A Change in Him: Chapter 23

Author: Null Factor

This story contains scenes of explicit sex, naughty words, and other horrible, offensive things.  If you are underage in your house, village, town, city, community, state, province, country, or continent: READ NO FURTHER!  If that type of thing offends your tender sensibilities, or you are stupid: READ NO FURTHER!  All characters are the copyright of their respective creators and/or owners; no copyright infringement is intended by this story.  Any resemblance to people, places, or situations alive, dead, or otherwise is purely coincidental.

Chapter 23

Approximately One Hour Later

Ranma and Silk looked at one another, panting in reaction to their extreme exertions over the past hour. Currently they were standing on the roof of Furinkan High School and Ranma tensed when he saw his adversary raise her hand, ready for some kind of attack, but instead she just raised it palm out in a calming gesture. “How about a break, Ranma-kun?”

“A break?! You gettin’ old, Silk?”

“That might be a more acceptable question if you yourself weren’t gasping for air at the moment. Let’s just take a moment and talk this over for a bit, all right?”

Ranma squinted at her suspiciously for a moment before slowly nodding his head and saying, “OK, but you better not try anything sneaky.”

“I swear, Ranma, no tricks. Let’s just take a breather and...discuss some things.” Seeing the teenager nod, Silk sat down on the edge of the roof with a sigh of relief. Wincing she touched a few of the bumps and bruises she had picked up in their battle, the most painful being a red, raised welt visible across her abdomen where Ranma had just barely missed with a hand attack that he had learned from the book she was seeking. The user vibrated the ki in their hands so fast that it allowed them to slice through most substances. He had come close to nailing her with it, cutting a neat gash through the fabric of her shirt and nearly doing the same to her skin as well. The metal girders behind her in the construction site they had been fighting in at the time had been bisected with ease. “I’m starting to regret teaching you to fight women seriously, Ranma-kun,” She commented with a chuckle.

Ranma sat down next to the woman he had been battling so hard only moments before and rubbed the swelling bruise on his jaw as he commented, “Yeah, well. I don’t remember you taking it easy on me out there either, ya know.”

“Mmm,” Silk murmured noncommittally and the two were silent for a few minutes, simply catching their breaths and letting the cold of the November night take away the heat from their bodies that the one-on-one combat had been generating. Eventually, though, Silk turned her green eyes on Ranma. “You know we’re never going to give up on getting that book back, don’t you? Even if you beat me, the Council will just send others. Others who won’t be as concerned with fighting you face-to-face to get back what’s ours.”

“It’s mine,” Ranma growled stubbornly. “That stupid guardian thing said so. It goes, ‘Take this as your own, Champion. Take it and learn its wisdom to achieve the next level on your path.’ I was just doin’ what it said.” Unconsciously Ranma’s right hand moved along his chest where he had received the vicious scar during his stay in China.

Silk looked at Ranma with a slight degree of exasperation, “Ranma-kun, the guardian says that to anyone who defeats it; it wasn’t a message directed specifically at you. The champions were always supposed to be Amazons, not outsiders. No one really expects the person to just walk off with the book. It’s a sacred magical treasure, for god’s sake!”

“Really?” Ranma was clearly surprised by this revelation. “Well, how come nobody told me?”

Silk had to laugh at Ranma’s naiveté. “Because we never thought you’d go off and attack the thing on your own! There’s a whole set of rituals and stages you’re supposed to go through that would’ve explained all this, but you skipped everything and jumped right into battling the guardian!”

“How the Hell was I supposed to know?!” Ranma yelled defensively. “You said I could take it on whenever I wanted!!”

“I never thought you would, though! Or that if you did you’d at least mention that little matter to me first!” Silk had to laugh again. “Look, Ranma-kun. We all thought that you’d be on the island for years before you’d be prepared enough to face the guardian; even with your natural abilities and great learning curve for martial arts. We honestly couldn’t believe you’d been able to defeat the guardian when we found the book gone the next morning.” She paused glancing over at the teenager beside her, then went on in a gentler tone, “And to be truthful when we found all that blood, well...Most of the Council figured we’d find your body within a couple of minutes from the village. My girls were pretty broke up when they were told you were probably dead.”

Ranma’s face flushed at that and his hand redoubled its rubbing of his scar. “Aww,” he finally muttered. “It wasn’t all that bad. I heal pretty quick.” The two sat in silence for a few more minutes before Ranma finally sighed. “I guess I gotta give you that book back, huh?”

“Yes, Ranma-kun. You really do.”

“Well,” Ranma popped to his feet already mostly recovered from their duel. “That’s that then; I ain’t no thief.” Unlike Pops. “Let’s go back and I’ll get ya that book before my old man pawns it or somethin’. It’s too bad, though. I was pickin’ up some great stuff from it and I barely even started getting into it.” At least I still got the book I got from the old perv. It don’t have everything the big one does, but at least it’s in Japanese. He paused for a moment and then looked directly at Silk, “I really didn’t know, you know. About the guardian’s speech, and how important the book was and all that. I really thought it was OK, and I figured, ya know, after all I’d been through...I don’t know, like it was a reward or something.” Ranma’s eyes were clear and honest as he looked at Silk desperate for her to understand; to know the difference between him and his father.

“I know, Ranma. I know.” Silk stood up and put her hand on the teenager’s shoulder in reassurance for a moment. Then the two martial artists quietly began walking across the school roof, ready to make their way back to the Tendo Dojo. “What is it?” Silk asked when her companion suddenly burst out laughing.

“I was just thinking that this is really gonna hurt my learning Chinese,” he replied with a grin. “It was just startin’ to come a bit easier, too. Oh well, I’m sure Shampoo will be willin’ to give me some lessons. Too willin’ probably. What’s with you?” He asked in confusion as he noticed Silk had abruptly stopped walking along with him. The teenager began to get nervous when he noticed the worried expression on Silk’s face.

“Ranma,” she began. “I’m going to ask you some questions. Maybe some personal questions, but I need you to be 100% honest with me, OK? I swear to you that it’s important.”

“All right.”

Silk paused as if uncertain how to proceed for a moment before asking; “Ranma I’d like you to tell me exactly how you’ve been studying the book, since I know your Chinese isn’t all that great.”

“It’s terrible,” Ranma agreed readily. “But getting’ better.” He shrugged, “Well, OK, but I really don’t see the big deal in...”

“It’s important, Ranma-kun. Please tell me.”

Ranma shrugged again and then briefly went over his learning techniques: studying the various charts in the book, using a Chinese-Japanese dictionary to translate the various characters that seemed important, then using personal experience to guide him from there.

Silk nodded her head in understanding, her skin beginning to pale even in the chill night air. “So you never read the first part of the book?”

“Nah, I couldn’t understand any of that crap so I just skipped ahead to the ki charts.”

“And you never had Shampoo or Cologne help you with it?” The redhead was definitely starting to look a bit sickly.

“No way!” Ranma was starting to get edgy and defensive as he noticed the effect his answers were having on the beautiful older woman. “If I had asked them for help they would’ve asked me a ton of questions and I promised not to say anything about you guys or your island. Besides...” The teenager looked down at the ground. “I kinda wanted to do it on my own, ya know? All my life I’ve always been learnin’ stuff from other people: Pops, the ghoul, you guys. This was my chance to work stuff out by myself, to see if I could do it, ya know, independent like.”

“I...I can appreciate that feeling, Ranma,” The Amazon said carefully. “But this is not the time for pride anymore, or for embarrassment. When you said you learned from personal experience, what exactly did you mean? Exactly, Ranma-kun.”

The teen martial artist squirmed under the force of Silk’s gaze, but eventually choked out, “Well...I mean, I did do some stuff, ya know, with myself. But...It was kinda difficult to see the effects, so...So I kinda tried some stuff out...Ya know, with other people. But I figured it was OK!” Ranma hurried to explain to his companion who had slowly sunk to a cross-legged position in the middle of the roof, her lips moving in a silent prayer. “When I was with you guys we did it all the time! You, me, Rapier, Velvet, the others; we were always practicin’ ki techniques that way! ‘What can be used to kill, can also be used to caress; what is deadly can also be delightful,’ you always said!”

Silk nodded her head in understanding, simultaneously pointing to a spot on the roof in front of her where Ranma slowly sat down. There was silence between the two warriors for a few minutes, a total quiet except for the passing sounds of the surrounding city at night and the light rustling of the late fall breeze through fallen leaves. “Ranma,” the red-headed Amazon finally said. “When I first came to the Tendo house I could see your...influence on the Tendo girls, Kasumi and Nabiki. Then when I came to the dojo tonight I saw similar evidence with Shampoo and Ukyou. I assume that means they were the ‘other people’ you practiced the ki techniques with?” At Ranma’s short nod she then asked, “Is there anyone else?”

“Uh...One more,” he admitted. “But not as much as...Well, as with the others.”

“OK,” Silk was talking so calmly it was clear she was actively forcing herself not to be emotional. “Now from what you said when you were staying with us I know Ukyou and Shampoo have always been quite attracted to you. How about Kasumi, Nabiki, and the other one, I’m assuming she is a girl, isn’t she?” Ranma nodded once again, so she went on. “What were these three other girl’s feelings toward you, before you started...training with them?”

“Well the other girl was like...Well, like Ukyou and Shampoo, you know. Always jumpin’ on me and huggin’ me and stuff. Kasumi liked me I guess, but I don’t know, maybe like a brother I always thought.” His eyes narrowed in thought, “Though, I gotta admit she was the one who started the, uh...The trainin’ I guess. So I don’t know, maybe...”

“All right. How about Nabiki?”

Ranma frowned at that question. If there was anyone who was difficult to read it was the Ice Queen of Furinkan High. Finally he shrugged, “I got no idea. To be honest, the only thing she ever seems to care much about is money.”

“But she’s been...responsive in the training? Enthusiastic maybe?”

“Oh, yeah. Definitely!”

Silk had to chuckle at Ranma’s smug smile that accompanied his response, but she quickly turned serious again. “And these...practice sessions, have they been together? As a group? Or...?”

“Are you crazy?! A group?!!” Ranma nearly shot to his feet again in consternation at the idea. “Ukyou, Shampoo and Kodachi all want to kill each other just as much as they want to marry me! Nabiki would sell me down the river a half-a-second after she found out I was screwing the others! And Kasumi...” the teenagers hook his head in confusion, his black pigtail flipping from side to side. “I can’t even imagine it! Kami! I can’t even believe we’re...training as it is!”

“Calm down, Ranma-kun. Calm down.” While Ranma settled down, Silk observed. “So the other person’s name is Kodachi?”

“Yeah,” Ranma’s voice was sour as he realized he had opened his big mouth too wide for his own good once again.

“So you’ve always been with them one-on-one?”

“Yeah. What now?” That sharp question was in response to Silk’s moan of despair as she dropped her head into her hands. “What’s wrong?!”

The green-eyed Amazon eventually lifted her head and looked directly into Ranma’s blue ones. “How is it possible for you to be so highly skilled at so many impossibly difficult things, to do so many things right, with the best of intentions, but have the worst possible results?” She asked desperately.

Ranma shrugged, used to such results in his life. “It’s a gift, I guess. A real evil one, but a gift. Now, do you mind tellin’ me just what exactly it is I did that was so bad, or do you want me to guess?”

“Well,” Silk began with a sigh. “If you had bothered to read the first sections in the book, or had them translated for you, or...”

“Hey, look! I already told ya...”

Silk silenced his with an upraised hand. “OK, sorry, Ranma-kun. I promise, no more blaming you or complaining. But I think we have a very serious problem and we’re going to need to work together to fix it. So please listen carefully as I explain some things.” Ranma nodded in comprehension so she went on. “All right. Hmm, what’s the easiest ways to put this? Let’s see...OK, Ranma. You know everyone has different genes, right?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“All right, then. It is these differences, along with one’s upbringing, life experiences, and so on that helps make them the person they are. There are, however, also basic tendencies specific to the male and female genders. Now these tendencies are very general and are overall swamped in the variety among individuals, you understand?” Seeing the pained, lost look on Ranma’s face she chuckled. “OK, Ranma. Let’s put it like this. Overall, statistically, who is more muscular and stronger; men or women?”

“Men, of course.”

“Are all men stronger than all women?”

Ranma snorted, “No way! There’s this loser in my class, Gosunkugi. He’s such a wuss that a first grader could take him out! And look at Akane. She’s a girl...Well, sorta, but anyway she’s stronger than any of the guys in school. Except me, of course.”

Silk nodded her head, “That’s it exactly. So, there are overall trends, but they’re not true in every individual case. Are you with me so far?”

“Yeah, OK, but I don’t really see...”

“I’m getting there. One different tendency between the sexes is their approach to relationships. For biological reasons, the need to have children before a certain age, the need to care for that child over a long period of time and so on, women overall tend to look for a single man to be their companion, help them raise a family, protect them and so on. Men, in general, have the opposite desire. They are able to produce children late in life, don’t have the same close, emotional bond to their children that mothers do, so, in order to spread their DNA as widely as possible males are basically geared toward having a number of mates. Do you understand?”

“I guess...” Ranma was starting to get very, very nervous. Due to his past experiences any mention of things that smacked of commitment tended to make him a bit twitchy. And all this talk of families, mates, children, and so on was making his danger sense pound like nobody’s business.

“Well, the first part of the book explained about these different tendencies and gave advice on how to utilize them or avoid them while practicing its techniques. You see, repetition always reinforces an effect, but that is enhanced even more strongly when one follows the natural flow of ki in an individual’s body, whether that is due to individual makeup or the general trend of a species or gender.”

Ranma was starting to get the same sickly expression on his face that Silk had been sporting earlier. “So, what you’re saying is...Since I used those ki techniques during...sex. And since I was using those techniques to increase pleasure. And since for some of my...partners that was their natural feeling toward me anyway. And since for all of them it’s the general tendency of women. Since all of that, I...I...I...”

Silk nodded her head. “You’ve almost certainly done a remarkably good job in locking all of them in to you as their sole possible mate for life.” Silk watched as Ranma’s eyes slowly glazed over and he toppled backwards to land with a solid THUMP!! on the cold, hard surface of the Furinkan High roof.