White Rose Chapter 9: The Fortunes of War by Andrew Lemly ===== Disclaimer: the Ranmaverse characters owned by Rumiko Takahashi, and all that obligatory stuff. This story based on the anime, not the manga. ********************************************************* The three of them walked slowly along the canal, eventually stopping near one of the bridges. Shampoo bent down, picked up a stone, and sent it skipping along the surface of the water. She felt a moment of strange satisfaction when it clonked a passing duck on the head. "Good shot," remarked Ling-Ling. "Was imagining it was Mousse, for some reason," Shampoo replied. Lung-Lung squinted at the dazed duck. "Hmmm. He do wear white, and use lots of bird-name attacks, and brain is probably about same size." They sat down and watched the light of the sunset dance on the water for a few moments. Then Ling-Ling spoke up. "Big sister Shampoo... you think Ranma can win?" Shampoo turned and just stared at her cousin. Ling-Ling, not knowing quite what to make of her expression, continued. "" Shampoo slowly shook her head. "No worry. Ranma will win." "You very confident," Lung-Lung said doubtfully. "Shampoo have good reason. Know Ranma very well by now." She smiled briefly at the thought of just how well she knew him. "Always, when he have to win, he does. That why I give such strange look to Ling-Ling just now. You ask if Ranma can win. Question what Shampoo would ask is if it even possible Ranma not to win." "Lung-Lung hope you right." The lime-haired girl sighed. "Big sister?" she continued in a less-than-confident voice. "What?" "Will maybe be harder fight than you expect. Harder than should have be." Shampoo looked her cousin in the eye. "What you mean, Lung-Lung?" Ling-Ling gulped. "Was idea Ling-Ling have. We tell Mousse Ranma never yet beat you in combat, other than one time in village. We want him think win Ranma will be too too easy, so he make mistake and lose. But what happen was he get more mad, that Ranma never beat you but say he too weak to be husband to you." "So you think Mousse going to give his all in fight now?" The twins nodded, and Shampoo shrugged. "Shampoo think he would have anyway. It no make difference. Mousse at his best not good enough to beat Ranma." Ling-Ling looked away. "He win last fight," she said softly. "And is last fight he win," Shampoo said in a tone of absolute conviction. "Shampoo have every confidence Ranma not make my mistake, not go easy on Mousse." *************** Ranma sat calmly, folded in a lotus position. His eyes were closed, and there was an expression of peace on his face. Kodachi watched closely, trying to find a point in the cycle of his breathing when his focus would waver slightly. After a minute she gave up. "Now!" she exclaimed. In an instant, Ranma surged to his feet and shot forward as if out of a cannon. He covered the distance to his target before the White Rose had even finished her single syllable. With a roaring cry, Ranma lashed out with both fists, striking too quickly for the eye to follow and yet holding perfectly to the intended pattern of his attack. His first blow struck the head clean off the practise dummy. His next smashed through the lower ribcage area. His third and fourth, striking almost simultaneously, blasted through the shoulders. He finished the attack with a sweep that shattered the pole supporting the dummy (or what was left of it, anyway). Kodachi eyed the splintered wreckage, then the grim look on Ranma's face. "I'd say you have a winning strategy, Ranma-kun. Strike hard, strike fast, don't give him time to use any of his tricks." She pursed her lips. "However, unless you mean to TRULY ensure he never bothers Shampoo again, I suggest that in your fight you don't hit him quite THAT hard." Ranma sighed, then walked over next to her, and the two sat down together. "I hate him, Dachi," he said quietly. Unspoken, but felt by the both of them, was the implication that she hadn't been joking. If he really cut loose, Mousse wouldn't fair much better than the other dummy had. The White Rose placed a sympathetic hand on his arm. "Well, it'll be over soon enough. You'll defeat him with ease, I'm certain. After that, he'll have no way to ever regain an honorable claim on Shampoo." "And then what?" Ranma asked, with more than a hint of bitter sadness in his tone. Kodachi waited a moment, expecting him to say more. When it became apparent that he was waiting for her, she replied, "Then things get back to normal." "Normal. Huh." Ranma placed his hand over hers, then turned to meet her gaze. "Normal for me, I guess." Kodachi's eyes widened as she saw/felt a surge of raw pain rise behind his own. "Thanks to me, Ucchan lost her dowry an' had a miserable childhood. I got Ryoga a Jusenkyo curse. I set Shampoo up for a broken heart with Tatewaki. I even managed to hurt Akane's feelings when I left, or at least that's what Nabiki says." His voice nearly cracked then. "Everybody I ever get close to I wind up hurting. I never wanted that to happen to you, Dachi- chan. But I guess I shoulda known I couldn't keep it from happening forever." "Ranma-kun, that's ridiculous..." she started to reply. "Don't!" Ranma stared at her in desperation. "Don't lie or make out like it ain't anything important! I can feel you, y'know. I can see when you put up a good front, but it's just hiding the pain inside!" Kodachi sat quietly for a moment, trying to find her way to a response. At last, she said slowly, "All right, Ranma, I suppose you have a point. No lies then, no evasions. Yes, it hurts. And I have been putting on a mask, at least a little. But let there be no such veil between us. I want you to deliberately look into my soul, Ranma-sama, and feel how I'm hurting now." Ranma gulped, nodded, braced himself. He reached out, sensing the true depth of hurt in her. After a minute he disengaged. As he shuddered and wiped the tears from his eyes, Kodachi eyed him narrowly. She sighed a slight sigh of exasperation--he'd obviously missed the point so far. "What exactly did you learn from that experience?" "That I'm a pathetic excuse for a man who can't even keep from breaking his own girlfriend's heart?" Kodachi thumped him lightly on the nose. "Wrong answer." That did serve to distract Ranma from his remorse. "Huh?!" "Ranma, dear... apparently you've forgotten a conversation we had not long ago." Ranma gave her a confused look. "Um, sorry... I've kinda had a lot on my mind recently?" "I know, so let me refresh your memory. You, me, the rooftop of Furinkan." Kodachi arched one eyebrow. "You had almost gotten up the courage to kiss me. Don't think I don't intend to collect on that some day soon, by the way. But we were interrupted by a moment of empathy between you and Shampoo, in which you felt how lonely she was. "You were blaming yourself then, as I recall. You felt terrible about how Shampoo was hurting, particularly that it was partially your doing. And I reminded you that sometimes pain is necessary for one's personal growth." Kodachi grimaced slightly as she remembered her point at the time had been that Shampoo wouldn't hurt forever, that she'd grow from the experience and eventually find whatever man was right for her. Well, that had happened, all right. "Hurt is not the same thing as harm, Ranma-kun. Yes, the idea that I will have to share you with Shampoo does hurt. Even as you just felt from me." She stared into his eyes, and cranked the intensity of her gaze up to its maximum. "It hurts... but the pain I'm feeling because of you is about one-twentieth the pain you're feeling, because you think you're harming me. "That was what I wanted you to realize, when I told you to use the Link to sense the depth of my feelings. But all you did was obsess about the fact that you had caused me some slight pain." "Slight?!" Ranma protested. "Yes, slight!" Kodachi answered emphatically. "Ranma-kun... I admit that I'm putting on a brave face of acceptance. But in time it will be no mask, no charade. Already I'm beginning to adjust. I will adapt to this, as will you and Shampoo. You need to let go of your shame. You have not betrayed me, or done anything to cause me needless hurt. Consider what I would have felt, what we all would have felt, had Shampoo fallen in the battle with the Oni." Ranma shuddered, then said almost reluctantly, "Well... I guess you're right. That woulda been worse than this." But his tone made it clear that that only went so far to dispelling the pain. Might-have-beens were by nature less forceful than the immediate present. 'Good enough for a start', Kodachi thought. After all, if it was going to take her time to get over her pain, she could hardly expect Ranma to let go of his instantaneously. Aloud, she said, "I told this to my brother already... I consider the way things are to be a price worth paying, when it buys Shampoo's life. And so that is really what I meant, when I said that after Mousse is defeated things will get back to normal. It may not be precisely as it was before, but it's not so terrible, is it?" "Y- YOU'RE askin' ME?! I ain't the one having to make a sacrifice here!" Ranma protested. "No? You consider the pain and abuse you're heaping on yourself to be no sacrifice? Really, Ranma-sama, if that's your idea of fun you could have just stayed engaged to Akane." Ranma closed his mouth with an effort. He just stared at her in wonder for a few moments, then asked, "How can you do it? How can you just accept this, an' worry more about how I'm hurting than how much you are?" Kodachi's lips quirked into a smile. Trust Ranma to think that was something special when she did it, but nothing remarkable when he did. "Because I love you, you gallant, wonderful idiot." Ranma trembled then, as he looked at her. No words would come, though he would have given much to know just what to say back, to touch her heart as she'd just touched his. 'I love you too' just didn't seem to be enough. Perhaps, a voice whispered in his mind's ear, it isn't a time for words after all. Kodachi felt her heart begin to beat like a bass drum as Ranma slid around to face her directly, took her left hand in his right, then slipped his free arm around her shoulders. Slowly they began to lean toward each other... Their faces were less than an inch apart when the door opened. Tatewaki walked in, glancing around as if searching for something. Then, as the sight before him registered, he gulped and fled, all thoughts of his misplaced book gone from his mind. A long moment of awkward silence was broken by the White Rose's growl. "My brother is a dead man when next we spar." She sighed, then started to say something else... and Ranma moved. Technically speaking, it wasn't a very good kiss. A professional like Mikado Sanzenin probably would have given it a four out of ten at best. After all, neither of them had any real experience with such things. Neither had ever trained in Martial Arts Making Out. The only thing either of them really knew was that this was what you did with someone you loved, to show them how you felt. The Sanzenin scoring system be damned. It was enough. *************** Back at the canal, Shampoo blinked, then focused her attention on Ling- Ling again. "Sorry, Shampoo not paying attention. What was you saying?" Ling-Ling started to pout at being ignored, then let it go as she gave her 'big sister' a close look. Something had obviously just raised Shampoo's spirits by quite a large margin. "Big sister Shampoo, why you smiling now?" "Something just happen. Shampoo not sure what, but Ranma not hurting near so much anymore." Lung-Lung gave her a long look, then shook her head. "" "" her twin disagreed. "" Shampoo sweated big-time. She had told some things about the Heart Link to the twins before she'd learned there was a reason not to, but she was now trying to honor the Matriarch's wishes that the details be kept as secret as possible. Best not to let them get their hearts too set on the idea of a Link to Ryoga. "" Ling-Ling sighed. "" After a moment of silence, she continued. "" Shampoo gave the younger Amazon an inscrutable look. "" Lung-Lung frowned. "" Shampoo arched one eyebrow, deliberately mimicking Kodachi. "" The twins gave identical grimaces. "" Lung-Lung said wryly. "" Shampoo continued. Ling-Ling rolled her eyes, sure that she was being put on. "" "" Lung- Lung queried. Shampoo blinked, then remembered where she'd been going with this. "" She drew her knees up to her chest, and turned back to look out over the water. "" For a moment, she felt the typical Amazon disdain for outsiders and their short-sighted ways... then, with a start, remembered the real reason the custom had been adopted among her people. This left her with a distinctly odd sensation of disorientation. With a mental shrug, she returned her attention to the conversation at hand. "" "" "" "" Ling-Ling said almost reluctantly. "" "" Shampoo knew SHE couldn't deny Ranma something he needed. And Kodachi certainly didn't love Ranma less than the Amazon did. "" Lung-Lung grimaced. "" Shampoo shrugged. "" It was a lot easier to say that now that she knew her waiting wouldn't go unrewarded. "" Lung-Lung brooded for a bit, then brightened. "" "" Shampoo was more than a little sad to see they weren't even considering the possibility that they might lose to Ukyo. She still wanted to spare her cousins as much pain as she could, when the inevitable happened. "" "" "" Shampoo gave an exasperated sigh. "" The twins paused for thought. After a few minutes, Ling-Ling grinned. "" "" Lung-Lung said enthusiastically. *************** For no apparent reason, Ryoga shivered. It had felt as if something with a lot of legs, and made out of ice, had just crawled down the back of his neck. Which was odd, considering that he was currently soaking in a hot bath. *************** Shampoo gaped for a minute or two, then felt a moment's pity for Ryoga. He wasn't going to have an easy time discouraging his younger suitors, that was for sure. She thought about saying something else, but decided there wasn't much chance they'd listen at this point. Thinking of people who didn't listen to things they didn't want to hear made her consider another visitor from her village, and reminded her that she still needed to talk to him... *************** A quick stop at the Nekohanten gave her Mousse's location. Fifteen minutes of walking took her to his camp, in the forests just outside the city. As Shampoo approached, she heard the shnnk and thock of metal impacting on wood. The last few steps brought the scene into view. Mousse was practising an attack sequence, striking with blades that protruded forth from his sleeves. His target was a log standing on one end, roughly as tall as Ranma. Shampoo cleared her throat to attract his attention. Mousse spun around. His glasses slipped down on his nose in the process, and he absently pushed them back into place. Shampoo flinched as the blade on his arm came within inches of removing him from the picture for good. As he peered through the dusk and got a good look at the new arrival, Mousse's expression broke out into a wide smile. "" Silently Shampoo doubted that would be the case in a few minutes. She walked into the clearing, and sat down on a large rock. Since her perch had just enough room for one person, Mousse had to settle for seating himself near her. "Shampoo hear match with Ranma is set for two days from today." Mousse frowned as he thought of his challenger. "That's right," he said angrily. "When he challenged me, that worm Saotome set the date of the fight as far in the future as the law would let him, just to make me wait even longer." Shampoo slowly shook her head. "That not true, Mousse. He need give you time to heal, that mean four days at least. And we already miss several days of school because of you, so Ranma think is better to have fight on Saturday anyway. It just work out like that." Mousse snorted, clearly unconvinced, but didn't say anything in response. After a minute or two, he spoke up hesitantly. "You know, Shampoo, there doesn't need to be a fight at all." That was actually the gist of what Shampoo had come to say, but she suspected that Mousse was coming at an angle quite different from hers. "What you mean?" "Come on! You know what I'm talking about!" Mousse groaned. "He has no right to challenge me for you if you say he can't!" Shampoo sighed. "Then he have every right to challenge you." "Shampoo..." The Amazon in question was surprised to see what looked like a genuine display of spirit on Mousse's part as he stared at her. In the past his backbone had always been only slightly less firm than a wet noodle around her. But here Mousse was actually managing to look like he expected her to give way to him! "What more do I have to do?! I beat you. That ought to be enough!" "Enough for what?" Shampoo asked evenly. "Enough for you to respect me! Enough for you to admit you care about me! Enough for you to be my wife now, and not keep putting up more hoops for me to jump through!" His first sentence had actually caused Shampoo to begin to feel some sympathy for him. As the best fighter her age in a village that prized the way of the warrior above all others, one thing she'd always had was respect. Sometimes it was all she had, but it had always been there... at least until she came to Japan. Tatewaki might respect her now, Shampoo wasn't sure, but it didn't matter. When she'd wanted it most it hadn't been there. And it was true--she didn't have any respect for Mousse. After all, he'd never really done anything to earn such from her. But she could see how the lack might have hurt anyway, and she could feel pity for him. However, such feelings curled up and died a quick death with Mousse's second and third statements. "" she hissed. "" It was more than enough to blow out the flame of Mousse's spirit, but his stubbornness was made of sterner stuff. "" he said bitterly. Shampoo calmed down again. She just looked at him for a moment, then asked slowly, "" Mousse's mouth opened and closed wordlessly for several seconds. Then, finding his voice, he squawked, "" "That not question Mousse ask," Shampoo said, deliberately in Japanese. "Mousse ask what do to earn my respect. I answer." Mousse seemed to struggle for a minute. Then he looked away, and spoke quietly. "" Shampoo blinked. "" "" He frowned off into the twilight for a minute, then continued. " "" Mousse sighed. " "