... hidden?
Ranma's mutant power seemed to be sealed away and suppressed. Xavier delved deeper, examining the energy sealing away Ranma's mutant power, and felt waves of fear that rivaled, perhaps even surpassed Storm's claustrophobia, it was connected with the fear were disjointed mewls of starving cats, darkness, pain, the stench of blood, cat urine and excrement, and a mountain of the sort of psychic energy signature Xavier had come to recognize as a normal house cat, as if there was a house cat that had somehow developed psychic abilities strong enough to perform minor empathy and telekinesis without the control needed.
And something else, a maelstrom of wild natural mystical energy which seemed to be draining power directly from Ranma's soul in a cruel and violent way that would slowly eat away Ranma's soul even in death to power itself, and feed that energy back to some terrifying nexus of it's source.
Examining Ranma's mind a bit more deeply, Xavier was horrified to have his suspicions confirmed, not only had Ranma undergone some obscene torture at only 5 years old, called the cat-fist, but he had been to Jyuusenkyo. The split state of Ranma's psychic presence from the cat-fist training was reducing Ranma's chances of activating his mutant power to one in a hundred, but the Jyuusenkyo curse made it nearly impossible for Ranma's mutant genes to activate, because they prevented his body and mind's access to the very energy that was needed to react with the genes during puberty to awaken someone's mutant ability.
Jyuusenkyo was a not very well known magical site because most in the know liked to avoid it like the plague. While it was easy to get the curses cured under normal circumstances, Jyuusenkyo liked to twist the karma of it's victims to delay or prevent their cures as long as possible, and increase their suffering by forcing them to switch forms at the worst times. Transforming someone's body, mind, and spirit to the degree Jyuusenkyo could required an immense amount of energy, and Jyuusenkyo got this energy by consuming the souls of those who drowned in its springs, and those who died while having it's curse, as well as the energy emitted by the souls of those cursed by it. Even the Ancient One had once tried to destroy Jyuusenkyo or at least restrict people from reaching it and seal it away, but his enchantments had all been unraveled and consumed by the vicious energies of Jyuusenkyo, he'd been forced to set wards far away from it that caused someone to get horribly lost if they entered that section of China, and would prevent anyone from viewing it from overhead, it could only be reached by ground travel by someone who knew of it's existence and had a map, or someone native to the area around it, or was guided by one who could otherwise get there.
Ranma was cursed to become a girl, comparatively a rather lucky curse, and it had kept him from having some helpless animal form that might get eaten, or a powerful form that would consume even more of his soul energy and drive him more insane than Genma's horrifying training had made him.
Xavier knew that Ranma would be quite a project to cure, and he'd have to get the curse dealt with as quickly as possible by his old friend Dr. Strange.
However, Xavier was curious as to why Ranma had a girl curse. Jyuusenkyo was known for giving it's victims ironically suitable curses, drawing them with it's control over local karma to the correct pools. Ranma was secure in his masculinity and respectful and understanding of women enough that the curse made little sense. While he was somewhat sexist, or at least he used to be, it wasn't enough for Jyuusenkyo to try and give him a girl curse, and with the cat-fist, Jyuusenkyo would have likely drawn him to the cat or tiger pools.
Why had Ranma been drawn to the spring of drowned girl? Xavier delved deeper yet again, Ranma's pre-Jyuusenkyo mental imprints held no obvious clues, at least until Xavier reached back before Ranma's birth...
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(Posted Mon, 15 Oct 2007 23:27)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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