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HEARTS AND MINDS
PART TEN
Ranma 1/2 manga fanfiction
by Gary Kleppe
The characters of Ranma 1/2 are the creation of and rightful property of Rumiko Takahashi. They are used here without permission. This story may be freely redistributed, but it should not be altered substantially or used for profit in any way.
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Kodachi stood in the darkened bedroom, gazing at the slumbering faces dimly illuminated in moonlight. Hikaru and Ririko. That's what Ranma had said their names were. They lay almost soundlessly sprawled out on their futons, even their breathing barely audible. So very adorable. So very precious. So very... vulnerable. Kodachi smiled.
From what she'd been able to glean, Ranma was still out of the country. Kasumi, the priestess who knew secrets that might be able to counter Kodachi's weaponry, was with him. The other one, the skater who had managed to turn Kodachi's pets against her, was still in town, but not in this house. The only ones present were two of the children's grandparents, and they would be sleeping at this hour. Kodachi could do whatever she liked here, and by the time they even knew about it she would be long gone.
But what would that be? In situations like this, Kodachi relied on her own instinct to guide her actions. It was an inner sense that would always provide her with the appropriate action to take when she listened to it. But now no such inspiration seemed to be forthcoming. This was dismaying. Had she finally developed that most pathological of psychiatric disorders, a conscience?
No. Rules of right and wrong were nothing more than constraints set up by society in order to confine its members to narrow, limited paths. Kodachi was above and beyond such things. The one law she lived by stated that she was Kuno Kodachi, the Black Rose. That was reason enough to do anything, and it was reason enough to refrain from doing anything.
And that, she realized, was where she had gone wrong. It was a self-imposed rule, but an ironclad one: she had to be who she was. And she had violated it, both earlier and now. She had attacked her former rivals with transformation water out of a desire for revenge over her losing Ranma, and her coming here tonight was also to take revenge for her later defeat by the skater.
This was not her. Revenge was the province of the weak and fearful, always. It was a way of trying to deter one's opponent from wanting to engage in future contests, used when one feared not being able to compete in such contests. It was not Kuno Kodachi. To seek revenge for a past defeat subsumed that one had been defeated. She knew the right way to deal with defeat; it did not exist if one simply refused to allow it to.
Kodachi knew exactly what to do. Silently, she searched across the children's desks for some suitable items to utilize.
______
PART TEN
Ranma 1/2 manga fanfiction
by Gary Kleppe
The characters of Ranma 1/2 are the creation of and rightful property of Rumiko Takahashi. They are used here without permission. This story may be freely redistributed, but it should not be altered substantially or used for profit in any way.
______
Kodachi stood in the darkened bedroom, gazing at the slumbering faces dimly illuminated in moonlight. Hikaru and Ririko. That's what Ranma had said their names were. They lay almost soundlessly sprawled out on their futons, even their breathing barely audible. So very adorable. So very precious. So very... vulnerable. Kodachi smiled.
From what she'd been able to glean, Ranma was still out of the country. Kasumi, the priestess who knew secrets that might be able to counter Kodachi's weaponry, was with him. The other one, the skater who had managed to turn Kodachi's pets against her, was still in town, but not in this house. The only ones present were two of the children's grandparents, and they would be sleeping at this hour. Kodachi could do whatever she liked here, and by the time they even knew about it she would be long gone.
But what would that be? In situations like this, Kodachi relied on her own instinct to guide her actions. It was an inner sense that would always provide her with the appropriate action to take when she listened to it. But now no such inspiration seemed to be forthcoming. This was dismaying. Had she finally developed that most pathological of psychiatric disorders, a conscience?
No. Rules of right and wrong were nothing more than constraints set up by society in order to confine its members to narrow, limited paths. Kodachi was above and beyond such things. The one law she lived by stated that she was Kuno Kodachi, the Black Rose. That was reason enough to do anything, and it was reason enough to refrain from doing anything.
And that, she realized, was where she had gone wrong. It was a self-imposed rule, but an ironclad one: she had to be who she was. And she had violated it, both earlier and now. She had attacked her former rivals with transformation water out of a desire for revenge over her losing Ranma, and her coming here tonight was also to take revenge for her later defeat by the skater.
This was not her. Revenge was the province of the weak and fearful, always. It was a way of trying to deter one's opponent from wanting to engage in future contests, used when one feared not being able to compete in such contests. It was not Kuno Kodachi. To seek revenge for a past defeat subsumed that one had been defeated. She knew the right way to deal with defeat; it did not exist if one simply refused to allow it to.
Kodachi knew exactly what to do. Silently, she searched across the children's desks for some suitable items to utilize.
______
