Ranma wondered, as he sat at the dinner table, if he was the only person who felt the walls closing in. He was quite certain that it was reality, and not just a phantom sensation. The dinner on the table was as good as any other he'd had recently – he knew this objectively – and still he could not help but think it tasted like ashes.
His cousins had returned from escorting Kan-chan to the doctor's office, and the blue-haired beauty had returned along with them, a new cast on her broken right arm. He had already learned that the break was no worse, and for this he was glad.
He was still thinking about what was planned for “dessert”, and he was quite nervous about it. His libido was curious, but that was not all there was to him, and a very sizable fraction of his conscious mind was screaming at him to find any reason for a delay, no matter how flimsy.
He chanced a look at his silver-haired beauty. She looked no different than she had only an hour or so before in the bedroom; still dressed in the thin yukata and not much else. Per normal, her eyes were closed; her vaguely serene smiling expression was also nothing new. She had not said anything in the few minutes since the meal began. There had not been much conversation of any kind; at least none that he could remember...but was it the case? He had been paying attention only to his mounting sensation of the walls closing in on him. He could not process the thought that his family and girlfriends might have tried talking to him, even about anything, in the last few minutes.
He then realized again that Un-chan's eyes were closed. She had said she usually kept them closed so as not to alarm people. He had told her she didn't have to do that around him.
She kept them closed because they were a visual message that she had mastered her dragon. Her dragon. Mastered.
Ranma's own dragon had awakened in his fight with Sousou Moutoku, she had said.
Dragons. That was a possible diversion.
Finally after a while he heard and registered something. “Is there a problem, Ranma,” came the voice of his aunt.
“I was thinking about dragons,” he muttered. Though it was the truth, his tone made the words unconvincing. “And about the fight today.”
In truth, he was not miserable that he had been defeated, but it still stung badly. Though he was alive, and basically unharmed, and now had incentive to step up his training, he did not like to lose, at all.
He noticed that he now had the attention of everyone save Hakufu, who was only paying attention to the food. He smiled a bit at that. His cousin was quite amusing sometimes.
“It was scary, watching you and that Sousou guy fight, when your dragons awoke,” came the voice of Kokin. “Wondering whether anything could stop you. Either of you.” His expression was serious and his eyes reflected distant tension. “It was just lucky that no one else got hurt,” he added. “And that all it took to stop you was splashing you.”
Ranma hung his head. More complications; everyone who had been at the fight would have seen him transform. It would only lead to more and more nuisances. He had deduced this had been the sequence of events, but confirmation only made him bitter about the fact.
“His ki was like fire,” Ranma said. “It...I don't remember much before blacking out, but he was crushing and burning my throat. It was so hot...” he trailed off.
“'Like' fire is not really the truth,” Chou'un finally spoke up. “It was fire, or so close as to make no difference. Such is the nature of the dragon within Sousou Moutoku.” She shook her head. “The flames are his domain.” Her eyes were still closed.
Ranma stared at the great pot of rice. “I've never felt a ki like that in my life,” he said bluntly. “I've had people pissed off at me; that's nothing new. I can deal with that. But that ki...that was just fire. And killing intent. Just the desire to burn and kill everything.”
Chou'un nodded. “I sensed much the same thing.” She looked down at the table. “He is very powerful, and that may be as it should. One who is a leader must not be weak.”
“Leader,” Ranma started to ask, and then stopped, as he saw her nod.
“The Sousou Moutoku of eighteen hundred years ago was one of the three leaders who forged the age, and so in modern times he is one of the ruling dragons; the Dragons of Haou. They are the dragons of fate, as well.”
“What do you mean,” Ranma asked. He thought he heard Kokin mutter something, and he started to face him, but then stopped.
Chou'un began responding when Ranma faced her again. “The three great leaders of the age were Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Ce. Cao Cao was a warlord of the Han dynasty in the east; Liu Bei from Shu, and Sun Ce of Wu were warlords who opposed him together when his expansion turned southward. At the Battle of Red Cliffs, the combined armies of Liu Bei and Sun Ce defeated the army of Cao Cao. He himself survived, but it was the end of his rise in influence. All three of the warlords have descended through the ages with the Sacred Beads.”
Ranma nodded. “And Sousou has Cao Cao's bead?”
Chou'un nodded. “Yes. And his dragon. The beads of Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Ce are guaranteed to make dragons of the fighters who inherit them. Any other fighter who awakens a dragon must do so through their own skill, and their own power; it is not given to them by fate.” When she finished that sentence, she opened her eyes and smiled. Ranma, having seen her eyes already, did not react; but as Chou'un looked around the table, there were slight gasps from the others.
All of this went straight past Hakufu, who was still paying attention only to the food, Ranma noticed. “If Sousou Moutoku of Kyosho is Cao Cao; who are Liu Bei and Sun Ce now,” he asked.
The response came from Kanu. “Liu Bei has become our leader, Ryuubi Gentoku.”
Ranma nodded at this. He then noticed that Kokin seemed resigned, and he wondered why. “And Sun Ce”, he asked. He then had an idea of what it might be, but he would wait to see if it were the case.
There was a silence for a few moments as Kanu and Chou'un stared at each other. Without words, both Kanu and Chou'un then turned their gazes on Hakufu, who paid them no attention.
A feeling of understanding came over Ranma; but as he looked around at Kokin, and then his mother and aunt, he found that all three looked resigned. He then realized that they must have already known. He thought about this for a while.
It came to him fairly quickly. His father had taken him away as a means of avoiding this destiny. He had known that he had been removed from something, but he now understood what it was.
He reached for his earring and removed it, and stared at it for several minutes while he ran over all this new information in his mind. He had for some time been pleased about the color of the bead and what it meant, but now he was in the mood to reject it out of hand. He then shook his head. He put the earring back on and clenched his fist. Worrying about details of the past was pointless and dangerous. He had already decided he would ignore any “fate” that made him abandon his family. Seito Academy had accepted him, though this was trivial compared to his relationship with Kan-chan and Un-chan. If an alliance between Seito which he attended, and Nanyo Academy which it seemed his cousin Hakufu was destined to lead, was required, he decided he would have to build the bridge.
He then shuddered as he felt cold water poured over his head, and his curse once more shifted him from he to she. He was then pulled up from his seat, and forcibly marched away from the table, in between both of his lovers; Kan-chan on his right and Un-chan on his left.
He realized, somewhat forlornly, that his idea of creating a diversion had not succeeded at all.
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by nuclear death frog
(Posted Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:19)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.