Wheel of Fire Special #3: Identity Written by Razorclaw X (spiceoflife@NYChotmail.com) http://www.crosswinds.net/~slythe/ranma/ranff.html Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 and characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. And all that other good stuff. Proper licenses belong to respective properties and characters. The manga has precedence over material in the anime. This file can be freely distributed so long as it appears in its complete form and proper credit. No part may be reproduced for monetary gain without permission from the author. ------------------------------------------------ If there was one thing that bothered Shizuka of the hunt, it was the fact that it took her back to Tokyo. Again. "I should've listened to Mizuki," she muttered under her breath. "Maybe then I would've learned to keep my mouth shut, and then I'd be a good girl like all the others back home." Home seemed a long way, however. In fact, it was a long way, since the Shrine of the Four Gods was all the way across the country. Shizuka stalked the concrete jungle of Tokyo, what others called the market section of the Nerima district. She walked with deliberate steps in the moonlight, her sandals barely making a sound. She had her trusty shotgun low toward the ground in front of her, with left hand on the barrel and right finger at the trigger. Shizuka's eyes scanned the empty street, looking for any signs of the demon. The priestess of Genbu's infamous reputation spread far and wide, and it was no wonder, since she was considered quite the troublemaker wherever she went; Shizuka jokingly proclaimed that she was 'banned' from walking into every prefecture. Somehow, though, it also enabled her to get jobs, even in places across the country. It was particularly the request of a local shrine that Shizuka track down an accursed, shape-shifting imp that managed to escape from his seal somehow. The head priest refused to divulge in the details, but somehow Shizuka knew the answer. It irked her, however, that the priest could not tell her the limitations of the imp's power. For all she knew the little pest could change into a crane and fly away, which made tracking it all the more difficult; it would mean a lot of cranes would be dead before she was through, in that case. Yet, judging from her apparent ease in tracking the imp, Shizuka knew the pest didn't shape-shift in that manner. In fact, it shape-shifted in the WRONG way. She spotted the knee-high imp tearing out of a shop, stuffing apples in his face. The blue-tinted pest appeared in the form of an upright badger, save with tiny horns on its head, and a barbed tail with many rows of spikes protruding from the end. His eyes shined with intelligence as well as greed, the imp downing his ill-gotten meal voraciously. The badger-creature's name was Kode, and it looked a little taller than Shizuka remembered. That was NOT a good sign. The demon hunter raised her shotgun, and took aim; the imp barely showed signs of recognition of the danger. "I hope you eat lead as well as the fruit," she muttered under her breath, and squeezed the trigger. Many would think the bullet was meant to kill the demon, but Shizuka alone knew that it would serve only as a distraction; mythic beasts had to be fought in mythic ways. The point was moot, however, as the badger-creature held up one claw and caught the bullet easily. Shizuka lowered her shotgun in disgust as the Kode crumpled it to dust with one effortless crush. Shouldering her firearm Shizuka reached down to the twin swords tied to her left waist. "O-kay, you're not as easy as you look." Kode's eyes narrowed, and suddenly the priestess knew she was in trouble. "Ah, you're the hunter," the creature hissed. "Those idiots sent an outsider, I see; you're not one of them." "Damn straight," Shizuka replied, pulling out her swords under-handed. "I'm your worst nightmare." "Oh puh-leeze," Kode snorted, shaking his head. "I can't be beaten by the likes of you." "Feh, to be ridiculed and insulted, it's unforgivable!" Shizuka declared angrily, rushing the enemy. --- Ranma stifled a yawn, stretching his arms up and out in the air as he walked down the stairs, moving almost automatically. Eyes closed the martial artist folded his arms behind his head, and with each step against the wooden floor he made his way out. He soon found himself standing out the back porch overlooking the yard, where he could hear the chirping of the morning birds and feel the light breeze against his cheeks. Ranma took in a deep breath, taking in the fresh morning air, a sensation that seemingly revitalized him every morning. He opened his eyes and took in the surroundings. The bushes cast long shadows into the yard, covering much of it in a light layer of darkness that marked the rising of the sun. Ranma almost expected the fish in the pond to jump up out of the water at that moment, but it was then he realized there was something wrong. There was a hand resting on the stone surrounding the pond, and the arm ran back down into the cool water. Ranma took off automatically, realizing that someone was probably drowning in the pond... or taking an idiotic bath. He landed at the rim of the pond, and stared down, deciding it was the latter. Lying in the water up to her chest was, without a doubt, Shizuka Minazuki, despite the fact her back was toward the air. Her head was resting against one of the lower rocks, keeping her from being submerged completely and drowning, with one arm slumped over the rim. Ranma caught a glint in his eye, and glanced toward his left. He saw what was likely the priestess's two swords, damp with the morning dew. Ranma realized that they did belong to Shizuka, as each weapon had a snake head molded on the end, fangs barred. If the pair of swords was not ornamental it was probably very valuable and old. It was a wonder that the crazy girl wasn't robbed blind already. Especially considering this was Shizuka. Bending his knees, he reached his right arm down and prodded Shizuka on the side of her head. "Hey," he said, "don'cha think you oughta sleep somewhere else?" "Mm? Tell that to the badger..." she mumbled, obviously out of her mind. Again. "Geez, don't you ever stay home?" Ranma asked, reaching down to pull the girl out himself. Shizuka remained limp, making it all the easier for the martial artist to pull her out of the cool water. Ranma half-lifted her out, ending up having to drag her feet out and over the rim of the pond, as Ranma was in no mood to get himself wet over this. He set the priestess down on the ground and propped her back against the rim. "Hey, you listening?" "Stop yellin', and maybe I will," Shizuka muttered groggily. She took a wild swing at Ranma, but he avoided it easily. "I'm not yelling," Ranma pointed out. Nevertheless, Shizuka covered her ears. "It's too loud." Ranma groaned, and spread his hands out wide, then clapped them together quickly. Shizuka jumped in place, startled awake from her drunken daze. "Hey!" she protested. "Figures," Ranma snorted. "The guys have been sayin' that a girl in a hakama was going around town lately. Should've guessed it was you." "Well, sue me; it's not like I'm the only one who walks around in one." "The only one YOUR age," Ranma pointed out bluntly. "Oh, you wanna fi...?" Shizuka stopped mid-sentence as she reached her right hand up her left sleeve, then realized something was wrong. "Oh shit." Ranma glanced down at the girl's sleeve, noting that there were good tears in it, at several key places. "I see you got in trouble. Again." Shizuka's eyes betrayed sadness and panic, as she picked up the bottom end of the sleeve, noting that the chord hanging there was torn. "Even the summoning beads are gone, too...." Whoever it was, they knew all about the inner pockets in Shizuka's sleeves, Ranma decided. While it was no big deal for someone like him, to a wimp like the priestess it meant her fighting ability was seriously demolished. --- Akane's eyes drifted toward the stairs as she stood in the hallway of the second floor with Ranma at her side, waiting outside the door to their own shared room. It took a good amount of convincing before any of the residents of the Tendo household could persuade the priestess to get out of her soaking clothing, but Nodoka Saotome, using her way of words, somehow did it. It was Ranma who pointed out that Shizuka didn't have any of her pre-made talisman ready, and that her clothes would have to dry first before she could mend the sleeves. On the other hand, Akane somehow got the feeling that Shizuka didn't resist so much on the idea that she would have to dry out her clothes instead of use her magic to do it for her, but the fact that she would have to put up with borrowing some of Akane's clothes in the meantime. Akane didn't like the idea any more than Shizuka did, but, as the others pointed out, her size was the best fit for the younger girl. The eerie part of it was, Shizuka had not opened the door since walking in. "Oh dear," she heard Kasumi say. Akane saw both her older sisters ascend the steps. "Has Shizuka been in there long?" "Gee, Akane," Nabiki said, "your taste isn't this bad, is it?" "How could it?" she countered. "You're the one borrowing my clothes all the time!" "C'mon," Ranma replied, sounding almost bored, "you know she's embarrassed to death." "Of what?" asked Akane. "Of putting on your girly clothes, y'know." Before Akane could react Kasumi intervened. "Is that possible?" Nabiki shrugged. "Maybe, if you consider that she's wearing the same thing all the time. Who knows when her laundry gets done...." "Hey," they heard through the door, "shut up." "What are you doing in there?" demanded Akane. "My clothes aren't THAT bad, are they?" "By the time we drag her out her clothes'll be dry," Nabiki said, shaking her head. But contrary to her words the door swung open, and Akane couldn't help but stare, and it seemed to be the same for the others. It was a short-sleeved, soft lavender dress, with white frills running in a half circle from the shoulders down the bodice. It was tied off at the waste with a white sash, with a neat bow in the back, and somewhat betrayed the girl's slender figure. The skirt was similarly laced along the rims, falling just over Shizuka's knees and matching white knee stockings. She wore arm-length white gloves, holding them neatly together in front of her as if she were presenting herself to a prospective husband. Akane looked into the girl's eyes, and saw both fear and embarrassment. Shizuka's cheeks flushed red. "Wow," was all Akane could say, blinking. It was more than obvious, however, that Shizuka was clinging to her old ways, grasping at straws when forced to improvise; she was still trying to conceal her body, as if it was taboo for her. "Uh... I... well...." "Damn," muttered Ranma, apparently also taken in by the transformation. "I guess I could've picked something MORE conservative..." the priestess rambled. "Geez, Akane," Nabiki said, "she looks better in that dress than you do." She felt her blood boil, but somehow Akane knew that Nabiki was echoing her own sentiments. It was better than RANMA looking good in it, at any rate. "You look kinda cute," said martial artist told the priestess, acting nice all of a sudden. Yet somehow Shizuka beat her to the punch, and the attack was over in the blink of an eye, with Ranma having caught a concealed sword in his hands. Shizuka's teeth grinded, her body quaking in place as if she was going to burst out and cry. "Don't call me 'cute,' buster." Slowly she withdrew her blade, and Ranma relaxed himself, sighing. Kasumi pointed a finger to a point beyond Shizuka's head. "That doesn't match your outfit." Akane's eyes followed the path her sister was making, and she realized she meant the red chord tying off Shizuka's pony-tail. She reached to tug at one of its shoelace- knot ends. There was another blur of motion, with Shizuka's sword arm, but this time it was Nabiki who caught the blade. Kasumi took the opportunity to undo the knot without resistance. "I don't believe this," the priestess muttered, her hair falling loose behind her. "I got stopped by YOU?!" "You're slow," Nabiki pointed out. Akane nodded in agreement. "Come now," Kasumi said, heading down the hall to her room, the red chord bunched in her hand, "I'll let you use some ribbon for that." Grudgingly, Shizuka lowered her sword, and followed after the eldest Tendo girl. Akane's eyes followed the two until they disappeared into Kasumi's room. "She's not just a bad girl," her other sister said, "she's bad at BEING a girl." "I could've told you that," Ranma snorted. "Worse than Ukyo; doesn't even take a compliment." "Shizuka's just like Ukyo," Akane added. "Probably more than she's willing to admit. --- "'If I had another son I'd marry him to you,'" Shizuka tongued, mimicking the very line that scored Genma a one-way ticket into orbit. "Oh please." "Geez, he was kidding already!" Ranma insisted, and he looked toward Akane, but it looked as if she wasn't buying it, either. The priestess walked ahead of the couple, after having an argument before they left the gates over Shizuka's desire to be behind the two. However, as Akane pointed out, neither of them knew where the shrine was, and Shizuka was the one who wanted to resupply her missing talisman she lost in the last fight with Kode the imp. It was not necessarily the fact that she was scared to go out, but that Shizuka didn't want the attention she was getting, as she was drawing stares from any who passed by. Even though her hearing was sub-par at best, Shizuka couldn't help but listen to passing comments and whispers from those who thought they couldn't be heard. Whether it was pity, praise, or awe, she didn't know, but the pit in her stomach said, "Pity." It got worse when some of them actually recognized her. She noted that several guys toward her left were making some sort of side bet, and making macho sounds. One of them finally got the courage to approach her, and while Shizuka would prefer to avoid the riff-raff there was nowhere to run. She felt naked without her weapons, which were left at home. "Hey, sweet thing," came the lame-o opening line. "Mind if we talk a bit?" Shizuka stopped in her tracks, and it seemed the rest of the pedestrian traffic stopped as well, waiting for her reaction. They were about to be disappointed. "How do you feel about castration?" Instantly the boy's temper flared. "That wasn't called for!" "Hey, just leave her alone," Ranma suggested. "What's she to you?" demanded the thug. "Aren't you the womanizer!" "Do you know who I am?" the martial artist asked, surprised the weenie didn't know him. "Stay out of this," Shizuka ordered him. Addressing the thug, she said, "Tell me, bud, when you see a pretty girl, you think about the many ways you can score one in bed, yes? Shallow, shallow boy." "You wanna make something of it?!" "You've been watching too much anime; things simply don't happen that way. Get a life. Better yet, go on a real date, otaku." "Why you...!" But before the thug could make good on his threatening attitude the ground seemed to collapse beneath his feet. Shizuka stared down at a perfectly circular black hole in the ground, and immediately recognized who did it before she emerged. "Shizuka, is that you?" asked Hokuto, emerging from her shadow along with a darkness-chilled thug. "That looks cute on you!" she declared, putting on her 'darling' voice. "Hokuto?" Akane gasped. "Oh great, not you again," Ranma groaned. "I could've handled him," the priestess said. "Not from where I'm standing," the Shadow Weaver replied smartly, putting one foot on the shivering thug. Bystanders were already backing away from the traveler of the darkness. Hokuto sized up Shizuka, looking up and down at her outfit. "When'd you decide to get serious?" "Shut up." "It's so nice," she added, running a hand up and down Shizuka's side, feeling the texture of the dress. Instantly touching a nerve Hokuto joined the thug on the ground, her face red from the quick blow to the cheek. "Hands off, bisexual whore." "That hurt, Shizu," Hokuto complained, rubbing her cheek. The priestess's eyes glanced toward Ranma and Akane, who were both staring without blinking, as if in shock. She glanced all around at the crowd of people, noting their stares, and suddenly her anger was replaced by embarrassment. Fixated her eyes in the space between the couple's heads she pushed her way past without another word. She didn't realize she was running until after her eyes were blinded from the tears. --- Kode enjoyed sorting through his hunter's trinkets, spilling them all out of a sack he stole from one of the stores earlier. In the solitude of the abandoned warehouse no one could disturb the badger-creature's fetishes. With a quick swipe of the claw Kode snatched up a steel card, a projectile weapon thrown by the hand with edges that could split a hair. He held it on its long side and swept away all the obvious talisman, knowing that touching one of the dangerous devices directly could sting bad. He was disappointed to see that the paper was the general consistency of the priestess/hunter's belongings. His eye caught sight of a shiny object, buried under the pile and hidden from sight before the sifting. Throwing the steel card aside Kode lifted up a string of porcelain beads, each painted a different color and glowing with mystical energy. If there was anything in the junk that would make a good meal, it was the beads. Kode opened his mouth wide, and dangled the string overhead. --- "So that's where you're hiding," Akane called, climbing her way to the top of the Tendo roof where Shizuka was sitting, obviously hurt. "There's not one damn place to hide in this city," Shizuka muttered under her breath. "Not for me, at any rate; I draw stares no matter where I go because of this stupid dress." Akane pulled herself up aside the other girl, silently offering to listen. Shizuka took her up on that offer. "It's not just because I was being nasty to Hokuto," she explained, "because she's used to it. It's... it's, wretched." "You're a girl, and yet you're not a girl," Akane finished. "That, too!" she admitted. "And because I'm also attracting boys and girls while I'm at it!" She turned and faced Akane suddenly. "Akane, allow me to challenge you!!" "W... why?" "Because if I can't beat even your sister, what good am I? I'm supposed to be the successor of the Shimozuki-school of sword-fighting!" --- Mizuki peered into Shizuka's room, concern in her eyes as she watched her charge take several practice swings, using two swords. "You know," she stated, "you don't HAVE to use both of them at once." Shizuka took another practice swing. "Hey, you gave me BOTH of them, so I'm going to use both of them. It's not my fault you can't use twins." "If you were meant to use both at once I would've taught you that way," the elder priestess said, shaking her head. "You're so difficult sometimes." --- Shizuka took a quick swing, and Akane caught it bare in her hand. "Maybe you ought to take it out of the scabbard first," she suggested, feeling absolutely no pain from parrying the sudden attack. "I've been jinxed," the priestess muttered. "Damn that badger...." "You're judging yourself too hard," Akane tried to say, but Shizuka wasn't listening. "Ever since I was born I've been dodging the bullet, the one reserved for girls," Shizuka ranted. "All there's in store for me is to become a cute housewife, learning worthless crap like flower arranging, tea ceremony, dancing... and being submissive. To a man, no less." She clenched a fist. "Bloody hell, I LOOK like a cute girl." Before she could continue, they heard a loud explosion in the distance. Smoke rose from the east, in the direction of the docks, followed by a growing mass of... whatever. Sharp claws glistened against the sunlight, made of sharp steel. The monstrosity had a distinct snout, and it quickly towered over the smoke. "Kode," Shizuka knew. She cursed, slamming her fist down on tile. "He ate my beads." "A giant badger?!" exclaimed Akane, unsure if her eyes were playing tricks on her. "Is THAT what you were trying to hunt?" "The imp's metabolism allows it to grow in size once it consumes a certain amount of energy," the priestess explained. "Sealed away Kode barely had enough energy to survive, so he was pretty puny. My summoning beads have loads of magic in them, so it's no wonder he grew so fast." Shizuka got up to her feet. "I'm going to have to get more beads, too." "Wait, Shizuka!" Akane cried, trying to reach out to the single-minded girl. "You might get killed this way!" "It's my mess, so I've got to clean it up," she replied lowly. "I'll do it, or die trying." The priestess vaulted off the roof, heading in the direction of the carnage over Akane's warnings. --- Mizuki, you were once like me, long before. You were alone, left behind, discarded, with the death of your parents. You, without any known living family were cast to the same fate as I, to become a priestess of Genbu. You were just like me, without family. You were alone, and had no one to turn to, so you took up the sword, and the lonely task of chasing down the demons rather than wait for them to come calling, as the other exorcists do. You were the first of your kind for a long time, and you had no other desire until I came into the service. I was just like you, cast out by the world, and given the lonely task of exorcism. You finally found kinship in another's company by adopting me as a younger sister. No, it went both ways; you're both my mentor and big sister. You told me how it was, to live such a lonely life. You taught me that it was better to take the initiative and find the demons before they could bring harm to people. You instilled in me a sense of justice, to help those who could not help themselves. I learned everything from you. That is, until you changed, when you entered the Genbu Tower for the sealing rite. The succession of Genbu's power rejected you, and it scarred you deeply for the rest of your life. It not only affected you, but more myself as well. You no longer took up the sword, passing it on to me to take care of. Your change of heart forced you to remain at the shrine, to tend to the functions you now hold today. You changed... you changed.... Along with that change you also fell in love. You became weak, Sister, by leaving behind all that you loved for a man. You became a senior long before your time, and all you do is carry out the whims of others where before you took initiatives. I barely recognized the changes in you. Until now. I see them clearly, for the first time. I see for the first time that I'm falling into the same trap as you, without the help of the stars of Genbu to show me the way. My heart beats for a man, and my grace is being slowly stripped-away before my eyes. Am I to become nothing more than a weakling? No! I'll cling to my freedom as long as I can. I can't lose. I can't betray service to the people for personal whims. I won't lay down the sword like you did, and I won't accept this monstrosity I'm turning into. I just wish the chamber of my shotgun would dry faster. --- "Where's Godzilla when you need him?" Ranma wondered as he stared up into the air at the giant badger monster. The demon was easily twenty-times taller than the martial artist, and things definitely weren't looking good in his direction. "We leave this all up to you!" the head priest said, the same one who hired Shizuka earlier. The cowardly, inept man was already bolting. "Right," Ranma muttered. "I've faced half-dragons to demi-gods, so giant badgers shouldn't be too bad.... I hope." The hulking giant's snout leveled downward, and Ranma saw his own reflection in the monster's eye. "I see... you're my next opponent?" he rumbled, sounding bored. "You're Kode, right?" the martial artist shouted, trying his best to fight his inner fear of getting trampled on by the beast. "Give it up, I've beaten things stronger than you!" "Were they as tall as me?" Kode sneered, rearing his left claw back, bearing steel nails. The claw came crashing down, and Ranma leaped backward as the broken concrete was scattered about from impact. Suddenly he wondered how in the world he was expected to fight the beast. "You're not going to beat him that way," he heard Shizuka say from behind. Ranma craned his neck enough to see the lavender-dressed girl out of the corner of his eye. "What're you doing here?" he demanded. "Don't you need your spells and stuff?" "I'll beat this monster, I owe him," she insisted. Shizuka withdrew one of the swords from the two sheaths hanging off her left waist, holding it overhand instead of her usual underhand. "Oh, it's you," Kode recognized, peering down at the newcomer. "And my, aren't you a sight?" "Hey, this is embarrassing enough as it is!" Shizuka cried. "I don't need demons hitting on me, too!" "Why do you think everybody's hitting on you?!" Ranma wondered, but his question went unanswered. She raised the sword up high over her head, grasping it with both hands. "Get ready! Shimozuki-school attack... Sonic Slicer!" Ranma watched Shizuka bring the sword down, and flinched a little in anticipation of a good, solid attack, but the only thing he felt was a brief slice of wind. He facefaulted. "What the hell was that?" "That's what I want to know," Kode said, also a bit confused. He lowered the claw he raised to shield his eyes, and simply stared at Shizuka intently. "Why didn't it work?" she wondered aloud, angry at herself. --- "Now Shizuka," Mizuki said, unsheathing her sword and turning her back to the younger girl, "pay close attention to what I'm about to do. Half of the technique is the form...." Unfortunately, had the older sister paid attention she would have noted that Shizuka was too busy scribbling in a sketchbook to pay attention to her sword techniques. --- "Oh shit," Shizuka cursed, remembering why she couldn't reproduce Mizuki's sword techniques. "Then why are you using those, anyway?" Ranma demanded. "Where's your shotgun or your spells or something?" "Shotgun's still drying out," she replied, "and I never got to the shrine anyway. So I couldn't prepare any spells." With the revelation of the news the badger-creature's spirits soared. "Well, then! I guess I don't have anything to worry from you." "You've still got me, imp!" Ranma cried. Cupping his hands together, he threw a huge bolt of ki. "Moko Takabisha!" Despite the fact that the energy bolt caught Kode square in the chest, it apparently did not faze him. "Was that supposed to hurt me?" "Dummy," Shizuka cried, "you can't get him like that! Kode's too powerful to get hurt by those anymore." Amidst the chaos between the two, the badger demon was trampling off in the other direction, smashing cars with his huge feet. "Then why were you trying to do it?!" Ranma demanded angrily. "I CAN do it!" Shizuka cried. "It's just... it's because I've gotten weaker. Weaker than before, that is. The whole culmination of my weakness is this dress." "Eh?" Ranma blinked in confusion. "I've become as weak as a normal, helpless girl. Weaker than your sister Nabiki. All my life I've made myself strong so I could avoid such a fate as being a weakling, but it's becoming inevitable the longer I breathe." "Shizuka," the martial artist stated plainly, "that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. You ain't getting pity from me. You think too much; that's your problem." "No, I...." "Look, you're FAR from weak, and I know it as a fact," Ranma insisted, trying his best to encourage her. "You gotta stop thinking in terms of measuring with me; of COURSE I'm better than you, but you're better than a lot of normal people are, guy or girl. Most girls run scared from mice, but you just catch them and feed them to your snake. Heck, you're not afraid of snakes, either. At least you've got the sense to look past some silly fears. Not to mention you aren't afraid to speak your mind." "And who cares about the dress, anyway? Why are you making such a big deal out of nothing? It's not like signing a death warrant or something...." "'Big deal...?' You're not the one wearing the girly dress." "I'm a guy! And besides, clothes don't make you who you are, it's you." --- "The other part of it is your mindset," finished Mizuki. "There's no simple, clear-cut way around it; the way you think affects how you fight." "You sure?" asked Shizuka, poking her head out of her sketchbook. "Shizuka, you need to learn how to focus," Mizuki told her, turning around to see that the younger girl wasn't paying attention. "I mean, it's interesting that you like to question the world and everything, but sometimes you've got to set your mind on one goal, and throw the rest away." "But that way you might miss something," the younger girl pointed out, waving a pencil in emphasis. "That's why you don't do it all the time," the elder said with a smile. "Part of training is to learn when to do and when to relent, and when to give your all." --- "Why are you quitting, Sis?" Shizuka cried, her voice filled with confusion and great sadness as she watched Mizuki store her tools of the trade in a box. "Why aren't you hunting anymore?" The elder priestess offered a smile, but Shizuka could not tell if it was genuine. "Dear Shizuka, I've found my calling. I can't continue to hunt; it's not my way." "It's that man!" the younger pouted. "He's making you quit! Why?" "Don't be so difficult!" Mizuki pleaded. "This decision wasn't made lightly; you know that as much as anyone. If I were called to do so I would continue the hunt for as long as I could... but it's over. I'm tired. I need to move on with my life. It's not like I'm going away or anything...." "But it won't be the same anymore! I need you! I can't do it by myself!" "Shizuka, if the world didn't change, mankind should have died out a long time ago... from boredom." Mizuki reached down into the box again, and produced her snake-pommel sword, the twin to the one she presented Shizuka earlier when she deemed her training period complete. She held it out carefully in both hands. "Shizuka, I want you to have this." "Because you're not going out anymore...." "It's not that," she insisted. "Whenever you take this sword out on a hunt, I'll be there to help you. Always. Remember that, Little Sister; no matter what happens I'll always be the same Mizuki as before. You can do it; you have to believe that you can, or you're doomed to fail before you even started." --- Mizuki, your calling was always to train me. What you saw in the Genbu Tower was divine inspiration to guide me on the path so I would succeed in learning the sealing rite. You knew all along, and so did I... but I never allowed myself to realize it. Yours is to watch and guide... mine is to learn and grow.... ...because you're far too mature for your age, and I'm far too immature for my age. This sword I hold in my hand, the one you gave me last of your pair... it guides my hand even now, Sis. I'm Shizuka Minazuki, and nothing changes that fact, just as nothing changes the fact that you are Mizuki, to whom I owe everything to. I am not weak. I will not count on others; I will believe in myself and defeat this demon by myself. The priestess held her sword parallel to her body in front of her, and thought back further into the recesses of her mind. Somewhere, somehow, she knew she was the successor of the Shimozuki-school of swordsmanship, despite her utter lack of dedication to the blade. She knew, despite her general disinterest in swords. I just didn't want to know them, she realized. I was too fixated on guns to care. She glared in Kode's direction, and shouted out the demon's name. The badger-creature glanced over his shoulder to see what the girl was up to, but that was all the time Shizuka was going to allow him. "Raw energy fails to harm a being as powerful as you, Kode," she knew, "but even you can't stand the force of basic nature!" Raising her sword high, she brought it down, shouting, "Sonic Slicer!" A visible, yet quick wave zoomed across the sky, booming and echoing off any surface available. Both Ranma and Kode, along with any other bystander in earshot, covered their ears from the sudden blast of sound. In the area that counted, the badger-creature collapsed onto his side on the ground, crushing and destroying even more cars, but was nonetheless disabled from the sonic attack. "Didn't expect that, did you?" Shizuka muttered, laboring for breaths for several moments. "Gotta love the bass, though; I should've learned the drums." The priestess smiled to herself, knowing that a sound-based sword technique was the last thing anyone expected out of her. It was one of the benefits of the Shimozuki-school's teachings; unlike most other sword schools its ki was not based on the absence of air, but rather the basic wave motions in physics. Of course, the trick was the user also had to get used to the noise, too. Quickly sheathing her sword, Shizuka walked to Ranma's side, as the martial artist, too, was on the ground in pain. "And you thought my singing voice was bad," she muttered, smiling slightly. --- "You should've seen it!" Ranma yelled, finishing his recounted tale of Shizuka's sudden confidence boost. It did little to help that he could barely hear himself thanks to his proximity to the Slicer attack. "Well, I would've seen it too, but I was too busy covering my ears to notice." "Oh, stop it," Shizuka scoffed, flushing in embarassment despite herself. Her eyes passed to each face of the residents of the Tendo household over dinner, as they offered her this meal out of kindness. It beat the clean-up job the shrine priests had to do in order to get the writhing Kode back in his seal. If there was something just as bad as drawing stares, it was getting praised over nothing. "Wish I were there to see it," Nabiki said, sounding a bit regretful. "It's not every day you see giant badgers crushing cars." "Around here, how can you be surprised?" Akane replied jokingly. "Oh, one more thing," Kasumi interjected. "Shizuka, your things are dry, and I went ahead and sewed-up your sleeves for you." "Thank you," the priestess said. "I've set them aside upstairs in Akane's room, so feel free to change whenever you like." "Bet you're itching to get out of that dress, huh?" Ranma whispered to her. "What?" replied the priestess aloud, for everyone else to hear. "Are you dying to see how well Akane looks in it?" "Uh, well...." "Ranma...?" Akane said, expecting an answer. "That's fine," interrupted Shizuka. "I'll be out of your guys' hair in no time." She turned to face Soun Tendo at the head of the table. "If I may be excused, sir...." --- "The world changes a lot, and so do people," Mizuki explained. "But that'll never change the fact that we are who we are." "That's the corniest thing I've ever heard," Shizuka replied, rolling her eyes. "Well, you know, there's a ring of truth to a lot of those corny sayings," the other girl said with a laugh. "Be those changes our own doing, or the doing of another, we continue to define ourselves because we have the will to do it. It's one of the things that defines us as human beings. You'll understand someday." "Yeah, after I've heard all the rest of the cornies," she scoffed. --- The door of Ranma and Akane's room shut behind her, Shizuka was glad to be away from the others, to be given a chance to make use of Mizuki's preaching. True to Kasumi's word, her clothes were folded neatly on a chair next to Akane's bed, along with her now-dry shotgun resting against its side. Yet, that hardly interested her at the moment, as the priestess turned her attention toward the standing mirror. Experimentally, as if she only just put the dress on, Shizuka ran the fabric between her gloved fingers, understanding for the first time how soft and smooth it felt despite being unable to touch it with her fingers directly. She reached to the zipper on the back of the dress, but paused, and lowered her arms. Shizuka stared at herself long and hard in the standing mirror, basking in the thought that there was something good in her appearance, after all. Well, I grant, it does look kinda cute... but it's still not me. Still, it couldn't hurt... if just for a while longer.... Her expression hardly faded as a ghostly visage appeared behind her reflection. Two coals of pupils stared back at her. "Do you find this to your liking?" Deathclaw asked finally, breaking his long silence during the entire ordeal. There was no hint of malice in the creature's tone, as Deathclaw's cavernous voice remained even throughout. The priestess closed her eyes, lowering her head slightly, feeling relieved that the ghost dragon, too, would accept this. "Yes." ----------------------------------------------- Author's Rant Okay, so it was ANC-centric (well, I'm not entirely certain if Shizuka qualifies for the standard Annoying New Character mold; sure she's annoying but she doesn't have the solution to everything... if anything she makes things worse). Jack-of-all-trades, master of none; so she can do a lot but is pretty bad at all of them. Shizuka was the only one of my characters I could see that would be actively embarrassed at the trappings of girls; it's an extension of her atypical behavior, I suppose. After a little prompting from inspiration I took this untouched issue and ran with it. I'm also looking into the same with the other characters.... -- Razorclaw X (spiceoflife@NYChotmail.com) http://www.crosswinds.net/~slythe/ranma/ranff.html