Ah My Goddess Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale of Two Wallets ❯ Hibiki versus Hibiki ( Chapter 79 )

A Tale of Two Wallets

(An Altered Destiny)

Written by Jim Robert Bader

Proofread by Shiva Barnwell

Hibiki Kennou very carefully made her way to the designated sight of her latest impending battle, having already staked out the significant landmarks that she would need to find her way and not get lost somewhere in the far distant reaches of the Islands. Though finding her way had always been a difficult feat, she managed well enough through a combination of flawless memory and sheer determination, not letting herself be distracted even when her thoughts tended to wander, as lost as she might be had she not perfected her system of location.

Almost unbidden to her thoughts came the face and image of a boy named Kiroguri Hiroshi, the only man she had ever so far truly cared about more than she cared about herself. No matter where she went or who she fought with she had never managed to fully banish him from her mind, much though she had tried in every way possible to avoid another meeting. A childhood friend, separated for years, only to meet again by sheer mischance, Kennou had fallen head over heels in love with the boy, only to learn that he had already met someone else towards whom he had given his affections.

Kennou scowled and her anger was something to behold as she thought of her two great rivals, one an innocent young girl whose name was Marie, the other an even more hated Xerox copy of the other girl, having the first Marie's name, face and body, only with the soul of a machine, being the product of Hiroshi's boy genius.

Damn her, Kennou thought for the thousandth time since first encountering the android, a monster should at least look like a monster and act like one, not intimidate Kennou by turning out to be a nicer person than the Hibiki girl could ever hope to be. She had fought the artificial girl to a near standstill, intending to smash Hiroshi's creation with her bare hands, only to find the pseudo-Marie every bit as much the fighter as Kennou herself, and of excellent manufacture. Moreover, Hiroshi had defended his creation by declaring that he felt attracted to Kennou but could not bring himself to love her if she dared persist in attacking his self-created "sister." "My Dear Marie," as Kennou tended to derisively label the artificial girl, was a little too human and persuasive for her liking and had even talked sense about Kennou's misdirected anger, a fact for which she hated the other girl even more than the thought that Hiroshi would take her side over that of Kennou.

I saw him first, she thought with vicious anger, that ought to give me proprietary interest! I'm a flesh and blood girl, she's just a creation! How dare she come between me and my Hiroshi?

Of course she could have easily forced herself on the human Marie, who had formed the template from which her doppelganger had been created, but there seemed little point in attacking a weak and helpless thing like that when she could not even prevail against the monster, so Kennou had left them alone and sought for greener pastures, hoping in time to put her hopeless crush for Hiroshi well behind her.

I don't need love, she thought to herself fiercely, all I need is money! Lots and lots of money! Enough to buy me a life, and I don't care who I have to step on to get it!

Even as she thought this thought she self-corrected her course and direction, belatedly realizing how close she had just come to turning left instead of right, which was the curse she lived under, her horrible confusion about direction!

Within a matter of minutes she arrived at the park, only to find to her surprise that the object of her latest assignment was already waiting to meet her. There was the boy she took to be Saotome Ranma standing with one of the girls whom Kennou had seen hours earlier at the Tendo dojo, and next to them was the older woman who claimed to also be a Hibiki.

Oh yeah, and a curious looking mutt who was white on one side and black on the other. Kennou tensed at the sight of the dog, hating watch dogs and guard dogs in principle as people often fetched their animals on her, and she frequently had to "teach" them the error of their ways since no mere animal was a match for her strength. Kennou had always known that she was stronger than other young girls her age, and thanks to years of honing her fighting skills on the street she knew how to use her power to good effect. If this kid thought his dog could win the battle for him, she would very soon teach him the error of such thinking.

"You're early," Kenou said after coming to a halt an appropriate distance away from her quarry.

"I didn't feel like waiting," the boy replied, "Glad to see you didn't get lost on the way here."

Kennou bristled at the arrogant presumption of the boy's tone but held her anger in check. She was looking forward to a little exercise, and this Saotome Ranma was said to be pretty good. She hoped he would last more than a minute, far too many of the people she fought were hopeless cases.

"You brought help, I see," Kennou said, "I thought you fought your own battles."

"It's just me you have to worry about," the other boy replied, "Akane and my mother are here to make sure you don't try anything underhanded."

"You afraid I might bite?" Kennou asked.

"No more than I will," Ryoga's smile showed off his fangs, "I just have one question…why are you looking for a fight anyway, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Huh," Kennou's smile held no warmth to it, but she answered just the same, "If you have to know it's because I was paid to do it."

"Paid to do it?" Akane blurted out, "You fight for money?"

"Best reason to fight," Kennou replied, "In case you didn't know, there aren't too many legitimate jobs open for kids our age, at least ones that don't require ID and a permanent address."

"Oh really?" the older woman replied with an odd expression, "You don't have a home of your own, then?"

"Not that it's any of your business," Kennou ignored the woman and glared at her intended target, "Let's get this on, shall we? I'm not getting any younger."

"Just one more question," Ryoga took a stance, "Who's paying you for this? Who wants you to fight with me?"

"Sorry," Kennou replied, "Client confidentiality and all that."

"You don't say?" Atsuko smiled, showing off her own fangs as she regarded the blonde Hibiki, "This is starting to sound more interesting by the minute."

Kennou took a stance and Ryoga did likewise, then the both of them held for a moment, studying each other's postures and stances before initiating contact. Kennou made an instant evaluation that the boy before her was a strong fighter and not one to be taken lightly, which was just the way she liked it. She gave a faint smile as she prepared her initial offensive, and when she moved it was like going from zero to sixty in one second. She moved so fast that she was barely a blur, but Ryoga saw and moved to counter, side-stepping Kennou's thrust while holding back the counter-stroke he might have delivered.

Kennou revised her opinions about the other boy's speed and flipped away to give herself distance, surprised that he had not attacked her when she had given him such an obvious opening. Apparently what she had heard about Saotome's reluctance to strike women was true after all, but no way was she going to take it for granted that he would not respond to her further challenge. She came at him a second time, her punch timed to strike a fraction of a second before her image would have suggested. It was a minor trick she had learned on her own to disguise her offensives, and it worked this time in catching the boy off-guard as he had not properly timed his own evasion. The punch was a solid one, but to Kennou's surprise it barely staggered him, and the resistance her fist encountered suggested that there was a lot more muscle and bone to the boy than an average guy his age, which again cautioned her once again that he was a foe not to be taken too lightly.

To stave off any chance at his recovery and potential counter-attack, Kennou followed up her punch with a triple back-fist combination, followed by a razor kick as she vaulted forward in a somersault that helped her leap out of the way while further knocking her opponent backwards. Kennou landed on her feet ready to renew her offensive, but to her surprise Ryoga shrugged off the blows that he had taken and came at her in a rush, his first punch barely missing her face as Kennou twisted hastily to one side to avoid him, but Ryoga caught his momentum and spun on his heels to launch another series of punches that forced Kennou to take evasive action.

"Hmmm," Atsuko frowned, "Her style's pretty basic, but she does show a talent for innovation. I see a lot of borrowings here and there, and her technique isn't too polished, but there's a lot of raw talent there to work with."

"Aren't you worried that Ryoga might get hurt?" Akane asked anxiously, seeing Ryoga and the strange girl dancing about with various punches and kicks being exchanged at a speed that was almost breathtaking.

"I trained Ryoga myself," Atsuko replied, "And he's learned a lot on his own, so I know what my son is capable of. He can handle himself against her, provided he doesn't get too careless or sloppy."

Kennou was finding herself harder pressed than she would have anticipated, and the boy she was fighting was very good, a hard and disciplined fighter. That suited her just fine, though, as an easy fight was the last thing that she wanted. She forced the issue by going on the offensive once again just to see how the boy would handle her upping the stakes, using her Whirlwind Attack style, which she had not had to call upon for quite some while, turning her whole body briefly into a whirlwind of powerful kicks and punches, many of which scored against the other boy, who was driven back by her relentless onslaught.

Of course using the technique was very tiring and she had to break off to regain her breath, which unfortunately gave the boy time enough to recover so that when Kennou was prepared to attack again he was already launching his own offensive. To Kennou's surprise his fists came flying at her like a flurry of strikes, far too many for the eye to follow, and more than a few of them connected against her, getting past her guards to score points that left her feeling battered and reeling.

"What?" Akane blinked, "Ryoga used the Chestnut fist?"

"One thing I taught my son was to never strike a lady," Atsuko grinned, "Of course if his opponent ain't no lady then he should take the gloves off, as she's just found out the hard way."

Akane thought about that one, how in all her sparring matches with Ryoga he had never once used his most powerful techniques against her, which either meant he thought she could not handle such attacks or else he regarded her as a lady, either possibility of which left her feeling confused and conflicted, uncertain of whether to feel flattered or insulted.

Kennou dropped to the ground but caught her weight on one hand with both feet spread wide, more surprised than hurt to be on the receiving end of so many punches. Obviously the boy had not been striking her full-force, which meant that he was still holding back and not taking her as the serious challenge the wanted to present him. Rather than retreat to regather her resources, however, she instead chose to go back on the offensive, supporting her weight on one hand as her body jack-knifed out and lashed out at Ryoga's legs to trip him.

Ryoga had not been prepared for her to rally quite so quickly and so went down heavily as he was knocked ass-over-teakettle. The rude landing helped wake him up that his opponent was very serious about fighting, and it was time he stop playing around to sound out her fighting skills. He was not like Ranma, who would tease and provoke a foe into behaving in a reckless manner, he was a much more direct fighter, and no way was he letting this girl show him up in a fight in front of Akane and his mother!

He was on his feet before Kennou could press her advantage and ready to meet her nest attack with fierce determination and a willingness to pull out all restraints. He did not wish to seriously injure Kennou, but neither would he let her batter him around under the mistaken assumption that he was actually Ranma. He would only go so far in his deception, he had no intention of defeating her as anything but a fellow Hibiki.

Kennou was wondering what the boy in front of her was made from that he could get up again without seeming more than mildly shaken. She was already preparing a strategy in her mind for how to cope with his unusual fighting ability when she found both of her hands gripped suddenly as Ryoga moved before she had expected him to, and all of a sudden she found herself being tossed forward as he lifted her up and tossed her about like a rag doll. Kennou made a sharp move with both wrists to break his hold, but finding herself airborne forced her to divert time twisting her body in mid-air in order to land with both feet under her instead of landing face-first in the dirt. She whirled around with an angry glare, which was matched by a cool gaze from her foeman, and both antagonists silently began to circle about in search of a new opening with which to renew their encounter.

"I think he made her angry," Akane noted from the sidelines.

"Anger is good if it helps you to focus," Atsuko remarked, "It's when you lose your temper that you get into trouble. We Hibikis always have had a problem with that, and when we lose it we tend to get destructive."

"Yeah," Akane said nervously, "So I've noticed."

This is like fighting against that damned doll, Kennou thought fiercely to herself. Fighting this guy was like fighting a machine, and she strongly suspected that she had not yet seen the boy's full potential.

But neither had she even begun to show her true combat level, and unlike that stand-off humiliation that she had endured months ago she was now better prepared to up the ante.

"Think you're pretty tough, huh?" she said aloud, seeking to stall for time by engaging the boy in some meaningless exchanges, "Does beating up on a girl give you a cheap thrill?"

"Shut up, you!" Ryoga snarled back at her, "You're no one to talk about starting a fight! I just want to know what this is all about, why you came here looking for trouble…"

"Because somebody was ticked off enough with you to pay me to do it, of course," Kennou said as she continued to stall while quietly summoning her ki in preparation for her special maneuver, "Lots of people seem to hate your guts, and whatever you've done to get them mad at you, it must have been something, because I'm getting paid pretty well for this one battle."

"Then they're wasting their money," Ryoga said scornfully, reflecting on the irony of what he was about to say, "Saotome Ranma can't be taken down by cheap stunts like you've been displaying. As good as you are, you're no match for me, and sooner or later you're going down. I'm stronger than you are…"

"Yeah," Kennou said as she brought both of her hands forward, "And thicker in the head."

Atsuko's eyes widened and Akane heard her gasp, "WHAT? She summoning a ki attack!"

"She's what?" Akane blinked her eyes and concentrated, even as she thought she saw something like a flash appear between the palms of the blonde woman's hands, and all at once an explosion filled the air, going off practically in the face of the unsuspecting Ryoga.

Ryoga had not been prepared for finding himself at the blunt end of a white flash of energy that struck him squarely in the chest and knocked him flying backwards.

"Ryoga!" Akane cried out, already running at full tilt to reach the side of her fallen boyfriend. All but unnoticed in the excitement, the hound that had stood faithfully by her side was also in full motion, seeking to reach the side of her master just moments ahead of the swift moving Tendo.

"Eh?" Kennou registered the fact that the girl had just cried out a name very different from that of Ranma, but the channeling of her ki had left her momentarily feeling empty, so she paused to let the spiritual energy flow back into her form, and for a few seconds she was vulnerable and open.

"Hmm," Atsuko murmured to herself, and suddenly her outline blurred before her outer form seemed to dissolve into shadows.

"Ryoga, are you all right?" Akane asked as she fell to her knees to cradle the fallen boy in her arms.

"A-Akane…?" Ryoga gasped, prying his eyes open as he fought to retain consciousness.

"Don't try to talk, Master," Shirokuro said as she reassumed her human shape to examine him, "You weren't hurt bad, but you need to save your strength so your body can heal itself. You'll be back to yourself if you wait a few minutes."

"You called him Ryoga," Kennou frowned, "I thought you said you were Saotome Ranma."

"His name is Hibiki Ryoga!" Akane cried out in anger, "He fought you because he wanted to know if the both of you were related!"

"He did what?" Kennou's surprise turned to anger, "What the hell did he do a thing like that for? You lied to me, you baka!"

"I…never lied," Ryoga managed to grunt out, ignoring the Shadow hound's urging as he tried to sit upright, "I let you believe…that I was Ranma…so I could see what you were made from…" he fell back as his strength failed him, "…I guess I found out…"

"But…if you're not Ranma…then where…?" Kennou started to ask when the sound of a motorcycle fast approaching.

Akane and Ryoga both looked up in surprise to see a found hundred pound bike soaring over their heads, to come down in a two point landing a mere thirty meters away as the purple haired dynamo piloting this craft pulled about in a tight one-hundred-eighty turn then pulled to a halt only a few feet away of where Ryoga was laying. As she lowered the kick-stand, the quivering mass that was her helmeted passenger forced herself to release her death-grip upon the Amazon, setting one foot down on the grass as gingerly as if he thought he was about to break it, then with deliberately forced calm pulled off her helmet, allowing a length of red hair bound up in a trademark warrior's braid to catch the last gleaming rays of sunlight. She took a deep breath and then with noticeable effort forced her knees to stop shaking, closing her eyes for a moment until she visibly calmed down and could relax her overly tense posture.

When she opened her eyes again the redhead looked down at her feet and said, "Ryoga…what happened to you?"

"He got hit by a ki blast," Akane pointed at the guilty party, "Thrown by her, that's what happened!"

"Oh yeah?" the redhead turned to Kennou and handed his helmet over to the purple haired girl beside her, "So you beat up my brother, huh? Not that the baka doesn't deserve it sometimes, but for that I'm gonna stomp you, lady."

"Your brother?" Kennou frowned as she studied her new prospective opponent, "Don't tell me you're also a Hibiki?"

"Hardly," the redhead replied, "I'm the one you're looking for, my name's Saotome Ranma."

"WHAT?" Kennou reacted in surprise, "But…But I was told that you were a man…"

"Ah…yeah, well," Ranma sighed, "Shampoo…the hot water please."

To his surprise the Amazon had already fetched a thermos from under the seat pack of the motorcycle and was already in the process of handing it to him. Ranma smiled at her in gratitude then opened it up and poured some of the contents over her head, and immediately grew almost a foot in height with appropriate increases in body mass as her hair changed from red to black, and suddenly a male Ranma stood before the astonished blonde Hibiki.

"Surprise," Ranma addressed himself at his prospective opponent, "Is this what you were expecting, lady?"

"W-what?" Kennou gasped, "But…you were a girl…how is this possible…?"

Before her question could be answered the gathering shadows around her solidified and a pair of arms went around her neck, locking the blonde Hibiki in place long enough for Atsuko to touch her sleep spot, rendering her almost instantly unconscious.

"My apologies," Atsuko nodded to Ranma as she eased the blonde to the grass and knelt beside hr, "But I've got a few questions of my own I want to ask, so you'll have to put off your fight with her until after I get finished."

"Ah…okay," Ranma glanced around, then noticed the tell-tale signs of a fight all around them, "What all happened here? Did she put up much of a fight?"

"Obviously," Akane reacted, "Your timing could have been better, Ranma. Ryoga might have been hurt fighting your battles, so what took you?"

"Hey, it wasn't like it was my idea!" Ranma snapped at her, "And don't blame Shampoo either…if it wasn't for her…well…I wouldn't have got here any sooner…" he winced as he tried not to think of the hair-raising shortcuts his Amazon bride had insisted on taking, and in spite of himself he was incredibly grateful that his mother had insisted on him wearing a helmet.

"Don't bother, kid," Atsuko replied, "My guess it was Nodoka that insisted on holding you back. She's just that kind of…hmmm?" the Oni woman turned her head and frowned before sniffing the air several times, and then she said, "We've got company."

"We do?" Ranma tensed, "More trouble?"

"That depends on what you mean by trouble," Atsuko replied, "Shirokuro…go fetch."

"As you command, Mistress," the beast woman replied even as her shape flowed back into her canine form, and then like a shot she took off, heading unerringly in the direction of some distant bushes.

Ryoga was just beginning to recover his bearing and was able to sit up by the time that the Shadow hound returned, quite literally dragging a scarecrow-like form behind her that a few moments later was revealed to them in the uncertain lighting.

"What the…?" Ranma frowned, snapping his fingers, "I know you…I've seen you around…uh …"

"Gosunkuji Hikaru?" Akane said in wonder, "What are you doing here…and with a camera?"

"Ah…!" the pale boy with the frail body cringed as he fought to free his arm from the teeth of the snarling beast that held him, "It's not what it looks like!"

"Shampoo think it very much what look like," the Amazon joined in, "See sneaky boy stalk around school, take pictures," Shampoo turned a smirk towards Akane and added, "Many pictures of violent tomboy."

"You…" Akane halted in mid-outburst and replied, "Really? Why would he want to take pictures of me?""

"You can ask a question like that," Atsuko smirked, "With a sister like Nabiki?"

"Hey!" Ranma snarled, "Nabiki doesn't go around snooping on people like that anymore! And what the hell is your beef with the tomboy?"

"You have no right to talk to her that way, Saotome!" the frail boy whined as if anger had given him a backbone, only to quail as the hound growled menacingly, so that his tone turned pleading, "Nice doggie…!"

"Shirokuro," Atsuko said calmly, "Break his arm if he decides not to cooperate."

"You can't!" Gosunkuji quailed, only to wince as the hound tightened its grip on his arm.

"Hibiki-san," Akane pleaded.

"Ain't it kinda extreme?" Ranma asked, "The guy's an obvious wimp who can't hurt nobody…"

"Tell that to my son," Atsuko showed no hint of relenting, staring hard at the boy as she spoke in level tones, "Did you hire this girl to attack Saotome Ranma?"

"I…" Gosunkuji winced as he felt the pressure tighten once again, "I did! Only it wasn't just me! I couldn't afford to pay her all that much until the others chipped in to contribute to her hiring fee…"

"Others?" Ranma asked.

"Sure," Gosunkuji was almost in tears, "Lots of people hate you as much as I do, Saotome! You're the envy of all the guys, one of the three boys all the girls want to date, and even as a girl you're too sexy for them to compete with! And it wasn't just us…some guy named X paid a hundred thousand yen up front to have Hibiki-san avenge the dishonor you did to his daughter…"

"One of Pop's deals gone sour no doubt," Ranma grumbled.

"You sure are popular at your school, Kid," Atsuko noted.

"Tell me about it," Ranma's expression darkened.

"But why were you taking pictures of the fight?" Akane asked, noting that the offending object dangling from around the boy's neck had a telephoto lens and looked fairly ultra modern.

"So people would have evidence that Ranma had been beaten," Gosunkuji replied, then added, "Ah…can I have my arm back now?"

If a hound could smile, Shirokuro did just that, only it wasn't a very pleasant thing to witness.

"So instead of Ranma's humiliation you took pictures of my son," Atsuko replied in level accusation.

"Almost as good," Gosunkuji admitted, "Lots of guys don't like him either on account of him hanging around with Akane."

"But…what has this got to do with me?" Akane wondered.

"Geez, you can be so dense," Ranma replied, "Ain't it obvious the guy's got a thing for you, like all the other perverts who go to our high school."

"Is true," Shampoo nodded, "Akane way more popular with boys at school…even have girls looking at her when she no pay attention."

"What?" Akane colored, "I do not!"

"Oh no?" the Amazon asked slyly, "What about Spatula girl, or he only boy you see? Either way, you very strange girl."

"I don't need to take that from you!" Akane snarled, "Hikaru, you don't really have a crush on me do you…huh?"

The slight boy was suddenly smiling as if in his own little dream world, for he had heard her address him by his given name, which in his mind meant that she had actually noticed him on some level, and might possibly like him.

"Ah…" Akane hesitated, "I guess maybe I do have that effect on some people…"

"You think?" Ranma asked her.

"Ranma," Ryoga said as he got back to his feet and stood ready to defend the shorthaired girl, "You stop picking on Akane. As for you…" he glared hard at Gosunkuji, "Count yourself lucky that you aren't worth sullying my hands against. Akane's not for the likes of you or any of the other fools who dare to annoy her."

"You just think because you two are such monsters that you can throw your weight around," Gosunkuji replied, almost in tears again, but this time not from the pain in his arm, "But you won't always be in charge, and one of these days I will have my vengeance!"

"Monsters," Ranma exchanged looks with Ryoga, "You think he means us?"

"I guess so," Ryoga scratched the back of his head, "Only I don't see where he gets off calling anybody a monster."

"Besides, if anybody here is a monster it's me," Atsuko frowned, "Shirokuro, let him go. Take your camera and leave, and don't let me catch you around my son, Boy, or I'll get really nasty!"

All at once her appearance changed, her skin becoming ruddy hued while a pair of bat-like wings appeared and she grew in size to a virtual giant. Her fangs were suddenly six inches long and as wicked looking as those of a saber toothed tiger, and a spade-bladed tail protruded from her back as her hands crew claws that looked as if they could rip steel plate like tinfoil. Gosunkuji took one look at this horrific apparition and immediately lost whatever semblance of courage that he had, turning on his heels as the hound released him and fleeing into the night with a scream of abject terror.

"Hah," Atsuko remarked as her appearance returned to normal, "That gets 'em every time…"

"But wasn't that an unusually cruel thing to do to a boy his age?" Silk asked at her side.

"Naw," Atsuko dismissed, "Do that kid good if somebody put the fear of the Oni in him…" she paused, and then with a sudden start turned and went, "GAK!" as she jumped back from the Lore Master.

"Well you needn't act like I've turned into the monster," Silk sniffed, "I was only checking in to see how everyone was doing."

"How long were you standing there watching, Lady?" Ranma asked with his usual display of tact and good manners.

"Long enough to get the drift of what has happened," Silk glanced down at the still unconscious girl at their feet, "Such a shame that a young thing like her had to grow up on the streets after losing her mother. Bad enough the poor thing has to bear the awesome burden of being a Hibiki…"

"Is there anything we can do for her?" Akane asked.

"Tie to tree and leave for morning?" Shampoo suggested.

"Shampoo," Ranma said in a weary tone of voice.

"Is better than first impulse Shampoo have," the Amazon replied, "Rather tie to tree and use for target practice so she no bother Airen."

"As much as I hate having to agree with a child of Comb's get," Atsuko said, having recovered from her surprise at the sudden appearance of the Lore Master, "She's still family, and no way I'm leaving her around when I've still got questions I want to have answered."

"Like how she was able to do that special attack of hers," Ryoga stared at the girl in question, "Whatever it was, it was pretty darned effective."

"Ki techniques," Silk noted in a curiously distant tone of voice, "Very rare and dangerous, only a few really powerful fighters ever manage to master the basic forms, and the one she used on you was definitely very powerful. At full strength such a thing might even level the side of a mountain."

"It's kinda hard to master them because it takes more discipline than most humans have these days," Atsuko noted, "And you have to be able to achieve just the right kind of mental frame in order to work the power."

"Can you create ki attacks?" Akane asked.

"Of course," Atsuko replied, "My specialty is the Oni Wave Form, a combination of illusion and genuine ki power. Comb used to have one of her own in the old days, only I wonder if she's kept up the discipline she needs to call it up?"

"You're asking me if she can still do it?" Silk shrugged, "Since most of her power is devoted these days to healing, I very much doubt that she's found the time to use the Razor Sheer, though I'm sure she could manage one if pressed in a crisis."

"So what do we do with Miss Congeniality?" Ranma nodded to the still unconscious Kennou.

"We take her back to the dojo," Silk replied, "And then we will start to get some answers."

"I'll bet anything that she's one of my long-lost half sisters," Atsuko mused, "Either that or she's a niece, or possibly a cousin. It's hard to tell without asking Dad in person…hey wait! Silk, do you think you could ask your grandmother for a little favor?"

"Like what?" Silk replied, then answered her own question, "Oh…you mean to see if she can use her power to contact your father? What an interesting concept…I've long wanted to meet the fabled Hibiki Razor. You won't need to trouble grandmother for that, though…I can do it just as well as she can."

"Huh?" Atsuko's eyes widened, "But that's not…!"

"Just leave it all to me and I'll see to it that he gets a spiritual message," Silk continued, then nodded to Ranma and Ryoga, "Do be a pair of dear boys and pick her up for me, will you? And try to be gentle in case she wakes up prematurely…I'm sure we will soon learn that this was all just a big misunderstanding."

As the Lore Master turned and waved her staff in the air, drawing a box-like shape that materialized into a kind of mirror that hung in the air without reflecting their images, Atsuko studied Silk's profile and silently wondered to herself if asking for the other woman's help might prove to be a serious error…

Nabiki's Journal Continues:

I had the strangest vision as I slept, all unsuspecting of what was going on around me, more like reliving my oldest memories of when I was a young girl, barely more than an infant, playing on some swings while my father gave me a push and my mother looked on with silent approval. Akane was playing in the sandbox while Kasumi was writing a coloring book and staying neatly within the lines, like always. It was a pleasant Sunday afternoon and I remember being very happy…such a memory as would be very rare after Mom got sick, but that was fortunately a couple years into the future. I was about five years old at the time, and like most kids about that age I had a real sense of adventure, of unlimited possibilities just waiting to be discovered.

Only on this occasion something very unusual happened, something that stood out at the time, but which I later relegated to a hyperactive imagination. The chain on the swing that I was using was old and rusty, and it chose that particular moment to break just as I was attempting to set a new altitude record by swinging as high as I could manage on my own power. I came closer to achieving success than I had intended, because the chain snapped and I was suddenly airborne.

By rights I should have been in serious trouble, but for some reason I did not feel any sense of actual panic. I remember being weightless, of losing my grip upon the chain as I was momentarily in the air and free falling, but then I found myself landing as gently as if I had a pillow underneath me, and it wasn't just because the sand broke my fall either. I remember my father calling out my name, but it was Mom who knelt over me, smiling serenely, as if she had known all along that I would not be injured.

And now I found myself looking at the whole affair from an entirely different perspective. It was like stepping to one side in my adult form and seeing the whole scenario replay itself, seeing the swing break and the younger me suddenly launched into a six foot fall that should have been a very rough landing. But at the moment when a five year old girl was beginning her Earthward plummet I saw something strange happen out of the corner of my eye, and turning my head to see my mother, who was in the act of rising from a sitting posture, only there was a strange kind of light surrounding her, and as I studied this in more detail I saw the halo of a woman hovering over her, extending her arms in my direction.

The halo effect of a womanly form looked exactly like my mother, only her hairstyle was different, and she had on some exotic looking outfit, and she had such a look of benevolence on her features that I could well imagine that she was an angel who just happened to look a lot like my mother. Turning back to the ensuing crisis, I saw the five-year-old me floating down to the sand even as Daddy was making haste to get to my side, yet somehow Mother was there ahead of him, almost as if she had voided the normal rules of time and space, not to mention gravity. I was naturally unhurt, but the younger me was smiling and reaching up for my mother, and I could see a bond existing between mother and daughter growing stronger in that instant. It was like seeing a light form in the space between them, like a merging of halos.

And yet there was something else standing out from the incident, something that made me turn away from the painfully sweet memory of an event I had lived over a dozen years ago, some instinct that caused me to turn my gaze away from my anxious sisters to spy a shadowy figure lurking amid some bushes and under the shade of a tree, a figure whose very presence caused a chill to run down my spine, because I could see the malevolent glare in her eyes and knew at once that she was an enemy to my family and had something to do with the chain snapping. The contrast between her and the angelic figure that had briefly surrounded my mother was telling indeed, and it gave me some hint as to the supernatural events that had even then attended my family and caused us to stand out as distinct from other such families living in Nerima.

Then the images slowly faded, and I opened my eyes, seeing light streaming in through rice paper windows while voices were heard close nearby in heated debate over something that concerned me greatly. It was with some small surprise that one voice sounded so much like Kasumi while another made me think of Silk with a phony French accent. The other two were not as easily recognizable, but I did pick up Lotion's soft murmuring in answer to a question spoken to her directly. I began to tune in more attentively, concealing the fact that I had regained consciousness while trying to organize my thoughts back into some form of coherent order.

"…I'm telling you, ma Cherrie, that I don't know anything about this…are you calling me a liar?"

"Gosh, would that be such a surprising revelation? Talk, Peorth, what are you hiding? What's your connection to this girl, and why does she seem to think that you're her mother?"

"Are you implying that the child is mine, Urd? Even you must see that this is highly unlikely. The child is a mortal, albeit a gifted one…"

"Gifted indeed," and this voice was Lotion's, "No doubt because her inborn gift was awakened for a time, only to be buried and suppressed, as was all other evidence of anything unusual surrounding her upbringing."

"Wh-What are you getting at?" the voice that sounded like Silk…or Momma, sounded very much to be on the defensive, "Are you saying that I had something to do with this?"

"Peorth," and this voice definitely sounded like Kasumi, "This is very important. Please cooperate with us. No one is accusing you of anything, but if you did have some involvement with this girl's mother, they maybe you ought to share that knowledge with us."

"Yeah," the voice that sounded so slyly sardonic chimed in, "Unless you were acting under orders from above and can't reveal the facts without going against those orders."

"You mean Kami-sama told her not to tell us?" the younger voice asked in clear surprise, "But why?"

"The child has a destiny," said Lotion once again, "Perhaps knowing too much of it then might have affected the shape of the rest of her existence. I would suggest, however, that some revelations be made known to her now, and it was with this purpose in mind that I arranged for this reunion."

"You…arranged for ME to be here?" the voice of the mother sounded somewhat indignant, "You presume above your station! By what right to you set the course for a Goddess First Class, Lore Master?"

"I did nothing of the sort," Lotion replied, "I merely anticipated your movements, based upon the knowledge of your interest in young Master Morisato."

"Yeah, she has gotten to be a real pest about that of late," the one whom I now identified as Urd noted sarcastically, "That would make her a little sloppy about the timing and probably give enough of a call sign that even a low grade divinator could have seen her coming."

"Oh my," the Kasumi-like voice of the one named Belldandy said eerily, "Do you suppose…could it be that the reason that she recognizes you, Peorth…is that her mother is one of your Templates?"

"Her Template?" the one named Skuld replied, "But that would mean…"

I heard the sigh that preceded the one named Peorth as she sounded resigned to making her revelation, "You are closer to the truth than you know, Belldandy. Her mother was one of my Templates, but…there is more to the story than that."

"So we gathered," the one named Urd remarked, "You had some kind of personal connection with this one, didn't you? She wasn't an ordinary Template, she was an Avatar, am I right?"

"Half right," Peorth sighed, "But perhaps I should reveal that part of the story to her myself since the child is awake and already listening in on ever word that we are saying."

"Has been for several moments," I heard Lotion's voice become more distinct, as if she had turned in my direction, and I knew the jig was up, so I opened my eyes and turned my head in their direction.

"What's this about Momma being your Template?" I asked, "And what's a Template anyway?"

I was still unnerved looking at the woman who so closely resembled my mother, who I now recognized as the very image of the ghostly aspect that had hung over Momma in my dream vision. She was clearly reluctant to say anything, but under prodding by the others she said, "I am not your mother, ma Cherri…but I once met up with her when on an assignment. I didn't realize that she was a Template until that meeting…but…once we did meet, I knew that it was destiny."

"In other words she was granted a wish," said Urd, "What are the odds of a wish being granted to your own Template?"

"A Template, child," Lotion explained to me as I sat up on the futon that I had been laid out upon inside the temple turned living quarters, "Is a back-up image drawn from the main source of divine creation. Every Goddess has several earthly Templates that are generated every so often at random, a way in which the system Computer maintains unit integrity of the main source programs…"

"Come again?" I blinked, "You're saying my mother was some kind of a backup file copy, like on a floppy disk?"

"As is my granddaughter," Lotion replied, "Yet another system Template."

"Oh yes, I almost forgot that I had an Amazon double living out somewhere in the boonies," Peorth mused before flexing herself into a pose that had the aspect of self-preening, "Of course I am the original Matrix from whom all Templates are copied, so while I don't always keep track of what goes on with their lives I have an inherent link to each and every one of my Templates, so that what affects one in some small part reflects upon me. That was why I knew that our meeting was important when I received her summons and responded to her in person."

"And this happened…when?" I asked.

"Oh, something like seventeen years ago," the goddess who looked like my mother replied, "Less than a full mortal generation anyway. I'd have to check the system records to be certain, and as you've already guessed those files have been rendered classified and are sealed up with a password."

"Seventeen years?" I replied, realizing then and there that this would be before the birth of Akane.

"Yes," Peorth sighed, "A sad case, truly…a mother with child praying not for her own sake but for the life of her unborn baby. She had been diagnosed with a terminal illness but had refused Chemotherapy and was seeking out the use of alternate medicines. It was at a shine that she put in her request, which was forwarded to my office. I waited until she made a routine phone call from her dwelling place then took this as an invitation to have a little face-to-face visit, and that's where I made the discovery that she was one of my Templates."

"So naturally you granted her request," Belldandy observed, "But why then were the files rendered classified? It seems like a perfectly routine case of a wish being granted."

"There were…complications to granting the required wish," I saw the goddess hesitate before continuing, "The wish had been approved…but only to the extent that the baby's birth was to be guaranteed. I…extended her life a bit beyond the four months that she had left…originally she was going to die during childbirth and leave her daughter an orphan. I didn't think that was right and proper…so I…took steps to see that a few more years were added to her time card."

"A few more years?" Urd replied, "Now how was that achieved? You know that system records are very precise, and the Officers there don't like meddling with their file system."

"I meant no harm, really," Peorth replied, "And I had some vacation time stored up, so I…merged with my Template and gave her a portion of my own life essence…no more than a sliver. It helped her to recover full health, and she was perfectly fine and healthy and normal in every way, and it gave me another chance to experience what life was like for a mortal…"

"YOU WHAT???" Skuld beat me to the punch with that outburst, "You turned her into an Avatar? And without approval from the Main Office?"

"I didn't go that far," Peorth insisted, "I submerged my essence within Tendo Kimiko and lived her life through her eyes, doing nothing to interfere with her actions. She behaved exactly as destiny was supposed to be for her had she not developed cervical cancer, and she lived almost seven full years before passing away…which was when I was ordered to return and erase all evidence of my tempering with the records."

"Only you could not totally erase the effect that you had upon her life," Lotion concluded for me, "In some small part you affected her behavior, softening Kimiko-san's rougher qualities and helping her to become the person whom she wanted very much to be. Because of you she learned to cook and sew competently and provided a strong influence in the development of her children…so much so that when you left them it created a void in their world that was almost impossible to fill. The father became an emotional wreck, while each of his daughters reacted differently to the sudden loss of a much beloved parent…"

"Oh my," Belldandy said, "It must have been very hard for them. I'm so sorry to hear that a good deed had such an unexpected outcome."

"Outcome?" I was on my feet by this time and walked right up to the woman who looked so very much like my mother, only now I had heard that she was, in effect, an aspect of my mother, or the other way around, which is why I asked her point blank, "Momma?"

I saw the guilt in her eyes as the goddess winced, and I'm pretty sure she would have turned and fled had Urd and Belldandy not been flanking her on either side. The goddess seemed to be searching carefully for her words when my hand came up almost of its own volition, and then without conscious thought on my part I slapped her.

"How could you?" I asked as the woman turned her face at that slap, "How could you leave us? How could you do this to me? How could you?"

"Nabiki," Lotion said gently.

"Hey kid," I found Urd's hand on my arm, restraining me, even though I knew that I would not have the strength to hit Peorth again, "Much as I think she sometimes deserves a good slapping, I don't think that's going to accomplish anything."

"Urd is right," Belldandy said, "You must not allow your grief to turn your heart bitter. Peorth did not deliberately mean to hurt you, and it is wrong to blame her for having to heed the call of the Main Office."

"Yeah," Skuld added, "When Kami-sama gives the word, you drop everything and come running."

"Don't apologize," the goddess said, holding her cheek as she slowly turned back to regard me, "I'm not surprised you feel that way, Nabiki…but I am a little surprised at your behavior. You were more the intellectual type, a little bit like me as I remember things, and never as physical as Akane, who was very high spirited even at that age."

"You don't deny that you were my mother for seven years?" I asked.

"No more than I deny how sorry I was when I received my orders," Peorth answered, looking me in the eyes in such a way that the anger drained right out of me, "You know that I would never deliberately hurt you…and I never meant to hurt Soun or Kasumi. I felt so very close to you all…it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do to close that chapter of my existence…"

"And so you went back home…to Heaven," I said, "And left us all to grieve…only what happened to Momma…my real mother, that is?"

"Oh, she is well and fine," Peorth assured me, "The system processed her file and she now resides in the Astral Gardens, awaiting the time of her next incarnation. She sometimes visits the Earth plane on weekend furloughs and sees how you are doing…she's always drawn to the dojo, where you keep a portion of her essence in a shrine. Of course as a spirit she has limited effect upon the physical plane, but she knows you and no doubt is very proud to see what a grown woman you have become, exactly as I do."

I backed up a half-step in response to this, and I cannot begin to describe the range of emotions that went through me as I contemplated the idea of my mother watching me during some of my past antics. Just how proud would Momma be about some of my less savory past exploits, not to mention the wacky stuff I had more recently been up to. Would Momma approve of me being as sexually active as I have been prior to my impending marriage? I could think of about a dozen things I've done in the past that I'd never want my mother to find out about, and if you think having somebody read your diary is embarrassing…

Well, actually, I could think of a lot of moments when I've privately thought how nice it would be to have Momma watching over me, and though I've a reputation as a died-in-the-wool materialist, even I have had my spiritual moments. I never seriously credited the idea that the spirits of the dead watch over us and sometimes offer us guidance, but in light of everything that I had been through since meeting Ranma…well, it began to look as if my earlier skepticism was a bit premature, if you take my meaning.

All this must have flowed through my mind in the time it took for me to register what the goddess had said to me because I swallowed on a dry mouth and found myself at a loss of anything intelligent to say in reply. I just studied the face and form of the VERY POWERFUL woman before me, reading more than just the strength of her aura this time. If anything she seemed to me to be a bit sad, even lonely as she searched my face as if seeking for something that she did not find there.

"Nabiki-san," said Belldandy softly, breaking the momentary tableau that had fallen between us, "What Peorth did was certainly questionable, but I think it must have been for the best if it helped you to grow as a person."

"It did much more than that, I'm afraid," Lotion remarked, "Each of Kimiko's children bears a distinctive legacy to mark Peorth's brief time among them. Of them all, however, I would say it was the youngest child whose influence was the more distinctive."

"Oh?" I saw the interest level in the goddess intensity as she turned to regard my mentor, "What about Akane? Is she well? I'm afraid I have been rather too busy with work of late to check up on the family…and I've been afraid to pay too close an interest after the lecture I received from Kami-sama."

"Afraid you couldn't help meddling?" Urd remarked, "Sounds like it'd be worth checking back with the Office to see what all has been going on with your family. After all, you wouldn't want to gain a reputation as a deadbeat mom, now would you?"

"You're the expert when it comes to that," the goddess said rather huffily, "But you're right…as soon as I get back there I'll be calling up the records. Now…what is this about Akane and my influence?"

"Only that the child that you helped bring into this world has become an Angel," Lotion revealed.

"An Angel?" Peorth reacted, "Are you serious?"

"Well, part time Angel would be more accurate," my mentor allowed, just before the boy named Keiichi entered the room to distract us.

"Oh hey, you're awake again," he said as he regarded me, "That's great. Are you feeling better?"

"Ah…sure," I replied, "At least…sort of…"

"That's great," he smiled at me, "I know things around here can get a little overwhelming sometimes, but things tend to sort themselves out in the long run. I just hope this wasn't too much of a shake up."

I was more than a little bit unsure of how to respond to this, given that I had just learned that my dearly departed mother had been briefly carrying around the aspect of a full goddess, and that in some way this might be responsible for what had happened recently to Akane. I considered instead this boy, who like me was a mortal caught up in the affairs of beings who-or lack of a better word-could only be considered as a divine pantheon who seemed to magnify aspects of humanity to a level that I could not quite fathom. The more time I spent around these beings, the easier it became for me to adjust to the intensity of their life auras. I don't even know how now to describe the sensations that were passing through me, other than the unmistakable feeling that there was a definite connection between my family and this one. Belldandy's uncanny resemblance to my sister was all the confirmation I needed in the forming of this impression.

How do I feel about learning that my mother was the resident host for a living goddess? How would you feel about a thing like that? But seriously, I was beginning to get a bare inkling of why Lotion had brought me to this place and allowed me to find out this hidden chapter in the history of my mother. It was beginning to become very clear to me that there had been a lot more going on about the lives of my parents than even I had dared to imagine, and that in some way what had happened then was having an influence on our present lives. I began to wonder what other dramatic revelations were awaiting us in the near future, and of course I was wondering this long before I was to discover the story about the girl named Hibiki Kennou.

May you be cursed to live in interesting times, or so goes the Chinese legend (Shampoo naturally believes it is of Amazon origin). Well, here I am living the life of high adventure, and I haven't even reached my senior year in high school! The way things are going, I'm wondering if I'll even live to see eighteen, or make it to the altar as a blushing bride to my iinazuke Ranma.

I'd ask Lotion what she knows about the future, but I have the terrifying and overwhelming feeling that she just might tell me the answer, and there are just some things I am not yet prepared to handle. As it is I'm taking things one step at a time and playing it by ear and hoping to make the adjustments I can to new revelations. It's all I can do…and I think it's part of what it means to be a Lore Master.

Growing up is hell, I know, but I guess it sure beats living in the past. Only question is what am I going to do now that my life has a divine element within it? Am I really up to dealing with that challenge? Read on a bit now…because as strange as what I've just written must seem, my story is about to get even more stranger…

Continued

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