Disclaimer: Danger, danger. High voltage. When we touch, when we kiss!

NB: Sorry about the double alert, had to redo my breaks as remove them.

Chapter 13 - Wrinkle

The problem Ranma reflected was that the people he was asking for tips on ki manipulation for the most part were only adepts like he was or had fallen so out of practice much like Soun Tendo had that they could only use their ki for the most basic of things such as Soun's infamous demon head attack. What Ranma really needed for his plan was a master. Someone who had many years, maybe even a lifetime, of practice with the energy of life and the elements. One of his other problems was that the only two masters he knew of were Cologne and Happousai, one of which he wanted to avoid just due to the sheer unpleasantness of being near the man let alone asking him for help and the other he wanted to avoid as much contact as posible with so that the current fiance situation didn't deteriorate any further than it had already.

With those two in his mind out of the running as candidates for assistance with his current dilemma's he would have to look further afield to places like temples with a long history or possibly demon hunter group's headquarters. This of course let rise to another set of problems, first he had to find a temple with a ki master who would be able and willing to assist him and one whose temple hadn't been screwed over in the past by his fat free loading father. The demon hunters he wasn't too sure on either as he was fairly certain they were using magic and not ki to take out their quarry. It didn't really make much sense in his mind at least to go around throwing life force energy at a demon, which absorbed life energy for the most part, as a way of exterminating them.

On top of all these problems of course was the main issue that Ranma faced. Time. Time was his biggest enemy in this fight. Most of the masters in ki in the world had been studying for decades in order to gain their current levels of mastery over their own bodies and the energy of the world around them. He didn't have years though. In fact he was fairly certain he didnt even have weeks or many days left let alone a few months of a year. Even if he trained for most of the day for the rest of the holidays before they went back to Furikan he would still most likely not be anywhere near as progressed as he needed to be. That said though there wasn't much that motivated Ranma to succeed more than a fight with the odds stacked heavily against him.

Just because the whole mess he was in now through mostly but not entirely no fault of his own wasn't a fight between him and another martial artist didn't mean that he couldn't think of it like he would when trying to take down an opponent. It also helped that he was feeling a bit better about the whole situation now that he had talked to Ukyo, that had been a conversation that he hadn't been looking forward to, but thinking back about it he was glad he hadn't delayed doing so.

The bell rang with a slight tinkle as Ranma pushed open the door and entered into Ucchan's to have a conversation he'd been putting off with the proprietor. He heard Ukyo start her normal 'Welcome to Ucchan's' spiel before she finished raising her head to look at her next customer and noticed who it was. The rest of her usual greeting petered off and worry seemed to flash in her eyes before she seemed to take a hold of herself and look at him directly.

Ranma having finished walking up to the bar that ran alongside the grill sat down on the stool in front of the chef and kept his eyes directly on her. His uncertainty at being able to handle the conversation that was about to eventuate was a hard knot in his stomach and he had to take a hold of himself and almost assumed the void in order to calm his nerves. Looking directly at her he noticed that Ukyo seemed to have some trouble meeting his eyes, maybe she felt a bit more guilty than he had originally thought?

Breaking the silence first Ranma stated "Hiya Ukyo, I thought I should come by some time and talk to you about what happened the other day." The lack of nickname seemed to startle her for a moment before a small fire lit itself in her eyes as she glared at him.

"What happened? Well as far as I'm concerned all I did was prevent someone stealing my fiancé!" She belted out at him as he presented a calm outer face to her. She coloured slightly in embarrassment under his gaze at the outburst, and quickly glanced around her store to make sure no one had been interrupted. "I mean, I didn't really think everyone else was going to turn up as well, but I guess these sorts of things just follow you around don't they Ran-chan? Not to mention I hadn't seen you since you ran off to China to do Kami knows what without so much as a word my way?"

Ranma had to concede the last point, he hadn't exactly had time to pass the information on though what with how quick things had gotten out of hand he still had his point to make though "Yeah, that's all well and good, but I still don't see how that justify's you going against the code of the martial artist, or do you not even bother with the Bushido?" His tone was slightly harsh and a little bit sarcastic, but that was probably the only way he was going to be able to get her to think about this. Once she stopped gaping at him like a fish anyway.

"Bu-bu-but," was all she stuttered out before her knuckles tightened around her spatula handles in anger "Where the hell do you get off lecturing me on Bushido? Huh? I've always followed the code of martial arts! I've sacrificed most of my life living as a man just so I could reclaim my honour from you two!" She looked like she was ready to blow at any moment though he stopped her from going further with only a sentence.

"If it is so important to you what were you doing in the dojo with those explosives?" He sat, waiting for an answer, while her mouth kept opening and closing with no words exiting it. Seeing if he could possible drive his point home a little more strongly he continued "There were plenty of non-combatants in there and between you and Shampoo you could have brought the entire dojo down on everyone! You could have killed the priest! A man of the Kami! Did you even bother to think that you could have possibly found out what was going on before you blew the place up? How do you even know me and Akane weren't being forced into the marriage?" His questions flew thick and fast, keeping her off balance and unable to properly formulate a reply.

He wasn't entirely sure, being no expert himself on the emotions of others, but it looked like she had felt guilty about the act at least subconsciously and that had been part of why she hadn't called him out on his avoidance of her café. The tears that were slowly building in her eyes might have also been a hint as well. Ranma sighed while keeping his eyes on her "I'm sorry Ukyo, I didn't mean to upset you like this, but I needed to point this out to you. I don't know if you've even thought about this yourself but what you did caused a lot of damage, put a lot of people in danger and caused me to question your judgement, how can I ask you to help me in the future if I cant trust you not to fly off the handle like that again?" He finished up his argument while still looking her in the eyes.

Ukyo had gone completely still while listening to him it seemed, almost not even daring to breathe as if she feared the next words out of his mouth would be unbearable for her. As he finished though she seemed to loosen up and even smiled at him timidly. "I guess I can understand where you're coming from then Ran-chan. Especially if you want my help, after all I'm one of the best around," she finished off with a wink at him. Ranma in turn gave her a small smile "Well I'm glad we had this talk then."

She seemed to frown at the abrupt end of the conversation and said "Are you leaving already? You're not even going to get something to eat?" Ranma stood up from the stool and pushed back from the grill. "I've gotta get going, I missed a fair bit of class so Hinako is helping me make up for it," which while not being completely false had enough truth in it that he was comfortable with the partial lie unlike his usual difficulty.

"Well come back again soon will you hon? I still want to hear about your latest adventure and everything, if the tales as good as I think it'll be I'll even through in a freebie." Ukyo seemed to rally obviously knowing that one of the easiest ways to get through to Ranma was through his mouth. He smirked back at her "Sure thing, I'll be sure to tell you all about it," the bell rang above his head as he opened and shut the door to restaurant.

The problem he mused as he walked away was that regardless of what she'd just said he couldn't trust his old best friend without her having ulterior motives, her attitude just gave her away even to him, as blind as he was to these things. Not that he could blame her for that; it was just going to make everything more difficult when the time came.

Ranma couldn't believe how long he'd managed to pull his subterfuge off for. Of course with his lack of education he didn't really think of it like or even use words that were close to that effect, but the spirit was there. He was in one of his newest favourite places in Nerima, the Shakujin Park. The park was huge taking up around 20 hectares of land and was well known for its birdlife and ponds. The place Ranma was really interested in though was the Sanpoji Temple which was a little east of the Ikefuchi Historical Park. The temple was around 700 years old and had a collection of monks who had been able to help him in his quest for mastery over his inner energies.

Funnily enough it had been Kasumi who had been able to help him with his quest when she noticed him looking over tourist brochures for the area in a search for information on the local temples. She'd told him there was an old temple in the Shakujin park that had been moved there many generations ago and that as child she and her parents and been past it on their walks through the large park. Ranma had considered it for a while, matching it up against the criteria for age as well as the fact that there wasn't many other options and decided to check it out and now a couple of weeks later he was still able to get there undetected. At least as far as he could tell.

He strolled through the park taking in the sounds of the birds and watching the summer breeze move through the trees overhead while others in the park hired paddle boats to transverse the large Shakujii pond or looked at the Azaleas scattered over the grounds. The park was always open all year round and drew many avid bird watchers who enjoyed watching the exuberant number of waterfowl and other bird life.

In the distance he could see the Shakujii castle over the tops of the green leafy trees as he approached the Tora on the path to the temple. He made his way up the short set of steps and bowed at the entrance before heading over to the main shrine to pay his brief respects as a practitioner in his own of Bushido, not to mention after all the supernatural and wacky stuff he'd had thrown his way some preyers certainly could help. Having completed his message and finishing of with two bows and claps he turned around and nearly jumped out of his skin as he came face to face with the old man in charge of the shrine.

"Sheesh old man! What have I told you about sneaking up on me like that! Ya gonna give me a heart attack one of these days." The old man in question didn't seem to phased by the outburst though and simply smiled before replying "Well, maybe if you were more in tune with the world around you, you might have sensed my person approach you."

Ranma just grumbled under his breath and stepped to the side of the priest making sure to be a step behind the old man as they walked away from the shrine and over towards one of the side buildings. The priest was silent for a moment before he asked Ranma "What progress have you made since your last visit young one?" The question was one that stirred up many emotions in the pigtailed teenager, he collected his thoughts on the subject and went over what he'd been doing with his ki recently.

"Well I've noticed that the feedback loop is definitely present and I haven't been able separate that from everythin' else yet. My progress on changing my emotion based attack is going slowly though, I haven't been able to pick up another emotion yet that's as powerful or easy to access. I haven't been able to completely purify it yet either, but that's something I'm pretty sure is going to take months of heavy practice to get close to." Ranma took a breath and stopped talking, the old man always managed to draw a lot of him somehow.

The priests head had been nodding with each piece of information that Ranma had provided him and his mouth had crinkled into a small smile at the last statement. "If I were you I wouldn't worry too much, the fact that you have made notice of the feedback now means that you can dump the excess ki from your system before it builds up and makes a permanent difference on your pathways. It is a shame that the young doctor that you mentioned is no longer present in our fine city. He would have been a great asset when it comes to evaluating your pathways."

A frown creased Ranma's forehead as he thought of the Doc' and how he had just up and disappeared all of a sudden. One would have almost thought he had been abducted but from what Ranma had been able to find out Tofu was still seeing some of his old patients but was just based out of a different ward now. He hadn't had a chance to find out where though yet what with everything that had been going on. Maybe it was time for that to change? The doctor would definitely have been a help in the aftermath of Jyusenkyo.

He nodded his head in agreement with the priest though before adding some verbal acknowledgement "Ya definitely right about that, I'm thinking I might have to dedicate some of my time before school starts up again to find him and ask him for some advice, this is getting difficult though, it's gettin' hard for me to hide my training and I'm pretty sure Cologne and Shampoo are gonna be back any time now from China."

Having completed their short stroll down the swept path to the building they used for their meetings the priest and Ranma both removed their shoes and bowed forward before stepping over the threshold. It had taken several visits from him before he had finally gotten all the practices down, much to the dismay of the priests who helped maintain the temple. Inside the building the floors were polished and clean and well maintained with simple paintings and calligraphy hanging on the walls and small amount of offerings on the platforms as a Harai to the Kami who inhabited this particular building.

Stepping forward both of them bowed once again towards the Harai before they sat down opposite each other resting on their heels. Ranma watched as the old man closed his eyes briefly and drew in a deep slow breath before allowing it out slowly and opening his eyes which seemed somehow to him to have a hidden depth to them which only came out while they were here in this building. The old priests voice rang out with a command "Begin! Show me how close you are to combing the emotions and achieving the true purity of ki."

Ranma took a breath, cleared his mind and entered the void all in one motion, his years of practice making the transition almost instantaneous. Holding his hands in front of himself, palm facing palm, he began to draw on his ki pulling it from his centre and directing it down his arms forcing it to coalesce into a ball between his palms. The ball started out as a mixture of golden and yellow light about the size of a softball and gradually begun to change colour as Ranma individually added each strand of ki infused with a different positive emotion.

Finally though the ball hummed between his palms glowing a slightly pearlescent white with a very light pink tinge running through it. Sitting there within the void made this task easy, the real problem was doing this sort of thing instantaneously while in middle of a fight. As he sat there with his hands in a form of supplication towards the priest the old man reached out one hand and closed his eyes while he ran his hands through the air above the ball making sure to leave a gap between his hand and the ki manifested in front of him.

The priest sighed slightly and his eyes crinkled a little bit more as the corner of his mouth twitched up slightly into a smile "You're getting closer each time we meet, it seems these sessions are helping you, you're not quite there though are you?" The question was rhetorical and Ranma knew it, even if he didn't actually know the meaning of the word he could at least appreciate the tone in which it was said. He answered the question anyway "I'm not tryin' to sound like a whiner or anything but it's difficult to express and emotion this way if you haven't had a lot of practice feeling it." The old man nodded at this and moved his hand away signifying he was done allowing Ranma to dissipate his ki over the ground and building. The wood glowed slightly before going back to it's usually shine as it happily absorbed the small amount of life force.

"Even with those issues you have still made excellent progress, but I believe you stated that in the not too distant future you will be returning for your final year of high school and that will make a large impact on your manipulation training time. Have you thought of any solutions yet?" The old man slowly eased himself into the lotus position as he asked his question, Ranma noticed that while the priest seemed his usual spry self there was an air of fragility to him today that was not usually present. Assuming the lotus himself Ranma thought back over the possible excuses and reasons he could give for all the time he had spent away from the Tendo dojo and had to admit that he had nothing solid he could use yet "I haven't thought of anythin' concrete yet, I don't really want to wait for it but I'm hoping inspiration strikes me while I'm practicing."

Nodding in agreement the priest spoke in a voice that sounded even older than he looked "Even the wishes of an ant reach to heaven." Ranma just smiled a little and shook his head his enjoyment skittering along the outside of the void, "Again with the platitudes old man?" The priest held up his finger and shook it at Ranma admonishing him "I'll have you know that many of these so called platitudes have excellent messages to convey to those are able to hear them, mock me not boy for eventually you will prove me right in your own way." Even though he'd finished speaking Ranma still felt pinned by the old mans sharp glare, even though the humour in the priests eyes gave him away.

He fidgeted a bit in place "Well it's nice to know that someone believes in me, I think ya might be getting a little ahead of yourself though." The old man let loose a full blown grin at that and replied "We shall see, I have a sincere belief that you could do great things in this world Ranma Saotome," both of them stood up at the same time and bowed too each other before turning to the Harai to show their respect for the Kami that were supposed to inhabit the building. Ranma had seen some weird stuff but nothing had convinced him yet that the Kami existed, or that they were even on his side.

Both turned towards the exit and after placing their shoes back on headed down the path towards the Tori at the front of the temple. The sky overhead was a clear aching blue without even a puff of white cloud to break it up and the call of all the birds in the surrounding park seemed to blend into one either to form a giant melody of nature. Stopping for a moment he closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, still holding the void and being at one with his surroundings and allowing his ki senses to pool into the area around him.

He listened to the priest beside him as he intoned the usual prayer "Our eyes may see some uncleanliness, but let not our mind see things that are not clean. Our ears may hear some uncleanliness, but let not our mind hear things that are not clean." Opening his eyes Ranma released his ki and stepped forward while pivoting on the one foot to face the old man, as one they bowed to each other, Ranma holding his bow slightly longer. As he raised his head he heard the old man say "The heart of the person before you is a mirror. See there your own form," as was the old mans way to leave something with him for him to think about, before he turned back towards the shrine.

Giving the old man a quirked eyebrow that he would be unable to see Ranma repeated the saying in his head a few times in order to remember it for further examination. The priest had provided him with Shinto teachings on other visits and they usually gave him some sort of lesson or parable. The old man had been smiling at him though as he finished talking, so maybe it wasn't as bad as he was thinking. With a shrug Ranma turned around himself and started the walk out of the park and back towards the tendo dojo. He had a student to teach after all and maybe, just maybe, he could have a little hope for getting out of this whole mess after all.