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Xian Mao sat in silent meditation. The lights in his room at Dr. Tofu Ono’s clinic had been squelched, and the only illumination came from a pair of candles, one to his right, and one to his left.
Over the past several weeks, he had given Ranma intensive training in Tai Chi, and while it had helped the troubled young man focus, he was still far from mastery. The spiritual training was going nowhere, however. Ranma could simply not bring his Spirit to bear. His Ki was perfectly controlled, the
Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken was testament to that, as was his tendency to slash and cut things with his punches and kicks… though Ranma had never heard of the Razor Edge of Ki, as the technique was called.
But there was something interfering, and Xian Mao had a feeling he knew what it was…
The True Cat Fist
by Jeff Groves
Chapter Seven: The Nature of Things
Part One: Confusion
neko-sama@juno.com
Finally he gave in. Even after seven hours of intense meditation, he could think of nothing that might be causing the strange psychic imbalance he had seen in Ranma, save for the Jhusenkyou curse. With a sigh of resignation, he headed off in the direction of the Neko-hanten.
He was almost there when he felt Shampoo’s presence… behind him?
"Xian Mao? What you do here?"
"Looking for you, actually." He and Shampoo had developed a ritual of sorts. There were times when she was so sick of speaking Japanese that it made her nauseous, and on those occasions they spoke in Chinese. Other times, she felt she needed further practice, and then they spoke in Japanese. Either way, she would set the standard by speaking first. "I was hoping you could tell me about the magickal nature of Jhusenkyou curses."
Shampoo shook her head. "I no know magick things. Great-grandmother might know, but… no will tell you."
Xian Mao raised an eyebrow.
Shampoo looked sad. "She say she no care we swear truce. She say you are enemy, say your temple kill our people. Say she no want me go around you."
Xian Mao frowned. This was an unpleasant development. He’d hoped to wear down the Amazon Elder’s animosity, but apparently the bad blood between them was too much.
He sighed wearily, and sagged his head. "Do you intend to listen to her?"
"She say that three week ago," the young Amazon smiled brightly. "Shampoo no listen yet, why listen now?"
She reached out and touched his shoulder. "You my friend. I no abandon you."
Xian Mao nodded, smiling again as well. "What’s with the pack?"
"I go back to China, visit home, friends, family."
"Could you do me a few favors while you’re there?"
"What you need?"
"I was hoping you might look for some information…"
"Why not you come?"
"Say again?"
Shampoo switched to Chinese. "<Why not come with me? You could get all the information you need, without asking me to remember it all, you could get away from all the city stink and noise, and I could have someone to talk to on my way.>"
It was perfect logic, and when a girl smiled that way at him… even Shampoo, who was just his friend… how on earth could he say no?
Quickly, he made arrangements with Dr. Tofu, and informed the Tendous that he would be gone for a while. Then, after a quick trip back to the clinic to gather his pack—out of which nothing important had been removed—he left for China, talking quietly with Shampoo.
So quickly, he left, in fact, that he missed the return message from the Elder Monk as it materialized on his bed in Dr. Tofu’s clinic.
*****
AN: at this point, we will do a little break. The story of Xian Mao’s trip to China with Shampoo takes a couple weeks, and they return at the end of the Dragon Heaven Blast cycle. At that point this story takes complete and total leave of the main (Takahashi’s) story line, unless something cool happens that I feel might still work. In this fic I’m taking absolutely -shameless- advantage of Takahashi Rumiko’s endless "now time", where days pass, the seasons change a little, but no time actually goes by (how else are Ranma and Akane in their sophomore year throughout the whole thing… even as far as I’ve gotten(the latest Viz manga release), it seems to have cycled from late summer/early autumn to early/mid spring, and from what I’ve gathered, no real Time has actually passed, and none does throughout the entire 38 volumes of the Japanese manga.
Incidentally, I’m somewhere in Viz’s vol. 12 of the manga. how much does that correspond to the Japanese progression?
Finally, there does seem to be a small hole in the story: Ryouga v. Ranma in the Hiryu Shoten Ha cycle… let us just assume that Ranma’s defeat at Ryouga’s hands drove him to train even harder… I’ll work this out sometime… just as soon as I figure out what to do with it.
*****
Nabiki gave up. She simply had to admit it (even if only to herself): she missed Xian Mao.
He’d been gone for some time now, and she simply had to admit she missed him. He’d been good conversation and fun to tease.
Particularly in her mind, stuck out the incident(s) with the baths… several times, after working out with Ranma, he’d stayed at the house long enough for a bath and dinner… a few of those times, she’d "accidentally" walked in on him. Oh! the faces he made!
Or the time she’d dragged him to the mall as a packhorse, and made him watch as she modeled swim suits…
And the time…
Nabiki laughed, shaking her head at his shyness.
And most importantly, he wasn’t a martial artist. Well, not really, anyway. He could fight, but he didn’t have that obsessive thing that seemed to dominate every martial artist she knew. And besides, he thought of himself as a priest. So what was he then? A sort of warrior monk, she guessed.
But regardless, he was nice, friendly, her own age… and profitable! Oh, was he profitable! Already, in the short time he’d been training at the dojo, she had made eight times what she’d made off of Kuno since Ranma’s arrival. Eight times!
But now he was gone, and since no one was sure when he was coming back, she had to admit that she missed more that the money.
Stimulating conversation was so hard to find…
"<You know,>" Xian Mao commented to Shampoo as they crossed the city border into Nerima Tokyo, "<It’s kinda good to be back.>"
"Yes," she agreed, speaking in Japanese. "It is."
"Going to continue talking the way you used to, even now that I know your secret?"
"Of course," she said primly, "No one else know, after all. Not even great-grandmother."
Xian Mao laughed, then choked as he felt the local chi begin to be drawn into a central point… Furinkan High, if he had his bearings correct. The draw was so powerful, in fact, that Shampoo felt it. They looked at one another, nodded, and ran to the central point. They were almost to the Furinkan baseball field, when they hit the shock wave.
Ki, Chi, magickal energy, whatever you wish to call it, acts much as any other physical force: in waves. The main difference being that -any- magickal action causes a wave, and most physical ones do not… at least not that most can percieve.
The shock wave of power almost bowled over the highly sensitive Xian Mao, and while Shampoo was not so sensitive, she still felt it. Both, with equal vision and equal awe, saw the magickally born tornado climb into the skies.
They exchanged startled glances and ran to see what had happened.
Chaos, everywhere. There was a large group of schoolboys burying something, and Cologne had sent the rest to gather up some strange slips of torn-up paper. Assuming it was important, the two friends joined suit. Untill…
"…HAPPO FIRE BURST!"
This time the shock wave -did- knock them to the ground. Fortunately for the unshielded Xian Mao, it was a physical blast only. He and Shampoo turned to see Ranma and Akane falling from the sky, hundreds of feet in the air, and some strange, airborne creature chasing after them.
"Shampoo, get the thing. I’ll deal with Ranma and Akane."
"Hai!" she declared, with a sharp nod of her purple-haired head, and jumped into the air.
The energy of the land was strong, here… much had been gathered by whatever had caused the tornado. Drawing a deep breath, Xian Mao reached out to it…
…then stopped.
What on earth was he doing? Sorcery of that scale would likely kill him! Besides that, he had better means available!
Xian Mao’s focus turned inward, toward the power of the Neko-ken. Beyond his heightened state of existence, past the Claw, and through the First Door. Movement.
Stepping back, the young man fell into a crouch. Luminous cat-slit eyes focused on the falling couple (a small part of his mind noted that their auras blended quite prettily), calculating their suddenly slow-seeming rate of decent. Muscles, already strong, coiled and tightened with the incredible power of the Mao Fu. The two who were his targets were high, higher even than Ranma could jump on his best day, but well within reach of the Immortal Cat (AN: if you hadn’t picked up on that, that’s how Xian Mao’s name translates ^_^)… now, at least. He jumped, briefly wondering why he ever forsook the full power of the Cat Fist… the world was clearer, brighter; colors and scents were sharper, and everything seemed to make more sense…
Xian Mao brought his Will to bear, and returned his mind to the appropriate task. Ranma.
It had taken mere moments for him to traverse the distance between ground and target. The young priest grabbed a hold of Ranma as they impacted. The young martial artist stiffened, but for some reason didn’t otherwise respond.
Now came the tricky part.
Gathering his Will, Xian Mao slid deeper into the Neko-ken; slipping past the Second and Third Doors, he reached for the Fourth: Defense of Self. Of it’s own will, the Fifth opened, laying clear the way to save his Allies.
As Ranma plummeted toward the ground, there were several things he had to face. First, was that he was afraid; not just for himself, but for Akane as well. Second, was that he was almost certainly going to die. Third, was that despite his hopes, he probably wouldn’t even be able to save Akane.
"…HAPPO FIRE BURST!"
The blast’s slowing us down! He thought, Now we won’t hit the ground full force!
Then his hopes were shattered. Happosai appeared, floating through the air beside them.
"Hey you!" the freak cried, "Hand over those photos of you in the lingerie! Right now!"
"What?!" Ranma demanded, meeting the old lecher’s gaze. There had to be something he could do, but…
*WHAM!*
A boubouri slammed into Happosai from below.
What? Thought Ranma, Shampoo? Where’s she been, anyway?
Before he could really process what had just happened, though, both Happosai and Shampoo were gone.
Why didn’t she try to save me?
Something washed across his awareness, distracting him yet again. He looked down, in the direction the sensation had come from. He saw the back shadow of a cat flicker around one of the many people standing below, just before they jumped. Mere moments later, Ranma could tell that the figure was Xian Mao.
There was something about the other boy—maybe it was the feral look in those slit-pupiled eyes—that frightened Ranma horribly. Impact, and Xian Mao wrapped his arms around the two. Ranma stiffened, fighting off that strange, paralyzing fear.
For a few brief moments more they fell, a trio, now, instead of a pair, before the fear hit Ranma in another oceanic wave.
The black ‘shadow’ of a cat flickered around Xian Mao again. This time it stayed.
Perhaps it was, in this case, fortunate that Ranma’s strength was gone, for if he had it he would surely have crushed Akane in his terrified embrace.
There was a certain clarity that came with the deeper levels of the Cat Fist. With one’s purpose absolutely straightforward and focused, the mind’s eye had no distractions.
And with that clarity, Xian Mao realized that he hadn’t really thought things through too well.
That, however, was irrelevant.
He now, for the moment, had a clear purpose and direction: he was saving Ranma and Akane. Friends, Allies. That was the purpose of the Fifth Gate.
That was his purpose.
Ranma’s fear had all but consumed him. His mind was drifting, and he could hear a yowl building at the base of his throat.
He was holding off, though… it was different, this time.
Always before, the fear had simply consumed him, welling up against his mind, then crashing over like a tsunami over a breakwater. But something was different, this time. It was almost, almost as if the thing welling within him was afraid, as well, or repulsed by the cat-aura that had surrounded Xian Mao.
A cat will always land on it’s feet. One can survive great falls, great impacts, by learning a cat’s tricks.
And Xian Mao knew them all.
He was a cat.
As the ground rushed up to meet him, Xian Mao relaxed his entire body.
Impact! His legs coiled beneath him like springs, absorbing the force. He fell foreword, rolling to redirect and disperse it. Twisting around, he kept Ranma and Akane from the ground, taking their impact, as well. His bones creaked with the strain, but his own strength and that of the Neko-ken sustained him well: Xian Mao rolled to his feet, crouching, Ranma and Akane safe in his arms.
Gently, he placed them on the ground.
Taking a step back, he left the Neko-ken behind, closing the Doors he had passed through.
Xian Mao stepped back, and the fear drained from him. That was strange… why had Xian Mao set off his phobia?
Akane shifted in his arms, and he turned his attention to that.
She sat up, dazed.
"The… the chart…" she murmured, mind coming back into focus, "Ranma! Where’s the Moxibustion chart?!"
How do I tell ‘er… he thought, … that I let that chart… get shredded by the wind…?
Voices behind them caught their attention.
"Hey, Granny, here’s all the confetti!"
"All we could -find- he means."
Confetti? Then… there’s still hope…
"We’re missing one piece!"
"It’s a shame, really…" Cologne muttered. "Seeing as the piece which shows the exact location of the Ultimate Weakness Moxibustion counter-point is the -only- one missing. Tsk, tsk."
Ranma *twitch*ed.
"Then Ranma…" Ryouga gaped, "…will -still- die a weakling?!"
He barely heard it though. He was lost. The only thing in the world that made him of any value was gone.
"Old Lady… Ryouga… Ucchan… Everybody…" he mumbled, lost in his misery. "I just wanted to say… thanks for everything… it’s been fun."
Then he jumped off.
"Son-in-law..?"
"Ran-chan!"
The adrenaline had left his system, and left in its wake an awareness of every bruise on his body. But that came second. There was something more important to be dealt with first.
"Could someone here -please- explain," he demanded, "what in the Name of the Yama Kings is going on?"
People seemed to notice him for the first time.
"Hey, it’s that new kid"
"Where’s he been, anyway?"
"I dunno—"
Xian Mao’s eyes flashed dangerously. "Someone -will- tell me what’s been happening."
"Or what?" demanded Cologne from behind him. "What can you do?"
"More than you care to know, Honored Matriarch…"
"Old Ghoul!" someone Xian Mao didn't know called from behind them.
Cologne bounced over, snagging whatever it was that the yellow-clad boy held.
"Ohh! This scrap of paper--!"
Xian Mao looked over her shoulder, adjusting his glasses and examining the scrap with narrowed eyes.
"Moxibustion? Is that what’s going on here?"
"Yes," Cologne hissed. "Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must be going."
Shampoo had followed Ranma, more out of instinct and habit than anything else. What was going on? Had Ranma really used the Dragon’s Heaven Blast? Where had he learned it? And why… how… had he gotten himself and pervert-girl caught up in the whirlwind?
On an impulse, she stayed back, watching only.
Out of nowhere, a massive backpack crashed into Ranma.
"What were you gonna do, just walk off without a word?"
"Akane…"
"I won’t stop you… but…" Akane paused, meeting Ranma’s eyes, "I will… go with you."
They stayed like that for a moment, Ranma on the ground, pinned by the huge pack, gazes locked together. "Akane…"
Like psychic shields, Ranma’s emotional defenses came crashing back up. "C’mon, don’t be stupid." He said, tugging the pack over his shoulders. "I can’t go off for training with a -girl- tagging along…"
The weight of the pack tipped him cleanly over.
"I’m -offering- to come along to carry your stuff."
Ranma started sobbing.
"Ranma… you don’t have to leave. You don’t have to be -strong-."
"If I never get my strength back, what’ve I got left?"
"Uh…" Akane fumbled, "Lot’s of things! You have so many other qualities…"
"Like?" he demanded, meeting her eyes.
"Well, like… uh… you know… like.." she stumbled, brain frozen. "You just don’t have to be -strong-, okay?!"
"Would it’ve -killed- ya to’ve come up with -one-!?"
Shampoo had seen the looks passing between them, and the unavoidable realization came crashing down on her. She’d known for a while, on a certain level, that Akane had always held Ranma’s heart and soul… but now she was forced to face it like a brutal slap.
Ranma loved Akane, and her him, and despite the fact that neither of them had accepted or acknowledged it, it was true. Maybe she could have lived with that… certainly, she could have, were these normal circumstances. But they were not. This was not youthful courtship, in a normal sense. By Amazon Law, she and Ranma were already wed… as of the moment he had defeated her, even for the first time at the village. Her honor, her great-grandmother’s honor, and the honor of the Joketsuzoku tribe were at stake. If that honor were smirched, her life was forfeit. Though he might not realize it, Ranma had sentenced her to death.
For that was the nature of the Amazons. No male defied them, and -no one- defied the Tribal Elders. To do so was death. If a woman could not control a man, then they were both to die, by whatever means necessary.
Cologne bounced off in the direction Ranma had leapt, and Xian Mao ran after her. The old woman was fast, and the young man was forced to slide again into the Neko-ken to keep up. It was only the First Door, and that crossing cost him less, even, than the Claw, but he’d been traveling for weeks, and had already been quite free this day with invocations of the Tiger… his strength was only so much.
He caught up just in time to see the Matriarch poke a hot rock into the base of Ranma’s back.
"What’d you do that for?! Lemme -alone-!" Ranma snarled, back-striking our of instinct.
Knee-jerk reflex brought him to parry the massive stone weight that was hurtling toward his head, seemingly from nowhere.
The stone shattered like glass.
"My… my strength…"
"Looks like the moxibustion worked," Cologne stated off-handedly.
Xian Mao shook his head, still trying to figure out what went wrong. Nerima Tokyo seemed to have gotten even stranger (if that were possible) while he’d been gone.
"What?!" Mousse demanded, appearing from nowhere, Kuno Tatewake and his equally insane father right behind the half-blind Amazon male, "Saotome Ranma is cured?!"
"Lie at your own peril, cretin--!"
*WHAM*
A single kick sent all three soaring into low orbit.
"Bwahahahaha! I’m cured!"
*****************************
Xian Mao stared at the sealed scroll lying on his bed. Judging by the notation on the side, and the lack of "ripples" in the local energy, he’d say it had most likely been sitting there since shortly after he had left for China with Shampoo.
Sighing, he picked it up and broke the seal.
[<Xian Mao, son-of-my-soul,>] the beautiful Chinese script began. [<I fear your ignorance of certain events—granted, this ignorance is no fault save my own—and facts regarding the Joketsuzoku, may be leading you down a path you may regret…>]
The priest’s jaw tightened as he read down the scroll. As the Elder Monk said, this road would be hard to travel, but it was far, far too late to travel back down it…
******************************
Xian Mao sat between Kasumi and Nabiki, idly watching Ranma destroy everything in sight.
Beside him, Nabiki twitched with each crash, imagining repair costs.
"Ranma must be -so- happy," Kasumi said idly.
After a week, however, no one else was. Xian Mao had gotten the whole story out of the Tendous and was somewhat disappointed in his wayward pupil/teacher.
"Ranma." Xian Mao called sternly. "Ranma!"
Nothing. The exuberant martial artist continued smashing everything (mostly large chunks of rubble, at this stage) in sight, all the while laughing that he was cured.
"Ranma, stop! Control yourself, Ranma!"
More mad cackling, and no change in behavior. Xian Mao’s patience was being strongly taxed.
"Cease, Ranma!"
Again, nothing. Completely fed up, Xian Mao gathered his Will.
"Enough!" he roared, forcing the thought directly into Ranma’s mind.
No reaction.
"RANMA! STOP!"
Again, as if Ranma had not even heard him.
"<CEASE THIS MADNES!>"
Again, no reaction. Ranma was lost in his own little world.
As Xian Mao moved into a crouch—the movement was strange, almost an undulation—Nabiki could swear she’d heard him hiss. His eyes seemed to gather the light of the setting sun, glowing with a powerful anger.
Seeming to glide across the ground, Xian Mao stalked Ranma. The youthful warrior did not even sense the priest until he was within arms reach.
Ranma turned, and Xian Mao caught him by the collar with one hand, a strange glow encompassing the other.
"Enough." He snarled, eyes blazing in the waning light. " That is quite enough."
Ranma’s spine stiffened with that strange, paralyzing fear as Xian Mao grabbed a hold of him. Like a dear caught in the headlights, he could not break away from the priest’s furious gaze. No, not a dear… and no headlights… like a mouse who has just met the eyes of the cat who was about to kill him.
Ranma was dinner.
He knew that, and there was not a thing he could do about it.
Xian Mao snarled, the bestial noise of an infuriated wild cat, and the Neko-Ken began to well up in him. A noise built deep in his throat, but this time it was not a yowl… it was a hiss.
Xian Mao could feel something building in Ranma. It was not his own Will, he knew that feeling… he’d seen Ranma use his Ki attacks… and this was not that.
But it was familiar somehow, but… different… and…
Ranma’s eyes blazed, and a strange hissing noise erupted from his throat.
The "Neko-Ken" had taken him…
But it was not the Yin Incarnation filling him. It was something more… something twisted… something that resonated with his own Mao Fu. Of their own, doors began to open. The Claw… The First Door… The Second… Third… Fourth…
Cold fear washed over the Tendous… across the yard, a flickering black Void had surrounded the two young men.
This was not a natural thing.
Even they could sense it.
Even Nabiki.
Even Akane.
Even Genma and Soun.
The first shielded so well by her refusal to believe that she might as well have been mind-blind, the rest so dense that they might as well have been shielded.
And they new, beyond a doubt, that something was terribly, horribly wrong…
Images flashed across Xian Mao’s mind. He knew, now, what was wrong…
But he had no idea how to fix it…
Ranma was swimming in a Void… he could feel his body, see it… but he was not a part of it. Something was wrong, he knew… something—what ever had forced him from his body—was fighting Xian Mao. And the young priest was loosing.
NO!
The thought echoed throughout the Void, shaking it.
This was not right!
NO!
The Void trembled again.
The Darkness trembled. Xian could feel it. Ranma was somewhere in there, fighting back.
A feral smile touched the young priest’s face. He could win. They could win.
Light and Shadow… Glare and Darkness… the two sides of the coin… Yin and Yang…
Light… Yang(+)…
Glare… Yang(-)…
Shadow… Yin(+)…
Darkness… Yin(-)…
The Light best fought the Darkness… but the Light was not of him. Xian Mao was of the Shadow. But fight he could, and well and truly… for Ranma was of the Light.
The Void around Ranma and Xian Mao darkened… solidified.
No one watching could find the courage to move.
Xian Mao had taken Ranma’s head in his hands, and a point of light seemed to be blosoming behind the martial artists. The Void had taken on a slick, oily quality… except behind Ranma, where the light bloomed, and behind Xian, where the blackness was somehow… cleaner… more pure…
Soon, but clearly with much struggle, the oily blackness was trapped between the light and the cleaner blackness.
The Void swirled, and the oily Black seemed to be ground between the two other forces.
Moments passed, seeming like minutes.
Minutes passed, seeming like hours.
An hour passed, seeming like days…
Finally, the oily-slick blackness vanished, and the Void shattered.
In it’s place was a white teardrop, and a black claw, curled around each other in the ancient sing of the Yin and the Yang.
The True Cat Fist
Chapter Seven: The Nature of Things
Part Two: Understanding
"What the hell just happened?" Ranma demanded.
At first, Xian Mao didn’t answer. He was exhausted, drained; it took him a while to bring his breathing back under control.
"Xian-kun?"
"I… I think I know… just… just give me a minute…"
"Yin and Yang is sometimes compared to positive and negative… like magnetics. That’s a vast oversimplification, but in this case, it’s apt. Opposites attract. Negative pulls positive, Yin pulls Yang… or, as in this case, Yang pulls Yin.
"I think the most shameful thing about this whole scenario is that I didn’t see it right away. You can’t learn the Cat Fist, Ranma. It simply cannot be done. The Mao Fu is an Evocation of the Yin Principle of the Universe… with most magicks, anyone can Evoke anything, so long as they are strong enough; with the Neko-ken, however, you must be of similar Nature… I couldn’t say why."
"But," Ranma interrupted, "I use it all the time… every time I get hit with a cat!"
"That’s what I was getting to." Xian Mao shifted, trying to find a comfortable spot on the decimated floor. "The magnetism, the attraction. The Cat Fist, Neko-ken, Mao Fu—whatever—is a thing of the Yin: the feminine, the creative, the negative, the chaotic, the magickal, and so on. You, Ranma, are not of Yin Nature; you are quite solidly Yang Polarized: active, assertive, destructive, masculine, ordered, physical… When your father tried to train you in the Cat Fist, you tried to fight back on every level of your being… mind, body, soul. Your Nature—the most quintessential, basic part of you—Flared… repeatedly, with each time you were tossed in. With the aura of the cat’s Nature’s, and the desire to acquire the Neko-ken, the incredible force of your Yang Nature attracted the Yin Incarnation to you… but one corrupted by the pull and your own Nature. With each time you were tossed into the pit, the bond was closer… combined with the naturally forming phobia…
"You can see the result."
"I… I think so…" Ranma sat for a moment, staring at the floor, then suddenly glared. "OYAJI!!!!!!"
Xian Mao—a proper, elder-honoring, ancestor-worshipping Chinese boy—winced at the abuse Genma took… but could not bring himself to lift a finger. Saotome-san deserved as much and more… much, much more. So Xian Mao sat and watched blasphemy, unsure whether or not he should intervene.
Two days had passed, since what Xian Mao privately called the Revelation; the discovery of the problem with Ranma and the Cat-Fist. Not much had happened in that space of time… no confrontations, no fights—not even between Ranma and Akane—no insanity. It was as if Fate was holding back briefly, building up for a big show-down of epic proportion.
But, thankfully, for now, things were quiet.
Xian Mao lounged, cat-like, on the back porch of the Tendou household. Ranma sat on his right, Akane on his left. The monk and the boy/girl were exhausted from training, and the young woman had been put upon by Kasumi to bring them some refreshments.
"You’re improving," Ranma admitted grudgingly.
Xian Mao nodded. He’d almost managed to land a few today.
"My," said Kasumi. Xian Mao almost jumped: he hadn’t heard or felt her approach. "It’s been awful quiet, lately. Maybe one of Ranma’s friends will drop by."
The three looked at Kasumi strangely as she walked off.
There were a few moments of silence. Then a strange, obscene, insane laugh echoed across the yard… almost as much so as the aura that touched Xian Mao’s mind.
"Oh, Ranma-sama!"
Somewhat afraid, Xian Mao swiveled his head in the direction of the weird, high-pitched voice. Flying over the fence was a somewhat attractive girl in a leotard, hair in a ponytail to one side of her head. Se was waving a ribbon.
"Ranma-sama! How is my darling? And who is this new boy?"
"I am called Xian Mao," he said, not allowing Ranma enough time to open mouth and allow access for foot. "You must be Kodachi."
"Oh! So my Ranma-sama speaks of me, does he?"
"Yeah," Xian Mao shrugged, "in aproximately the same terms one speaks of a serial killer or a rabid animal." As do Shampoo, Cologne, and Ukyou, he added to himself.
"Lies! My Ranma-sama and I love each other! He—"
"If he loves you so much, why hasn’t he run up to embrace you?" Coupled with the words, Xian Mao sent a psychic *spike* into the oni-woman’s mind, driving the point home past her psychological shields.
Kodachi stopped dead still. Ranma and Akane stared at him. This was, perhaps, the first time -anyone- had managed to shut Kodachi up.
"Be-because…" the psychotic gymnast stammered after a few moments, before she could recover from Xian Mao’s psychic attack. "He fear’s the peasant Akane’s retribution… she’s always striking him with that awful mallet…"
Akane, glaring at Ranma as if that just might be the case, started reaching into hammerspace for said mallet.
Ranma, knowing what was coming, edged back: Kodachi was approaching the truth (if from the wholly wrong direction), and Akane -did- look pissed off.
"<Bullshit,>" Xian Mao stated flatly, drawing once again the attention of everyone involved. "We all know Ranma could avoid Akane’s attacks if he chose. He could just vanish, he could dodge, he could even defend himself. He doesn’t."
"My Ranma-sama is too honorable to strike a woman, even a peasant such as her."
The young priest looked over at Ranma. "Am I wrong," he asked, "or is that the only reason that you haven’t -dealt- with our "Great Lady" Kodachi, here?"
The ribbon-girl’s eyes blazed with rage at the double insult. This strange boy in the robes of gaijin peasantry had not only spoken as if she wasn’t there, but he’d mocked her noble blood!
"Come on, Ranma" Akane probed dangerously, irritated at Kodachi and taking it out on Ranma (as usual)… as well as genuinely interested in the answer. "Is that it?"
Ranma stuttered, looking around helplessly. Akane was getting pissed, and if he denied it he’d make her even madder, as well as encourage Kodachi’s advances: if he ‘fessed up, Akane probably wouldn’t believe him (although, if she did, he might get to see her smile), and he’d have Kodachi after his hide: not even a Kuno could refuse the truth of a direct answer.
A lose-lose situation. He knew, somehow, that Xian Mao would not let him back out; just as he -knew- that this time there would be no interruptions. Then, as he met the other boy’s eyes, frightening and cat-like though they were, he also -knew- that, whatever he said, Xian Mao would back him up, and he would escape alive; the young priest had very deliberately maneuvered him into this position, and would see to it that no harm came of his work. What hat Xian Mao said the other day? "I don’t care who you pick, Ranma. I’ve no stake in that, and I swear Blood Oath that I will not push you any way… but choose you must. To find Balance, and face the Horror within you, and rid yourself of your fear of cats… you must choose!"
For the first time in his life, Ranma felt confident that he’d come out intact in a verbal, emotional confrontation. He could tell the truth, and live to see the setting sun.
"Well, Ranma?" demanded a very angry Akane. "Is that it, or do you -want- to be with Kodachi?"
"Actually," Ranma said, surprising himself and everyone else with the firm confidence of his voice. "Xian-kun, here, has it about right."
Dead silence.
For a full minute, dead silence.
Then Kodachi shrieked, slipping beyond "crazy" into true madness. Dark eyes blazing with incoherent rage, she lunged at Ranma, hands twisted into claws.
For the first time since the Fifth Testing, Xian Mao did not -think- about releasing the Neko-ken. He just -did-. The Fifth Door opened itself, with neither conscious thought nor deliberate will… but neither did Xian Mao fight it. He simply used it for it’s only true purpose: the defense of an ally.
A back handed slash which did not even land, physically speaking, send Kuno Kodachi soaring back and out the gate of the Tendou residence. Xian Mao had hit her with the incredible precision of one who does not even need to think about his actions: a perfectly aimed blow to deflect more than to harm, with just enough strength to send her soaring, and only enough power to disrupt her Ki field, but not to actually her her life-force.
Then, just as Xian Mao closed the Door, the cat-aura of the Mao Fu hit Ranma.
The boy/girl became cat.
Ranma-neko jumped over Xian Mao, landing between the priest and Akane. Ranma-neko snarled, and took a combat stance.
The Neko-ken master backed off quickly, trying to puzzle out what, precisely, had happened. Ranma-neko settled himself in Akane’s lap and continued to glare at Xian Mao, who began to laugh.
"What’s so damned funny?" demanded Akane, who was less than pleased at having Ranma in his cat form again.
"Ranma," Xian Mao choked out around his laughter. "Even in the throes of … this, he still sees you as his mate!"
"I’m not…!" Akane broke off. "What do you mean?"
"Ranma’s a cat right now," Xian Mao explained, brining his mirth under control. "I am, in his eyes, another cat. As a cat he doesn’t want another tomcat in his territory. I’m bigger, though, so he has to put up with that. He does NOT, however, have to put up with me—the other cat—trying to take his mate away: namely you."
"Hunh?"
"You…" Xian Mao struggled to find a way to make it clear to Akane. "He’s defending his mate from an invading tomcat!"
"But he’s a cat right now, he’s…"
"Akane," Xian Mao said gently, trying to convey everything he knew into his tone. "You know as well as I do… better, really… that this IS Ranma. He just sees the world differently, now… Cats do not lie to themselves, and very rarely to one another."
"But… but…"
"This, Akane-chan, is how Ranma really feels."
The True Cat Fist
by Jeff Groves
Chapter Seven: The Nature of Things
Part Three: Negotiations Toward Beginnings
neko-sama@juno.com
The sun rose on yet another day in Nerima… it seemed like forever ago that he’d left the monastery. Life in this world was so different, he observed, tugging idly at the iridescent hoop in his ear.
One down, two to go, he mused to himself. At least, he hoped Kodachi was out of the running. Even if she didn’t pursue Ranma any more, though, Ranma had gotten that solved in his own mind, and Akane knew now what was going on there.
More importantly, Akane had something of a better idea what was going on with Ranma. He wasn’t sure when he’d decided to actively take part in the drama that surrounded the young man, but he had and he made a point of never doing anything by halves.
Last night, as Ranma-neko sat in Akane’s lap, purring contentedly, Akane and Xian Mao had had a long talk.
"I don’t know," Akane had said helplessly, "every time we’re alone, we either start fighting, or someone… interrupts us before we can even -say- anything, much less -do- anything…"
Xian Mao smiled a little, "Ranma complained of the same thing."
"What? When?"
"That first night I arrived, Ranma and I had a long talk. He… said a few things that I don’t think he’d want anyone to know he said… I don’t think he knows just how easy he is to read."
"Really? What did he say?"
"Did I not just say ‘things he wouldn’t want anyone to know he said’?"
"Well…" Akane had said, blushing.
Xian Mao had smiled, and smiled again in the remembrance.
"Among them was a complaint that the two of you never really had any time alone." a paused. "If I could arrange it, and get Ranma to agree, would you take advantage of it?"
After a few moments, Akane had nodded. "Yes. But… how?"
"Tomorrow, after school. I’ll have the Dojo set up so that no one can bother you."
"Why are you doing this?" Akane had asked suddenly. "Did our fathers set you up to this?"
"No. Nothing of the sort."
"Then why?"
"First, because if I’m to cure Ranma of his fear of cats, and his tendency to do… this… he has to be in better emotional balance. To do that, I have to help him work out some of his emotional difficulties.
"Frankly, you, and his relationship with you, seem to be the primary factors of his stress… not even his father can compare. Second…"
"Second?"
"Because I’m a hopeless romantic, and I’d like to help you two, if not come together, at least work out the terms of your friendship and whether or not you want this whole shebang to happen."