Ah My Goddess Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Pangea ❯ We'll Always Have Paris ( Chapter 11 )

A Tale of Two Wallets

 

(An Altered Destiny)

 

Pangea

 

(The Land That Time Forgot)

 

Written by Jim Robert Bader

 

Proofread by Shiva Barnwell

 

 

“If at first you don't succeed, ma Cheri, try, try again…”

 

Peorth smiled to herself as she witnessed her handiwork set in on the unsuspecting targets of her latest endeavor. It was a brilliant first step if she did say so herself, trapping those teenagers in a bedroom setting with some of the pollen spores that she had “liberated” from Pangea, thus insuring that Makoto Kino would not be in any condition to interfere with her overarching plan of bringing Akane and Ukyo together. All that it took now was to get the true targets of her motherly attentions alone by themselves and then she would unleash one of the other “pollen bombs” that she was carrying, and then the fun would really get underway. It was such a simple plan that it was almost brilliant in its simplicity, and all that she had to do was somehow sneak it under the watchful radar of her other “divine progeny,” the apprenticed Lore Master, Nabiki.

 

As she smiled in watching Makoto go at it once again with the blonde dynamo named Minako she chanced to hear a voice speak up beside her, “You never really give up, do you? Keep this up and you are going to wind up alienating both of your daughters…”

 

“GAK!!!” Peorth was so startled that she withdrew at once from the wall through which she had been peering in on the bedroom of two Senshi giving each other vigorous “69” style tongue action. She whirled about on the narrow ledge upon which she had been perched only to find the Nekonron priestess-consort named Mon-Mon was perched there beside her, bare legs dangling over the ledge as she strummed a few notes upon her mandolin, facing out towards the greater city of Paris, France over which the hotel building where they were situated had such a magnificent view with the Seine river flowing by just beneath them.

 

“I will say it again, Goddess,” Mon-Mon spoke up, “You ought to reconsider this course of action that you are undertaking. You may be from heaven sent but you are neither omnipotent nor omniscient, and with the way things have been going of late this has the looming potential to blow up in your face very badly.”

 

Peorth scowled and levitated off of the ledge to stare at the half-dressed concubine before saying aloud, “I don't remember asking for your opinion, ma Cheri, nor do I think it is any of your business what I do on behalf of my daughters.”

 

“Even so,” Mon-Mon's fingers continued to tune her instrument as she regarded the hovering goddess from beneath her pale forelocks, “I am still obligated to Tendo Nabiki, and as such I feel it necessary to point out the obvious where it seems mete on occasion. You are, of course, under no obligation to heed my words, but I think you would be well advised not to meddle so directly in the affairs of these particular mortals. Nabiki in particular is likely to resent the rather ham-handed way that you have so far gone about in `helping' her younger sister.”

 

Peorth's regard of the beautiful Mon-Mon became more abstracted, and her tone took on a slightly distant air as she remarked, “There is more to you than meets the eye, Cheri. I recall how you dealt with Neferti back on that island, and I find it difficult to reconcile your actions there with the behavior of a mere priestess to my Chinese colleague, Benzaiten.”

 

“You mean when I saved your immortal life?” Mon-Mon smiled, “Or when I helped to revive you later?”

 

Unexpectedly the goddess had a sudden flash of unwelcome memories…of being defeated by Neferti then swallowed whole by her snake form…of being drawn into her stomach by tendrils that proceeded to ravish her all over, probing her openings while lavishing “rough-tongue” action over every square millimeter of her body, overwhelming Peorth with the sheer sensual impact of such all-enfolding tactile stimulation. And even as she was being devoured by the tentacles she felt her energies being leached away as Neferti grew stronger and Peorth gradually weaker until the Goddess of the Roses could do no more than impotently kick, writhe and twitch in the Snake goddess's belly, feeling helpless to resist as she was ever-so-slowly digested in the bath of Neferti's stomach juices…

 

She shuddered at this memory, then felt her body go red all over as she recalled the sudden release that came when Mon-Mon had defeated Neferti by allowing herself to be swallowed, all the better to attack the Egyptian daughter of Set from within, and how Peorth had lain twitching and spasming for several minutes after the end of her ordeal, only to find herself being picked up and carried by Mon-Mon like nothing so much as a sack of potatoes, to be deposited moments later into a nearby river so that the priestess could clean her up and help restore her divine circulation…

 

Peorth shuddered for an entirely different reason as she remembered all-too-vividly what the priestess had done next in the name of helping Peorth to “recover" from the trauma of her ordeal. Hands far too skilled in the arts of pleasuring flesh had plied her skin and probed Peorth in those very places that the tentacles had ravished, only with such gentle and affectionate attention that it was not long before the goddess felt the first of several different kinds of spasming that were soon to wrack her body and…

 

With great effort Peorth wrenched her mind back to the present then glared at the opportunistic lady who had taken advantage of her in such an intimate moment of weakness, trying to form words to describe such an individual that would not imperil her self-image as a lady and finding nothing printable worth sharing.

 

“You…” Peorth started to growl.

 

“You are welcome.”

 

The goddess blinked her eyes, “I beg your pardon?”

 

“It was my duty to assist you,” Mon-Mon smiled, “Or would you rather I had left you where you were…to gradually become absorbed into Neferti, your immortal essence reduced to a mere shell of what you are so that you would become a willing slave to her? Really, it was no trouble for me to help rectify this, and to see to it that you were purged of any lingering traces of her malevolent influence.”

 

Peorth blinked again, “Is that what you are calling it, Cheri?”

 

“Well certainly, Cheri,” Mon-Mon leered back even while stretching and curling her bare legs to show them off to full sensual inspection, “You don't honestly believe that a humble servant such as this one could get away molesting a goddess unless she were out of sorts and in desperate need of such attention? Fortunately I am well versed in all of the arts of touch-massage and therapy and it was quite enjoyable on the whole, helping you to liberate yourself from Neferti's diabolical influence.”

 

Once again Peorth felt her body involuntarily shudder, but not so unpleasant this time, and she stared in renewed curiosity at the woman before her, suspecting a great deal but unprepared to venture more than a tentative guess as to why this mortal felt so curiously familiar. And as she widened the range of her perceptions to take in more of the priestess's aura she became aware that there was a curious overlap that had a more than slightly nagging quality, as though she knew her from long ago in a different identity and…

 

Au courant?

 

All at once she had a sudden flash of memory and inspiration, and with a gasp Peorth said, “B-B-Benzaiten…?”

 

The priestess smiled, and in that knowing smile Peorth suddenly read her imminent peril…

 

And—meanwhile, inside the hotel room—Makoto and Minako briefly let off from their mutual tongue-to-twat session as the latter asked, “What was that?”

 

“What was what?” asked a slightly breathless Minako.

 

“I thought I heard a yelp,” Makoto glanced towards the window then shrugged and decided it was unimportant, so without further ado she plunged her tongue back into the steaming hot snatch of her beloved fellow Senshi and felt Minako reciprocate after only the slightest of hesitations, and soon they were both bathing in the warm bath of their mutual juices, quite oblivious to the world at large or any personal commitments that they might otherwise have engendered…

 

 

Ukyo awoke with a start, having briefly fallen into a mild daydream in which she imagined herself being molested by tentacles with Makoto at her side and within her embrace, the two of them mashing their bodies together while writhing, moaning and struggling to resist the probing tendrils that were invading their three openings, plying against sensitive bare skin and giving them an overall body-massage from tip to toe that was made all the more overwhelming by the enveloping sense of being surrounded from all over and bathed in the mildly acidic juices of a snake's elongated belly…

 

“Are you all right, Ucchan?” Akane asked at her side as the two of them were riding a tram together along with Ryoga and the trio of Senshi named Usagi, Ami and Rei, along with their teacher, Miss Hinako and a “cursed youth” Happosai.

 

“Er…ah…yeah, no problems, Sugar,” Ukyo replied, even though the sense of being slowly dissolved in the arms of Makoto was so vivid that she could almost feel their juices writhing together, “Uh…sorry to nod off like that…haven't been sleeping too good the last few days…nightmares…”

 

“I can't say that I find that too surprising, all things considered,” Ami addressed them, “By accounts you and Makoto-chan had quite an ordeal. Good thing for all of us that we're well away from that island and can relax while taking in the sights of this beautiful European city.”

 

“Yeah, I always wanted to see Paris,” Usagi smiled wistfully, “Too bad Mamo-chan isn't here…but then again, it is his loss.”

 

“Yeah,” Rei smiled, “Imagine the guy missing out on a chance to tour Paris with a couple of hot babes like us. Not that we're complaining about the present company…but, Ryoga-kun, do you think next time you could try sticking a little closer to us instead of wandering off by yourself in that museum?”

 

“Yeah,” Usagi teasingly chided the boy sitting beside her and the others, “Who ever heard of anyone getting lost in the Louvre? The place is only the size of a palace after all, and it doesn't have that many rooms to wander around in.”

 

“Ah…” Ryoga smiled sheepishly, “Sorry about making you guys have to look for me, it's just…well…when they said Louvre I got confused and thought that they meant bathroom, and when I thought I found a door leading to one it took me to some kind of oval-shaped room in the west wing and…well…there were a lot of strange guys there speaking English who seemed awfully upset with me for some odd reason…”

 

“I am beginning to fully understand what it is that Mina-chan sees in you,” Ami smiled in oblique appraisal, “You're not like the usual sort that she often chases after…you are a genuinely nice person, if a bit prone to straying off the leash without warning, and if she were here I am certain that she would give a ringing endorsement of your obvious manly virtues.”

 

“Ah…hah?” Ryoga blinked, then colored abruptly as he caught the winsome regard of Akane's erudite (and near identical twin) cousin.

 

Usagi frowned a bit then said, “Speaking of ringing endorsements, Ami-chan…what's the deal with you and that Raptor guy…Cha-something?”

 

“T'shalkri?” Ami corrected for her, “And what about him?”

 

“You two sure got awfully chummy for a while back there,” Rei scowled, “I can't believe that you and him…I mean…the both of you, while the rest of us were screwing…you…”

 

“I mean, yeah,” Usagi nodded vigorously, “What's the deal with that? I mean…was it even anatomically possible? You're, like, two entirely different species…”

 

“More like two distant cousin branches of a larger family group,” Ami corrected with an aloof smile towards her two best friends, “And if it is any concern to you, we happened to have been quite compatible in an inter-species discourse. I found him an unusually charming and intelligent fellow who has great sensitivity and understanding, and we got along very well on a personable level. Besides…did you know that raptors have fourteen inch tongues?”

 

Both Rei and Usagi blinked in unison at that before they arched their voices and cried, “FOURTEEN INCH TONGUES…?”

 

They were immediately shushed down by their fellow Tram passengers, causing both girls to haunch their shoulders and look sheepish while Ami just smiled back and spaced her index fingers apart from one another, indicating a gap of around thirty-five centimeters.

 

Ukyo just blinked at this while Akane seemed…somewhat disquieted at her cousin's bland expression of contentment. Ryoga seemed even more confused than ever while Miss Hinako leaned closer and said, “Do try to keep some decorum in your behavior, Students. We represent Japan while abroad and during our stay here visiting this fine city we must act the part with dignity and restraint.”

 

“Yeah, fat chance of that with this lot,” Happosai remarked before turning his head and whistling appropriately at a passing pedestrian, “Whoooh-baby! Check out the gams on that Parisian cutie—OW! I was only looking, Hinako-chan…no harm in that…”

 

“What I say goes especially for you, Happosai-sensei,” Hinako said serenely, her own adult-form beauty turning more than a few heads while she covertly “drained” a bit of energy on the sly to maintain her appearance.

 

“So, where are we going now, Sensei?” Akane asked, more to divert the subject away from the pervert than genuine curiosity since any place they went was fine in her eyes as long as she was with her beloved “Ucchan.”

 

“I believe we shall check out the Eiffel tower next,” Miss Hinako announced, “It is a bit smaller than the Tokyo tower, but it has great historic significance and affords a fine view of the entire city, and from there we can pick out many historic landmarks and famous sites that have great significance to this ancient Romanesque city as a whole.”

 

“How wonderful,” Ami smiled, “I have always wanted to stand atop the Eiffel tower…it is such an exciting feeling just being here…walking the streets that once were trod by Napoleon and Caesar…”

 

“Too bad Minako and Makoto-chan couldn't be here,” Usagi sighed, “I just know they'd love to boy-watch on this trip…such a target-rich environment of cuties.”

 

“Yeah, wonder why they begged off like they did?” Rei frowned, “It's not exactly like them to pass up a chance to cruise such a romantic setting.”

 

Ukyo was wondering much the same thing, but privately she hoped that Makoto was making good on her promise to “have a few words” with her colleague and fellow Senshi so that they could nip off any budding affairs that might prove a distraction to Makoto's relationship with Ukyo…or Minako's budding relationship with Ryoga.

 

For the most part Ukyo trusted Makoto implicitly and felt the strength of their commitment to one another, which was founded upon genuine need and affection. Makoto had assured Ukyo that she would find a way of explaining things to Minako to help dismiss any “misimpressions” that might resulted as a side-effect of that pollen-spore inspired incident of a few days back. No one was exactly behaving themselves at the time, so the fact that Makoto had wound up with that “blonde bimbo” was something for which Ukyo was prepared to forgive her fiancée.

 

Just as long as Minako was made to understand that it was a one-time lapse on Makoto's part and would most definitely NOT be soon repeated.

 

A tightening on her own arm alerted Ukyo to the presence of that other wild card in her relationship to her “Mako-chan,” Akane. The dark haired girl was leaning her head on Ukyo's shoulder and snuggling up in such a way that made Ukyo vividly aware of just what had happened between them while under the influence of those spores. The chef colored a bit and felt tight around her collar, trying to think of a way of explaining things to Akane that would not hurt the feelings of the other girl. Ukyo did care about Akane…but in an entirely different sense than the way that she cared about Makoto.

 

Hopefully she would think of something by the time that they got to the Eiffel tower, but unless she could find a way of convincing Akane soon that the two of them were NOT eventually headed towards the altar then she was looking at real relationship troubles that would make anything Ranma ever went through seem astonishingly mild by contrast. Ukyo did not want to hurt Akane's feelings…any more than she wanted to risk further alienating Makoto, but how to reconcile these two ideals without getting killed in the process? It was too bad that Akane and Makoto did not get along so well together…it would certainly be convenient if the two of them liked each other like, say, Shampoo and Nabiki…

 

Ukyo blanched as soon as the thought formed in her mind, then wondered if this were another one of her cursed-state's errant impulses that was influencing her thinking. Though she was presently female, she knew full well that her guy form reacted favorably to the presence of both ladies, and the thought of having the both of them at the same time came upon her so strong that she almost had a fantasy in which she envisioned them as a couple…

 

No wait…that did happen, didn't it? Back on the island during that last mass orgy…she kind of lost track of who was doing whom there, and though she woke up with Akane in her arms, she did indeed recall doing it with at least two or three of the other ladies…including Minako.

 

[That's it, it's official, I am definitely perverted,] Ukyo silently thought to herself, adding in an underthought, [I am sooooo doomed…] while wondering why she heard that peculiar rumble somewhere off in the far distance…

 

 

Nabiki's Journal Continues:

 

Chartres Cathedral de Notre Dame is certainly one of the most spectacular examples of medieval architecture yet still in existence, and it's quite a breathtaking thing to view in person, far more picturesque than any photograph could ever hope to do justice. As I stood there marveling at the place beside Ranma and Shampoo I could literally feel the age and solemnity of the place as though I were plugged into the ages and could drink in the atmosphere like a fine French wine. Even now I can close my eyes and recall vividly what it felt like to be standing there within the folds of history, and if I wanted to peel back the layers of time I don't doubt in the least I could have done so, traveling in my mind on a tour of the past through its many pages.

 

Lotion seemed amused by my childlike fascination with the place and said, “Yes, it is quite something to behold on your first visit. Mind you, there have been a few changes since the last time I stopped by here, but it is nice to see that they have not made too many concessions toward progress. Some traditions are worth preserving on the whole, and this certainly ranks near the top in my view of historical landmarks.”

 

I gave my mentor an amused sidelong glance…only to feel that peculiar sensation once again that I get when I sense strong energy currents flowing near me…and for a moment I had the brief impression of a looming shape standing beside Lotion…only she was a much younger Lotion back then and her hair was still a bright pink coloration, and she was quite a bit…taller. Of the shadowy figure at her side I could only sense that it was male, extremely tall and had an extremely potent life aura, but then it was gone again before I could glimpse his face or form of this giant or get more than the most general of impressions.

 

Lotion seemed to be aware of my changing focus and nodded sagely, “You will get used to that in time, my child. Time for us is not an inflexible curtain nor a fresco set in plaster but a very real and vibrant thing. You must be prepared to sacrifice any fixed notions you might have about the past being immutable else you might cause a shift in your surroundings that you would find most disconcerting.”

 

“You all right, Nabiki?” Ranma asked, concern for me written plain in his every fiber, not just his face. I felt the warmth of his regard for me and I was moved almost to tears, being more aware of just what he means to me at that moment than I could ever remember feeling, even as I felt the equally welcome presence of Shampoo radiating love in both of our directions.

 

“I'm…fine, Ranchan,” I replied, “But…well, like Sensei here says, it takes a little getting used to having all these…sensations…”

 

“Aiyaa,” Shampoo softly marveled, “Nabiki is becoming Lore Master truly. Airen need time to learn what mean be like elder of Joketsuzoku. Nyanchiczu warriors know it like being one foot in other world, see farther and deeper in both worlds of womans and spirits.”

 

There are times such as this when I really and truly love that girl…I mean…when I really do appreciate Shampoo and those surprising depths that she keeps hidden beneath her bouncy exterior and exterior packaging as an uninhibited wanton. I reached out a hand and squeezed her hand on impulse and she smiled back at me as she gently squeezed back, and the both of us knew a closeness then and there that was almost like making love without removing our clothing. More than ever I am so grateful that she chose to make me her airen instead of treat me like an obstacle in her path to winning Ranma, and I know that I could have asked for no closer friend and helpmate from the heavens…

 

In fact, knowing Peorth as well as I now do, I think I'd pass on asking heaven to set something up like this for me since events seemed to have progressed just fine on their own without her prior interference.

 

But still I found myself glancing back at Lotion, who understood me at once and said, “Give it time, Child. You are strong, you will recover, and soon you won't even have to think twice about tapping into the power, it will become second-nature to you…just like any other muscle group that you exercise with practice.”

 

“Maybe so,” I admitted with a sigh, “But…it sure feels weird sometimes. It's like…I can see everything around me in terms of swirling energy patterns, and…well…like that thing I did to Neferti…it was like I could see the way she was put together…and I only had to pull something loose and she came apart like a bunch of thread that used to form a sweater…”

 

“Yeah, what was the deal about that?” Ranma asked, sounding very much disquieted at the memory, nor could I blame him since I had been a bit freaked out at my own behavior.

 

“Nabiki deal with bad snake woman like old silk that get eaten by glow worms,” Shampoo observed, adding her own understated tone at the disturbing quality behind my own actions.

 

“It's quite simple really,” Lotion replied, “My apprentice here merely reduced her enemy to her raw constituent coding then trapped her essence up in a tangible form that could be delivered to the appropriate agencies for her ultimate disposal.”

 

“But she was a goddess,” I argued, “I'm strictly a mortal…aren't I?”

 

“Gods may seem to define the essence of raw power, Child,” Lotion explained, “But as a Lore Master you have an inner sense of pattern and form, and you can see how the power contained within her body was arranged…and how it might be undone since she had given you just grievance.”

 

I had to sigh again, “Yeah, but…well…about that…how come that Magnus guy couldn't do anything about her before? I could tell he's a lot more powerful than he lets on, and by that I don't just mean the size of his bank account either…”

 

“Magnus is an Immortal,” Lotion explained, “Or rather I should say that he is THE Immortal since there are many other kinds of beings who live long lives and seem not to age upon the surface. Magnus is a Guardian…a very rare type of elemental being, perhaps even unique since every world has at least one Guardian of the Elements, a post that cannot be inherited, only passed along from one chosen avatar to the next. He is like a living philosopher's stone and no power on earth or in heaven can harm him since he is held at a fixed point in creation by the Powers That Be, who bestowed upon him the alchemical gifts that he has mastered.”

 

“Weird,” Ranma said, “I wondered why I got such a weird sense about the guy. But I'm with Nabiki here…if he's so powerful then why didn't he do something about those creeps who tried to hurt Nabiki?”

 

“There are limits upon even a Guardian's power, young War Master,” Lotion answered, “Magnus generally tries to mind the peace between the mortal world and the various worlds of the gods, but Neferti was an outcast even among her own tribe. She could not harm him and he could very much have thwarted her but she ultimately held the upper hand by threatening the ones he cares most about. You might say that they had an uneasy truce between them, one that could only be breached under very specific circumstances.”

 

“Fine,” I said, “Then it doesn't count that I was almost boiled to death and eaten?”

 

“I didn't say that,” Lotion assured me, “However…I will say this much concerning your ordeal: that during the training and apprenticeship of all Lore Masters there must come a time and a place where you face a trial by fire and must surmount it using only your own resources. I faced mine down a long time ago, and in a way it was every bit as harrowing as what you went through, but in the end it taught me how to better tap into my own inherent powers. Up until then I was quite as much as you were, Child, largely ignorant of my own potential. In facing death I overcame my fear and found the will to exceed the supposed limits that I was born with. You came as close to dying as you have ever known, Apprentice, yet you looked inside yourself and found the will to live, and that gave you the strength that you needed to overcome the enslavement of your own ego. You awoke to your own might, and thus you were able to wreak vengeance upon those who had troubled you and so many another less fortunate victim.”

 

“So, it's like an initiation rite, huh?” I said, “I pass, I live, I learn to use my powers more efficiently, and never mind what might have happened if I'd let myself be overcome by the heat? Too bad, just another failed apprentice?”

 

“I am sorry that you feel that way,” Lotion informed me, “And if it had been within my power to spare you from that fate, then you must know that I would have moved heaven itself to instigate your rescue. But, as it turned out, I need not have worried so much…for you are exactly the sort of woman that I knew you to be from the time of our first meeting.

 

“But you knew I was going to be going through all this, didn't you?” I accused, “You tried to warn me with that lecture about us all being part of the food chain and how savagery is the underlying force in human nature, and how civilization is just a veneer that separates us from the animals, am I right?”

 

“A wise man whom I once knew once coined the phrase that Barbarism is the natural state of man, that civilization is but a fluke and that, given the opportunity, the barbarian will always triumph,” my mentor quoted, “Actually it's not quite that brutal in real life since most intelligent beings prefer to live a civilized existence, but without a knowledge of our savage roots that very civilizing impulse becomes nothing more than a mere mask to hide the lurking savage. How else can you account for the way nominally civilized people can degenerate into brutish thugs when circumstances strip away the protective layers of social conditioning? When the institutions entrusted to maintain a civilized existence break down, is not the natural impulse of a great many people to act the part of the savage?”

 

“You mean like with civil wars and stuff?” Ranma asked, surprising the lot of us by making such an intelligent connection.

 

“Precisely,” Lotion smiled at him in warm approval, “What can be more uncivil than a war? Yet military institutions attempt to give structure and purpose to the barbaric impulses of human aggression. A warrior is taught to master his emotions, to use cool intellect when facing a crisis and to react in accordance with training that has been developed to improve a soldier's chances for survival. A warrior is able to adapt from the role of civilian to barbarian and return back again with relatively little effort. Not so a civilian who lacks the discipline of war, who might be totally unprepared when faced with life and death choices for survival, and that is where the true test of the civilized man is measured. The savage can arise from even the tamest hearts under the right set of circumstances, and so a wise person is one who is prepared to meet their savage counterpart head-on in the battle of minds, heart and will. That was the purpose for my lecture, Child, and why I knew that you had to face your ordeal alone without my protection or guidance.”

 

“That's just swell,” I snorted, “Of course you could have just come right out and told me to watch out for cannibals before letting them stick me in that stew pot.”

 

“And what would be the point to that?” she smiled at me with hidden amusement, “Not much of a trial if you knew in advance what was about to happen.”

 

“Look,” I said, “I can appreciate that you wanted me to know that we're all a part of nature and that the purpose behind living is to live, and that I had to find my inner voice that told me not to lay down and die when I was close to heat prostration, but if it hadn't been for Shampoo and Ranma providing me the distraction that I needed…”

 

“You still would have triumphed in the end,” Lotion said confidently, “I knew you would not fail yourself in the end or let your vast potential go to waste so that it might be leeched from you and into that evil goddess. In truth it was the light within you that drew the cannibals towards you like flies to honey. They could sense the potency of your aura and they hungered to consume your essence. That is, ultimately, the nature of what cannibalism is about, after all…the desire to draw some favorable aspect from the victim the way a vampire drinks the life essence of his victims. Had you been a warrior it would have been your physical strength and courage that they would want to consume, but since you, as a Lore Master, contain within you the secret wisdom of the ages…”

 

“Right,” I said, “And we're all just one part of a really big circle that turns in an endless cycle, one great big happy food chain…”

 

“More than that I should think,” Lotion explained, “For each and every one of us is the embodiment of an endless line of descent from our most primitive beginnings. The unbroken chain of your ancestors might have ended with you had you not rallied in the end to preserve your own integrity. Think of it as a legacy that you inherited from your mother and your mother's mother, and from your mother's mother's mother…all the way back to the beginning of time like the Mitochondrial strain of your genetic makeup. You are the result of an unbroken history of survival, yet for every human being who fails to live long enough to produce young that line comes crashing to an end. That is the real tragedy about death, my child…it brings an end to history for the individual and all that is locked within their potential.”

 

I had to concede that she was making a lot of sense with this point, but still I was hardly convinced that my life means nothing more than passing on my genes to another generation. I'd like to think I'm more than just the sum of my chromosomes, so I said, “I always thought the bad thing about death is that it hurts a lot, and you leave a lot of loved ones behind to grieve for you and all that.”

 

“There is wisdom enough in what you say, Child,” Lotion looked at me with those inscrutable eyes of hers as though secretly pleased with me for having made this observation, “Of a certainty your loved ones would have done much more than grieve…but fortunately the worst that could happen did not come about on this occasion.”

 

“Hey!” Ranma spoke up again, moving closer to me as he and Shampoo flanked my sides as though to offer me the support of their presence, “I don't like this talk about Nabiki dying—ever! What kind of stupid test is that if she could have gotten killed back there? Not that I'd ever let anyone mess with her like that again,” he added with a scowl as though to challenge some invisible opponent to try something.

 

Lotion seemed to take his belligerent attitude with a hint of warm amusement. Turning to me she said, “It is well for you to be so loved, Child. A woman is never so rich as when she has an airen or two who would move heaven and earth to protect her.”

 

“But Elder,” Shampoo argued, “Was necessary for Nabiki to go through all that just to become better Lore Master Apprentice?”

 

“Understand, Shampoo,” Lotion replied, “Your airen is growing stronger by leaps and bounds with every challenge she faces and surmounts. I warned her against relying too much upon the both of you to protect her from danger…but I might just as well have been addressing myself as the three of you are growing together in strength and wisdom. Sooner or later all parents must face the fact that their children are outpacing them, and soon you three will progress to the point where you will no longer need my guidance and can find your own way, discover your own wisdom.”

 

“Sensei?” I was surprised to find how shocked I was at her suggestion. Was she telling me that I no longer needed her? That I was close to graduating? I felt an immediate protest rise up from within me as I wanted to tell her that she was wrong, that I still needed her, that I was no where near ready to fly solo and had no intention of doing so any time in the near future.

 

Once again she seemed to read my thoughts and chuckled, “My dear girl, I never said that you were ready to fly solo. In truth, you have barely learned to flap your wings, by no means do I intend to kick you out of the nest as yet…at least, not until you have gained much, much more training.”

 

I felt both relieved and alarmed at that reassurance, as though I—on the one hand—afraid of losing her companionship, and on the other of being put through the virtual wringer. If what I'd endured at the hands of director Akuma was nothing more than an initiation rite, then the more advanced courses were bound to be a real killer!

 

“Elder,” Shampoo suddenly spoke up once again, “What means Nabiki gain such power so sudden like? Is very sudden she go from knowing basic things to speak with dead people and make snake woman go bye-bye. Will Airen be able to control so much power so soon in training?”

 

I had to admit that was a very interesting question, one that concerned me a lot, but Lotion just smiled and said, “Your airen has the gift, she has always possessed such abilities, she just did not understand how to use them until now, but be assured that she will have the training she needs to adjust to her new threshold. It is only a matter of learning to trust in her own intuitive sense of proportion to judge how much power she needs to use in a given situation…”

 

“Let me guess,” I ventured in a droll note of sullen humor, “It comes attached with lots of practice, practice, practice?”

 

“That goes without saying,” Lotion smiled, “You practice to familiarize yourself with your hidden talents, and before too long they become second nature.”

 

Ranma had a different question that he wanted to broach right then while I was absorbing my mentor's typically cryptic meaning, “What about the kid?”

 

“Jingo Takura?” Lotion replied, “What about her concerns you young War Master?”

 

“Is she gonna be all right?” Ranma asked, “I mean…leaving her with that Challenger guy…”

 

“Believe me, young man,” Lotion said, “She could be in no safer hands than with Magnus and his organization.”

 

“That's good,” I said, “I made a promise to her mother…and I'm still worried about doing the right thing. I mean…she may be young, but that girl was raised to be a cannibal. She even ate the flesh of her own dead mother…”

 

“You are right to be concerned about this,” Lotion assured me, “Imprinting such as that is not so easily overcome, and the girl has had twelve long years in which to absorb her father's philosophical perspective. In truth it might have been a blessing for her to be sent back to the great beyond rather than to allow her to grow and mature into whatever her nature has shaped her to be…but then again, as you say, you don't war against children.”

 

“Right,” I said tightly, still quite a bit uneasy about assuming such a large commitment on my shoulders. Pai's daughter needed guidance and I was not at all certain that I was up to handling the challenge, and adopting a kid at my age was simply out of the question. On the other hand the kid had been one of those cheerfully urging me on my way into the cook pot, and she clearly had no qualms about eating human flesh, so was I doing the right thing taking her away from Pangea island? Granted most of the adults who might have looked after her were dead, but she and the other orphans were not exactly innocent babes, especially considering that most of their mothers had been cooked and eaten one right after another in ritual feasts for which these children had been full participants, and Jingo was their leader, meaning they were more than likely destined to grow up to be spitting images of their parents.

 

Horrible thought that this was, I had to wonder just how committed Jingo could be to a philosophy that—by all rights—consigned her and everything else female to the level of “prey.” In a few more years she would probably have gone the same way as her mother, so maybe it was still possible to convince her to give up on savagery and try civilization for a change. In either event I had talked it over with Magnus Challenger and decided to leave the kids in his possession…at least until things settled down enough that I might consider bringing her back home to Japan to look up the family she's never even known about until now.

 

So why do I get the feeling it would be a colossal mistake to bring her back to civilization? Why do I keep imagining Jingo as a young woman stirring up trouble, and trying to put me back into that damned stew pot?

 

Maybe Lotion was right, maybe it would have been a mercy to just kill the kid outright, send her to her mother in the great beyond, but I just can't imagine ever doing such a thing to a young girl whom is only just on the verge of early womanhood. I just can't consign her to death the way I did her father and the rest of her tribe. I'm simply not that ruthless.

 

They say no good deed ever goes unpunished, so maybe the promise I made to Pai Takura's ghost was a mistake, but I'll just have to take my chances and reserve my hope that the future isn't quite as bleak for her as my fears would have me imagine…

 

“What I don't understand is how things could go so bad back there and nobody ever tried to do anything about it,” Ranma spoke up again, once more pointing out a glaring sore point for me that had not yet been addressed in a satisfactory manner.

 

“Ah, young War Master,” Lotion sighed, “That is the eternal question is it not? Why tolerate the existence of a great evil when you have the means at your disposal to end it? Magnus must surely be wrestling with his own conscience over that subject, not that I expect that is any great consolation to you and your airen.”

 

“You could put it that way,” I said drolly, “The guy's got access to incredible technology, and I can't really believe he was cowed into submission by that witch and her maniac band of studio headhunters.”

 

“Believe what you must, Apprentice,” Lotion replied with a particularly sage expression, “But you were the one whom Neferti had the most to fear. It is in the hands of mortals, not immortals, that the power to bring an end to evil must reside. Evil is opposed to nature, it warps and corrupts the very fabric of whatever it contaminates through direct or indirect contact. An idea by itself is neither good nor evil, but when put into practice it can take the shape of such monstrous things as what you encountered in the hearts and minds of Akuma and his people. Where once they lived in harmony with nature they became obsessed with conquering death through the sacrifice of others, much like the Aztecs of Central America, or the Anasazi…or many other groups who believe that the secret to prolonging life is to take life from another. In that sense they were seeking to prolong themselves by stealing your vitality and essence, much as Neferti sought to drain the energy of her victims and thus sustain herself while cut off from the normal access routes of her true power.”

 

“In other words she wasn't as tough as she looked?” Ranma scratched his head, “But I thought she was supposed to be some kind of goddess…or something…”

 

“Gods are the embodiment of elemental energies, young War Master,” Lotion informed him, “They are, in a sense, anthropomorphic representations of the primary powers of nature…but Gods such as Peorth and Neferti are actually a part of an extended tribe of ancient beings whose lineage goes back many thousands of years to a time when their line diverged from the human genotype. Star Tribes are what we might call the original Homo Sapiens Superior who once visited this world many millions of years ago in forgotten antiquity, in the time before there were even Lore Masters. Once they were giants who had incalculable mental and physical abilities that allowed them to span the very stars themselves in search of higher life forms…”

 

“Wait a minute,” I said, “Are you telling me the original humans were aliens? That's pretty far-fetched don't you think, Sensei?”

 

“No more so than that it took our ancestors twenty-five million years of evolution to invent the pocket lighter,” she responded with typical straight-faced facetiousness, “But you need not take my word for it. There is evidence of their once having existed all over the planet, buried in the collective memories of people the world over. The Giants came down from Heaven and loved the daughters of man, and by them gave birth to a race of titans that some would call the Nefflim…”

 

“Aiyaa,” Shampoo spoke up again, “Is like in legends of Amazons? Stories of really big people who teach people to make fire and give birth to gods of White Mountain?”

 

“Yes child,” Lotion replied, “The legends have a kernel of truth to them, as do most mythologies when you scratch beneath their surface. The Giants helped to evolve human kind to the next level of physical and spiritual development and they taught our distant ancestors how to tap into the very same elemental forces that they could harness as if second nature. Unfortunately, as the generations progressed, human beings became proud, arrogant, and foolish. They misused the power and started a great war that eventually destroyed their civilization. All trace of them is buried now and the human race itself has been diminished. Only we, the keepers of the Lore, have knowledge of what was lost to time's pages, and that is why we train to remember, to rediscover these lost arts, to safeguard their legacy and to help guide human civilization back on the tireless road towards greatness.”

 

“So…you're saying that Gods like Peorth aren't really just super-beings but are actually a more advanced branch of the human race, one closer to the ancient power?” I gathered.

 

“More or less,” Lotion replied, “They are a cadet branch of the human family that retains their kinship to the light. It is something like a recessive gene that they possess and most humans do not, the ability to tap into the elemental powers of nature. That is why history is replete with legends of heroic beings who claimed a divine being for a sacred ancestor, yet only a few ever achieved real greatness. Most of the offspring of gods wind up as little better than mortals…there is only a one-in-four shot at them being born with the divine spark, which is why the world is not overrun with immortals, in spite of some gods being notoriously prolific.”

 

“But I don't get it,” Ranma scratched his head, “If they're so much like us then are they really gods…or kami? That Peorth character sure seems awfully human…”

 

“They are indeed quite human where it matters,” Lotion smile obliquely, “But given their extraordinary power levels, if they say that they are gods, who then are we to dispute them?”

 

“Riiight,” I sniffed, thinking of just how human my “heavenly mother” truly was, but that prompted me to ask, “What about this computer she and the other goddesses keep referring to, Yggdrasil?”

 

“Ah yes,” Lotion nodded, “Why would gods need to rely upon technology to augment their abilities you must wonder. The simple answer is…that even gods are lacking in perfection. They are neither omniscient nor omnipotent, no matter what they tell you in the legends. Yes, they are knowledgeable and many of them are wise, but few of them can predict the future with any degree of accuracy, and fewer still can control the direction of the fates…and therefore they have come to rely upon Yggdrasil, the world computer, to manage most of the mundane affairs that would be tedious in the extreme for any sentient being to handle.”

 

“Elder,” Shampoo asked, “If gods no be all powerful, then what of legend that say one god rules over other gods in heaven?”

 

“The gods to have their hierarchy, to be certain,” Lotion replied, “But legends of an Uber-God, a Supreme Being above even Kami-sama in preeminence, remains mostly a legend.”

 

“So you're saying a Supreme God doesn't figure into the picture?” I asked.

 

“No, I am only saying that such a being is beyond the conception of either man or god to contemplate,” she answered, “A guiding intelligence can be discerned through inference and observation, and the Universe as a whole does behave as though there were a greater force moving through the background, but the one thing we can be almost certain of concerning this being is that—if She does indeed exist—she is so far beyond our definition of humanity as to have as little in common with us as we do with an Amoeba.”

 

“She?” Ranma asked, picking up on her gender inflection.

 

“Well, surely you don't imagine the supreme creator of the Cosmos could be a man, do you?” Lotion replied, “A man may lend his spark to fertilize the mother, but it is a mother who bears within her the force of all creation. Perhaps the Supreme Being is both Male and Female, or perhaps neither. Perhaps even such a one transcends all definition of gender identity altogether. All that can be known with any certainty is that the universe behaves as though there were a rational element holding the forces of Chaos at bay, and by allying ourselves with this greater force of order we can create a better world than the one into which we were born. By balancing the Ying and the Yang of nature we can overcome disharmony and discord and learn to regain the light of the ancient Star Tribes, who were said to be as one with the Creator.”

 

About this point I might say things were getting a little too mystical for my liking, but then again, by now I'm used to that from hanging around with Lotion. Ranma and Shampoo, however, appeared to be more than a little confused by my mentor's teaching methods, so I decided to have some mercy on them by saying, “Who's up for lunch? I'm in a mood to try some French cuisine, and since Challenger loaned us some traveling money to keep us busy while he's making repairs to the Nekonron air ship…”

 

“Sounds good to me,” Ranma patted his stomach, “I'm starving.”

 

“You always starving, Airen,” Shampoo gave him an indulgent wink, “But Shampoo think Nabiki have too-too good idea, and while maybe food not from China, is old Amazon saying, `When in Beijing eat cooked duck.'”

 

I had to smile at my wife's cute way of turning a phrase there, but even so the thought of food tended to send me back in mind to that moment a few days ago when I was nearly somebody's dinner. I know I tend to obsess a lot on that, but it's going to be a while before I can even take a hot bath and relax without smelling the aroma of cooked lentils.

 

And so we set out to search for a place to satisfy our material cravings, but little did any of us suspect (not even Lotion, I imagine) we were shortly to have a dramatic encounter that would push the envelope of coincidence and bring me face-to-face with the fact that my father is an idiot, and the proof of that would haunt us for the rest of our stay in beautiful Paris.

 

You see, the place we selected to go for a meal was named “Le Chardin d'Affair,” and who should we run into but my other heretofore unexpected fiancé… the inestimable Picollet Chardin…

 

 

Continued

 

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