Now Katt had much to tell. To Nina and Patty, where she came from and how she got into this world in the first place. To her old friends from Nerima, what happened to her since she got here.
When she was finished, everyone was astonished and speechless.
Patty shook her head. "And for all that time, I never knew you were..."
"A boy?" Katt asked.
Her dragon-winged friend nodded. "Well, yeah!"
Katt sighed. "Many things happened since I came here, Patty... I thought I would never be able to leave again... I had to come to terms with what I was... with WHO I was. And well..." She looked down at the floor. "I don't think there's much of a boy left in me..."
"But Ranma!" Akane protested. "We have to find a way to turn you back into who you were. Don't you want to be a boy again?"
"Akane... two years ago, I would still have seized any chance to turn back into who I once was. But now..." She looked down at her furry arms. "This is who I am now. I am Katt, a Woren warrior, and a companion of Ryu the 'Savior Dragon', as they call him. I like it this way. And, to be honest..." She looked into the face of her former fiancee. "I don't think I want to go back to what I was."
"But Ranma..." Akane saw the cat-girl wince and decided to use her new name for now. "Katt... what about your parents? Don't you want to see them again?"
"Of course I do! And don't get me wrong, I am overjoyed to see all of you again. But... don't you think Mom and Pops couldn't accept me... as I am now?"
Ukyo snorted. Genma and accepting his son as a girl? Hell would freeze over before that happened.
"How... how did you get here in the first place?" Katt then asked. "I as told that... it was very unlikely for someone to cross the barriers between the worlds. That's why I gave up hope of ever coming back..."
"Well, we never knew where you were..." Akane explained. "But see, Kasumi woke up from her coma, just a few days ago."
"WHAT?" Katt shouted. "She was in coma? Oh no, what have I done..." Once again, it seemed like the Woren was drowning in self-reproaches.
"Relax," Ukyo said. "She is fine, and she doesn't blame you! In fact, she can't wait for you to come home... everyone wants to have you back, fur or no fur."
Shampoo, who was sitting next to the Okonomiyaki chef, nodded eagerly. Katt couldn't help but notice how well the fiancees seemed to get along with each other... and how silent Shampoo was.
"Well, as I was gonna say, when Kasumi woke up, she told us about some strange mirror she had seen lying next to you before she passed out. Cologne could immediately tell what kind of mirror that was... even though she didn't tell us that much about it. She quickly ran back to the Nekohanten, and when she came back, she told us she knew where you would be."
"Yeah, she even said she could bring four of us to this world where you have vanished to," Ukyo nodded. "And, well, the three of us were the most eager to come... and Ryoga said he wanted to come along as well."
Katt smirked at her former rival. "Ryoga, I never knew you cared so much about me."
"I d-d-didn't," Ryoga protested. "I just wanted to make sure that Akane and the others wouldn't run into any trouble..."
"Okay, so how did Cologne bring you here?"
"With the same mirror," Akane explained. She even put in a small 'homing spell' which should bring us to your current location. As for our return, she said you would know where the other mirror would be... the one you came out of after appearing in this world."
"Well, that would be the one in Bleu's cave..." Katt suddenly stopped herself in mid-sentence and her mouth stayed open for a while. "Bleu..." she whispered.
"What?" Nina asked in confusion. "What does she have to do with that?"
"Bleu? Who is that?" Ukyo asked curiously.
"She... she is a sorceress... she was the first person I met after coming to this world... and the mirror is in her possession. But she... she was also the one who told me there was no way back."
"Huh? But why would she do this?" Patty wondered. "I mean, she has been your friend even before we met her..."
"A great friend..." Akane frowned. "If she was her friend, why would she lie at her like that?"
"Maybe she doesn't even know that her mirrors has those abilities..." Ryoga pondered.
"You don't know Bleu," Nina sighed. "She is the most powerful sorceress I've ever met in my life... if there is a magical artifact in her possession, she must know about its features."
"She... she was so nice to me..." Katt muttered. "She helped me to overcome my fear of cats... and thanks to her, I could accept that I was stuck as a female Woren. And she... she also helped me get that job at the Coliseum..."
She jumped to her feet and grabbed her head. "Why did she lie to me? Why? I thought... I thought she was my friend..."
With an angry sob, she turned around and ran out of the room.
"Katt, wait!" Patty shouted and wanted to run after her. But Nina held her back.
"Leave her alone for now, Patty! I can figure there is much going on in her head... she wants to be alone for a while. And I know her good enough to say that she won't go far from the castle."
She turned around to her guests from Nerima. "I suppose you are pretty much disappointed... you came here in search for someone who isn't quite who you knew anymore... But let's just hope she will at least decide to stay your friend." She bowed. "Please, accept my invitation and stay for the night. The castle has enough guest rooms for everyone. And I'm sorry for what happened..."
"Oh no, I'm have to apologize," Akane said with a blush. "I'm... I'm sorry I called you a (ahem) hussy. Now that I've heard about you from Ran... Katt, I see that you were just a friend to her."
The princess of Windia smiled. "No need for you to apologize! Now that I know your side of the story, I can kinda understand how you must have felt to see her in our presence... But, excuse me for a while, my parents must wonder where I and my guests may be. Let me go to them and explain the situation as best as I can."
----
Katt just wanted to leave everything behind her for a while. Her new friends as well as her old friends. She ran down the castle's stairs, past the surprised guards that were standing next to the castle's main gates, through the whole town and into the woods that surrounded Windia.
She wasn't concerned about any monsters or wild animals that might lurk around... she knew she was strong enough to take on the weak beasts that were inhabiting the wilderness near Windia.
She walked through the woods until she found a small stump, on which she sat down with a sigh.
"I am Katt, a member of the Woren tribe," she murmured. "I learned so much about my new species that I can now see me as a real member of my new race... and I don't feel uncomfortable as a female any more. In fact, the thought of returning to my former, male body, somehow seems... wrong. But I am comfortable like this, and I'm pretty sure Mom and my friends will accept me, even like this."
She sighed. "Pops... he will be a problem. But still, if he really loves me as his child, he will have no choice but to accept me as his new daughter. But Akane... Akane... Damn, this is going to be tough..."
The feline warrior closed her eyes and imagined Akane's face in front of her. "Do I still love her? And if yes, does that make me a lesbian? I am so happy to see her again, but... I can say the same thing about Ukyo and Shampoo, and even Ryoga. Is she nothing but a very close friend to me now? I know I don't want to disappoint her... And Bleu..." She growled. "Why didn't she tell me I could go back? Why did she keep her mirror a secret? Was all that friendship of hers just... an act?"
"I don't think friendship is something that someone can pretend like that," a voice suddenly spoke up behind her.
Katt got startled and jumped to her feet. When she turned around, she saw a familiar face. "Spar?"
The infamous 'grass man' smiled at her. "I couldn't help but overhear your problems, my friend."
"But... what are you doing here, this far away from the Great Sea of Trees?" the catgirl wondered.
Spar gestured at the trees that surrounded them. "The forest itself told me that you two would visit Windia today... and when I heard that, I thought you would like to see another old friend again as well. So I decided to come here for a visit... you didn't want to search for me in my big home forest, did you?"
Katt chuckled. "No, I don't think we would be even able to find our way through all those trees without your guidance... but why didn't you come to the castle?"
"Well, you know that I don't like big crowds... so I decided to stay here in the Windia forest until the evening, when most people would be at home."
Spar then looked at his friend firmly. "From what I heard, you have finally found your family and some old friends again... are congratulations in order?"
"Well, kinda..." Katt sighed. "I know I wanna see them all again, but... there's something you should know about me..."
"You mean that you have been a boy before coming to this world?"
Katt was shocked. "How did you know...?"
The grass man smiled. "Katt, I can talk to every plant on this world, and you should know that there is a very old pine tree growing in front of Princess Nina's bedroom window..."
"Oh, that's how," Katt said. "Alright, then you must realize that I'm in a pickle... You know, I don't want to hurt my former fiancee, but at the same time, how can I make her understand that I now feel more comfortable as a girl?"
Spar shook his head and chuckled.
Katt frowned. "What's so funny?"
"Oh, excuse me," the member of the plant clan smirked. "I just find it amusing... how you mammals are concerned about your gender."
Katt blinked. "Excuse me?"
Spar spread his arms. "Don't you see realize that gender means nothing for trees and other plants? I am aware that there is a difference between male and female for your species, but does it really matter? If your friends can accept you as what you are, and if you are uncomfortable as a male, why even consider becoming male? If your friend can't accept that, she can't possible call herself a good friend, can she?"
"But... but she LOVES me," Katt protested. "Or at least I think so..."
"Does she love you? Or your male form? If she really loves you, she must accept your current form and your decisions."
"But... I'm not a lesbian..." Katt said weakly.
"I'm not quite familiar with that word, but if it means you are a female that likes females... what's wrong with that? Take me, for instance: I never have seen myself as either male or female, but after the carnival brought me to the human towns, everyone started to address me as the 'grass man', just because of my appearance. I simply didn't bother to explain everyone who visited my tent that members of my clan don't really have a gender... so I accepted their decision to see me as a female."
"But when you merge with the Water Shaman, you..."
"I turn into a girl you mean? Well, just on the outside! I once asked Seso why she chose exactly this form for me, and she replied: Because I look cute like that. I remember her words: 'If you have no actual gender, does it matter?' It's funny, really, but with that sentence she practically cited my whole life motto."
Katt thought about what Spar had just told her. Of course she wasn't a plant, so there was a difference between male and female for her.
She didn't feel comfortable as a male anymore, she already knew as much.
But if Akane really loved her... would she be ready to accept her as she was?
"I've decided, Spar!" she then said. "As long as there is a possibility to return to either world, I'm going back to Nerima - at least to pay my friends and family a visit. But I'm going to stay like this... I already made that decision two years ago! I am Katt, warrior of the Woren tribe... even if my parents are human."
She nodded to herself. "I am at home in TownShip... and in Nerima!"
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(Posted Sun, 06 May 2007 14:07)
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