendship — or the lack thereof — comes up.
Even though Ranma 1/2 and My Little Pony crossovers haven't become common at this time, and there's no telling if they ever will be, I didn't want to do something obvious or simple with them. Rather, I hope to do something that might remain unique even in the event that these two series meet more often in the future.
Prologue
A young man drew some attention from the other people who happened to be going about their own business on that particular urban street, in part due to the fact that most people didn't go about their business within city limits while hauling a large pack on their back. It probably didn't help that he was grumbling to himself a bit too loudly in obvious discontent.
"Stupid old man," Ranma muttered to himself. "'Let's use your Spring break to put in some training,' he says. Ha! Not even two days in and I'm already wasting my time trying to find him. I swear, if this is because of
another food-eating contest..."
As absorbed as he was, in imagining what he was going to do with his father upon finding him, he didn't notice someone perk up with interest as he walked past them. Nor did he feel their inquiring stare on his back as he put more distance between them. However, he wasn't so out of it that he couldn't tell when someone nearby was trying to get his attention.
"Excuse me!" A somewhat weak and raspy-sounding voice called out to him. "Young man?"
Ranma paused and looked behind him. The source of the voice, who was slowly making their way over to him, was an old man who was dressed as a Shinto priest. He was shorter than Ranma by a head, stooped a bit, and showed his age in his movements — yet not to the degree that would require him to use the broom that he held as a walking stick. He was bald, with a respectable-sized beard, and his eyebrows were so thick and bushy that they managed to conceal his squinting eyes from view. Behind the old priest, Ranma noticed the iconic red
torii that explained said old priest's presence.
When the old priest thought that he was at a close yet comfortable distance, he ceased his approach and asked, "Could you tell me your name?"
Ranma looked the old priest up and down guardedly. "Who's asking?"
"Oh-ho-ho!" The old priest laughed good-naturedly. "I really must apologize. I found you so interesting that I forgot myself." He gave a respectable bow in greeting. "I'm Haruyama Fujita."
Ranma turned to face the old priest, pausing to consider whether he should ask a question before relinquishing his name. With the kind of problems that he'd had as of late, he could never be too careful about sharing his name with someone. In the end, though, he decided to do what was proper instead of doing something that would require an explanation that he was in no mood or mind to share.
"Saotome Ranma," he offered.
"Hmmmm?" The old priest hummed thoughtfully, as he tilted his head and looked at Ranma curiously. "In what way do you spell it?"
Not seeing how that could relate to any of his fears, Ranma told him that his surname was read as "quick maiden" and his given name as "war horse."
The old priest's brow wrinkled a bit as he frowned. "That's strange..." He shook his head, as if to clear it. "Sorry to bother you. I guess I was mis—"
At that precise moment, the occupant of a passing car — which was filled with a rowdy bunch of delinquents — tossed out a cup that was half-filled with a watered-down and somewhat tepid cola. Ranma made a large enough target because of his backpack, but the suddenness and proximity of the throw was what ultimately made it impossible for him to notice it before it was too late.
"—taken," the old priest finished, before he stared in shock at the redheaded girl that had replaced the young man. So great was his surprise that his eyes were wide enough to lift and peek out from underneath his prodigious eyebrows.
As the sound of laughter faded away with the car, Ranma merely sighed and adjusted the waistline of her pants before addressing the shoulder straps of her backpack, in a way demonstrative of having done so before many times.
"My," commented the old priest, as he tried to collect himself. "I certainly hadn't been expecting that. Come," he motioned for Ranma to follow him, "you may cleanse yourself at my home. Which is just as well, because what I'd like to tell you is probably best said in private, anyway."
Not seeing any harm in the invite, and being both curious and concerned about something that needed to be said in private, Ranma followed the old priest back to his residence on the shrine's grounds. It was a fairly small and modestly-equipped house from what could be seen, which hadn't been much because she had been more keen on getting herself cleaned up before she went from being wet to being sticky.
After her bath, and a change of clothes from his backpack, he met the old priest in the living room and sat across from him at the table. Outside, he could see his clothes — that the priest had washed for him while he had washed himself — drying on a line. He soon noticed some rice crackers and a cup of tea waiting for him, which he graciously accepted.
The old priest leaned forward and peered at him closely. "You are once more a man?"
"Yeah," Ranma replied, before taking a bite out of a rice cracker. "It's a curse I picked up. Cold water activates it, and hot water reverses it."
"I see..." Said the old priest thoughtfully, as he stroked his beard. "And do you transform into a horse, as well?"
Ranma gave him an odd look. "What kind of question is that?"
"Just bear with me," the old priest said in a placating tone. "I need to ask you a few questions concerning your name. Only then will I know what to tell you."
Ranma wasn't sure what to think of that, but he figured that there wouldn't be any harm in humoring his host. So, he shrugged his shoulders and said, "I just turn into a girl, if that's what you're asking."
The old priest nodded his head. "Would you say that you're fast? Or have you become significantly faster recently?"
Ranma took a sip of his tea and took a moment to consider his answer. "Well... I've always been fast, compared to most. But it wasn't too long ago that I had to become a lot faster, and in a much shorter amount of time than any other part of my training had accomplished."
"And is there much conflict in your life?" The old priest inquired, in all seriousness. "Contention, strife, antagonism and the like?"
"Oh, definitely," Ranma answered immediately, who crossed his arms and looked disgruntled as he thought about all of the evidence to support his response. He'd been against the arranged marriage with Akane at the start, and even now they still antagonized each other. Then there was having to deal with their parents whenever they decided to impose themselves in matters regarding the status of their relationship. Of course, there were also the rivals of both a martial nature and those relating to love, and being in the middle of the girls that were contending to have him for themselves, even if only two of the four had any legitimate claim on him.
The old priest sighed and closed his eyes, not that Ranma could see the latter. "Then it's as I first thought."
Ranma was brought back to the present, and a weight settled into his stomach at the old priest's tone. It was the kind that said that he probably wasn't going to like what he was going to hear, and that it was almost too late to do anything about it, if not too late already.
"What is?" Ranma inquired, who was eager to learn what the old priest's business with him was all about.
The old priest took a sip of his tea before he spoke. "Well, I have a good sense when it comes to discerning the presence of a kami, and you caught my attention because," he paused to give Ranma a significant look, "you nearly
feel like one."
Ranma stared at the old priest for a time. "You gotta be kidding me."
"It could just be a coincidence," the old priest admitted. "Still, you feel more like a kami to me than you do a human, and I don't know what else could be used to explain your being in such a state. In my experience, either you are or aren't one of the two, not somewhere in between."
Ranma mulled over what he'd been told as he ate a rice cracker. It wasn't until he gulped the last of it down that he said, "Okay, let's assume it's possible: can you explain
how this happened?"
"To begin with," the old priest began, who assumed the bearing of a teacher who was conveying something important to their student, "one must understand that language has power. For kami, particularly in the case of those who personify or govern an aspect of nature, it's common for their name to relate to or literally reflect what it is that's in their nature to do."
"Take the kami of this shrine, for instance," he continued. "Inari-sama's primary governance concerns agriculture and the harvest, and the name suggests such a connection. Even if the name were to come after the fact, the important thing to remember is that the power of language lies in conveyance: if a person can define the name, can it not work the other way, where the name defines the person?"
Ranma frowned a bit as he digested the old priest's reasoning. "I think I see what you're trying to say: that people can change themselves so they can exemplify the definition of a role." His frown deepened a bit. "But that can't apply to me because I never wanted to be a girl." To himself he added, "Among other things."
"Not necessarily," the old priest disagreed. "Many people never know who or what they are becoming; or, if they do, when exactly they become it. Even if you didn't consciously choose the path you've taken, a part of yourself may have influenced you just enough to make you go in that direction. Reflect for a moment, and see whether or not that may be the case."
Ranma regarded the old priest — who was smiling at him encouragingly — with a doubtful expression on his face, but ultimately decided to follow his advice. He stared down into his cup, where he saw his agitated visage reflected on the surface of his tea. He turned his eyes away from the sight, because it reminded him that he didn't really want to put into question a part of what he was making himself think about.
Had he ever wanted to be a girl? Certainly he had wondered what it would be like to be someone else, during the times when he couldn't help feeling left out. Because his father had been raising him to become a man, and the heir of his school of martial arts, he very rarely had the opportunity to socialize with his schoolmates outside of school, where there had been a lot more time for having fun, as well as ways of having it. And with how frequently his father had made them move around, he'd eventually given up even trying to socialize and make friends, despite having a yearning to do the exact opposite. Perhaps if he hadn't been a boy that could be shaped into a man, or a gender that made a proper and traditional heir, things might have been different, more like he'd desired. But a girl...?
There was no question that he had wanted to be fast. He had endured his father's excesses in regard to food — to his dismay — for many, many years. He'd hated it so much that he had sworn to never forget any such offenses. Had he been faster than his father, he could have enjoyed all sorts of snacks, and come away from dinner feeling truly satiated instead of merely having "enough." And then there was the distinct possibility that he could have given the beatings he felt his father deserved, had he been fast enough to get through his defenses, not to mention being able to escape harm himself.
Who in their right mind would want two unwanted fiancées, a girl who wanted to drag him back to a village that hadn't caught up with modern times in order to practice a form of eugenics, another girl who'd likely try to drug him and — as a likely consequence — rape him, parents who didn't know how to quit getting into personal affairs not their own, three rivals who'd sooner kill him for the girl they each "loved" — girls, in Tatewaki's case — instead of wooing said girl(s), a mother that was ready and willing to cut off his head if deemed unmanly, and so on and so forth? Besides, it wasn't like he could control how others thought and behaved.
He highly doubted that any of those things had been due to any unconscious nudging on his part, though he figured that the old priest probably wasn't looking at it in the literal way that he was, what with the whole, "you feel more like a kami," thing. While he wasn't any kind of expert on things mystic and spiritual, he was pretty sure that he wasn't unconsciously manipulating his fate in ways both grand and unseen. Granted, the chance of having "otome" in one's name, encountering a real body-transforming curse, and landing in the one spring — out of many — that could be connected to his name was very low. But, if something fantastical were really at work, shouldn't he have fallen into the spring of drowned horse as well? And the likelihood of it being more than a coincidence was greatly reduced because there was nothing else out of place or outstanding, even though his problems — especially as a whole — were likely to be very uncommon.
Still, it was the thought that counted, so he could appreciate the old priest's concern. If said concern turned out to be a real problem, he might just be able to avoid becoming a horse thanks to being forewarned. It was bad enough to become a girl with a splash of cold water, but to lose one's humanity, too? Hopefully, though, he wouldn't have to worry about such a thing: he had enough on his plate as it was.
"I'm not seeing it," he said with a shake of his head, as he returned his attention to the old priest. "Though I appreciate having it brought to my attention. Knowing my luck, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if you happened to be right about this."
The old priest waved the comment aside, in a show of modesty. "This old man's interest had simply been piqued, is all. Although, I
do hope that nothing regrettable happens, in any case."
"Well," said the old priest a few seconds later, before he got to his feet and pushed his back in with an audible pop, "since you have to wait a bit longer for your clothes to dry, would you mind accompanying me for lunch?" In a more light-hearted tone, he added, "It will be my treat, though don't expect anything fancy."
Ranma smiled gratefully. "Sure."
Chapter 1
As the weeks passed by, Ranma's encounter with the old priest slipped away from his mind. Which wasn't much of a surprise, considering some of the things that he had to deal with on an almost-daily basis.
To begin with, the girls had become less civil with each other ever since the day that he and a certain Tendo had been dressed in raiments most commonly worn for a Western-styled wedding. In particular, Akane had become the prime target of assassination attempts, what with having come the closest to getting what the other girls had wanted, regarding matters of the law and of the heart.
One would think that he would have drawn a line by now, and make it clear that he wouldn't be interested in anyone who would go so far as to attempt murder, but he didn't. He'd like to think that it was due to not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings, but he knew that it was a weak excuse even though it was partly true. And while a guy could certainly be proud to have the attention of multiple good-looking girls, they were a lot more trouble than that was worth.
Even now, as he meditated in the dojo, he couldn't really explain his behavior. He was pretty sure that he didn't want to get married any time soon, yet he did nothing to dissuade anyone from trying to marry him on their own terms. He didn't want to be Shampoo's insemination machine, Ukyo's business partner and/or waitress, and he certainly didn't want to be Kodachi's... junkie? For that matter, he didn't want to be Akane's practice dummy, either. But, despite favoring Akane more than the others, he still made it his modus operandi to say and do things that couldn't possibly appeal to her.
Heck, back when Shampoo had appeared to lose interest in him, because of the reversal jewel, he'd gone out of his way to re-establish her attentions instead of being relieved and doing nothing about it. It didn't make any sense to him, despite the fact that he'd done it himself. Why in the world had he done something that he knew would be counterproductive?
Regardless of what he did, however, it didn't change the fact that he couldn't change the past. And now that things had developed as far as they had, he couldn't think of any way to resolve everything honorably without committing seppuku and removing himself from the equation, since he was the keystone at the heart of all of the designs imposed upon his person. Even his mother must have realized the kind of position he was in by now; frankly, he was surprised that she hadn't already come up to him and suggested doing exactly what he feared he would have to do in order to sort everything out.
He spent a few more fruitless moments thinking about it before he heard a knock at the door. Thankful for the distraction, he got to his feet and turned to face his visitor, who had already opened the door and crossed the threshold by the time he could see them.
"Oh, hey, Kasumi," he casually greeted the older girl.
As was common for most occasions, she was wearing a modest house dress. Usually she would have her hair tied back in a pony tail, with its length resting over a shoulder, but these days she had taken to wearing those horseshoe-shaped headbands to hold her hair back instead. It had the effect of making her seem a bit younger, not to mention — much to his embarrassment — a little cuter as well.
Kasumi responded with an easy smile. "Your mother asked me to tell you that you should join everyone in the living room." A pensive looked crossed her face. "I think it's something serious."
"Ah..." Ranma voiced, as he wondered what it could be about, and fearing that it wouldn't be anything good — not in regard to himself, at any rate.
He followed Kasumi to their mutual destination, where the Tendo and Saotome families were gathered around the table that was routinely used when they ate their meals, among a variety of other things. While Kasumi found her place between her father and Nabiki, he found his between Akane and his own father. The Tendo patriarch sat across from him while his parents shared a side to his right. Kasumi and Nabiki sat on the side to the left of him, which left the fourth side of the table to Akane and himself.
He didn't much like the look of things. For one, Soun looked a bit agitated as he smoked a cigarette, which meant that whatever the gathering was for was placing a fair amount of stress on him. His father looked disgruntled, as if he'd rather argue or be somewhere else, but that wasn't all that peculiar. By contrast, his mother was calm and collected, stoic. She had acknowledged his arrival with a simple glance and a nod of her head. What really had him worried was Akane. She had yet to look at him, and the expression on her face was something between a scowl and a look of determination.
"Now that everyone's here," Soun began, after taking a drag from his cigarette and exhaling a cloud of smoke toward the ceiling, "we can begin, since what we have to say will affect all of you."
"Let me guess," Nabiki spoke up in a sarcastic tone, as she watched her father take yet another drag from his cigarette, "you're smoking two packs a day now, and you wanted to tell us how much that will raise our risk of getting lung cancer due to the increased amount of second-hand smoke that you'll be exposing us to."
That sent her father into an eye-watering coughing fit, so Nodoka cleared her throat and picked up where he'd left off, so as to prevent the discussion from getting derailed. "No, dear. This concerns your engagement to my son."
Nabiki blinked her eyes at that. "'My?'"
"Your sisters, as well," Nodoka clarified.
"Oh, my," Kasumi voiced, as she raised a hand to her cheek in concern. "You're not saying that we'll have to...
share, are you?"
Had anyone at the table been imbibing a beverage at the time, they probably would have spit it out. Instead, they settled on giving Kasumi a mix of odd and speculative looks. The only exception was Nodoka, who looked more disappointed than anything else.
"No," the Saotome matriarch replied with a sigh, "and that's the problem." Seeing the looks that she got from her son and the two elder Tendo daughters, she went on to elaborate. "You see, no one wants to share Ranma, and that hasn't exactly created a healthy environment to start a family in." She turned her attention to her son, with a bit of pride shining in her eyes. "I'm sure that's why my manly son has been reluctant to choose one and marry them."
While his mother's assumption wasn't true, Ranma decided to go with it as he looked up and modestly said, "Oh, was
that what I was doing?"
That earned him a menacing glare from Akane, while the look that he received from Nabiki said, "Smooth."
Soun would have coughed into his fist to interject himself into the conversation, but since he had coughed enough he opted to just speak up instead. "Be that as it may, we — and by that I mean the heads of each family involved — have decided that we don't want anyone killed over this matter, much less a blood feud."
His complicity in the matter was due to his concern for his youngest daughter's life, though nobody who knew or guessed called him on it. Ranma figured that said complicity was the reason for his father's foul mood. His father wanted him to marry a Tendo, after all, but he couldn't contradict his mother in such a way as to make her think that he wasn't being manly enough, since the consequence of doing so would also fall upon his own head. That was probably why he had restricted himself to a bit of grumbling when his mother had made her assumption about his indecisiveness.
"We've already gotten written agreements from most of the girls who have been entitled to — or have been actively pursuing — my son," Nodoka added, "stating that they will consider this matter settled with a contest, and that none shall seek any hostile action toward the winner or their family."
"Hold on," Ranma interrupted, who was clearly vexed by what he had just learned. "Are you saying that I'm going to be some kinda prize?"
"More like a booby prize," Nabiki quipped, which only served to aggravate Ranma all the more. Went unseen was Kasumi's reaction, who had perked up upon hearing what Nabiki had said, as if to say, "I like booby prizes!"
Nodoka ignored Nabiki's less than serious comment and leveled a piercing stare upon her son. "It's the only solution that I could think of to settle this dispute peaceably. While I'm filled with pride to have a son that's so manly as to attract so many pretty and... interesting girls, who are willing to take drastic measures to be your one-and-only, frankly I was beginning to wish that your cursed form had been the one that you had been born with at one point."
Seeing that her son had been suitably cowed, her gaze then fell upon the two girls that sat across from her. "Now, the only ones who haven't signed the agreement are you two, Nabiki-chan, Kasumi-chan."
The youngest of the two had a put upon expression on her face. "Pardon me,
obasan, but do I
have to get involved?" Seeing an opportunity to mock Ranma, she closed her eyes, leaned back, and raised her hand until the back of it was placed against her forehead in a melodramatic fashion. "You see, I'm afraid that your son is simply
too manly for my tastes."
While Ranma rolled his eyes at the display, Akane abandoned her previous expression to tease him with a humored look.
"That's truly a shame," Nodoka replied, having not caught the "hidden" message behind Nabiki's words. "However, it was decided that it wouldn't be fair to leave out anyone entitled to Ranma's hand, in order to honor the pledge between your father and my husband to the letter. Partly, it's because we have to include the only girl whose stake in this isn't recognized by our ways, in order to hold everyone involved to the agreement."
"Which is the
one good thing about this," Genma griped to himself mentally, who didn't think that Akane had what it would take to win. He had concluded that Kasumi's chance of succeeding would be much higher.
"Only one?" Ranma asked, who looked confused. "Shouldn't that be two?"
"Kodachi," Akane muttered, the scowl returning to her face.
Nodoka closed her eyes for a moment and released a somewhat undignified sigh upon hearing the name, before addressing her son's question. "Yes... As it turned out, Kuno-san managed to procure a signed and sealed agreement from your father, to recognize her as one of your fiancées. Apparently he had been inebriated at the time, but the fact remains. And..." She paused, and anyone looking closely could see her brow tick. "Money had been exchanged in the deal." Her brow ticked some more. "Money that your father has already spent."
Ranma gaped at her, hoping that she was kidding, until he remembered exactly what kind of person his father was. So he rounded upon the older man, ready to give him the punishment he so "richly" deserved, but was met instead with a panda playing with a beach ball.
"Don't think you're going to get out of it that easily!" He yelled angrily, as his battle aura blazed around him. "What in the world were you thinking!?"
Genma sweated at the sight and had the nerve to raise a sign that said, "It seemed like a good idea at the time!"
Ranma leapt at his father and proceeded to give him the beating of a lifetime. Soun, with tears streaming down his face, couldn't bear to watch, knowing that it would be a great folly to intervene. He could still hear what was happening, however, and anything sounding even remotely painful made him wince in sympathy.
Nodoka, whose patience and tolerance had declined during the time that she had lived alone, regarding her husband's antics, simply ignored what was happening as she calmly sipped at her tea. And while she could forgive her son for most of the invectives used against her husband, quite a few of them surprised her, and she made a mental note to speak to her son later, about using such colorful language in the future.
Nabiki looked on with mild amusement, while Akane couldn't help a slight, smug smile of satisfaction. Kasumi frowned, though those who noticed would have been mostly wrong had they assumed her expression to mean disapproval for what Ranma was doing. While disapproval of Ranma's behavior was certainly a part of that frown, by far the largest portion of her frown was reserved for the one on the receiving end of the beating, not the one giving it. Like Nabiki, there were some cards that she played close to her chest; especially in regard to Ranma, as doing otherwise would have — in all likelihood — made their lives much more complicated.
When Ranma finished his business with his father and returned to his place at the table, Nodoka picked up where she had left off, as if there hadn't been an interruption of any kind. "Now," she said, as she refocused her attention on Nabiki and Kasumi, "while you're obligated to participate, if you really aren't interested in marrying my son then it will be acceptable to forfeit any given challenge."
"I guess I can live with that," Nabiki acceded.
Nodoka smiled pleasantly. "Good. As soon as you two sign the agreement before the head of each family, the contest will be held in a week. If you decide to take the contest seriously, you should spend that time preparing for both the martial
and marital arts that you will be tested in."
Upon hearing that, Akane clenched her hands into fists and stared ahead with determination, as she made plans for the things that she wanted to work on. She wasn't under any illusion regarding the challenges that awaited her, but she was — first and foremost — an optimist when it came to her own abilities, and she was sure that a week was more than enough time to become good at things that she'd failed to make any significant progress in for many, many years.
Nabiki, who could care less about the whole thing, lazily glanced to the side, and out of the corner of her eye something about Kasumi's visage caught her attention. When she looked at her directly, she saw that her older sister had an unreadable expression on her face, aside from the fact that her eyes were looking into a distance that didn't exist within the confines of the room. It was unexpected and baffling, making her wonder if she were actually considering the contest seriously.
Ranma stared down into his lap, unaware that his mother was observing him. He had mixed feelings about the whole thing. While it sucked that he would essentially be treated as an object, with his choice being taken away from him, no one would have to die, and — hopefully — there wouldn't be any blood feuds when all was said and done. That was a good thing, right? That's what he wanted... right?
He began to dread the day of the contest.
Chapter 2
When the day of the contest arrived, Ranma wanted to be anywhere but in the dojo, where it would take place. Unfortunately, not only was he obligated to make an appearance, but he would have to sit through it all and watch it. The only good thing about the whole affair was that he wouldn't be expected to judge: a part of the reason for why the contest was being held in the first place was due to his indecisiveness, after all.
Instead, there would be one judge from each party who had a stake in the contest, plus one that could be trusted to be impartial that was not. They would each score on a scale of one to ten, and the girl with the highest combined score would be declared the winner of each challenge. The girl who won the most challenges would — of course — win the contest.
As he yawned, he cursed the fact that he'd had to get up so early in the morning to help set everything up. Aside from accommodating the judges and a small audience with comfortable places to sit, various things had to be brought into the house, or set outside of the dojo, for the various challenges that the girls would compete in over the course of the day. All of the kitchenware and food supplies that the six girls would eventually put to use during the contest undoubtedly took up the most space, with the former requiring a portable pavilion since they would take up a lot of room in the dojo and moving all of it in and out of the place multiple times would be much more trouble than using them outside.
If there was anything positive for him to say about the whole thing, it was how everyone involved in its creation had been pretty thorough when it came to arranging both the martial and the marital portions of the contest. Since he'd helped with the moving and setting up of the various things that would be used, he had a decent idea of what the girls would be tested in, and how. As far as he could tell, their aim seemed to be rather specific, to avoid having someone win multiple challenges because of the same asset.
On the martial end of things, he wasn't sure who would do the best, if he was right about what to expect. Shampoo may be good all-around, but like the other girls she only had a few areas where she truly outshone the others. He wasn't nearly as uncertain about the marital side of it, though that depended on whether Kasumi decided to put forth an effort or not. However, he reasoned that he was probably giving her too much credit, since he didn't really know how to compare her to the others in a number of things. It just
felt right to think more highly of her because she was a lot more pleasant to be around.
He was suddenly brought out of his musings when something lightly brushed against his lower back, which made him jump into the air and yelp even as a chill washed up and down his spine.
Cologne cackled with amusement as she withdrew her cane. "Not all that alert in the morning, are we? Problem solved, I hope."
Ranma looked over his shoulder and glared at her. "Old ghoul..."
"Now, now," Cologne tried to mollify the vexed teen, "it's your own fault for not paying attention."
"I shouldn't have to," Ranma grumbled under his breath.
"Anyway," Cologne went on, "we've finished delivering all of the things that will be used for the marital challenges. I came to check on your progress with everything else, but if you've got time to stand around and daydream then I'm assuming that you've all finished."
With a sigh, Ranma turned around to face Cologne, so he could speak to her properly. "Yeah. We finished not too long ago." He looked in the direction of the house. "The old man wanted to squeeze in a game of Go with
ojisan before the contest started, and I," he shrugged his shoulders, "just kinda ended up sticking around here."
Cologne regarded him with a penetrating stare. "The contest has been weighing on your mind, has it?"
Ranma waved her observation aside as he turned away from her and acted nonchalant. "Feh. Why should I be bothered by it when it's going to solve most of my problems?"
"Is that so?" Cologne casually replied, before she mounted her cane. "Well, then you'll likely get exactly what you want out of this... Ran
ma."
Ranma had a puzzled look on his face as he watched her hop away and out of the dojo, finding her parting words odd... and a bit disturbing. However, since he couldn't make heads or tails of it, he decided to forget about it so he could think of something to do, in order to pass the time until the contest got underway.
Before he could think of anything, however, his attention was redirected toward the door, through which several familiar people began to enter. Leading the group was Shampoo, whose smug expression was at odds with the cross look on Ukyo's face, who appeared ready to reach for the peel that she usually — though not currently — carried on her back. Behind Ukyo was Konatsu, who appeared to be a bit worried about his employer's current mood, since fighting had been expressly forbidden. Walking beside Ukyo was her father, Yasuo, who didn't seem bothered at all by whatever had been exchanged between his daughter and Shampoo. He was as burly as Ranma remembered him, a little grey around the temple and beard, and wore the same kind of outfit that his daughter usual did — and currently was.
Ranma hadn't really had the opportunity to speak much with the elder Kuonji, back when everyone had gathered to be assigned tasks earlier that morning, but he seemed to be good-humored even though he came off as a bit gruff. He'd even slapped Ranma on the back and had a good chuckle, when he'd learned about how he'd mistaken his daughter for a boy, much to said daughter's embarrassment. He hadn't reserved the same easygoing attitude toward his father, however.
"That father of yours, though," Ukyo's father had whispered to him from behind his hand, after he had glanced around to see if anyone else had been paying them any attention. "Even if my daughter wants to honor the agreement, it won't be over between your father and I, regardless of whether my daughter wins the contest or not."
Ranma was perfectly fine with that, and had expressed exactly that sentiment to the man. Too many times did he remember his father casting the entire blame his way, or finding some way to include him in his wrongdoing so he'd be dragged down with him. Simply put: if there was anyone who deserved to be harassed or outright punished, it was his old man.
Fortunately, when Ukyo caught sight of him, her mood did a one-eighty. Shampoo also perked up upon seeing him, but — thankfully — she didn't try to get physical with him. He'd almost forgotten one other benefit to having the contest: getting too familiar with him was bound to cause a lot of unnecessary antagonism before the girls could actually prove themselves and earn the right to said familiarity, so it had also been expressly forbidden. He suspected that it had been done for Akane's sake, but he figured that it would be better for everyone involved the smoother that things went in general, especially for such a major event.
Yasuo grinned and spoke to him first. "Ranma, m'boy! Are you getting excited?"
Ranma glanced at Shampoo and Ukyo, who were anticipating his answer, and he found himself put on the spot. "Er..." He looked askance, away from the two girls, as he continued to hem and haw. "Well..."
"Of course he is!" Ukyo happily asserted. "After today he'll finally marry the girl he was meant to be with." Went unsaid, but was understood loud and clear, was that she had been referring to herself as being the lucky girl.
"Which would be me," Shampoo slyly stated, who wasn't about to allow Ukyo to get away with such a suggestion. "Whether it be the martial or marital arts, I will be the best." She smirked at her rival. "How do you even expect to win the marital challenges when you've lived as a boy for so long?"
Ukyo growled at her. "Why, you..."
Ranma watched — unsurprised — as they began a heated duel of words. Konatsu stood by helplessly as he tried and failed to interject himself verbally, who intended to stop them both by reasoning with Ukyo. Noticing that said person's father had walked over to stand beside him, he switched his attention over to him instead.
"In a way, I envy you," the older man quietly said, as he laid one of his large, meaty hands upon Ranma's shoulder. "But I wouldn't want to be you."
"Gee, thanks," Ranma mumbled humorlessly.
A moment later he looked beyond Ukyo, Shampoo and Konatsu, when he noticed someone entering the dojo. Even though he hadn't seen them for a while, he recognized them right away. How could he not, considering how much he respected them for the times that they had been there to help him, and for being a decent person overall.
"Doc?" He addressed said person, his surprise clear in his voice.
That seemed to get Shampoo's and Ukyo's attention, who stopped what they had been doing so they could see who Ranma had been referring to. Only one of the two had more than a passing knowledge of Ono Tofu, and was thus able to recognize him.
"You're that doctor I used to work for," Shampoo recalled aloud.
Tofu raised his hand in greeting, appearing a bit sheepish and apologetic as he did so. "It's been a while, hasn't it? I got a bit absorbed trying to solve..." He paused, and decided against saying anything too specific concerning his feelings for Kasumi, since he wasn't very familiar with some of the present company. "...A certain problem that's been bothering me for a while."
Ranma simply nodded his head in understanding. "No problem."
Before it occurred to him to introduce the doctor to the Kuonji family, and Konatsu by extension, Yosuo grinned and said, "Ono-sensei! It's nice to see you again."
Tofu smiled in reply. "Likewise, Kuonji-san."
"Wait," Ranma spoke up, his brow furrowed as his gaze fell upon one man, then the other, before settling on the doctor. "You two know each other?"
"Of course," Ukyo's father acknowledged, as he folded his arms across his chest. "Otherwise I wouldn't have agreed with the others to allow him to be the nonpartisan judge in our contest."
"That's
you?" Ranma couldn't help asking Tofu, expressing both his incredulity and — consequently — his surprise. Shampoo, having worked with the doctor long enough in the past to understand her beloved's reaction, stared at her former employer with questioning eyes.
Ukyo turned her inquisitive gaze toward Ranma. "Why? Is there a problem?"
With some evident embarrassment, Tofu turned his head away and coughed into his fist. "Not anymore." He looked askance at Ranma, and gave him a meaningful stare. "
That problem has been... sorted out."
Ranma blinked his eyes at that, having been unprepared to learn that such a familiar characteristic of the doctor was now no more. Then, realizing how awkward the ensuing silence had become, he tried to think of something so he could change the subject. Fortunately for him, that became unnecessary because everyone's attention was soon diverted to the sound of someone approaching the entrance to the dojo.
"...Still don't understand why you won't allow me to act as judge," a familiar male voice said, who sounded equal parts disappointed and insulted. "You know I support a union — as twisted as it may be — between yourself and Saotome."
A second later, Tatewaki and Kodachi stepped into the dojo proper. The former wore his usual outfit when he wasn't in a classroom, consisting of a blue
uwagi and black
hakama, while the latter wore an elaborate and expensive-looking kimono that had a black and red theme to it, with images of black roses outlined in gold. What really got everyone's attention, though, was the large alligator that was on the other end of Kodachi's leash.
"Because, dear brother, you're not nearly as dependable," Kodachi replied, before making a gesture that instructed her pet to attack him. "I can't trust that you'll be able to resist scoring that Tendo girl favorably. On the other hand, I have complete faith that my Midori Kame-san shall carry out my every desire."
Caught by surprise, Tatewaki soon found himself struggling to extricate the upper half of his body from Midori Kame-san's jaws, who had lifted him from the floor and had begun to shake him around.
"Unmaw me, beast!" He cried out indignantly.
Most watched this scene with dubious expressions on their faces, as well as with some surprise. The surprise was due to what had been suggested by Kodachi, in regard to her pet alligator.
"
That," Ukyo said, as she pointed at Midori Kame-san, "will be a judge?"
Whether she hadn't heard the question, or had ignored it, Kodachi's undivided attention was upon Ranma the second her eyes fell upon him. She smiled pleasantly as she approached him.
"Ah, my sweet, darling Ranma," she crooned, before she was standing before him and looking imploringly into his eyes. "You'll wish me luck in this endeavor, won't you?"
Shampoo sidled up alongside Kodachi and glared at her. "Why would my love want
you to win when he already has
me?"
Before Kodachi could retort, Ukyo cut in between them and Ranma, giving him a look of expectation. "You know who to root for. Right, Ran-chan?"
Ranma suddenly found all three girls staring at him intensely, which caused him to lean back a bit and sweat at the brow. He looked askance, to seek help from either Tofu or Yasuo, but their heads were "conveniently" turned away from what was going on. Finding himself on his own, he began to sweat even more.
As he became more desperate to escape his predicament, his eyes began to dart around, searching for some kind of distraction or diversion. To give himself some more time, he slowly said, "Well..."
Then he saw it. Near the entrance now stood a statue of a mantis, and he didn't need to see the cutting potential of its forelegs to know that the principal of his school was hiding inside of it, no doubt waiting to cause his own brand of trouble. He was the very man that his mother had told him had been rather difficult to deal with, in regard to his situation with the multiple engagements; which was why she had — at one point — wished that he had been born a girl. If not for Kodachi "convincing" her father to see things her way, because he had been against her marrying him, the contest that they were about to have wouldn't have been possible.
He was quick to capitalize on the elder Kuno's presence, so he could get away from the girls with a hasty, "I'll get back to you on that."
He grabbed the statue and carried it out of the dojo without looking back. Since he didn't want to kick it through the roof of the breezeway that connected the dojo and the house, he proceeded into the yard with it. By then the man inside of the statue began to make his move, but he saw it coming and had no problem protecting his pigtail as he gave the stone and flesh object the boot.
"Owie!" Cried said object, as it was sent soaring into the distance.
After brushing imaginary filth from his hands, Ranma released a heavy sigh of relief. Not only had he gotten rid of a nuisance, who could have done something stupid that might have interfered with the contest, but he had managed to escape a lose-lose situation with the girls back in the dojo.
Idly, he began to wonder how Akane was doing. He hadn't seen much of her over the past week, considering how much time she had spent preparing herself for the contest. That, and there was also the fact that she was prone to hitting him as a reflex, even when she couldn't remember him, and one of the stipulations of the agreement — that all of the girls had signed — was that
none were to attack anyone involved for any reason, lest they wished to disqualify themselves.
Still, it was kind of odd to see her so focused on winning the contest. Before the plot to have them married, she would have denied having any interest in him whatsoever. Of course, now that everything rested on the result of the contest, he could understand why she would abandon pretense and get down to business. Though he also suspected that her pride weighed in on the matter, too, since he doubted that she would want to lose to the other girls as a martial artist; as a woman or a wife, however, he could only guess as to how the tomboy felt about it.
The sound of conversation drew his attention toward the house, where he noticed everyone who had yet to enter the dojo — who were supposed to be there for the contest — coming out to do just that. Akane spared him a glance before she looked away in embarrassment, though it wasn't long before she was staring ahead of herself determinedly once again.
He felt resigned to his fate as he watched the procession of people making its way toward the dojo. "I guess it's time for the contest to start..."
Chapter 3
The contest had begun with little preamble, by stating what it was about, how things would proceed, and what would be expected of everyone once it was over and a winner had been determined. After that, the judges and those of the audience took their respective places on opposing sides of the dojo.
On the judges' side sat Tofu, Yasuo, Soun, Nodoka, Cologne and Midori Kame-san, in that order. Cologne had been placed between Midori Kame-san and the other judges in the unlikely event that the alligator tried to make a snack out of any one of them. In front of each of them was a notepad for them to keep score on, as well as a small stack of cue cards with the numbers zero through ten written on them. The audience, which included the contestants when they weren't competing, consisted of Genma, Ranma, Konatsu, Tatewaki and Happosai. Mousse was also present, but as a duck in a cage, while Ryoga just happened to be present as a pig.
The grandmaster of the Anything Goes school of martial arts had been a late and unexpected addition, but as much as this displeased a number of those present he had promised to not interfere or cause any problems. And, so far, he'd done nothing but sit and smoke from his pipe.
"Who'd want to miss a bunch of pretty girls giving it their all in such a variety of ways?" Happosai had replied, when Ranma had asked him his reason for being there. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime event, m'boy, so you should enjoy it while you can."
Ranma had snorted derisively in response. However, in the back of his mind, he had noticed something off about the last thing that Happosai had said. Instead of saying, "while
it lasts," he'd said, "while
you can." The meaning had been unmistakeable, but its exact portents hadn't been so clear. Since he hadn't been able to figure it out, he had decided to put it out of his mind.
The contest began with breakfast, with each girl given the choice of making one dish of their choosing to the best of their ability, with the added requirement of making enough so that each person could eat a small portion of it. This required them to go outside, to the pavilion, and the judges followed them to oversee their efforts and make sure that there wouldn't be any cheating or sabotage.
The first challenge was very revealing, regarding what to expect from the judges. Four of the six judges were fair-minded and critical, with Cologne — somewhat surprisingly — being perhaps a bit
too critical of Shampoo. Soun, on the other hand, had behaved like an immature child and had given his daughters the highest possible score while reserving the lowest for the others. Tofu, as he had claimed earlier in not so many words, had been perfectly able to keep his wits about himself in Kasumi's presence, though they both seemed to act a bit oddly around each other. Midori Kame-san, as he had no doubt been commanded to do, had
almost given everyone save Kodachi a zero, much to her surprise and consternation. While the alligator had been able to resist Shampoo's and Ukyo's efforts with no small amount of trouble, he'd raised a ten for Kasumi before he'd even realized it.
What surprised Ranma was that Akane's miso soup had been pretty good. It hadn't been anywhere near as good as the food made by the other girls, but when one lowers the bar to, "I hope I can contain the contents of my stomach after this," it might as well have had the same impact. Still, she seemed fairly pleased by the responses that she had received from the judges, despite getting the lowest score.
From there the challenges switched between those of the martial arts and those of the marital arts: throwing accuracy had been followed by sewing, which — in turn — had been succeeded by evaluating their limberness, and so on and so forth. Soun continued to give tens and zeroes to the same girls, regardless of their performance. Midori Kame-san managed to give every girl except Kodachi zeroes, with the sole exception being the challenges that involved food. The other judges maintained reasonable assessments, though Ranma wondered if Yasuo might have been favoring his daughter a little.
Nabiki, rather than refraining from being a part of the contest completely, had opted to participate when it came to the marital challenge of managing one's household finances. She'd won, of course, and had come away from it acting as if she'd won the entire contest. Ranma figured that she felt that way because — to her — it had been the only challenge that really mattered.
Ranma hadn't counted on Kasumi taking part in the contest, much less both the marital
and martial portions of it. Since there wasn't any physical violence exchanged between any of the contestants, he could see why she would be able to, but not the why behind the why. It wasn't like she applied herself with any particular enthusiasm, though: she simply approached each and every challenge just like she normally would any daily household chore.
She had even managed to win two of the martial arts challenges. The first had been meditation, where she had done a better job of maintaining a meditative state despite various attempts to break it. For example, when all of the girls had suddenly had their backs exposed to an ice cube, she had merely flinched instead of jumping into the air and/or squealing in surprise. The second had been on the knowledge of the human body: on what was what, what was where, and where to strike for what effect. The pained expression that Ranma had caught on Tofu's face near the end of her session had really baffled him, especially since the doctor had given her a ten.
By the end of the contest, it was obvious that Kasumi had dominated the marital challenges. It was a rather mixed bag of victories for the other girls in both categories, and it was too close for a casual observer to tell who had the most victories between the lot of them. Except for one girl: Akane. While she had managed to win a few challenges, those few were more than enough for anyone to tell that she didn't have a chance of winning, and the look of suppressed despair on her face told everyone that she knew it.
Ranma didn't want to see her in such a state, wanted to call the whole thing off and assert that she was the only girl for him, but something held him back. While he knew that the circumstances were irreversible, and that changing his mind — by making up his mind — would bring even more dishonor than prior to the current arrangement, a part of him didn't want to marry Akane. To be more accurate: it didn't want to marry anyone, the circumstances be damned.
Before the final challenge was set to begin, when Kasumi had returned from her challenge session and had sat down with the rest of the audience, Ranma overheard Nabiki speak to her in a hushed tone. "You know, sis... I won't ask you why you bothered with this, but you
do know that you're going to win, right?"
Ranma's body stiffened upon hearing that. Kasumi? Win? He tried to dismiss Nabiki's assertion as a guess or an assumption, but he knew that she had probably kept track of everyone's scores in her head, and it wasn't improbable considering her lack of participation in the contest, and thus a distinct lack of distraction. And if he were any judge of Kasumi's attitude during the whole affair, unlike her competitors she probably didn't even have a single clue about what her own score was.
He could hear the anxiety in Kasumi's voice quite clearly when she replied. "W-what? Oh, my... Nabiki... But I... Father said..."
"What
did father say?" Nabiki hissed, and Ranma could easily imagine her eyes narrowed into slits and her jaw firmly set.
"H-he... He said that the others would find it offensive if we didn't represent our family and its abilities properly," Kasumi answered, who sounded calmer than before yet still nervous. "That between Akane and myself we'd have both the martial and marital arts of the contest covered. He said... He said that, with so many girls competing, and with the marital arts being my only strength, that there wasn't any chance of me winning and that I shouldn't worry about it."
She must have put more thought into what she had just said, because the words that Ranma heard from her next were conveyed by a sense of dawning realization and horror. "Oh, no... I've done so well in the marital arts challenges... And the others' martial arts victories are rather divided among them..."
Ranma's eyes had gone large in the second that it took him to realize that she was right. There were nearly eighty challenges total, divided equally between the two categories; and, while Kasumi certainly hadn't been the only one to win the marital arts challenges, by comparison she had won far more of those than any one of the other girls had won martial arts challenges. One of them would need to supplement their martial arts victories with enough victories in the marital arts in order to win, and he wasn't sure if any of them had accomplished that.
"Kasumi," Nabiki spoke in a serious tone, yet so quietly that Ranma could barely make out what she was saying, "I know how you feel... in
that way." Whatever she had been referring to required a pause, and he had almost been unable to resist the temptation to look and see why. "I know Ranma isn't exactly what you're looking for, but considering the circumstances..."
Ranma had never heard Kasumi sound so lost before. "I... That..."
Before she could finish, the girls participating in the contest were told that the final challenge would commence. Since it involved making a main course for dinner, it required them to head out to the pavilion. Kasumi was the last one to stand and walk toward the exit, and when she walked by Ranma he could clearly see just how troubled and uncertain she was.
Unable to contain himself, his curiosity getting the better of him, he risked a furtive glance in Nabiki's direction. He froze when he found himself caught by her, but more so for the fact that the look that she was giving him said, "You better not disappoint me,
or else."
Ranma gulped and looked away, realizing that his situation may have developed into something even worse than before. As if it hadn't been bad enough that the girls who would inevitably lose would have to bear it out and live with the results, but what if they lost to a girl who wasn't even interested in him? Could they live with that? And more to the point: could he or Kasumi live with that?
He went through the remainder of the contest — and consequently a meal — in a sort of daze. Even though he had long expected to end up married to someone, someday, it felt surreal for that moment to finally become defined; especially since it promised to change his life in significant ways. He only absently noticed that Kasumi must have been similarly distracted by thoughts of a related nature, considering how Midori Kame-san had possessed the presence of mind to give her food a zero instead of a ten.
And then the moment of truth arrived. While the judges consulted their notepads, Ranma looked over at the girls who would be affected by the scores that were written on them. Ukyo, Shampoo and Kodachi seemed eager to hear the results, as if they had a chance of winning, so he assumed that they hadn't kept track of anyone's score but their own. Akane — by contrast — was sitting stiffly as she stared down at her lap, and her quavering body told him that she was fighting to maintain her composure; she didn't seem to notice "P-chan" as he nudged her with his snout. And then there was Kasumi, who looked at the judges with no small amount of worry, which — in turn — worried him because of what that would mean for both her and himself if she won.
When the judges came to a consensus, most of them did a good job of hiding what they knew. For being an alligator, Midori Kame-san's visage was surprisingly expressive, but that hadn't been the reason for the tempering of Kodachi's enthusiasm. Rather, it had been his lack of eye contact with her, and the avoidance thereof. As for Soun, he didn't even try to hide anything: he looked very, very pleased with himself. It made Ranma wonder how Ukyo, Shampoo and Kodachi could have missed it. Seeing the positive turnaround in his father's mood, he was pretty sure that
he hadn't.
Nodoka soon broke away from the other judges and stood before the audience. With a gesture, Ranma, who managed to hide his reluctance well, got to his feet and went to stand at her side. Her eyes swept over everyone once, then settled on the six girls who would be the most affected — aside from her son — by her words. She proceeded to clear her throat before speaking in a solemn voice. "First, I'd like to begin by saying that I was very impressed by what I saw today, and that I'd be proud to call any one of you 'daughter.' However, there can only be one. And with a three-point advantage, by unanimous agreement, my son's future wife will be..."
Ranma's heart raced, as he tried to look anywhere but at the girls seated before him. He couldn't bear to see their faces, especially knowing that at least half of them would soon be replaced by heart and gut-wrenching expressions, and that the one that was already like that was unlikely to improve when his mother finished her announcement. Not for the first time did he ask himself why things had to turn out the way that they had.
The dramatic pause also gave him more than enough time to remind himself that his fate was about to be sealed; that the life of a young and fairly carefree man was about to be condemned by more obligations and burdened by even greater responsibilities. And even though he had never really given his future much thought before, he'd never liked the idea of having it decided for him. In particular, he simply couldn't imagine himself sharing his life with someone else, much less having sexual relations and raising children together with them. He couldn't even see himself working a typical and/or mundane job, which included running a dojo. Not yet, at least.
Whether he was ready for it or not, his mother finally said, "Tendo Kasumi."
Many things happened at once. Genma and Soun met halfway and pat each other on the back in celebration. Mousse looked as relieved as a duck could be. Tears came and fell from Akane's eyes, which made "P-chan" torn between comforting her and glaring at Ranma. Ukyo looked positively grief-stricken, but it wasn't long before her father was there to comfort her as she cried into his shoulder. Shampoo had sat in shock for a moment, as if she couldn't believe that she had lost, and to whom, but it wasn't long before she settled on giving Kasumi a murderous glare. Kodachi voiced her denials ever louder until the last of it was screamed as she ran out of the dojo. Tatewaki and Midori Kame-san followed after her, with the former cursing Ranma's name and promising that he would pay before doing so.
But Ranma didn't really notice any of that as he stared at his future wife with a mixture of conflicting emotions. He didn't think that Kasumi noticed much of anything, either, since she was staring back at him like a deer caught in someone's headlights. And when he heard his mother trying to encourage them to do whatever it was that newly-engaged couples did, it had taken him nearly as long for him, as it did for Kasumi, to both register and understand what she was saying.
Kasumi's initial reaction had begun to subside by then, and what that revealed had stopped Ranma from approaching her as she awkwardly got to her feet. Her visage didn't express happiness, acceptance, or even resignation. What he saw was very similar to what he felt, which could be summed up as, "I'm not ready," or, "I don't want this." She was just as uncertain and/or uninterested about their future being tied together as he was.
It suddenly occurred to him that he had purposely done everything humanly possible — as far as honor/anyone would allow — to avoid his current situation. He'd made it quite difficult for Akane to like him, and in a number of ways. He was also solely responsible for Ukyo seeing him as a fiancé instead of as a means of extracting her revenge — while doing one of those things that made it hard for Akane to like him, no less. He had never put his foot down with Shampoo's familiarity, or had gone to the required lengths to make it absolutely clear to either her, Ukyo or Kodachi that he wasn't interested in them — in the romantic sense — at all. And whenever he'd been stuck in a situation where he had been expected to choose between them, for one reason or another, he'd always managed to get out of it, even if he had initially chosen one of them.
However, he couldn't get himself out of this one. He was going to marry Kasumi, whether they liked it or not. He'd run out of options.
"...For a human," it suddenly — and unexpectedly — occurred to him.
He felt something change within him, and everything suddenly became clear. He knew exactly what he wanted, and had known all along. He'd been blinded by his need to do what was expected of him, but not so much that he couldn't resist doing it by avoiding its fulfillment for as long as possible.
He had grown up on the road, moving from place to place, meeting and seeing interesting people and places... and learning martial arts. But learning martial arts had often been serious, painful and boring; what he had really anticipated was the next person that he could play with using what he'd learned as a martial artist, so he could have some fun with it. All he'd ever wanted...
Sensing a change in the air, Happosai and Cologne quickly looked toward Ranma. Then they looked at each other, shared a nod that conveyed a mutual understanding of what was going on, before returning their attention back to what had caught their interest.
"All I ever wanted," Ranma whispered to himself, so quietly that even he couldn't hear it, "was to horse around."
It began as a soft, white glow that outlined his body, much like a battle aura would, except it was placid instead of roiling and/or exuding. This only served to catch some attention, just some curious and wondering looks. But a few of those same people gasped and/or voiced inquiries that got everyone else's attention, when the glow around his body began to contract and alter shape alongside his body. Even more surprising and worrisome to most of the onlookers was that the end result had left
her in a familiar form... without the application of any water whatsoever.
A few considered approaching her, or were already doing so, but they thought better of it and changed their mind — respectively — when the glow about her body grew in intensity, until she could no longer be seen. And then the shape and size of the aura-like glow began to change, becoming shorter yet more parallel with the ground, as if she had taken to her hands and knees and held her head up high. Except that image — as some noted — didn't exactly match up with what their eyes were seeing.
They learned why when the glow faded away to nothing. Where once stood a young, human man was a creature unlike anything they'd ever seen before, yet had traits that were quite familiar. She — for, despite the creature being new to them, it was obviously female — stood on four legs that ended in hooves, had a black coat, a mane and tail, and possessed the general body shape of a horse — albeit a small one, even smaller than a typical adult pony. However, there were a few things separating her from being a horse in fact, like a pair of wings and a single horn that stood out proudly from the forehead. That, and her mane and tail were a vivid red, with the hair seeming to float in the air as if submerged in water. And then, of course, there was the head and the face, which could have been a mix between that of a horse and a human in its shape, size and function.
When Ranma became more lucid and cognizant, what she found when she opened her eyes were a bunch of shocked, slackjawed and otherwise dumbfounded looks, which were all being directed toward her. The only exceptions seemed to be the old ghoul and the old pervert, who appeared to be more intrigued than anything else.
"What?" She demanded, the sound of her voice startling her.
She suddenly became aware that something wasn't right, beyond the fact that she shouldn't have sounded like a girl. For one, her perspective was all wrong, and it kind of felt like she was on her hands and feet... yet not. It also felt like she was no longer wearing clothes.
So, she looked down. "What the...!?"
She raised a forehoof and looked upon it in shock. It was then that some of those around her had recovered enough from what had happened, as opposed to those who had been surprised further by the fact that the horse-like thingy — that she had become — could actually speak, and things soon descended into a very familiar chaos despite the unfamiliarity of the situation.
Chapter 4
There was much in the way of accusations and questions going around, as well as the casting of blame, but Ranma was in no state of mind to pay any attention to what was going on around her. Aside from hearing the distinct sound of Soun's lamentations, and catching her name being uttered amongst the din every now and again, she didn't register much else. Not that she would have been able to make out much more than that anyway, what with so many people speaking at once.
Instead, she found herself thinking about the old priest that she had met a few weeks ago, and what he had said. She hadn't been able to conceive how he could have been right about her condition, but — apparently — he had been. Even now, as her body literally reflected two parts of her name, she couldn't fathom how it could have happened. People didn't just spontaneously become kami, so what made her different from everybody else?
Before she could consider that line of thought any further, she was abruptly forced to focus on her environment when an explosion occurred nearby. When she found ground zero, she saw that her father and Soun had been charcoaled by said explosion, with the latter of the two already unconscious.
Before her father joined his friend and collapsed, he held up a wooden signpost — even though he wasn't a panda at the moment — that said, "Why!?"
After the Saotome patriarch hit the floor face-first, everyone turned to regard Cologne when she broke the silence that followed with a chuckle, who wryly stated, "Well, I suppose that's
one way to get their attention."
"Sometimes sacrifices have to be made," Happosai replied in a sagely tone of voice, before taking a languid pull from his pipe, looking — for all the world — like someone who had just done something sane and reasonable.
Rather than reply to that, Cologne cleared her throat and addressed their audience before anyone could take advantage of the opening that she hoped to make use of herself. "Anyway, while it was amusing to watch your reaction to Ranma's transformation, I think it's about time to explain what happened before things get out of hand."
"You know what happened to my son?" Nodoka asked, who had been one of the few silent ones since the aforementioned transformation, having not known how to react to it or what to do.
"I do," Cologne replied.
"You see," Happosai piped up, still acting the part of a sage, "Ranma wanted to be a girl all along, but — obviously — she messed up her escape plan somehow."
"What!?" Akane, Ukyo and Shampoo exclaimed simultaneously.
Nodoka loomed over her child as she began to unsheath her sword. "Is this true!?"
"Of course not!" Ranma retorted, as she nervously backed away from her mother. "I never wanted to be a girl
or planned to escape!"
"Ow!" Happosai complained, after he had been hit on the head by Cologne's cane. "What was that for!?"
Cologne regarded him with a scowl. "I
thought we were on the same page."
Happosai looked confused. "We're not?"
With a sigh, Cologne returned her attention to the room at large. "While Ranma's denial is true enough, it's not entirely so."
"What do you mean?" Came Ranma's defensive reply.
"What I mean," Cologne patiently continued, her gaze now focused on the person who had interrupted her, "is that you had not made a conscious decision to do this, but — unless I'm mistaken — it was nonetheless the result of a real desire to escape the situation that you found yourself in."
Nodoka frowned. "That doesn't sound very manly..."
Ranma began to sweat as her mother fidgeted with her sword.
"I'd like to know how this was possible in the first place," Tofu spoke up, not only for the sake of his curiosity but for Ranma's sake as well. To his relief, he'd succeeded in diverting Nodoka's attention away from her child.
"I was getting to that," Cologne replied a bit testily. "And what made it possible is really quite simple: the neko-ken."
Before anyone could question how that could be the case, Happosai exploded with a mixture of surprise and indignation. "Wha-a-a-a-a-at!? That can't be true!" He suddenly rounded on Ranma with a glare, and pointed an accusatory finger at her. "Since when have you known the neko-ken!?"
"Um," Ranma began uncertainly, who felt a bit nervous about getting into a confrontation with the grandmaster of her school while in an unfamiliar body, "since six or seven years ago...?"
The answer stunned Happosai, who didn't seem to take the news very well. "But that means... The whole time... When you got in my way... I could have..."
Many of those present bore a large drop of sweat on their heads as they watched him stumble over to a dark corner, where he fell onto his knees and began to weep into his hands for the many opportunities that had been lost to him because he hadn't been aware of Ranma's fear of cats.
"As I was saying," Cologne continued from where she had left off, who sounded a bit exasperated, "the neko-ken made the transformation possible. It's a quick but irresponsible way for a person to make a connection with their spirit, by forcing them to escape their reality and having it create a substitute in their place."
"This usually and mostly results in the mind being affected," she went on, "and due to the circumstances during one's initial contact with their spirit, becoming a cat in mind is often the result — hence the name of the technique.
However, once a connection has been made with one's spirit, it is not so easily dismissed."
Her gaze fell heavily upon Ranma. "Without many years of training, to learn how to even
begin to control one's relationship with their spirit, the interaction between the body and the spirit will largely be reactionary and unbidden. The main challenge is that your spirit tends to know you better than you know yourself, because the spirit can hear the subconscious part of us that we are often unaware of beyond intuition. In your case, Ranma: because you initiated contact with your spirit with the desire to escape a problem, and continued to communicate in that way, that's how your spirit learned when to listen."
"Does that sound about right?" She posed to Ranma.
It was with some reluctance that Ranma nodded her head, considering just what it was that she was admitting to before so many people, and to certain ones in particular. It wasn't so much about being seen as a coward that was the issue, since she found it perfectly normal to run away from a problem long enough in order to come up with a solution, but that the three girls who had feelings for her probably wouldn't appreciate knowing that she had never really been interested in any one of them.
More to the point, however: now that she was a spiritual being, what had once been her subconscious thoughts were now within conscious range, and thus she had access to the corresponding memories. As Cologne had spoken, she had begun to understand how and why things had led to her being painted into a corner, with no choice left but to marry Kasumi. Considering how accurate the old crone had been so far, she suspected that she had undergone the very training that she had mentioned.
"So," Akane said with a smile, who sounded unusually calm and casual, "you've been stringing us all along since the beginning, have you?"
"Er..." Came Ranma's intelligent response, who didn't need to see how upset Ukyo and Shampoo were to know how bad of a position she was in. "Not really?"
"'Not really!?'" Akane shrieked, whose emotional state had been made raw by the outcome of the contest. "I can't believe you!"
"Yeah!" Ukyo agreed, who was no less upset as one of the losers of the contest. "Pull the other one while you're at it, you jackass!"
Akane and Ukyo began to advance upon Ranma with the intent to do her bodily harm, with Shampoo joining in, and the object of their ire quailed and backed away from them. Fortunately for said object of ire, Cologne interposed herself between her and them, whose presence and severe expression was cause enough to make them pause.
"Let's not act rashly," she advised in a measured tone.
"But, great-grandmother!" Shampoo tried to protest.
Cologne silenced her with a look. "Even if Ranma had held no interest in you, I doubt that he had strung you all along like that on purpose."
Many of those present had acquired a confused expression on their face in response to that, and Ukyo was the first to ask, "What do you mean?"
"Other than the fact that you'd be giving him too much credit for accomplishing such a thing, much less for so long?" Came Cologne's rhetorical response, which earned her a dirty look from Ranma, who wasn't sure whether she should take her comment as an insult or as a compliment. "Well, do you think he wanted to become what he now is?"
The three girls returned their focus to Ranma, and for the first time they saw her as the creature that she had become instead of the boy with the curse that they had all become familiar with. While Ranma had been known to do stupid things, and for reasons that were just as stupid, whatever she had done had always been a temporary arrangement, usually with the intention of achieving some kind of goal. Looking upon Ranma now, and bearing in mind what Cologne had said a moment previous, they realized that her transformation may not have been on purpose. If so, and if one's spirit could produce such a physical alteration, then might it also be able to alter one's behavior and decisions?
Before any of the three girls could respond, Ranma found the opportunity to ask the most pertinent question on her mind, since she was worried about her condition and it happened to be relevant to what Cologne had just asked. "Um... I'm not stuck like this, am I?"
"Stuck?" Cologne replied, before she turned aside so she could regard Ranma. "No. However, now that your body and spirit have become one and the same, which means that the solution will have to be achieved with will and intent, the obstacle that you'll have to overcome is yourself. So long as the reason for you being in this form persists, you'll keep yourself in that form if it is preferable to the alternative."
Ranma was ready to argue how she couldn't possibly prefer being whatever-it-was that she had become, but she failed to speak when she realized that that wasn't the case. While it was true enough that she would rather be human, the new depth of awareness to her thoughts was quick to reveal that she hadn't even given her new form a chance to prove whether it was preferable or not.
From there, she was reminded that there was a very real chance of having to commit seppuku if she were in a form appropriate for marriage yet refused to do so. Even if she were to become a human girl, there was no telling the lengths that her parents and Soun would go to in order to make the marriage between a Saotome and Tendo happen. The thought of marrying a guy was bad enough, but it would be made worse by the guilt that would come from being semi-responsible for said guy having once been a full-time girl, and that girl would more than likely be Kasumi.
As if to confirm one of her fears, her mother conveyed a message to her by regarding her with a frown, as she spoke up in response to Cologne's words. "But the engagement is a matter of honor, and it has become even more paramount to do it now that we've gone through the effort to clear up which party has the right to marry my son."
Nabiki, who had thought of a profitable idea and didn't want to miss out on the opportunity, decided that it might be a good idea to jump in to help Ranma. "Don't worry, obasan. While he may not want to marry, I'm sure he's willing to do what obligation demands. It's just a matter of waiting for him to learn how to control what his spirit does with his thoughts." She turned to Cologne and gave her a significant look. "Right?"
Seeing the trick for what it was, Cologne decided to play along, as she had her own reason for wanting to save Ranma from having to commit seppuku. "That's right." She turned her attention to Nodoka and gave her a reassuring smile. "All he really needs to do is learn more self-control."
"Well," Nodoka said in a thoughtful tone, who failed to understand the distinction that Nabiki and Cologne had made in regard to Ranma's condition, "if it's really just a matter of self-control..."
"Oh, it
is!" Ranma readily agreed, with several emphatic nods of the head.
Nodoka was relieved to hear that. "I guess I don't have anything to worry about, then."
With their ruse a success, Cologne took the opportunity to suggest, "Since the night's still young, I could even help your son get a good start on his training after we're done putting away what we used for the contest."
"That's a great idea," Nodoka replied, her face brightening. "Let's not tarry any longer, then." She glanced at her husband with a measure of annoyance before adding, "The sooner we resolve this, the better."
With that said, everyone began the task of doing the reverse of what they had done early in the morning. The mood was nearly as different from that time as well, because a number of people did their work with a heavy heart instead of being hopeful, and/or with disappointment instead of expectation. Only a few went about their business showing a neutral or better countenance, and among them there were fewer still who were displaying how they truly felt.
Another notable difference was the noticeable divide between Ranma and at least half of everyone else. For Akane, Ukyo and Shampoo, they wanted to avoid a potent reminder of what they had very recently failed to gain, as they had yet to come to terms with it completely. By and large, however, the most common factor was how awkward it was to interact with the human-turned-horse, who exacerbated the issue by feeling — and thus acting — the most awkward of them all.
Ranma had wanted to help with the task, but there hadn't been much that could be carried on her back, and — while she could certainly walk well enough — she hadn't been all that confident about her ability to transport things without dropping them. On top of that, her mouth had been less useful than one of her human hands had been, and she hadn't liked the idea of putting various things in it.
She had tried to do her part, but the awkwardness, unfamiliarity with her body, and being among the least productive had really gotten to her. The final straw had been broken when her father, who had been revived for the task at hand, had complained and chastised her when they next crossed paths. When they had parted ways, Ranma had done so in a huff while her father was curled up on the ground with his hands between his legs, courtesy of a surprise mule kick to the groin.
"Stupid old man," she muttered, as she made her way to the large mirror in the bath. "
He's the one who taught me the neko-ken in the first place..."
After entering the changing room, she paused in front of the door that led into the bath. Once she steeled herself for what she would see in the mirror, it was with a bit of trouble that she slid the door open with one of her forehooves and proceeded to enter the bath, where she soon found herself staring at her reflection.
She had seen enough of herself before to figure out that she wasn't a normal horse, but seeing her face for the first time really made that clear. While the horn was typically attributed to a special kind of horse, the head and face was somewhat humanish in shape and appearance. Altogether, she had no idea what she was: with the wings, she could have been a pegasus; and with the horn, a unicorn. Since she had both, did that make her a... pegacorn or something?
It was embarrassing to admit, but she thought that she looked kind of cute. The red mane, tail and eyes went great with the black coat and horn, and the way that her hair seemed to float in the air was kind of neat. She turned to see her profile, then made a few faces, before she felt that she had seen enough.
"Well," she thought to herself, "if I had to be something that wasn't human, at least I'm easy on the eyes." She paused when something occurred to her, which made her frown. "I should probably watch out for little girls, though... That's not something that I want to add to the list of things that I've been mobbed by. I'd never live it down."
Chapter 5
Though her wings didn't seem capable of flight, Ranma decided to go outside to see if she could fly with them or not. It wasn't like she had much else to do, and it was just too awkward being around most everyone else. With the latter thought in mind, she had no desire for an audience, so she found a secluded part of the garden where she could conduct her test in private.
She was rather surprised when she was able to achieve lift with her wings. However, between that and her inexperience, she found herself going nowhere fast or steady, until she eventually managed to roll to one side and fall onto her back. And then she had to learn how to get back on her feet from that position, which just added insult to injury.
While the outcome had aggravated her a fair bit, the feeling passed quickly enough, as she imagined what she might be able to do once she had gotten enough practice with her wings. Not only might there be a bright spot to her transformation, but she might even have something to regret once she was back to normal. Well, assuming that things worked out for her, at any rate.
The direction of her thoughts made her frown, as she began to consider how she had come to be transformed in the first place. Now that her awareness of the events surrounding its progression had been expanded, she was able to make sense out of everything that had happened to her — not that it improved her mood any.
It had begun at Jusenkyo, with the threat of falling into one of the springs. She had wanted to remain herself rather than become something else; especially something that wasn't human, like what had happened with her father. Her spirit had been able to sense the nature of the springs, and the nyannichuan had been the closest — and thus easiest — to get to.
However, the choice that had influenced her to maneuver toward that particular spring hadn't been so simple or conventional, as her spirit had a very different way of perceiving things. When she had expressed the desire to remain herself, which could be summed up simply as being "Saotome Ranma," her spirit had assumed that her name was a literal representation of herself, rather than a figurative one. So, if she couldn't avoid falling into a spring, at least she'd remain human and "
herself."
That had set the standard for when she had been at war with the idea of getting married without having a choice in the matter, as well as when she needed to be quick enough to take the phoenix pill from Cologne. While the former had come into play far too many times to think about, and was pretty straightforward besides, the latter had been a bit puzzling to her until now, because she hadn't been able to figure out how she had increased her speed so much in a matter of minutes, just from substituting fire with a tank of piranhas. As it turned out: because the heat from the fire had prevented her from doing her best, and she had doubted that her kachu tenshin amaguriken training would be complete unless she could perform at that level and push its limits, it wasn't until the tank of piranhas that she had felt confident and sure enough to escape her problem successfully, which had — in turn — inspired her spirit to endow her with the speed that would help her return to what passed for normal.
She'd avoided becoming a horse at Jusenkyo because she hadn't wanted to be an animal/creature. While that desire had remained unchanged, the same could not be said for the circumstances. Until a short time ago she had been able to avoid getting married with the aid of the "war" aspect of her name, but with the things that she was both willing and unwilling to do to avoid it otherwise, she had ensured that it would be a temporary solution. However, when the time to marry someone had finally become unavoidable, she still hadn't been able go through with it, to the point where avoiding even
that would be more preferable than the exact means of escape.
She wasn't sure why she hadn't become a normal horse, but she suspected that it had something to do with becoming a spiritual creature — or a kami, as the old priest had put it. And exactly how
that had happened was unknown to her, though she had an idea. Well, she supposed that it was better this way, seeing as how normal horses couldn't fly. And speaking of which...
Now that she knew that it was possible for her to fly, she decided to get some more practice in while everyone else was still occupied. It wasn't like she had anything else better to do, and she'd rather make mistakes when no one was around to catch an embarrassing moment.
She began by trying to keep herself upright and stable, without moving anywhere. Once she had that down, she proceeded to slowly move forward and back, left and right, then up and down. By then she had become rather absorbed with her flying, noticing neither the grin on her face or the passage of time as she picked up the pace, so it came as a bit of a surprise when she heard someone clear their throat. She turned to look at the source without thinking, and ended up crashing cheek-first into the trunk of a tree.
"Having fun while we were all working, were you?" Cologne queried from atop the perimeter wall, amused by what her interruption had caused.
Ranma shook the impact off before she grumbled, "Well, I
was."
Cologne allowed herself a moment of cackling, at Ranma's expense, before she became somber and joined Ranma on the ground. "Well, we were able to buy you some time, so don't waste it. If you take too long to make up your mind, someone's going to wonder if it's really an issue of self-control, or through your lack of accomplishment see the issue for what it actually is."
Ranma turned away from her and sighed. "I know, and I appreciate the help, but..."
She paused, wondering exactly what she wanted to say, and whether she should say it to Cologne — or to anyone, for that matter — if it ever came to her. She'd never made it a habit to share much about herself with anyone, particularly in regard to the more intimate parts, and she was reluctant to start doing that despite the current circumstances. Just thinking about it made her uncomfortable, so she shook her head and directed her attention to a topic of greater interest.
"Anyway," she continued, as she turned to face Cologne once more, "how long have you known about my condition? And how could you tell?"
Cologne didn't bat an eye at the change in topic and object of focus. "Oh, that? Well, let's start with how I was able to tell. Rather than hear me make claims, though, why not humor me and try to get a glimpse of my spirit?"
Ranma looked at her with an incredulous expression on her face. "Okay..."
She didn't really know how to go about it, so she just looked at Cologne with the desire to see her spirit. To her surprise, it worked; however, what really surprised her was that Cologne's spirit didn't match her body at all. Not only wasn't her spirit short and old, but it was almost entirely separated from her due to being two or so meters tall, rather than being encased by her body as she had expected it to be. What really got her was when the beautiful and statuesque young woman had winked at her, while the old crone beneath her had not.
Actually, to say that she was surprised was a gross understatement. "What the heck? What's up with that?"
"What you just saw is the greatest secret of the Joketsuzoku," Cologne replied, who smiled wryly at Ranma's response. "As such, I'll leave you to wonder about it while I get to the point: imagine
my surprise when my great granddaughter's husband-to-be's spirit was the same as the body he was cursed with by a spring in Jusenkyo."
Ranma blinked her eyes a few times. "Wait, what?"
"Exactly," Cologne agreed, with a hint of amusement. "Was the boy that my great granddaughter was to marry actually a girl at heart, or was something else going on? Well, I had intended to test your worthiness to begin with, and I figured I could take care of two birds with one stone by using the full-body cat's tongue pressure point. After all, you were bound to respond differently to it depending on whether you wanted to be a girl or not."
Ranma's brow furrowed in thought as she considered the new perspective that had just been revealed to her, regarding that particular situation. "So, when you tricked me with that piece of candy..."
Cologne nodded her head. "By then I was sure that your unrelenting fight against your affliction meant that there was something else going on with your spirit, rather than having a secret desire to be a girl. I couldn't very well ask to put you under observation, considering our relationship at the time, so I made sure that you had a reason to seek me out. That, and perhaps extending your time as a girl would reveal something, such as if your desire to be a boy would affect your spirit or become strong enough to change you back without hot water."
"As if I'd be that lucky," Ranma thought to herself.
"And I was right," Cologne continued. "In the few hours since I had last checked up on you, and had learned that you weren't fast enough to take the phoenix pill away from me, you had somehow achieved the ability to do just that. Normally, even if the fire hadn't acted as such a deterrent, there should have been weeks worth of training ahead of you to become as fast as I am, much less faster than that."
Ranma nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah, I just realized that myself. At the time, though, I just assumed that I was already close to being that fast. That, and I had only seemed so much faster because you hadn't expected any improvement from me, so you hadn't adjusted your guard accordingly."
"It did come as a bit of a surprise," Cologne admitted. "Until I realized that I'd lost the necklace, I thought I'd misheard the sound that you had made when you had tried to take it from me."
"Anyway," she went on, wanting to get the conversation back on track, "I knew that something was up, just not what. There are quite a number of ways for someone to be empowered by their spirit, but it is usually conscious and found in much older individuals, due to how long any respectable training regimen would take. While I had caught the connection with your name, and it would certainly explain someone's unawareness, that tends to come with veneration or age. Since I doubted that it was either, especially since the former tends to come with the latter, I decided to see if I could learn anything with a fight, particularly if your relationship with your spirit allowed you to best me."
"Did I?" Ranma asked, who looked thoughtful and unsure. "Akane'd told me what had happened afterward, and she'd said..." She paused, and a look of shock suddenly replaced what she had been expressing before. "Wait, I... I can remember what I'd done while under the neko-ken!"
Cologne wasn't surprised in the least, who carried on with the conversation as if nothing of note had happened. "Of course you do: a part of what you've become was once the very thing that took over when your fear of cats became too much for you to bear."
"So," Cologne carried on, "do you remember what I said when I had given you the phoenix pill instead of continuing our fight?"
It took Ranma a moment to gather her thoughts after such a revelation, especially since she may no longer be afraid of cats. "Um... You'd said..." Her face brightened when she recalled the memory. "Oh! You'd given me the phoenix pill for having so much spirit."
"For having a
fighting spirit," Cologne corrected, "but that's close enough. Now you know why I'd seemed so unrelenting at first, by unfairly switching the phoenix pill with a piece of candy, and then freely giving it up without you winning the fight in more definitive terms."
Ranma didn't sit so much as fall onto her haunches, from feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything that she had learned that night. "So you weren't serious about wanting me to marry Shampoo after that?"
"Not really," Cologne replied, with an absent shrug of the shoulders. "Believe me, if I'd wanted you back in our village badly enough, you would have been there already. Of course, you'd likely end up stuck as a girl or a horse, depending on the circumstances, so I saw little point in it."
Ranma didn't look completely convinced. "What about Shampoo?"
Cologne released a long-suffering sigh. "If things don't change, I fear that I'll have to start my family line all over again." Seeing the coming question because of the expression on Ranma's face, she headed it off by adding, "Don't ask," before she continued. "All I can tell you is that we — the Joketsuzoku — don't make a habit of coddling our young. We prefer to give them enough knowledge and advice to make the right decisions, but the freedom to make their own mistakes and come into their own wisdom. While I may have aided her a few times, and even used her for a bit of amusement when she found the reversal jewel, all you have to do — to know my position on the matter — is recall what I did with the love pills. Or, rather, what I didn't do."
When Ranma thought about it, she recalled that only Shampoo had tried to get her to eat one of the love pills. While Cologne hadn't stopped her, she hadn't encouraged her or helped either, much less taken the initiative herself. Well, she had apparently gotten the day and lifetime pills mixed up when Akane had eaten one, but it was understandable to make that kind of mistake after being parted with it for what could have been a hundred years, no thanks to Happosai stealing it.
Thinking about it further, Cologne had helped her plenty of times without asking for anything in return, and sometimes without needing to be requested for said help. Most of the time she just kept to herself, not bothering her at all, rather than scheming and helping Shampoo all of the time. Among the crowd who had multiple counts against them for giving her trouble, she was one of the least active of the offenders.
"I see that you understand," Cologne observed, from reading the expression on Ranma's face. "Well, if that's all, I think it's about time I send these old bones to bed."
"Wait!" Ranma suddenly called out, just as Cologne had turned away from her. As she was regarded with a cocked eyebrow, it was with some embarrassment that she said, "Um... I wanted to say 'thanks.' Y'know, for earlier."
Cologne gave a short nod in response, and favored her with a piercing stare. "Just make sure that you make the most out of the time you've been given. If you don't, you might live to regret it."
It was on that heavy note that Cologne leapt over the perimeter wall — and beyond — in a single bound, leaving Ranma to dwell on her parting words. She did, for a time, before she decided that she had done enough thinking for the night. She figured that she could think about everything some more tomorrow, since she had at least that much time to spare.
Since she didn't feel especially tired, and she wasn't ready to deal with or otherwise adjust to being around anyone else in her current form, she decided to get some more flying practice in. As she rose back up to all four legs, she began to contemplate the wisdom of making a night of it, or doing it until she was tired enough to fall asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
When she had to wonder how a horse might sleep, one could say that — for the time being, at least — her decision was pretty much made up for her. Besides, she wasn't sure how a horse with wings would be able to sleep comfortably, anyway.
Chapter 6
Aside from her mother asking her to go to bed while said mother was about to do just that, who was understanding enough to allow her to stay up a bit longer upon request, no one else had interrupted Ranma for some time. A few had stopped to watch her from the
engawa, once she had enough confidence to fly out in the open, but they had left it at that and had eventually gone about their own business.
She didn't have a good measure of time while she was trying to perform one aerial maneuver after another, with each one usually being more ambitious than the last, but she was pretty sure that it was approaching midnight if it wasn't that late already. That's why the feeling of being watched had caught more than just her attention, and had led her to seek out its source.
Which was why it came as a bit of a surprise when she spotted Kasumi watching her from inside of the living room instead of the engawa, standing partially behind a wall, as if trying to be surreptitious. She wore a nightgown and a pair of slippers, and her hair was free of accessory, which meant that she was either going to bed or had been there already.
When she appeared before her and hovered at a height where their eyes were about level with each other, Kasumi let out a quiet gasp of surprise and raised a hand to her mouth. "Oh...! I didn't mean to bother you..."
"You weren't bothering me," Ranma replied, as she moved into the house and carefully landed on the wooden floor of the engawa, which she didn't want to damage with her hooves. "I just didn't expect you to be here... Watching me."
Went unsaid was the obvious question of why Kasumi had been watching her, particularly at such a time while seemingly trying to do it in secret, and because of that her statement was followed by an awkward silence.
For a time, Kasumi appeared to be anxious and indecisive, either wanting to say something or fidgeting in a way that suggested a desire to go somewhere else. That made Ranma uncomfortable, who began to consider making some kind of excuse so she could get back to what she had been doing, for both their sakes.
In the end, though, it was Kasumi who ruefully admitted, "I... feel partly responsible for what's happened, and couldn't sleep."
Ranma looked at her questioningly, confused. "But it wasn't your fault."
Kasumi shook her head, looking both guilty and ashamed. "No, I was being selfish, even though I shouldn't be so picky."
Ranma didn't know what to make of that. "I don't understand..."
After hesitating for a moment, with evident uncertainty, Kasumi found the resolve to say, "Could you... join me in my bedroom? I don't feel comfortable talking about it out in the open like this..."
Ranma wasn't sure what "it" was, but it seemed to be enough of a touchy subject to discourage her from accepting the invitation, and under normal circumstances she may very well have. After all, while Kasumi had always been accommodating and approachable in the past, there had also been a sort of barrier between them, that had prevented them from becoming more than friendly acquaintances. However, with the establishment of their engagement and the official removal of conflicts of interest, she may very well have to accept Kasumi as her wife in order to become human and male again.
To that potential end, their relationship had to change. "Um... Sure."
She didn't want to make much noise, or bother trying to walk up the stairs on four legs, so she took flight once again and followed Kasumi to her bedroom. Once there, she opted to land on the flokati rug while Kasumi turned on the light and closed the door behind them softly, who stood by said door awkwardly afterward.
After settling down on her haunches, Ranma eventually broke the silence after a bit of hesitation. "So, um... What did you want to talk about?"
With a sigh of resignation, Kasumi made her way over to Ranma and joined her on the rug, but it wasn't until another stretch of silence had passed that she finally spoke. "How do I put this..."
Ranma waited patiently for Kasumi to work up the courage for what she had to say. Soon, however, she began to wonder whether or not she should be concerned about what might be revealed to her, considering the amount of trouble that she was having in getting it out. That, and because of how it might be related to her feelings of guilt, in regard to her transformation.
When Kasumi was ready to tell her what needed to be said, she took a deep breath, looked her straight in the eye, and said, "I don't like men."
Ranma blinked her eyes a few times. "Oh..." Then the significance of her statement made itself apparent to her. "Oh! You mean...?"
Since there was no going back now, Kasumi was able to nod her head in confirmation. "I'm only interested in... other girls."
As Ranma digested that information, it seemed to make enough sense to her. Kasumi could probably have her pick of any man in the area who was not already spoken for, yet she'd never actively pursued a relationship with anyone. Strangely enough, though, no one seemed to be pursuing her either, even though she knew for a fact that she was highly admired by those in the neighborhood and the nearby shopping district. The only person who seemed to show any blatant interest in her was Tofu — if one could call his previous behavior "interest," at any rate.
However, that was another matter. If Kasumi liked girls, that meant that she
could have been interested in her, since she had been able to turn into one not too long ago. The problem was that their relationship would have been made to appear traditional on the surface, because that's what people would have expected. While her social knowledge had always been a bit lacking, her curse had made her acutely aware of the fact that sexual deviation wasn't tolerated all that much. Assuming that her reservation toward sex — in general — wasn't an issue, not only would they have to work to keep the truth of their relationship a secret, but they would have been expected to have children, which would require heterosexual intercourse. On top of that, she had a mother who always seemed to be ready to lop off her head at the first sign of unmanliness.
It's possible that something like that could have been managed, but it certainly wouldn't have been an ideal affair, especially considering how long the arrangement could end up being. So, not only was Kasumi's secrecy understandable, so was the prospect of avoiding a marriage to a man who could actually become a girl. Of course, she suspected that there was a bit more to it than that.
"I guess I wasn't your type, then?" She surmised.
With an apologetic and somewhat regretful expression on her face, Kasumi gave a slight nod of her head in reply. "I'm really sorry..." She lowered her eyes and sighed. "I haven't been able to find a single girl who shares my interest, yet I still passed up an opportunity to marry one even though that's normally impossible."
"Like I said," Ranma tried to reassure her, "this wasn't your fault. It was probably bound to happen at some point, anyway."
"Maybe," Kasumi half-heartedly agreed.
During the break in conversation that followed, she eventually raised her eyes and bit her lip as she examined the creature before her more intently than intended, which prompted Ranma to ask, "What?"
Kasumi blushed a bit at being caught. However, considering what she had already managed to share about herself, she found the nerve to say what was on her mind. "Oh, well, I was just thinking that you turned out rather cute."
Ranma chuckled in response to the admission. "Great, so it's not only me." In response to the confused look on Kasumi's face, she smiled wryly and added, "Knowing my luck, I'm probably going to be mobbed by little girls as soon as I make an appearance out in public."
"Oh," Kasumi voiced, as she imagined what that would look like.
Having been reminded of a problem that was more current and applicable, Ranma sighed and said, "To be honest, though, at the moment I'm more worried about how I'm supposed to get any sleep."
Kasumi's confusion returned. "Is that a problem?"
Ranma cocked one side of her brow and extended one of her wings. "Well, I can't exactly sleep on one of these, can I?"
"But horses can sleep standing up," Kasumi informed her.
"They can?" Ranma asked, who got a nod in response. "How?"
Kasumi looked thoughtful for a time, as she tried to remember the specifics, but eventually had to convey an expression of apology and embarrassment when she came up empty. "I can't seem to remember the details..."
"That's okay," Ranma assured her, though not really sounding as if it were. "I don't like the idea of sleeping like that, anyway."
A silence descended upon the room after that, as neither was sure how to continue on the same topic, or what else it could be followed up by. Before things could become awkward, however, Kasumi came to a decision. It was partly inspired by the fact that she still felt a bit at fault for Ranma's transformation, although she would have tried to help her with her sleeping problem under slightly different circumstances regardless.
"I know," she said, before she stood up and moved over to her bed, "why not try lying down and see if it's possible first?"
Ranma watched as Kasumi pat the surface of her bed in an inviting fashion, with a dubious expression on her face, but ultimately decided that it wouldn't hurt to try. So thinking, she got up and hopped onto the foot of the bed, where she proceeded to take as much care as she could when she went to rest on her side.
To her surprise, her wings didn't give her any problems. "Huh?" She tried to roll over onto her other side, and her wings didn't have any qualm with that either. "Huh. I guess this will work out, after all..."
With the possibility of sleep now on the horizon, and being in the position and place that she was, her fatigue finally caught up with her and made her yawn long and hard. "Man, I'm bushed..."
When she tried to get up, however, she was surprised when Kasumi gently rested her hand against her side to discourage her from doing so. "Kasumi?"
"You can rest here, if you want," Kasumi offered softly.
The gesture made Ranma confused, and a little worried. "But..."
Kasumi retrieved her hand while gazing meaningfully at her prospective spouse, having gained the wherewithal to say the following after sharing her greatest secret with her. "I was thinking that we should give a relationship between us a chance. For both of our sakes, should we marry, I'd rather that we both
want to."
Ranma was made speechless, but she had to agree that she wouldn't want to marry out of convenience, or starting a relationship by being forced together. While Kasumi was a little older than her, she could overlook her age easily enough. Even though she wasn't exactly her type either, the truth was that she wasn't really sure what — exactly — her type even was. Still, she would have to be blind to not see her beauty on the outside, and an idiot to not recognize the beauty within.
Her features softened, and she offered a final, token amount of resistance. "But what if someone sees me leaving your room?"
"Only your mother is up as early as I am," Kasumi replied, who smiled slightly with amusement. "And I doubt she'd offer any objection."
In response to that, Ranma plopped her head onto the bed in defeat. "Yeah, you're probably right about that..."
Kasumi's expression suddenly turned to one of concern. "Will you be alright there? Would you like a blanket, or a pillow?"
When Ranma thought about it, she was mildly surprised that she felt comfortable enough as she was. "No, I think this will be fine."
"Well, if you're sure..." Kasumi replied, giving Ranma a chance to change her mind.
When she didn't receive a response, other than a slight nod of the head, she decided that it was time to turn off her bedroom light and get into bed. In the time that it had taken her to do the first part of that and return, Ranma had drifted off to sleep. She regarded her for a moment, with the moonlight bestowing upon her an ethereal appearance, before she turned away and got into bed.
Once she was settled and comfortable beneath her covers, she looked across the bed and thought, "I
really hope everything works out..."
As it turned out, no one saw Ranma leave from Kasumi's room later that morning, since she had decided to stay up and leave with the owner of said room instead of falling back asleep. At such an early hour, the only other person likely to be awake would have been her mother, who — on that particular morning — had risen early enough to be the first to get things in the furo and kitchen ready for the morning's activities.
However, even though she had not been seen, the expression on her mother's face — upon first greeting — had made her worry. It may have just been her fears interpreting the expression as a knowing one, but she could have sworn that her mother had an idea of where she had spent the night. After all, what would have stopped her mother from peeking into Kasumi's room while they had still been asleep?
Either way, her mother had not said a word about it, and for that she was thankful. Which was just as well, because it hadn't taken her very long to be presented with her first, real problem of the day: her morning ablutions. Well, it probably wouldn't have been
too much of a problem if her mother hadn't suggested that she and Kasumi take their bath together, since she couldn't very well be expected to do an adequate job of washing herself between the configuration of her limbs and the hooves that were at the ends of them.
It had been far too embarrassing to consider, much less to accept, so she had excused herself to the garden with much haste, unmindful of what her mother or Kasumi might have said in the process. Had her mother offered to do the job herself, she would have only been embarrassed by the fact that she needed someone's help to do something so basic. However, Kasumi was someone that she was expected to have an intimate relationship with, which was far too embarrassing on its own, regardless of her present form.
So, in light of having to pass up some of her usual morning routines, she decided to get herself more acquainted with her new limbs. While flight was both convenient and fun for getting around, it wasn't for all occasions, and the martial artist part of her wanted her to excel at using her new legs, if for no other reason than to avoid a liability if flight wasn't an option.
That's how her father found her some time later, when she was practicing her range of mobility while standing on her hind legs. While she didn't know a whole lot about horses, she was pretty sure that they didn't have the range of movement that she did, which had come as a pleasant surprise. It certainly couldn't compare with what she could do as a human, but it was more than enough to dispel thoughts of being greatly handicapped if she had to fight someone in her usual style. Speaking of which...
"Boy," her father spoke up from just outside of the house, his arms crossed over his chest, "you look ridiculous."
Ranma lowered herself to her forelegs and turned to face her father with a smirk. "Oh, so we're a match, for once?"
"Ha!" Her father exclaimed, as he jabbed his index finger at her. "Is that all you've got? Pretty words to go with your pretty appearance?"
Feigning innocence, so she could better project her next verbal assault, Ranma blinked her eyes at that last part and asked, "You think I'm pretty?"
"No! That's not—" Her father began to sputter, as he tried to come up with a good way to cover his slip-up, before he gave up and suddenly proclaimed, "I mean: prepare yourself!"
Ranma had expected her father to continue their morning sparring session despite her new form, but she hadn't expected being able to handle him well enough. She was still at her father's mercy, of course, but it wasn't long before she adapted well enough to mitigate the effectiveness of her father's attacks.
That was until her father taunted her with, "Is this all you have to offer? Is this what you gave up
being a man for? What a joke!"
She knew what he was trying to do, because she didn't want to remain in her current form either. She knew, but she still had her pride, and now she wanted to win so she could throw the so-called "joke" right back into her father's face. And if she could come out on top despite being made weak by the ultimate weakness moxibustion, what was stopping her from being the victorious one under better circumstances?
Any semblance of defense was pretty much forgotten, as she tried to push the limits of what she could do. However, even though she managed to get in a couple of good hits on her father, which were a couple more than she had accomplished before, she still found herself the one who was sprawled out on the ground, finding it hard to stand back up.
Then, when her father dove in for the finishing move, where his attack would stop short of its mark to make a point instead of forcing her into submission via another physical altercation, what with it only being a sparring match and all, time seemed to slow down for her. As her father descended upon her in slow motion, she was well aware that she was going to lose, but she was too stubborn to accept that outcome until the very end. In her defiance, she tried to ward her father away with her willpower alone, since there was little else that she could do in her position other than exercise some wishful thinking.
In that instant, two things happened in tandem: some kind of aura of red light entered her field of vision from above, then the same kind of aura surrounded her father and arrested his movement in midair. As unexpected as they were, they broke her train of thought and focus, which led to the pair of auras vanishing soon after their appearance. Between the unexpected stop and sudden release, her father landed on his rear instead of on his feet.
"What the hell was that?" Her father demanded, as he picked himself up from the ground and began to rub a hand over his offended backside.
"I wonder," Ranma replied in a thoughtful tone, as she glanced up at her horn, before she returned her gaze to her father and grinned at him mischievously. "Let's find out, shall we?"
Before her father could form a protest, he released an involuntary yelp when he found himself surrounded by a red aura once again and began to hover a few centimeters above the ground. However, it wasn't long before those scant few centimeters began to increase, as he was steadily lifted higher into the air. He struggled to get free, but he quickly realized that his efforts were ineffective. With that being the case...
"Ranma!" He exclaimed, affecting an affronted tone of voice. "Is this any way to treat your father? You should be ashamed of yourself!"
Between her bubbling excitement and the need to suppress it for the sake of her concentration, Ranma distractedly said, "Hey, it's
anything goes, ain't it?"
Figuring that she wouldn't be able to concentrate well enough for much longer, considering all of the possibilities that were beginning to come to mind, regarding her newly-discovered ability, she decided to deal with her father quickly, so she could do more important — and potentially more enjoyable — things. With that in mind, she moved her father over the koi pond and released her hold over him.
As her father made a big splash in the koi pond, she was already trotting into the house with a bit of a skip in her step, paying no mind to those who happened to be watching her just then. Discovering that she had some kind of telekinesis, on top of being able to fly, was really going to make it hard for her to dislike her current predicament. It also didn't hurt that one of her more immediate problems had just been solved: because she could now take a bath... without assistance! Which was exactly what she was going to do.
It was highly unlikely that anyone would ever consider her to be a person who possessed any amount of horse sense worth noting, but her prioritization of many mundane necessities — such as practicing good hygiene — would say otherwise.
Chapter 7
Now clean and refreshed, Ranma was feeling rather upbeat after she had finished bathing. That probably wouldn't have been the case if her hair had presented a challenge after being introduced to water, but it turned out that her mane and tail didn't just
look magical: not only had they not gotten wet, but they didn't seem any dirtier since the first time that she had inspected them. Her coat hadn't caused her any problems either, though using the usual sponge didn't seem ideal for it.
Unfortunately, her mood was spoiled when she was blinded by a flash of light upon entering the living room. As she blinked her vision clear, she heard the familiar sound of an instant camera spitting out a photograph. Once she could see well enough again, she saw that the person standing before her was exactly who she had expected the perpetrator to be: Nabiki.
She glared at the pajama-clad girl and said, "Do you mind?"
"Of course I do," Nabiki replied casually. "If I didn't, I'd miss out on opportunities like this one."
Glancing down at the still-developing photograph, she said, "I can't say that I was expecting to catch you at such a photogenic moment, though," before she looked up and asked, "What put you into such a good mood, anyway?"
Ranma smirked and used her telekinetic power to pull the camera and photograph out of Nabiki's hands, and proceeded to raise them well out of her reach. The action hadn't really fazed her, but she hadn't really expected it to. What she didn't expect was her response, after she had stared up at the two airborne objects for a few seconds.
"Okay, I'm officially jealous," Nabiki stated.
Ranma almost lost control of her telekinesis upon hearing that.
When Nabiki returned her attention to Ranma, and saw the incredulous look on her face, she added, "Well, I'm not sold on the idea of being a horse, if that's a requirement, but it's tempting."
"So," she continued, with a cocked eyebrow, when Ranma failed to say anything in response to that, "can I have my things back, now?"
Ranma shook herself mentally and obliged her, not knowing what to think about the almost subtle shift in their relationship. She should have expected it, considering the look that she had received from her last night, but it hadn't really stuck with her because she didn't completely know or comprehend the dynamics of the relationship between the three sisters. That, and her transformation had made it difficult to focus on issues that weren't exactly relevant to it.
One thing that she knew by that point, for sure, was that Nabiki respected Kasumi a whole lot more than she did Akane and herself. She had learned at least that much about her over the course of her stay at the Tendo's home, but she had never really thought about it seriously because — until last night — she had never been within sight of Nabiki's bad side where Kasumi was concerned. Before last night, she'd never treated either her or Akane all that seriously, or with much respect. She had also been more than willing to take advantage of them, and/or humiliate them, for either profit or entertainment, and she often did more than one of those things together. That probably wasn't going to change for Akane, but now that her fate was more or less tied with Kasumi's...
Nabiki spared a second to check on the developing image of the photograph one more time before she shifted her gaze back to Ranma, with an intensity that almost made the equinized girl take a cautious step backward out of reflex. When she next spoke, there was a definite edge to her words.
"You better not get too comfortable with that form," she warned. "Unlike you and Akane, Kasumi has grown up; she lives in the real world, and has problems that
can't be grown out of. Do you understand?"
Ranma nodded her head mutely in response, neither knowing what to say or trusting in what might come out of her mouth without proper thought. She was well aware of how serious the situation had become, but only now was she truly beginning to understand its potential facets and depths. While she hadn't failed to take Kasumi into consideration, how she was going to work out that part of the situation was a puzzle far from being put together. Thanks to Nabiki, however, she now had a piece or two of the puzzle that she could try to fit somewhere.
After holding her stare for a bit longer, Nabiki's expression relaxed, and — after she transferred the photograph to the hand that was holding the camera — she pat Ranma on the head. "Do yourself and Kasumi a favor and grow up soon, 'kay? I suggest starting with a conversation. Y'know, talk about things."
She removed her hand and used it to cover her mouth as she yawned. Then, without further comment, she walked past Ranma and proceeded down the hall that led to the toilet, changing room and
furoba.
Ranma stared after her with mixed feelings, wondering whether she should be irritated by the perceived insult or start thinking about that conversation. She figured that a mature person would go with the latter, but what — exactly — would need to be talked about? A mature person would probably know, and wouldn't lose confidence over it. Which left her feeling the irritation that she had tried to avoid in the first place, since her knowledge and confidence simply wasn't there in abundance.
After releasing a sigh, she stepped further into the living room before stopping again, wondering what to do. She usually wasn't awake so early, and she'd already had her spar and performed the rest of her morning routine. Normally, by the time she'd done those things, breakfast would be ready to eat, and after that she'd have to go to school; it wasn't often that she had time for anything else in the morning, unless it didn't happen to be a school day.
When her eyes settled on the
chabudai, it occurred to her that — like bathing — yet another basic and simple task would require a different approach: eating. Should she try to use her telekinesis directly on the food, or would it be better to use it on the dishware and utensils? Another potential issue was the shape of her new mouth, since there was more space for food and beverages to drop or drip from the sides of it. Also, between being some kind of horse, in addition to being a kami, just what — exactly — could she eat? She wasn't even sure if she needed to eat, since she had yet to feel hungry.
"I guess I'll just have to experiment," she muttered to herself.
Ranma had ended up replicating what she usually did at breakfast, except she had used telekinesis in lieu of the hands that were no longer in her possession. Since there wasn't a handbook that went with her new form, she had decided to eat everything that had been served, so she could figure out what kind of things she could have in her diet. There hadn't been anything that had disagreed with her palate or her bowels yet, so things might actually be looking good on that front.
She'd noticed that her mother had appeared disappointed at the beginning of the meal, for some unknown reason. What she didn't know was that her mother had suggested to Kasumi that she be the one to feed her, but in showcasing her telekinesis to the household at large she had clearly demonstrated how unnecessary that would be. Well, Kasumi could have gone through with the plan anyway, but she hadn't been able to work up the nerve to do it without a good enough reason.
Other than attracting some attention with her telekinesis, which no one had found strange enough to respond to with anything beyond curiosity, the only other noteworthy event had been the news regarding her attendance at school. As far as that was concerned, nothing had changed; and that was why she was currently making her way to school, however reluctantly. If she'd read her father right when he had delivered his edict, she was all but certain that he wanted to use her embarrassment as an incentive to become human again sooner rather than later.
And why wouldn't she be embarrassed? As soon as her peers learned that she had — for all intents and purposes — run away from one of her responsibilities, the response was probably going to be the same as the one with the Lens of Invincibility, which Mousse had worn to make her cry and beg for forgiveness — often in public, no less.
If she were to be honest, though, the most difficult part about going to school was being around Akane on the way there, then having to sit next to her in the classroom until school was over. Sure, at least in the case of the former, she could have avoided it if she had wanted to, but the last thing that she wanted to do was anything that could be perceived as running away, considering where that had gotten her so far. Besides, even if it would make things easier on her by avoiding Akane, she had enough sense to realize that it probably wouldn't have such a positive effect on her former fiancée.
The atmosphere between herself and Akane was both tense and awkward, to the point where they didn't look at each other and kept silent. Of course, she didn't need to see or hear her to know that she was both depressed and angry: she'd been around Ryoga and his shi shi hokodan enough times to recognize the heavy, oppressive feeling of depression, and she knew even better the roiling, hot sensation of anger from Akane herself. It wasn't easy to tell what they were when they were mixed together, but the other girl's emotions swung back and forth between the two extremes often enough.
Because she had avoided looking in Akane's direction, she didn't notice that she had fallen behind her until she heard her say, "Why?"
Ranma stopped and looked over her shoulder, and saw Akane standing some distance away. Much like at breakfast, her head was bowed, which cast a shadow over her face. She stood rigidly, with her school bag held in front of her, and it appeared that she held said bag's handles with a death grip.
"Huh?" She voiced intelligently, since Akane had spoken too quietly for her to register what had been said. Considering the circumstances, and how the other girl was behaving, she figured that it would be a good idea to set her school bag aside, which she had been carrying with the aid of her telekinesis since the only other way was hardly practical and rather uncomfortable.
Akane managed to squeeze the handles of her school bag tighter still. "Why couldn't you be like the other boys?"
Ranma hadn't expected such a question to ever be asked by Akane, which — understandably — made her quite confused. "What are you talking about? I thought you didn't like boys."
Akane raised her head high enough for one of her eyes to glint in the light. "I don't! But, at least
they usually have enough sense to make up their minds!"
Ranma furrowed her brow and turned her body so she could face her one-time fiancée properly. "Oh, yeah? And what were
you doing before all this happened, huh?"
"Hey!" Akane replied sharply, her face coloring with anger. "
I wasn't the one who ran off when I was ready to marry you!"
With a scowl, Ranma said, "Ready? When your proposal was basically, 'if you don't marry me, you won't get any nannichuan?' Give me a break!"
Akane set her fists upon her hips in an imperious manner. "Oh, so you would have gone through with it if there hadn't been any more incentive than me?"
"You already know the answer to that question," Ranma spat out bitterly. "Happy now? Now that you've won the argument and 'proved' that everything that went wrong between us was
my fault?"
Akane quickly deflated, her arms dropping to her sides and her eyes falling to the ground, as she was overcome with grief and shame. "No. I'm not happy." She clenched her eyes shut, and her body began to shake. "I'm sorry... It's just..."
Having taken note of her quavering voice and unshed tears, Ranma felt a pang of sympathy amidst her understanding, which inspired her to interject with a soft tone of voice. "You don't have to say anything."
"Damn it!" Akane suddenly screamed, as she slammed her fist into — and through — a nearby wall. "Why did things have to turn out this way!?"
After a sizeable portion of the wall finished crumbling to the ground, and there was no need to speak over such a racket, Ranma tried to lighten the mood with a joke. "Should we make a list?"
"Hell," Akane said quietly, humorlessly, as she retrieved her throbbing hand and held it to her chest, "we could write a book."
A silence descended upon the pair, as they began to get caught up in thoughts of the past: of what had happened, could have happened, and should have happened. There had been so many opportunities lost to them, though said opportunities hadn't been seen as such until hindsight had enlightened them about their nature. There was much to regret and feel ashamed of, and there was little of anything else that wasn't bittersweet. "If only," was a very common theme among their thoughts.
Eventually, without turning away from the wall, Akane wiped her forearm across her eyes and spoke in a subdued tone. "Ranma?"
"...Yeah?" Ranma replied cautiously, not knowing what to expect.
Akane turned her head and gazed at Ranma with an unreadable expression on her face. "Why are you so against getting married?"
"I could have asked you the same thing," Ranma thought to herself.
Instead of voicing that thought, she decided that Akane deserved to know at least that much about her, as far as it was related to her question. Not only due to the fact that it was too late for her answer to matter, but because she was beginning to realize how many problems she had caused — both to herself and others — by keeping things so close to her chest as often as she did.
She sighed and sat down on her haunches. "I wasn't raised with that lifestyle in mind." Seeing the confused look on Akane's face, she went on to elaborate. "I know: you'd think otherwise with our fathers' plan to unite our families' schools, but my old man never gave me any reason to expect a future where I'd settle down, get married and have a family. It was always about improving my body, mind and skills as a martial artist; there wasn't any room for friends, family or having a relationship with a girl."
Akane nodded her head absently, and began to feel both sympathetic and stupid. Considering how Ranma hadn't even known the existence of her own mother, and had no idea of how to react when she had first learned of said existence, she should have realized how seriously skewed her upbringing must have been when compared to the average person, who had the same ideas — generally — about what they should hope for in their future. This abnormality was made more clear to her as her former fiancé continued to speak.
"I mean, it's not like I wasn't aware of how others lived," Ranma admitted. "It's just that I was convinced that it wasn't going to be the same for me. I moved around too often to form any long-lasting relationships with anyone at school, and I usually spent the rest of my time training when I wasn't there. I often traveled on foot, strayed from civilization, foraged and hunted my own food, didn't have much in the way of — or interest in — material possessions, and lived in a tent." She bowed her head a bit and shook her head. "After a while, I couldn't identify with how others lived their lives; and — whenever the topic came up — it turned out that they couldn't imagine themselves living the way that I did, either. I don't think anyone believed me, anyway."
Akane walked over to Ranma and placed a comforting hand on her head, and let it rest there with the horn parting her fingers. She didn't know what to say, or how to say it, but she hoped that the physical gesture would convey what she couldn't with words, which there would have been a lot of had she been able to use them.
While Ranma wasn't
exactly sure what the gesture was all about, she was reasonably certain that they had just made a major breakthrough, both in their relationship and how they had been affected by the result of the contest. It was too little, too late, to be sure, but it was better than what could have happened to them otherwise.
When Akane was ready to remove her hand from Ranma's head, she sighed and said, "We're probably going to be late, now."
Ranma was about to agree with her, until the sight of her school bag reminded her that she had more resources at her disposal than she used to. So, she used her telekinesis to move it within Akane's reach and said, "Hop on."
Akane was dumbfounded, at first, but it wasn't long before she figured it out and looked at Ranma with a dubious expression on her face. "Are you serious?"
"Would you rather be late?" Ranma countered. To herself, she added, "Besides, if anyone's ever going to ride me, I want to have a choice in the matter, and I'd prefer it if you were my first."
After hesitating for a second, Akane decided to take Ranma's school bag and ease herself onto her back. She was uncertain about this idea, even more so when Ranma spread out her wings in preparation for flight.
"Are you sure about this?" She asked, trying not to sound nervous.
"Nope!" Ranma casually chirped in reply, before she began to beat her wings as hard as she could, in order to achieve lift.
The amount of strength she had used turned out to be unnecessary, since something magical had to be at work for her wings to carry the weight of her body in the first place, and she became airborne rather quickly. A little
too quickly, as it turned out: no sooner had they left the ground, had Akane squealed and looped her arms around her neck as if her life depended on it. And when that caused her to fly unsteadily, which eventually led to some banking and rolling, it had only compounded the problem further.
Dazedly, due to significant oxygen deprivation, she thought, "I've heard that the first time can be rough, but geez!"
Chapter 8
Between the principal, Ranma, and the many people associated with both, those who attended and worked at Furinkan high school had seen and experienced many an odd thing. However, that still didn't prepare them for the sight of Akane riding on a small, flying unicorn to class, with said flying unicorn bearing an appearance that seemed better suited to being associated with sultry temptresses rather than pure maidens.
Those in the classroom of 1-F paused with stupefication as they watched Akane and her ride land on the balcony outside, in front of the open, sliding glass door. Their classmate, Akane, seemed to be rather disgruntled as she picked leaves and twigs out of her hair, and when she adjusted her uniform, while the flying, unicorn-looking creature appeared to be irritated and slightly out of breath, but otherwise immaculate in appearance.
"You should have told me that you weren't all that great at flying, yet," they heard Akane gripe.
Most were surprised when they heard the ill-humored response that quickly followed. "I can fly
just fine, thank you very much. It's
you who should have told
me that you weren't ready for it."
Before Akane could make a retort to that, both she and Ranma were made aware of their audience when one of their female classmates suddenly squealed and excitedly exclaimed, "It can talk, too!?"
That seemed to end the tableau in the classroom, because there was a sudden resumption of activity and Akane and Ranma soon found themselves surrounded by many of their female classmates. Between being so tightly packed together, because of the limited amount of space afforded by the balcony, and the deluge of questions being directed at both of them, they found themselves overwhelmed as they tried to get a word in edgewise.
While that was happening, some of the boys had gathered to watch the display, who were just as curious about what was going on but too reserved to really show it. That was especially true of those who had taken a certain... "unmanly" interest in the flying unicorn, who did not wish to attract the unwanted attention and opinion of their peers.
When one of the girls could clearly by heard asking if she could ride the flying unicorn, Daisuke leaned toward his friend and whispered, "I don't wanna sound like a pervert or nothin', but I wouldn't mind riding her, either."
"Yeah," Hiroshi agreed quietly, "unicorns kick ass."
They shared a knowing look and bumped their fists together.
By that time, Akane was just about ready to explode, while Ranma was seriously considering trampling over a few girls to get away from their increasingly adventurous hands. Fortunately for them, since they had flown to beat the clock, they soon heard a voice that they usually felt ambivalent about hearing, but now sounded quite welcome to their ears.
"Alright, everyone!" Their homeroom teacher, Ninomiya, called out as she entered the classroom. "Be good and—" Before she could tell everyone to get into their seats, because the bell was soon going to sound, she noticed the congregation on and around the balcony. "What are you all doing over there?"
Since not many of the girls among the crowd had noticed her initially, or cared enough to move out of the way even if they had, she ended up pushing her way through them to reach the focus of their attention. By the time that she had reached said focus, her students had gotten the hint and had — however reluctantly — given her more space.
What she came face-to-face with came as quite a surprise to her, because pegasi and unicorns were creatures that were seen in fiction and a young girl's imagination, not in the real world. Yet, not only did she see them, but she saw them in the same package, which made it all the more fantastical.
When Ranma saw her teacher's eyes widen and acquire a sparkly cast to them, even as her inhalation of breath continued after the initial surprise, she knew — without a doubt — that she wasn't going to like what was going to happen next. She managed to retreat a step as she said, "Now, let's not—"
"
Pony!" Hinako cried out excitedly before she leapt forward and wrapped her arms around said pony's neck, giggling gleefully as she did so.
"Urk!" Came Ranma's final "articulation," as her air was cut off for the second time in nearly as many minutes. She tried to implore Akane's aid with a look, which wasn't easy to do while her head was being jostled around by her teacher's excited movements, or with her eyes bulging out of their sockets and her tongue lolling out of her mouth, but her former fiancée seemed to understand because the expression on her face seemed to ask, "You want
me to get in between
that?"
Which was understandable, considering how their teacher was far from being an ordinary young girl. Case in point: sometimes she wasn't a young girl
at all. Add on to that the fact that she could drain someone dry of energy, which could render them weak and immobile for a lengthy period of time, and there was little wonder as to why most people would rather not tempt being put into such a prone and irksome condition.
So, despite what kind of opportunity most of the girls — and even some of the boys — were currently missing out on, they did little more than quietly express their jealousy, resentment or resignation while they stood by and watched their teacher have her merry way with a creature once thought to be beyond their corporeal enjoyment. Well, it actually concerned two separate creatures, but since they seemed to be a part of the same package...
Either way, the bell soon rung, which signified the start of homeroom. Unsurprisingly, Hinako — who was known for getting distracted if something appealed enough to the childish side of her personality — failed to react accordingly, as a homeroom teacher should. With that being the case, some of her students exchanged looks, with a shrug or two of the shoulders shortly following, before they assumed that they had a free period and began to act upon the idea.
They didn't get a chance to fulfill that desire, however, because Ranma's threshold of tolerance — for her teacher's behavior — had finally been crossed, and she regained their attention when she had the presence of mind to use her telekinesis, in order to expel the arms about her neck. Upon doing so, she found enough room to spread out her wings and take to the air, where she felt relatively safe and a lot less smothered.
"Do you guys
mind!?" She huffed, as she glared down upon everyone on the balcony. "For crying out—" She paused, and reconsidered whatever she might have said next, before deciding on, "I don't have to put up with this!"
It was with a mixture of shame and disappointment that most of those in and around the vicinity of the balcony, who had crowded around the flying unicorn, silently watched as she flew up and over the building, out of sight. It was a bad end to what had seemed like such a good beginning, but not many of them could really fault themselves for their overeagerness, and thought that the excuse for their behavior was rather self-explanatory: the object of their interest had — after all — been a talking, flying unicorn. How else were they supposed to react to something like that!?
As for Hinako, she felt especially guilty for upsetting the flying unicorn, and feared that she wouldn't ever see her again. Thus, it was with a slouched posture, leaden steps and a heavy heart that she re-entered the classroom. When she got behind the lectern, her usual spirit for teaching was noticeably absent, so much so that some of her students actually felt sorry for her despite her own role during the affair.
Still, despite her lack of enthusiasm, she began one of her duties as a homeroom teacher once all of her students had been seated: the roll call. It wasn't until she got to "Saotome Ranma" that there was any notable change in her mood, because Akane had vouched for his presence even though she could not see him anywhere in the classroom.
Feeling that her suspicion was justified, she asked, "Where is he, then?"
"I don't know," Akane replied, with a shrug of her shoulders, before nonchalantly adding, "
I wasn't the one who chased him off."
The silence that followed was deafening, until it was broken by a very sudden and collective cry of, "
What!?"
After retreating to the school's roof, Ranma had begun to pace around, muttering, "This isn't going to work," over and over again for a good portion of a minute. Once she had gotten tired of doing that, she had sat heavily upon her haunches and half-heartedly cursed things that she couldn't seem to help, like her attractiveness and awesomeness. It was only a half-hearted effort because they were things that she took pride in, after all.
Eventually, she sighed and hung her head, wondering what she was supposed to do. It had been bad enough when she'd had a handful of girls interested in her, while most of the others were pretty much of the opinion that she was a perverted jerk, but now their attention may effectively be reversed. Well, they were bound to find out the identity of their fairy tale creature, and that might very well be enough to return things to how they had been before, but...
"As if I'd be that lucky," she grumbled.
She had thought that her joke, about being mobbed by girls, had mostly been just that — a joke. Not only that, but she had envisioned the girls in question as being a bit younger in general, rather than around her own age. If high school girls were capable of doing the mobbing, then what did that say about her chances with their younger counterparts? Was she even safe from the adults?
"At least I can fly," she tried to console herself.
Flight had given her a sense of freedom that she had never felt before, and it would certainly help her to avoid public places where she could get mobbed. The problem with that, however, was that she didn't want to avoid the public. Flying might be fun and all, but not so much when there was little else to do, and she had no idea when — or if — she would ever be human again.
She didn't like the idea of being stuck in her current form, but she had to admit the possibility. An arranged marriage with a stranger — at the time — had been problematic enough, especially since she hadn't expected it, but being engaged to Akane had been pretty straightforward. If it hadn't been for the circumstances, between her upbringing and how the neko-ken training had come into play, she may very well have been married to Akane by now. However, even though she no longer had a sub-conscious part of herself working against her, marrying Kasumi was far from being as straightforward of an undertaking as it had been with Akane.
Akane may not have liked boys all that much, which was quite understandable considering some of her experiences with them, but she nonetheless had no romantic interest in the members of her own sex as far as she was aware. Kasumi, on the other hand, was a girl who favored her own kind. She may have once had a curse that could accommodate such a disposition, while sharing said disposition, but the favored body on her end of the equation did not add up between them: she saw herself in the body that she had been born with, while Kasumi desired the one that had come into being because of a curse.
And that was just the start of their problems. Even if she were to accept having a female body, to the extent that she would be willing to be intimate with one, she and Kasumi were expected to have children as husband and wife, with Kasumi being the mother. That would require Kasumi, a lesbian, to have sex with her — as a him — however many times that it would take to conceive a child. Technically being a "lesbian" herself, born as a man and desiring to live as one, having intercourse with a man and bearing children was no less of a problem on her end, assuming that her pledge to be manly would even allow her the choice.
Then there was the issue of even getting that far, because she didn't like the idea of pursuing a future with Kasumi for the sake of having a human body again, nor did she like the idea of her being burdened by the fear of such an agenda being a reality. Despite their past circumstances, and their mutual — but not-quite-equal — lack of romantic interest toward one another, Kasumi had been one of the nicest people that she'd ever known, more so than any who had ever shown an interest in marrying her. So, there was no way that she was going to make the restoration of her humanity her primary concern, rather than it being a natural consequence as their relationship evolved.
That was easier said than done, of course. She wasn't sure if she could pursue a closer relationship with Kasumi without at least
some of her motive being driven by the chance to become human again. And that was all before taking anyone else into account, as there were bound to be problems and complications on that front as well, with the expectations of their parents certainly being among them.
Since it wasn't really helping her to think about it, and she had more pressing concerns that needed to be addressed anyway, she returned her thoughts to what had happened a few minutes ago, which had driven her to the roof in the first place. She began to wonder if she should return before the first period class started, to see if attending school would really be feasible or not.
By the time that she had decided to give it another shot, she noticed that a strange presence had suddenly appeared behind her, as if from thin air, instead of coming to her attention by crossing at least some of the distance between herself and the limit of her "personal space." In response, she hopped into the air and spun herself about, in order to face her uninvited guest when she landed.
Which — unexpectedly — turned out to be a white-furred fox. It was only half of her own size, with a slim and sleek build that made it look quite graceful. It sat before her, on its haunches, with the stillness of a statue, doing nothing except stare at her with its piercing eyes.
She knew what kind of fox it was, even though she had never seen one for herself until that moment: it was one of the
kitsune that served Inari, one of the most prominent kami of the Shinto pantheon. However, since that knowledge wasn't enough to tell her why she might have encountered one, she kept her guard up and decided to do what came naturally when one wanted an answer.
"What do you want?" She calmly inquired.
The kitsune bowed its head respectfully, upon having its presence acknowledged, and formally said, "I bear a message from Inari-sama."
"Really?" Ranma replied with some surprise, wondering why a kami like Inari — or any kami at all, for that matter — would want to send her a message. Was it because she was a kami herself, now?
"Indeed," the kitsune affirmed. "Inari-sama wishes to meet with you, with the intention of providing you with aid."
Nonplussed by that, Ranma asked, "Inari wants to
help me?" Upon receiving verbal confirmation from the kitsune, she added, "Why?"
"I know not," came the kitsune's matter-of-fact reply. "I only know what I have been told, and what remains of it is this: Inari-sama can be reached at any one of her shrines, whenever you are ready. At such a time, she will show you a place where your own kind live. It is recommended that you have an idea of how long you might intend to stay there before your arrival."
"My own kind?" Ranma questioned, with a mixture of surprise, confusion and intrigue. "What do you mean?"
The kitsune said, "I do not know, and have nothing more to convey," before it simply winked out of sight.
Ranma blinked her eyes a few times, in response to the kitsune's sudden disappearing act, and wondered how it had been done and why she couldn't sense its presence anywhere. After trying and failing to figure it out, she frowned when it finally occurred to her that the kitsune's departure had been rather rude.
"You could have said, 'goodbye,' at least," she muttered crossly.
Chapter 9
Ranma had considered ditching school after the kitsune had left, but she decided that it would be best to not act in haste. While she was certainly keen on getting herself back to normal, or what passed for it, she had to admit that Inari's invitation was a bit dubious. The kami in question wanted to offer their help by showing her where her own kind lived, but just what — exactly — did that entail? What did she have to gain from that if she didn't want to be one of them in the first place?
Still, if there was a chance of changing herself back without having to force herself to change who she was as a person, the least that she could do was see Inari and ask for more details. She knew that it would be for the best if she changed how she felt and thought about certain things, since she wasn't of a mind to abandon the life that she had, and thus the situation at the crux of her current predicament — that being her engagement to Kasumi. However, the idea of making herself go through such a change of character just didn't sit right with her.
On one hoof, she wanted nothing more than to just put her problems aside and stop thinking about them, for her own peace of mind if nothing else. On the other hoof, she wanted more time to think about the prospects of responding to Inari's offer. On the
other other hoof, she wondered if she had the luxury to ignore her problems for any length of time, instead of trying to address them as soon as possible. And on yet another hoof of the "other" variety, she worried that she might choose to visit others of her own kind as a form of escapism.
So, in the end, she decided to return to the classroom. She reasoned that she could spare a few hours either thinking about the situation or finding a distraction, and the aforementioned setting could provide her with both. Besides which, if she ended up spending a lot of time in her current form, and it wasn't enough of a reason to keep her out of school, she figured that it would be best to find out if it would work out now in order to get it over with.
The reception that she got from her classmates — as she re-entered the classroom from the balcony — was a quiet one, even though she had once again become the center of their attention. Seeing their reservation to speak even though the first period class had yet to start, and the questions behind some of their gazes, among a fair number of dirty looks and those of betrayal, she assumed that they had learned about her identity while she had been absent. Either way, she ignored them and went to her desk, which — surprisingly — was not beyond her body's new dimensions to accommodate. It wasn't a particularly good or comfortable fit, but it worked well enough and she imagined that it could be improved with some adjustments.
After the first period teacher arrived and took his place behind the lectern, he paused upon noticing her and stared for a few seconds. However, he'd probably seen and been through enough at the school to be able to pretend that nothing strange was afoot, so that was probably why it didn't take him long to get back on track and start his lesson. Considering the possibility of inviting trouble upon oneself when acknowledging or getting involved in strange matters that wasn't one's own, it wasn't a surprising or uncommon response.
That didn't stop a lot of her classmates from staring at her, of course; especially when she began to use her telekinesis to write with her pencil. Or tried to, at least: she quickly found that the level of control needed to write legibly, without making the characters many times larger than they needed to be, was well beyond her current ability. She didn't even realize how good of a distraction that she had found in the problem, with the necessity to overcome it for the sake of school work not even occurring to her, because she could only see positive things coming out of gaining more control over her new ability.
Time began to fly by in the same manner that the pages of her notebook did, as she worked to improve the efficiency of her writing without a care for what the rest of the class were being made to do. Aside from being interrupted by a couple of notes being sent her way, which she responded to if the questions being asked weren't stupid and/or too personal, she spent the entire period trying to make the more stroke-intensive kanji that she knew of smaller and smaller. She didn't get them as small as she would have liked by the time that the period ended, but was otherwise satisfied that she had made some progress.
During the break between classes, several of her classmates — mostly boys — gathered up the nerve to approach her at her desk to ask questions and engage her in light conversation. It was a fairly awkward affair for both sides, at first, but it didn't take long for everyone to relax. She was only annoyed by a question about her curse, regarding whether she still turned into a girl or not, since quite a number of guys were disappointed to hear that she was stuck with her new appearance for the time being.
Akane had her own crowd, asking her questions that they weren't comfortable conveying to Ranma directly, which didn't help much since their desks were next to each other, though plenty were more interested in her side of the situation seeing as they were either fellow girls or friends. She handled the situation with enough patience and grace, all things considered. The hardest part was talking about the contest, and her loss, but — thankfully — a few of her more insightful friends had made sure that the conversation didn't linger on that sore spot for very long.
After the initial curiosity and interest had more or less been sated, their classmates ceased to bother them as much between periods — not any more than usual, anyway. However, due to word of yesterday's events being spread from another source as well, with Nabiki and Tatewaki being the likely culprits, the third break saw other students straying from their classrooms to visit theirs, and with it certain information that Ranma and Akane had held out on began to circulate amongst their classmates — particularly, that Ranma was now engaged to Kasumi.
Ranma and Akane didn't want to talk about it — not just yet. However, they were aware that the whispers would end and they'd be confronted about it come lunch time, since there wasn't a lot of time for it during the third break and lunch would provide a lot of time and opportunity for many people to pursue the matter. That didn't stop the notes from coming during class, but a non-confrontational method of communication such as that was easy enough to disregard.
Between wanting to avoid that and making up her mind to see what Inari's angle was, Ranma decided that lunch time would be a good time as any to visit one of the kami's Shinto shrines. She'd have to stop by the house first, though, since it would be rather rude — even for her — if she didn't tell her mother and Kasumi where she was going, and why. As far as her mother was concerned, she also wanted to show her some initiative, in order to stave off any rising doubt about her manliness for a bit longer. As for Kasumi... Considering what she had shared with her last night, she didn't think that disappearing without a word, or any direct contact, would be wise.
Before the bell signaled the end of fourth period, and — therefore — the start of lunch, she had the presence of mind to write Akane a note that said, "I've decided to follow a lead that might help me change back. Will you be okay?"
After reading the note, Akane turned to regard her and stared for a moment, searchingly, before she offered a weak smile and raised a thumb in reply.
While she was relieved by the answer, she also felt a little guilty about leaving Akane to deal with their gossip-hungry peers all by herself. However, there was a certain aspect about the situation that said peers could only get from the horse's mouth, literally speaking, and she would much rather avoid the subject altogether. Even if Kasumi wasn't an older woman, or herself a horse, it was no business of theirs what they did together, and she certainly didn't want to hear any of their speculations on the matter when she refused to speak about it.
When the bell finally rang, she opened a window with her telekinesis and flew out of the classroom before anyone else could get out of their seat. She didn't waste any time putting the school behind her because she wanted her detour at the house to be brief, so she could find out what the deal was with Inari. False hope wasn't something that she wanted or needed, so she felt it best to address what was up for offer now and get it over with. If it turned out to be useful, the sooner she might get her problem resolved; if useless, she could put it behind her and move on to something that might prove more worthwhile.
It didn't take her long to see where she lived from the sky, though she was already quite familiar with where it was relative to the school. Flying directly to her destination got her there in record time, and it wasn't long before she landed in the garden, between the koi pond and the house. She absently noted the laundry that had been left out to dry as she trotted toward the living room, where she saw Kasumi sitting at the table all by herself.
She opened her mouth and prepared to greet her, but stopped short of doing so and paused just outside of the house when she noticed the subdued expression on her face, as she stared down at the tabletop. It was a rare sight to behold, to be seeing her in such a state, and it made her wonder about the cause. She was pretty sure that she was within Kasumi's peripheral vision, though, and to have not been noticed yet said something about what might be on her mind.
The ability to deal with this kind of situation in a proficient capacity wasn't among her repertoire of social skills. In fact, she could be rather bad about addressing matters where certain emotions were involved, no thanks — in part — to the effects that the neko-ken had on her actions. As such, she was rather tempted to act like she hadn't noticed anything and hope for the best.
However, this was the woman that she was engaged to marry, without question, and — unlike other people that she could mention — she'd yet to give her a reason to fear some kind of trouble for trying to communicate with her on a more personal level. She wasn't the type to get too touchy-feely, defensive, possessive or happy if someone were to express concern for her, as far as she knew.
After a moment of indecision, she hesitantly spoke up and said, "Kasumi? Is... something wrong?"
Kasumi was jolted out of her reverie and regarded her with confusion. "Ranma?"
Rather than address the reason for why she was there right then, instead of being at school, Ranma entered the house and made her way over to the table in silence. As she did so, she checked to see if they had any privacy, and had mixed feelings when she didn't sense anyone nearby: because she was unsure about following through with her decision, and might have latched on to an excuse to back out of it. She could hear the sound of water running in the kitchen for a few seconds, and again by the time she sat down across from Kasumi, so she concluded that her mother was preoccupied with washing the dishes for the time being.
Trying to act as casually as she could, despite how awkward and nervous she felt, she looked Kasumi in the eye and prompted her with a simple, "Well?"
"Oh..." Kasumi worried her lip as she considered her response, since she was speaking to her newly-betrothed, before deciding on an answer with a sigh that was equal parts relief and resignation. "Well, Tofu came to visit me earlier..."
A silence fell between them, because Ranma was late in realizing that she would need to help carry the conversation along if she wanted to know anything more. Neither of them had made a habit of sharing personal matters with others, so opening up to each other wasn't an ideal way of changing that. Still, they were willing, and Ranma — in particular — could be quite stubborn when she set her mind to something.
"What did he do?" She questioned, her brow slightly furrowed.
Kasumi was a little surprised by what was being implied, but she was quick to clear things up. "Oh, no, it wasn't anything
he had done. He just wanted to know why
I had done to him... what I did." She sighed, and began to slouch a bit. "He took my answer pretty well, all things considered, but I..." She lowered her head and cast her eyes to the table. "I'm ashamed by what I've done, and it has been weighing on my mind ever since he left."
The thought of Kasumi being the wrongdoer, rather than the victim of the wrongdoing, made Ranma pause and wonder if she wanted to learn anything more about it. While it was certainly intriguing what someone like Kasumi could have done to wrong someone, she was wary of sating her curiosity because of all of the land mines that she had stepped on in the past; especially now that she had a greater awareness and control of her actions.
Kasumi glanced up and noticed the unsure expression on Ranma's face, since no immediate answer seemed to be forthcoming. After some consideration, she made sure that she could still hear Ranma's mother in the kitchen before she decided that now would be as good of a time as any to officially take her fiancé into her confidence. Ranma already knew one of her biggest secrets anyway, and it was her hope that being able to confide in each other would be good for their prospective relationship.
After drawing herself up and taking a measured breath, she softly said, "A few years ago, not long after my
sixteenth birthday, Tofu approached me to confess his feelings. I had been aware of his interest for a while, but I hadn't known how to deal with it. At the time, I'd only recently realized and acknowledged my... inclination, and I was still trying to figure out how I might avoid suspicion if I kept turning men away."
"To make a long story short," she went on, with a rueful expression on her face, "I panicked. He didn't get a chance to finish his confession when — out of desperation — I struck his funny bone pressure point."
Ranma looked at her incredulously. "Funny bone... pressure point?"
Kasumi nodded her head faintly. "When applied, whatever the subject happens to be focusing their attention on the most — at the time of application — will cause them to act, well..."
"Funny?" Ranma supplied, with a shake of her head. She'd just assumed that it was some kind of strange quirk, even though it was a behavior that was at odds with everything else that she knew about the man. To think that Kasumi had been the cause... It explained, at least, why Kasumi had one of the doctor's shiatsu books all that time ago. She had wondered about it at the time, but had quickly forgotten all about it because of other matters.
Kasumi deflated a little, and looked down in shame. "I wanted to reverse it so many times, but he didn't really seem aware of his behavior. I was afraid he would realize that I had done something to him once he was no longer under the influence of the pressure point, and I didn't want to tell him why I had done it if asked, so I convinced myself that everything would work out if I kept my contact with him to a minimum. I thought — if given enough time — I could figure out another solution, but..."
She didn't need to finish that sentence, since Ranma knew how things had turned out. Tofu had been affected by the pressure point long enough for him to notice that something was wrong, despite the disconnect that it had caused between his normal behavior and how he had behaved with Kasumi. If their confrontation had ended well enough between them, though, it made her wonder if Kasumi had ended up telling him her sexual preference despite all of her past efforts to avoid it.
It also made her wonder about how she should respond. What Kasumi had done to Tofu hadn't been right, of course, but — at the same time — she could empathize with her. She knew how it felt to have something about oneself that one wished to keep hidden from others, because they didn't like the idea of being mistreated or ostracized. Plus, now that they were expected to marry, she felt like she should be supportive instead of reproachful. Unfortunately, it wasn't something that she had a lot of experience with, and she didn't have enough confidence to know if she would be able to say the right thing in the right way.
She was spared from her dilemma when she heard footfalls in the hallway, drawing closer, and she got to watch Kasumi fix her posture and put up a facade before her mother walked into the room. It had been the first time that she had seen such behavior from her, so it wasn't hard for her to pretend that she hadn't been expecting her mother when she appeared.
Her mother paused just inside of the room and frowned when she saw her sitting at the table. "Ranma? Why aren't you in school?"
"Oh, hey, mom," she said, playing it casual. "It seems like Inari wants to help me, so I thought: why wait? I just thought I'd stop by to let you know that I might be gone for a while."
Kasumi's eyes widened upon hearing a certain detail, while her mother had to close her mouth after it had gone slack, who belatedly asked, "Did you just say... Inari?"
"Yup," came Ranma's simple acknowledgement.
Overwhelmed by such news being delivered, her mother felt that it would be a good idea to sit down, and claimed her own side of the table.
"Do you know how long you will be gone?" Kasumi posed, since Ranma's mother hadn't objected outright, and because she had mixed feelings about them being separated for very long. She felt that she would have an easier time getting closer to Ranma as she currently was, since it would be awkward for her if she were a human man once more, and off-putting on top of that because of the pressures that would no doubt close in on them once they were compatible in "that way" again.
Ranma shook her head in reply. "I don't know. I wasn't told exactly how I would be helped. All I know for certain is that I can decide how long I'll be away, so I might not be gone for very long at all. I won't know for sure until I learn more."
After a moment of consideration, her mother decided to share her opinion on the matter. "Well, this
is Inari that we are talking about. We should feel honored that they are willing to extend their aid to you. I would be willing to give you however much time you would need to pursue this stroke of good fortune, in order to reclaim your proper body, though I would hope to see you back in a reasonable amount of time."
"Don't worry," Ranma assured them both, as she rose to her hooves. "I wouldn't want to be gone any longer than necessary."
As Ranma's mother smiled in approval, Kasumi decided to respond with a token — fairly half-hearted — show of support, with a simple, "Be careful," and kept how she truly felt about the matter to herself.
Chapter 10
Ranma wasn't sure about her choice of shrine, since it was a small one, but she figured that she could give it a try before going any further out of her way. Distance and time weren't really an issue, especially now that she could fly, but she didn't see any reason to ignore a more conveniently-located shrine if she didn't have to. If things didn't work out, even though the kitsune had said that any shrine would do, it wouldn't be a problem to seek out a larger shrine: Inari was quite popular, and thus prevalent, after all.
The shrine in question was a
hokora, which was situated near the mouth of a hiking trail that began where the trees of a forest ended. She was familiar with it since the forest and mountain beyond were highly-accessible training grounds, due in part to them being nearby. While the hiking trail wasn't strictly necessary for getting to where she would need to go for said training, it was a convenient reference for finding the right places without any trouble. Between that and the shrine being hard to overlook, it hadn't been difficult to remember it.
Before she landed in front of the shrine, she checked to make sure that no one was around to see her. While she wasn't particularly concerned about catching someone's attention, she knew enough about the benefits of being inconspicuous to conclude that it would be for the best to exercise a low profile in this situation. That's why she had opted to try this shrine instead of one of the large ones, where permanent residents were liable to be around the shrine at any time during the day, which might present a problem when trying to enter the
honden, a place where the public wasn't allowed to enter.
After confirming that the road nearby was clear of people, in addition to the area around the shrine, she alighted on the ground and stepped up to it. The shrine appeared to be bigger than usual, due to her perspective being closer to the ground than normal, but it didn't change the fact that there wouldn't be much room for her inside of it should she manage to get inside. In front of the shrine were two statues of kitsune set on short, stone pedestals, who were there to guard the entrance. Considering some of her past experiences with statues and the supernatural, she wouldn't be surprised if they came to life and actually performed the job of guardians when necessary.
While she contemplated trying to open up the sealed double door without damaging it or any other part of the shrine, she heard a masculine-sounding voice say, "Please proceed toward the door, honored guest."
Before she could turn to look at the source of the voice, which she was sure had come from the kitsune statue on her left, she heard the lock on the double door release and watched as both leaves slowly opened outward. She could now view the inside of the shrine, which didn't look out of the ordinary — from what she could see — and appeared to be as small as she had imagined it.
It would be a tight fit for her, but she figured that all wasn't as it seemed, and that her being in the shrine wouldn't present a problem as far as her meeting with Inari was concerned. After sparing each of the two kitsune statues a glance, due to feeling a bit nervous about the meeting that she would soon have with Inari, she steeled herself and approached the shrine, with the intent to enter it.
Right when she was about to step onto the shrine's veranda, she paused when a strange sensation began to wash over her face, at the same time that the view in front of her changed into something very different. Instead of seeing the outside of the shrine, in addition to some of the inside, she found herself looking into an expansive room that had a tatami mat floor, high ceiling, and murals lining the top of the walls. When she pulled her head back, the sensation that she had felt previously retreated until she could only feel it on the end of her nose, and by then she could see the outside of the shrine again.
After poking her head back through the barrier that separated the outside world from wherever she was expected to go, she thought, "Well, this is new. I guess I don't have to worry about it being cramped in here..."
With that being the case, she moved forward until she could no longer feel the barrier traveling across her body. Once she was fairly certain that she was completely within the room, she looked back and saw a closed door instead of any sign of where she had just come from. Upon turning her attention back to the fore, she found her field of vision largely taken up by a wall of white and gold fur. After blinking her eyes at this sudden, silent manifestation, she looked up... and then up some more; only then was she able to see the face of the large being that had appeared before her.
If this was Inari, then it would certainly explain the size of their meeting place: they were huge! They were twice the size of Pantyhose Taro, at the very least. Their size was a little deceptive, however, since they were too slim, long, or large in certain areas, giving them more of a stylistic appearance of a fox than that of a natural one: their legs were positively dainty, their ears quite pronounced, and their tail exceedingly fluffy. What surprised her was their face, which bore a human-like resemblance — like her own — instead of possessing the features of a fox alone.
Originally, she had imagined herself acting all nonchalant in front of Inari, as if their meeting wouldn't be a big deal, but she felt quite different about it while she was actually within their presence. Their power was immense, beyond anything that she had ever felt before, and it filled the room to capacity even though she was pretty sure that their aura was in a placid state. It was as awe-inspiring as it was humbling, which did a lot to take the wind out of her ego's sails. Even though she had been aloof when it had come to matters of faith, aside from the things that had been of practical use to her, it had only taken a second to drive home the fact that this meeting was serious: she wasn't meeting just
any kami, but perhaps the most worshipped one of them all. Faith or no faith, Inari was no longer a stranger to her senses, and their report had convinced her that her meeting was — in fact — a big deal.
As such, she didn't know what to say; not without sounding stupid, at any rate. Inari appeared to find her silence amusing, though, because she — for her voice certainly suggested that she was female — lightly said, "Oh, is this form too much for you? How about this, then?"
Inari disappeared in a cloud of smoke that suddenly shot out from her, which filled the room instantly. The smoke didn't come with the cough-inducing quality usually expected of it, so it was without distraction that she saw Inari's new form when the smoke cleared. In place of the giant fox was a breathtakingly-beautiful human woman, who wore a somewhat abbreviated version of a yukata, one that displayed plenty of leg and cleavage. Her golden hair was long, wavy and shimmered in the light, her ivory skin smooth and unblemished, and her amber eyes were made exotic by their slitted pupils.
"Is this better?" She playfully asked, since Ranma's gawking was quite obvious. "Well, since you're more... comfortable, I'll begin by explaining why you are here."
The comment about being more comfortable, which was quite false, brought Ranma out of her stupor. She was embarrassed to have lost herself like that, even though Inari's unrivaled beauty made it quite understandable, so she sat on her haunches and made an unhappy grunt to acknowledge the other's intention to give the aforementioned explanation. Meeting Inari might be a big deal, but she didn't particularly like being played around with solely for the trangressor's amusement.
"...Not that there's much to explain," Inari belatedly added, in an offhanded manner. "A certain someone asked that I help you, should something like this happen, and I obliged."
Ranma blinked her eyes in confusion. "Someone knew this would happen and wanted to help me?"
"You don't remember Haruyama-chan?" At Ranma's lack of recognition, Inari shapeshifted into a certain old man who had bushy eyebrows and was dressed as a Shinto priest. "How could you forget such a sweet, old man? Do you want to make him cry?"
While Ranma was embarrassed about forgetting the old priest, who had helped her out of a sticky situation and had shared his observation about what he had sensed about her, she was a little put off by the flippant guilt trip. If Inari intended to help her, she wasn't feeling so confident about it working out smoothly or well.
Inari must have been good at reading expressions, or could read minds, because she assumed her prior form, appeared right in front of her in the blink of an eye, and began to pinch her cheeks as she blithely said, "What is this face that says, 'this person doesn't seem reliable,' hmmmm?"
Before Ranma could decide on a way to respond to such treatment, based on the merit of whether she should risk offending Inari or not, said kami ceased what she had been doing, stood upright, clucked her tongue and said, "Well, you're no fun, so that's why I'm offering to send you to someone else. They will be able to provide a better environment for your needs, anyway."
After giving her cheeks a brief rub to soothe the pain, Ranma puzzled out, "Is that what you meant when your messenger said something about showing me a place where my own kind live?"
Inari nodded her head once. "That's right. Technically, you're not the same as those who live in Equestria, but you're close enough to fit right in."
Before Ranma could ask anything about Equestria, Inari cast her hand to the side, and in that direction an oval-shaped portal appeared. It had the appearance of water, in the sense that it was light made liquid, and was oval in shape despite the outer edge flowing and ebbing in places where the whirlpools were near. Said whirlpools came and went within the center of the portal, through which she could not see the other side.
"That will take you to Equestria," Inari supplied. "Well, just outside of its borders, anyway. And
this," with a gesture from a hand, a compass materialized and hung from a chain around Ranma's neck, "will lead you to Celestia, the one you'll be seeking aid from."
Feeling a bit off-balance due to the speed at which things were suddenly moving along, Ranma said, "Hold on. I haven't decided anything, yet. I don't even know how this is going to help me."
Inari leaned forward until her face was cast in shadows and only a few scant inches away from Ranma's, and from there she looked directly into her eyes with a penetrating stare and spoke with an edge to her voice. "Hey. You want help, right?"
Ranma began to sweat, but managed a slight nod of her head after a short delay.
Inari's expression suddenly brightened, who smiled as she said, "Good. Because that's exactly what you're going to get, just as soon as
you," she gave Ranma's nose a poke with her index finger, which propelled her through a portal that she had summoned behind her, "get going."
After dismissing the portals, standing upright and wiping her hands of imaginary filth, she idly commented, "You'll thank me for that later," before her thoughts focused on the reason behind her hasty actions. "Now to get back to that Mahjong tournament before I'm disqualified..."
Heaven knew how many kami would take delight in that.
Ranma barely had enough time to yelp in surprise, after she suddenly found herself being pushed backward from a seemingly-innocuous poke, when Inari and the room that they had been in was replaced by yet another unfamiliar environment. She didn't have enough time to absorb exactly where she was, however, because she was quick to notice that — wherever she was — she was far above a large body of water and gravity was in the process of dragging her toward it.
Once she had used her wings to recover her equilibrium and maintain her current altitude, she muttered, "Stupid kami. See if I ever start paying my respects..."
While she worked through her pique, due to how she had been treated by Inari, she looked about herself and took in her surroundings. There wasn't much to see despite her vantage point, since she appeared to be a fair distance from the nearest land mass, and she doubted that the two small islands within her purview had anything to do with where she would need to go. As for what she assumed to be the mainland, the one noticeable feature that she could make out was a volcano, but only because it was billowing smoke.
"Well," she grumbled, as she used her telekinesis to raise the compass into view, "let's see where I have to go." She adjusted the direction that she faced until the needle pointed at "north," which she figured was a picture of Celestia's face, and saw the volcano in the distance when she looked up. "
Of course it would be the most ominous-looking direction..."
She wasn't really worried about what she might encounter on her way to Celestia: she was just unhappy about the situation in general, what with having to make a trip that she hadn't chosen to go on under her own terms. It was too late to change the situation, and she wasn't surprised when she didn't see one of Inari's portals anywhere, so it wasn't like she had much of a choice about what she would have to do. Of course, that was assuming that Celestia had a means of getting her back to her own world, since she couldn't really expect Inari to come and pick her up at some later date.
Since staying put wasn't going to do her any good, she began to head in the direction that the compass indicated, with the hope that Celestia would be the key to finding her way back home. It would also be nice if Celestia could help her beyond that, regarding her current appearance, but — at the moment — she wanted to be reassured that there was a way to go back to her own world first.
It wasn't long before she began to make out a fair number of indistinct objects flying around the vicinity of the volcano. As she got closer, the aforementioned objects resolved themselves into dragons of various shapes and sizes. Considering her past experiences with other creatures and entities, the sight didn't really affect her beyond being a little surprised and curious, so she simply wondered whether she should bother flying around them or not. It might be fun to play with them if they were hostile, to work out some lingering irritation about her current situation, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to delay the trek to her goal any longer than necessary.
She decided to make a compromise: instead of going far out of her way to stay out of the dragons' sight, she would just avoid their physical presence around the volcano. If they attacked her despite her effort to put some distance between them, then so be it. After all, even though she had more important things to concern herself with, she couldn't help wondering how well she would fare against a dragon in a fight.
She had barely made it a quarter of the way around the dragons when she noticed one of them look in her direction and immediately change course to intercept her. Other dragons noticed this sudden deviation, then her, and proceeded to join in on the hunt, who roared in such a way that even more dragons became aware of what was going on. Fighting one or two dragons at once had not seemed to be a problem, and would have been considered good practice to explore what she was capable of, but the dozens that were approaching her made her more than a little apprehensive about sticking around.
The idea of running away before sampling the challenge being presented to her wasn't a welcome one, so she waited for the first dragon to reach her and make its move, to get an idea of what its speed and maneuverability was before any more dragons could reach her. After all, if they were already faster than her, then trying to outrun them wouldn't do her any good; not when she was in their territory, whose terrain didn't offer much in the way of hiding places. She would have a better chance of evading their attacks, due to the difference in size, but how much of an advantage she would have would depend on how quick and flexible they were.
The first dragon tried to plow into her with its jaws wide open, but she managed to sideflap out of the way with ease. She had kind of expected it, even though she was fairly accustomed to things being more than what they seemed, but this dragon began to demonstrate that they couldn't do much in the way of altering their course when they were committed to moving forward, since it had to wait before it would have enough space to bank and make another direct approach.
A half dozen other dragons would converge on her location by then, which might have even been the first dragon's intent, so she went after it and found that it didn't take much effort to catch up. While she couldn't yet be sure that the dragon was displaying its top speed, she was certain that she had yet to come close to her own, so she began to feel pretty confident about the "game" that she was going to play. Dealing with several dozen dragons of mostly-unknown capabilities was still a bit intimidating, but not enough to discourage her from strutting her stuff and learning more about her own capabilities.
The dragon didn't like her landing on its back, so it immediately began to toss and turn before going into a roll. Out of reflex, she had grabbed one of its spines between her hooves, and was surprised that she had enough of a grip to hold on to it throughout all of the dragon's motions. When said dragon saw that its efforts had failed to shake her, it turned its head around on its longish neck and breathed fire at her with little warning, which forced her to abandon her ride in order to escape the flames.
It turned out that the dragon suffered no ill effect from its own flames, so she wasn't surprised when the half dozen dragons from before came at her with their mouths blazing upon entering firing range, even though she was still pretty close to one of their own. The streams of fire were easy enough to dodge initially, since they were all coming from directions where she could see them all coming, but that changed once they broke away from each other, with the one in the lead attacking her head-on while the others circled around, under or over her location. The first dragon wasn't idle during this, who tried to coordinate a pincer attack with the dragon that was attacking her head-on.
By the time she zipped away at the last second, which caused the two dragons to crash into each other head-first and fall toward the ground in a daze, the other dragons began to breath fire at her from multiple directions. She had a few close calls at first, since she could only see so many of them at once and had to rely on her other senses for the others, but she didn't allow herself to be pinned into such a position for long. With a quick burst of speed, she flew out of their targeting zone and began to engage one of them in close-quarter combat.
Since she couldn't focus on one area of the dragon's body for long, lest she leave herself vulnerable to attacks from both the dragon on the receiving end of her hooves and that of its companions, she soon figured out the most effective way of attacking them: in the head. While it was pretty tough, which made her thankful for her hooves, it nonetheless encased the creature's brain and it could only endure so much concussive abuse. However, it could be a bit tricky to hit them in the head if they had a long neck, which she had discovered once she had begun to shuffle the focus of her attacks between her opponents, in order to increase the evasiveness of her movements. On the other hand, she had learned that it wasn't all that effective to strike them in the torso, due to having a thick hide and a lot more give across much of its surface — which was especially true of those who were notably plump around the middle.
By the time that she had sent two more dragons tumbling to the ground, the rest of them had arrived, around three dozen strong. She couldn't hope to dodge that many streams of fire at once, especially if they ever managed to do it from more than one front, so she considered making a hasty exit since she had already proved to herself that she could handle a dragon — several of them, in fact. She didn't really have anything to gain by trying to take them all down. However, between being aware of the dragons that were watching the proceedings from where the others had come from, and realizing that she still had one thing that she had yet to try on them, she decided to take up the challenge with a grin.
She quickly got behind one of the dragons that she had already been fighting, putting it between her and all of the other dragons, and focused her telekinesis on it. Unlike any other time that she had used it, it actually required a fair amount of effort to get the entirety of the dragon under the influence of her power, which wasn't all that surprising considering the fact that she had never tried to use her telekinesis on anything even remotely comparable in size. That, and it probably didn't help that there was a lot of motion involved in the dragon's struggle to break free from the hold that she had on it.
There wasn't much time for such thoughts, since a couple of the nearby dragons had already gone around her captive to attack her flanks, so she concentrated as she moved her dragon to intercept one stream of fire while she moved out of the way of another. She noticed the aura around her horn flare brighter with the effort, even as she compared said effort to putting strain on a muscle, and was relieved that she had been able to pull the move off. For an instant, when she and the dragon had begun to move simultaneously, it had felt like her grip on it had been about to slip.
She didn't think that she could handle using the dragon as a shield at the same time as she was attacking elsewhere, so she decided to use the dragon as both a shield and a weapon. With that decided, she managed to maneuver herself out of the way of another round of fire breath while she positioned her dragon between herself and the large group of dragons that had just arrived. Once that was arranged, she charged forward before she could be attacked by fire breath once again, using her dragon as both a shield and a ram.
She didn't expect to hit anything, since there had been plenty of time for her opponents to move out of the way, but it had served its purpose: she had broken into their ranks. Not only were there dragons close enough for her to club with her own, but being among them meant that many of them would now have to work around their comrades to get a clear shot of her. Unfortunately, it proved to be a bit harder to move both herself and her dragon together, and she ended up losing her hold on it shortly after she scored her first hit.
However, that didn't stop her from capturing another dragon with her telekinesis and using it as a replacement, which she began to make use of immediately. Due to dividing her attention between flying, using her telekinesis, watching out for danger and responding to said danger when necessary, she soon discovered that she couldn't concentrate well enough to hold onto her shield-weapons for long, often losing her grip on them within a few seconds of acquiring them. She quickly learned to anticipate when her grip would give, however, so she made sure to fling the dragons at one of the others before she lost her grip entirely.
The fight had been difficult at first, to the point where she had almost been out-maneuvered or overwhelmed several times, but it became a little easier once she had adjusted to moving herself effectively as she moved another body around at the same time. The difficulty also dropped a bit once she got better at utilizing whatever dragon that she happened to have in her possession as two things at once, consisting of a shield, weapon or distraction. Between constantly being in motion, and seizing every advantage that presented itself to her, she saw herself through the hardest part.
The only problem was that exhaustion was beginning to set in, though she did well to hide it since she still had half of the original number of opponents in the air. Much to her relief, however, losing that many to her was enough for the dragons that remained to break off their attack and put some distance between her and themselves. She let them, though she held on to the latest dragon that had come into her possession, whose eyes were x'ed out while its tongue lolled from a slack jaw.
Although she couldn't understand what the dragons were saying, it seemed that they were having a somewhat heated discussion about her, which she assumed would decide whether the fighting would continue or not. She couldn't afford to look weak at such a time, if that turned out to be the case, so she did her best to hide the toll of the battle and appear as if she were ready for more, despite the need to pant and the distracting beads of sweat that rolled down her brow.
The dragons eventually came to a decision, and she was glad to see them go. Well, most of them had such an intention, at any rate: three had broken away from the group to continue where they had left off, but they were a piece of cake compared to what she had already gone through with a much larger number. That seemed to solidify the decision of some of the other dragons, who had seemed reluctant to leave before. She could understand, somewhat, since they had to choose between the shame of giving up and that of losing to a cute, prey-looking individual such as herself.
When the dragons were far enough away to convince her that she wasn't going to get harassed once her back was turned, she did just that and released a sigh of relief at the same time as she relinquished her hold on the dragon, glad that she hadn't been the one to give up. She probably would have, though, had the battle lasted much longer: since she would have needed enough energy to outpace the dragons until they gave up the chase, or — alternatively — until she found a good hiding place. Fortunately, she had performed well enough, and lasted long enough, for things to be settled in her favor.
Of course, now she was fairly tired and sweaty. She was hot as well, although she couldn't be sure how much of that could be attributed to her exertions, what with being near an active volcano and all. Either way, she wanted to rest, clean up and cool down, but the one thing conducive to those last two things were nowhere to be found nearby: there was nothing but badlands on her side of the volcano, and there was no obvious sign of water as far as she could tell. She could go back to where she had come from and take a dip in the sea, but she didn't really like the idea of backtracking and — in all likelihood — giving the volcano an even wider berth the second time around in order to avoid another encounter with the dragons.
She didn't like it, but she decided that it would be best to press forward while hoping — at the very least — to find a place where she could rest. It wasn't so much that she was getting too tired to fly at an unhurried pace, but due to the fact that she had no idea of how far away her destination was and what kind of places were available for her to take breaks at along the way. In case there was any more trouble, like she'd had with the dragons, she wanted to be sure that she wouldn't be worn out — and thus vulnerable — if something serious happened to threaten her.
It was while she was looking toward the horizon, since the badlands below weren't much to look at, that she was eventually struck by an idea: she could cool off in a cloud, and perhaps wash some sweat away if she flew through one fast enough. There weren't many clouds over the badlands, or any of notable size, but she reasoned that most of them were large enough to accommodate her needs.
After picking out a cloud that was both an agreeable size and distance away from her, she flew higher so she could enter it from the side instead of underneath. Instead of flying through it without any resistance, however, she found herself plowing into something thick and fluffy instead. After managing to free herself from the cloud, which was a bit tricky — at first — since using her wings alone simply pulled it along with her, she looked at it oddly and poked it a few times with one of her hooves. Her test confirmed what she had already learned while trying to separate herself from the cloud: it was a lot more substantial than normal, if she assumed that it was exactly what it appeared to be.
She flew over the cloud and tried to land on top of it, to see if it could support her weight. When it did, she hopped around a few times to see if it could handle it. Upon discovering that it could, she mumbled, "Man, this is weird. Is this thing even a cloud?"
Whether due to her comment or accidentally manipulating the cloud with her activities, said cloud grew dark in response and zapped her with a bolt of lightning while she had been staring at its change in color questioningly. After standing motionless for a time, her eyes wide with shock, she opened her mouth, coughed up a plume of smoke, and croaked out, "Ouch," before she fell onto her side.
After she recovered, she put some distance between herself and the cloud and gave it a dirty look. Not only was she irked about being unable to cool off, and possibly cleaning herself up a bit in the process, but because she was even worse off than before. Her only consolation was that her hair seemed to be unaffected by sweat, electricity, ash and soot, although that particular quality made it look out of place with her sullied and disheveled coat.
It was with some grumbling that she continued her journey. Her heading took her over a snow-capped mountain range at the end of the badlands, where she more or less got to "cool off." While the cold hadn't been unbearable, despite — to her way of thinking — being naked, it had certainly been unpleasantly chilly. Fortunately, the temperature was moderate around the hills and woods that followed, and she was able to find a pond where she could bath and rest her wings. It was late in the evening by the time she left, and she had yet to see anything in the way of civilization yet.
That changed a few minutes later when she saw a town emerge over a hill, which she supposed was situated on the edge of a semi-arid location because of the orchard nearby. Once she was over the hill and close enough to the town to make out what its buildings looked like, she was reminded of those towns in the "wild west" of America, where most of the main buildings lined either side of a wide, dusty road. When she was close enough to see its citizens, she saw other horses that appeared to be like herself in appearance, except she didn't see any who had both wings and a horn. With that last discovery, she only idly noted the wide-brimmed hats and drawn carriages that were typical of the sorts of things found in the kind of town that this one reminded her of.
She considered finding a place to rest for the night as she hovered above the town, since such a place would be rather convenient to sleep at. However, she wasn't sure if she wanted to deal with the language barrier, which seemed to be the case because of the various signs that she couldn't read. Just to be sure that such a barrier existed, she eavesdropped on a conversation from a roof, where she quickly realized that she couldn't understand a word of it.
While she wasn't particularly picky when it came to finding a place to sleep when she was roughing it, and she would be willing to settle for one of the town's roofs, there were a few issues with making such a choice. Aside from being wide awake, she estimated that the sun wouldn't set for another two hours or so, and she would rather spend that time making more progress instead of sitting around and doing nothing until it was time to sleep. On top of that, Inari had rubbed her the wrong way, so she was of the mind to get things done and over with rather than make it a liesurely trip. Her mindset probably wouldn't change until she had the option to return home, at the very least, and — no thanks to a certain kami — Celestia seemed to be the only possible way for that to come about.
In the end, she decided to push onward. Now that she had encountered civilization, even if it happened to be a frontier town, she had some hope that she might actually reach wherever Celestia happened to be located before she had to find a relatively safe place to sleep. Either way, the more time that she spent traveling, the sooner that she would be able to do something constructive about her situation. In addition to that, there were railroad tracks leading out of town, close enough to the direction where the compass' needle was pointing: not only did that suggest that there was another populated place to be found, but that it might be where Celestia resided as well.
She considered following the railroad track, but opted to stick with following the compass since it provided a direct course toward her goal and would — she assumed — adjust itself if said goal moved. Still, she kept an eye on the railroad track as she followed the compass' heading, and after a while they deviated enough from their original course that she could no longer see them. Well, she might have still seen it had the sun been in the sky, but it had set some time ago by then and the moon wasn't that good of a substitute to see by.
It was well into the night by the time she began to consider finding a place to sleep, perhaps even early in the morning, but the forest that she happened to be flying over at the time didn't look all that pleasant to sleep within — it was kind of spooky, actually. She had passed some ruins a bit ago, but it didn't look any more welcoming, and there was no telling what might have taken residence inside of it after encountering dragons and strange, cloud-like things. With that being the case, she decided to see what awaited her on the other side of the forest before she began to look for a place to sleep in earnest.
She could see the town well before she left the forest's domain, which made her glad that she had opted to go through the effort of traveling so far. From what she could see under the moonlight, many of the buildings had thatch roofs and timber frames showing on the outside. There were quite a few other types of residences about the place as well, and in some cases she couldn't find a word in her vocabulary to describe what she saw. Among the town's notable features was its largest building, which was located in what appeared to be the town square, a river that ran nearby and was bridged several times, a sizable piece of farmland, and a clock tower.
Unfortunately, it didn't seem likely that this was the place where she could find Celestia, since the needle was pointing toward one of the more sparsely-populated sections of the town. However, when she looked up from the compass, she noticed a faint light in the distance, either on or near a tall mountain. After squinting her eyes for a bit, she managed to make out some kind of shape around the light, one that looked too unnatural to be a part of a mountain. Then, when she checked the compass once more, she realized that the needle was pointing right at the light.
Before she could raise her spirits at the possibility of being within sight of her destination, a loud, booming, female voice said something that she couldn't understand. Immediately following the voice was a bright flash of light, pale blue in color, a fair distance ahead of her. As it turned out, the lightshow had heralded the arrival of another like herself, except slightly bigger and — unlike those that she had seen in that other town — possessing both a horn and a pair of wings. She had a dark blue coat that was almost grey, and hair that moved like her own but — for the most part — looked like the night sky itself. She wore some kind of shoes over her hooves, something black in her hair, just behind her horn, and another thing that hung from her neck and displayed a picture of a crescent moon.
When the other flying unicorn spoke again, in a demanding fashion, she put a confused expression on her face and asked, "You wouldn't happen to know Japanese, would you?"
That seemed to bring the other flying unicorn up short, who looked at her inquisitively as she deliberately asked her something in a language that sounded like Japanese but whose meaning didn't make any sense to her, and not just within the context. In the end, she still couldn't understand what was being said, so she shook her head and adopted a hopeless expression on her face to indicate that fact.
In response, the other flying unicorn closed her eyes, and a pale blue aura arose from her horn a second later. At the same time, she noticed a transparent sphere of the same color appear around her own head, which only lasted for a few seconds before it faded away, coinciding with the one responsible for its appearance opening her eyes and no longer exuding an aura from her horn.
"Can you understand me now?" She was asked.
To which she eloquently replied with, "Uh, yeah..." She had to force some of her thoughts away from the fact that another with a horn had just demonstrated something that wasn't telekinesis before she could add, "What'd you do?"
"I cast a spell that alters language through a filter," the other flying unicorn responded. At her blank expression, she elaborated by saying, "What is spoken to you is converted into your own language, and what you speak is converted to another's."
"Now," she continued, in a serious and formal manner, before she could act upon what she had just learned, "my name is Luna, princess of Equestria, and I wish to know what business you have with us."
Ranma blinked her eyes in mild confusion, in part because she had been distracted by how the movements of Luna's mouth failed to match the words that were being heard. "Us?"
"My sister and I," Luna clarified.
After considering that for a second, Ranma asked, "Is your sister Celestia by any chance?"
Luna nodded her head. "She is."
Ranma's mood lightened significantly upon hearing that. "Really!? Great!"
"Why is it great?" Luna inquired patiently.
Ranma's mood took an immediate dive, who crossed her forelegs like she would have her arms as she muttered, "Because some stupid kami sent me here to get help from Celestia without giving me a choice in the matter, so I'm hoping that she can send me back."
Luna frowned ever so slightly, due to how many questions it was taking to get the information that she had intended to get from Ranma with the first. "And what was the name of this kami?"
"Inari," Ranma replied, who saw no reason to hide it. Upon seeing Luna visibly relax, she became curious and asked, "Why? Do you guys know her or something?"
"We're friends," Luna replied, who was glad that their guest — whatever her reason for coming to them might be — had come from a familiar source, even if said source was less familiar to her than her sister, what with having been absent for a thousand years.
"Wait," she abruptly started, as something about Ranma's answer caught up with her. "
Her?"
Ranma looked at her oddly. "Yeah. Didn't you know that?"
Luna's expression turned a bit sour, who evasively said, "I've... been away for a while," before she schooled her features and turned aside, indicating that she was ready to go somewhere else. "At any rate, we've been keeping an eye on you ever since we sensed your arrival into our world, so would you care for a bath and some rest before we address the reason for your being here?"
Ranma mulled over that question for a bit, since the reason for making it to her destination on the first day of her search was due to wanting to return home as soon as possible. However, she
was getting pretty tired, and a bath sounded rather nice whether she turned in or not. Also, if she ended up confronting Inari when she got back to her own world, she'd rather be in top form and look presentable, with the latter detail being due to a desire to present the image of being untroubled by the kami's deed.
There was also the matter of Luna and Celestia being strangers, in addition to being on friendly terms with Inari, but she usually gave people a chance — even with some doubts — unless there was a good enough reason to avoid interaction with them. Of course, since she knew next to nothing about them, she couldn't form much in the way of an opinion about them either way.
So, in the end, she decided to try and make the most out of the situation. "Can Celestia send me home?" Upon receiving a positive response, she perked up and said, "Well, being away for a few more hours won't hurt anything, so I guess I'll take you up on your offer."
She flew over to Luna's side, but the other flying unicorn regarded her with a raised eyebrow instead of leading her to whatever place she intended to take her, which prompted her to ask, "What?"
Luna shook her head with some disapproval before asking, "You're not going to introduce yourself?"
"Oh," Ranma voiced, as she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Sorry. Name's Saotome Ranma."
After acknowledging the name with a nod of her head, Luna said, "Let us be off, then, Saotome Ranma," and didn't waste any time in teleporting them to the castle.
Chapter 11
When Ranma was roused by a knock on the door, followed by the one responsible for said knocking entering the room and opening the drapes, it took her a few seconds to recall where she was — and why — as she squinted her eyes in response to the now-sunlit room. After she glared at the maid responsible for offending her freshly-woken eyes with sunlight, who prompted her to rise from her bed because of her impending meeting with Celestia, she grumpily acknowledged the instruction and began to follow it.
Her mood did a one-eighty once she was fully awake, however, since she would soon be seeing the only individual that she knew of — in the foreign world that she had been sent to — who might be able to provide her with the kind of aid that she desired. Her eagerness to see Celestia was only tempered by the maid's insistence to tidy up her coat, which she allowed after some protest since she didn't want to risk doing anything that might lose her the favor of the one that she was going to seek help from.
Once that was out of the way, she encountered a guard who had been waiting for her beyond the door, who had been given the task of escorting her to the throne room. Said guard was of the winged variety, had a white coat, was about as tall as she was, and wore a suit of armor that was either made of gold or painted in that color. He didn't appear to be the talkative type, nor was she all that disposed to engaging in trivial conversation with a stranger, so they traveled to their destination in silence.
She noticed other guards and servants along the way, as well as a few others that she couldn't peg with any particular occupation. While the guards only spared her a glance to acknowledge her presence, the others tended to linger with their gazes. She couldn't be sure about the nature of their attention, although her presence seemed to be worthy of whispering between one pair that she had passed by, as their eyes tracked her progress. It didn't really bother her, though, since she wasn't a stranger to such behavior.
It wasn't long before her destination was within sight. It wasn't so much the large doors that gave it away, but because they were open and she could see something that looked like a throne beyond them. Not only that, but she could make out Princess Luna at the base of the ramp that led up to said throne, who was accompanied by another flying unicorn like themselves. She could only assume that it was Celestia, and she had to admit that she was a bit impressed by the sight of her.
While Luna was no doubt a stand-out figure herself, in a dark, mysterious sort of way, Celestia was bright, colorful and at least a head taller than her sister. Her coat was white, she wore gold accoutrements, and her hair flowed like Luna's and her own, only it was something of a pastel rainbow. It was a rather... girly appearance, overall, though her size, apparent age and bearing belied such a nature dwelling within. Even though she wasn't all that accustomed to the kind of look that she now shared with her and every other horse-like individual that she had seen since arriving in Equestria, she still got the impression that she would be kind and reliable. Of course, whether that turned out to be true or not would remain to be seen.
As she came closer to entering the throne room proper, she was made curious by the pictures on their flanks. She had noticed others with such pictures in that one town yesterday, and she had seen a few since waking up, which accounted for everyone whose flanks hadn't been covered up by something. Were they painted on, a tattoo, or did they grow in? It made her wonder if she was going to end up with something like that on her flanks, or if it was some sort of sign of how she differed from them despite being so similar in every other respect.
Just before she entered the throne room, Luna and Celestia stopped conversing between themselves and turned to receive her while the guard stepped aside so that she alone would enter. She heard the door close behind her as she moved forward, and she began to feel a little nervous. It wasn't so much that she was intimidated, because she wasn't, but because her fate appeared to be in their "hands." After all, if she couldn't enlist Celestia's aid, then her only other known recourse would depend on Inari, who didn't exactly inspire her with confidence.
Being aware that she was meeting with royalty, she wasn't sure how far she should approach her hosts, but she eventually chose to stand about three body lengths away from them. Upon doing so, she began to feel a bit awkward, since she didn't know how to begin the conversation that she desired to have, or was sure that it would even be a good idea to be the one who engaged it.
She'd had a few ideas on what to expect next, given the circumstances, but she hadn't expected Celestia to casually ask, "Did you sleep well?"
It took a second for her to regain enough of her bearings to say, "Oh, um, yeah — er, yes." She bowed from her neck, since her back wasn't in an upright position. "Thank you for your hospitality."
"You are welcome," Celestia replied, who reciprocated the bow with one of her own before she said, "I am Princess Celestia. Before we address the matter that brought you here, I want you to know that we won't be offended by informal behavior. We can put aside decorum for the time being."
Luna simply nodded her head once to show her agreement.
Ranma was relieved to know that, but the feeling had more to do with getting a glimpse of Celestia's personality than the accommodation being offered. She didn't have a good history with the rich and/or high-stationed, so the consideration was especially promising. There was also the matter of Celestia sounding kind and matronly, which she hoped was a good indication of her character.
"So," Celestia continued, in an inquiring tone, "how might we help you?"
"Well..." Ranma began, as she considered exactly how to go about explaining her situation. Aside from Luna and Celestia being strangers, there were some things that she would rather not mention if she could help it, for one reason or another. The problem with that, of course, was that she couldn't see a good reason to withhold a number of said things, and she didn't think that it would do her any good to be vague about them if she brought them up at all.
In the end, it was with a fair amount of reluctance that she decided to share whatever information that she deemed relevant. She began by revealing how she had been a human up until recently, then she explained the neko-ken and the effect it had on her before she delved into the circumstances that ultimately changed her into her current form. Much to her relief, while it was obvious — by their expressions — that they found some of the things worthy of some kind of comment, such as the neko-ken and the situation surrounding the multiple engagements, they didn't interrupt or judge her.
When she finished, by telling them how Inari had gone about "helping" her, she didn't expect the question posed by Luna, who asked, "Did Inari know of your predicament before your transformation?"
She was about to reply in the negative, but then she remembered a small detail that she had forgotten to mention to them when she had gotten around to the part that concerned Inari: the old priest's prayer. He had probably given that prayer shortly after she had left his company, which had been a few weeks before her transformation.
Since she didn't know the significance of Luna's question, she said, "That old priest prayed to Inari, asking her to help me if I ever needed it, so... Why? Is that important?"
Luna and Celestia shared a look before the latter returned her attention to her and said, "In a manner of speaking. Did you ever wonder why you looked like this, instead of like the ponies that are native to your own world?"
With some embarrassment, Ranma admitted, "Not really. I'm just glad that it turned out like this." Then it occurred to her what was being suggested. "Wait... Are you saying that Inari's responsible for this?"
"Only in the sense that she directed the changes once they began," Celestia gently explained. "Although she may have seemed unhelpful, she has her reasons for helping you in this way. In fact, her behavior is not so far removed from a problem that we are all prone to."
Confused, Ranma inquired, "What do you mean?"
Luna caught Celestia's eye, as if to reaffirm if she were sure about something, before she leveled her gaze upon Ranma and asked, "Do you swear to keep what you are about to hear to yourself?"
Ranma blinked her eyes at that, having not expected such a request. It must have been a fairly serious matter, considering the expectant stares that she found herself on the receiving end of, and since it sounded like the aforementioned problem might also apply to herself... "I swear."
They appeared to accept her at her word, even if Luna appeared to be less convinced than Celestia, who said, "We are all kami. Although our origins may differ, we are susceptible to the same problems by nature." She paused before adding, "And one of them is worship."
"That's a problem?" Came Ranma's puzzled response.
Luna nodded her head. "For kami who come into being due to faith, they can perish without it. Otherwise, it can influence and change us if we don't have the will or strength to fight it. The reason why we keep our nature to ourselves, and maintain a position where we're simply admired or respected instead of worshipped, is to avoid the sway of their thoughts and feelings."
"The reason why Inari sent you to us," Celestia added as an example, in sympathy to the one being spoken of, "is because she has been getting a lot of mixed signals from her worshippers for the past few centuries, and it has caused more than enough instability with her character to limit contact with me. It's my guess that she didn't trust herself enough to take care of you personally, so she entrusted you to me."
Ranma mulled that information over, as she began to understand exactly what was being said. She wasn't especially knowledgable about Inari, but it was difficult for her to not know a few things, between the kami's popularity and having traversed so much of Japan over the years. For instance, she knew enough about Inari to know that she hadn't always been associated with kitsune, or worshipped for so many reasons before she became popular and widespread. In fact, she couldn't rightly say — with much confidence — exactly what she
wasn't worshipped for, especially where the local level was concerned. On top of that, she also remembered spending the night at a shrine a few years ago, where Inari had been composed of multiple kami, not just one. She could only imagine what it would be like to be influenced by people who thought her to be more than one individual. She didn't even think that Inari's gender was established as a single entity, come to think of it...
After she was given enough time to fully comprehend what she was being told, Luna picked up where she had left off. "However, it's not just the thoughts and feelings of others that you have to worry about, but your own as well." She paused, with the expression on her face not giving any indication as to why, but Ranma noticed Celestia spare her sister a glance that was tinged with something akin to concern or sympathy. "If certain thoughts become prominent in your mind, or your feelings strong enough, they can... consume you, if given the time and opportunity."
That sounded rather ominous to her. "Th-they can?"
Luna nodded her head solemnly. "You shouldn't need to mind yourself at all times, but try to be aware enough of what you're doing so you can center yourself whenever you seem to be preoccupied by certain thoughts or feelings for any notable length of time."
"I guess I can do that..." Ranma said, with some of her doubt entering her voice. While she was usually — and sometimes unjustifiably — confident that she could handle anything, now she had to worry about what might happen should she rely on that confidence too much. Ordinarily, she might not have taken this particular problem seriously, but she had some idea of how someone could end up being dictated by emotion. For instance, while she couldn't remember anything while she had been under the koi rod's influence, she had heard enough about how much her behavior had changed, based on the simple fact that her artificial love for Ryoga had been rather substantial.
"A more immediate problem," Celestia began, as she regarded Ranma with a measure of scrutiny, "would concern an innate lack of control to begin with. A change of environment should be beneficial, while you focus on unlearning your inherited response to certain problems, but — until you can attain a measure of control — you still run the risk of responding with the 'war' in your name, and should you happen to be consumed by
that particular trait..."
Since Ranma didn't want something like that to happen, and got the impression that a solution had already been thought of, she asked, "What should I do?"
Celestia regarded her with a look of approval. "Since your name is what your spirit defaulted to when cats weren't involved, going by a different name should suffice until you feel that you have gained sufficient control over yourself. That way, should you find yourself in a situation where you would normally be compelled to respond with one of the aspects of your real name, you can direct your actions during the confusion that will be caused by your assumption of another name."
With a dubious expression on her face, Ranma queried, "Will that work? I mean, since I'll still know that this new name isn't my real one?"
Celestia nodded her head and explained, "It will require a spell to mask your real name for the duration, but it will work since your spirit is no longer a separate entity, which means that there is only one source for a name. In addition to that, it will help to use a name with a meaning that isn't so straightforward to express, or problematic should it be expressed despite your efforts."
Ranma mulled that over for a few seconds, mostly due to being made uneasy by the nature of the spell. She didn't have many experiences with magic that were worthy of anything higher than a low regard, and she had only just met Celestia and Luna, so she was hesitant to accept their idea outright. Still, they seemed to know what they were talking about, and it wasn't like she had access to anyone better — as far as she knew — while she was a world away from anyone else that she may have accepted help from.
With a sigh of resignation, she looked between the two sisters and asked, "Did you already have a name in mind?"
"We do," Luna stated, who looked a little proud of herself. "We decided on: Midnight Bliss."
"Mayonaka Shifuku?" Ranma repeated questioningly, as she heard it through the translation spell.
Luna nodded her head in confirmation. "I was inspired by the timing of your arrival. Midnight is the period when one day transitions into another, and this will be a transitional period for you. Bliss suggests that the process will be enjoyable. Overall, however, they're not too easy to express, and the easiest of the two — in that regard — should be fairly harmless if you can't control yourself."
Ranma wasn't sure what to think about the name, but it wasn't like she had any noteworthy names of her own coming to mind, and she didn't realize that it might actually sound like a girly name outside of her native language, so... "I guess it's okay..."
Celestia smiled warmly and said, "Wonderful. Since the spell that we will cast is not of a nature that we cared to commit to memory, we will send someone to retrieve the book that contains it. In the meantime, were there any other issues that we might address, or any concerns in general?"
Ranma shook her head. "Not really..." However, something caught her eye, so she amended that by adding, "Well, except for
that," she gestured toward the image on Luna's flank with a nod of her head, since it was the only one within view right then. "I won't look out of place without one of those, will I?"
Luna and Celestia turned to look in the direction that she had indicated before turning toward each other, where they appeared to communicate with each other silently. They returned their attention to her before long, with somewhat inscrutable expressions on their faces, and it was with some reserve that Luna said, "There is a bit of history behind these marks... If you'd like to hear about it, I would suggest finding more comfortable accommodations."
Ranma's interest was piqued, and it wasn't like she had other plans, so she nodded her head and said, "Okay. Where to?"
Chapter 12
Ranma followed Luna and Celestia to a sunroom, and it seemed that their presence had been anticipated: for there were three chaise longues arranged around a low table that bore a light breakfast for the same amount of people. It must have been prepared well in advance because she hadn't seen anyone else near the room. The closest presence — aside from themselves — had been two guards, whose position was somewhere around fifty paces away and separated from the sunroom by a door on top of that.
Two of the chaise longues were of a color and style that seemed to complement one of the two princesses in specific, so she assumed that they were reserved for them and made her way over to the one that remained, which turned out to be the right choice. After making herself comfortable on her belly, with one foreleg crossed over the other, she spared a moment to take in more of the room.
The vast array of windows allowed the morning sunlight to illuminate the room well, which was a good thing considering how the room was a residence for a fairly wide assortment of plant life, whether they were set on the ground, hung from the ceiling, or clung to the walls and windows. While the view outside was nice and all, she had seen such natural wonders often enough during her training journey, so she appreciated the atmosphere of her immediate surroundings more than she did the view beyond. Between the soft cushion beneath her, the natural lighting and the mild fragrance of the flora, she found it quite easy to relax.
The only sour note was breakfast, because she wasn't sure whether she should eat or not. Habit compelled her to, and experience told her that it wouldn't be healthy if she went without sustenance for too long, but she simply didn't feel hungry. When she thought about the last time that she had eaten, it occurred to her that it was strange to have not yet experienced hunger or thirst since then, which was compounded by the fact that she hadn't been hungry or thirsty at that time either.
Between the expression on her face and where she was looking, it was easy for the princesses to figure out what was on her mind, but it was Celestia who softly asked, "Are you not used to it, yet?"
"Huh?" Ranma voiced, as she turned her attention to the one who had addressed her. "What do you mean?"
With a half-lidded stare, due to Ranma's lack of comprehension, Luna interjected by stating, "It's not necessary for us to eat. Unless there's a reason to replenish our energy sooner than we can gain with rest alone, we only eat for appearance's sake, in order to dispel thoughts that could lead to us being regarded as anything likened to a kami."
Remembering what they had spoken about earlier, regarding worship, Ranma nodded her head in understanding. To make it clear that she had gotten the hint, in addition to learning that food and drink had become an option instead of a necessity, she used her telekinesis to take the glass of orange juice closest to her and sipped from it, which appeared to satisfy Luna.
After Celestia enjoyed a bite of her jam on toast, which she had put together while her sister had been speaking, she helpfully supplied, "Also, we
do get tired, if we expend too much of our energy or use it too often. To avoid the challenge of faking sleep, we allow some of our energy to trickle out throughout the day, which is why our hair moves in the way that it does." Seeing Ranma's question coming, she added, "Thanks to Inari's forethought, you are releasing your energy unconsciously."
"...I see," Ranma replied, with a tone and expression that indicated to the two princesses that a request to not mess with it during her time in Equestria would not be necessary, since she understood the reason behind it and wished to avoid the same potential problem.
Celestia regarded Ranma with approval for a moment before her expression turned solemn. "Now, as for the images on our flanks..."
Ranma soon learned that the aforementioned images were called "cutie marks," although they had not always been referred to as such. In addition to that, ponies — which she determined was the equivalent of "people" for the equines of Equestria — had not always manifested cutie marks, and the reason for their development required some backstory.
She was told of a time when Equestria had been ruled by Discord, a spirit of chaos and disharmony. Among his many ways of making things chaotic and disharmonious in the world, which included the movements of the sun and moon, most relevant was what he had done to the ponies themselves. To cause chaos among them, while simultaneously making them clash with the colorful and fantastical environment that he had created, he had transformed every pony so that they were identical to one another: they were grey in color throughout, had no mane or tail, appeared to be the same age, were made sexless, sounded alike, and lacked all attributes and magic that distinguished them as pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies. To tell each other apart, they had eventually come up with the idea to paint images on their flanks.
How that led up to cutie marks being tied to a pony's magic, and appearing on their flanks once they realized something especially representative about their character, required an account of Discord's fall. Conveniently enough, that also tied into the birth of Celestia and Luna, the ones who had been responsible for his fall, and they were willing to share that information with her since she was already aware that they — like herself — were different from the other ponies.
Understandably, the ponies under Discord's rule did not have a fun experience: the world had become a strange and difficult place to live in, the weird and unreliable movements of the sun and moon disrupted sleep and had been a source of disorientation and irritation, and then there had been the occasions where they ended up being singled out so Discord could amuse himself at their expense. Of course, once the images on their flanks had become prevalent enough, he had begun to have fun with them: while he allowed them to remain, he would change them into something that he enjoyed while simultaneously making them undesirable to the ones who had to bear them on their flanks.
There were a lot of forces in the universe, and feelings were one of them. Normally abstract, they could manifest themselves in a number of tangible ways if they were given enough strength, regardless of whether the source was from one or many. The ponies, who began to feel more and more despair while under Discord's rule, had eventually rallied themselves when one of their wisest — with the help of several others of notable influence — instructed everyone to think positively and hope for their liberation as much as possible, knowing that such feelings could be their salvation if they were fostered enough.
That hope had eventually manifested itself as Celestia and Luna, who — through the ponies' thoughts and desires — came to symbolize more than just the means of their liberation. Although Discord could be despised for many things, he had nevertheless provided an experience that had bridged the remaining gap between the three tribes, which had still been a source of conflict among them ever since the establishment of Equestria. Since they had all shared the same fate, regardless of what kind of pony they had been, and were no longer differently-equipped as they struggled through each day, empathy had brought forth much in the way of understanding and forgiveness. As a result, the newly-forged bond expressed itself by making Celestia and Luna alicorns, a union of pegasus, unicorn and earth pony.
While Celestia and Luna had not been powerful enough to deal with Discord outright, they had been bestowed with personalities and knowledge — from those whose feelings had brought them into the world — that would assist them in their goal. Information pertaining to the Tree of Harmony, in particular, would prove to be invaluable. Fortunately, whether Discord had been over-confident or ignorant of what they had been after, if not both of those things, they had been able to acquire the Elements of Harmony and successfully sealed him away with them.
When the ponies regained their magic and were restored to their natural forms, with the aid of the Elements of Harmony, that was when the marks on their flanks were changed to reflect the character of each individual pony, became permanent, and would thereafter be a natural development in the generations of ponies to follow. Although Celestia and Luna couldn't be sure about the reason for the change, they believed that the Elements of Harmony had responded to the ponies' newly-cultivated feelings of kinship, due in part to the fact that they themselves — being representative of a union between all three tribes — had been conceived with marks of their own. With all three tribes thus linked, now made special in their individuality rather than through their race, that which would later be called "cutie marks" did much to maintain harmony among them.
When Celestia and Luna were finished telling Ranma about the origin of the cutie mark, and the events associated with it, a silence fell over the room as Ranma absorbed what she had learned. Since no one had touched much of their breakfast, either as a speaker or listener, it also provided an opportunity to remedy that.
It wasn't until Ranma was finished with her breakfast that she revisited the issue that she had brought up earlier. "It sounds like I should have a cutie mark, if I don't want to stick out like a sore thumb, so... Should I? Or would faking one be bad?"
"It's fairly rare, but some ponies don't acquire their cutie mark until adulthood," Luna informed her. "You're more likely to draw unwanted attention due to being an alicorn."
Celestia lightly added, "Plus, since Inari did such a thorough job to make you fit in among us ponies, it's possible that you'll have a cutie mark of your own before too long anyway."
Ranma wasn't sure how to respond to that news, until it occurred to her what it meant, and couldn't help feeling a bit of excitement over the prospect. "Wait... I have magic? Can I cast spells, like the one that translates what I hear and say?"
Celestia chuckled good-naturedly and said, "Yes; if you're inclined to learn."
That tempered Ranma's enthusiasm a bit, since learning to cast spells would probably require a lot more time than she was willing to stick around for, and because she didn't plan on remaining a pony long enough to really benefit from it, but the idea was still intriguing. She couldn't help imagining being able to use magic in a way where it would work in her favor for once, since it was so common for her to encounter magic from other sources that were more trouble than they were worth — if they were worth anything at all to begin with, that is.
Seeing the disappointment in her eyes, Luna said, "Yes, it may be a waste of time if you intend to lead a strictly human existence in the future, but it will make for a good cover for the time being."
"Cover?" Ranma questioned, confused. "What do you mean?"
"We won't have much time to be here for you personally," Celestia gently informed her. "I'm usually kept fairly busy, and my sister's responsibilities have been increasing since her return. However, you won't really need us for your rehabilitation, and I know a pony who should be able to attend to whatever need you may have while you're here. They also happen to live in a more ideal environment for what you need; I imagine that you wouldn't like it much here, in Canterlot, much less in this stuffy castle."
"Right now," Luna added, "all you really need to do is focus on distancing yourself from your name and your problems back home. In conjunction with that, you should focus on performing mental exercises and resolving within your mind whatever issues you can, in order to achieve enough control over your form so that changing it is one of choice rather than one determined by uncertainty and conflict."
"As for the cover," Luna continued, getting to the point, "it's not necessary, unless you don't mind sharing the circumstances of your situation with anyone else."
Ranma considered that for a moment, but opting for the cover wasn't a hard choice for her to make: she wasn't much for sharing personal things about herself, if she could help it, and it wasn't like she would be lying. Even if she wouldn't be able to use magic in the future, assuming that things turned out the way that she hoped, she was interested in it enough to try it out while she had the chance. Plus, by the sound of it, she was effectively going to be on a vacation, so she didn't need to do or say anything unrelated to that to complicate matters.
With that decided, Celestia left to compose a letter to her student, so that she would expect Ranma's arrival. In the meantime, Luna cast the spell that would have Ranma refer to herself as "Midnight Bliss," and then spent some time helping her adjust to saying and thinking that name in lieu of the one that she had expected to say and think. Once both princesses were finished with their respective tasks, they gave her their blessings before sending her on her way.
However, unbeknownst to the newly-christened Midnight Bliss, Celestia and Luna had kept one important detail to themselves, concerning a personal challenge that she would need to discover and overcome on her own. When Inari had influenced her transformation, the changes had still been within the parameters of her real name: she was still equine in nature, a maiden, and quickness was only a flap of her wings away. Not so obvious was how the "war" aspect of her real name would be expressed, but that was to be expected of a seed that had yet to sprout...
It didn't take Ranma long to fly to Ponyville, the town that she had seen before Luna had intercepted her last night. Now that she was seeing it under the light of the sun, she was able to notice a few details that she had missed before, such as the scope of its territory and the floating structure made of clouds, pillars and rainbows on its outskirts. More importantly, she was able to spot the large tree that actually functioned as a building, which happened to be her destination.
She idly noticed other ponies out and about, going about their own business, as she got a better look at the town that she would be staying at for the time being. She wasn't paying them enough attention to detect anyone that she had gained the attention of, since she figured that she would have plenty of time to familiarize herself with them and the town later, so she missed whatever reactions there were to her passing them overhead, which tended to include plenty of staring.
Since she didn't make any detours or otherwise behave like a tourist, it took her no time at all to reach her destination and landed a few paces away from its doorstep. She could have landed
on the doorstep, had she wanted to, but she wanted to get a good look at the place before entering it. It was kind of nice, in her opinion, with the balconies and the number of windows that were present. Even though the sign by the door indicated that it was a library, it didn't seem like such a serious, subdued place, but that may have had something to do with her extensive experience with living and training around trees.
Once she felt that she had gotten a good enough look, she stepped up to the red door, which bore an image of a lit candle placed in a candlestick, and knocked. It seemed that her host had been prepared for her, because it only took a second to get a response. However, instead of seeing a pony after the door had been opened, like she had expected, she was greeted by a sight that was quite different.
Its scaly hide was mostly purple, aside from its light green front and underside, and the top of its head came up to her back. The row of green plates on its head were not included in her assessment of its height, which were quite a bit smaller along its back and tail, where they looked more like spikes. She also noted that its canines were visible while its mouth was closed, and that the things on the sides of its head — which might have been its ears — reminded her of some of the pectoral fins that she had seen on fish. Finally, there were its green, slit-pupiled eyes, which seemed to mirror her own expression, the kind which indicated that they were seeing something unexpected.
Before either could break the awkward moment between them, they both turned to look toward the slightly-muffled female voice that yelled, "Is that her, Spike?"
Seeing the expectant look on "Spike's" face, who waited for her to give him something to relay back to the owner of the one who had asked the question, she looked askance with some embarrassment and said, "Ah, yeah, sorry. Name's Midnight Bliss."
Spike gave her an odd look while he delivered an answer to the other inhabitant of the library, due to noticing the discrepancy between when — and in what way — her mouth moved in relation to the words that came out of it, but nonetheless minded his manners, stepped aside, ushered her in and greeted her with a measure of enthusiasm. "My name's Spike, if you hadn't heard. It's nice to meet you!"
"Likewise," she returned absently, as she stepped into the library proper and looked around.
The ground floor was a large, round room, and the walls had a number of sections where bookshelves had been cut out of them, which were — of course — filled with books. The windows aside, there were also a few other recesses that were cut out of the walls, which also seemed to serve the same function as the bookshelves, but included other things as well. At the center of the room was a table with the bust of a horse in the center, and around it were a couple of smaller tables, perhaps lecterns, and they all had tree stumps for a base. The staircase leading to the second floor was hard to miss, and she assumed that the pony that she was supposed to meet could be found wherever it led.
Spike, who had closed the door and walked further into the room by the time that she had taken in the view, turned around to face her and tried to be a good host, despite feeling a bit awkward, by venturing, "So... Did you have a nice trip? Need any refreshments, or anything?"
Ranma regarded him speculatively for a moment, just short of making him uncomfortable, and mentally decided that he was alright. Not cute, of course, because she was a guy — well, where she thought it counted, at least. "I'm alright. I had... an ample breakfast."
Before Spike could figure out what to say next, if anything more needed to be said at all, both he and their guest looked up as they heard the sound of hooves descending the staircase, followed by a familiar voice that said, "Sorry for keeping you waiting. I wanted all of the books that Celestia had suggested set aside so they would be available when needed. After that, I just
had to make sure that I remembered how to do that translation spell correctly, since I've never had the opportunity to put it to practical use, but I got a book that teaches our language just in case you... Oh."
The purple-coated unicorn that had been speaking, whom Ranma could only assume was Celestia's student, hadn't taken notice of her until she had been only a few steps away from the landing, partly due to the book that she had been browsing the contents of until then. Upon reaching that point, it had become apparent that she hadn't been expecting the sight before her; which was kind of odd, since she had kind of assumed that the teacher would have given her student a heads-up about a couple of details in particular. Apparently, she had skimped out on those details, if the mildly nonplussed expression on her face was any indication.
Regardless of the reason, it didn't take the unicorn long to recover, who turned apologetic as she said, "Oh, I'm sorry. Celestia hadn't mentioned that you would be a princess."
Ranma blinked her eyes uncomprehendingly. "Princess? I'm not a—"
There was little in the way of warning, aside from a gleeful scream that grew in volume as its source approached, before something crashed through a window. This object, which was nothing more than a pink blur as it moved, tumbled across the floor upon hitting the ground, only a split second before it slammed into one of the library's bookcases.
"...Princess?" Ranma finished distractedly, as she eyed the pile of books that had buried whatever had knocked them off of their shelves.
A head popped out of the pile, which sent a couple of books flying, revealing a pony whose helmet had been made askew by the landing. Said pony proceeded to excitedly exclaim, "Did somepony say
princess?"
Upon setting her eyes on Ranma, they widened, and she gasped rather pronouncedly before springing into the air and firing off, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! I was thinking that I just
had to have a ball as soon as I'd gotten word that there was a new pony in town, and I just couldn't wait to meet them, so I had the
brilliant idea to shoot myself out of a cannon, and I was all like, 'wheeee, this is fun,' and then, '
bam,' but I never expected that a ball would be so appropriate, it's such a coincidence, or maybe it's
fate, but if that were the case then I'd have the ball ready already, and—"
Finally, Celestia's student interrupted the other pony by yelling, "Pin-kie!"
Said pony paused comically and finally landed on the ground, as if she had remembered gravity at the expense of her current train of thought, and turned to regard the pony who had yelled at her, as if noticing her for the first time. "Huh? What are you doing here, Twilight?"
Twilight released a long-suffering sigh and calmly said, "Pinkie, take a look around you."
Pinkie did so, and voiced a knowing, "Ooooh..."
Before either Ranma or Twilight could react, with the former still trying to figure out how Pinkie had remained aloft for so long, and said so much in one breath, the aforementioned pony suddenly perked up and exclaimed, "Oh, right; now's not the time for me to be
here, of all places," before dashing out of the library while adding, "I've got to tell
everypony about the princess' ball!"
Twilight groaned before she began to give chase, but not before stopping beside Ranma and offering an apologetic, "I'm so sorry about this. I'll try to stop her before things get out of hoof."
Ranma watched her leave, feeling an odd sense of nostalgia over what had just happened. It took her a moment to notice that Spike had begun the process of picking up the books and returning them to where they belonged, so she decided to help him out, since she didn't have anything else better to do. Twilight knew the area better than she did, same as she did Pinkie, so she'd let her handle the situation and hope for the best.
Chapter 13
After an awkward silence, Spike eventually sighed and mumbled about the work that awaited him. After telling Ranma that he would be right back, he left to get a broom and a dustpan. When he returned, and Ranma saw what he intended to do, she offered to help him, which he accepted once it was clear that she wouldn't take "no" for an answer. Since Spike knew which books went where on the bookshelves, he decided to handle that while Ranma took care of the broken glass and wood from the window.
Eventually, after replacing a book on one of the higher shelves, from atop the ladder, Spike's curiosity spurred him to ask, "So... You're not a princess, huh?"
"Nope," Ranma readily replied, as she used her telekinesis to manipulate the broom and dust pan that she had been provided with. "I'm just a regular pony... More or less."
Before Spike could question that, both he and Ranma turned their attention to the open door when Twilight walked in and said, "Oh, let me take care of that," as she approached Ranma, with Pinkie hopping in behind her.
After checking to see if all of the glass shards and wood were accounted for, Twilight cast a spell that sent them to the broken window, where they quickly arranged themselves to fill the dimensions of the hole and restore it, as if the window had never been broken in the first place.
"That's certainly convenient..." Ranma admitted to herself.
"Hi!" Pinkie perkily exclaimed, who suddenly appeared in front of Ranma without warning, which made her jump back a bit out of reflex. "I'm Pinkie Pie! What's your name?"
"Midnight Bliss," Ranma replied after a slight pause, not really sure of what to make of the overactive pony before her.
"My name's Twilight Sparkle," said pony spoke, seizing the opportunity to introduce herself as she took a step closer to Ranma. "It's nice to meet you. I hope—"
"Why aren't you a princess?" Pinkie Pie interjected, who looked confused.
"I'm sure there's a reason for it, Pinkie," Twilight Sparkle said, in a tone that suggested that she shouldn't be so forward, just in case it turned out to be due to something personal.
"I'm sure there is, too," Pinkie Pie replied, as if Twilight Sparkle had simply stated the obvious instead of dropping a hint, before enthusiastically adding, "That's why I want to know!"
Since she was standing on all fours, Ranma fidgeted by rubbing one of her shanks against the other, due to feeling a bit reluctant about answering. Still, she didn't think that the answer would be
too problematic, if it would be at all, and it would probably be weird if she withheld where she came from entirely. Aside from that, she didn't think that she would be successful if she pretended to be from somewhere that she had never been before, so... "Well... I'm not a princess because I come from another world."
Pinkie Pie gasped in what appeared to be terror, zipped behind Twilight Sparkle for cover, who was too preoccupied with staring at Ranma with equal parts surprise and interest to mind it, then poked her head out from behind her and queried, "You're not a
Maretian from
Mares, are you!?"
Ranma blinked her eyes. "Um... No?"
Pinkie Pie breathed a sigh of relief and stepped out from behind Twilight Sparkle. "Whew. You had me worried there, for a moment."
Twilight Sparkle shook her head with some exasperation, as well as to get her mind focused on the matter at hand. "You shouldn't have been worried in the first place: Maretians are fictional; they're not real."
Pinkie Pie suddenly pressed her face against Twilight Sparkle's and stated, "That's what they
want you to think." She hunkered down and began to glance about the room with suspicion. "Then, when you're not expecting it..." She proceeded to rise onto her hind legs and threw her forehooves into the air dramatically as she — in an increasingly-shrill tone — shouted, "You get
snatched up and replaced with a
pod pony!"
Being that she was well-accustomed to Pinkie Pie's antics by now, Twilight Sparkle returned her attention to Ranma, who was giving Pinkie Pie an odd look as she continued to hold her pose, and — with her initial excitement and curiosity blunted by Pinkie Pie's distraction — evenly said, "Still, I wasn't expecting you to be from another world... Would you mind telling me more about it later?"
"Sure," Ranma replied, after pulling her attention away from Pinkie Pie and thinking it over for a second. So long as the subject didn't stray too closely to her situation, she didn't think that it would hurt to describe what her world was like.
Twilight Sparkle smiled happily. "Great!" Then she got her mind back on track and said, "Anyway, I hope that the accommodations here will be sufficient. If not, I'm sure that I could find another place for you to stay."
"Or me!" Pinkie Pie happily offered, having returned to a normal standing position. "I know
all sorts of places with free space!"
Ranma didn't really have to give the library a thorough inspection to make her decision, since what she could already see was far better than some of the places that she had slept at before, and regularly at that. "I'm used to living outdoors, so this place'll be fine."
"Awwww..." Pinkie Pie voiced her disappointment, before immediately perking back up and proclaiming, "Well, I got what I came for, and the ball's not going to spontaneously organize itself, so I better fly!"
Being reminded of the ball, which she wasn't all that keen on attending, Ranma decided that she should try to get her to change her plans. "Well, actually—"
"Whoosh!" Pinkie Pie yelled as she began to run on her hind legs while her forelegs were extended ahead of her, with her body still parallel with the ground, all while making drawn-out noises that sounded more like running water from a faucet than wind.
A few seconds after Pinkie Pie could no longer be seen, Ranma turned to Twilight Sparkle and asked, "Is she always like that?"
"More or less," Twilight Sparkle answered, who felt only a little embarrassed about it. "If you want, I can ask her to cancel her plans, if you'd rather not have a welcoming party."
"Oh, is that what it is?" Ranma asked. When she received confirmation, she considered the new information for a moment before saying, "Well, I guess it'll be fine... I don't want to be rude, or anything."
Twilight Sparkle smiled and said, "I wouldn't worry too much about that," before she once again returned to the original matter and became thoughtful. "So, is there anything that needs to be moved in? I don't recall seeing anything waiting outside..."
Ranma shook her head. "Nah. I just brought myself."
"Oh," Twilight Sparkle voiced, having not expected that since she had assumed — before learning of her otherworldly origin — that Ranma had simply moved to her present location from somewhere else in Equestria. As she considered that, with her gaze drifting elsewhere, she said, "Well, I'll just have to arrange for another bed to be delivered... I suppose I could do that while I'm giving you a tour of Ponyville." She paused and realized that she was getting ahead of herself, which caused her to smile sheepishly when she returned her attention back to Ranma. "If you'd like one, I mean."
Not seeing anything wrong with that, Ranma said, "I don't mind."
"Great!" Twilight Sparkle enthusiastically replied, who was looking forward to showing someone around the place that had become a home away from home to her. "Just let me put together an index of all of the locations I'll show you, establish a route for the best viewing experience and the ideal amount of time that will be spent at — and between — each location, write a thorough and informative introduction to each one, and—" She paused when she realized that she was being pushed toward the front door by Spike, much to her befuddlement. "Spike? What are you doing?"
"Exactly how long did you plan on making her wait?" Came Spike's rhetorical reply, who continued even as Twilight Sparkle tried to estimate how long her efforts would have taken. "Just improvise."
"Improvise?" Twilight Sparkle echoed, who made the word in question sound like it was a foreign concept to her, even though it wasn't.
Ranma followed the pair out the door, slightly amused by the byplay. Once she joined them outside, Spike wished them a good time before he re-entered the library and closed the door behind him. She turned her attention to Twilight Sparkle, who seemed to be a bit unsure of how to proceed, and wondered whether she should take the initiative or not.
Eventually, Twilight Sparkle deliberately said, "Well... Why don't we see about getting you that bed?"
"Sure," Ranma casually replied, who was fine with the practicality of Twilight Sparkle's approach.
While she was generally accustomed to exploring new places without help, due to her training journey with her father, they had still enlisted the aid of a guide enough times to have a fair idea of how to go about things. Since Twilight Sparkle didn't seem to be prepared for the role that she now found herself in, it wouldn't be too much of an issue for Ranma to help her out surreptitiously, should the need ever arise. Otherwise, since she was more or less going to be taking a break anyway, it wasn't like she couldn't do some exploring later, while she had some free time, should Twilight Sparkle happen to miss anything that would pique her interest.
Twilight Sparkle did a decent job of being a tour guide despite her lack of preparedness, at least as far as Ranma was concerned. Instead of leading Ranma directly to the place where they could acquire a bed, Twilight Sparkle had taken her on various detours along the way, in such a manner that they continued to make progress toward their destination in spite of them. By the time that they had reached their goal, they had already covered a small portion of Ponyville.
Once they had finished their business with the proprietor of "Beds and Brooms," after clearing up Ranma's misidentification as a princess, Twilight Sparkle took Ranma on a circular route through Ponyville, by working toward the heart of the town from near its outskirts. All the while, Ranma consistently drew the attention of the town's denizens, although it seemed that word about her not being a princess had spread enough for a quarter of them to not react as if she might be one. Her lack of a cutie mark had also garnered some attention, but most seemed to be more discreet about that.
By the time that they had finished the tour, Ranma thought herself adequately acquainted with Ponyville. While Twilight Sparkle didn't have much to say about a number of places and things, if it had a history, or was a notable trait of Ponyville in some fashion or another, the knowledge that she could bring to bear could be a mite overwhelming. She also had a bit more to say about places where her friends lived and/or worked, in addition to said friends themselves, although — for one reason or another — she never went so far as to make introductions.
Aside from Pinkie Pie, Ranma had also learned about Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Applejack. In the case of the latter three, she had seen their homes from afar, since their route hadn't taken them that far out. While Fluttershy and Applejack were in easy walking distance, Twilight Sparkle hadn't wanted to bother them while they were likely to be taking care of their respective morning chores. Rainbow Dash lived a fair distance farther away than those two, but she would have either been asleep or out and about somewhere; it was more likely that the pegasus pony would run into
them rather than the other away around, being as mobile as she was. And while she had actually stood in front of Rarity's home/shop, Twilight Sparkle had seemed strangely reluctant and reticent about making a visit. What she didn't know was that she wanted to spare her the same experience that she'd had upon first meeting Rarity, due to her exotic appearance, figuring that it would be safer if they met while away from the belly of the beast.
It was nearly lunch time when Twilight Sparkle finished her act as tour guide, who decided to treat Ranma to a light lunch — light, because she didn't want to spoil their appetite for whatever would be served at the welcoming party. The chosen venue was a restaurant that served some of its patrons outside, at tables that looked like mushrooms. Seating appeared to be optional, and Ranma decided to go without since she was used to spending a lot of time on her feet, which hadn't changed when she had become a pony. Twilight Sparkle, on the other hand, fashioned a mound of straw to sit upon, since she didn't have quite as much endurance as she did.
While Ranma wasn't all that keen about eating a sandwich that had flowers in it, she didn't want to raise any unwanted questions by abstaining or being picky, and figured that she could give it a try in order to discover whether or not it could become something to account for later — in the case that she didn't like it, that is. What really had her worried, however, was the fact that she wouldn't have her own bed until tomorrow. As it turned out, since Ponyville didn't export beds or have a population that demanded them often enough, they were made upon request rather than stocked. That was all well and good for anyone who wanted their bed to appear and function exactly as one desired, but was otherwise a bump in the night for her, in a manner of speaking.
She tried to convince herself that there wasn't anything to worry about, since Twilight Sparkle wasn't human in addition to being the same gender, but she couldn't reconcile herself with the idea. Despite having realized long ago that she would be expected to share a bed with a member of the fairer sex one day, it was among the scariest — not that she would admit that to anyone — things that she could think of doing. Before settling down in Nerima, sharing intimate contact and personal feelings with another had been a concept virtually alien to her. Between moving too often to form any lasting relationships of any significance, being taught the importance of strength and self-reliance, and raised by a man who couldn't be trusted and was always ready to exploit a weakness, being close to someone — in the manner expected of a married couple — was pretty much contrary to her upbringing.
While it wasn't so bad in Twilight Sparkle's case, since there were no obligations or deeper meaning to the arrangement, it was still close enough to the problem to be an issue. Of course, it didn't help that Twilight Sparkle would be unaware of her true sex, which would be a source of guilt. Unfortunately, as much as she wished to avoid it, Twilight Sparkle had offered to share her bed with an expectant expression on her face, as if she were looking forward to it. On top of that, she didn't want to do anything that would inspire questions that she wouldn't want to answer, which could lead to a number of problems, so — however much she regretted it — she had decided to try and go along with things in order to appear normal.
Of course, as distracted by her concerns as she was, said concerns showed on her face, which eventually prompted Twilight Sparkle to ask, "Is something wrong?"
"Huh?" Ranma absently voiced, as her attention snapped back to the current situation.
"You were spacing out..." Twilight Sparkle informed her, who expressed some concern on her face instead of repeating the question that Ranma had failed to catch.
Ranma looked sheepish, then became a bit nervous and turned her eyes away when she noticed the other pony's concern. "Oh, uh... It's just that I have a lot on my mind." Wanting to change the subject, she hastily thought of something that she had been wondering about, which was relevant to what she had just said, before reestablishing eye contact. "Like, I know that princesses can be a big deal, but shouldn't people know who they are?"
Twilight Sparkle blinked her eyes questioningly before remembering that Ranma was from another world, unaware of Ranma's usage of "people" because the translation spell had made it "ponies," the Equestrian equivalent of when a pony was referring to a non-specified group of one's own race. "Well, that's because you're an alicorn."
Ranma opened her mouth to reply, but ended up frowning when "alicorn" reminded her of something that had been said recently. "I think Luna mentioned something about that... So, does that mean that only alicorns are princesses?"
Twilight Sparkle took a few seconds to contemplate her response. "Well, there were princesses before alicorns. However, ever since Princess Celestia and Princess Luna began to rule, there has only been one other princess and alicorn, and both are the same pony."
Between knowing what she did about Celestia and Luna, and having caught the present tense of Twilight Sparkle's statement, Ranma's curiosity was piqued. "Really? Huh. If there's only three, and they're all alicorns, I guess I can understand why people might assume I'm one as well." She paused before asking, "So, who's the third princess? This is the first time I've heard about her."
"Oh, that would be Princess Cadance," Twilight Sparkle replied, who smiled slightly as her thoughts turned to her sister-in-law and — by extension — older brother. Since those thoughts contained extraneous information, though, none of it was mentioned when she added, "You can normally find her at Canterlot, but she's on her honeymoon right now."
"I see..." Ranma replied, as she added that bit of information to what little she knew about Equestria and its royalty.
The waiter chose that time to return with their orders, who Twilight Sparkle noticed was behaving deferential instead of haughty. As they began to eat, she decided to educate Ranma on Equestria's political structure, since the non-native's eyes appeared to hold questions that weren't going to be given a voice. As intent as she was to help her charge, however, she failed to notice said charge's tentative approach to eating their sandwich as she spoke.
After taking a bite of her sandwich, and giving her palate a chance to evaluate the flavor, Ranma decided that it was edible. It wasn't anything that she would care to eat often, but she wouldn't mind eating flowers if it were only on occasion. While she ate, she pretended to be interested in what Twilight Sparkle was saying: not because she wasn't interested at all, but because her interest wasn't so great that it could only be sated by a thorough lecture.
Fortunately, before Twilight Sparkle could get very far, she stopped and turned her attention upward, to the presence that she felt appear behind her. When she looked for herself, she found a pegasus pony flying nearby, who examined her as she zipped from one side of her to the other. The pony in question had a sky blue coat, cerise-colored eyes, and the hair of her mane and tail boasted the colors of the rainbow. On her flank, she noted that her cutie mark was of a cloud and a bolt of lightning, the latter of which being divided by the colors red, blue and yellow.
"What are you doing, Rainbow Dash?" Twilight Sparkle inquired.
Rainbow Dash turned to regard Twilight Sparkle, as if noticing her for the fist time, and casually said, "Oh, hey, Twilight." She swooped down and landed before the table, between its other two occupants. "I noticed that Pinkie was putting something together. She said it was a welcome party fit for a princess, even though the pony it was for wasn't a princess, and that it would be out of this world, but not totally figuratively... Or something like that." She looked at Ranma curiously. "So, yeah, I decided to check things out for myself."
Twilight Sparkle shook her head at that. "Well, this is Midnight Bliss. She will be under my care while she's visiting our world."
"Wait,
what?" Came Rainbow Dash's incredulous response, as she returned her attention to Twilight Sparkle. "Are you saying that she's from
another world?" After receiving confirmation, she regarded Ranma with speculation and interest. "What's it like?"
"Well..." Ranma temporized, as she tried to think of what to say, much less where to start.
Of course, when she decided to start with one of the more apparent differences between their worlds, regarding the lack of — outside of myth — pegasi, unicorns and alicorns, she was interrupted by a confused Twilight Sparkle, who asked, "Are you saying that you haven't always been an alicorn?"
Ranma shook her head before trying her best to describe what a human looked like, with limited success, which was partly due to the limitations of the translation spell. After Twilight Sparkle assured her that there was a way to project a mental image with a spell, Rainbow Dash interjected and asked the obvious question, which was on both of their minds. "So, how'd you get changed?"
Since that was something that Ranma didn't want to share, but wasn't exactly sure of how to express that with words, she ducked her head a bit and falteringly said, "Uh, well... I'd rather not talk about it... If that's okay?"
"That's fine," Twilight Sparkle assured her, with an accompanying nod from Rainbow Dash, before something occurred to her. "I guess that's why you're here to learn magic, then?"
That was correct, in a roundabout way, so Ranma nodded her head in order to establish her cover story. "Yeah. I'm probably lucky that I know how to do even this much with it." She raised her sandwich with her "telekinesis" to illustrate what she meant, which she took another bite out of since it was in front of her face and needed to be eaten.
Rainbow Dash frowned thoughtfully and asked, "Say, how long have you been an alicorn, anyway?"
"Since the night before last," Ranma replied, who was wondering about the other pony's line of thought. "Why?"
"Well," Rainbow Dash began, who tried to remain casual about it, between her interest being piqued and what she intended to offer to a perfect stranger, "it didn't sound like you could fly before, so I'd be willing to coach you if you'd like."
Ranma perked up at the thought of improving her flying skills, since flight was — undeniably — one of the best things about her situation. "Really? That'd be great!"
From there, with the ice properly broken, they returned to the subject that they had strayed from, regarding the world from which Ranma had come. Ranma had an avid audience in Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle, as she astounded them with the fact that there were six billion of her kind living on her world. While Twilight Sparkle was more interested in the technologies that Ranma thought notable enough to mention, such as telephones, satellites, airplanes, television and the electric grid, Rainbow Dash was more interested in the locales, activities and the occasional creature, especially if any of them involved something new that was worthy of exploration.
Of course, since Ranma didn't want to ruin the mood, she reserved certain details for another time — if it was ever necessary to bring them up, at any rate. It wasn't just about the things that had been developed to kill people, but that there were so many reasons for them being used on a perpetual basis. Even though the problems with her people had little to nothing to do with her, being associated with it still engendered embarrassment, since Equestria — despite what little she had seen and heard of it — seemed like a fairly peaceful place, what with the three pony tribes having been able to resolve their racial differences and all.
There was no telling how long they would have talked, whether they stayed put or moved their conversation elsewhere, but they were eventually interrupted by a scream, which was quickly followed by more as a commotion erupted around them and ponies began to run for safety. Alarmed by this sudden development, they looked around for the source of the disturbance, but didn't see anything in the immediate vicinity.
Right when Rainbow Dash was about to take to the air and check what could be seen from above, they heard a gruff, booming voice bellow, "Come out, you lava-maned pony! I know you're around here somewhere!"
Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash exchanged questioning looks, regarding the "lave-maned" description, before simultaneously considering the same idea and directing their attention to Ranma, who reflexively — and somewhat defensively — asked, "What?"
Deciding that she should at least find out what had everyone scared, before considering whether it would be wise to reveal Ranma to them or not, Rainbow Dash put her wings to work and quickly cleared the rooftops. After all, if Ranma had only been a pony for a few days, she likely wouldn't be in any condition to make the most use out of her form if she needed to escape or protect herself.
However, before she could really take a look around, she was distracted by the sound of another set of wings approaching her location, and — much to her surprise and confusion — she soon found Ranma flying beside her. Just as she was about to raise a question about it, Ranma made a face, and sounded a bit irritated as she muttered, "What, these guys again?"
"These guys" turned out to be a group of adult dragons, who were hovering above the town square as they looked about for their quarry. There were four of them in all, though the only red-scaled one among them was separate from the three that had formed a group, who didn't appear to be as enthused about the search as the lone one was. Aside from being the most eager, having red scales and being separate from the group, one other notable detail about the lone dragon was his size, since he was notably larger than his companions.
Perplexed by this turn of events, Rainbow Dash inquired, "You actually know 'em?"
Before Ranma could reply, or Twilight Sparkle could call out to them from below and get them to fill her in on what she couldn't see, one of the dragons from among the group of three had gotten the lone dragon's attention and pointed her out to him, who growled, "
There you are," before making a beeline toward her. The rest of the dragons followed him, but at a more sedate pace.
Rainbow Dash was considering evasive maneuvers, since there was a large, angry-looking dragon heading in her direction, but a glance at Ranma derailed such thoughts. Instead of showing any indication that the same thoughts were running through her head, Ranma just hovered in place with an unhappy expression on her face and her forelegs crossed. She glanced between the alicorn and the dragon, wondering what to do, before deciding to hold her "ground." In part, it was because she didn't like the idea of being shown up in the bravery department, especially if it turned out that it could have been avoided. For the most part, though, she was confident that she could avoid harm, if it came to that, and the mix of danger and mystery was kind of exciting.
Rather than attacking outright, as Rainbow Dash had half-expected, the dragon came to an abrupt stop in front of them, jabbed an extended talon toward Ranma, and declared, "Little pony, I am Crimson Rumble, of Fury Mountain, and I challenge you to a duel!"
If that proclamation hadn't been strange enough for Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle, they were utterly dumbfounded when Ranma snorted and casually pointed out, "I handled a couple dozen of you at once, though, so why bother?"
That appeared to annoy Crimson Rumble, who joined Ranma in crossing his forelegs as he angrily asserted, "That was not a fair contest! You used our numbers against us, and your magic gave you an unfair advantage. Why, I didn't even get a chance to engage in combat with you, because..." He trailed off, seemingly abashed, before reluctantly admitting, "Because you used me like a club against my own brethren, knocking me unconscious in the process."
Ranma frowned thoughtfully at that, unaware that Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash were staring at her in a stunned fashion after hearing what the dragon had said. "So, what, you just want a one-on-one match, without using magic?" After receiving a nod of confirmation, she spared the other dragons a glance and asked, "What about them?"
"They are here to witness — and thus confirm — my eventual victory," Crimson Rumble confidentally replied, who ignored the disgruntled mutterings that came from two of the aforementioned witnesses.
Ranma smirked, lowered her forelegs and prepared to fly elsewhere. "If that's the way you want it, then follow me; I'll find us a place to have our fight."
As Ranma began to lead the dragons to a place that was outside of Ponyville, Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle shared a look before following after them. They didn't need to say anything to each other to know that they had both realized the same thing: that Ranma was more than what she seemed. Well, that, and that they had assumed too many things about her to begin with. While there was still some concern over what was about to happen, they were more curious about her capabilities than anything else, and whether she could actually best a dragon without the aid of magic.
Before long, they all arrived at a wide-open area that would work for a fight between a pony and a dragon, where there were few trees and the nearest house was a safe distance away. While Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash chose to watch from a small hill that overlooked the chosen battlefield, and the three dragons settled on the opposite side of it, the combatants faced each other and got ready to fight.
After staring at each other for a few seconds, Ranma decided to take the initiative and charge forward. Crimson Rumble brought his left claw down to meet her, with his talons bared, but she easily hopped to the side to avoid it, which slammed into the ground instead. His plated, spike-tipped tail was already on course to strike her from the direction that she was currently heading, but a strong flap of the wings sent her over it. However, with a flap of his left wing, she was sent sprawling back in the direction that she had come from since her hop, and she narrowly avoided his tail as it made a return swing — out of sheer luck — because she wasn't all that experienced at saving herself after losing control of her flight like that.
Crimson Rumble kept the pressure up by trying to take a swipe at her with his right claw before she could recover, but she managed to do it in time, then had to scramble away when she realized that his mouth was open, and that the approach of fire was imminent due to the back of his throat lighting up. He was soon chasing her with his flame breath, using it to lead her into the strike zone of his claws, tail or wings, or using those to try and catch her with said flame breath. Not liking how much control he had over their battle so far, she decided to fly beyond the range of his flame breath so she could take a short break and figure out a way to achieve victory.
Once she exceeded the reach of his flame breath and faced him once more, Crimson Rumble smirked and smugly said, "So, was I too much for you, little pony? Or is this an invitation to take our fight to the air?"
Ranma grinned, since she was sure that he wouldn't be sounding like that later, now that she had a good idea of what her opponent was capable of. "What are you talking about? You've already taken our fight to the air, since that's all you've been hitting."
Crimson Rumble didn't like that comeback one bit, who spread out his wings and roared before launching himself skyward. Ranma retreated just a bit more in response, as a plan began to formulate in her mind, before readily engaging him once more. Unfortunately for him, with his wings occupied with the job of keeping him aloft, no ground to worry about, and access to his underside, it became much easier for her to outmaneuver him, and finding a blind spot from which she could get past his defenses and attack, which proved to be quite vexing to her opponent. However, as strong as her blows were, his head proved to be more resilient than anticipated.
Not wanting to risk drawing the battle out longer than her stamina would last, or however long it would take to finally knock him senseless, she played hide-and-seek with his body for a bit, so she could come up with a way to knock him out. Upon spotting something of use, she smiled to herself and went back on the offensive, in order to draw him closer to the ground. Once she deemed him close enough, she feinted with one of her attacks, which left him completely unprepared when she slipped over one of his shoulders and chopped at the base of one of his wings, which dislocated it.
Crimson Rumble grunted in pain and did his best to angle his feet toward the ground with one wing as he lost altitude, watching her warily as he did so, but she simply eased herself to the ground along with him instead of taking advantage of the situation. She didn't need to, since it would be a waste of time and energy, as well as being even more underhanded than she needed to be.
Once they were on the ground, Crimson Rumble glared at her balefully and spat out, "So, once you finally realized that I surpass you in strength, you resort to foul play."
"I figured I would be doing you a favor, since you had been doing better on the ground," Ranma needled, which elicited a growl from her opponent. "Besides," she continued, with an indulgent grin, "if you're so confident about your strength, then go ahead and hit me as hard as you can." She tucked her wings in, sat upon her haunches and assumed a thoughtful expression on her face as she looked upward and added, "Although, I wonder if you can even hit me when I'm stationary..."
Crimson Rumble became enraged, so much so that steam actually poured out of his ears. "You
mock me, now!?"
With a mighty roar, he lunged forward with as much speed as he could muster, and prepared to put everything that he could behind his talons. Ranma's eyes glinted as his claw approached, with the intent to rend her into pieces, and with a quick thrust and flick of her horn, against one of his talons, she used a trick to redirect his momentum, which resulted in him being flung into the air. Between having only one useful wing, and being disoriented from the sudden and extreme shift in the forces acting upon his body, he accomplished little more than making his body spin lengthwise before his head smashed through a boulder, just prior to slamming it into the ground.
A silence fell upon the battlefield, and after a few seconds of that she stood up, prepared to leave if the crumpled form of her opponent didn't show any sign of being able continue. While she had been aware of the other dragons, it wasn't until then that she actually spared them any of her attention since the battle had begun, and she noticed that they were staring at her in shock. After a moment's consideration, she decided that it would be good to let them think that she was as strong as she seemed, if that meant not being bothered by dragons again. She had better — and more important — things to do than being harassed by dragons while she was in Equestria.
Then, she was notified that they hadn't been her only audience, when a familiar — and very distinct — voice deliberately exclaimed, "That... was...
awesome!"
When she turned to look toward the source of the voice, she saw who she had expected to see: Rainbow Dash. The pegasus pony appeared to be rather excited, and she wouldn't be surprised if she began to assault her with questions. Twilight Sparkle was present as well, who also seemed to be wowed by her performance, but was more reserved about it.
They were joined by four others, and among them she only recognized Pinkie Pie, who was holding up a score card and declaring that she hadn't gotten a perfect score because the dragon hadn't completed its third revolution before the "landing." One of the others was an orange-coated pony that was wearing a Stetson hat, whose mouth was still hanging open in amazement. Another was a pegasus with a pink mane and yellow coat, who stood behind the others, and whose eyes shied away when she regarded her. The last was a white-coated unicorn, whose wide, sparkling eyes seemed to gaze upon her with adoration, which she would later discover was an expression inspired by rather different thoughts.
By the time that she had taken all of that in, she caught some movement in the distance and noticed that the six ponies on the hill hadn't been the only ones who had been watching her fight. She could see a fair number of them peering out of windows and doorways, or from around corners, trees, and other things that had served a similar purpose for them. It was then that she began to realize what kind of situation she found herself in, and that the impression that she had just made — a first for many, to be sure — probably wouldn't help to dispel any thoughts about her being a princess.
She sighed. "Oh, man..."