Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and its characters and settings belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Kitty, and Viz Video. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon belongs to Takeuchi Naoko, Koudansha, TV Asahi, and Toei Douga, and DIC.

"You what?!" Akane shouted.

Flatly, Nabiki asked, "What did you expect me to do? Unlike you, I'm not a martial artist, and even if I was, I wouldn't mess with anybody that could take Ranma down."

Akane growled homicidally and stomped off towards the dojo, muttering, "Damn pervert, I know he set this all up."

With her little sister no longer making a nuisance of herself, Nabiki turned back to Genma. "Now, how about an explanation?"

"Yes, Saotome, please explain," seconded Soun. To Nabiki's great surprise, her father hadn't become a wailing ninny after Ranma's departure and the events leading up to it. Well, he had wailed for a while, but then he had come back to his senses and since then been very calm and rational.

Genma hung his head, more from reluctance to talk than from shame. Finally, he began, "It happened on the second trip that Nodoka allowed me to carry Ranma on. He was about ten months old and right at that stage where I could get the most food from the people I loaned him to." He coughed nervously at the sight of Kasumi's hand crushing the edge of the table. "Anyway, Ranma and I were staying at one of those cheap little motels and one thing led to another and this young couple ended up trading Ranma for a big bag of peanuts. Those were the best peanuts I've ever had." The fat man coughed again as splinters flew through the air as Kasumi's grip tightened. "I tried to sneak into their room that night and ste— uh, liberate Ranma, but they had already left. I was going to hide from Nodoka— can't remember where— when I heard a baby crying. I found him on someone's doorstep— the Ranma everyone knows, I mean. I stayed away from home for a couple of months so that he could get a little bit older to fool Nodoka. It's a good thing that that little black moon faded away, or she wouldn't have been fooled."

Nabiki was having a hard time not taking a short trip to the kitchen in a search of a nice, long, sharp knife that could properly gut Genma, when she noticed the hazy blue light filling the room. At first she thought Akane may have returned, but a quick glimpse in Kasumi's direction proved that assumption as false. Kasumi was glowing! Not only was Kasumi making a righteous battle aura of maternal fury, she looked ready to tear Genma limb from limb.

"Genma, how could you?!" Soun wailed. So much for that. Back to normal, the Tendo patriarch continued, "You've ruined all chances of uniting the schools! Waaaahhhhh!!!"

It wasn't difficult to tune her father out; Nabiki had lots of practice at it. Kasumi, on the other hand, was too hard to ignore. The sweet girl really did look like she was prepared to do something that she would later regret. Gingerly, since her sister's battle aura was blazing, Nabiki walked over to her, and whispered, "Can we talk in the kitchen for a moment, Kasumi?"

Wordlessly, Kasumi nodded. She followed her younger sister into her domain and waited.

"Kasumi, he's not worth it."

Kasumi's battle aura abruptly winked out and the older girl collapsed into Nabiki, weeping hysterically. Nabiki embraced her awkwardly, not used to much physical contact, and tried her best to comfort her sensitive sister.

"This isn't working," Ranma said to Setsuna. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't bring up a normal non-black battle aura, or even the silver one that Setsuna was expecting, and could so easily do herself.

The indistinct silver form of Setsuna faded away, leaving the green-haired woman standing in the middle of the dojo clad only in a form fitting black leotard. "Ranma, you're still thinking of it as chi. You haven't been using your chi since the crystal fragment awoke your power."

"Look, I can't help that I treat it like chi. It feels exactly the same, and with a few exceptions acts the same too. Every time I call on it, the energy comes in exactly the same way as chi does. How can I learn to distinguish the two if there are no discernable differences?" This had been going on for over a week, but the best Ranma could manage was only a small fraction of silver in his aura.

Setsuna sighed and asked, "What do you do to call forth chi?"

"I just let my energy out from somewhere inside my body. I guess that's right," Ranma answered.

"Didn't you tell me that you focused your confidence to use your chi?"

"I do, well I did. Now I'm just so used to using it that the chi comes automatically. I still feel really confident when I use it, though."

Maybe that was it. Maybe Ranma was unwittingly using his darker emotions to summon the negative energy that he so easily used. She would have to wait until tomorrow, subjectively, before having Ranma test the theory. If he used too much negative energy too quickly, there was a chance that he would go berserk again. "All right, Ranma, that's it for today. You can spend the rest of your time working out."

Relieved that another day of lectures on positive and negative energy was at an end, Ranma grinned and hopped around the replica of the Tendo dojo that Setsuna had created for him. Before his teacher could go back inside to the rooms that she had taken for herself, Ranma asked, "Cologne's supposed to start staying here today, isn't she?" Now that the ghoul wasn't trying to get Ranma shackled to Shampoo, she might train him in some more Amazon secret techniques, or at the very least spar with him.

Setsuna shook her head. She had forgot to tell Ranma about the time difference. "Like reality here, I can control time to a degree. While two days have passed on earth, a week has passed here."

Ranma didn't ask for an explanation. He knew he wouldn't understand the answer if he had.

To be continued.

Webmaster: Larry F
Last revision: May 21, 2007