Cologne’s theories about the telepathic links were proving to be rather accurate; in particular, the rate at which Ranma was learning to deal with all of the new information that was flooding his brain was nothing short of astonishing. Of course, it helped that he soon found an activity which could provide him with “quiet” without resulting in unconsciousness: namely, the Art. Ranma found that as he went through the motions of various kata as part of his training, he was able to focus his mind almost entirely on the kata; while this certainly didn’t block the thoughts of his four suitors from entering his mind, it did muffle them to the point were he could forget that the links even existed. This probably explained (at least in part) why he didn’t notice the intensity with which his first fiancée was observing him until his practice was nearly over.
“Oh, hey there, Akane. Didn’t notice ya. Sorry ’bout that. Ya need somethin’?” When this didn’t provoke an answer (verbal or otherwise) Ranma then took not at the odd expression on his fiancée’s face. “Uh, Akane, why are ya looking at me like that? Was I thinkin’ somethin’ weird or somethin’?”
Huh? Wait… Ranma said something. “What? Oh, no… not at all. It’s just that while you were doing that kata… well, your mind was so… peaceful, I guess.”
“Peaceful? Akane, if I used that move in combat, my opponent would probably have ta go ta the emergency room.”
“I know that, baka. I’m talking about your mind here, not the move. You were just so calm, and it was… well, it’s like those new age-y nature sounds CDs Kasumi listens to sometimes.”
“Ya mean the thunderstorms and that stuff?”
“I guess… though it seemed more like that one CD of a river.”
“Oh,” Ranma said as comprehension came to his face. “That makes sense.”
“It does?”
“Yeah. That kata’s based offa somethin’ from Jeet Kune Do.”
“Bruce Lee’s style?”
“Yup. That style uses a lotta water imagery an’ stuff in its philosophy, so the river thing makes sense.”
“I didn’t say it reminded me of a river — just that it was like a river.”
“An’ Bruce Lee didn’t say that Jeet Kune Do should remind people of water, either — he said a martial artist should be like water.”
Akane sighed. I just don’t get it.
Don’t worry, Akane. Yer a pretty good martial artist — ya just need ta study JKD a little, an’ I’m sure you’ll get it.
I suppose I’ll have to trust you on that— Hold on…. Akane suddenly realized something very important about what she’d just “heard” Ranma think. “You really think I’m a good martial artist?”
“What? I, uh, I actually thought that?” Ranma didn’t remember thinking it, but then, he hadn’t really been directing his thoughts at the time.
“So you don’t think I’m good?”
“I, uh, I don’t know….” That depends on whatcha mean by “good.”
Well, what do you mean by it?
I, uh, it depends…
Fortunately for Ranma, at that moment, Kasumi’s voice rang out, announcing that dinner was ready, and giving him something else to think about. “Looks like it’s time ta eat.”
“I’m not done with you, Ranma.”
I hope we’re havin’ that tempura of hers…. His mind firmly focused on food, Ranma wandered towards the dining area, leaving a somewhat frustrated Akane in his wake.
Later that evening, Cologne pored over antiquated scrolls and texts which has spread to cover nearly every flat surface in her room — leaving just enough space for her to balance on her staff, in fact. So intense was this study, that the Matriarch almost lost her balance when there came a sudden knock at her door (almost, mind you). She quickly gathered up a few of the more sensitive documents before calling out, “Come in.”
The door opened to reveal her beloved great-granddaughter. “Are you busy, Great-grandmother?”
“Shampoo, what have I told you about speaking Mandarin?”
The Amazon sighed. “Should not do until better at Japanese,” she repeated. “But Shampoo not see why should have to continue to due so — link with husband translate automatically.”
“That may be true at the moment, but right now, you have no way of knowing how permanent these links are — if they’re removed, you’ll be in the same situation you were before. Besides, Ranma isn’t the only Japanese speaker you have to deal with on a regular basis — in fact, if he does choose you, that all but guarantees that you’ll be spending a significant of time in this country.”
The lavender-haired teenager nodded in resignation. “Shampoo understand. It just….”
“Yes?”
“It just that Shampoo tired of sounding like stupid bimbo. Try hard, but always been bad at languages. Now, it finally seem like there another way, and Shampoo not see why should keep at failure.”
“You have been making progress, though.”
“How? Nearly year and half in Japan, and Shampoo still not get grammar right. When Airen read mind, he actually seem surprised Shampoo have coherent thoughts. In Mandarin, people know Shampoo not idiot.”
Cologne nodded in sympathy; foreign language skills aside, Shampoo was a smart girl, and being constantly viewed as a dullard had to be a huge blow to her pride. The fact that both Cologne and Mousse were almost completely fluent in Japanese only compounded the problem, as it made it appear that Shampoo’s intelligence was low relative to the rest of the tribe, which was just not true: Mousse’s relative aptitude at languages was more that balanced by his utter lack of common sense, and Cologne had been almost as bad at foreign languages when she was Shampoo’s age. “You mustn’t give up so easily, child — believe me, you have made progress: if not in grammar, then at the very least in your vocabulary: when you first got here, you certainly didn’t know more complicated words like ‘coherent,’ for example. And most importantly, you almost never have problems understanding Japanese speakers.”
“They just using easy words. Think Shampoo stupid.” “Maybe, but we both know that you aren’t — but unless you learn to speak the language well, you’ll be hard-pressed to convince native Japanese to believe that.”
“Shampoo know. Will keep trying. Still think it would be easier to have Ranma translate.”
“Except that Ranma isn’t all that articulate in his first language,” Cologne pointed out. “In fact, I believe that shortcoming of his is precisely what got him into his current predicament.”
“Good point.”
“Now, I believe this conversation has been sidetracked enough — what did you want to talk about?”
“It nothing, really. Restaurant in slow period, few customers, so Shampoo take break. Just curious — not sure why Great-grandmother spending so much time alone.”
The Matriarch chuckled. “I supposed I have left you and Mousse high and dry, haven’t I? I’m just going over a few texts of mine to see if there’s anything that can improve your situation.”
“Can Shampoo help?”
“Not really. First of all, several of these texts are restricted to the Matriarch’s eyes only.”
“But Shampoo going to be Matriarch eventually.”
“Only if your fellow tribeswomen approve,” Cologne reminded her eager charge. “Besides, it doesn’t change the fact that you aren’t the current Matriarch, which means you still aren’t allowed to see these texts.”
“Yes, Great-grandmother.”
“Now, will that be all?”
“Shampoo suppose. Will go back to restaurant now.”
“Good.”
The Matriarch breathed a sigh of relief as her great-granddaughter returned to her job — she didn’t like being deceitful around Shampoo, but now that she (along with Ranma and the rest of his suitors) were telepaths, Cologne couldn’t risk planting the wrong idea in her mind. She hadn’t being lying — not really. She really was trying to improve the situation, but at the moment she was focused on a very specific aspect of that situation that hadn’t occurred to Shampoo yet. At least, Cologne hoped that it hadn’t occurred to Shampoo yet.
It was quite simple; as Shampoo was both a high-ranking warrior in the tribe, as well as the Matriarch’s great-granddaughter, she had access to several sensitive Amazon secrets. Some were specific techniques, others dealt with plans for the villages defense, and still others were simply bits of information that could convince the bureaucratic goons in Beijing to revoke their fragile autonomy if they leaked out. In the end, the specific nature of those secrets was unimportant, because Amazon law was still clear for each case: only Amazons were allowed to know them. If a non-Amazon learned them, the law required death.
Ranma himself wasn’t a problem; as Shampoo’s groom, he was, technically, already an Amazon. The three other suitors, on the other hand, were not. Thus, this problem was rather huge: even though she was the head of an autonomous political entity, Cologne didn’t have diplomatic immunity in Japan, and even if she did, diplomatic immunity likely wouldn’t have covered acts that Japanese law would interpret as murder, and even if that were true, the end result would still probably involve the Japanese government putting pressure on the PRC to crack down on the Amazons — all in all, a extremely bad scenario. She had to find a way to deal with the situation before it became a problem, and that meant she needed time.
This was the reason that Cologne had misdirected Shampoo’s attention; if Shampoo realized that she could spark a nasty international incident simply by thinking about Amazon secrets, she would no doubt try to not think about those secrets, and as Akane had found out earlier that day, trying to not think about something almost always results in utter failure. Cologne needed some sort of solution, and fast. The question was whether or not she’d come up with something in time.
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(Posted Tue, 23 Jan 2007 08:45)
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