The Phoenix Saga

"Are they still back there?!"

Ranko nodded, lowering her hand from her eyes. "Yep. Staying far enough back that they don't think we notice them." She shrugged, bounding her way back down the steep but short outcropping to rejoin her wife. "I'm not worried about them, though. If they want to provide escort, it's their business. We're doing what they said, so they're not gonna mess with us. We've still got six days left, anyway, and we'll be out of here plenty before that."

Akane nodded, crawling across the sparse grass to tightly roll up the couple's purple sleeping bag. "You think they told Xian Pu we were here?"

"If they did, they did. I'm not all that concerned about it. If we see her, or we don't, I don't really care." Ranko sniped up at her wife. "So, you don't gotta get all jealous and shit. I came here with my wife, and I'm leaving with her, too, no matter what." The redhead shrugged, rinsing out the skillet that rested on a rock next to the dying campfire with a splash from a plastic water bottle. 

Grinning, Akane set about lashing the bundled sleeping bag to the back of her dirt bike. "I'm gonna hold you to that, ya know. How much further is it, you think?"

"Hard to be sure with all these trees in the way, but we're close. Half a day at most," Ranko replied. She strolled over to her own bike, unzipping her bag and rummaging around in it for a moment before pulling out a bundle of white cloth.

Akane finished tying down the sleeping bag, wiping her forehead with the sleeve of her tee shirt. "How are you doing, Ranko? Excited? Nervous? I can't imagine what would be going through my hea…" Her voice caught in her throat as she turned to face her partner. 

"I'm fine. Maybe a few butterflies." Ranko giggled. She turned her back to Akane, bending down to the ground to pick up the jeans and tee shirt she had just cast off. "What's the matter? Distracted by something?" 

"I mean…" Akane stepped forward, sliding her hand down Ranko's bare outer thigh starting at the bottom edge of her yellow cotton panties. "If you're trying to convince me to procrastinate on breaking camp, well, it's working, girlfriend."

The nearly-nude songstress purred softly at her lover's touch, her cheeks flushed. "Tempting, but no. I just wanted to change clothes." She tossed her dirty shirt and pants to Akane, using both hands to shake out the wrinkles from the white embroidered lace dress she'd retrieved from her bag. 

"Not exactly practical for traveling, is it?" Akane grinned, tossing Ranko's sweaty items aside and tying the white satin sash behind her wife's back in a large bow for her. "Not that I'm complaining."

Ranko shrugged, beaming as she looked down at herself. "Probably not, but… I dunno. After I spent so long dreaming of coming here and finding a cure for the curse, I just…" She reached behind her head, pulling her ponytail free of its elastic restraint. She gathered her hair back into a new, neater ponytail, securing it with the elastic and then decorating it with a length of white satin ribbon. "When I see Jusenkyo again, I…"

She turned to Akane, leaning forward to embrace her. "I guess I just wanted to show it that I'm proud of what it made me. What it gave me. I know, it's stupid."

Akane kissed the top of her partner's head through her sleep-matted red hair, squeezing her tight against her chest. She felt lighter somehow. Maybe she really isn't planning to do something totally insane after all, Akane thought. Gods, I hope so. 

"I don't think it's stupid at all, Ranko. I think it's super sweet. I just wish you'd told me, so I could pack something nicer for the occasion too." Akane reached down, brushing a loose strand of hair from Ranko's flushed cheek. "To tell it thank you, for giving me the most incredible gift a person has ever gotten. For giving me you."

Ranko lifted her chin, raising her arms and wrapping them around Akane's dust- and sweat-covered neck. She pulled her partner down into an open-mouthed kiss which she maintained for several seconds. 

"We should saddle up," Ranko said with a grin, squeezing Akane's hand as she broke the kiss with her breathless lover. "Before we decide to spend the day here."

Akane nodded, sweeping her bangs out of her eyes with her fingers. "Lead the way, princess." She took Ranko's hand, leading her toward the twin dirt bikes parked in the little clearing where they had made their camp the night before. 

Ranko hiked up the skirt of her dress to mount the bike, pointing to the northwest after taking her seat. "Let's get to the top of that ridge, and then I'll be able to see better and get my bearings."

Nodding, Akane donned her mint green helmet and revved her bike to life. The pair rode slowly, as the steep rocky outcropping was covered with loose gravel, and a single slip of a tire could have easily resulted in a fall, or much worse. 

When they reached the top of the stone embankment, they found it thickly forested with tall, bushy trees providing no clear path or visibility to the north or west. Ranko pointed forward rather than trying to shout over the two rumbling motorbikes and began to ride ahead, weaving between the dense spruces and pines with Akane trailing close behind.

Suddenly, Ranko slammed hard on her brakes. Her bike jerked hard left in place until it was perpendicular to the path she had just cut through the trees. She held up a closed left fist, waving it in the air in a frantic effort to signal Akane to stop. 

Akane yanked her handlebars to the left, almost laying her bike on its side. Realizing she was going to fall, she leapt free of the seat, stumbling to her feet as the rented motorbike came to rest in the grass. Akane rushed forward to Ranko, tearing off her helmet as she ran. "Baby?! What's wrong?!"

Not three meters from where Ranko's bike was parked, the forest, and the rocky ridge on which it stood, came to an abrupt end. A steep slope stretched out before the pair, descending into a narrow, verdant ravine. It was still shrouded with the mist of the crisp November morning, but when Akane strained her eyes to gaze through it, she could make out the outlines of what looked like dozens of small, roundish bodies of water.

"Akane Tendo…" Ranko pulled her helmet off, shaking her head to let her hair fall back into place. She offered her traveling companion an excited, spritely smile as she pointed down toward the foggy valley.

"Welcome to the Cursed Training Grounds of Jusenkyo."

Akane reached for Ranko's hand, giving it a squeeze. "We made it!" She gazed down at the sheer drop. "Well, almost. How the hell are we gonna get down there?!"

Ranko dismounted her vehicle, leaning it against a nearby spruce. "Leave the bikes here. We go down on foot. If memory serves, there's a path down. Just be careful, Akane. It's narrow and slippery as hell."

Akane squeezed her wife's hand again. "I won't let go of you. Ever. If you fall, I'll catch you."

Ranko smiled, her eyes turning down toward her destination. "I know, Akane. You always have."

* * *

After nearly ninety minutes of cautiously picking their way down the mountainside, the pair reached level ground. From there, it was only a few minutes' stroll until they reached a large wooden sign hand-painted with Chinese characters in bright red.

"Do you know what it says?" Ranko asked, motioning toward the sign. 

Akane shrugged. "I don't recognize all the words, but I know the big one at the top is 'warning'." 

"That tracks," Ranko said, combing a loose hair back into place with her fingers after a misty breeze had blown it into her eyes. "But I ain't scared."

I am, Akane thought, squeezing Ranko's hand tightly again as it pulled her forward. Beyond the sign, the valley widened into a clearing pocked with dozens of small springs. Each had a weathered bamboo pole jutting out of its center with a narrow sign nailed to it. The vertical signs featured bold black Chinese characters, and each had the same first character. Spring, Akane wagered mentally. At the top of each sign was an icon featuring some sort of animal. The closest two depicted the silhouettes of a deer and a chicken. 

"Well, the signs are new," Ranko said, smiling as her gaze panned the valley. "That's cool. Hey, c'mere a minute and help me with something?"

Ranko led her wife away from the springs to a small field of wildflowers along their edge. She lowered herself gently to her knees at its edge, beginning to pick a few lilies and orchids with long stems. 

Akane stooped, plucking a single deep purple orchid from its stalk. She strode over to her kneeling wife, reaching down and stroking Ranko's cheek. When Ranko looked up from her work, Akane tucked the flower into her hair just over her left ear. "There. For my beautiful orchid girl."

Ranko blushed furiously, gathering her armful of flowers. "Always and forever, Akane." She carried the flowers to a boulder a few meters away and set about braiding their stalks together. 

"Whatcha doin'?" Akane watched, grinning ear-to-ear. After all this time, Ranma Saotome finally returns to Jusenkyo, not to find a cure… but to do flower arranging in a lace dress. Who could have ever imagined it?

"You'll see," Ranko promised, bending her braid of flowers inward. A few moments later, she had finished weaving the stalks together until the flowers formed a ring half a meter in diameter. She reached up, pulling the white satin ribbon from her wind-mussed ponytail and tying it around one side of the ring to help bind it together. "C'mon," she said, offering her hand to Akane. 

The pair weaved between springs, carefully watching their every step. They passed between springs with signs bearing the silhouettes of pigs and cats, ducks and kangaroos, elks and crocodiles. One sign featured two columns of writing instead of one, and had multiple icons at its top. 

"The hell?" Akane pointed to the sign, scratching her head. "Looks like an eel, a crane, an ox, and… what is that, maybe a Bigfoot or something? What the…"

Ranko cringed, widening the radius around which she circumnavigated the spring. "Hell if I know, but man, anybody falling in that spring is gonna be hating life for sure. No thank you."

"Wait, didn't we already pass a chicken spring?" Akane asked curiously, gesturing to one of the signs on her left.

Ranko shrugged. "I guess there's no rule that says there can't be more than one of the same spring. It's not like chickens are especially bright." After passing springs labeled with icons of rats and sheep, Ranko chuckled, motioning to a sign off to her right. "Hey, do you need to pee or anything?"

Akane laughed, rolling her eyes as she passed the spring Ranko indicated, and the sign denoting it as the Spring of Drowned Panda. The pair snaked between springs labeled with signs depicting wolves and yaks, falcons and foxes, until Akane stopped, pointing to one of the signs. "Ranko," she said, giving her wife's hand a little tug.

Ranko's eyes followed her wife's pointing finger to a sign featuring not the silhouette of an animal, but the stick figure of a human. It would not have looked at all out of place on the door of a train station men's room. 

"The Spring of Drowned Man," Ranko said, a quiet reverence in her voice. "There it is."

Akane squeezed Ranko's hand tightly, gazing over the still water. "To think, all those years you spent dreaming of finding it. You, your dad, Mu Tsu…"

Ryoga, Ranko added to her wife's list in her mind. "Yep." She tugged on her wife's hand. "But it's not what we're here for today. C'mon. Let's keep looking."

Akane nodded and followed, though her eyes lingered on the dark water for a few more steps before turning her head forward again. Her thoughts raced, but she willed the storm in her mind to quell as the woman holding her hand dropped to her knees. 

Akane turned her eyes back to Ranko. Her wife knelt at the water's edge of an oblong oval spring. A small cluster of lilies grew on the far bank. The sign featured an icon not unlike the one they'd just passed, but this one looked like the sign on the women's bathroom in most public places, complete with the skirt. 

"The Spring of Drowned Girl," Akane said, her voice barely audible. "This is where…"

Ranko nodded, leaning forward over the surface of the water. 

"Be careful!" Akane shouted. "It probably can't hurt you now, but…"

"I'll be okay," Ranko said softly, lowering the wreath of flowers in her hand to the surface of the water and nudging it away from the bank with a thin twig. She lowered herself until her forehead rested on the ground, her hands outstretched until they were mere centimeters from the water's edge. 

Thank you, Ranko thought in silent prayer. I don't know who you were, that drowned here all those years ago, but… thank you. You gave your life so that one day, I could have mine. I hope I'm making you proud. I don't know how many people leave this place feeling like they received a blessing and not a curse here. I know I didn't feel that way when it first happened, but I do now. Whatever it is about this spring, this magic, that did this…

I don't know if I carry a part of you inside me, but I'd like to think so. I'd like to think that my choice to embrace what you gave me is letting you live through me, in a way. I owe you everything. Akane, my family, my career, all of it is ultimately because I came here. Because I came to the place where your soul died, mine could finally be born. 

I hope, whoever you were, wherever you are, you're smiling on me. In a way, you're my ancestor too, just as much as any Saotome or Shimizu is. I don't know how many 'daughters' you've had over the millennia, but I hope this one is making you proud. I'm trying every day, I promise. 

Standing just behind her wife, Akane wiped a tear from her eyes as she watched in silence. She waited there for the better part of twenty minutes before Ranko stood, brushing the silt from her bare knees. 

Akane stepped forward, wrapping her arms around Ranko as she turned away from the water's edge. "Hey. You okay? Anything you need to talk about?"

Ranko shook her head, flashing Akane a soft smile. "I'm alright," Ranko said, glancing back at the water. The floral wreath had reached the center of the spring, coming to rest against the bamboo pole that, six years earlier, a fifteen-year-old boy's bare foot had slipped from and changed her destiny forever. 

"I've never been better."

Akane squeezed her partner tight in her arms, sniffling quietly as a tear snaked its way down her dusty left cheek. "Ranko Tendo, if I live to be a thousand years old, I will never find a way to tell you enough just how much I love you, and how proud of you I am. You know that, right?"

Blushing, Ranko answered in her singing voice, wiping a tear from the corner of her eyes. "There are no words big enough for how I feel."

"Exactly," Akane said, punctuated by a quiet laugh. "So now wh…"

Akane was interrupted by the sound of a man yelling behind her. She did not understand his words, but she turned to spy a portly man in drab olive green pants and a cream-colored polo shirt sprinting toward them. He was carrying a large brown paper bag in his arms. He weaved between the springs at a full run as if he had done so his whole life, showing no sign of the caution that the dangerous training site and the multitude of curses it could confer warranted.

"Ranko, is that…"

The redhead nodded, smiling at Akane. "The Jusenkyo Guide." She giggled, hugging Akane's arm. "Looks like he's lost some weight since I saw him last."

The man reached the pair of girls a few moments later, his chest heaving with exertion. He shouted at them in Chinese, putting his bag on the ground and pointing at the spring insistently. 

"Do you speak Japanese?" Akane asked in her native tongue. 

"Don't bother," Ranko said quietly, shaking her head. "Pop and I tried that last time." She smirked with the formation of an idea as she remembered the couple's interaction with the Amazon scouting party two nights prior. "English?" she asked the man hopefully. 

"Oh! Yes!" he replied in English. "Stay away from the sp… wait. I recognize you. You already fell in that spring, didn't you?!"

Ranko nodded, smiling. "Six years ago. I was here with my father. He fell in the…"

"Panda spring," the guide replied with a smile. "I remember. I suppose you've come looking for the Spring of Drowned Man? I can show you…"

The redhead shook her head, a grin forming on her lips. "No, thank you. I'm actually…" Ranko looked up into Akane's eyes, her own sparkling with joy. "I'm very happy the way I am." 

She released her wife's hand, taking a tentative step toward the man she'd traveled more than three thousand kilometers over land and air to see. 

"The thing is… a little more than a year ago, the curse just… stopped working. And this is just… what I am now. And, like, I don't want to fix it, but I was hoping you might understand what happened. I came back here looking for answers."

Nodding sagely, the rotund man bent down to the ground, scooping up his bag of groceries. "You'd better come inside," he said, turning toward the hut at the back of the valley and gesturing for the girls to follow. 

"We have a lot to talk about."