Draw the Curtain: Chapter 2

[ToastedPine]

Author’s foreword: Here is the next part of my continued battle against the forces of Ranma-chan fiction. Comments and constructive criticism will be greatly appreciated. This is still in beta-phase so I’m willing to revise if someone convinces me of the need.

Previous parts can be seen at: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5027590/1/Draw_the_Curtain

Disclaimer: I don’t own Ranma 1/2

Electronic bleating knocked Yonehara Satomi from the depths of slumber, half way into the waking world. She resisted at first, pushing her head back deeper into the pillow, but already her bleary, lucid consciousness prodded insistently. 'You will get up at the count of ten,' her mother used to say every morning. It had been five years after her passing, yet she could still hear that gentle yet unbending voice.

She reached out from beneath the covers and hit the alarm. Beside the clock was a picture of a plain-looking woman in a blue sundress. ‘Goodmorning, mother,’ she greeted.

With automated ease, she folded her blanket, set out her clothes for the day, washed up, and ran through some calisthenics. Usually, her morning routine would have gotten her blood running enough to jump start the rest of the day, but that wasn’t going to happen today. Her eyes remained red and puffy despite the repeated and liberal application of cold water, and her muscles seemed to creak with every movement. She could go back to sleep-- surely no one would miss her for just one day….

'You have responsibilities,' the more sensible part of her insisted. Glancing at the photograph on her night stand for some additional strength, she gritted her teeth and jerked off her night gown, which was replaced by a pleated, white blouse, and long skirt. She checked herself front to back on the mirror for wrinkles, not a stitch out of place.

She was the headmistress of Gekkou Academy, a small acting college founded nearly 30 years ago. Converted from the grounds of an abandoned private school, it had become a combination of acting studio and dorm. A scant 73 students had enrolled for the year, but that number would rise.

Sitting down in front of the dresser mirror, she set about combing her wavy, black hair. Picking the comb out of her dresser drawer, she stroked once, and then twice, thrice, and so on. But on the twentieth stroke, the comb clattered on floor. Satomi put a trembling hand to her face, spread fingers pressing hard against her skin, straining to stem the frustration that surged in her like the waters of a breached dam.

The authorities had called her yesterday and informed her of Sayaka's status and not much else. One of her closest friends had just tried to take her own life, but she couldn’t even get the address of the hospital to see her. Unable to do anything of importance, she was with nothing save her tears and the uneasy darkness of tormented slumber.

There was no doubt that Jin had something to do with Sayaka's attempt. Satomi had known that the man was a poison to her friend since the moment she laid eyes on him. He suffused every corner of Sayaka's being, concentrating most of all in her friend's heart.

Jin would be the death of Sayaka, she had predicted and it seemed that she was right. She had tried since the years they had together as acting colleagues to cure her of him. She hadn’t succeeded in the least, and it looked like she may have just run out of chances.

Prying her hand away, she breathed deep. Sayaka was still alive. There was still hope. She picked her comb off the floor and continued her preparations. One stroke at a time, she'd take this on one stroke at a time.

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Draw the Curtain: Chapter 2

By

ToastedPine

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Birds chirped, greeting the early sun. It was six. In half an hour, the tofu-racing delivery men of Nerima would have completed their morning routes and returned to the tamer aspects of businesses. Speeding through dangerous back streets and narrow alleys would be put aside until the next morning.

Unlike these industrious men, Ranma was not delivering nutritious foodstuffs. Instead, she had just finished checking on her mother who was overseeing the reconstruction of their recently demolished home. Her mother had received her enthusiastically. Their house was going to be better than ever. Ranma could have told her what had happened recently, but decided against it. She told herself that it was best not to cause undue worrying.

As she sped over rooftops and fences, she tried to squash the dark feeling that gurgled at the pit of her stomach like so much of Akane’s curry.

When she landed at the empty lot, Kogino Jin was resting against the bumper of his white sports car, gazing as the tips of scattered rooftops almost glowed under touch of dew and sunlight.

"Looking down from here, I could almost believe that the world were innocent."

Ranma raised an eyebrow. He tended to spit mysterious nonsense out every once in a while. It must have something to do with being a brooding pretty-boy.

Kogino Jin regarded Ranma out the corner of one eye. "Your social security card is on the dashboard."

Ranma jogged over and lifted the pale blue and white plastic card. She grimaced at the ID picture, which vaguely resembled a mug shot. As fitting as it was, she would have preferred to look good. She had standards, after all.

"So," she began, "why are we here so early? Don't tell me you wanted to take in the sights."

"I'm sure you would enjoy that." He smirked. "We may even have a date, you and I. Perhaps you could introduce me to your friends as a dangerous older gentleman."

"Yes we could!" Ranma said, putting her hands in prayer like a maiden in prayer, eyes sparkling, before switching to a deadpan, "then you can help me find a rope so I can dangle from it."

"Just as well" he said, pushing off the hood and getting into the driver’s seat, "we have more immediate concerns"

Ranma jumped in as the engine rumbled to life. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"To meet an old friend."

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Silence wrapped the car like hot rice around a pickled plum. Ranma fidgeted in her seat, trying and failing to preoccupy her thoughts until the ride was over. When they first met, Hiro and Dai had treating her as though she were a venerable martial master. Apparently, the great masters could contemplate the art, refining their forms through ‘mental kata’. She sniffed at that—why would anyone sit around thinking of doing the art instead of actually doing it? Besides, meditation was a quick way to fall asleep. If something like meditating on the art could lead to getting stronger, her father wouldn’t be running with his tail between his legs whenever the old freak comes to visit. Now wasn’t the time for sleep anyhow; who knows what the agent could get up to while she was defenseless beside him?

As Kogino Jin seamlessly shifted gears and avoided potholes, Ranma concentrated on spotting memorable landmarks and potential training areas. So far, she spotted none of either. They hadn’t gone far enough to reach the woods, just out of the city proper. Stray trees and fields of fields of weed grass had replaced the dense cityscape.

“You’re going to meet a very dear friend of Sayaka’s,” the agent said. “Don’t speak unless you absolutely have to.”

Ranma turned to him, a little startled by his change of mood. When they had left the lot, Kogino Jin was in a…playful mood. The agent prodded at her with implications about her sexual preferences. It rubbed her severely because he reminded her of a cat that was toying with its prey. Now all of a sudden, he was all business again, like when they had first met. Maybe the man was crazy; it would certainly explain a lot.

“Yeah, whatever,” she said, realizing too late that a little of the irritation she felt had crept into her voice.

Kogino Jin’s eyes instantly hardened, sunlight reflecting off them like a razors edge. “I don’t like being interrupted, Saotome Ranma. This meeting is important to me. It is imperative that you pay attention because the price of failure is very very high.”

She tightened her grip on the seatbelt strap across her chest. “Is that a threat?”

“I don’t care how you take it so long as you fulfill your role. You may be able to beat me black and blue, but you should remember that I can also hurt you back. The loan application your mother has pending could fall though if I take a hand in her credit evaluation.”

“What’s your deal, Kogino?” she said, getting the hint that he must have investigated her somehow. “You shouldn’t mess with a man’s family.”

“Man?” he asked with a trace of mocking laughter. “I don’t see a man here-- only a weak teenager. You could have weathered this storm on your own, but instead you let your fear tie you into indecision, making the police suspicious. I might have made your life difficult out of spite for refusing me, but you could have faced that too. I saw the type of person you were the moment our eyes met. And after reading up on your life I know why: you habitually run from consequences. When I offered you an exit, you ran towards it like the building was on fire.”

She slammed a palm on the dashboard and using it to push myself closer. “Bull, I’ve faced plenty of challenges on my own!”

“Martial challenges, with nothing more at stake that your petty life. Dying is easy; it’s living that’s hard.”

“Watch it pal, you’re about to find out just how easy it can be.”

The car slowed as he pulled it to the curb. Kogino Jin took of his seatbelt and squared off against her. “You won’t kill me,” he said with cold certainty. “You won’t kill me for the same reason why you took my offer to give you a new identity and shield you from having to deal with the police, for the same reason why you won’t make a decision about those girls that you’ve been stringing along. You won’t kill me not because of any inherent sense of decency, but because you’d do anything to avoid facing the consequences of your actions.

He pulled away, suddenly looking really tired. “Now that the immediate danger has passed, you’ve gone back to running, hoping your problems will sort themselves out without much effort on your part. I’m saying this to remind you that danger still exists and I intend to punctuate that danger myself if I have to so that you don’t forget. But don’t be too concerned, I’m still giving you an out. Work with me, help me reach my aims, and this incident with Sayaka will blow over, and I will disappear.”

The dashboard creaked under the pressure of Ranma’s hand. “And if I don’t?”

“Then you can live the rest of your life in the woods, because there will be no place for you to call home when I’m done.”

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They pulled into an open courtyard above faded white lines that hinted at a past as a basketball court and a track field. They were in the outskirts of the city where dense insides of Tokyo gave way to sparse vegetation and smaller buildings.

Overlooking the courtyard was a school building. Ranma narrowed her eyes to block out the sun that was coming through the windshield. She had come across such structures often enough in her travels. They were quite a bit smaller than Furinkan since they were designed for areas with comparatively low population density. Quite a few she'd come across were abandoned, their boards and slats left to rot and splinter, their floors left to crack beneath the assault of weeds. She'd heard Hinako saying something about falling birth rates were to blame.

She and Pop had used the old buildings in their travels. Dead schools were a good source of shelter and kindling, but she also couldn't help being uncomfortable at how abandoned such places were.

The building in before her was far from abandoned, however. Ranma watched a few people milling out of a square building adjacent to the high school, which would normally be treated as the club building. Men and women carrying their loads of towels and toiletries marched like ants in a loose line towards the side of the building that faced a grass field of modest size.

Kogino Jin swept out of the car as though it were a white carriage. Maybe there was a school of Martial Arts Posing and Looking Cool. How else would anyone explain a white jacket billowing dramatically while the air around him was as still as a rock?

Ranma propped an arm against the open window and vaulted over. She landed soundlessly on the asphalt and strode after the agent.

The sounds of water flowing and splashing about mingled among the lively sounds of early morning conversation. About 20 meters away, the men and women-- students, Ranma assumed-- were engaged in their morning rituals like a bunch of wildlife around a watering hole. Kogino Jin, however, had no interest in them. Tracing his line of sight just beyond the common faucets, Ranma saw a woman standing apart from the rest. She had several years over the students. Her rather plain face and build was tempered by the aura of authority that wrapped around her as though she were a mother eagle watching over her chicks.

Unfortunately, the eagle that had been at rest spotted them, and the aura of protectiveness shifted into one of menace. Ranma had seen it often enough from Akane, when she got mad at her for picking on P-chan. A shard of ice lanced through Ranma's spine and she decided to reevaluate; Akane's anger was a cheery campfire compared to the frigid rage that she was feeling.

The woman marched through the throng of students, nodding only faintly to greetings addressed to her as she passed.

"What are you doing here?" She demanded in a voice as calm as the epicenter of a massive earthquake.

"To ask for a favor." Kogino Jin’s frigid nonchalance seemed to buffet him from the woman's cold anger.

"You have some nerve," her voice rumbled, cracks appearing on the surface. "Not a week after Sayaka's accident and you've already got a replacement toy?" She sneered in Ranko's direction, never taking her diamond glare off the agent.

"Attempted suicide," he corrected, impassive. "Let's not try to cover up the truth with pretty words, Satomi."

"I don't remember giving you permission to address me informally," she said.

"I don't remember asking."

"Bastard," she bit off before stomping towards the main building.

Ranma looked up and saw a magnificently smug grin. Had the agent won that exchange she wondered? And who was that flat, farmer's wife calling a toy?

"That, would be our invitation to tea." He strolled after the irate woman.

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It was a modest office furnished with practical furniture that had probably spent part of its life folded into a thin box of maddeningly German design. Ranma knew this because there was a computer table in Nabiki's room that Ranma had nearly given to Akane as practice bricks-- he’d lost and broken a lot of screws that day.

Large, plastic, filing cabinets lined a majority of the walls where musty old book cases where there weren't. Ranma briefly received the impression of a square pit trap that closed in and squished things.

Headmistress Yonehara, according to the gilded lettering on her office door, pulled a leather seat from a small work desk facing the window and sat down with the weight of a queen setting herself on her throne. Kogino sat as well, completely dispensing with rules of propriety. Ranma remained standing. She could have taken a seat too, really, but cheap furniture looked uncomfortable.

"If you want me to train her personally, you can forget it," she said, and sized up Ranko. "Many girls come running to me, thinking they can be big stars just because they have a pretty face and breasts. This girl doesn't have a shred of talent! I could read her like a book from the moment she arrived." She glared at Ranma, "And take your seat young lady. Don't you have a spine, or does your agent here do all the sticking up for you?"

Twitch. Enough was enough, Ranma, totally red-faced, rolled up her sleeves. She's been keeping her mouth shut because this lady was mad at Kogino Jin, but no way in hell was she going to let this hag think she was doing THAT with HIM. She hadn't even really touched a girl yet!

A chuckle interrupted her thoughts, building into a rich, throaty laugh. It was coming from Kogino Jin whose eyes danced with some dark amusement.

Headmistress Yonehara snarled. "I fail to see what's so amusing."

He laughed until he was content before speaking. "That's the last thing that could ever happen, Satomi. If you weren't so blinded by your intense... feelings for me, you would have seen right away that Ranko shares your sentiments."

"You don't like him?" the woman asked.

"No!" Ranma shouted "I'd throw him off a building if I could!"

The headmistress colored.

"Maybe I came to the wrong person." He pivoted lazily in his chair. "Missing such obvious undercurrents is an amateurish mistake for a well seasoned actress."

"Don't think wounding my pride will serve your ends," she said levelly.

Ranma bit her lip; was that Kogino's game?

"You misunderstand again, I'm afraid." He stood up and moved close enough that their noses almost touched. "I only back real talent. This girl," he gestured at Ranma, "is Sayaka's estranged sister."

"Murasaki Ranko, pleasure meeting you." Ranma hated playing along, but Kogino Jin had been clear about what would happen if she acted on her impulses.

"That's a lie, Sayaka would have mentioned having a sister!"

"Sixteen years ago, Murasaki Yui starred in a movie. She played a woman who fell in love with a powerful, Norwegian merchant and had a child by him before he disappeared. It was years later when she found him again, discovering that her love had all but forgotten about her and was about to marry another. Like the fragile wings of a butterfly, her heart was crushed and she died from the pain shortly after."

"The filming staff all had to be sworn under oath to keep the truth about Murasaki Yui’s pregnancy a secret. And a closely guarded secret it was. I wouldn't have known had it not been for Ranko’s appearance."

"She was pregnant? That's impossible. She was devoted to her husband--"

"Who had died three months prior to the shoot. We're all human. She was lonely and ashamed of not being able to care for her own daughter…."

"But Sayaka told me that her mother had done it to concentrate on her acting. Murasaki Yui even dedicated her performance to her husband."

"Yes, the perfect widow wasn't she?" he asked.

He took a lock of the headmistress's hair between his fingers, running his hand over it as if he were sampling the fabric on a shirt, "So much so that it was almost like... an act?"

The headmistress pushed at his chest, stumbling back.

Kogino Jin patted himself down and straightened his cuffs. "Perhaps I am feeding you an elaborate lie. However, I might also be telling the truth. Do you really believe that she told you everything? Do you really believe that Sayaka would not have confided in me some secret detail she's told no one else?" He glanced at Ranma out the corner of his eyes. "Could you really forgo knowing her sister?"

The headmistress looked at him defiantly, but Kogino Jin seemed undaunted. Closing in once more, he put his lips to her ear, whispering loud enough for Ranma to hear. "Remember that Sayaka is mine. Forever."

Ranma could almost swear she heard the sound of a heavy coffin lid slam shut at his words.

"…how long do I have?" the headmistress finally asked.

"Two months."

"Give me two years and she can become a professional."

"No. She doesn't need to be good, just acceptable."

Headmistress Yonehara drew herself up and glared at him as though she intended to melt him into a puddle of wax. "I will talk to her."

Kogino merely grinned and bowed. "As you wish, Headmistress." Turning to Ranma, he said, "Meet me at the courtyard by four."

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Ranma stuck her tongue out at the closing door. Akane would have called it childish, she was sure, but it felt good.

“I suppose it’s too much to ask that you too were putting on a act.”

Oh right. She hadn’t been alone. Ranma turned around, the left corner of her lip lifting like the arm of a spastic monkey trying to get a banana on a tree. “Act? What act?”

The headmistress sighed. It was a very heavy sigh. On the scale of sighs Ranma’s ever heard, it beat the heaviest she’d heard to date by a ton or two. “I guess it was.”

They stared at each other for a long while before the head mistress raised an eyebrow. “Well?”

“Well what?” Ranma asked, feeling just a little out of her element.

The headmistress made a grumbling noise. “You’re here to become an actress so show me what you’ve got. I’m assuming that you have prepared an audition to give me an idea of what I have to work with—“

A lot of frustration had built up in Ranma, so much of it in fact, that she felt the need to do something –anything—to find some release. The result was Ranma building a small balcony of piled furniture, mimicking the only approximation of ‘real acting’ she’d seen in her limited experience of the craft.

“Oh, Romeo!” She enunciated in a voice so loud she could have been yelling. Her arms spread out as if trying to catch an extremely fat, landing bird. “Wherefore art thou Romeo?!”

It was Akane’s Juliet.

“—and the idea of what I have to work with is garbage. Complete and utterly irredeemable garbage,” the headmistress finished.

“I ain’t here because I want to be,” Ranma snapped.

“Oh? Then why are you here?”

The question hit like a bucket of freezing water. What was she supposed to tell her? The truth? She’d be too angry to think straight. Next thing Ranma knew, the headmistress would be chewing Jin out. The jig would be up, and she’d be screwed.

Kogino made it perfectly clear that he would do more than reveal the curse.

Ranma had no doubt that the Social Security Card resting in her pocket would pass inspection. Even if it didn’t, she no longer felt that enough to write Kogino off.

The agent was wrong about her though. She didn’t want the police involved because she didn’t want to drag her mom and the Tendos into this mess. She could face up to her problems without their help.

She didn’t need anyone poking their noses in where they didn’t belong, making a fuss and getting in trouble for her sake. If any of the Tendos got hurt, she’d never live it down.

Besides, they’d want her to keep out of their problems, so she should keep them out of hers.

“Sorry Headmistress,” Ranma said, bending at the waist and trying to ignore bitter taste in her mouth. “I’m here because I want to be an actress. I leave myself humbly in your care.”

There was a moment of deliberation before the headmistress spoke.

“Stand Ms. Ranko. We have much to do and cannot afford to dally with formalities.” To Ranma’s surprise, not a trace of frost remained from earlier. “Sayaka’s sister or not, if I can keep just one girl from falling into that man’s clutches, I’d be able to go to the grave in peace.”

She stepped over to her desk. “I have registration papers. We have a mere two months to make you barely adequate. Commuting will be out of the question so you will have to take up residence here.”

“Me? Live here?” Ranma pointed up at herself.

The headmistress, who was flipping through a stack of sheets, stared flatly. “Is that a problem?”

Ranma swallowed. “No ma’am.”

“Good… there should be some dormitory as well here.” A few more brisk pulling motions later, she had the paperwork out. “You’ll have one day to straighten out your affairs. I’ll brief you on the conditions that apply, and then you’ll have to pry the fee off Jin later. I expect the full amount up front.

When we’re done here, I will tour you through the campus.”

“Yes ma’am.”

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Classes were in full session by the time Ranma had finished all the procedures with the headmistress, or rather, Murasaki Ranko. Filling out the forms was touch-and-go for a while since the only identification she had was the social security card she had received earlier. Ranma was left sweating until that jerk Kogino Jin called to inform them that her high school transcripts would be brought over at the end of the day. She had no doubt the agent had forgotten to tell her about that little detail on purpose!

She turned to watch a dance class through the window. Ranma looked dubiously at the men loose shirts over black spandex.

“I haven’t decided how you’ll be taking your classes. For a normal student, two months wouldn’t be enough to develop the basics let alone advanced skills needed by a passable actress.”

She grimaced.

“Quiting is always an option. Tell Jin that you’ll have no part of whatever he’s plotting. If you still want to be an actress, then I’ll train you properly without him breathing down our necks.”

Ranma averted her eyes. Did Kogino Jin’s blind assumptions have some truth to them? No way in hell. She was doing this for everyone else’s good. “It has to be done.”

The headmistress sighed. “All right, I won’t try to ask any more of you. My door is open if you ever want to talk.”

“…thanks.”

“There are a few more places for us to visit. As I was saying earlier, acting isn’t simply a game of pretend. There’s a lot an actress has to prepare performing. We also offer help with portfolios. Ms. Aihara Mari, our public relations officer, is in charge of maintaining links with all the various agencies. To the left is our fitness center and the hall beyond leads to our recording studio,” the headmistress paused, “by an anonymous private donor.”

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After the tour, they visited the cafeteria, which was located on the bottom floor on one of the dorm buildings. It was only a quarter of the size of the Furinkan’s, and there wasn’t much separating the kitchen from it except for a makeshift buffet table with heat lamps and steel warming trays.

“Headmistress Yonehara!” a cheery voice greeted. “You’re here early.” It was a woman in her early twenties. She was wearing a hairnet over long, brown hair that she had tied into a pair of ponytails.

“I hope that isn’t a problem,” the headmistress said apologetically. “Do you have enough ready for two?”

“Certainly! A new student? You hardly ever show them around yourself anymore.”

The headmistress cleared her throat. “Yes, this is Ranko. She’ll be starting Friday.” She turned to Ranma. “This is Alicia, our head cafeteria lady.”

Alicia’s eyes were a bright hazel, and the bridge of her nose had a light dusting of freckles— traits not commonly found on the average Japanese person.

“Nice to meet you.” She wiped a hand off on her apron and held it out. Ranma shook it. “Ranko?” Alicia tilted her head to one side. “That’s a very Japanese name.”

She chuckled nervously. “I’ve lived here practically all my life.”

Alicia put a hand to her mouth. “Oh how rude of me-- with your hair and eyes, I just assumed.”

“Her father is a foreigner,” the headmistress supplied. Though the raised eyebrow she directed at her without Alicia noticing indicated that there would be more questions later.

“Yeah, something like that,” Ranma said, scratching the back of her head.

“No need to be embarrassed,” she chirped. “I’m from Canada, my family moved here almost 6 years ago.”

“What am I doing? Lunch isn’t going to prepare itself. Have a seat wherever you like and I’ll have two trays sent to you shortly.” She herded them to the tables without further delay got back to the kitchen.

After a few minutes some kitchen other staff rested a tray of roast chicken leg and a side of carrots, peas, and potatoes on their table.

“Many of the services here are student run with a smaller professional contingent to provide training and support. In exchange, the students who have roles here gain beneficial experience and partial scholarships. Alicia is one of those students. She’s studying to become a voice actress, though with her talents, I’m hoping that she’ll try the stage.”

Ranma speared some of it onto her fork and chewed, carefully minding her manners. The flavors were surprisingly bright and fresh unlike the colorless food available at Furinkan. “Hmm, not bad.”

“The produce is from suppliers and farms nearby,” the headmistress said with a hint of pride. “I come here for my meals to check the quality of the food and keep the salt content low. We must reflect the principles of this school in all aspects. We build solid foundations in our students, and a large part of that foundation resides in our students’ health.’

“Ah,” Ranma ‘ahed’, not able to say much else. She had always eaten whatever she could get her hands on. The amount of salt in her food didn’t concern her as much as actually having something to eat. Of course, that changed a little when she started living at the Dojo, but the Saotome Iron Gut and palate had been honed by years of eating on the run and wild foraging.”

“Who was your father?” the headmistress asked suddenly.

Ranma jerked as if shocked. “Ah…”

“Nevermind,” the headmistress said. “I was just checking.”

Ranma visibly sagged with relief. What had this woman been checking?

“But…”the headmistress continued, causing Ranma to curse internally. She knew there was going to be a ‘but’.

“But I’m taking quite a leap of faith, giving you training without knowing the knowing the least bit about you, while everything about me is out in the open. I’m going to need something in return. If you can tell me nothing of who you are, then you can at least show me the strength of your character.”

Ranma looked into her empty tray. She didn’t want to be here, but she had to earn this woman’s trust. “Deal. What do you need me to do?”

She smiled. “No hesitation. Good. Then this is what I want you to do….”

Author’s Notes: Special thanks to Fallacy for prereading and Yasuhei and Rain for comments.

TheFanfictionForum Corrections: Genhoss
Fukufic Corrections: Munchkin, Ellen Kuhfeld

[Munchkin]

When we’re done here, I will tour you through the campus, any objections?”

“Yes ma’am.”

That should be "No ma'am" I believe.

The amount of salt in her food didn’t concern her as much as actually having something to eat. Of course, that changed a little when she started living at the Dojo, but he Saotome Iron Gut and palette had been honed by years of eating on the run and wild foraging.”

And that should be "the" Saotome Iron Gut.

Couldn't see anything obvious other than that. Reads well, keep it up

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

"but he Saotome Iron Gut and palette" -- but the Saotome Iron Gut and palate"

[ToastedPine]

Thanks. Fixed.