Akane was gasping when she arrived at the front gate to her family’s compound. Sprinting, it seemed, wasn’t the same as jogging — at least when she wasn’t being slowed down by her older sister.
Without pausing to catch her breath, the youngest Tendo hurriedly opened the gate, stepped through — and froze in place, stunned. There, moving along the flowers Kasumi had planted along the walkway to the front door, she could sense little points of ... something. They had the same feel as Ranma in spirit form, but were much, much smaller. And there were more among the flowers along the compound walls, and when she walked around the side of the house, more skimming the surface of the koi pond, and ... a whole flock of them circling around another, human-sized patch of ‘scent’ circling and spinning in mid-air. The bigger one was human-shaped, as well as human-sized, and female, and felt tantalizingly familiar.
Is that Ranma? Akane thought, staring at the empty space that her ‘new’ sense was telling her wasn’t empty. Then, staring around at all the other tiny ‘scents’, added, And where did these all come from? Were they always here and I just didn’t know it? Is this what the world is like for Nabiki and Kasumi, full of life nobody else can see?
After a moment Akane shook herself free of her contemplation of the scene and headed for the entrance into the family room, ignoring the two fathers at their eternal game of shogi as she called for her oldest sister as soon as she as soon as she was inside the house.
An answering call came from the kitchen, and Akane dashed into the room to latch onto her sister’s arm and pull her towards the kitchen door leading to the outside lawn. “Kasumi, come here, quick, I need you to look at something!” she urged. Kasumi allowed herself to be pulled out and around the house, until the two sisters stepped around the corner to look toward the koi pond, and all the dancing lifes around and above it.
Akane pointed toward the spot where she could sense the human-sized life. “Is that Ranma?” she asked. When she didn’t get a response, she turned to find Kasumi staring at the scene, mouth agape. “Kasumi? Kasumi!”
Jolted out of her shock, Kasumi turned to her youngest sister. “Yes, Akane?”
“Is that Ranma?!” Akane demanded, again pointing.
“Yes ... yes, it is.”
“Good.” Akane pulled her personal cell phone out of her school bag, and typed in a speed-dial number. “Nabiki, Ranma’s home —” ... “I can’t really tell, he’s still in his nature spirit form.” Turning to Kasumi, she asked, “Does Ranma look all right to you?”
“You can’t see her yourself?” Kasumi asked, surprised. When Akane shook her head, she held out her hand for the cell phone. “Nabiki, as far as I can tell, Ranma’s fine.” ... “No, I can’t ask, Ranma doesn’t seem to really be aware of her surroundings, and she’s dancing over the koi pond, I can’t reach her.” ... “Yes, dancing — and she’s surrounded by sprites dancing with her. I recognize some of them, but most —” ... “I haven’t tried yet, give me a minute.”
The brown-haired girl walked over to the koi pond and around the edge away from the house, some of the points of life that Akane assumed were the ‘sprites’ her sister had mentioned swirling out of her way and about her legs. One flew up in front of Kasumi’s face, keeping pace with her walking, and Kasumi said something too low for Akane to understand and smiled at the equally indecipherable response.
Stopping about a quarter of the way around the edge of the pond, she looked up toward Ranma. “Ranma!” she called softly, then when she didn’t get a response tried again more loudly, then shouted, then shouted again while jumping up and down and waving her hands over her head. Nothing — the human-sized and -shaped ‘scent’ that was Ranma stayed where it was.
Akane took a deep breath, and walked forward to join her sister, wading through what seemed like a sea of lifes, fighting the urge to spin in place as some of them swirled around behind her. “ ... didn’t work,” she heard her sister say into the cell phone as she walked up. “Peach Fuzz, one of the sprites I know, says that Ranma is ‘dancing to the rhythm of the Voice’, and that the sprites dancing with her are ‘keeping her grounded’, whatever that means.” ... “No, Mother Nodoka isn’t home, someone called and she said she had to go out, not to wait up.” ... “Right, we’ll be waiting.”
Closing the cell phone, Kasumi handed it back to her sister. “Nabiki says that she’s going to finish collecting Ranma’s clothing before she comes home, to just leave Ranma alone until she gets here. Come on, let me fix you a snack while we’re waiting.” She circled around the koi pond toward the house entrance and Akane hesitantly followed, pausing before entering the house for a last wondering look at the dance she couldn’t see but knew was there.
Nabiki sighed with relief as she hit the disconnect button on her cell phone, then resumed her walk through the park toward where she had been enjoying the evening while Ranma and Akane sparred, such a short time before. Well, at least she’s safe behind my wards, and now I can probably stop worrying about her — him — wanting to go succubus full-time, she thought in an attempt to find a silver lining to their cloud of misfortune as the small hill came into view, still scattered with Ranma’s clothes.
She was walking up the hill toward the clothes when a tanned, blonde woman stepped away from the tree Nabiki had been sitting under earlier. Nabiki paused, eyes widening at the sight of the elongated diamonds on the newcomer’s forehead, the triangles on her cheeks — the complete absence of any sense of her presence other than sight, not even the hint of stench that Ranma had mentioned — then resumed walking. Bending down to scoop up Ranma’s shirt, she said, “Mara, I presume?”
“Ah, Ranma told you about me,” the demon replied dryly.
“Yes, he did,” Nabiki agreed as she gathered up the rest of the clothes. Straightening, she continued, “He told me about the offer you made him. Are you thinking that this evening’s little adventure will change his mind? Or that I should help you change it for him?”
“No,” Mara said with a shrug. “No, Ranma’s much too stubborn to allow even this to change his mind. Actually, I’m here to talk to you.”
“To me,” Nabiki repeated. She glanced up as the faint drizzle from earlier resumed, then walked up the hill past Mara to the tree. Putting her school bag and the clothes she’d collect down on the grass, she turned to lean back nonchalantly against the trunk and asked the demon now downhill from her, “You’re here to make me an offer?”
“Yes, I am,” Mara agreed, suppressing a grin at Nabiki’s unconscious play for the upper position. At least, she thought it was unconscious — not many people would have the chutzpah to play dominance games with a major demon, but she wasn’t trying to recruit the girl because she was like most people. The demon walked up to join Nabiki under the tree (and coincidentally place her on the same level as the mortal girl). “Basically, the offer is the same as what I offered your fiancé, only moreso — a troubleshooter and lieutenant in my service, both as a single operator and a team leader and manager, as the situation warrants.”
“Why me?” Nabiki asked, frowning. “Sure, I’m more powerful than most Awakened, but I’m hardly unique. And I’m only seventeen years old, seriously inexperienced and self-trained with all that implies, no powerful patron, hardly what I’d think you’d be looking for in an agent.”
Mara shrugged again. “If I was talking about a short-term relationship, you’d be right. But I’m talking about a relationship that would outlast your mortal life, and for that your potential and character are more important than your current capabilities.”
“Outlast my life? My character?” Nabiki squeaked, shaken out of her calm, disinterested front. “What about my character makes me attractive to a demon?”
“Oh, nothing you’d find too terrible I think,” Mara replied nonchalantly. “Your innate competence, ruthlessness and intense loyalty to your family and now your fiancé combined with a lack of devotion to larger causes and any hint of sadism or power-hunger, basically. And yes, it would continue into the next life — you’d essentially become a demon yourself, when you die.”
As Nabiki just stared at Mara in stunned amazement, the blonde woman sighed. “Nabiki, demons are rather misunderstood. Yes, we seek to corrupt people, foment all the nastiness we are accused of, but what few realize is that we are testing — sorting the evil from the good, seeing to it that people’s true natures are revealed and that they receive what they truly deserve. What would the world be like if we weren’t out here, stirring things up? If we left it to the gods?”
“I ... it would be a utopia,” Nabiki said hesitantly. “No crime, no wars ...”
“Really? Would those tendencies be eliminated? Or just suppressed until they broke out?” Mara asked. “And what kind of life would that be? Would you enjoy living in such a peaceful, unchanging, unchallenging passive world? No, the world is a better place, the human race stronger, because we are here to test its quality.”
Nabiki stared at Mara for a time, then shook off her shock. “What about Kasumi and Tofu-san? How are they being ‘tested’ by being cursed? What’s the point?” she demanded.
“They aren’t the ones that were tested,” Mara disagreed. “Ono-san rejected the advances of a woman with more power than sense, and she summoned a demon — one rather more powerful than your imps — bound it and ordered it to curse him, so that he would experience true love but never be able to enjoy it. As you can imagine, she will be ours when she dies.”
Nabiki winced, but soldiered on. “And what’s in it for me? If my lack of devotion to abstractions is a plus, you can hardly expect me to just sign up for the good of the human race!”
“True enough,” Mara agreed instantly. “What’s in it for you is security for yourself and your expanded family. In Gosunkugi you’ve made a bad enemy, and as soon as he gets some medical attention for the beating Ranma gave him he’s going to dive back into those books he borrowed from his family’s library with new eyes. He’ll soon be cursing himself for a fool and looking for a way out from under the debt he now owes us for the services he’s demanded, but he could also just turn out to be dangerous.
“And then there’s his father — that man may choose to back up his son when he finds out what he’s been up to, he may not, but he’s a patriot and he's definitely going to be after your fiancé once he realizes just what Ranma’s succubus form represents. If you agree to serve me, you won’t have to worry about him, or any other threats to your family at all — we take good care of our people.”
“What Ranma represents? What are you talking about? Succubae aren’t exactly in huge demand except as sex toys, and I can’t imagine a nature spirit more dangerous to use for that against its will than Ranma, he’s learned a lot that no natural born succubus ever would have.”
“Ah, you missed it, interesting,” Mara mused, arching an eyebrow. “I think I’ll leave it to you to puzzle out as an exercise for the student, you’ll have an easier time believing it if you figure it out yourself.” Gazing at the middle Tendo searchingly for a long moment, then turning to gaze out at the faint misting the drizzle had turned into as they talked, Mara added, “There’s no need for you to make up your mind right now. Do your research, think it over, and if you decide to take me up on it you know my name — use a summoning circle to alert me, and I’ll drop in to see you when I’m free.
“Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a corporate mover and shaker in China I need to look in on. I wonder how much longer those idiots will take to create the popular uprising that’ll sweep them away? Some free advice — if you have any investments in Chinese companies, you might want to consider redistributing your portfolio in the next few years.”
With that, the Mara started to stride down the hill, then paused. “One more thing to consider,” she said. “Ranma’s immortal, now — half of him, anyway — and you aren’t. As it stands, when you die you’ll move on, either reincarnation or your final reward, and will be leaving Ranma behind. If you accept my offer, there’s no reason the two of you couldn’t continue your relationship into eternity.” And then she was off toward the edge of the park, leaving behind a confused and deeply worried young woman.
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(Posted Mon, 31 Jan 2011 06:31)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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