You're welcome.
Vegas Rules (Ranma 1/2)
- Thread starter Strawberry
- Start date
- Mature
Chapter 7 - Why?
Strawberry
Dessert Faerie
- Location
- Derbyshire, UK
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Chapter 7!
Also oh wow, this got chosen as the User Fiction pick of the month! I'm actually... kinda speechless. I'd never thought something of mine, let alone a fic for Ranma of all things would get that kinda attention. Thank you very much for choosing it, guys that did so!
I hope everyone who reads enjoys as much as I enjoy writing it!
And (with shameless self-promotion) I do have another fic on essvee and a couple others on Ao3 if Vegas Rules alone isn't satisfying your Ranma 1/2 fic itch!
Chapter 7 - Why?
Darling, are you feeling alright?
You look rather pale,
And all our friends are,
All our friends are watching us!
(I wanna go home)
Why run away?
Why, why, why?
Darling, are you seeing inside?
The wolves are alive,
And all our faith is,
All our faith is wrong!
Let me go home!
- Why by Devin Townsend
Ryouga sighed as Ranko finished talking about the beach weekend and looked up at the sky. "'Normal' friends, huh?" He asked.
Ranko, who'd changed into a bikini – possibly the same one she'd described in the tale, given that Nabiki's was matching it – grinned. "Yep. Sorry Ryouga, you don't count as normal. Neither do I, really."
They'd migrated to near a pool. Ryouga had been worried about the water when Ranko had suggested it, but she'd rolled her eyes and handed him a package with waterproof soap in it. "Don't think I'm an idiot, Ryouga." She'd said.
They'd not gone in the water yet though; Ranko hadn't been lying when she'd said she loved the sun. Both her and Nabiki were in lounge chairs, sunbathing, and Ryouga just lay back on his own lounge chair. They'd dressed him up again, this time in a pair of trunks and a Hawaiian shirt. He was positive Ranko was messing with him, but given he knew how playful she could be when not actively malicious he found he didn't mind too badly.
Actually, this was probably the most relaxed he'd been in… ever, really. He closed his eyes and let the sun warm him while she and Nabiki talked. There wasn't anyone around them, not even staff.
"So anyway, yeah, at that point I was pretty much done with the whole thing. I didn't know who I was – still don't, not really – but I knew who I wasn't, and I wasn't Ranma, I wasn't wanting to be stuck in that place with no hope and all that chaos, yanno?"
"Mmm." Ryouga said, sighing. "I get you. I was trying to find my way to Nerima when I got here but part of me wondered if it was really worth it." He admitted. "Like you said, the chaos."
Ranko sighed as well and turned so she was resting on her side, facing him. "Well, I'm glad you're here instead." She said simply, giving him a smile as she pulled her sunglasses onto the top of her head. "Get you some time away from everything that ain't a training trip."
Ryouga blushed and nodded, trying not to look at her too closely lest his nasal blood vessels burst. "I can see why you enjoyed that weekend off. Your friends sounded nice. Do you still talk to them?"
Ranko shrugged. "A bit. I had to have a couple of escapes when I was Himeko for a while, and they provided a good reason since Juuban is far enough from Nerima that I could relax."
"When you were 'Himeko'?" Ryouga asked, puzzled.
"Oh, yeah, that comes later after we went to see Mom." Ranko waved him off. "Spoilers." She laughed and lay back, looking up at the blue, blue sky. "Hey Nabs?"
"Mmm?" Came the sleepy response.
"I think we'll take tomorrow off from telling the story, though I do want to get to Mom's training to give him an idea of what I'll be doing. You think we got time?"
Nabiki raised herself from where she'd been napping on her front and blinked. Then her brain kicked in and she shrugged. "Maybe? I mean that's when we got you out and the prep work alone was a nightmare. Then again, it wasn't a nightmare that needs a lot of description… Yeah. I think you've got time as long as you don't spend the evening going at it like rabbits or something." She grinned.
Ryouga went bright red, but Ranko guffawed. "Nabs, you'll break the poor boy. I'm trying to introduce him to such things gradually. Don't want him nosebleedin' when he's hips deep in someone."
Ryouga put a hand to his nose. "Can't you two stop that?" He whined plaintively. "I'm not good with… that sort of thing, and hearing you joke is enough to set my nosebleeds off."
Ranko giggled mischievously at him and batted her eyelashes. "Why, Ryouga-kun, aren't you all grown up now? This is grown up talk!" She snickered and returned to being more normal Ranko. "Eh, 'flirty' is definitely something I've found out about myself, though personally I think it's more Nabs' fault."
"Yeah, yeah, blame me." Nabiki muttered, turning so she was lying on her back instead.
"Well, it's either you or Mom, Nabs. Haven't seen any of the others in over six months." Ranko stuck her tongue out at Nabiki. "And I don't think it's Mom."
Ryouga looked lost again. Ranko grinned at him and settled back onto the lounger, looking up at the sky.
"Where were we…?"
Ranko arrived back in her boy-form to the Tendou dojo to find everything basically as she'd left it. Kasumi was patiently working Akane through cooking something and simply smiled at her as she entered. Akane, in lieu of a proper greeting, shoved a plate of something under her nose which made her blanch, but after swallowing her first response, she took a spoonful of the stuff and eventually worked up the courage to eat it.
It wasn't like it was her fault, the stuff looked positively radioactive. But as it touched her tongue she blinked. She chomped down on the spoon. Then she took another spoonful, bizarrely curious at the taste. Then another. Her eyes widened as she finished the plate.
"Akane!" She yelled, and the short-haired girl flinched as Ranko put the plate down and grabbed her hands. "Akane! That was edible!" She grinned like a loon at Akane. Her stomach gurgled. "And actually… you got any more?"
Akane took her hands back and wordlessly put some more on the plate. Ranko ate a mouthful, tasting it more slowly this time. "It's not… amazing. It's not great, or even, really very good." Akane's face darkened with every word, "But it's honestly the best thing you've ever made, Akane. I could eat this again, no problem!"
Kasumi took a spoon and tried it. "Oh my!" She said, putting a hand to her cheek. "Sh- He's right!"
Nabiki walked in, looking bored. "What's all the yelling?"
"Akane made edible food!" Ranko grinned. "Edible, not bad at all, food!"
"You're kidding me." Nabiki eyed her like she'd grown an extra head, then took a spoonful and tried it herself. The spoon clattered to the table. "Jeez, Saotome, when you're right you're right." The middle sister said, looking faint.
Akane sat down at the table, her face a conflicted mess. "I don't know whether to be angry or to celebrate." She muttered. "And when do you guys all get on so well? Did something happen on that trip?"
Ranko coughed on her current mouthful, but Nabiki just smirked. "I'll say." She drawled, holding up her camera. "I got some really great material. Probably enough for little-ol' Ranko-chan's debts to be fully paid off."
Ranko eyed Nabiki while Akane looked at her. "She didn't do anything too bad to you did she, Ranma?"
Ranko flinched and turned to Akane. "Nah, jus' the usual embarrassin' stuff, yanno? Makin' me dress up in bikinis fer photoshoots an' shit." She shrugged. "Like I said back in Jusendo." She winced and Akane's face twitched. Both still had scars from that. "It's kinda part of me now, yanno? Might as well get profit outta it, and I made sure ta demand five percent this time for myself."
Nabiki laughed. "Which will be a good amount with these pics, trust me."
Akane looked between the two of them and shrugged. Everything seemed normal. Or at least as normal as it had been lately.
Ranko finished her last plateful and nodded approvingly. "Thanks, 'Kane, that really hit the spot. Looked like someone had poured toxic waste on the plate, but I'm impressed." She grinned at Kasumi and with a flourish, from her suitcase brought out an old-looking book she and Nabiki had found in an out-the-way store. "Saw you was lookin' at Doc Toufu's shiatsu stuff, found this. Cost most'a what Nabs said I'd earn, but figured you'd like somethin' nice. And for you 'Kane…" She dug around and brought out a necklace made of shells and small stones she'd found.. "Sorry it ain't quite as fancy as Kasumi's, I kinda broked myself buyin' hers before I found yours…" She rubbed the back of her head. "But I made it myself from shells on the beach I found an' liked. I made one for me, too." She lifted a necklace with shells on out of her top, then put it back. "Just wanted a souvenir."
Akane took the necklace and gave Ranko a smile. "Thanks… You're right, it's not fancy. But you made it so it's unique." She walked over and kissed Ranko on the cheek, "Thank you, Ranma." There was that twitch again. She wondered what it meant a moment, before Ranko put a hand over the cheek, going red.
Akane laughed as the pigtailed martial artist walked out and to her room in a daze. Nabiki cleared her throat. "Awww, how cute." She said, grinning. Akane blushed.
"Shut up Nabiki!" She hissed. Kasumi's giggles overrode her and then the elder Tendou motioned to the kitchen.
"Let's keep cooking, Akane dear." She said, smiling.
The next week passed by excruciatingly slowly for Ranko. Everything after that initial return seemed to slip back into the chaos-filled hell.
She hadn't been lying to Nabiki when she'd said it felt like going to prison.
The amazons returned, and even Ukyou seemed to have perked back up into her chasing ways.
Some of it seemed worse than before – now the scales were off her eyes, she couldn't even pretend that she was balancing everything for honour. Right now, all she was doing was balancing to survive.
She hoped Nabiki would keep her word, but she didn't get chance. Either she'd be being chased by Shampoo or an angry Mousse, or Cologne would be stalking her. Or Ukyou would show up and try to get her to date the chef.
Of course, if that happened, Konatsu would get pissed off, even if Ranko desperately pointed out to the kunoichi that she wasn't interested.
Then there'd be the chasing, the assaults, and Akane getting pissed off. Malletting would follow and it was back to that same loop. That wonderful momentary truce they'd had was shattered the first time Ranko was tripped up by Shampoo's chúi and landed on Akane's chest. Stammered apologies and the fact that she was in girl mode at the time didn't seem to matter; the short-haired girl still sent her flying.
By Thursday, Ranko was sick of it. So sick of it, she spent the entire day out on the river in her real form just walking the fences over and over and dodging anyone that came her way.
That evening, Akane heard a snuffling sound above her and wondered what it was. She opened her window and peeked out. It was crying. A girl was crying on the roof, in the rain. She'd not heard it originally because the sound of the raindrops on the roof were masking much of it, but she peered further and saw a flash of red hair.
Ducking back into her room, Akane thought furiously. Ranma never, ever cries, but that voice was definitely his in his girl form.
She peeked out again, and saw Kasumi on the roof now, and then she was joined by Nabiki too. Both of her elder sisters put their arms around Ranko and then the redhead let out a choked sob and really started bawling.
Akane watched and felt bad. She'd already hit the pigtailed martial artist twice today and broken her promise to hear the reasons out before jumping to conclusions. They'd gone right back to spinning their wheels.
Though she did note that she had heard far, far fewer insults this week, and even the ones she'd had sent her way lacked the usual fire.
Pulling on a waterproof jacket, she flipped onto the roof and approached silently until she was close, when Kasumi's head snapped up to see her. Ranma had his back to her and she hissed through her teeth. He was in his boxers and muscle shirt, and they were soaked through. Her sisters at least had had the common sense to put waterproof jackets on as she had.
Akane paused, feeling like an intruder. Even Nabiki was holding onto Ranma, muttering into his ear. Since when had they been buddies?
Then again, hearing that kind of crying coming from someone as strong as Ranma of all people set something off in her heart. A feeling of shame, and guilt, and anger at everyone else who'd done this to him.
She nodded to herself and then approached the three, kneeling in front of Ranma, taking his hands and squeezing.
Ranko flinched on seeing Akane and tried to tug her hands out, but she held on with a force that was both gentle and unyielding.
"Let's get her inside." Akane said. She eyed the clothes. "Warm clothes and a towel. A bath?"
"No bath." Ranko stammered. "No thanks."
"Rank-ma." Akane looked askance as Nabiki corrected herself. "Come on, let's get you in. Hup!"
Akane helped lift the redhead and in short order they had the dripping martial artist on the floor of the furo. Akane was rubbing her head down with a fluffy towel and Ranko was just sitting there. "Sorry for earlier." Akane said after a moment. "I did promise. You've kept yours, and I haven't."
Ranko stayed quiet.
"What were you crying about?" Akane asked as the silence deepened.
"Nothin'." Ranko said, shrugging her shoulders.
"We can talk, you know." Akane said quietly. Ranko snorted derisively. "We can!" The shorter haired girl said indignantly.
"No, 'Kane." Ranko said softly, bitterly. "We can't. Not anymore."
Akane paused in her towelling of Ranko's hair. "…Was it about me?" She asked in a small voice, already knowing the answer.
Ranko shrugged. "I guess. You. Everyone. I'm just sick of everythin'."
Akane resumed rubbing the hair as Kasumi walked in with a large shirt and some of the underwear from the Tendou Ranko collection. Akane eyed it and Kasumi shrugged.
"There weren't any other clean clothes and since she didn't want a bath to turn into a boy, I thought it best to use something she already had that would be dry from what Auntie bought her."
Akane looked and Ranko shrugged. "Might as well, I guess they are mine after all. Don't need to borrow those overalls again."
Akane gave her a faint smile. "You looked cute in them though."
"Guess I did." Ranko said, taking the clothes from Kasumi. Akane frowned again. Ranma admitted he looked cute? Too much was changing lately, and it unsettled her.
She finished drying Ranko's hair and rested her head against the towel a moment. "…Sorry." She said again and Ranko's head bobbed in a nod, but she said nothing else.
After a little time spent in the pool, Ranko still showing a competitive streak a mile long and trying to outdo him in swimming stamina, leading to him having to drag her out of the pool and onto the side before she drowned herself, the two women donned shorts and tee shirts before motioning for him to follow them for food.
Ranko still definitely liked food a whole bunch and Ryouga somehow found that very comforting. As much as she'd clearly changed or, by the sounds of it, was still changing, a love of good food was something the two of them had always had in common. Their odd friendship-stroke-rivalry-stroke-enmity had been born of bread, after all.
Sitting at what felt like a barbecue grill area, not the fancy restaurant they'd been at before, he was pressed to try several different, more western foods from a buffet table.
Every time he'd look away from his plate and at something else, Ranko would have refilled his plate (and her own) and she'd be cajoling him into trying something on it.
Ryouga felt… relaxed. Even though he knew it was his old rival there, he didn't really care anymore. He was having fun, and that felt right. And she seemed to want to include him on that, given the rib nudges with her elbow and the sharing of old stories, seen through slightly rose-tinted glasses.
Eventually, Ranko ordered drinks and grinned at him. "Alright, let's get to my 'Escape From Nerima'." She emphasised the words and he looked blankly at her. "We really gotta rent some movies for ya." She sighed.
Nabiki laughed. "So, a week after we get back, I finally figured out what to do. And Ranko… was not happy about it."
"Yeah well, you weren't dancin' to the tune of a seppuku contract."
"I wasn't the one bloody stupid enough to be willing to go through with it." Nabiki hissed, and for the first time, Ryouga saw an anger from Nabiki to Ranko, a real anger.
Ranko looked down. "…Yeah. Yeah, I know. I shoulda told you. But you know I had to."
Nabiki glared. "I don't know if I'll ever forgive the scare you gave me, Ranko. I don't want to lose my sister."
Ranko looked ashamed. "Yeah. Yeah, I know. I'm sorry."
Ryouga looked between them and cleared his throat. "I'm… missing some context."
"Yeah, you'll get it soon." Ranko groused, picking her drink up and taking a long gulp. "Huh. Don't think crème de menthe is for me, Nabs." She said, straightening up and pointing at a waiter, who came over. After a moment conversing in broken English and some money changing hands, he brought over several pitchers of sharp-smelling drink to the three of them.
Ranko pushed one pitcher and a glass over for Ryouga and he poured himself some. It turned out to be some kind of cocktail and he sipped at it slowly. He knew he had bad alcohol tolerance, and Ranko wasn't downing the drinks like she had been the other night so she definitely wasn't on the drunken express. She grinned, poured herself a drink and took a long gulp, sighing.
"Ahh. Better. Anyway, the beginnings of The Plan." She smiled at him.
Nabiki knocked on Ranko's door in the middle of the night a few days after the crying incident and she sat up. Kasumi had 'conveniently' forgotten to wash her boxers and tank tops again, so she was sleeping in the clothes her mother had bought her. Akane hadn't even commented, and Genma was still away, so she had her room to herself.
Ranko sleepily padded to the door and opened it, blinking at Nabiki standing there in her pyjamas. "Yeah?" She asked, yawning.
Nabiki motioned to her to follow, and Ranko followed her down the stairs and out to the dojo. Nabiki had a bag with her that she opened and placed some sheets of paper down on. Ranko looked at the complex charts and raised an eyebrow. "…Making plans?"
Nabiki smiled, shushed her with a finger and then began speaking in a low voice.
"I have the plan ready, and now everything's in place. We need a few specialist items I think you'll be able to get if you're sneaky enough, but those aside…"
Ranko felt a bubbling in her chest. "…I can be free?" She asked. Nabiki nodded. "Free to just… find myself and stuff?"
"Yeah, squirt, free for that. This isn't going to be easy, though, and before we settle down – you do know you'll have to come back eventually, right?"
Ranko nodded. "I know, onee-chan. But I will be coming back as me. Not anyone else, me, and I'll sort everything then because I'll know who I am."
"Good. I can run some interference, but I say we can get about a year of time."
"…That long?"
Nabiki grinned and held one sheet out. "First stop is getting you out to the outskirts of Nerima. We need people to think you've gone on a training journey to China or something, for one of those cures. I've a few ideas bouncing that'll also interest the other cursed folks, so it should get them out of our hair."
"Why stay in Nerima?" Ranko asked.
"Because they'll think you ran away." Nabiki said, shrugging. "If you're in the area in disguise then they can't do anything about it. That's just part of the first phase though."
Nabiki picked another paper up. "We'll have to disguise you, maybe lock your curse and go all-in on your impending girldom. Something I'm sure you'll have no problem with." She snickered.
Ranko laughed softly. "I think I can manage, onee-chan."
Nabiki nodded. "So we'll need to have you a headquarters here in Nerima, not too close, and not too far, that's somewhere I won't be looked at funny for visiting. We can't afford an apartment. And you've got to be there for… well, till the end of the school year. I'm not fucking up your grades for this."
Ranko looked at Nabiki's face. "I'm… not that clever, onee-chan…"
Nabiki sighed. "Yes, you are Ranko. You just don't apply yourself. You're strategic as hell in combat. But enough on that." She looked at the map. "You aren't going to like where we're going to have to go."
When Nabiki told her, Ranko nearly screamed, but managed to keep it to a harsh whisper.
"Are ya INSANE, Nabs? I can't go there!"
"It's the only place!"
"Yeah, because I'd have to have lost the plot to go there!"
Nabiki pointed. "No one. And I repeat, no one would think to look for you there!"
"Yeah, Nabs, but that's because I'll be six fucking feet under!"
"So? If she refuses, it's not like you have to agree to the contract."
"She's my mom, Nabs."
"Doesn't matter. If she starts swinging, we escape, alright?"
Ranko spent a long moment quietly, and then she nodded. Nabiki didn't like the look in her eyes, but let it drop. Ranko had good self-preservation instincts.
Nabiki pointed. "OK, so we hole you up at your Mom's house if she agrees, for four months. We disguise you and lock your curse there so you're in girl mode all the time. There's things we can do to disguise you, maybe introduce you as either a new student or something like that."
Ranko sighed. "That'll look suspicious, though, another redhead joining after I've left?"
"We can dye your hair or something, or a wig. Besides, one shower in the locker room will dissuade anyone from knowing it's you. And if you're actually wearing girls' clothes that fit and not fighting or anything, I think there's a chance. You can be a really good actress when you put your mind to it."
Ranko nodded. Then she pointed to the third sheet Nabiki had produced. "What's that?"
"That's a cruise ship. Once we get out of Nerima after the school year, we should both relax. We'll have to figure out the money, but it'll be worth it. After that… well I can get you lost in the world. You can go on a journey to find yourself for a few months before you come back."
Ranko looked the plan over. "Onee-chan, it's all a bit… vague."
Nabiki shrugged. "You gave me a week. Besides, it's all hinging currently on your Mom and how she takes you being… you."
Ranko looked down. "…Yeah. I guess." She swallowed, then looked up. "When do we start?"
"Tomorrow." Nabiki grinned at Ranko's shock. "Get while the getting's good, imouto-chan. Tomorrow I want you to put only a change of clothes into your bag instead of the school books. I'm going to play hooky and visit your Mom's house officially to cause trouble and squeeze some money out of her for information on her son's whereabouts."
Ranko eyed her a moment and then laughed. "That reputation of yours does come in handy, onee-chan."
Nabiki shrugged. "What can I say? It works for me. Anyway, you get changed somewhere out the way. Make sure it's one of the outfits she bought for you as Tendou Ranko and try to look tomboyish yet you're trying to be feminine. So, you know, basically normal." She dodged the swipe and laughed. "Once I've gone in, you knock on the door and we'll go from there."
Ranko shivered. "I'd rather not… but if it's the only way…"
"There are others, but this has the best chance of success." Nabiki shrugged. "Once we're in, follow my lead. We're going to demonstrate the curse, then you're going to tell her everything that's happened."
"Nabs… is that a good idea?" Ranko asked, looking worried. "I mean we've only really gotten on recently and you've done… stuff to me… I'm not gonna lie if I have to."
Nabiki looked down. "If she gets pissed off with me, fine. I deserve it. You know how I feel about the things I did to you."
Ranko circled her sister in a hug and held her a moment. "And you know I've forgiven most of it, and the other stuff don't matter." She said quietly, squeezing Nabiki close. Then she separated and smiled bashfully.
"Thanks, Ranchan, means a lot. After you've told her, we'll gauge her reaction and then we'll ask for her help."
Ranko nodded.
The next morning, Ranko woke early and stuffed one of the outfits into her bag; a light sundress with a shawl, tights, mary-jane shoes. She also put a small makeup compact into the bag and then a ribbon. She fetched out a small pair of fake glasses, too, and put those in ready.
She dressed in her usual Chinese silks and switched to her boy form, sighing as the dysphoria really got started quickly this morning. The wrongness pervaded everything again like it had never left.
She dug into a loose floorboard under the matting of the room and pulled out a scripted wooden box. Pulsing some chi through it, she checked the contents and nodded, satisfied, She sealed it back up and put it into the bag, too. From what Nabiki had said, this would be useful stuff to take.
She looked around the room. With a pang, she realised it would probably be the last time she'd see it for a long while.
Then she walked out into the corridor, yawning and stared at Akane.
"You're up early." The short-haired girl said, a touch of suspicion in her face.
"Couldn't sleep properly, and without Pop to throw me out the window in a morning my sleep routine's all off." Ranko shrugged. "Hey 'Kane?"
Akane was walking off but stopped and turned around. "Yeah?"
"Sorry for the other day. And thanks for apologisin'. Meant a lot, even if I was too outta it at the time ta 'preciate it." She rubbed the back of her head. "I hope someday we get on way better, huh?"
Akane smiled. "Yeah."
Ranko felt a twist in her heart at the thought of what she was going to do, but Nabiki had expressly forbidden her from saying goodbye outright. Even so…
"See ya around, ya cute tomboy." Ranko said, grinning as she went down the stairs.
Akane was about to draw her mallet when the actual words spilled into her head. "Wait… what? Ranma!" She ran to the stairs and looked down at the pigtailed martial artist. "What the hell did you…?"
Ranko winked at her. "I'm goin' on ahead, 'Kane. Take care awright?" Then without another word she went to the genkan, changed her shoes and was out, whistling as she put her hands behind her head.
Akane stayed at the top of the stairs, bright red, for about a half hour before Nabiki broke her out of it by laughing as she walked down the stairs.
"Ranma got your tongue there, imouto-chan?" The bob-haired girl teased. "You could fry an egg on your face right now!"
Nodoka was sweeping the front of her genkan in her usual kimono when she spotted a familiar face headed towards her house.
"Auntie!"
"Nabiki-chan, how lovely to see you, dear!" Nodoka said warmly. Nabiki eyed her; even now she had the Saotome family honour blade tucked under one arm, wrapped as always. "But isn't this a school day?"
Nabiki shrugged. "I'm playing hooky. Besides, I've got important information to share with you and it couldn't wait!"
Nodoka pursed her lips. Nabiki really should be in school right now, but at the same time the girl was mercenary enough for Nodoka to know whatever information she had was important.
"It's to do with Ranma!" Nabiki announced. "He's coming today!"
Nodoka dropped her broom and the honour blade. "He… he is?" She looked at Nabiki, who nodded.
"Yes, Auntie, I managed to convince him to come here. He won't be long!"
Nodoka picked the broom and katana up and walked back into her house. "Come in, dear!" She bubbled. "Come in, let's get some tea!"
Nabiki looked at the genteel woman as she followed. The moment she'd mentioned her child the woman had brightened to an incredible level. Like hearing her child's name was a balm to her soul and Nabiki felt a pang as she realised how much constantly 'missing' seeing Ranko had been.
She hoped that was a good sign regarding the stupid contract.
In short order the two of them were seated in the family room with tea and Nodoka was pressing Nabiki for details on 'Ranma's' recent exploits. She gave a toned down, swapped version of the recent weekend getaway.
"Oh, I thought Akane was the one engaged to him?" Nodoka asked. "Not you."
Nabiki smiled and rubbed the back of her head. "That's right, I just borrowed him. Really, I took him more as a pack mule and fake boyfriend, Auntie, you know how men are at the beach and I just wanted to get away. Besides, I fed him all sorts of food and he forgave me for using him like that." She giggled. "Besides, it also made Akane very jealous and he takes note when that happens!"
Nodoka tittered. "Just so. Ah, how manly he must be."
Nabiki eyed her and inwardly laughed. Nodoka had no idea.
The doorbell rang and Nodoka shot to her feet. "That must be him!" She cheered excitedly and Nabiki smiled warmly to see it. Nodoka bustled to the genkan and slid the door open, and then her happy mood diminished a little, but not entirely. "Oh! Ranko-chan, how lovely to see you!"
Ranko smiled at her mother warmly. She'd changed en route after using a similar set of changing trains and outfits to the weekend away and now had the dress, tights, shoes and shawl on, as well as her hair in a bow. She'd put the stylish glasses on, though the frames weren't any strength, and she'd done a subtle makeup job. "Hello M-Auntie!" She said brightly. "Look!" And she gave a twirl.
"My my, dear, you do certainly look fetching and less of a tomboy than usual! That's one of the outfits I bought for you isn't it?"
"Yep! Thank you Auntie. May I come in?"
"Cerainly, dear. Your cousin is already here." Nodoka stepped to the side to let the redhead in, and she changed her shoes while the auburn-haired woman looked out on the street. "You haven't seen my son have you, Ranko-chan? Nabiki-chan said he'd be coming by."
Ranko twitched slightly. "Not yet, Auntie. Why don't we go and sit and wait?"
Nodoka scanned the street and then deflated slightly. She slid the door shut and looked a little down. Ranko walked to her and put a hand on her arm as the older woman sighed forlornly.
"He'll be here, Auntie, he promised me and Nabiki both." She said gently. "Come on, let's sit down and have some tea." She linked her arm with Nodoka's and led the auburn-haired woman to the family room, where she sat her down and poured a cup of tea for herself.
Nodoka brightened after a short time. "Oh, where are my manners, girls? I'm sorry, I was just very excited to see my son."
Ranko smiled. "It's fine. Besides, I think… Ranma might be closer than you think."
"Really?" Nodoka asked.
"Yes. Nabiki?"
Nabiki nodded and stood up, going to the kitchen and returning with a tray. Nodoka looked curious a moment at the several cups of water, hot and cold. She put the tray in front of Ranko and Nodoka looked absolutely lost.
"What is this, Ranko-chan?"
Ranko smiled sadly at her mother. She clutched the object in her pocket – one of the reasons she'd chosen this dress was the pockets, after all. "I'm going to show you a magic trick." She said, standing up and taking her hand out of the pocket, taking her glasses off and then picking up a glass of hot water. "Are you watching closely?"
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The Prestige intensifies
Also oh wow, this got chosen as the User Fiction pick of the month! I'm actually... kinda speechless. I'd never thought something of mine, let alone a fic for Ranma of all things would get that kinda attention. Thank you very much for choosing it, guys that did so!
I hope everyone who reads enjoys as much as I enjoy writing it!
And (with shameless self-promotion) I do have another fic on essvee and a couple others on Ao3 if Vegas Rules alone isn't satisfying your Ranma 1/2 fic itch!
Chapter 7 - Why?
Darling, are you feeling alright?
You look rather pale,
And all our friends are,
All our friends are watching us!
(I wanna go home)
Why run away?
Why, why, why?
Darling, are you seeing inside?
The wolves are alive,
And all our faith is,
All our faith is wrong!
Let me go home!
- Why by Devin Townsend
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Ryouga sighed as Ranko finished talking about the beach weekend and looked up at the sky. "'Normal' friends, huh?" He asked.
Ranko, who'd changed into a bikini – possibly the same one she'd described in the tale, given that Nabiki's was matching it – grinned. "Yep. Sorry Ryouga, you don't count as normal. Neither do I, really."
They'd migrated to near a pool. Ryouga had been worried about the water when Ranko had suggested it, but she'd rolled her eyes and handed him a package with waterproof soap in it. "Don't think I'm an idiot, Ryouga." She'd said.
They'd not gone in the water yet though; Ranko hadn't been lying when she'd said she loved the sun. Both her and Nabiki were in lounge chairs, sunbathing, and Ryouga just lay back on his own lounge chair. They'd dressed him up again, this time in a pair of trunks and a Hawaiian shirt. He was positive Ranko was messing with him, but given he knew how playful she could be when not actively malicious he found he didn't mind too badly.
Actually, this was probably the most relaxed he'd been in… ever, really. He closed his eyes and let the sun warm him while she and Nabiki talked. There wasn't anyone around them, not even staff.
"So anyway, yeah, at that point I was pretty much done with the whole thing. I didn't know who I was – still don't, not really – but I knew who I wasn't, and I wasn't Ranma, I wasn't wanting to be stuck in that place with no hope and all that chaos, yanno?"
"Mmm." Ryouga said, sighing. "I get you. I was trying to find my way to Nerima when I got here but part of me wondered if it was really worth it." He admitted. "Like you said, the chaos."
Ranko sighed as well and turned so she was resting on her side, facing him. "Well, I'm glad you're here instead." She said simply, giving him a smile as she pulled her sunglasses onto the top of her head. "Get you some time away from everything that ain't a training trip."
Ryouga blushed and nodded, trying not to look at her too closely lest his nasal blood vessels burst. "I can see why you enjoyed that weekend off. Your friends sounded nice. Do you still talk to them?"
Ranko shrugged. "A bit. I had to have a couple of escapes when I was Himeko for a while, and they provided a good reason since Juuban is far enough from Nerima that I could relax."
"When you were 'Himeko'?" Ryouga asked, puzzled.
"Oh, yeah, that comes later after we went to see Mom." Ranko waved him off. "Spoilers." She laughed and lay back, looking up at the blue, blue sky. "Hey Nabs?"
"Mmm?" Came the sleepy response.
"I think we'll take tomorrow off from telling the story, though I do want to get to Mom's training to give him an idea of what I'll be doing. You think we got time?"
Nabiki raised herself from where she'd been napping on her front and blinked. Then her brain kicked in and she shrugged. "Maybe? I mean that's when we got you out and the prep work alone was a nightmare. Then again, it wasn't a nightmare that needs a lot of description… Yeah. I think you've got time as long as you don't spend the evening going at it like rabbits or something." She grinned.
Ryouga went bright red, but Ranko guffawed. "Nabs, you'll break the poor boy. I'm trying to introduce him to such things gradually. Don't want him nosebleedin' when he's hips deep in someone."
Ryouga put a hand to his nose. "Can't you two stop that?" He whined plaintively. "I'm not good with… that sort of thing, and hearing you joke is enough to set my nosebleeds off."
Ranko giggled mischievously at him and batted her eyelashes. "Why, Ryouga-kun, aren't you all grown up now? This is grown up talk!" She snickered and returned to being more normal Ranko. "Eh, 'flirty' is definitely something I've found out about myself, though personally I think it's more Nabs' fault."
"Yeah, yeah, blame me." Nabiki muttered, turning so she was lying on her back instead.
"Well, it's either you or Mom, Nabs. Haven't seen any of the others in over six months." Ranko stuck her tongue out at Nabiki. "And I don't think it's Mom."
Ryouga looked lost again. Ranko grinned at him and settled back onto the lounger, looking up at the sky.
"Where were we…?"
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Ranko arrived back in her boy-form to the Tendou dojo to find everything basically as she'd left it. Kasumi was patiently working Akane through cooking something and simply smiled at her as she entered. Akane, in lieu of a proper greeting, shoved a plate of something under her nose which made her blanch, but after swallowing her first response, she took a spoonful of the stuff and eventually worked up the courage to eat it.
It wasn't like it was her fault, the stuff looked positively radioactive. But as it touched her tongue she blinked. She chomped down on the spoon. Then she took another spoonful, bizarrely curious at the taste. Then another. Her eyes widened as she finished the plate.
"Akane!" She yelled, and the short-haired girl flinched as Ranko put the plate down and grabbed her hands. "Akane! That was edible!" She grinned like a loon at Akane. Her stomach gurgled. "And actually… you got any more?"
Akane took her hands back and wordlessly put some more on the plate. Ranko ate a mouthful, tasting it more slowly this time. "It's not… amazing. It's not great, or even, really very good." Akane's face darkened with every word, "But it's honestly the best thing you've ever made, Akane. I could eat this again, no problem!"
Kasumi took a spoon and tried it. "Oh my!" She said, putting a hand to her cheek. "Sh- He's right!"
Nabiki walked in, looking bored. "What's all the yelling?"
"Akane made edible food!" Ranko grinned. "Edible, not bad at all, food!"
"You're kidding me." Nabiki eyed her like she'd grown an extra head, then took a spoonful and tried it herself. The spoon clattered to the table. "Jeez, Saotome, when you're right you're right." The middle sister said, looking faint.
Akane sat down at the table, her face a conflicted mess. "I don't know whether to be angry or to celebrate." She muttered. "And when do you guys all get on so well? Did something happen on that trip?"
Ranko coughed on her current mouthful, but Nabiki just smirked. "I'll say." She drawled, holding up her camera. "I got some really great material. Probably enough for little-ol' Ranko-chan's debts to be fully paid off."
Ranko eyed Nabiki while Akane looked at her. "She didn't do anything too bad to you did she, Ranma?"
Ranko flinched and turned to Akane. "Nah, jus' the usual embarrassin' stuff, yanno? Makin' me dress up in bikinis fer photoshoots an' shit." She shrugged. "Like I said back in Jusendo." She winced and Akane's face twitched. Both still had scars from that. "It's kinda part of me now, yanno? Might as well get profit outta it, and I made sure ta demand five percent this time for myself."
Nabiki laughed. "Which will be a good amount with these pics, trust me."
Akane looked between the two of them and shrugged. Everything seemed normal. Or at least as normal as it had been lately.
Ranko finished her last plateful and nodded approvingly. "Thanks, 'Kane, that really hit the spot. Looked like someone had poured toxic waste on the plate, but I'm impressed." She grinned at Kasumi and with a flourish, from her suitcase brought out an old-looking book she and Nabiki had found in an out-the-way store. "Saw you was lookin' at Doc Toufu's shiatsu stuff, found this. Cost most'a what Nabs said I'd earn, but figured you'd like somethin' nice. And for you 'Kane…" She dug around and brought out a necklace made of shells and small stones she'd found.. "Sorry it ain't quite as fancy as Kasumi's, I kinda broked myself buyin' hers before I found yours…" She rubbed the back of her head. "But I made it myself from shells on the beach I found an' liked. I made one for me, too." She lifted a necklace with shells on out of her top, then put it back. "Just wanted a souvenir."
Akane took the necklace and gave Ranko a smile. "Thanks… You're right, it's not fancy. But you made it so it's unique." She walked over and kissed Ranko on the cheek, "Thank you, Ranma." There was that twitch again. She wondered what it meant a moment, before Ranko put a hand over the cheek, going red.
Akane laughed as the pigtailed martial artist walked out and to her room in a daze. Nabiki cleared her throat. "Awww, how cute." She said, grinning. Akane blushed.
"Shut up Nabiki!" She hissed. Kasumi's giggles overrode her and then the elder Tendou motioned to the kitchen.
"Let's keep cooking, Akane dear." She said, smiling.
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The next week passed by excruciatingly slowly for Ranko. Everything after that initial return seemed to slip back into the chaos-filled hell.
She hadn't been lying to Nabiki when she'd said it felt like going to prison.
The amazons returned, and even Ukyou seemed to have perked back up into her chasing ways.
Some of it seemed worse than before – now the scales were off her eyes, she couldn't even pretend that she was balancing everything for honour. Right now, all she was doing was balancing to survive.
She hoped Nabiki would keep her word, but she didn't get chance. Either she'd be being chased by Shampoo or an angry Mousse, or Cologne would be stalking her. Or Ukyou would show up and try to get her to date the chef.
Of course, if that happened, Konatsu would get pissed off, even if Ranko desperately pointed out to the kunoichi that she wasn't interested.
Then there'd be the chasing, the assaults, and Akane getting pissed off. Malletting would follow and it was back to that same loop. That wonderful momentary truce they'd had was shattered the first time Ranko was tripped up by Shampoo's chúi and landed on Akane's chest. Stammered apologies and the fact that she was in girl mode at the time didn't seem to matter; the short-haired girl still sent her flying.
By Thursday, Ranko was sick of it. So sick of it, she spent the entire day out on the river in her real form just walking the fences over and over and dodging anyone that came her way.
That evening, Akane heard a snuffling sound above her and wondered what it was. She opened her window and peeked out. It was crying. A girl was crying on the roof, in the rain. She'd not heard it originally because the sound of the raindrops on the roof were masking much of it, but she peered further and saw a flash of red hair.
Ducking back into her room, Akane thought furiously. Ranma never, ever cries, but that voice was definitely his in his girl form.
She peeked out again, and saw Kasumi on the roof now, and then she was joined by Nabiki too. Both of her elder sisters put their arms around Ranko and then the redhead let out a choked sob and really started bawling.
Akane watched and felt bad. She'd already hit the pigtailed martial artist twice today and broken her promise to hear the reasons out before jumping to conclusions. They'd gone right back to spinning their wheels.
Though she did note that she had heard far, far fewer insults this week, and even the ones she'd had sent her way lacked the usual fire.
Pulling on a waterproof jacket, she flipped onto the roof and approached silently until she was close, when Kasumi's head snapped up to see her. Ranma had his back to her and she hissed through her teeth. He was in his boxers and muscle shirt, and they were soaked through. Her sisters at least had had the common sense to put waterproof jackets on as she had.
Akane paused, feeling like an intruder. Even Nabiki was holding onto Ranma, muttering into his ear. Since when had they been buddies?
Then again, hearing that kind of crying coming from someone as strong as Ranma of all people set something off in her heart. A feeling of shame, and guilt, and anger at everyone else who'd done this to him.
She nodded to herself and then approached the three, kneeling in front of Ranma, taking his hands and squeezing.
Ranko flinched on seeing Akane and tried to tug her hands out, but she held on with a force that was both gentle and unyielding.
"Let's get her inside." Akane said. She eyed the clothes. "Warm clothes and a towel. A bath?"
"No bath." Ranko stammered. "No thanks."
"Rank-ma." Akane looked askance as Nabiki corrected herself. "Come on, let's get you in. Hup!"
Akane helped lift the redhead and in short order they had the dripping martial artist on the floor of the furo. Akane was rubbing her head down with a fluffy towel and Ranko was just sitting there. "Sorry for earlier." Akane said after a moment. "I did promise. You've kept yours, and I haven't."
Ranko stayed quiet.
"What were you crying about?" Akane asked as the silence deepened.
"Nothin'." Ranko said, shrugging her shoulders.
"We can talk, you know." Akane said quietly. Ranko snorted derisively. "We can!" The shorter haired girl said indignantly.
"No, 'Kane." Ranko said softly, bitterly. "We can't. Not anymore."
Akane paused in her towelling of Ranko's hair. "…Was it about me?" She asked in a small voice, already knowing the answer.
Ranko shrugged. "I guess. You. Everyone. I'm just sick of everythin'."
Akane resumed rubbing the hair as Kasumi walked in with a large shirt and some of the underwear from the Tendou Ranko collection. Akane eyed it and Kasumi shrugged.
"There weren't any other clean clothes and since she didn't want a bath to turn into a boy, I thought it best to use something she already had that would be dry from what Auntie bought her."
Akane looked and Ranko shrugged. "Might as well, I guess they are mine after all. Don't need to borrow those overalls again."
Akane gave her a faint smile. "You looked cute in them though."
"Guess I did." Ranko said, taking the clothes from Kasumi. Akane frowned again. Ranma admitted he looked cute? Too much was changing lately, and it unsettled her.
She finished drying Ranko's hair and rested her head against the towel a moment. "…Sorry." She said again and Ranko's head bobbed in a nod, but she said nothing else.
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After a little time spent in the pool, Ranko still showing a competitive streak a mile long and trying to outdo him in swimming stamina, leading to him having to drag her out of the pool and onto the side before she drowned herself, the two women donned shorts and tee shirts before motioning for him to follow them for food.
Ranko still definitely liked food a whole bunch and Ryouga somehow found that very comforting. As much as she'd clearly changed or, by the sounds of it, was still changing, a love of good food was something the two of them had always had in common. Their odd friendship-stroke-rivalry-stroke-enmity had been born of bread, after all.
Sitting at what felt like a barbecue grill area, not the fancy restaurant they'd been at before, he was pressed to try several different, more western foods from a buffet table.
Every time he'd look away from his plate and at something else, Ranko would have refilled his plate (and her own) and she'd be cajoling him into trying something on it.
Ryouga felt… relaxed. Even though he knew it was his old rival there, he didn't really care anymore. He was having fun, and that felt right. And she seemed to want to include him on that, given the rib nudges with her elbow and the sharing of old stories, seen through slightly rose-tinted glasses.
Eventually, Ranko ordered drinks and grinned at him. "Alright, let's get to my 'Escape From Nerima'." She emphasised the words and he looked blankly at her. "We really gotta rent some movies for ya." She sighed.
Nabiki laughed. "So, a week after we get back, I finally figured out what to do. And Ranko… was not happy about it."
"Yeah well, you weren't dancin' to the tune of a seppuku contract."
"I wasn't the one bloody stupid enough to be willing to go through with it." Nabiki hissed, and for the first time, Ryouga saw an anger from Nabiki to Ranko, a real anger.
Ranko looked down. "…Yeah. Yeah, I know. I shoulda told you. But you know I had to."
Nabiki glared. "I don't know if I'll ever forgive the scare you gave me, Ranko. I don't want to lose my sister."
Ranko looked ashamed. "Yeah. Yeah, I know. I'm sorry."
Ryouga looked between them and cleared his throat. "I'm… missing some context."
"Yeah, you'll get it soon." Ranko groused, picking her drink up and taking a long gulp. "Huh. Don't think crème de menthe is for me, Nabs." She said, straightening up and pointing at a waiter, who came over. After a moment conversing in broken English and some money changing hands, he brought over several pitchers of sharp-smelling drink to the three of them.
Ranko pushed one pitcher and a glass over for Ryouga and he poured himself some. It turned out to be some kind of cocktail and he sipped at it slowly. He knew he had bad alcohol tolerance, and Ranko wasn't downing the drinks like she had been the other night so she definitely wasn't on the drunken express. She grinned, poured herself a drink and took a long gulp, sighing.
"Ahh. Better. Anyway, the beginnings of The Plan." She smiled at him.
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Nabiki knocked on Ranko's door in the middle of the night a few days after the crying incident and she sat up. Kasumi had 'conveniently' forgotten to wash her boxers and tank tops again, so she was sleeping in the clothes her mother had bought her. Akane hadn't even commented, and Genma was still away, so she had her room to herself.
Ranko sleepily padded to the door and opened it, blinking at Nabiki standing there in her pyjamas. "Yeah?" She asked, yawning.
Nabiki motioned to her to follow, and Ranko followed her down the stairs and out to the dojo. Nabiki had a bag with her that she opened and placed some sheets of paper down on. Ranko looked at the complex charts and raised an eyebrow. "…Making plans?"
Nabiki smiled, shushed her with a finger and then began speaking in a low voice.
"I have the plan ready, and now everything's in place. We need a few specialist items I think you'll be able to get if you're sneaky enough, but those aside…"
Ranko felt a bubbling in her chest. "…I can be free?" She asked. Nabiki nodded. "Free to just… find myself and stuff?"
"Yeah, squirt, free for that. This isn't going to be easy, though, and before we settle down – you do know you'll have to come back eventually, right?"
Ranko nodded. "I know, onee-chan. But I will be coming back as me. Not anyone else, me, and I'll sort everything then because I'll know who I am."
"Good. I can run some interference, but I say we can get about a year of time."
"…That long?"
Nabiki grinned and held one sheet out. "First stop is getting you out to the outskirts of Nerima. We need people to think you've gone on a training journey to China or something, for one of those cures. I've a few ideas bouncing that'll also interest the other cursed folks, so it should get them out of our hair."
"Why stay in Nerima?" Ranko asked.
"Because they'll think you ran away." Nabiki said, shrugging. "If you're in the area in disguise then they can't do anything about it. That's just part of the first phase though."
Nabiki picked another paper up. "We'll have to disguise you, maybe lock your curse and go all-in on your impending girldom. Something I'm sure you'll have no problem with." She snickered.
Ranko laughed softly. "I think I can manage, onee-chan."
Nabiki nodded. "So we'll need to have you a headquarters here in Nerima, not too close, and not too far, that's somewhere I won't be looked at funny for visiting. We can't afford an apartment. And you've got to be there for… well, till the end of the school year. I'm not fucking up your grades for this."
Ranko looked at Nabiki's face. "I'm… not that clever, onee-chan…"
Nabiki sighed. "Yes, you are Ranko. You just don't apply yourself. You're strategic as hell in combat. But enough on that." She looked at the map. "You aren't going to like where we're going to have to go."
When Nabiki told her, Ranko nearly screamed, but managed to keep it to a harsh whisper.
"Are ya INSANE, Nabs? I can't go there!"
"It's the only place!"
"Yeah, because I'd have to have lost the plot to go there!"
Nabiki pointed. "No one. And I repeat, no one would think to look for you there!"
"Yeah, Nabs, but that's because I'll be six fucking feet under!"
"So? If she refuses, it's not like you have to agree to the contract."
"She's my mom, Nabs."
"Doesn't matter. If she starts swinging, we escape, alright?"
Ranko spent a long moment quietly, and then she nodded. Nabiki didn't like the look in her eyes, but let it drop. Ranko had good self-preservation instincts.
Nabiki pointed. "OK, so we hole you up at your Mom's house if she agrees, for four months. We disguise you and lock your curse there so you're in girl mode all the time. There's things we can do to disguise you, maybe introduce you as either a new student or something like that."
Ranko sighed. "That'll look suspicious, though, another redhead joining after I've left?"
"We can dye your hair or something, or a wig. Besides, one shower in the locker room will dissuade anyone from knowing it's you. And if you're actually wearing girls' clothes that fit and not fighting or anything, I think there's a chance. You can be a really good actress when you put your mind to it."
Ranko nodded. Then she pointed to the third sheet Nabiki had produced. "What's that?"
"That's a cruise ship. Once we get out of Nerima after the school year, we should both relax. We'll have to figure out the money, but it'll be worth it. After that… well I can get you lost in the world. You can go on a journey to find yourself for a few months before you come back."
Ranko looked the plan over. "Onee-chan, it's all a bit… vague."
Nabiki shrugged. "You gave me a week. Besides, it's all hinging currently on your Mom and how she takes you being… you."
Ranko looked down. "…Yeah. I guess." She swallowed, then looked up. "When do we start?"
"Tomorrow." Nabiki grinned at Ranko's shock. "Get while the getting's good, imouto-chan. Tomorrow I want you to put only a change of clothes into your bag instead of the school books. I'm going to play hooky and visit your Mom's house officially to cause trouble and squeeze some money out of her for information on her son's whereabouts."
Ranko eyed her a moment and then laughed. "That reputation of yours does come in handy, onee-chan."
Nabiki shrugged. "What can I say? It works for me. Anyway, you get changed somewhere out the way. Make sure it's one of the outfits she bought for you as Tendou Ranko and try to look tomboyish yet you're trying to be feminine. So, you know, basically normal." She dodged the swipe and laughed. "Once I've gone in, you knock on the door and we'll go from there."
Ranko shivered. "I'd rather not… but if it's the only way…"
"There are others, but this has the best chance of success." Nabiki shrugged. "Once we're in, follow my lead. We're going to demonstrate the curse, then you're going to tell her everything that's happened."
"Nabs… is that a good idea?" Ranko asked, looking worried. "I mean we've only really gotten on recently and you've done… stuff to me… I'm not gonna lie if I have to."
Nabiki looked down. "If she gets pissed off with me, fine. I deserve it. You know how I feel about the things I did to you."
Ranko circled her sister in a hug and held her a moment. "And you know I've forgiven most of it, and the other stuff don't matter." She said quietly, squeezing Nabiki close. Then she separated and smiled bashfully.
"Thanks, Ranchan, means a lot. After you've told her, we'll gauge her reaction and then we'll ask for her help."
Ranko nodded.
The next morning, Ranko woke early and stuffed one of the outfits into her bag; a light sundress with a shawl, tights, mary-jane shoes. She also put a small makeup compact into the bag and then a ribbon. She fetched out a small pair of fake glasses, too, and put those in ready.
She dressed in her usual Chinese silks and switched to her boy form, sighing as the dysphoria really got started quickly this morning. The wrongness pervaded everything again like it had never left.
She dug into a loose floorboard under the matting of the room and pulled out a scripted wooden box. Pulsing some chi through it, she checked the contents and nodded, satisfied, She sealed it back up and put it into the bag, too. From what Nabiki had said, this would be useful stuff to take.
She looked around the room. With a pang, she realised it would probably be the last time she'd see it for a long while.
Then she walked out into the corridor, yawning and stared at Akane.
"You're up early." The short-haired girl said, a touch of suspicion in her face.
"Couldn't sleep properly, and without Pop to throw me out the window in a morning my sleep routine's all off." Ranko shrugged. "Hey 'Kane?"
Akane was walking off but stopped and turned around. "Yeah?"
"Sorry for the other day. And thanks for apologisin'. Meant a lot, even if I was too outta it at the time ta 'preciate it." She rubbed the back of her head. "I hope someday we get on way better, huh?"
Akane smiled. "Yeah."
Ranko felt a twist in her heart at the thought of what she was going to do, but Nabiki had expressly forbidden her from saying goodbye outright. Even so…
"See ya around, ya cute tomboy." Ranko said, grinning as she went down the stairs.
Akane was about to draw her mallet when the actual words spilled into her head. "Wait… what? Ranma!" She ran to the stairs and looked down at the pigtailed martial artist. "What the hell did you…?"
Ranko winked at her. "I'm goin' on ahead, 'Kane. Take care awright?" Then without another word she went to the genkan, changed her shoes and was out, whistling as she put her hands behind her head.
Akane stayed at the top of the stairs, bright red, for about a half hour before Nabiki broke her out of it by laughing as she walked down the stairs.
"Ranma got your tongue there, imouto-chan?" The bob-haired girl teased. "You could fry an egg on your face right now!"
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Nodoka was sweeping the front of her genkan in her usual kimono when she spotted a familiar face headed towards her house.
"Auntie!"
"Nabiki-chan, how lovely to see you, dear!" Nodoka said warmly. Nabiki eyed her; even now she had the Saotome family honour blade tucked under one arm, wrapped as always. "But isn't this a school day?"
Nabiki shrugged. "I'm playing hooky. Besides, I've got important information to share with you and it couldn't wait!"
Nodoka pursed her lips. Nabiki really should be in school right now, but at the same time the girl was mercenary enough for Nodoka to know whatever information she had was important.
"It's to do with Ranma!" Nabiki announced. "He's coming today!"
Nodoka dropped her broom and the honour blade. "He… he is?" She looked at Nabiki, who nodded.
"Yes, Auntie, I managed to convince him to come here. He won't be long!"
Nodoka picked the broom and katana up and walked back into her house. "Come in, dear!" She bubbled. "Come in, let's get some tea!"
Nabiki looked at the genteel woman as she followed. The moment she'd mentioned her child the woman had brightened to an incredible level. Like hearing her child's name was a balm to her soul and Nabiki felt a pang as she realised how much constantly 'missing' seeing Ranko had been.
She hoped that was a good sign regarding the stupid contract.
In short order the two of them were seated in the family room with tea and Nodoka was pressing Nabiki for details on 'Ranma's' recent exploits. She gave a toned down, swapped version of the recent weekend getaway.
"Oh, I thought Akane was the one engaged to him?" Nodoka asked. "Not you."
Nabiki smiled and rubbed the back of her head. "That's right, I just borrowed him. Really, I took him more as a pack mule and fake boyfriend, Auntie, you know how men are at the beach and I just wanted to get away. Besides, I fed him all sorts of food and he forgave me for using him like that." She giggled. "Besides, it also made Akane very jealous and he takes note when that happens!"
Nodoka tittered. "Just so. Ah, how manly he must be."
Nabiki eyed her and inwardly laughed. Nodoka had no idea.
The doorbell rang and Nodoka shot to her feet. "That must be him!" She cheered excitedly and Nabiki smiled warmly to see it. Nodoka bustled to the genkan and slid the door open, and then her happy mood diminished a little, but not entirely. "Oh! Ranko-chan, how lovely to see you!"
Ranko smiled at her mother warmly. She'd changed en route after using a similar set of changing trains and outfits to the weekend away and now had the dress, tights, shoes and shawl on, as well as her hair in a bow. She'd put the stylish glasses on, though the frames weren't any strength, and she'd done a subtle makeup job. "Hello M-Auntie!" She said brightly. "Look!" And she gave a twirl.
"My my, dear, you do certainly look fetching and less of a tomboy than usual! That's one of the outfits I bought for you isn't it?"
"Yep! Thank you Auntie. May I come in?"
"Cerainly, dear. Your cousin is already here." Nodoka stepped to the side to let the redhead in, and she changed her shoes while the auburn-haired woman looked out on the street. "You haven't seen my son have you, Ranko-chan? Nabiki-chan said he'd be coming by."
Ranko twitched slightly. "Not yet, Auntie. Why don't we go and sit and wait?"
Nodoka scanned the street and then deflated slightly. She slid the door shut and looked a little down. Ranko walked to her and put a hand on her arm as the older woman sighed forlornly.
"He'll be here, Auntie, he promised me and Nabiki both." She said gently. "Come on, let's sit down and have some tea." She linked her arm with Nodoka's and led the auburn-haired woman to the family room, where she sat her down and poured a cup of tea for herself.
Nodoka brightened after a short time. "Oh, where are my manners, girls? I'm sorry, I was just very excited to see my son."
Ranko smiled. "It's fine. Besides, I think… Ranma might be closer than you think."
"Really?" Nodoka asked.
"Yes. Nabiki?"
Nabiki nodded and stood up, going to the kitchen and returning with a tray. Nodoka looked curious a moment at the several cups of water, hot and cold. She put the tray in front of Ranko and Nodoka looked absolutely lost.
"What is this, Ranko-chan?"
Ranko smiled sadly at her mother. She clutched the object in her pocket – one of the reasons she'd chosen this dress was the pockets, after all. "I'm going to show you a magic trick." She said, standing up and taking her hand out of the pocket, taking her glasses off and then picking up a glass of hot water. "Are you watching closely?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Prestige intensifies
SalsaDeGranada
Thankful for our Cradle's Graces
- Location
- Philippines
I found this through the banner and it's like, really good. I love the tone.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
This continues to be an utter delight for Ranma fans of all stripes.
Strawberry
Dessert Faerie
- Location
- Derbyshire, UK
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Thank you both! I'm glad people are enjoying, because I have a lot of fun writing it!
Epsilon Rose
The King of Unrest
Y'know, this is the second trans Ranma fic I'm reading and I've never actually read or watched Ranma 1/2 ... Well, at least the fics are good. 😁
Minorest of nitpicks: I think you're using " There but for the grace of [X]" backwards. The original phrase was "There but for the grace of god I go." In reference to a fate you were spared, but someone else suffered, as a result of chance. In both of your uses, you seem to be talking about something that actually happened to the subject, rather than something the avoided.
Minorest of nitpicks: I think you're using " There but for the grace of [X]" backwards. The original phrase was "There but for the grace of god I go." In reference to a fate you were spared, but someone else suffered, as a result of chance. In both of your uses, you seem to be talking about something that actually happened to the subject, rather than something the avoided.
Strawberry
Dessert Faerie
- Location
- Derbyshire, UK
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Thank you! I hope you continue to enjoy!
Ah, you're like me and Familiar of Zero. Never seen the anime, never read the light novels and don't intend to, but I voraciously read several long fics!
Hmm, you're right, I'll take a look at rephrasing on my next run through redraft (though I only just finished one run through so may be a few more chapters until I do so again)
Strawberry
Dessert Faerie
- Location
- Derbyshire, UK
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Next chapter is 95% done, hopefully tonight it'll go out!
I mean it's not really a spoiler that Ranko's alive in the 'present'!
I mean it's not really a spoiler that Ranko's alive in the 'present'!
Strawberry
Dessert Faerie
- Location
- Derbyshire, UK
- Pronouns
- She/Her
To be fair, if he had to, he could put her clean through a wall. Alive doesn't necessarily mean 'positive result'.
That also-also said, any chance we get to see that absolute moron of a principal and abusive asshat of a teacher get theirs at some point? >.>
Oh I don't know if they'll show up in more than a cursory way until the Part 3 of Vegas Rules.
So this is Part 1 - it's all about the past and explaining how we got to Ranko and Nabs on the ship.
Part 2 will probably be called "Explorers" and will be her journey to find herself. This is very much for the present.
Part 3 will be for the future (Haven't got a title yet) and that will be when Ranko gets back to Nerima and starts really cleaning house.
So in part 3, most likely yes.
Still, they might show up soon in part 1!
Chapter 8 - Mum's The Word
Strawberry
Dessert Faerie
- Location
- Derbyshire, UK
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Wow, quick turnaround!
Alright that's mainly because a chunk of this I'd had written since the first couple of days I was writing the fic!
---------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 8 – Mum's The Word
Faked our deaths,
Lit a match,
Closed the door,
Waited for the flash.
Greyhound Station,
We paid in cash,
Miss Lazarus,
We're coming back!
They say it's darkest before the dawn,
We've been in this town for far too long,
They say it's darkest before the dawn,
We're moving on, we're moving on, we're moving on!
- Sunset by The Midnight
Ranko pretended she wasn't terrified out of her wits by upping the showmanship. Nabiki saw through her, of course; Nabiki knew how she tended to ham up the performances when she was nervous; and Ranko was so far beyond nervous right now that 'panicked' was on another planet.
"Are you watching closely?"
She poured the hot water on her head and Nodoka stared in shock as the girl she thought she knew grew taller, her bust disappeared, her hair turned black, her arms more muscled and less lithe, her frame bulkier, and a little hunched, as if a weight settled on it.
Nodoka found herself looking at a boy. A familiar-looking boy. In a dress, but a boy, nonetheless.
"Hi Mom." Ranko said. "Long time no see."
Nodoka stared, speechless. Ranko waved.
"And for my next trick…" She poured cold water on herself and returned to the busty redhead.
Nodoka gasped, and her breath started hitching. Nabiki knelt next to her and rubbed the small of the older woman's back until she'd calmed down.
That is until Ranko poured hot water again and returned to her boy form. This time she knelt and took her mother's hands while Nodoka tried to control her breathing.
Once Nodoka had calmed down, Ranko smiled at her uneasily. "So y'can probably see why I haven't been around. Pop didn't much fancy havin' his insides become outsides."
Nodoka's heart clenched. The contract. Oh kami-sama, that stupid contract.
"R-Ranma?!" She stammered, and Ranko nodded. It'd do for now. "Is that… is that you?!"
"It's me." Ranko confirmed. "I missed you, Mom." She said, squeezing Nodoka's hands. "I'm real glad ta meetcha properly."
Nodoka pulled her hands from Ranko's and then threw her arms around her child. "Oh, my Ranma! My baby!" She wailed and squeezed her closer.
"M-mom." Ranko managed to say, her own eyes filling with tears. After a short while, Nodoka pulled away and sat back.
"How?!" she demanded to know, worry and fear, longing, joy and pain all warring on her face as she tried to maintain equilibrium. "Why?! What happened to you?!"
Ranko shifted uncomfortably and then she splashed herself with cold water again, sighing in relief. Tights and panties were not designed for male anatomy, at least not the ones she was wearing. Nodoka noticed and frowned, and Ranko smiled at her. "Sorry Mom, it's a long story, but also I don't wanna have certain bits squished up the whole time I'm tellin' ya. Ain't comfy, and trust me, I know."
Nodoka blinked, then went as red as Nabiki did, but she nodded in acceptance of the reasoning.
Ranko took in a deep breath and looked at her mother. "Mom, this is gonna be a real doozy of a story. Nabs'll back me up on all of it. It's not gonna paint her in a good light, but I want you to know now – Nabs is my sister in everything but blood and I have forgiven her." Her hands closed around the object in one of the large pockets this dress had. Nabiki probably wouldn't forgive her for what she was going to pull, though.
"And every bit of this story's gonna be true, even if it's unbelievable." Nodoka stared as Ranko took a long sip of tea, looking back through her memories. "That awright, Mom?"
Nodoka looked at her child and nodded, emotions still warring in her eyes.
Ranko took in a breath and started to tell Nodoka about her life.
Ryouga eyed Ranko. "You… You told your mom about being… Uh… you?" She nodded.
"Yeah." She laughed ruefully.
"But the seppuku pledge your Pop told you about…?" Ranko shrugged. "Wh-what happened?"
"I told her about everythin'. Everythin'. The journey, the curse, the ridiculous bullshit I'd been through all that time." Ranko took a drink from her glass and swayed a little. Ryouga wondered if she was getting drunk. He was starting to feel… fuzzy. His lips especially.
"And she didn't…?"
Ranma looked down at her glass and Nabiki scooted next to her, putting an arm around the redheaded girl. "I'll tell this bit." She said, looking at Ryouga. Ranma nodded. Ryouga saw tears dropping to the table but he couldn't tell if they were happy or sad.
Ranko told her everything.
Training. Going hungry. Beatings.
Genma lying, cheating, stealing, using Ranko as nought but coin.
The Cat Fist – Nabiki had had to restrain Nodoka for a moment as she shrieked in outrage.
Everything that had happened in her life she laid bare for her mother to see. She left nothing out, but she tried to keep it as neutral as possible. Whenever it became biased, she admitted her bias.
She told her of China, of Jusenkyo, of the Spring of Drowned Girl, of her curse and Genma's.
The Amazons, Shampoo, Mousse, the Kisses.
Returning to Japan and going to the dojo.
Akane. Kasumi. Nabiki.
The spar, the furo, the engagement.
School, the horde, Kunou.
Ryouga, the fights.
As she moved on with her story, all of the insanity that happened during the last few years, Nodoka's face grew more and more pale, and more and more outraged and angry.
When she described Jusendo, Nabiki was crying softly. She hadn't known how bad it had gotten. None of those who'd been there had really spoken about it to anyone who hadn't gone. What could they say? Akane and Ranko both still had trauma left from it.
Ranko found herself crying about it, wrapping her arms around herself as if cold. She'd not told anyone how she'd felt during that time, but it poured out of her now. Misery and terror and absolute horror at the fact that she'd taken a life, even if that life had come back.
What's worse was her feeling like she'd someday have to do it again. Or whether she'd balk so much the next time. She knew she was capable of it, like it was always an option now. She hated that she could consider it, even though it gave her the chills.
She told Nodoka how everything had changed… and then gone back to normal. The maelstrom that never seemed to end, never left her alone. Never let her think or even find a way out. How she and Akane had drifted, even though they'd been so close and now there wasn't much hope left.
"…So that's it. Up to a month or so ago." Ranko finished quietly, bowing her head. Nodoka stared at her in shock and outrage. She felt weak, and trembled, partly in rage, partly in the horror of all that had happened.
"I-" Where could she begin? That stupid, stupid contract. She couldn't judge her child, not for a second. He'd already been through so much.
The silence between them all deepened until it became almost a physical thing, crawling over them in the late-morning light. No one wanted to speak, to break it. Like there was a spell in the air, turning it thick.
"…There's more, Mom." Ranko said quietly, eventually breaking it. She bowed her head even lower, looking ashamed. Her face twisted and fear slammed through her entire system.
"More?!" Nodoka all but shrieked and Ranko winced. "There's more than that… that maelstrom of horror?!" Ranko nodded, eyes still on the floor.
"Y-yeah." She said. Nodoka eyed Nabiki, now sitting quietly next to her child. The girl hadn't spoken much, barring a couple of times to clarify or corroborate. Ranma's retelling of events had made it clear how much she'd hurt him and Nodoka could see the regret in those piercing eyes and her flinching when the worst things were brought up.
That and that her son clearly trusted the girl with the bob and cold eyes to visit where he clearly thought he would be forced to die showed that something had happened to make him forgive her.
Nabiki took Ranma's hand and Nodoka's eyebrow raised, before she noticed none of the usual signs of teenage love. It was more like… a big sister caring for her sibling. He hadn't been lying, then. It looked a little odd, but she nodded approvingly. Ranma clearly needed someone stable and the frosty demeanour that permeated Tendou Nabiki clearly helped Ranma to calm. Nodoka schooled her expression, mind a-whirling.
One thing she had noticed was that when Ranma had demonstrated the curse, only a moment afterwards he'd splashed himself with cold water. The excuse he'd given was true, female underwear was not for male anatomy. And the clothes were some that she'd picked up for 'Tendou Ranko' herself. But why was he wearing those clothes and not the strange boy's clothes 'Ranko' had been wearing before Nodoka bought them for her?
Certainly he seemed to have a flair for the dramatic, but she already knew 'Ranko' as something of a tomboy so…
She stared and a hand went to her mouth for a moment. An inkling began to spark into her mind. One that filled her with shame. Not for her child, but of herself. She thought she knew where this was going to go.
And she knew why there was that awful terror running through her child. Why whenever she moved her child flinched and behind those blue, blue eyes a naked terror boiled, almost incandescent.
Kami-sama why did I make Ranma sign it too?
"I… well. Um…" Ranko fiddled with her fingers, red hair falling over her eyes. "Y'see I…" Nabiki squeezed her hand and it all came out in a rush. "I'm… I'm not a boy Mom. I don't feel like a boy, I'm not… I'm not Ranma. In a w-way, I r-really am R-ranko. I… like that n-name more." Nodoka's eyes widened and she flinched a moment, head whirling, guess correct. "I-I… when I change it f-feels so… right. So much better than when I'm a boy…" she swallowed and looked down. "I'm… I'm a girl. I think… I think I was always a girl. Even before Jusenkyo. Even when I was little."
Ranko's rushing babble wasn't easy to follow but Nodoka managed to follow the thread of time from when she'd spoken to Nabiki that night, to wrestling with her gender identity, to the crazy, lunatic plan she and Nabiki had conceived to get away from the madness. Oh, my child. My brave, strange child.
And then came the part she herself had been afraid of. Ranma… No, Ranko, stood up, knelt and then bowed low, forehead touching the floor. Her hand went into her pocket and pulled out an object that made Nabiki hiss in shock. Shoulders shaking, with one hand holding up an object. Nodoka's eyes widened and she felt even more faint. A tantou.
"I h-have shamed you, m-mother." The redhead stammered out, absolute fear in her voice. Fear of me. No child should have that fear of their parent. Oh, what have I done? "I understand I am to be h-h-held to the contract I-I and my f-f-father s-signed. I am no 'man amongst men'. Father failed, I failed. I accept my punishment, but please spare yourself and father. You shouldn't die for my failure." Her arm trembled where it held the tantou, and the redhead made as if to begin drawing it.
Nodoka stared and then cast a glance to Nabiki, who was half out of the seiza position she'd been sitting in, looking terrified and unsure. Clearly, this had not been part of whatever plan they'd concocted to speak with her.
Nabiki bit her lip and looked at Nodoka. As subtly as she could, Nodoka shook her head as Ranko continued to stutter out apologies and confess what she thought her shame.
"My child." Nodoka's voice was calm, but an undercurrent of fear ran through it. She schooled her expression to coldness out of habit. Ranko flinched. This was it.
There was a rustling as Nodoka reached into her kimono and pulled a piece of paper out. Nabiki's eyes widened further and she stood up to object, but the mercenary girl found Nodoka's katana at her neck before she'd had chance to move.
They froze, Ranko looking up from the floor in shock at Nodoka's speed. Nabiki standing there with a blade pointed at her, trying not to breathe too hard.
Quick as lightning, Nodoka moved, and both Ranko and Nabiki flinched. There was a sound like ripping silk, a whistle and then a long 'shing' noise, with the click of a blade returning home to its scabbard. Ranko felt at her neck. She didn't feel any blood pouring from it. She looked up again.
Floating in the air was the pledge, cut into tiny, tiny pieces. Some paint was on one and the beginning of the character for Ranko's old name was on another as they floated by the redhead.
Nodoka looked down at Ranko. Ranko looked up at Nodoka. Abject terror stared up into abject horror. Nodoka's mind was frozen. Her child was so afraid of her. What had Genma done to her to make her think any sane mother would make her child commit seppuku? Shame, grief, rage and hurt slammed through her. Rage at Genma, at herself for wanting something to control her husband with, to make sure he did well training Ranma. Grief that she'd missed her child's years because of this stupidity and hurt that Ranko had thought it was serious for her. Shame that she'd failed her child.
She was a failure as a mother. The shame almost caused her to take the tantou and drive it into her own neck.
But under all of it was a fierce, burning pride. Her child had suffered so much and was still the person in front of her. Damaged, clearly, but whole. Alive. Hold her you idiot! She berated herself, but she couldn't move a muscle. Her child had faced all those horrors she'd had explained to her and still come out strong. She'd been wrong, felt wrong her whole life and fought, and fought and even though she'd been so afraid she still came to tell the truth to her mother, even though she'd clearly expected Nodoka to force her to fulfil the contract and die. And she'd been ready to do it.
Hold her! Nabiki breathed in. The moment seemed to last a lifetime. Paper flew to the floor in the beams of sunlight coming in from the windows, rustling softly. Everything was quiet, like no sound would emerge until someone moved.
Do it, Auntie! Nabiki thought. Hold your daughter! Come on! The two just looked at one another. Ranko looking up from the floor with terror on her face and underneath it all the tiniest spark of hope in those deep blue eyes. Nodoka standing there with hand on her sheathed katana, looking down with that same fear and hope mixed.
The moment broke when Nodoka's eyes filled with tears and she rushed down to grab Ranko into her lap, throwing the tanto the redhead carried and her katana behind her and crushing the petite girl to her chest like she'd never let go. Nodoka rocked back and forth with her daughter in her arms and wept like a broken-hearted child.
"M-my baby!" She howled. Ranko teared up and started to sob as the moments caught up to her and she held onto Nodoka as if drowning. "Oh, my baby, what have I done to you?!"
"M-mom…" Ranko wailed. Nabiki found herself tearing up, barely remembering her own mother's arms around her. She rubbed her eyes and sat down to wait. She'd give them all the time they needed.
Ranko and Nodoka were on the floor sobbing and crying for a long time. Nodoka couldn't seem to get any coherent words out, just wailing that spoke of grief and loss and the fear of a mother who almost lost her child due to her own stupidity. Ranko vented her terror of the day, her fear of her mother and the mixed pain and joy she felt at that moment.
Nabiki breathed a shaky sigh of relief as the crying began to slowly subside. What Ranko had done was so far out of the plan that they might as well have scrapped it. She was really going to do it too. Idiot didn't even tell me she was. I'm going to kick her ass later. She rubbed her eyes again and controlled her hitching breathing.
As the two calmed down, Nodoka stopped holding on so tightly to Ranko and she looked down at her daughter.
Her daughter!
Ranko looked up, eyes red and puffy, breath still hitching, tears still flowing from her eyes. Nodoka smiled a gentle, tender smile at her and softly wiped the tears from Ranko's eyes. Then she kissed the girl's forehead.
Nabiki couldn't take it. Her throat was thick, her breathing hitched and she could feel her tears coming again. She stood up abruptly, not noticed by the two in their moment and went to the bathroom to have her own cry in private. That scene had brought emotions and memories she'd long buried for her own good. But maybe she could cry about it for a bit today. Just for a bit she could drop the 'Ice Queen' persona, as always on her own.
In the living room, the two were still holding each other. "My daughter." Nodoka said, staring in wonder into her daughter's eyes. "You could never shame me." She ran her hands through Ranko's hair and smiled. "Never. Girl or boy, or cursed, or either. There is no shame in you."
"B-but it's n-not…"
"Not what? Right? Traditional" Nodoka closed her eyes and squeezed Ranko to her closely again. "I have no place to judge you even if I were inclined to." She's so petite. "You are you. And to hell with tradition if it causes you such pain! I will not be a mother who tells her daughter she deserves to die!"
"Y-you do."
"D-do what?"
"Have the right to j-judge me."
"Why?"
"B-because you're…" Ranko swallowed. "My Mom. What… what you think. It's important to me. You're my Mom."
Nodoka buried her face in Ranko's hair. "I'm so sorry about the contract." She shuddered, "I never meant it to be for you. Never."
"But Pops said…" Ranko shivered in remembered terror.
"Ranma," Her child twitched, and she sighed and smiled apologetically, rubbing her daughter's back. "Ranko. Your father is, putting it mildly, an idiot." Her voice grew thick a moment. "Would you have trusted him in my place?"
"N-no." Ranko said quietly. "But I wouldn't have made my baby sign it, neither."
Nodoka winced but took the words in anyway. "Yes. And you're right. I was a fool and should have thought my actions through. I suppose it's lucky you aren't half the fool either of you parents are."
Ranko shivered and laughed gently. "No, I think I definitely inherited that ability to leap before I look, Mom."
Nodoka held her close and tittered, smelling a scent of lotus flowers on her daughter. "Well, at least you learned to be better, even if it's only recent, dear."
Ranko sucked in a long breath and began to cry again and Nodoka held her closer. "S-sorry Mom, I'm not s-s-sad. I'm just… h-happy. And r-relieved. And I just…"
Nodoka held her daughter closely for some time longer after that.
"Nabs?" The bathroom door slid open and Ranko walked in. She saw Nabiki sitting on the floor against the wall and knelt by her, pulling the bob-haired girl into a hug. Nabiki wasn't crying anymore, but she was breathing a little shakily.
"Hey Ranchan. Didn't want to disturb your own cuddle with your… your mom." Nabiki said, breath catching. "I'd give anything to see mine again and seeing you two reunite was… It hurt."
"Oh, Nabs…" Ranko said softly and held her sister closer. "I won't say I understand your pain, 'cause I don't. When I thought Mom was dead, it had been a fact in my life for so long I hadn't even thought about it before. When I knew she was alive it was wonderful though, so if I apply the opposite, I can guess how bad it is."
Nabiki nodded and Ranko helped her up, taking hold of her hand. "Come sit with us. Don't cry alone. No one should. You and Kasumi-nee-chan taught me that the other day."
Nabiki followed her into the family room and Nodoka smiled a watery smile at the bob-haired girl, her face understanding. "Nabiki-chan. I'm sorry, I should have comforted you, too."
"No, Auntie, you had your daughter to look after."
Nodoka shook her head. "Kimiko was very precious to me, Nabiki. Losing her so soon after losing Ranko was a blow. I wish I'd been there for your family, but…"
"It's fine, Auntie. I just got over emotional after seeing you reconcile. And I was worried about my idiot sister here going so far off script I wasn't sure what was about to happen."
Nodoka nodded, her face a mask of pain. "Yes. I'll take my fair share of the blame for that."
Nabiki laughed. "Then in my book you are already better than your husband. He's allergic to taking responsibility for his actions."
Nodoka sighed. "I'd hoped some time in the world would have tempered that. Never mind." She looked between the two. "Ranko dear, as wonderful as it is to finally meet my daughter, I can tell you have something of an ulterior motive. I know telling me what happened wasn't you trying to save yourself from the seppuku pledge." She gestured at the pile of paper shards on the low table. "Because you were willing to go through with it. Why did you choose now to reveal yourself?"
"Mom…" Ranko closed her eyes and looked down. "I… wanted to escape." She said softly. "I can't deal with it anymore. I found everything about me was a lie. I've nothing inside my centre but my desire to know who I am, to explore my womanhood, to find out what I want and what I need. But beyond that… everything else is manipulation, or lies, and just… I'm a worthless shell."
Nabiki started and shook her head, but Ranko just carried on.
"…Nabiki here has been my hero through all of this. Her and Kasumi-nee-chan. They're my sisters, Mom. In all but blood. Akane would be too but…"
"Your feelings for her are complicated?"
"Puttin' it mildly." Nodoka's eyes narrowed in reproval and Ranko tried speaking more politely. Nabiki laughed internally at her. "But I just… I can't handle it anymore. When I thought I was Ranma, when I thought other people's honour debts were mine, or didn't want people to hurt because of me, so I let myself get hurt instead… I could just deal with it. Now? I can't. I broke down after less than a week, Mom."
Nodoka frowned. "I could step in for you, dear. A mother's word is important to these things."
"Naw, Mom. They're mine to deal with. Not mine to fulfil, but mine to end." Ranko shifted. "I just… need to know who I am before I do. And for that… I just… I need time."
Nodoka nodded. Nabiki reached into her bag and placed down her charts. "I mapped every bit of chaos in Ranko's life. The only place no one will ever think to look for her is here."
Nodoka closed her eyes, a look of pain flitting across her face. "I think I know why."
Nabiki smiled at her. "If I thought you were actually going to make her fulfil the contract, I wouldn't have brought her here to you." The mercenary girl said. "I am very protective of my family. Had you tried to make her do so I would have made your life difficult in every way I could."
Nodoka smiled at her. "It's good my daughter has such allies."
"But I did not think you would. Above all else you are her mother, and while some would balk at her being transgender, I did not think you would. I saw your longing and what you wanted, and all you wanted was your child back. I am sorry but… I exploited that to help Ranko."
Nabiki stared evenly at Nodoka, expecting a rebuke. Instead she got a gentle chuckle and a pride she hadn't thought she'd see. "Ranko, dear, are you sure Nabiki wouldn't have been the one to be engaged to if you were a boy?"
Ranko paled and laughed. "Maybe, Mom, but I don't think my wallet or dignity would have escaped intact. And she's my sis, so I don't really wanna marry her."
"A shame. Still, I am impressed by this plan, Nabiki-chan, even if it's a little vague on the details."
Nabiki actually blushed under the praise. "Thank you, Auntie. I don't want my sister hurt anymore, so it gave me something of a driving force to finish it."
"Commendable. So." Nodoka looked at Ranko. "It looks like you're wanting to live with me, Ranko dear?"
"…If that's okay, Mom. No one would look for me here…"
Nodoka smiled brightly, cheering up. "I think I would be suitably happy for that. When can it happen?"
"Right now, actually." Nabiki said, smiling at Nodoka. "This is the extraction phase. Effectively I have to have Ranko go to ground in a place that's still in Nerima – hiding in plain sight and all that."
"Hmm. Correct, if she leaves, they'll chase her and find her. They won't think to look here as only the Tendou family really knows I exist, and they only know of the contract. Genma won't come by, he is far too much of a coward to face me without Ranm… Ranko." She looked over at Ranko. "I'm sorry dear, it might take me a while to fully wrap my head around it. I'll try harder."
Ranko smiled warmly at her mother. "It's alright Mom, as long as you try."
Nodoka beamed at her daughter and then looked at the plan. "We'll need to tighten this up a little. But of course, you can stay here. I won't have you on the streets."
"Thanks, Mom." Ranko said, looking down and surreptitiously rubbing at her eyes.
"I assume you have made preparations for her wardrobe?" Nodoka looked to Nabiki who nodded.
"Kasumi-nee-chan will bring it piecemeal. I know she occasionally visits with you, so it won't look odd."
Nodoka nodded. Then she looked at part of the plan. "So, what is 'locking'?"
Ranko beamed. "Stopping my curse from activating and turning me into a boy." She said. "In short term I can use waterproof soap, but it's only temporary."
Nabiki sighed. "I wish we had that locking ladle that you mentioned from Herb."
Ranko grinned and took the scripted box from her bag. She ran her chi through it and opened it up. Inside, Nabiki saw several vials, labelled in Chinese. As well as that were some stones, bags of powder and a small book. "I took this from Cologne one time when she had me working. The vials are a potion made from the chiisuiton water and some herbs from Jusenkyo."
"Daughter, I do not approve of stealing." Nodoka said sourly. Ranko waved her off.
"Mom, those assholes were going to use these on me when I thought I was a boy, so I'd acquiesce to their dumb laws for a 'cure' despite that these are at best temporary."
Nodoka frowned at the curse but let it slide this time. There was plenty of time and training to go later to make her daughter more feminine, even if she despaired of her ever being truly ladylike. "I see." She said. "So, they would stoop so low?"
"Yep!" Ranko said angrily. "But this works in my favour. I want to speak to Prince Herb again, see if I can't visit and use the proper ladle to have it permanently locked, but these temporary locks will do for now. They've a chance to go full, but it's low. Each vial has a different potency, the longest I've got here is a four-month lock." She grinned. "And whaddya know, bein' locked won't be a curse for me!"
She pointed to the book. "This came with it. I think it's a spellbook or somethin'. The box was originally scripted so only the old ghoul could open it but I've got powerful chi and I know a little scripting. So, I modified it and now only I can open it. And it'll give anyone not me a nasty surprise if they try, so even if she knew I took it and took it back, she'll find it detonating in her face." Ranko laughed nastily. "Serve her right after all the horrible things she and her granddaughter and that idiot Mousse have done."
Nabiki looked proud. "Wow, Ranko, I didn't know you had it in you, but this is perfect. Why didn't you use this last week?"
Ranko sighed. "Didn't want them figuring me out. Not until I know who I am. Not 'til I've found myself."
"How do you know you can trust them to be what they appear?"
"I asked Herb." Ranko said, shrugging. "I described the box and the things in it and he advised me what they were. Said I 'should be careful of those amazon dogs trying something underhanded now they know force is off the table'."
Nabiki looked curious. "I thought you were enemies?"
"More like rivals really by the end. He's not so bad when you get past the asshattery. Kinda like me." Ranko chuckled and her mother gave her another look which made her squirm.
Ranko picked up the four-month vial. "Don't mean I can't do it now, though." And she downed it without further comment, making a face. "Oh, that tastes awful." She rinsed her mouth with tea and then picked up a cup of hot water Nabiki poured from a kettle for her. "Here goes." She said.
She dumped it on her head.
Nothing happened. Joy bubbled up inside her and she let out a happy laugh, grabbing another cup of hot water and pouring it on herself. She did this about five times and her grin grew wider and wider.
Eventually, she stopped, hair dripping. "…Finally." She whispered. "Finally, I'm me all the time."
Nodoka watched and smiled softly, bittersweetly. As much as she knew she'd come to love her daughter, she still missed her son. But that ache would fade with time.
Alright that's mainly because a chunk of this I'd had written since the first couple of days I was writing the fic!
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Chapter 8 – Mum's The Word
Faked our deaths,
Lit a match,
Closed the door,
Waited for the flash.
Greyhound Station,
We paid in cash,
Miss Lazarus,
We're coming back!
They say it's darkest before the dawn,
We've been in this town for far too long,
They say it's darkest before the dawn,
We're moving on, we're moving on, we're moving on!
- Sunset by The Midnight
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Ranko pretended she wasn't terrified out of her wits by upping the showmanship. Nabiki saw through her, of course; Nabiki knew how she tended to ham up the performances when she was nervous; and Ranko was so far beyond nervous right now that 'panicked' was on another planet.
"Are you watching closely?"
She poured the hot water on her head and Nodoka stared in shock as the girl she thought she knew grew taller, her bust disappeared, her hair turned black, her arms more muscled and less lithe, her frame bulkier, and a little hunched, as if a weight settled on it.
Nodoka found herself looking at a boy. A familiar-looking boy. In a dress, but a boy, nonetheless.
"Hi Mom." Ranko said. "Long time no see."
Nodoka stared, speechless. Ranko waved.
"And for my next trick…" She poured cold water on herself and returned to the busty redhead.
Nodoka gasped, and her breath started hitching. Nabiki knelt next to her and rubbed the small of the older woman's back until she'd calmed down.
That is until Ranko poured hot water again and returned to her boy form. This time she knelt and took her mother's hands while Nodoka tried to control her breathing.
Once Nodoka had calmed down, Ranko smiled at her uneasily. "So y'can probably see why I haven't been around. Pop didn't much fancy havin' his insides become outsides."
Nodoka's heart clenched. The contract. Oh kami-sama, that stupid contract.
"R-Ranma?!" She stammered, and Ranko nodded. It'd do for now. "Is that… is that you?!"
"It's me." Ranko confirmed. "I missed you, Mom." She said, squeezing Nodoka's hands. "I'm real glad ta meetcha properly."
Nodoka pulled her hands from Ranko's and then threw her arms around her child. "Oh, my Ranma! My baby!" She wailed and squeezed her closer.
"M-mom." Ranko managed to say, her own eyes filling with tears. After a short while, Nodoka pulled away and sat back.
"How?!" she demanded to know, worry and fear, longing, joy and pain all warring on her face as she tried to maintain equilibrium. "Why?! What happened to you?!"
Ranko shifted uncomfortably and then she splashed herself with cold water again, sighing in relief. Tights and panties were not designed for male anatomy, at least not the ones she was wearing. Nodoka noticed and frowned, and Ranko smiled at her. "Sorry Mom, it's a long story, but also I don't wanna have certain bits squished up the whole time I'm tellin' ya. Ain't comfy, and trust me, I know."
Nodoka blinked, then went as red as Nabiki did, but she nodded in acceptance of the reasoning.
Ranko took in a deep breath and looked at her mother. "Mom, this is gonna be a real doozy of a story. Nabs'll back me up on all of it. It's not gonna paint her in a good light, but I want you to know now – Nabs is my sister in everything but blood and I have forgiven her." Her hands closed around the object in one of the large pockets this dress had. Nabiki probably wouldn't forgive her for what she was going to pull, though.
"And every bit of this story's gonna be true, even if it's unbelievable." Nodoka stared as Ranko took a long sip of tea, looking back through her memories. "That awright, Mom?"
Nodoka looked at her child and nodded, emotions still warring in her eyes.
Ranko took in a breath and started to tell Nodoka about her life.
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Ryouga eyed Ranko. "You… You told your mom about being… Uh… you?" She nodded.
"Yeah." She laughed ruefully.
"But the seppuku pledge your Pop told you about…?" Ranko shrugged. "Wh-what happened?"
"I told her about everythin'. Everythin'. The journey, the curse, the ridiculous bullshit I'd been through all that time." Ranko took a drink from her glass and swayed a little. Ryouga wondered if she was getting drunk. He was starting to feel… fuzzy. His lips especially.
"And she didn't…?"
Ranma looked down at her glass and Nabiki scooted next to her, putting an arm around the redheaded girl. "I'll tell this bit." She said, looking at Ryouga. Ranma nodded. Ryouga saw tears dropping to the table but he couldn't tell if they were happy or sad.
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Ranko told her everything.
Training. Going hungry. Beatings.
Genma lying, cheating, stealing, using Ranko as nought but coin.
The Cat Fist – Nabiki had had to restrain Nodoka for a moment as she shrieked in outrage.
Everything that had happened in her life she laid bare for her mother to see. She left nothing out, but she tried to keep it as neutral as possible. Whenever it became biased, she admitted her bias.
She told her of China, of Jusenkyo, of the Spring of Drowned Girl, of her curse and Genma's.
The Amazons, Shampoo, Mousse, the Kisses.
Returning to Japan and going to the dojo.
Akane. Kasumi. Nabiki.
The spar, the furo, the engagement.
School, the horde, Kunou.
Ryouga, the fights.
As she moved on with her story, all of the insanity that happened during the last few years, Nodoka's face grew more and more pale, and more and more outraged and angry.
When she described Jusendo, Nabiki was crying softly. She hadn't known how bad it had gotten. None of those who'd been there had really spoken about it to anyone who hadn't gone. What could they say? Akane and Ranko both still had trauma left from it.
Ranko found herself crying about it, wrapping her arms around herself as if cold. She'd not told anyone how she'd felt during that time, but it poured out of her now. Misery and terror and absolute horror at the fact that she'd taken a life, even if that life had come back.
What's worse was her feeling like she'd someday have to do it again. Or whether she'd balk so much the next time. She knew she was capable of it, like it was always an option now. She hated that she could consider it, even though it gave her the chills.
She told Nodoka how everything had changed… and then gone back to normal. The maelstrom that never seemed to end, never left her alone. Never let her think or even find a way out. How she and Akane had drifted, even though they'd been so close and now there wasn't much hope left.
"…So that's it. Up to a month or so ago." Ranko finished quietly, bowing her head. Nodoka stared at her in shock and outrage. She felt weak, and trembled, partly in rage, partly in the horror of all that had happened.
"I-" Where could she begin? That stupid, stupid contract. She couldn't judge her child, not for a second. He'd already been through so much.
The silence between them all deepened until it became almost a physical thing, crawling over them in the late-morning light. No one wanted to speak, to break it. Like there was a spell in the air, turning it thick.
"…There's more, Mom." Ranko said quietly, eventually breaking it. She bowed her head even lower, looking ashamed. Her face twisted and fear slammed through her entire system.
"More?!" Nodoka all but shrieked and Ranko winced. "There's more than that… that maelstrom of horror?!" Ranko nodded, eyes still on the floor.
"Y-yeah." She said. Nodoka eyed Nabiki, now sitting quietly next to her child. The girl hadn't spoken much, barring a couple of times to clarify or corroborate. Ranma's retelling of events had made it clear how much she'd hurt him and Nodoka could see the regret in those piercing eyes and her flinching when the worst things were brought up.
That and that her son clearly trusted the girl with the bob and cold eyes to visit where he clearly thought he would be forced to die showed that something had happened to make him forgive her.
Nabiki took Ranma's hand and Nodoka's eyebrow raised, before she noticed none of the usual signs of teenage love. It was more like… a big sister caring for her sibling. He hadn't been lying, then. It looked a little odd, but she nodded approvingly. Ranma clearly needed someone stable and the frosty demeanour that permeated Tendou Nabiki clearly helped Ranma to calm. Nodoka schooled her expression, mind a-whirling.
One thing she had noticed was that when Ranma had demonstrated the curse, only a moment afterwards he'd splashed himself with cold water. The excuse he'd given was true, female underwear was not for male anatomy. And the clothes were some that she'd picked up for 'Tendou Ranko' herself. But why was he wearing those clothes and not the strange boy's clothes 'Ranko' had been wearing before Nodoka bought them for her?
Certainly he seemed to have a flair for the dramatic, but she already knew 'Ranko' as something of a tomboy so…
She stared and a hand went to her mouth for a moment. An inkling began to spark into her mind. One that filled her with shame. Not for her child, but of herself. She thought she knew where this was going to go.
And she knew why there was that awful terror running through her child. Why whenever she moved her child flinched and behind those blue, blue eyes a naked terror boiled, almost incandescent.
Kami-sama why did I make Ranma sign it too?
"I… well. Um…" Ranko fiddled with her fingers, red hair falling over her eyes. "Y'see I…" Nabiki squeezed her hand and it all came out in a rush. "I'm… I'm not a boy Mom. I don't feel like a boy, I'm not… I'm not Ranma. In a w-way, I r-really am R-ranko. I… like that n-name more." Nodoka's eyes widened and she flinched a moment, head whirling, guess correct. "I-I… when I change it f-feels so… right. So much better than when I'm a boy…" she swallowed and looked down. "I'm… I'm a girl. I think… I think I was always a girl. Even before Jusenkyo. Even when I was little."
Ranko's rushing babble wasn't easy to follow but Nodoka managed to follow the thread of time from when she'd spoken to Nabiki that night, to wrestling with her gender identity, to the crazy, lunatic plan she and Nabiki had conceived to get away from the madness. Oh, my child. My brave, strange child.
And then came the part she herself had been afraid of. Ranma… No, Ranko, stood up, knelt and then bowed low, forehead touching the floor. Her hand went into her pocket and pulled out an object that made Nabiki hiss in shock. Shoulders shaking, with one hand holding up an object. Nodoka's eyes widened and she felt even more faint. A tantou.
"I h-have shamed you, m-mother." The redhead stammered out, absolute fear in her voice. Fear of me. No child should have that fear of their parent. Oh, what have I done? "I understand I am to be h-h-held to the contract I-I and my f-f-father s-signed. I am no 'man amongst men'. Father failed, I failed. I accept my punishment, but please spare yourself and father. You shouldn't die for my failure." Her arm trembled where it held the tantou, and the redhead made as if to begin drawing it.
Nodoka stared and then cast a glance to Nabiki, who was half out of the seiza position she'd been sitting in, looking terrified and unsure. Clearly, this had not been part of whatever plan they'd concocted to speak with her.
Nabiki bit her lip and looked at Nodoka. As subtly as she could, Nodoka shook her head as Ranko continued to stutter out apologies and confess what she thought her shame.
"My child." Nodoka's voice was calm, but an undercurrent of fear ran through it. She schooled her expression to coldness out of habit. Ranko flinched. This was it.
There was a rustling as Nodoka reached into her kimono and pulled a piece of paper out. Nabiki's eyes widened further and she stood up to object, but the mercenary girl found Nodoka's katana at her neck before she'd had chance to move.
They froze, Ranko looking up from the floor in shock at Nodoka's speed. Nabiki standing there with a blade pointed at her, trying not to breathe too hard.
Quick as lightning, Nodoka moved, and both Ranko and Nabiki flinched. There was a sound like ripping silk, a whistle and then a long 'shing' noise, with the click of a blade returning home to its scabbard. Ranko felt at her neck. She didn't feel any blood pouring from it. She looked up again.
Floating in the air was the pledge, cut into tiny, tiny pieces. Some paint was on one and the beginning of the character for Ranko's old name was on another as they floated by the redhead.
Nodoka looked down at Ranko. Ranko looked up at Nodoka. Abject terror stared up into abject horror. Nodoka's mind was frozen. Her child was so afraid of her. What had Genma done to her to make her think any sane mother would make her child commit seppuku? Shame, grief, rage and hurt slammed through her. Rage at Genma, at herself for wanting something to control her husband with, to make sure he did well training Ranma. Grief that she'd missed her child's years because of this stupidity and hurt that Ranko had thought it was serious for her. Shame that she'd failed her child.
She was a failure as a mother. The shame almost caused her to take the tantou and drive it into her own neck.
But under all of it was a fierce, burning pride. Her child had suffered so much and was still the person in front of her. Damaged, clearly, but whole. Alive. Hold her you idiot! She berated herself, but she couldn't move a muscle. Her child had faced all those horrors she'd had explained to her and still come out strong. She'd been wrong, felt wrong her whole life and fought, and fought and even though she'd been so afraid she still came to tell the truth to her mother, even though she'd clearly expected Nodoka to force her to fulfil the contract and die. And she'd been ready to do it.
Hold her! Nabiki breathed in. The moment seemed to last a lifetime. Paper flew to the floor in the beams of sunlight coming in from the windows, rustling softly. Everything was quiet, like no sound would emerge until someone moved.
Do it, Auntie! Nabiki thought. Hold your daughter! Come on! The two just looked at one another. Ranko looking up from the floor with terror on her face and underneath it all the tiniest spark of hope in those deep blue eyes. Nodoka standing there with hand on her sheathed katana, looking down with that same fear and hope mixed.
The moment broke when Nodoka's eyes filled with tears and she rushed down to grab Ranko into her lap, throwing the tanto the redhead carried and her katana behind her and crushing the petite girl to her chest like she'd never let go. Nodoka rocked back and forth with her daughter in her arms and wept like a broken-hearted child.
"M-my baby!" She howled. Ranko teared up and started to sob as the moments caught up to her and she held onto Nodoka as if drowning. "Oh, my baby, what have I done to you?!"
"M-mom…" Ranko wailed. Nabiki found herself tearing up, barely remembering her own mother's arms around her. She rubbed her eyes and sat down to wait. She'd give them all the time they needed.
Ranko and Nodoka were on the floor sobbing and crying for a long time. Nodoka couldn't seem to get any coherent words out, just wailing that spoke of grief and loss and the fear of a mother who almost lost her child due to her own stupidity. Ranko vented her terror of the day, her fear of her mother and the mixed pain and joy she felt at that moment.
Nabiki breathed a shaky sigh of relief as the crying began to slowly subside. What Ranko had done was so far out of the plan that they might as well have scrapped it. She was really going to do it too. Idiot didn't even tell me she was. I'm going to kick her ass later. She rubbed her eyes again and controlled her hitching breathing.
As the two calmed down, Nodoka stopped holding on so tightly to Ranko and she looked down at her daughter.
Her daughter!
Ranko looked up, eyes red and puffy, breath still hitching, tears still flowing from her eyes. Nodoka smiled a gentle, tender smile at her and softly wiped the tears from Ranko's eyes. Then she kissed the girl's forehead.
Nabiki couldn't take it. Her throat was thick, her breathing hitched and she could feel her tears coming again. She stood up abruptly, not noticed by the two in their moment and went to the bathroom to have her own cry in private. That scene had brought emotions and memories she'd long buried for her own good. But maybe she could cry about it for a bit today. Just for a bit she could drop the 'Ice Queen' persona, as always on her own.
In the living room, the two were still holding each other. "My daughter." Nodoka said, staring in wonder into her daughter's eyes. "You could never shame me." She ran her hands through Ranko's hair and smiled. "Never. Girl or boy, or cursed, or either. There is no shame in you."
"B-but it's n-not…"
"Not what? Right? Traditional" Nodoka closed her eyes and squeezed Ranko to her closely again. "I have no place to judge you even if I were inclined to." She's so petite. "You are you. And to hell with tradition if it causes you such pain! I will not be a mother who tells her daughter she deserves to die!"
"Y-you do."
"D-do what?"
"Have the right to j-judge me."
"Why?"
"B-because you're…" Ranko swallowed. "My Mom. What… what you think. It's important to me. You're my Mom."
Nodoka buried her face in Ranko's hair. "I'm so sorry about the contract." She shuddered, "I never meant it to be for you. Never."
"But Pops said…" Ranko shivered in remembered terror.
"Ranma," Her child twitched, and she sighed and smiled apologetically, rubbing her daughter's back. "Ranko. Your father is, putting it mildly, an idiot." Her voice grew thick a moment. "Would you have trusted him in my place?"
"N-no." Ranko said quietly. "But I wouldn't have made my baby sign it, neither."
Nodoka winced but took the words in anyway. "Yes. And you're right. I was a fool and should have thought my actions through. I suppose it's lucky you aren't half the fool either of you parents are."
Ranko shivered and laughed gently. "No, I think I definitely inherited that ability to leap before I look, Mom."
Nodoka held her close and tittered, smelling a scent of lotus flowers on her daughter. "Well, at least you learned to be better, even if it's only recent, dear."
Ranko sucked in a long breath and began to cry again and Nodoka held her closer. "S-sorry Mom, I'm not s-s-sad. I'm just… h-happy. And r-relieved. And I just…"
Nodoka held her daughter closely for some time longer after that.
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"Nabs?" The bathroom door slid open and Ranko walked in. She saw Nabiki sitting on the floor against the wall and knelt by her, pulling the bob-haired girl into a hug. Nabiki wasn't crying anymore, but she was breathing a little shakily.
"Hey Ranchan. Didn't want to disturb your own cuddle with your… your mom." Nabiki said, breath catching. "I'd give anything to see mine again and seeing you two reunite was… It hurt."
"Oh, Nabs…" Ranko said softly and held her sister closer. "I won't say I understand your pain, 'cause I don't. When I thought Mom was dead, it had been a fact in my life for so long I hadn't even thought about it before. When I knew she was alive it was wonderful though, so if I apply the opposite, I can guess how bad it is."
Nabiki nodded and Ranko helped her up, taking hold of her hand. "Come sit with us. Don't cry alone. No one should. You and Kasumi-nee-chan taught me that the other day."
Nabiki followed her into the family room and Nodoka smiled a watery smile at the bob-haired girl, her face understanding. "Nabiki-chan. I'm sorry, I should have comforted you, too."
"No, Auntie, you had your daughter to look after."
Nodoka shook her head. "Kimiko was very precious to me, Nabiki. Losing her so soon after losing Ranko was a blow. I wish I'd been there for your family, but…"
"It's fine, Auntie. I just got over emotional after seeing you reconcile. And I was worried about my idiot sister here going so far off script I wasn't sure what was about to happen."
Nodoka nodded, her face a mask of pain. "Yes. I'll take my fair share of the blame for that."
Nabiki laughed. "Then in my book you are already better than your husband. He's allergic to taking responsibility for his actions."
Nodoka sighed. "I'd hoped some time in the world would have tempered that. Never mind." She looked between the two. "Ranko dear, as wonderful as it is to finally meet my daughter, I can tell you have something of an ulterior motive. I know telling me what happened wasn't you trying to save yourself from the seppuku pledge." She gestured at the pile of paper shards on the low table. "Because you were willing to go through with it. Why did you choose now to reveal yourself?"
"Mom…" Ranko closed her eyes and looked down. "I… wanted to escape." She said softly. "I can't deal with it anymore. I found everything about me was a lie. I've nothing inside my centre but my desire to know who I am, to explore my womanhood, to find out what I want and what I need. But beyond that… everything else is manipulation, or lies, and just… I'm a worthless shell."
Nabiki started and shook her head, but Ranko just carried on.
"…Nabiki here has been my hero through all of this. Her and Kasumi-nee-chan. They're my sisters, Mom. In all but blood. Akane would be too but…"
"Your feelings for her are complicated?"
"Puttin' it mildly." Nodoka's eyes narrowed in reproval and Ranko tried speaking more politely. Nabiki laughed internally at her. "But I just… I can't handle it anymore. When I thought I was Ranma, when I thought other people's honour debts were mine, or didn't want people to hurt because of me, so I let myself get hurt instead… I could just deal with it. Now? I can't. I broke down after less than a week, Mom."
Nodoka frowned. "I could step in for you, dear. A mother's word is important to these things."
"Naw, Mom. They're mine to deal with. Not mine to fulfil, but mine to end." Ranko shifted. "I just… need to know who I am before I do. And for that… I just… I need time."
Nodoka nodded. Nabiki reached into her bag and placed down her charts. "I mapped every bit of chaos in Ranko's life. The only place no one will ever think to look for her is here."
Nodoka closed her eyes, a look of pain flitting across her face. "I think I know why."
Nabiki smiled at her. "If I thought you were actually going to make her fulfil the contract, I wouldn't have brought her here to you." The mercenary girl said. "I am very protective of my family. Had you tried to make her do so I would have made your life difficult in every way I could."
Nodoka smiled at her. "It's good my daughter has such allies."
"But I did not think you would. Above all else you are her mother, and while some would balk at her being transgender, I did not think you would. I saw your longing and what you wanted, and all you wanted was your child back. I am sorry but… I exploited that to help Ranko."
Nabiki stared evenly at Nodoka, expecting a rebuke. Instead she got a gentle chuckle and a pride she hadn't thought she'd see. "Ranko, dear, are you sure Nabiki wouldn't have been the one to be engaged to if you were a boy?"
Ranko paled and laughed. "Maybe, Mom, but I don't think my wallet or dignity would have escaped intact. And she's my sis, so I don't really wanna marry her."
"A shame. Still, I am impressed by this plan, Nabiki-chan, even if it's a little vague on the details."
Nabiki actually blushed under the praise. "Thank you, Auntie. I don't want my sister hurt anymore, so it gave me something of a driving force to finish it."
"Commendable. So." Nodoka looked at Ranko. "It looks like you're wanting to live with me, Ranko dear?"
"…If that's okay, Mom. No one would look for me here…"
Nodoka smiled brightly, cheering up. "I think I would be suitably happy for that. When can it happen?"
"Right now, actually." Nabiki said, smiling at Nodoka. "This is the extraction phase. Effectively I have to have Ranko go to ground in a place that's still in Nerima – hiding in plain sight and all that."
"Hmm. Correct, if she leaves, they'll chase her and find her. They won't think to look here as only the Tendou family really knows I exist, and they only know of the contract. Genma won't come by, he is far too much of a coward to face me without Ranm… Ranko." She looked over at Ranko. "I'm sorry dear, it might take me a while to fully wrap my head around it. I'll try harder."
Ranko smiled warmly at her mother. "It's alright Mom, as long as you try."
Nodoka beamed at her daughter and then looked at the plan. "We'll need to tighten this up a little. But of course, you can stay here. I won't have you on the streets."
"Thanks, Mom." Ranko said, looking down and surreptitiously rubbing at her eyes.
"I assume you have made preparations for her wardrobe?" Nodoka looked to Nabiki who nodded.
"Kasumi-nee-chan will bring it piecemeal. I know she occasionally visits with you, so it won't look odd."
Nodoka nodded. Then she looked at part of the plan. "So, what is 'locking'?"
Ranko beamed. "Stopping my curse from activating and turning me into a boy." She said. "In short term I can use waterproof soap, but it's only temporary."
Nabiki sighed. "I wish we had that locking ladle that you mentioned from Herb."
Ranko grinned and took the scripted box from her bag. She ran her chi through it and opened it up. Inside, Nabiki saw several vials, labelled in Chinese. As well as that were some stones, bags of powder and a small book. "I took this from Cologne one time when she had me working. The vials are a potion made from the chiisuiton water and some herbs from Jusenkyo."
"Daughter, I do not approve of stealing." Nodoka said sourly. Ranko waved her off.
"Mom, those assholes were going to use these on me when I thought I was a boy, so I'd acquiesce to their dumb laws for a 'cure' despite that these are at best temporary."
Nodoka frowned at the curse but let it slide this time. There was plenty of time and training to go later to make her daughter more feminine, even if she despaired of her ever being truly ladylike. "I see." She said. "So, they would stoop so low?"
"Yep!" Ranko said angrily. "But this works in my favour. I want to speak to Prince Herb again, see if I can't visit and use the proper ladle to have it permanently locked, but these temporary locks will do for now. They've a chance to go full, but it's low. Each vial has a different potency, the longest I've got here is a four-month lock." She grinned. "And whaddya know, bein' locked won't be a curse for me!"
She pointed to the book. "This came with it. I think it's a spellbook or somethin'. The box was originally scripted so only the old ghoul could open it but I've got powerful chi and I know a little scripting. So, I modified it and now only I can open it. And it'll give anyone not me a nasty surprise if they try, so even if she knew I took it and took it back, she'll find it detonating in her face." Ranko laughed nastily. "Serve her right after all the horrible things she and her granddaughter and that idiot Mousse have done."
Nabiki looked proud. "Wow, Ranko, I didn't know you had it in you, but this is perfect. Why didn't you use this last week?"
Ranko sighed. "Didn't want them figuring me out. Not until I know who I am. Not 'til I've found myself."
"How do you know you can trust them to be what they appear?"
"I asked Herb." Ranko said, shrugging. "I described the box and the things in it and he advised me what they were. Said I 'should be careful of those amazon dogs trying something underhanded now they know force is off the table'."
Nabiki looked curious. "I thought you were enemies?"
"More like rivals really by the end. He's not so bad when you get past the asshattery. Kinda like me." Ranko chuckled and her mother gave her another look which made her squirm.
Ranko picked up the four-month vial. "Don't mean I can't do it now, though." And she downed it without further comment, making a face. "Oh, that tastes awful." She rinsed her mouth with tea and then picked up a cup of hot water Nabiki poured from a kettle for her. "Here goes." She said.
She dumped it on her head.
Nothing happened. Joy bubbled up inside her and she let out a happy laugh, grabbing another cup of hot water and pouring it on herself. She did this about five times and her grin grew wider and wider.
Eventually, she stopped, hair dripping. "…Finally." She whispered. "Finally, I'm me all the time."
Nodoka watched and smiled softly, bittersweetly. As much as she knew she'd come to love her daughter, she still missed her son. But that ache would fade with time.
- Location
- Australia
Really enjoyed the story, looking forward to more 
- Location
- somewhere over there.
- Pronouns
- They/It
I really like how you showed that Nodoka still had some hangups and adjusting to do after finding out she had a daughter, but that she was doing as much as she could to work through them herself and not make them Ranko's problem. She was honest, and said it might take her a bit to change habits, but she took responsibility for it instead of presenting it as some huge imposition.
Last edited:
Strawberry
Dessert Faerie
- Location
- Derbyshire, UK
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Really enjoyed the story, looking forward to more
Thank you! ♥
It's one of the things I always think Nodoka has that people seem to miss (partly because comedic sociopathy of canon) - she just wants to see her child again and seems to try to come up with any excuse in canon to not have to fulfil the contract (except where rule of funny breaks in). I take it to mean she just loves her child and would, no matter what.
She's not perfect, but she tries!
- Location
- Shenzhen
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Between transbian and lifelong Ukyostan, it's not my PAIRING
But this is DAMN good
But this is DAMN good
Chapter 9 - From Within and Without You
Strawberry
Dessert Faerie
- Location
- Derbyshire, UK
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Chapter 9!
In which we learn of her mother's Path and the start of her training to begin her freedom.
Freedom, it turns out, is bought by shackling oneself for a time.
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Chapter 9 – From Within and Without You
I am reminded now,
Of all the years gone by,
No use in crying now,
It's time to say goodbye,
Turn the page on all we are,
Always searching,
Turn the page on all we were,
Always searching...
- Evermore by Devin Townsend
Several empty drinks glasses were now scattered on the table and both Ranko and Ryouga were somewhat flushed. Nabiki was as cool as ever, but even she was slurring her words slightly.
"That sounds… a rush. So… you didn't have to do it?"
"Naw. Mom's been good to me, Ryouga." Ranko grinned at him and nudged him. "She's my Mom after all."
"I guess. I should try staying at home a while, see my own."
Ranko smiled at him. "When we're done here, I'll get you there, if you'd like? Save you a bit of wanderin'. I always liked your Mom."
Ryouga nodded. "Thanks. That'd be nice."
Ranko shrugged and took a long gulp of her drink, though he noticed no sharp smell from it, so she'd probably switched to fruit juice. He pushed what was left of his pitcher away. He was about as buzzed as he felt comfortable being. Sitting here with Ranko and Nabiki felt warm, but he didn't want to get more drunk now.
Nabiki stood up and stretched. "I'll turn in early, I think. Got an early morning setting up the cameras tomorrow after we dock so I'll head off. You kids have fun and don't do anything I wouldn't." She smirked at them both and Ranko rolled her eyes.
"Not a long list, sis, but fine."
Nabiki wandered off and Ranko turned to Ryouga. "So, where was I? Ah, yeah. We spent the rest of the day talking about the plan and hoo boy. You think Nabs has a labyrinthine mind? Mom's… Well, she's still kinda, I dunno, Mom, and kinda ditzy but she's sneaky as fuck too. But it goes with her path of the Art."
Ryouga perked up. "Path?" He scratched his head. "An actual Path huh? I didn't figure your mom to be like that with how you'd talked about her back when you were Ranma."
Ranko shrugged and took another long drink of her juice. "Neither did I until she brought it up, but it's called the Path of the Silken Breeze."
"Sounds girly."
"Oh, it is, trust me, but I like girly these days." She motioned at herself. "Well, mostly, I still think I'm kinda a tomboy and… I dunno, I'm alright with that."
"Hey, nothing wrong with a tomboy."
"Exactly my fuckin' point! Gawd!" Ranko ran a finger around the rim of her glass. "Fuckin' 'Kane taking it like an insult when it ain't. Tomboys are fuckin' hot and I should fuckin' know, bein' both one and hot!"
Ryouga went a little red but then he cleared his throat. "Did you find out her reaction to you disappearing?"
"Who?"
"Akane-san's." Ryouga said, and he faltered a moment. There wasn't that usual warmth there. Maybe some of the tale that Ranko had told had numbed him a little. Hard to see good the way Ranko described the malletting even if Ranko had admitted she deserved at least some of it.
"Ah." Ranko looked at the table. "Yeah, she did. She told me I couldn't say goodbye, but I left a card in Akane's room for her to find. But I don't think she ever found it because it's got my secret number on it, just in case. I told her to text me and then only ever call if she was absolutely desperate. An' she's never given me the first text…"
"Oh. Does Nabiki know?"
"Nope." Ranko sighed. "I know, I know, I shouldn't keep it from her but yanno, it's Akane."
"Yeah."
"Well, Nabs went home that night and Akane was frantic as hell. Though apparently she just thought I was out frolicking with that bitch Shampoo."
"'That Bitch'? You didn't like her?"
"Fuckin' bitch tried to kill me the first day we met, then was all over me, what the fuck do you think I think of her and her little fuckin' cohort of psychos?" Ranko spat. "Fuckin' grandmother'a hers tryin'a kidnap me, that fucking moron Mousse who skydives to conclusions worse than you? Fuck all of 'em. Especially after Jusendo, fuck every one of the fuckers. If I never see another person from some fuckin' shithole in the middle of nowhere in China that ain't Herb, I'll die a happy girl."
Ryouga put a hand on her shoulder and Ranko quietened. "Sorry." She mumbled after a moment. "S'just… I gotta go back, Ryouga. I have to go back sometime, and now that I'm one hundred percent girl, the kiss of marriage is gonna be off, and those fuckers are gonna put the kiss of death back on."
She rested her elbows on the table, head on her palm. "And… I dunno if I'm gonna have to kill one of them to make them back off." She said quietly. "It's an option, and one I've been aware I'm capable of since Saffron."
Ryouga squeezed her shoulder. "I think you can do it without killing, Ranko." He said quietly to her. She put her small hand over his. He smiled as he realised it was still as warm as it had been when she was Ranma. Somehow it was reassuring.
"Thanks, Ryouga. You're a good person. But I will if I have to, if they don't stop or go too far." Her tone hardened. "You think Cologne is gonna stop?"
"No, but you're clever enough to get rid of them." He squeezed her shoulder again. "I believe in you."
Ranko actually went red and looked at the table, embarrassed. "Thanks, man." She said, voice thick. He smiled and withdrew his hand.
"You're welcome." He said, happy to have managed to embarrass her for once, and not even with a bad thing.
Ranko sat up and cleared her throat awkwardly. "Anyway, it was a few days later when she realised I weren't comin' back. Nabs told me that's when Akane got really upset." Ranko had that look of self-recrimination he was learning to recognise as her guilt eating at her. Ryouga breathed out a long sigh.
"You loved her, didn't you?" He asked, softly.
Blue eyes flicked to him. "…Yeah. I did." She said, just as softly. "But no one would let us just… be together. That wedding bullshit was really the nail in the coffin for us." She sighed forlornly. "I'd'a married her, Ryo-chan." Her tone was morose. "I still love her though it's not the same love I had, but she's family." Ranko sniffled. "If she forgives me when I get back."
Ryouga took a moment, then put a hand on her shoulder. "Akane will forgive you, Ranko. She…" He sighed. "She loved you too."
Ranko nodded. "I don't wanna marry her or go out with her anymore, but she's… was… my best friend. Even if we argued, even with the malletin', even with me pickin' on her an' callin' her horrible names, we were still friends." She sniffled again. "I really miss her."
Ryouga squeezed her shoulder. She reached out and took the front of his shirt. "C-can I…?" She leaned towards him and he watched with surprise as she rested her cheek on his sternum. She breathed out. "S-sorry. I just need someth- someone stable right now." She gave a watery smile and blinked tears from her eyes. "Feeling a bit f-fragile." She burrowed into his chest and Ryouga made a decision.
Slowly, he encircled the petite redhead and just held her gently while she shook, tears spilling into his clothes. "Hey, come on now." He said softly, "Why are you crying?"
She sniffled and tried to control the sobs, "I just… miss my family." She said into his chest. "I've not spoken to them for months and months as me except for Nabs and Mom, an' I really miss 'em. It's been real hard to not give up an' jus'… tell 'em."
Ryouga kept his arms around her. "Well, the Saotome I know doesn't give up." He said, the words resonating through his chest and Ranko smiled softly as she felt the vibrations against her head. They were somehow comforting for her to feel.
"I guess." She said, shrugging in his arms. "Thanks, Ryouga. You're a gem when you ain't tryin'a kill me." She shivered a couple of times, then looked up at him. "Yanno, Ryouga, I never thanked ya."
"For what?"
"I think… you were the only one who understood at that weddin'." She sighed, her speech turning back to its usual cadence in that odd mixture of feminine politeness and rough country bumpkin he'd been getting to know so well. "Ya didn't turn up ta attack me or 'Kane, ya wasn't even gonna turn up 'cept fer ya bad luck and direction." She giggled, "I think I can forgive ya for wantin' that nannichuan though."
He nodded. "I'm sorry it went wrong." He whispered. "I bet it could've been beautiful."
She shivered in his arms. "Not your fault." She muttered, "Was mainly Nabs' fault. She 'pologised but before that I was real mad."
"You guys're really good friends now, aren't you?"
Her head moved against his sternum. "Uh huh. She's been good to me since then, Ryouga."
A gentle push from his chest and she wiped her eyes. Reluctantly he let her go and she sat back where she was. "Thanks. Needed something solid, an' you're about as solid as they come, Ryouga. I've never seen much that fazes you physically." She winked. "Except nubile lady flesh."
"Y-yeah well…" He chuckled nervously. "I guess we all have weaknesses."
"Hibiki Ryouga admittin' weakness, me cryin' in his arms. The world truly has gone mad." Ranko quipped, giggling.
"Yeah, well, I never ascribed to that 'man amongst men' crap your dad told you about. Men can feel."
"I know." She said, a sad look in her eyes. "Pop taught a lotta shite."
Ryouga shrugged. "Does he know?" He asked. "About you as Ranko, I mean."
She pondered, then shook her head. "Unless Mom told him, and she said she wouldn't. So probably not. I'll hafta face that music sometime when I get back."
"I'd have thought you'd hate him for all the crap he put you through." Ryouga said angrily. "Just the stuff I know's enough to make my blood boil now I know about it."
Ranko looked sad and curled her head on her arms again. "Pop's complicated. Sure, he's an idiot, and I don't know if Mom wants him back to be her husband or to make a panda-skin rug of him, but he's still my dad, yanno?" She sighed a long, deep sigh. "I guess I'll see when I meet him again, an' whether he accepts me for bein', yanno, me."
"I think he's evil." Ryouga said, "No one who isn't would teach you the neko-ken."
Ranko shuddered and closed her eyes. The fear was closer to the surface these days, regardless of therapy. "W-well, apart from that. But… Evil's just a word, Ryouga." She smiled at him. "Mom had this friend once, foreign girl. She said that under the skin, it's simple pain."
Ryouga made an intrigued 'hmm' and Ranko continued. "Pop ain't evil. Just a dummy who was too focused to see the damage he were doin' to his child. Same with Mom an' that pledge. She made it so she could control Pop, but it ended up makin' me so scared of her I had to pretend to be someone else."
Ryouga acquiesced and sighed. "I guess. Still…"
Ranko opened her eyes and smiled at him, patting his hand. "But thanks for the support." She sat up. "I guess I should tell you about my change to her path, and of Himeko."
Ryouga nodded.
"So, after we'd nailed down the plan, Mother had a bombshell to drop in my lap. I always thought she was just an Iajutsu artist, but it turned out I was way off."
Ranko stared at the ceiling of her new (old?) room and pondered. She'd come up to have some quiet while Nabiki and her mother hashed some stuff out on the plan that they didn't want her disrupting by knowing. She'd have felt a little insulted if she didn't know how chaos liked to congregate around her, and if you don't know you can't tell people.
It had been a day or two since they'd come here, and she was starting to get used to the place, though it still felt weird not to have Kasumi just being there, or Akane yelling at her. It was so quiet, she felt jumpy.
It didn't help that probably half the ward was torn up while people looked for her.
There was a knock at her door and Nodoka bustled in, smiling at her daughter. "Hello, dear." She said warmly, and Ranko found she couldn't stop smiling back. It felt so good to finally talk with her mother.
Nodoka sat on her bed and Ranko sat up, cross legged. Nodoka poked her forehead. "Sit nicely, dear, don't show off your underwear to all and sundry."
Ranko switched to a more polite sitting position and Nodoka sighed forlornly. "I am going to have my work cut out for me." She said softly and Ranko looked curious.
"How so, Mom?" She asked.
"Making you more feminine for a start. I think you're always going to be a tomboy but even then there are things you're going to need to do that you just… don't have the socialising to realise, I suppose."
Ranko fidgeted. "Bein' brought up as a boy by a mysog… whatever that word Nabs uses for Pop ain't exactly good for bein' a girl." She muttered.
"Isn't. Not 'ain't', Ranm- Ranko dear." Nodoka smiled at her. "And you'll need to learn. I'm just glad my Path is going to be conducive to this, since we're going to hide you in plain sight."
"You are?" Ranko asked. "How? It ain… isn't like I'm not recognisable." She pointed to her hair.
Nodoka smiled at her and then something happened. Her features shifted as if by magic and something odd happened to her presence. It was like Ranko couldn't notice her. She could still see her mother sitting next to her on her bed, but it was like she didn't care. Had her hair colour… no, it was still black, like it had always been.
Wait, no it hadn't…
Ranko blinked and looked sharply, using some of her chi tricks to look. The auburn reset itself, but it took effort to see it. Her mother's face wasn't unrecognisable. There just didn't seem to be much point in thinking of it as her mother.
Ranko looked, really looked, and her mother's image snapped back into focus as whatever she'd been doing was broken. Nodoka smiled at her daughter.
Ranko stared in shock. "What was that Mom?" she asked. "That was… freaky. Like you'd become someone else, except you weren't. Except that… I knew it was you."
"It's my Path, dear. The Path of the Silken Breeze." Nodoka patted her hand. "It makes you unassuming. In the background. It's a way of being in the world, walking through the world." She tittered. "I suppose unlike many martial arts, it's less bending with the wind, than becoming the wind itself. For who notices the gentle breeze?"
Ranko's eyes glittered and she gripped her mother's hands as she knelt on the floor. "Teach me!" She exclaimed. "Mother, please teach me! It's like the Umisenken only a bajillion times better!"
Nodoka's smile widened into something genuinely joyful. "You wish me to? Truly, and not because of your need?"
"Mom I… That was incredible. Somethin' in what you did just sorta sang to me!" Rank gripped her hands tighter. "I'll do anythin' to learn it!"
Nodoka's smile dipped slightly. "Dear, it is still a martial art. But it is a weapon-focused one. Sash, sword and pendulum blade. I know you mainly go unarmed so…"
Ranko shrugged. "I ain't… am not worried about using weapons, Mom." She smiled. "I've done it before even if I'm better hand-to-hand. But even so, that was incredible. It was like I didn't want to know who you were, or woulda just… believed you if you'd'a given me a completely different name. Like you just had… always been there, like that." She bubbled happily, gushing her praise at her increasingly flustered mother. "It was like… the kunoichi stuff I've done before couldn't even compare. I mean sure they were sneaky-like but that was literally bein' someone else in front'a me, and I'd bet if I hadn't known who you were or you hadn't been doin' it slightly wrong to show me I'd'a been fooled entirely."
Nodoka blushed brightly at the praise, and she freed a hand to wipe a tear. "Oh, I never thought…" She said thickly. "I never thought I'd get to pass this on to a daughter…" She sniffled. "I couldn't have another child after you were born, dear, so I resigned myself to never being able to."
Ranko threw her arms around Nodoka and held her mother close. "I wanna start right now, Mom!" She said, "I wanna learn because it's yours and because it kicks ass!"
"Language, dear." Nodoka murmured, but sighed into the hug, holding her child close as she revelled in actually being able to do so. She managed to hold back and put both of her hands on Ranko's shoulders. "It will be useful for what we need you to do, as well. You'll need to at least be adept before we release you to school."
Ranko looked rebellious. "Do I hafta go back there?"
"Have to, dear, and yes. Before all of this crazy plan of yours really lifts off, I want you to have good grades. No daughter of mine is going to have low grades, especially since Nabiki-chan seems to think you're very clever when you want to be."
"But Mom!" Ranko whined.
"No buts. Now, come down and we'll discuss what we need to with you."
Ranko followed her mother downstairs, where Nabiki was putting the finishing touches to some paperwork.
"Ah, there you are." She grinned as they sat down. "Now then. We're going to hide you at Fuurinkan." Nabiki laughed. "How do you feel about bein' a rich girl Yamato Nadeshiko?"
"I'd say you were nuts if you think I'd be able to keep that kinda disguise up for any length of time."
"Ranchan, you're better than you give yourself credit, and Auntie will do the rest for you." Nabiki grinned. "Of course, if you think you aren't up to it…"
Ranko glowered. "I ain't stupid Nabs, I know you're baiting me. But fine. I'll be the most prim an' proper girl you ever did see. I'll greet an' leave everyone with gokigenyou until they're sick of hearin' it."
"Sit up straight and speak properly, dear." Nodoka murmured as Nabiki held up some paperwork.
"Well then. This pretense is going to need to be constant." The mercenary girl grinned at her. "And I mean it. You're going to have to become this person completely, here and at school. Never know when people will be watching. You might get some time off occasionally, probably bathtime, but if you don't think you can do that we'll have to figure something else out."
Ranko folded her arms. "I told you. I'll do it." Her tone was her old stubborn 'I am doing this now and you can't stop me'.
"Alright then, 'Himeko-chan'." Nabiki smiled and pushed across an ID card. On it was a photograph of Ranko with coppery hair; closer to ginger than her normal bright red. In fact, it looked a little different to her, though not in any way she'd consider blatant Small bits of the face and the eyes were pale blue. "Auntie demonstrated her Path to me earlier and we figured that I could knock something together that looks like you but a little different. Auntie says that's key to her Path, not changing too many things outright."
Ranko looked to her mother. "…Do you think I can learn that so quickly, Mom?"
Nodoka smiled softly. "Dear, I'm told you're a prodigy. If anyone can learn fast, it's you, and you don't have to spend years training to use your chi for this, which is where most of the technique training goes."
Ranko swallowed the lump in her throat at her mother's praise. "Oh."
Nabiki cleared her throat. "Back on track. You must become this person, Ranko. As of now you have to become Nayotake Himeko."
Ranko looked the card over. "Do I get a history or anything?"
Nabiki nodded and pushed a folder across. "I built this over the last couple of days. Officially you're Auntie's niece, come here to learn her Path. You used to attend a prestigious girls' school, hence you'll be prim and proper."
Nodoka looked over to Ranko. "There is a short ceremony you must go through." She said, eyes twinkling in mirth. "You might not like it, but it's important."
"Student." Nodoka stood above her.
"Yes, Sensei." Ranko bowed.
"Do you wish to learn this path? Do you believe it is right for you?"
"Yes, Sensei."
"And why is that?" Nodoka asked, a gleam in her eyes.
Ranko recited the words she'd been made to write, her face beet red. "Sensei, all of my life I have been uncouth, a shame upon our great ancestors. I have besmirched women whilst being a woman myself. My honour is in tatters and masculinity has failed me."
"Very well. Are you prepared to cast away your masculinity? Seek wisdom on the route to womanhood?"
"Yes, Sensei." Ranko bowed again. She had a small smile that she tried to hide even though she was still blushing. Nodoka would've punished her if not for the slight smile she herself had.
"Very well. I accept you as a student. This will be gruelling. It will be hard. You will not complain, you will follow my orders."
"Yes, Sensei."
"First," Nodoka folded her arms. "You must learn the tenets of being a lady of war. The Path of the Silken Breeze is not for those who are uncouth in their methods."
"Yes, Sensei."
"And you must have your weapon."
"Yes, Sensei." Ranko held her arms out and Nodoka dropped a long, red silken sash with an embroidered swirl of black along it. Attached to one end was a large orb and a small crescent blade, and on the other was a short, straight sword. Then another set was dropped, this one a jade green with blue embroidery, the blades wooden for practice.
"These are the weapons of the Path of the Silken Breeze. Weapons to become the wind itself."
"Yes, Sensei. Thank you, Sensei."
Nodoka smiled down at the girl at her feet. "Stand up, Himeko-chan. Let's get started."
"Yes, Sensei."
Ranko. No, she told herself, Himeko. Himeko nodded to her mother… No, aunt, and stood demurely, awaiting instructions.
Nodoka paced around her, correcting her posture and Himeko grimaced as she was found wanting.
It was later at night that she fell onto her bed, wincing. Great gods above her mother was a taskmistress worse than half the sensei she'd had growing up!
Rubbing bruised and aching muscles, she winced again at a particularly tender one.
Despite the bruises she was excited. The things she'd seen her mother doing with the silk sash with the blade on the end, and the sword – no katana, tantou or other Japanese blade but a straight blade that looked more western than anything.
The sash work reminded her of Ryouga, and she wondered if she could somehow have him show up to teach her some of the ways.
"Himeko-chan?" Nodoka knocked on the doorframe. Himeko looked up at her, weariness on her face and made sure she was sitting correctly before the lecture started. Nodoka was merciless in her teaching, though Himeko knew it wasn't entirely because she wanted her daughter to be proper, but also because Himeko needed to be perfectly ladylike before she'd be allowed out.
Apparently 'Everything is Training' wasn't just a tenet of Anything Goes.
"Yes, Sensei."
"Auntie when we're not training will do, Himeko-chan. I was wondering if you would like to take a bath and relax a little as we discussed?"
"Yes please, Auntie." Himeko modulated her speech to be quiet and soft. She wasn't entirely successful and winced, but at least it was bath time, and she could drop the act.
They'd agreed that the only time she could be Ranko again would be in the bath and when allowed by Nodoka on certain occasions.
Himeko stood up and followed Nodoka into the baths and, once they were ensconced in the bath, Ranko luxuriated in being a girl while she was bathing with no fear of any soap wearing off and turning into a boy.
"Mom…" Ranko said, sitting back and sighing. "Thank you."
"For what, dear?" Nodoka asks, looking up at the ceiling.
"For accepting me." Ranko smiled at her as Nodoka looked down. "As who I am. And for agreeing to train me. It means a lot, Mom."
Nodoka beamed at her daughter. "You're welcome dear. I'm just glad to see you, regardless. All I want is a happy child. Though I will be glad when you don't have to be Himeko. I want to live with my baby Ranko, not my niece Himeko, as lovely as she'll undoubtedly be once you have the Path started properly."
Ranko blushed but smiled shyly. "I'd like that, Mom. I think once we've got everything done and I've found myself, then sorted that chaos out…" She yawned. "I'd like to stay with you. As me."
Nodoka's face lit up. "I'd like that, dear."
Ranko stretched as the two of them stood up and smiled again as Ryouga looked away. Ah well.
"You didn't describe her techniques very well…" He grumbled and she laughed, patting his arm.
"That's because I want them to be a surprise for tomorrow. But trust me, you'll like them." She thought for a moment. "You wanna meet her?"
"…Who, your mom?"
"No, dumbass, Himeko." Ranko slapped his arm as the two of them made their slightly zigzagging way down the corridor.
"Isn't she just… you?" Ryouga asked, holding the door open for her. She rolled her eyes at him.
"Thanks. Don't treat me soft though, Ryo-chan." She said, laughing, "I can still kick your ass."
"You wish." Ryouga said, stumbling after her. Ranko grabbed onto his arm and held on so they were both steadied. "Always was… better'n you."
Ranko laughed again. "You and what army, bacon breath?"
Ryouga flushed but didn't rise to the bait. It had lacked the old sting of Ranma's taunts. He recognised it as her way of flirting with him, and that still felt weird as hell. Still, it wasn't unfriendly at least. "Anyway, Himeko's you, right?"
Ranko stumbled along in silence for a while until they reached where she wanted to get to and he found himself at the front of the ship with her. She dragged him onto a bench and looked up at the moon. "Eh, not quite. S'complicated."
"How?"
"S'like… She ain't another person, but she ain't exactly… yanno, me, I guess? We're the same person but we're different in lotsa ways."
"That makes no sense." Ryouga pointed out.
"S'like method actin'…" Ranko explained. "Y'get so into the role that y'start believing it a little. She's kinda like that. She's just… another me. Especially since I use chi to keep her goin'. And… I have to keep my chi all wrapped up inside an' veiled."
Ryouga still looked nonplussed and Ranko stood up. She swayed a moment, grimaced and then leaned back against the railing nearby. "Look away." She said, and he did.
There was a shuffling, and his senses picked up a change in the air, as if a wind had blown and cleared the place out.
"You may look now, Ryouga-kun." The voice was different. Calm, polite. Formal, with cut glass elocution and cadence. Quiet and softly spoken.
Ryouga looked over. A girl stood next to the railing, hands clasped demurely in front of her.
She was wearing the same sundress Ranko had been wearing, but her shoulders were lightly dusted with some freckles standing out. It was a little more pale than Ranko's skin, as well. Her hair was a coppery, almost-ginger red, shining in the moonlight, and the glasses on her face accentuated her pale blue eyes. She smiled softly at him, a relaxed and demure expression. "Gokigenyou." She said, bowing, the copper curls bouncing as she moved with a grace that he couldn't believe. Every movement was like a dancer's, nothing wasted, nothing unnecessary.
Ranko moved in the same kind of way, but Ranko's movements while not aggressive were full of a fiery energy; a passion, a life that sometimes seemed to run away with her. This girl moved like the world moved around her, like… Well, a gentle breeze. Cool, and calm, and soothing in some strange way he couldn't figure out.
"U-uh…" He said, brain flash-fried a moment. "Excuse me, miss, have you s-seen my friend?"
"Oho." She tittered, hand going to her mouth as she giggled politely. "I did not think this would fool you so well, Ryouga-kun." She bowed again. "I am Nayotake Himeko."
Ryouga blinked as she straightened up. "I… see. I'm pleased to meet you."
"Likewise, Ryouga-kun. However, I would ask you scan my chi."
Ryouga frowned but did so with his limited ability and then frowned more. He could scarcely feel her. Her chi was wrapped around itself, but it felt weak. Far, far weaker than Ranko's ever was – hers had always been a bright beacon unless she was hiding it, and even then it was a banked furnace, a ball of light crushed down. Her old name of 'wild horse' had been apt indeed, for she'd had energy that would burn at slightest provocation.
This girl was like the wind, a gentle breeze, barely there. The way she moved was lithe and calm, and she moved to stand in front of him, hands still clasped in front of her. "Please try to hit me." She said, softly, smiling at him from behind her glasses.
"I c-can't do that, miss!" He sputtered.
"Ryouga-kun, I know you won't hurt me." She said, again in that soft voice. "Try to hit me. One punch is all I ask."
Ryouga swallowed, closed his eyes, and swung. He opened them to find that she was on the other side of the fist, as if she'd danced about it. "Try again. With your eyes open, please."
He did so and watched as she moved with the fist until she was simply standing there where his fist was not. He blinked. He tried again and she simply wasn't there.
"Sensei told me, it is not enough to bend like the wind, to practice the Path of the Silken Breeze, you must become the wind itself." Himeko said, a gentle smile on her face. "Who do I remind you of, Ryouga-kun?"
Ryouga watched as she sat herself next to him, legs together, hands clasped on her lap and looking at him from under her lashes. Those pale blue eyes and copper hair shone under the moon and he swallowed. The gentle movements, the soft smile, the politeness. "…Tendou Kasumi." He said.
Himeko nodded, a pleased smile dancing across her face. "Indeed. I do not think Sensei taught her, but her way of being is very similar. She actually taught me a very important lesson which I'm sure Ranko-chan will tell you later when she reaches that point in her story." Himeko tittered again.
"So… you're not… really the same person?" Ryouga asked, confusion on his face. He wasn't getting any of it.
Himeko thought a moment. "No, we are the same person. But when I am Himeko, I am like this, and when I am Ranko I am… otherwise. I am not a separate person in her so much as a useful role. But to keep the disguise up, one must throw herself entirely into the role lest it be lost to the mist." She giggled. "Goodness, I sounded like Kunou Tatewaki-san there. My apologies."
"That's alright."
"What I am saying is that we are one and the same. It is not like the neko-ken, in which I dissociate and become the c-c-c-c-cat." She tripped her words up and sucked in a deep breath, visibly keeping herself calm. "It is just a role to play, one I must play completely else it won't work, especially with the chi manipulation involved."
"I… guess that makes sense?"
Himeko eyed him and stood up. "Well, I had best put myself away so you two can get some sleep for your spar in the morning." She leaned over and he felt a press on his cheek as she kissed it. "Thank you for listening to her, Ryouga-kun. I hope you enjoy tomorrow. Gokigenyou."
Stepping back, she gave him another smile as she bowed. Then as he watched, and she stared, some veil lifted and he was looking again at the vivid red hair, the deep blue eyes and her stance relaxed into the feminine, but relaxed pose she'd had most of the time.
Ranko grinned at him. "You like her?"
Ryouga put a hand to his cheek. "I… guess. So it's not like another you, or anything, but when you have to use the skills, you go all-in?"
Ranko nodded. "Yeah, somethin' like that. It actually is what inspired some of the Umisenken for Pop, though his is imperfect. I've got a couple of others I can use though I don't break 'em out often. If I ever have to go around in Nerima I have to be Himeko, though."
Ryouga nodded. "A technique requiring all focus. That's pretty strong." He grinned widely. "Now I'm really looking forwards to tomorrow's spar."
Ranko sat back next to him and looked up at the moon. Then she leaned on his shoulder companionably and smiled. "Me too, Ryouga. I missed fightin' ya. Always felt like we could both just cut loose with each other."
Ryouga blushed but smiled at her. "Yeah. And seeing what new crazy stuff you'd learned and showing my own off was always good. I wish we'd just been friendly the whole time."
"Ah if wishes were horses, Ryouga, we'd never have to walk." Ranko snickered and then sighed. "This is nice. You're a good leanin' post."
Ryouga rolled his shoulder. "You're bony."
"Am not!" Ranko protested, smirking at his obvious barb.
"Are too."
Ranko stuck her tongue out at him and pulled down her eyelid. "Only you'd complain about a hot girl usin' you as a pillow!"
The two bickered good-naturedly as Ranko guided Ryouga back to the suite of rooms and stuffed a pack with a pair of silk pajamas into his arms. "Get changed." She said. "If you're gonna stay on the couch ya might as well dress nice at least."
Ranko wandered to the bathroom as Ryouga shrugged and changed where he was. He cast an eye to the short corridor to this room. Nabiki's room door had been closed but there'd been a few thumping noises coming from it that made him blush and Ranko grin proudly as they went into Ranko's own room. He made his way to the small couch which had blankets and pillows on it and sat down.
Ranko came out of the bathroom in a lacy nightdress that wasn't the usual large-shirt-and-panties she seemed to be wearing these days. Somehow he managed not to nosebleed, but he guessed he was getting used to Ranko's dressing habits. "Gal likes to dress fancy to sleep sometimes." She explained, shrugging and climbing on the bed, leaning back on it and looking up at the ceiling.
Ryouga laughed and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and use the toilet, then followed the string out to see Ranko on the bed snoring already. He shook his head. The more some things changed, the more they stayed the same.
He settled onto the couch and then lay down, eyes on the redhead who sprawled over the bed. Shaking his head, he closed his eyes.
He was woken later in the night by whimpering and looked over to see her curled up and shivering. Frowning, he sat up. Moonlight came in through the suite's small windows, but the room was otherwise dark save for an alarm clock's numbers.
Three AM. He'd had some sleep.
Padding over to the bed, he looked down at her. She'd not had nightmares like this all the time before, right? Or had she and just not told anyone.
After what he knew of the neko-ken and her growing up he figured there were many reasons for Ranko to have bad dreams. He sat on the side of the bed she was facing, softly so as not to wake her, and took her small hand in his since it stuck towards him. He squeezed it gently.
She seemed to calm down immediately, and the frown on her face loosened into a more contented expression.
He could admit to himself that he'd always thought Ranko's girl side was lovely. How else could she have fooled him so often? But in the moonlight through the window, she glowed a little and he blushed at her tacit admittance she found him attractive. She'd certainly changed in the time since he'd seen her, especially in how forward regarding that sort of thing she was.
Maybe he should try to be better himself?
He shook his head. Either way it wasn't important right now. He gently let go of her hand and picked the blankets up, putting the thin ones over her so she could get some warmth. Then he padded back to his couch and curled back up.
Ranko's sleepy voice carried over the room and he couldn't tell if she was asleep or awake. "Thanks, 'yoga…"
"You're welcome." He said quietly, but with no response he figured she'd been asleep.
Looking forward to the morning spar, he dropped off to sleep himself.
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Some more cute RanRyo scenes and a few bits of this had been written early on.
As for the Path of the Silken Breeze... blame a lot of rereading Cradle, which honestly as a series is just begging to be crossed over with Ranma. I will be doing eventually I guess though, it's in the plot bunny pile.
As to the weapons, inspired by a certain MMO class I enjoyed but I'll see if anyone can guess it before I tell you next chapter after their spar.
I hope you guys liked Himeko! Also a reference because I can't stop myself!
In which we learn of her mother's Path and the start of her training to begin her freedom.
Freedom, it turns out, is bought by shackling oneself for a time.
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Chapter 9 – From Within and Without You
I am reminded now,
Of all the years gone by,
No use in crying now,
It's time to say goodbye,
Turn the page on all we are,
Always searching,
Turn the page on all we were,
Always searching...
- Evermore by Devin Townsend
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Several empty drinks glasses were now scattered on the table and both Ranko and Ryouga were somewhat flushed. Nabiki was as cool as ever, but even she was slurring her words slightly.
"That sounds… a rush. So… you didn't have to do it?"
"Naw. Mom's been good to me, Ryouga." Ranko grinned at him and nudged him. "She's my Mom after all."
"I guess. I should try staying at home a while, see my own."
Ranko smiled at him. "When we're done here, I'll get you there, if you'd like? Save you a bit of wanderin'. I always liked your Mom."
Ryouga nodded. "Thanks. That'd be nice."
Ranko shrugged and took a long gulp of her drink, though he noticed no sharp smell from it, so she'd probably switched to fruit juice. He pushed what was left of his pitcher away. He was about as buzzed as he felt comfortable being. Sitting here with Ranko and Nabiki felt warm, but he didn't want to get more drunk now.
Nabiki stood up and stretched. "I'll turn in early, I think. Got an early morning setting up the cameras tomorrow after we dock so I'll head off. You kids have fun and don't do anything I wouldn't." She smirked at them both and Ranko rolled her eyes.
"Not a long list, sis, but fine."
Nabiki wandered off and Ranko turned to Ryouga. "So, where was I? Ah, yeah. We spent the rest of the day talking about the plan and hoo boy. You think Nabs has a labyrinthine mind? Mom's… Well, she's still kinda, I dunno, Mom, and kinda ditzy but she's sneaky as fuck too. But it goes with her path of the Art."
Ryouga perked up. "Path?" He scratched his head. "An actual Path huh? I didn't figure your mom to be like that with how you'd talked about her back when you were Ranma."
Ranko shrugged and took another long drink of her juice. "Neither did I until she brought it up, but it's called the Path of the Silken Breeze."
"Sounds girly."
"Oh, it is, trust me, but I like girly these days." She motioned at herself. "Well, mostly, I still think I'm kinda a tomboy and… I dunno, I'm alright with that."
"Hey, nothing wrong with a tomboy."
"Exactly my fuckin' point! Gawd!" Ranko ran a finger around the rim of her glass. "Fuckin' 'Kane taking it like an insult when it ain't. Tomboys are fuckin' hot and I should fuckin' know, bein' both one and hot!"
Ryouga went a little red but then he cleared his throat. "Did you find out her reaction to you disappearing?"
"Who?"
"Akane-san's." Ryouga said, and he faltered a moment. There wasn't that usual warmth there. Maybe some of the tale that Ranko had told had numbed him a little. Hard to see good the way Ranko described the malletting even if Ranko had admitted she deserved at least some of it.
"Ah." Ranko looked at the table. "Yeah, she did. She told me I couldn't say goodbye, but I left a card in Akane's room for her to find. But I don't think she ever found it because it's got my secret number on it, just in case. I told her to text me and then only ever call if she was absolutely desperate. An' she's never given me the first text…"
"Oh. Does Nabiki know?"
"Nope." Ranko sighed. "I know, I know, I shouldn't keep it from her but yanno, it's Akane."
"Yeah."
"Well, Nabs went home that night and Akane was frantic as hell. Though apparently she just thought I was out frolicking with that bitch Shampoo."
"'That Bitch'? You didn't like her?"
"Fuckin' bitch tried to kill me the first day we met, then was all over me, what the fuck do you think I think of her and her little fuckin' cohort of psychos?" Ranko spat. "Fuckin' grandmother'a hers tryin'a kidnap me, that fucking moron Mousse who skydives to conclusions worse than you? Fuck all of 'em. Especially after Jusendo, fuck every one of the fuckers. If I never see another person from some fuckin' shithole in the middle of nowhere in China that ain't Herb, I'll die a happy girl."
Ryouga put a hand on her shoulder and Ranko quietened. "Sorry." She mumbled after a moment. "S'just… I gotta go back, Ryouga. I have to go back sometime, and now that I'm one hundred percent girl, the kiss of marriage is gonna be off, and those fuckers are gonna put the kiss of death back on."
She rested her elbows on the table, head on her palm. "And… I dunno if I'm gonna have to kill one of them to make them back off." She said quietly. "It's an option, and one I've been aware I'm capable of since Saffron."
Ryouga squeezed her shoulder. "I think you can do it without killing, Ranko." He said quietly to her. She put her small hand over his. He smiled as he realised it was still as warm as it had been when she was Ranma. Somehow it was reassuring.
"Thanks, Ryouga. You're a good person. But I will if I have to, if they don't stop or go too far." Her tone hardened. "You think Cologne is gonna stop?"
"No, but you're clever enough to get rid of them." He squeezed her shoulder again. "I believe in you."
Ranko actually went red and looked at the table, embarrassed. "Thanks, man." She said, voice thick. He smiled and withdrew his hand.
"You're welcome." He said, happy to have managed to embarrass her for once, and not even with a bad thing.
Ranko sat up and cleared her throat awkwardly. "Anyway, it was a few days later when she realised I weren't comin' back. Nabs told me that's when Akane got really upset." Ranko had that look of self-recrimination he was learning to recognise as her guilt eating at her. Ryouga breathed out a long sigh.
"You loved her, didn't you?" He asked, softly.
Blue eyes flicked to him. "…Yeah. I did." She said, just as softly. "But no one would let us just… be together. That wedding bullshit was really the nail in the coffin for us." She sighed forlornly. "I'd'a married her, Ryo-chan." Her tone was morose. "I still love her though it's not the same love I had, but she's family." Ranko sniffled. "If she forgives me when I get back."
Ryouga took a moment, then put a hand on her shoulder. "Akane will forgive you, Ranko. She…" He sighed. "She loved you too."
Ranko nodded. "I don't wanna marry her or go out with her anymore, but she's… was… my best friend. Even if we argued, even with the malletin', even with me pickin' on her an' callin' her horrible names, we were still friends." She sniffled again. "I really miss her."
Ryouga squeezed her shoulder. She reached out and took the front of his shirt. "C-can I…?" She leaned towards him and he watched with surprise as she rested her cheek on his sternum. She breathed out. "S-sorry. I just need someth- someone stable right now." She gave a watery smile and blinked tears from her eyes. "Feeling a bit f-fragile." She burrowed into his chest and Ryouga made a decision.
Slowly, he encircled the petite redhead and just held her gently while she shook, tears spilling into his clothes. "Hey, come on now." He said softly, "Why are you crying?"
She sniffled and tried to control the sobs, "I just… miss my family." She said into his chest. "I've not spoken to them for months and months as me except for Nabs and Mom, an' I really miss 'em. It's been real hard to not give up an' jus'… tell 'em."
Ryouga kept his arms around her. "Well, the Saotome I know doesn't give up." He said, the words resonating through his chest and Ranko smiled softly as she felt the vibrations against her head. They were somehow comforting for her to feel.
"I guess." She said, shrugging in his arms. "Thanks, Ryouga. You're a gem when you ain't tryin'a kill me." She shivered a couple of times, then looked up at him. "Yanno, Ryouga, I never thanked ya."
"For what?"
"I think… you were the only one who understood at that weddin'." She sighed, her speech turning back to its usual cadence in that odd mixture of feminine politeness and rough country bumpkin he'd been getting to know so well. "Ya didn't turn up ta attack me or 'Kane, ya wasn't even gonna turn up 'cept fer ya bad luck and direction." She giggled, "I think I can forgive ya for wantin' that nannichuan though."
He nodded. "I'm sorry it went wrong." He whispered. "I bet it could've been beautiful."
She shivered in his arms. "Not your fault." She muttered, "Was mainly Nabs' fault. She 'pologised but before that I was real mad."
"You guys're really good friends now, aren't you?"
Her head moved against his sternum. "Uh huh. She's been good to me since then, Ryouga."
A gentle push from his chest and she wiped her eyes. Reluctantly he let her go and she sat back where she was. "Thanks. Needed something solid, an' you're about as solid as they come, Ryouga. I've never seen much that fazes you physically." She winked. "Except nubile lady flesh."
"Y-yeah well…" He chuckled nervously. "I guess we all have weaknesses."
"Hibiki Ryouga admittin' weakness, me cryin' in his arms. The world truly has gone mad." Ranko quipped, giggling.
"Yeah, well, I never ascribed to that 'man amongst men' crap your dad told you about. Men can feel."
"I know." She said, a sad look in her eyes. "Pop taught a lotta shite."
Ryouga shrugged. "Does he know?" He asked. "About you as Ranko, I mean."
She pondered, then shook her head. "Unless Mom told him, and she said she wouldn't. So probably not. I'll hafta face that music sometime when I get back."
"I'd have thought you'd hate him for all the crap he put you through." Ryouga said angrily. "Just the stuff I know's enough to make my blood boil now I know about it."
Ranko looked sad and curled her head on her arms again. "Pop's complicated. Sure, he's an idiot, and I don't know if Mom wants him back to be her husband or to make a panda-skin rug of him, but he's still my dad, yanno?" She sighed a long, deep sigh. "I guess I'll see when I meet him again, an' whether he accepts me for bein', yanno, me."
"I think he's evil." Ryouga said, "No one who isn't would teach you the neko-ken."
Ranko shuddered and closed her eyes. The fear was closer to the surface these days, regardless of therapy. "W-well, apart from that. But… Evil's just a word, Ryouga." She smiled at him. "Mom had this friend once, foreign girl. She said that under the skin, it's simple pain."
Ryouga made an intrigued 'hmm' and Ranko continued. "Pop ain't evil. Just a dummy who was too focused to see the damage he were doin' to his child. Same with Mom an' that pledge. She made it so she could control Pop, but it ended up makin' me so scared of her I had to pretend to be someone else."
Ryouga acquiesced and sighed. "I guess. Still…"
Ranko opened her eyes and smiled at him, patting his hand. "But thanks for the support." She sat up. "I guess I should tell you about my change to her path, and of Himeko."
Ryouga nodded.
"So, after we'd nailed down the plan, Mother had a bombshell to drop in my lap. I always thought she was just an Iajutsu artist, but it turned out I was way off."
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Ranko stared at the ceiling of her new (old?) room and pondered. She'd come up to have some quiet while Nabiki and her mother hashed some stuff out on the plan that they didn't want her disrupting by knowing. She'd have felt a little insulted if she didn't know how chaos liked to congregate around her, and if you don't know you can't tell people.
It had been a day or two since they'd come here, and she was starting to get used to the place, though it still felt weird not to have Kasumi just being there, or Akane yelling at her. It was so quiet, she felt jumpy.
It didn't help that probably half the ward was torn up while people looked for her.
There was a knock at her door and Nodoka bustled in, smiling at her daughter. "Hello, dear." She said warmly, and Ranko found she couldn't stop smiling back. It felt so good to finally talk with her mother.
Nodoka sat on her bed and Ranko sat up, cross legged. Nodoka poked her forehead. "Sit nicely, dear, don't show off your underwear to all and sundry."
Ranko switched to a more polite sitting position and Nodoka sighed forlornly. "I am going to have my work cut out for me." She said softly and Ranko looked curious.
"How so, Mom?" She asked.
"Making you more feminine for a start. I think you're always going to be a tomboy but even then there are things you're going to need to do that you just… don't have the socialising to realise, I suppose."
Ranko fidgeted. "Bein' brought up as a boy by a mysog… whatever that word Nabs uses for Pop ain't exactly good for bein' a girl." She muttered.
"Isn't. Not 'ain't', Ranm- Ranko dear." Nodoka smiled at her. "And you'll need to learn. I'm just glad my Path is going to be conducive to this, since we're going to hide you in plain sight."
"You are?" Ranko asked. "How? It ain… isn't like I'm not recognisable." She pointed to her hair.
Nodoka smiled at her and then something happened. Her features shifted as if by magic and something odd happened to her presence. It was like Ranko couldn't notice her. She could still see her mother sitting next to her on her bed, but it was like she didn't care. Had her hair colour… no, it was still black, like it had always been.
Wait, no it hadn't…
Ranko blinked and looked sharply, using some of her chi tricks to look. The auburn reset itself, but it took effort to see it. Her mother's face wasn't unrecognisable. There just didn't seem to be much point in thinking of it as her mother.
Ranko looked, really looked, and her mother's image snapped back into focus as whatever she'd been doing was broken. Nodoka smiled at her daughter.
Ranko stared in shock. "What was that Mom?" she asked. "That was… freaky. Like you'd become someone else, except you weren't. Except that… I knew it was you."
"It's my Path, dear. The Path of the Silken Breeze." Nodoka patted her hand. "It makes you unassuming. In the background. It's a way of being in the world, walking through the world." She tittered. "I suppose unlike many martial arts, it's less bending with the wind, than becoming the wind itself. For who notices the gentle breeze?"
Ranko's eyes glittered and she gripped her mother's hands as she knelt on the floor. "Teach me!" She exclaimed. "Mother, please teach me! It's like the Umisenken only a bajillion times better!"
Nodoka's smile widened into something genuinely joyful. "You wish me to? Truly, and not because of your need?"
"Mom I… That was incredible. Somethin' in what you did just sorta sang to me!" Rank gripped her hands tighter. "I'll do anythin' to learn it!"
Nodoka's smile dipped slightly. "Dear, it is still a martial art. But it is a weapon-focused one. Sash, sword and pendulum blade. I know you mainly go unarmed so…"
Ranko shrugged. "I ain't… am not worried about using weapons, Mom." She smiled. "I've done it before even if I'm better hand-to-hand. But even so, that was incredible. It was like I didn't want to know who you were, or woulda just… believed you if you'd'a given me a completely different name. Like you just had… always been there, like that." She bubbled happily, gushing her praise at her increasingly flustered mother. "It was like… the kunoichi stuff I've done before couldn't even compare. I mean sure they were sneaky-like but that was literally bein' someone else in front'a me, and I'd bet if I hadn't known who you were or you hadn't been doin' it slightly wrong to show me I'd'a been fooled entirely."
Nodoka blushed brightly at the praise, and she freed a hand to wipe a tear. "Oh, I never thought…" She said thickly. "I never thought I'd get to pass this on to a daughter…" She sniffled. "I couldn't have another child after you were born, dear, so I resigned myself to never being able to."
Ranko threw her arms around Nodoka and held her mother close. "I wanna start right now, Mom!" She said, "I wanna learn because it's yours and because it kicks ass!"
"Language, dear." Nodoka murmured, but sighed into the hug, holding her child close as she revelled in actually being able to do so. She managed to hold back and put both of her hands on Ranko's shoulders. "It will be useful for what we need you to do, as well. You'll need to at least be adept before we release you to school."
Ranko looked rebellious. "Do I hafta go back there?"
"Have to, dear, and yes. Before all of this crazy plan of yours really lifts off, I want you to have good grades. No daughter of mine is going to have low grades, especially since Nabiki-chan seems to think you're very clever when you want to be."
"But Mom!" Ranko whined.
"No buts. Now, come down and we'll discuss what we need to with you."
Ranko followed her mother downstairs, where Nabiki was putting the finishing touches to some paperwork.
"Ah, there you are." She grinned as they sat down. "Now then. We're going to hide you at Fuurinkan." Nabiki laughed. "How do you feel about bein' a rich girl Yamato Nadeshiko?"
"I'd say you were nuts if you think I'd be able to keep that kinda disguise up for any length of time."
"Ranchan, you're better than you give yourself credit, and Auntie will do the rest for you." Nabiki grinned. "Of course, if you think you aren't up to it…"
Ranko glowered. "I ain't stupid Nabs, I know you're baiting me. But fine. I'll be the most prim an' proper girl you ever did see. I'll greet an' leave everyone with gokigenyou until they're sick of hearin' it."
"Sit up straight and speak properly, dear." Nodoka murmured as Nabiki held up some paperwork.
"Well then. This pretense is going to need to be constant." The mercenary girl grinned at her. "And I mean it. You're going to have to become this person completely, here and at school. Never know when people will be watching. You might get some time off occasionally, probably bathtime, but if you don't think you can do that we'll have to figure something else out."
Ranko folded her arms. "I told you. I'll do it." Her tone was her old stubborn 'I am doing this now and you can't stop me'.
"Alright then, 'Himeko-chan'." Nabiki smiled and pushed across an ID card. On it was a photograph of Ranko with coppery hair; closer to ginger than her normal bright red. In fact, it looked a little different to her, though not in any way she'd consider blatant Small bits of the face and the eyes were pale blue. "Auntie demonstrated her Path to me earlier and we figured that I could knock something together that looks like you but a little different. Auntie says that's key to her Path, not changing too many things outright."
Ranko looked to her mother. "…Do you think I can learn that so quickly, Mom?"
Nodoka smiled softly. "Dear, I'm told you're a prodigy. If anyone can learn fast, it's you, and you don't have to spend years training to use your chi for this, which is where most of the technique training goes."
Ranko swallowed the lump in her throat at her mother's praise. "Oh."
Nabiki cleared her throat. "Back on track. You must become this person, Ranko. As of now you have to become Nayotake Himeko."
Ranko looked the card over. "Do I get a history or anything?"
Nabiki nodded and pushed a folder across. "I built this over the last couple of days. Officially you're Auntie's niece, come here to learn her Path. You used to attend a prestigious girls' school, hence you'll be prim and proper."
Nodoka looked over to Ranko. "There is a short ceremony you must go through." She said, eyes twinkling in mirth. "You might not like it, but it's important."
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"Student." Nodoka stood above her.
"Yes, Sensei." Ranko bowed.
"Do you wish to learn this path? Do you believe it is right for you?"
"Yes, Sensei."
"And why is that?" Nodoka asked, a gleam in her eyes.
Ranko recited the words she'd been made to write, her face beet red. "Sensei, all of my life I have been uncouth, a shame upon our great ancestors. I have besmirched women whilst being a woman myself. My honour is in tatters and masculinity has failed me."
"Very well. Are you prepared to cast away your masculinity? Seek wisdom on the route to womanhood?"
"Yes, Sensei." Ranko bowed again. She had a small smile that she tried to hide even though she was still blushing. Nodoka would've punished her if not for the slight smile she herself had.
"Very well. I accept you as a student. This will be gruelling. It will be hard. You will not complain, you will follow my orders."
"Yes, Sensei."
"First," Nodoka folded her arms. "You must learn the tenets of being a lady of war. The Path of the Silken Breeze is not for those who are uncouth in their methods."
"Yes, Sensei."
"And you must have your weapon."
"Yes, Sensei." Ranko held her arms out and Nodoka dropped a long, red silken sash with an embroidered swirl of black along it. Attached to one end was a large orb and a small crescent blade, and on the other was a short, straight sword. Then another set was dropped, this one a jade green with blue embroidery, the blades wooden for practice.
"These are the weapons of the Path of the Silken Breeze. Weapons to become the wind itself."
"Yes, Sensei. Thank you, Sensei."
Nodoka smiled down at the girl at her feet. "Stand up, Himeko-chan. Let's get started."
"Yes, Sensei."
Ranko. No, she told herself, Himeko. Himeko nodded to her mother… No, aunt, and stood demurely, awaiting instructions.
Nodoka paced around her, correcting her posture and Himeko grimaced as she was found wanting.
It was later at night that she fell onto her bed, wincing. Great gods above her mother was a taskmistress worse than half the sensei she'd had growing up!
Rubbing bruised and aching muscles, she winced again at a particularly tender one.
Despite the bruises she was excited. The things she'd seen her mother doing with the silk sash with the blade on the end, and the sword – no katana, tantou or other Japanese blade but a straight blade that looked more western than anything.
The sash work reminded her of Ryouga, and she wondered if she could somehow have him show up to teach her some of the ways.
"Himeko-chan?" Nodoka knocked on the doorframe. Himeko looked up at her, weariness on her face and made sure she was sitting correctly before the lecture started. Nodoka was merciless in her teaching, though Himeko knew it wasn't entirely because she wanted her daughter to be proper, but also because Himeko needed to be perfectly ladylike before she'd be allowed out.
Apparently 'Everything is Training' wasn't just a tenet of Anything Goes.
"Yes, Sensei."
"Auntie when we're not training will do, Himeko-chan. I was wondering if you would like to take a bath and relax a little as we discussed?"
"Yes please, Auntie." Himeko modulated her speech to be quiet and soft. She wasn't entirely successful and winced, but at least it was bath time, and she could drop the act.
They'd agreed that the only time she could be Ranko again would be in the bath and when allowed by Nodoka on certain occasions.
Himeko stood up and followed Nodoka into the baths and, once they were ensconced in the bath, Ranko luxuriated in being a girl while she was bathing with no fear of any soap wearing off and turning into a boy.
"Mom…" Ranko said, sitting back and sighing. "Thank you."
"For what, dear?" Nodoka asks, looking up at the ceiling.
"For accepting me." Ranko smiled at her as Nodoka looked down. "As who I am. And for agreeing to train me. It means a lot, Mom."
Nodoka beamed at her daughter. "You're welcome dear. I'm just glad to see you, regardless. All I want is a happy child. Though I will be glad when you don't have to be Himeko. I want to live with my baby Ranko, not my niece Himeko, as lovely as she'll undoubtedly be once you have the Path started properly."
Ranko blushed but smiled shyly. "I'd like that, Mom. I think once we've got everything done and I've found myself, then sorted that chaos out…" She yawned. "I'd like to stay with you. As me."
Nodoka's face lit up. "I'd like that, dear."
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Ranko stretched as the two of them stood up and smiled again as Ryouga looked away. Ah well.
"You didn't describe her techniques very well…" He grumbled and she laughed, patting his arm.
"That's because I want them to be a surprise for tomorrow. But trust me, you'll like them." She thought for a moment. "You wanna meet her?"
"…Who, your mom?"
"No, dumbass, Himeko." Ranko slapped his arm as the two of them made their slightly zigzagging way down the corridor.
"Isn't she just… you?" Ryouga asked, holding the door open for her. She rolled her eyes at him.
"Thanks. Don't treat me soft though, Ryo-chan." She said, laughing, "I can still kick your ass."
"You wish." Ryouga said, stumbling after her. Ranko grabbed onto his arm and held on so they were both steadied. "Always was… better'n you."
Ranko laughed again. "You and what army, bacon breath?"
Ryouga flushed but didn't rise to the bait. It had lacked the old sting of Ranma's taunts. He recognised it as her way of flirting with him, and that still felt weird as hell. Still, it wasn't unfriendly at least. "Anyway, Himeko's you, right?"
Ranko stumbled along in silence for a while until they reached where she wanted to get to and he found himself at the front of the ship with her. She dragged him onto a bench and looked up at the moon. "Eh, not quite. S'complicated."
"How?"
"S'like… She ain't another person, but she ain't exactly… yanno, me, I guess? We're the same person but we're different in lotsa ways."
"That makes no sense." Ryouga pointed out.
"S'like method actin'…" Ranko explained. "Y'get so into the role that y'start believing it a little. She's kinda like that. She's just… another me. Especially since I use chi to keep her goin'. And… I have to keep my chi all wrapped up inside an' veiled."
Ryouga still looked nonplussed and Ranko stood up. She swayed a moment, grimaced and then leaned back against the railing nearby. "Look away." She said, and he did.
There was a shuffling, and his senses picked up a change in the air, as if a wind had blown and cleared the place out.
"You may look now, Ryouga-kun." The voice was different. Calm, polite. Formal, with cut glass elocution and cadence. Quiet and softly spoken.
Ryouga looked over. A girl stood next to the railing, hands clasped demurely in front of her.
She was wearing the same sundress Ranko had been wearing, but her shoulders were lightly dusted with some freckles standing out. It was a little more pale than Ranko's skin, as well. Her hair was a coppery, almost-ginger red, shining in the moonlight, and the glasses on her face accentuated her pale blue eyes. She smiled softly at him, a relaxed and demure expression. "Gokigenyou." She said, bowing, the copper curls bouncing as she moved with a grace that he couldn't believe. Every movement was like a dancer's, nothing wasted, nothing unnecessary.
Ranko moved in the same kind of way, but Ranko's movements while not aggressive were full of a fiery energy; a passion, a life that sometimes seemed to run away with her. This girl moved like the world moved around her, like… Well, a gentle breeze. Cool, and calm, and soothing in some strange way he couldn't figure out.
"U-uh…" He said, brain flash-fried a moment. "Excuse me, miss, have you s-seen my friend?"
"Oho." She tittered, hand going to her mouth as she giggled politely. "I did not think this would fool you so well, Ryouga-kun." She bowed again. "I am Nayotake Himeko."
Ryouga blinked as she straightened up. "I… see. I'm pleased to meet you."
"Likewise, Ryouga-kun. However, I would ask you scan my chi."
Ryouga frowned but did so with his limited ability and then frowned more. He could scarcely feel her. Her chi was wrapped around itself, but it felt weak. Far, far weaker than Ranko's ever was – hers had always been a bright beacon unless she was hiding it, and even then it was a banked furnace, a ball of light crushed down. Her old name of 'wild horse' had been apt indeed, for she'd had energy that would burn at slightest provocation.
This girl was like the wind, a gentle breeze, barely there. The way she moved was lithe and calm, and she moved to stand in front of him, hands still clasped in front of her. "Please try to hit me." She said, softly, smiling at him from behind her glasses.
"I c-can't do that, miss!" He sputtered.
"Ryouga-kun, I know you won't hurt me." She said, again in that soft voice. "Try to hit me. One punch is all I ask."
Ryouga swallowed, closed his eyes, and swung. He opened them to find that she was on the other side of the fist, as if she'd danced about it. "Try again. With your eyes open, please."
He did so and watched as she moved with the fist until she was simply standing there where his fist was not. He blinked. He tried again and she simply wasn't there.
"Sensei told me, it is not enough to bend like the wind, to practice the Path of the Silken Breeze, you must become the wind itself." Himeko said, a gentle smile on her face. "Who do I remind you of, Ryouga-kun?"
Ryouga watched as she sat herself next to him, legs together, hands clasped on her lap and looking at him from under her lashes. Those pale blue eyes and copper hair shone under the moon and he swallowed. The gentle movements, the soft smile, the politeness. "…Tendou Kasumi." He said.
Himeko nodded, a pleased smile dancing across her face. "Indeed. I do not think Sensei taught her, but her way of being is very similar. She actually taught me a very important lesson which I'm sure Ranko-chan will tell you later when she reaches that point in her story." Himeko tittered again.
"So… you're not… really the same person?" Ryouga asked, confusion on his face. He wasn't getting any of it.
Himeko thought a moment. "No, we are the same person. But when I am Himeko, I am like this, and when I am Ranko I am… otherwise. I am not a separate person in her so much as a useful role. But to keep the disguise up, one must throw herself entirely into the role lest it be lost to the mist." She giggled. "Goodness, I sounded like Kunou Tatewaki-san there. My apologies."
"That's alright."
"What I am saying is that we are one and the same. It is not like the neko-ken, in which I dissociate and become the c-c-c-c-cat." She tripped her words up and sucked in a deep breath, visibly keeping herself calm. "It is just a role to play, one I must play completely else it won't work, especially with the chi manipulation involved."
"I… guess that makes sense?"
Himeko eyed him and stood up. "Well, I had best put myself away so you two can get some sleep for your spar in the morning." She leaned over and he felt a press on his cheek as she kissed it. "Thank you for listening to her, Ryouga-kun. I hope you enjoy tomorrow. Gokigenyou."
Stepping back, she gave him another smile as she bowed. Then as he watched, and she stared, some veil lifted and he was looking again at the vivid red hair, the deep blue eyes and her stance relaxed into the feminine, but relaxed pose she'd had most of the time.
Ranko grinned at him. "You like her?"
Ryouga put a hand to his cheek. "I… guess. So it's not like another you, or anything, but when you have to use the skills, you go all-in?"
Ranko nodded. "Yeah, somethin' like that. It actually is what inspired some of the Umisenken for Pop, though his is imperfect. I've got a couple of others I can use though I don't break 'em out often. If I ever have to go around in Nerima I have to be Himeko, though."
Ryouga nodded. "A technique requiring all focus. That's pretty strong." He grinned widely. "Now I'm really looking forwards to tomorrow's spar."
Ranko sat back next to him and looked up at the moon. Then she leaned on his shoulder companionably and smiled. "Me too, Ryouga. I missed fightin' ya. Always felt like we could both just cut loose with each other."
Ryouga blushed but smiled at her. "Yeah. And seeing what new crazy stuff you'd learned and showing my own off was always good. I wish we'd just been friendly the whole time."
"Ah if wishes were horses, Ryouga, we'd never have to walk." Ranko snickered and then sighed. "This is nice. You're a good leanin' post."
Ryouga rolled his shoulder. "You're bony."
"Am not!" Ranko protested, smirking at his obvious barb.
"Are too."
Ranko stuck her tongue out at him and pulled down her eyelid. "Only you'd complain about a hot girl usin' you as a pillow!"
The two bickered good-naturedly as Ranko guided Ryouga back to the suite of rooms and stuffed a pack with a pair of silk pajamas into his arms. "Get changed." She said. "If you're gonna stay on the couch ya might as well dress nice at least."
Ranko wandered to the bathroom as Ryouga shrugged and changed where he was. He cast an eye to the short corridor to this room. Nabiki's room door had been closed but there'd been a few thumping noises coming from it that made him blush and Ranko grin proudly as they went into Ranko's own room. He made his way to the small couch which had blankets and pillows on it and sat down.
Ranko came out of the bathroom in a lacy nightdress that wasn't the usual large-shirt-and-panties she seemed to be wearing these days. Somehow he managed not to nosebleed, but he guessed he was getting used to Ranko's dressing habits. "Gal likes to dress fancy to sleep sometimes." She explained, shrugging and climbing on the bed, leaning back on it and looking up at the ceiling.
Ryouga laughed and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and use the toilet, then followed the string out to see Ranko on the bed snoring already. He shook his head. The more some things changed, the more they stayed the same.
He settled onto the couch and then lay down, eyes on the redhead who sprawled over the bed. Shaking his head, he closed his eyes.
He was woken later in the night by whimpering and looked over to see her curled up and shivering. Frowning, he sat up. Moonlight came in through the suite's small windows, but the room was otherwise dark save for an alarm clock's numbers.
Three AM. He'd had some sleep.
Padding over to the bed, he looked down at her. She'd not had nightmares like this all the time before, right? Or had she and just not told anyone.
After what he knew of the neko-ken and her growing up he figured there were many reasons for Ranko to have bad dreams. He sat on the side of the bed she was facing, softly so as not to wake her, and took her small hand in his since it stuck towards him. He squeezed it gently.
She seemed to calm down immediately, and the frown on her face loosened into a more contented expression.
He could admit to himself that he'd always thought Ranko's girl side was lovely. How else could she have fooled him so often? But in the moonlight through the window, she glowed a little and he blushed at her tacit admittance she found him attractive. She'd certainly changed in the time since he'd seen her, especially in how forward regarding that sort of thing she was.
Maybe he should try to be better himself?
He shook his head. Either way it wasn't important right now. He gently let go of her hand and picked the blankets up, putting the thin ones over her so she could get some warmth. Then he padded back to his couch and curled back up.
Ranko's sleepy voice carried over the room and he couldn't tell if she was asleep or awake. "Thanks, 'yoga…"
"You're welcome." He said quietly, but with no response he figured she'd been asleep.
Looking forward to the morning spar, he dropped off to sleep himself.
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Some more cute RanRyo scenes and a few bits of this had been written early on.
As for the Path of the Silken Breeze... blame a lot of rereading Cradle, which honestly as a series is just begging to be crossed over with Ranma. I will be doing eventually I guess though, it's in the plot bunny pile.
As to the weapons, inspired by a certain MMO class I enjoyed but I'll see if anyone can guess it before I tell you next chapter after their spar.
I hope you guys liked Himeko! Also a reference because I can't stop myself!
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Strawberry
Dessert Faerie
- Location
- Derbyshire, UK
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Actually, checking in canon I think it's Genma that makes the pact, and I guess Nodoka just ran with it because it was all she had of them.
I like to think she did it because he's a piss-poor parent and she's likely well aware of his shortcomings.
Ahh, I haven't had any ideas for an Ranko/Ukyou fic... that'll have to go into the... Hm. OK, now I have an addition to a plotbunny in the pile of 'awaiting life' fics. Thanks! Was wondering what pairing to go with for that one.
I'm basically nothing but a shipper at heart, and while I have favourite ships I really just like writing cute fluff.
But thank you for the praise! ♥
- Location
- Shenzhen
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I saw it recently said that Ukyo has the easiest transfemme write-in possible. "I thought you were a boy back then?" "No and shut up"
Cute new chapter.
...really I'm pretty sure some malicious youkai do less damage than Genma trying to help.
Chapter 10 - Dance With Somebody
Strawberry
Dessert Faerie
- Location
- Derbyshire, UK
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Sorry for the delay guys, I got really invested in finishing up Changeling, my other Ranma fic.
Now that's complete, I'm going to start running this one more, as well as one on Ao3 I don't post on essvee.
Chapter 10 - Dance With Somebody
Take off your armour,
Friend of mine,
I have no arrows,
But I got time,
All your sorrow,
Keeps you glued to your seat,
Can we get you out of your head,
And into your feet?
And it's not that the rest of us don't have the blues,
It's just that some dance partners need a dance partner too.
Is that you?
-Dance With Somebody by The Midnight
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Ryouga walked with Ranko along the ground, thankful to be on solid earth once more. Getting off the ship hadn't been difficult – they'd already given him a ticket and somehow made it seem as if he'd boarded with them. Walking along, Ranko was holding several flight cases of equipment by herself, though she'd foisted some onto him too.
"So we're gonna fight in a decent empty lot we hired. The fans love it when I get martial and I figured with you there I can really pull out the stops."
Ryouga smiled. "So you're gonna show me the fighting part of the 'Path of the Silken Breeze'?"
Ranko nodded. "Yep." She grinned. "Well, some of it. Some of it's my own stuff."
He pointed at her footwear. "You're fighting in those heels?"
"Gotta have some kinda handicap, Ryo-chan. Besides, I learned to fight in these pretty well." Ranko laughed at him. "I'll swap 'em out if it gets too serious, don't worry, but I like how they look anyway."
Ryouga nodded and stopped as they entered a large, vacant lot with clear ground. Nabiki seemed to just be finishing setting some things up and the two martial artists walked over to her to put the flight cases down. Ranko cricked her neck and started opening the cases, setting down odd prisms in the corners of the lot, making a perimeter. The fanged boy looked at her quizzically.
"Protective thingamajigs powered with a burst of chi. Protects bystanders and stuff from a fight, given we can both get a li'l carried away." Ranko explained. "Herb gave 'em me, apparently given their nature they use 'em to protect dojos in Musk territory since they get a little… rowdy."
Ryouga looked curious. "You visited Herb?"
"How else you think I got perma-locked? All he wanted was a fight for it. And some uh… Other stuff too." She pinked. "I'll tell ya about it later." Ranko coughed.
Ryouga took off his pack and laid it outside the perimeter as Nabiki set more equipment up. Ranko walked onto the lot, heels clacking on the ground.
The redhead was dressed in a cheongsam split on both sides, though her legs were bare. The slits were high enough that he could see the line of something underneath, though he tried not to focus on it. Around her waist was a sash of silk in a jade green colour, with blue embroidered designs on it. At her right hip hung a wooden straight sword, about a two feet from hilt to tip, and on the other hip was an orb of crystal, faintly glowing, with a wide crescent blade on a very short chain under it.
She stared at him, her hair bound up behind her in two buns atop her head, some curls spilling out of them down, and her gaze was half-lidded, as if she wasn't paying much attention. She'd gone with the green eyeshadow and bright lipstick, though he wasn't sure if she had any other makeup on. She gave him a look full of mischief, a smirk that promised something interesting. Ryouga blushed at the look and tore his own gaze away, starting some stretches. He heard her doing the same and then looked over to see her moving.
Moving might have been the worst word for it. Flowing was better, being, even better. He couldn't sense any intent from her in her kata. His excitement grew as he looked forwards to the spar.
Ranko finished limbering up, dropping into a casual stance. "Alright, Ryouga, ground rules. I'm not going to be makin' anything capable of cuttin'. I'm assuming your own bandanna trick can also be set not to do the sliceydicey stuff?" He nodded. "Alright then. Go until one of us is down and out?" He nodded again. She smiled and blew him a kiss. "Good boy. You usin' the brolly?"
He hefted the umbrella and looked unsure. "Maybe. Is it just those things on your hip?"
Ranko's smile was slow. "Ah, it can be unless ya push me too hard, then my secret weapon comes out."
He blinked and then laughed. "Alright, I'll keep the umbrella then."
Ranko grinned, and then pressed her fists together, giving him a bow, then executed a curtsey. Her entire demeanour changed, slipping from friendly to blank in a moment. "Looking forwards to this." She said, her tone an odd mix of the very polite Himeko from last night and her own relaxed tones. She sounded excited.
Ryouga nodded and hefted the umbrella. Ranko stood in a classic pose of hers, the 'hit me, I'm open' stance that always infuriated the people she fought with. He almost laughed. The more things change…
Nabiki stood just outside the protective square and held her hand up. "Ready?" Both nodded. "Begin!" She chopped her arm down.
Ryouga exploded into motion, bringing the umbrella up and swinging it down with incredible force.
The heavy umbrella impacted the floor of the lot as Ranko moved to the side, her feet tattooing his chest. Kami, those heels hurt! Ryouga fell back, wincing as he spied her standing there again. She was loosening the sash, but hadn't drawn the sword or blade yet, and had a smile of satisfaction on her face. Ryouga winced at the pain in his chest as it faded. Even with bakusai tenketsu training she'd managed a flurry of blows enough to cause him pain. He'd lost count at fifty in that short time.
Great heavens above was she fast. Faster than she'd ever been before. He remembered her male form had always had more power, her female more speed but this was insane.
He circled her warily. He knew his own strengths and with Ranma they'd been pretty solidly matched. He was strong, and he was steady and built like a tank to boot. He had some speed, what martial artist of their calibre didn't? But he didn't have Ranko's insane speed, nor her adaptability.
He aimed a kick that she dodged, then another, and she flipped back away from the one he'd sent out as a feint. Ryouga smiled tightly. He'd have to fight a little dirty. He made as if to action a kick, but went into a flip and as he did used his free hand to bakusai tenketsu the ground, sending a shower of pebbles and dirt her way. He didn't wait to see if she'd dodged, he instead swung his umbrella round, getting a satisfying 'oof' from her as it smacked into her and sent her tumbling.
She hadn't gone down though. Once again in that weird way she twisted in the air, and then the air was full of her sash, dragging the ground and bouncing her to a stop as she landed on her feet with a click of her heels. She grinned at him. "Dirty trick, Ryo-chan. Can't believe you've been takin' pointers from Anything Goes."
Ryouga grinned back at her. "Learned from the best dirty trickster after all."
"What, Pop? Happosai? I'll have you know I'm an honourable lady." She stuck her tongue out at him, but her hands were busy with the orb. He watched as her delicate hands uncinched the sash from about her and she started swinging the wooden pendulum blade in a lazy vertical circle. "Well, ya get one trick outta me if you're gonna breaking point me."
Ryouga grinned and hefted his umbrella. "Come get some then." He said, launching himself at her and bringing it down, then following it up with a kick when he knew it would miss.
Something grabbed his leg, sending a shiver of chi through him, and then he was tossed back, landing on his feet and skidding back.
The air around Ranko was alive with her sash. It flared and flapped in an unseen wind, writhing around her like a snake made of silk. She grinned as she twirled the blade and then sent it flying forward. He dodged to the side, but the wooden blade caught under his shoulder and spun him while a part of the sash impacted his chest. A moment later he felt her feet on his chest, a tattoo of kicks slamming into his sternum again and again. He hefted his umbrella, only to feel it torn away.
Ryouga growled as she grinned at him, flipping away as he sent bandannas flying at her. Her cheongsam moved with her, the sashes too and he found himself at the mercy of the pendulum blade heading to his head while the sash grabbed at his leg. He jumped and threw some bandanas to the floor to press the sash down, but it nimbly dodged as the blade curved on the end of the sash and went round his neck.
Ryouga scrabbled at it as it drew him towards Ranko, who stood in the middle of her swirling sash. She had an odd, serene smile on her face as she rolled her neck and readied a kick.
Ryouga whipped a bandana from his wrist and threw it at Ranko. Her dodge sent him sailing past her, but he freed his neck from the pendulum blade and dropped out, grabbing the sash in two more bandanas and pulling. The entire thing slammed into the ground and he stomped onto the sash, leaving it on the floor.
Ranko watched him. He noted she'd only gotten close to deliver a kick or two, but mostly stayed away. It certainly lined in with her telling him she didn't do much grappling anymore. But this was like fighting several opponents at once, all coordinated. He grinned at the rush as she sighed, the silk sash flying through the air and trying to grab him in its folds.
He dodged but kept his foot on the end of the sash, and then he saw her put hand to her hip and draw the wooden short sword from it. She grinned as she ran a hand down it, script lines activating at her chi until it hummed. "Well then, Ryo-chan…" She purred at him. "Looks like you've got me opening the whole bag of tricks."
Ranko leapt. She was twenty feet into the air, the sash underneath her trailing behind her (did that thing ever end? He wasn't sure it did. It already must have been at least sixty feet long by now. Did she run out?
He was still appreciating the ballistic arc, the way the cheongsam flapped in the breeze of her flight, the way it revealed what she was wearing underneath- Part of the sash grabbed his leg while he was distracted and flung him into the air, off the end. The pendulum blade slithered through the air after him, hooking under his armpit and dragging him up.
Ranko was flying down to meet him, the sword dancing in her hands as she weaved some kind of complex arc in the air. Burning chi in a green hue surrounded her and then expanded like a halo, moving behing her in a circle. She gripped the short sword with two hands, angling it so it would pierce his chest, had it been a real sword.
Ryouga, flying up towards her, had only a moment to think. He spun his bandanas and lassoed her legs as she fell, using the bandanas like bolas. She didn't seem to notice as she still fell, that smile still on her face as the ring of green chi behind her lit up and pushed her forward.
The sword bounced off his sternum once, he felt the shock, but he'd grabbed it with his bandana and tore the sword to the side, throwing it away.
It came back and bounced off his head. Stupid! He berated himself, it's still attached by a sash!
Now there were two projectiles flying through the air about him, each of them striking as Ranko moved back in the air using that strange green chi halo. She grinned at him and blew him a kiss, trying to untie her legs. He grinned and lashed out with a kick while grabbing the sword in one hand and keeping it still.
The kick connected with her stomach and she made an 'oof' sound as she careened back in the air. He threw two bandanas, and while she was still moving back they wrapped around her hands, tying them together.
Both of them landed, Ranko hard on her backside and he on one leg, the other wrapped in the silk sash. The sword in his arm kept moving, the sash curling and constricting his arm.
Ranko looked up at him with her tied legs and hands and then grinned naughtily. "Well, well, Ryouga-kun. I never pegged you for tyin' a gal up to have your way with her."
He kept his gaze on the sashes around him. Somehow, she was still dangerous with her hands tied. The sash was like his bandanas, only much more flexible. Sure, he could use them to cut and to hold, and reinforce with chi, but this was like trying to fight the wind itself. If he swatted the sash, it picked him up, if he tried to keep it in one place, it moved. Ranko's grin widened.
"Kami above, this is insane. How are you doing this?" He growled and Ranko's smile grew mischievous.
"Mom is an excellent trainer. That and I am still an Anything Goes practitioner." She wiggled her feet and managed to escape her bonds, standing up. Her hands were still tied, but she stood in front of him, grinning. "Good work on the bandanas, but you've probably caught on that I don't really need my hands."
As if to prove her point, the short sword bonked him on the head before retreating back to her, along with the crescent blade. Ranko managed to unbind her hands with a quick application of the sash and rubbed her wrists, catching the pendulum blade in her left hand and the sword in her right. She let the pendulum drop a few feet, so she was holding the sash again and started to swing it in lazy circles.
Her face was flushed, and she was breathing hard. Ryouga, too, and he realised how much he'd missed this.
Then she was attacking again, and this time it wasn't with the sash flying around but as a direct weapon to swing the pendulum blade. He reinforced two of his bandanas to use as short sticks, parrying her hits. Where the blade wasn't circling and slamming at him, the sword was getting into his guard. Ranko was relentless in her assault, making him step back.
Then she got her feet involved and he remembered how much those heels hurt when they hit him. He could see little puffs of chi fly from her feet so she must have been enhancing them as she hit. Where had she learned that trick?
He blocked with his bandanas-turned-sticks and managed to catch her off guard, slipping them under her leg and slamming her to the ground, delivering another bakusai tenketsu to shower her in debris.
She pirouetted away, the sash around her sending the rocks and dirty flying away. He followed it up with another bakusai tenketsu on a rock, pelting her as he spun several more bandanas.
In response she threw the pendulum blade at him, the sash sailing behind it as it. He blocked with crossed arms, but she countered with the sword, forcing his arms apart and planting a high kick that sent him into the air.
The sash grabbed his arm and he grinned, reaching for the pendulum blade to keep it- it wasn't there!
He looked and saw it was a second sash around his arm, writhing and flicking at him like a living thing. He cursed and reached for it, slicing at it with a bandana, only for another sash to gab his other arm. Between them, his bones protesting at the movement, they forced his arms behind his back.
He looked down to see her jumping over him, smiling still as she delivered more kicks, then a third sash, the original this time, with the pendulum blade, wrapped around his legs and she delivered a spectacular axe kick to his head, sending him plummeting down.
He knew it was spectacular because he'd gotten a view of what she was wearing under that cheongsam and it was definitely not a leotard, nor was he entirely sure why there were ties on the side in ribbons and hey wasn't he falling and-
Ryouga slammed into the ground like a dump truck falling from a bridge, leaving a shallow crater. Ranko's sashes were still wrapped about him, his arms tied behind his back as the redhead herself landed gently on his back, driving him back into the ground. Perched there with one leg crossed over the other, she gave a wink to Nabiki's cameras, blew a kiss and then thwacked Ryouga on the head with her wooden sword.
"You yield yet, Ryo-chan?" She purred into his ear as she leaned over his prone body.
"N-no…" He groused, twitching but unable to remove the sashes tying his hands and legs together. Coupled with her weight atop him and that they were pulling him to the ground with not inconsiderable force, he couldn't move.
Ranko grinned and kept leaning over, making sure to press herself very closely to him. "Oh, I don't know about that. I guess you're not the only one who likes tyin' people up, huh? What if you an' I…" She whispered some rather dirty ideas involving the sash and his bandanas into his ear. "Whatcha think?"
Her only answer was a choked noise and a small pool of nosebleed on the floor as he fainted. Standing up, she grinned as the sashes all slithered away, the extras returning to her chi space and the main sash returning to her arms as she put the sword back to her hip and retied it about her waist. Perching on a nearby rock, she crossed one leg over the other and let Nabiki take some extra shots while she preened.
Sure, she probably wasn't as cocky as she'd been before, but she still loved to show off her talent, and it had been months since she'd had a workout like that. He'd really nearly forced her to pull out the final stops, and when that particular weapon was involved you know someone on her mother's Path was in trouble.
Not that Ranko really practiced a pure version of the path. She really needed to come up with a name for her variant. Silken Storm maybe? Eh, she'd decide later, she was crap at naming things.
Ryouga groaned as he came to and sat up blearily. "Ah hell." He said, rubbing his head.
"You OK there, Ryouga? I think I piledrivered ya into the dirt a bit hard. Sorry."
He rubbed some more at his forehead. "S'alright, I think you pounded me harder back when you were Ranma."
Ranko giggled naughtily. "Oh, really now, was that durin' the whole koi rod thing? Or is that just poor phrasing?"
Ryouga went bright red. "N-no! I never, I mean we d-d-didn't…"
Ranko laughed again, mischief in her eyes. "I know, Ryouga, don't worry. Not that I'd mind some'a that sugar now, but I'll wait for you to be ready for it." He kept blushing. "Man, you really are bashful." She sighed and stood up, walking over and then leaning up to kiss his cheek. "Thanks for a great workout, by the way." She said, smiling as she sauntered over to Nabiki. "Yo! Nabs, how was the footage?"
As the two started discussing, Ryouga put a hand to his cheek and looked over at Ranko standing next to Nabiki. His heart fluttered a little as he heard her make that giggle again, and then give him an almost instinctive glance with her eyes and a smile that was definitely unconscious.
Ryouga looked about the café he and Ranko had retreated to after helping Nabiki put all the equipment away. The bob-haired middle Tendou had cited wanting to get it edited and uploaded 'before any randos on the street watching kung fu fights did', leaving the redhead and the lost boy to wander the city they found themselves in.
"Where are we, anyway?" Ryouga asked.
"I dunno." Ranko shrugged. "Somewhere in Spain, I think. Annoyingly, no habura esupanoru." Her accent was terrible.
Ryouga shrugged back. "I speak some, enough to get by. Spain's just after the Alps, right?"
"Uh…"
"I mean it's like Nerima is a hop and a skip after Sapporo. I know I can find Nerima if I'm in Sapporo."
Ranko turned to look more directly at Ryouga. "Huh. I always thought it was random."
"…It is, most of the time. Sort of? I can't explain it, but I know that Nerima's after Sapporo, and whenever I end up in Hokkaido it's after some time in Alaska."
Ranko pondered a moment. "That's… weird. Especially given the distances involved." She took a moment to enjoy a sip of coffee and sighed. "Well, stick with me an' Nabs for a bit. I don't want you wanderin' off before we're done with the story an' what we're gonna ask of ya."
Ryouga shook his head. "It sounds like you made a plan and then hinged on me doing something. Can't you just tell me?"
Ranko sighed. "I… guess I could." She admitted. "Don't tell Nabs I did, but she'll guess. I'd bet half my bank account that she's got listening devices attached to me for moments like this."
"Sucker bet." Ryouga grinned at her.
"Well, long as she don't mind sex noises I don't exactly have deep dark secrets she's unaware of, 'ceptin' the card I gave Akane with my phone number and some instructions on." Ranko sighed. "Right, the thing…"
She sat up straight in what Ryouga was coming to recognise as her 'serious business Ranko' mode. "So… ya can probably tell, I've hadta pretend to be like, a bunch of different people, and also at no point had I really found myself in that mess, right?"
Ryouga nodded. "Right."
"So… I wanted to find myself. Not find who Nayotake Himeko, or Rena Mizuko, or Kaname Yoiko were, Saotome Ranko." Ranko looked down at her coffee and kicked her legs. "I mean, I got some ideas already, but I just… I don't think I know myself so well." She sighed again. "So… I figured, to find myself, I gotta get lost somewhere that the only person I hafta be is me."
She smiled at him. "That's where you come in, Ryouga. Ya see, I know of one person for whom getting' lost is an art form."
Ryouga snapped his gaze to her. "So what, you just want me to cart you around?! Is that all I am?"
Ranko shook her head. "No, idiot, I want to travel with you. You must see some real interestin' things and… I dunno. You're the only one of that lot of idiots who decided to leave me alone at the wedding. Everyone there was trying to do their own thing. 'Ceptin' for Akane, you're the only one who thought about what I wanted. You're my friend, Ryouga."
Ryouga's ire left as quickly as it came. "…Sorry. I guess I just…"
"I getcha. And you don't have to do it. I've got some things to give you if you do, but I'll probably do so even if you don't agree. I just…" She folded her arms and rested her chin on them, looking at him. "Wanna wander a bit. See the world when I'm not bein' trained in ways that make torture look appealin'. And I always thought it must be real lonely for ya." She smiled sadly at him. "No one goin' with you, just on the road all the time. Specially without Akari to come back to, or our scraps to return to."
Ryouga looked down at his lap. "…Yeah."
Ranko sat up and reached across, taking one of his hands and squeezing it. "You don't have to say yes or no quite yet. Just… think about it, alright? I'd like to go with you, see what you see, see how the world is for you. I think it'd be interesting, and to be honest, you're the only person I'd trust to go with like that. Maybe Akane would, but I'd be dodging mallets all the time."
Ryouga looked at her and shrugged. "I'll think about it." He said, softly. "Thanks for telling me."
Ranko smiled at him. "You're welcome, Ryouga. I'm not gonna lie to you again, no tricks or anythin'." She let go of his hand and leaned back on the chair, sighing.
"Hey let's check some stuff out and get back to the ship, huh?"
Nabiki looked up from her laptop as Ranko and Ryouga burst into the room singing. Ranko's voice was still the same soprano she'd been perfecting during their time making the money to come on the cruise, but Ryouga's could wake the dead.
What really caught her attention was Ryouga's outfit. He'd swapped his tunic outfit for what appeared to be an outfit for a mariachi band.
"Hora senorita!" Ranko yelled, Ryouga echoing and tipping his hat. The two of them were flushed with laughter and she wasn't entirely sure if they were drunk or just high from some dumb antics.
"You two dorks realise that mariachi is Mexican, not Spanish, right?" She eyed Ryouga. "Wait, what am I saying, of course you don't. Ranko wouldn't know good geography of anything outside of China or Japan and you're… you." She said to him.
Ranko shrugged. "Doesn't matter, we still got the outfit and sang."
"Oh kami, please don't tell me you got caught by someone with a camera."
"Nah, I did that chi blurring thing with wind. Ain't gonna cut into your profits."
Nabiki sighed and closed her laptop. "And you're both drunk."
Ranko giggled. "Maybe a little." She said.
"What happened?"
"Martial Arts craziness." Ranko said, laughing bitterly. "What else, Nabs? Guess I can't always escape it!" She rolled her neck, making a satisfied noise. "Naturally, Ryouga and I make a fuckin' awesome team, even if I wasn't dressed for the occasion. Did you know this moron knows trumpet?"
"Hey, I had to learn an instrument in school!" Ryouga protested. Ranko waggled her fingers.
"Man, if he could do things with his fingers like that with a lady you'd think he'd be less bashful."
"Ranko could you stop?" Ryouga sounded plaintive.
"Why?" She challenged. "I like flirtin', and you're so receptive to it! Lookit them ears burn!" She beamed and poked him.
Nabiki sighed. "Nice to see you two getting on."
"Aw, he don't mean to be grumpy." Ranko grinned. She hooked an arm around Ryouga. "But look at him, ain't he cute? Just wanna take him to the bed an' nibble him a bit."
Ryouga went red, though not as red as he would have had he not had a few. Neither was particularly drunk, but they were at least tipsy. He grinned. "Ehhh, I'm not sure I'd enjoy being eaten…"
Ranko grinned at him. "Oh, I bet I could change your mind on that." She said. "For now, it's dinner time!" Ranko paused and then laughed naughtily. "Well, dinner as in food, not-"
"Yes, I think we both know what you mean." Nabiki said. "I can't believe I'm the one telling you to slow down."
"Yeah yeah." Ranko said, moving to drop her bags in her room while Ryouga followed her. They both returned no longer laden and Ryouga having taken the jacket and hat off.
Nabiki sighed and followed the two out of the suite once they'd put their souvenirs down.
Someone had to watch these two idiots while they sobered up.
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I hope the fight scene was fun - I've never felt I was very good at describing them so I'm kinda nervous about this one since it's Ranko debuting her path.
She hasn't dug out ALL the tricks yet, but she's got most of the basics there for a spar. There will be a time in Part 3 when she does pull all the stops though.
I might explain what else the idiots got up to but there'll be more RanRyo fluff later on!
Now that's complete, I'm going to start running this one more, as well as one on Ao3 I don't post on essvee.
Chapter 10 - Dance With Somebody
Take off your armour,
Friend of mine,
I have no arrows,
But I got time,
All your sorrow,
Keeps you glued to your seat,
Can we get you out of your head,
And into your feet?
And it's not that the rest of us don't have the blues,
It's just that some dance partners need a dance partner too.
Is that you?
-Dance With Somebody by The Midnight
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Ryouga walked with Ranko along the ground, thankful to be on solid earth once more. Getting off the ship hadn't been difficult – they'd already given him a ticket and somehow made it seem as if he'd boarded with them. Walking along, Ranko was holding several flight cases of equipment by herself, though she'd foisted some onto him too.
"So we're gonna fight in a decent empty lot we hired. The fans love it when I get martial and I figured with you there I can really pull out the stops."
Ryouga smiled. "So you're gonna show me the fighting part of the 'Path of the Silken Breeze'?"
Ranko nodded. "Yep." She grinned. "Well, some of it. Some of it's my own stuff."
He pointed at her footwear. "You're fighting in those heels?"
"Gotta have some kinda handicap, Ryo-chan. Besides, I learned to fight in these pretty well." Ranko laughed at him. "I'll swap 'em out if it gets too serious, don't worry, but I like how they look anyway."
Ryouga nodded and stopped as they entered a large, vacant lot with clear ground. Nabiki seemed to just be finishing setting some things up and the two martial artists walked over to her to put the flight cases down. Ranko cricked her neck and started opening the cases, setting down odd prisms in the corners of the lot, making a perimeter. The fanged boy looked at her quizzically.
"Protective thingamajigs powered with a burst of chi. Protects bystanders and stuff from a fight, given we can both get a li'l carried away." Ranko explained. "Herb gave 'em me, apparently given their nature they use 'em to protect dojos in Musk territory since they get a little… rowdy."
Ryouga looked curious. "You visited Herb?"
"How else you think I got perma-locked? All he wanted was a fight for it. And some uh… Other stuff too." She pinked. "I'll tell ya about it later." Ranko coughed.
Ryouga took off his pack and laid it outside the perimeter as Nabiki set more equipment up. Ranko walked onto the lot, heels clacking on the ground.
The redhead was dressed in a cheongsam split on both sides, though her legs were bare. The slits were high enough that he could see the line of something underneath, though he tried not to focus on it. Around her waist was a sash of silk in a jade green colour, with blue embroidered designs on it. At her right hip hung a wooden straight sword, about a two feet from hilt to tip, and on the other hip was an orb of crystal, faintly glowing, with a wide crescent blade on a very short chain under it.
She stared at him, her hair bound up behind her in two buns atop her head, some curls spilling out of them down, and her gaze was half-lidded, as if she wasn't paying much attention. She'd gone with the green eyeshadow and bright lipstick, though he wasn't sure if she had any other makeup on. She gave him a look full of mischief, a smirk that promised something interesting. Ryouga blushed at the look and tore his own gaze away, starting some stretches. He heard her doing the same and then looked over to see her moving.
Moving might have been the worst word for it. Flowing was better, being, even better. He couldn't sense any intent from her in her kata. His excitement grew as he looked forwards to the spar.
Ranko finished limbering up, dropping into a casual stance. "Alright, Ryouga, ground rules. I'm not going to be makin' anything capable of cuttin'. I'm assuming your own bandanna trick can also be set not to do the sliceydicey stuff?" He nodded. "Alright then. Go until one of us is down and out?" He nodded again. She smiled and blew him a kiss. "Good boy. You usin' the brolly?"
He hefted the umbrella and looked unsure. "Maybe. Is it just those things on your hip?"
Ranko's smile was slow. "Ah, it can be unless ya push me too hard, then my secret weapon comes out."
He blinked and then laughed. "Alright, I'll keep the umbrella then."
Ranko grinned, and then pressed her fists together, giving him a bow, then executed a curtsey. Her entire demeanour changed, slipping from friendly to blank in a moment. "Looking forwards to this." She said, her tone an odd mix of the very polite Himeko from last night and her own relaxed tones. She sounded excited.
Ryouga nodded and hefted the umbrella. Ranko stood in a classic pose of hers, the 'hit me, I'm open' stance that always infuriated the people she fought with. He almost laughed. The more things change…
Nabiki stood just outside the protective square and held her hand up. "Ready?" Both nodded. "Begin!" She chopped her arm down.
Ryouga exploded into motion, bringing the umbrella up and swinging it down with incredible force.
The heavy umbrella impacted the floor of the lot as Ranko moved to the side, her feet tattooing his chest. Kami, those heels hurt! Ryouga fell back, wincing as he spied her standing there again. She was loosening the sash, but hadn't drawn the sword or blade yet, and had a smile of satisfaction on her face. Ryouga winced at the pain in his chest as it faded. Even with bakusai tenketsu training she'd managed a flurry of blows enough to cause him pain. He'd lost count at fifty in that short time.
Great heavens above was she fast. Faster than she'd ever been before. He remembered her male form had always had more power, her female more speed but this was insane.
He circled her warily. He knew his own strengths and with Ranma they'd been pretty solidly matched. He was strong, and he was steady and built like a tank to boot. He had some speed, what martial artist of their calibre didn't? But he didn't have Ranko's insane speed, nor her adaptability.
He aimed a kick that she dodged, then another, and she flipped back away from the one he'd sent out as a feint. Ryouga smiled tightly. He'd have to fight a little dirty. He made as if to action a kick, but went into a flip and as he did used his free hand to bakusai tenketsu the ground, sending a shower of pebbles and dirt her way. He didn't wait to see if she'd dodged, he instead swung his umbrella round, getting a satisfying 'oof' from her as it smacked into her and sent her tumbling.
She hadn't gone down though. Once again in that weird way she twisted in the air, and then the air was full of her sash, dragging the ground and bouncing her to a stop as she landed on her feet with a click of her heels. She grinned at him. "Dirty trick, Ryo-chan. Can't believe you've been takin' pointers from Anything Goes."
Ryouga grinned back at her. "Learned from the best dirty trickster after all."
"What, Pop? Happosai? I'll have you know I'm an honourable lady." She stuck her tongue out at him, but her hands were busy with the orb. He watched as her delicate hands uncinched the sash from about her and she started swinging the wooden pendulum blade in a lazy vertical circle. "Well, ya get one trick outta me if you're gonna breaking point me."
Ryouga grinned and hefted his umbrella. "Come get some then." He said, launching himself at her and bringing it down, then following it up with a kick when he knew it would miss.
Something grabbed his leg, sending a shiver of chi through him, and then he was tossed back, landing on his feet and skidding back.
The air around Ranko was alive with her sash. It flared and flapped in an unseen wind, writhing around her like a snake made of silk. She grinned as she twirled the blade and then sent it flying forward. He dodged to the side, but the wooden blade caught under his shoulder and spun him while a part of the sash impacted his chest. A moment later he felt her feet on his chest, a tattoo of kicks slamming into his sternum again and again. He hefted his umbrella, only to feel it torn away.
Ryouga growled as she grinned at him, flipping away as he sent bandannas flying at her. Her cheongsam moved with her, the sashes too and he found himself at the mercy of the pendulum blade heading to his head while the sash grabbed at his leg. He jumped and threw some bandanas to the floor to press the sash down, but it nimbly dodged as the blade curved on the end of the sash and went round his neck.
Ryouga scrabbled at it as it drew him towards Ranko, who stood in the middle of her swirling sash. She had an odd, serene smile on her face as she rolled her neck and readied a kick.
Ryouga whipped a bandana from his wrist and threw it at Ranko. Her dodge sent him sailing past her, but he freed his neck from the pendulum blade and dropped out, grabbing the sash in two more bandanas and pulling. The entire thing slammed into the ground and he stomped onto the sash, leaving it on the floor.
Ranko watched him. He noted she'd only gotten close to deliver a kick or two, but mostly stayed away. It certainly lined in with her telling him she didn't do much grappling anymore. But this was like fighting several opponents at once, all coordinated. He grinned at the rush as she sighed, the silk sash flying through the air and trying to grab him in its folds.
He dodged but kept his foot on the end of the sash, and then he saw her put hand to her hip and draw the wooden short sword from it. She grinned as she ran a hand down it, script lines activating at her chi until it hummed. "Well then, Ryo-chan…" She purred at him. "Looks like you've got me opening the whole bag of tricks."
Ranko leapt. She was twenty feet into the air, the sash underneath her trailing behind her (did that thing ever end? He wasn't sure it did. It already must have been at least sixty feet long by now. Did she run out?
He was still appreciating the ballistic arc, the way the cheongsam flapped in the breeze of her flight, the way it revealed what she was wearing underneath- Part of the sash grabbed his leg while he was distracted and flung him into the air, off the end. The pendulum blade slithered through the air after him, hooking under his armpit and dragging him up.
Ranko was flying down to meet him, the sword dancing in her hands as she weaved some kind of complex arc in the air. Burning chi in a green hue surrounded her and then expanded like a halo, moving behing her in a circle. She gripped the short sword with two hands, angling it so it would pierce his chest, had it been a real sword.
Ryouga, flying up towards her, had only a moment to think. He spun his bandanas and lassoed her legs as she fell, using the bandanas like bolas. She didn't seem to notice as she still fell, that smile still on her face as the ring of green chi behind her lit up and pushed her forward.
The sword bounced off his sternum once, he felt the shock, but he'd grabbed it with his bandana and tore the sword to the side, throwing it away.
It came back and bounced off his head. Stupid! He berated himself, it's still attached by a sash!
Now there were two projectiles flying through the air about him, each of them striking as Ranko moved back in the air using that strange green chi halo. She grinned at him and blew him a kiss, trying to untie her legs. He grinned and lashed out with a kick while grabbing the sword in one hand and keeping it still.
The kick connected with her stomach and she made an 'oof' sound as she careened back in the air. He threw two bandanas, and while she was still moving back they wrapped around her hands, tying them together.
Both of them landed, Ranko hard on her backside and he on one leg, the other wrapped in the silk sash. The sword in his arm kept moving, the sash curling and constricting his arm.
Ranko looked up at him with her tied legs and hands and then grinned naughtily. "Well, well, Ryouga-kun. I never pegged you for tyin' a gal up to have your way with her."
He kept his gaze on the sashes around him. Somehow, she was still dangerous with her hands tied. The sash was like his bandanas, only much more flexible. Sure, he could use them to cut and to hold, and reinforce with chi, but this was like trying to fight the wind itself. If he swatted the sash, it picked him up, if he tried to keep it in one place, it moved. Ranko's grin widened.
"Kami above, this is insane. How are you doing this?" He growled and Ranko's smile grew mischievous.
"Mom is an excellent trainer. That and I am still an Anything Goes practitioner." She wiggled her feet and managed to escape her bonds, standing up. Her hands were still tied, but she stood in front of him, grinning. "Good work on the bandanas, but you've probably caught on that I don't really need my hands."
As if to prove her point, the short sword bonked him on the head before retreating back to her, along with the crescent blade. Ranko managed to unbind her hands with a quick application of the sash and rubbed her wrists, catching the pendulum blade in her left hand and the sword in her right. She let the pendulum drop a few feet, so she was holding the sash again and started to swing it in lazy circles.
Her face was flushed, and she was breathing hard. Ryouga, too, and he realised how much he'd missed this.
Then she was attacking again, and this time it wasn't with the sash flying around but as a direct weapon to swing the pendulum blade. He reinforced two of his bandanas to use as short sticks, parrying her hits. Where the blade wasn't circling and slamming at him, the sword was getting into his guard. Ranko was relentless in her assault, making him step back.
Then she got her feet involved and he remembered how much those heels hurt when they hit him. He could see little puffs of chi fly from her feet so she must have been enhancing them as she hit. Where had she learned that trick?
He blocked with his bandanas-turned-sticks and managed to catch her off guard, slipping them under her leg and slamming her to the ground, delivering another bakusai tenketsu to shower her in debris.
She pirouetted away, the sash around her sending the rocks and dirty flying away. He followed it up with another bakusai tenketsu on a rock, pelting her as he spun several more bandanas.
In response she threw the pendulum blade at him, the sash sailing behind it as it. He blocked with crossed arms, but she countered with the sword, forcing his arms apart and planting a high kick that sent him into the air.
The sash grabbed his arm and he grinned, reaching for the pendulum blade to keep it- it wasn't there!
He looked and saw it was a second sash around his arm, writhing and flicking at him like a living thing. He cursed and reached for it, slicing at it with a bandana, only for another sash to gab his other arm. Between them, his bones protesting at the movement, they forced his arms behind his back.
He looked down to see her jumping over him, smiling still as she delivered more kicks, then a third sash, the original this time, with the pendulum blade, wrapped around his legs and she delivered a spectacular axe kick to his head, sending him plummeting down.
He knew it was spectacular because he'd gotten a view of what she was wearing under that cheongsam and it was definitely not a leotard, nor was he entirely sure why there were ties on the side in ribbons and hey wasn't he falling and-
Ryouga slammed into the ground like a dump truck falling from a bridge, leaving a shallow crater. Ranko's sashes were still wrapped about him, his arms tied behind his back as the redhead herself landed gently on his back, driving him back into the ground. Perched there with one leg crossed over the other, she gave a wink to Nabiki's cameras, blew a kiss and then thwacked Ryouga on the head with her wooden sword.
"You yield yet, Ryo-chan?" She purred into his ear as she leaned over his prone body.
"N-no…" He groused, twitching but unable to remove the sashes tying his hands and legs together. Coupled with her weight atop him and that they were pulling him to the ground with not inconsiderable force, he couldn't move.
Ranko grinned and kept leaning over, making sure to press herself very closely to him. "Oh, I don't know about that. I guess you're not the only one who likes tyin' people up, huh? What if you an' I…" She whispered some rather dirty ideas involving the sash and his bandanas into his ear. "Whatcha think?"
Her only answer was a choked noise and a small pool of nosebleed on the floor as he fainted. Standing up, she grinned as the sashes all slithered away, the extras returning to her chi space and the main sash returning to her arms as she put the sword back to her hip and retied it about her waist. Perching on a nearby rock, she crossed one leg over the other and let Nabiki take some extra shots while she preened.
Sure, she probably wasn't as cocky as she'd been before, but she still loved to show off her talent, and it had been months since she'd had a workout like that. He'd really nearly forced her to pull out the final stops, and when that particular weapon was involved you know someone on her mother's Path was in trouble.
Not that Ranko really practiced a pure version of the path. She really needed to come up with a name for her variant. Silken Storm maybe? Eh, she'd decide later, she was crap at naming things.
Ryouga groaned as he came to and sat up blearily. "Ah hell." He said, rubbing his head.
"You OK there, Ryouga? I think I piledrivered ya into the dirt a bit hard. Sorry."
He rubbed some more at his forehead. "S'alright, I think you pounded me harder back when you were Ranma."
Ranko giggled naughtily. "Oh, really now, was that durin' the whole koi rod thing? Or is that just poor phrasing?"
Ryouga went bright red. "N-no! I never, I mean we d-d-didn't…"
Ranko laughed again, mischief in her eyes. "I know, Ryouga, don't worry. Not that I'd mind some'a that sugar now, but I'll wait for you to be ready for it." He kept blushing. "Man, you really are bashful." She sighed and stood up, walking over and then leaning up to kiss his cheek. "Thanks for a great workout, by the way." She said, smiling as she sauntered over to Nabiki. "Yo! Nabs, how was the footage?"
As the two started discussing, Ryouga put a hand to his cheek and looked over at Ranko standing next to Nabiki. His heart fluttered a little as he heard her make that giggle again, and then give him an almost instinctive glance with her eyes and a smile that was definitely unconscious.
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Ryouga looked about the café he and Ranko had retreated to after helping Nabiki put all the equipment away. The bob-haired middle Tendou had cited wanting to get it edited and uploaded 'before any randos on the street watching kung fu fights did', leaving the redhead and the lost boy to wander the city they found themselves in.
"Where are we, anyway?" Ryouga asked.
"I dunno." Ranko shrugged. "Somewhere in Spain, I think. Annoyingly, no habura esupanoru." Her accent was terrible.
Ryouga shrugged back. "I speak some, enough to get by. Spain's just after the Alps, right?"
"Uh…"
"I mean it's like Nerima is a hop and a skip after Sapporo. I know I can find Nerima if I'm in Sapporo."
Ranko turned to look more directly at Ryouga. "Huh. I always thought it was random."
"…It is, most of the time. Sort of? I can't explain it, but I know that Nerima's after Sapporo, and whenever I end up in Hokkaido it's after some time in Alaska."
Ranko pondered a moment. "That's… weird. Especially given the distances involved." She took a moment to enjoy a sip of coffee and sighed. "Well, stick with me an' Nabs for a bit. I don't want you wanderin' off before we're done with the story an' what we're gonna ask of ya."
Ryouga shook his head. "It sounds like you made a plan and then hinged on me doing something. Can't you just tell me?"
Ranko sighed. "I… guess I could." She admitted. "Don't tell Nabs I did, but she'll guess. I'd bet half my bank account that she's got listening devices attached to me for moments like this."
"Sucker bet." Ryouga grinned at her.
"Well, long as she don't mind sex noises I don't exactly have deep dark secrets she's unaware of, 'ceptin' the card I gave Akane with my phone number and some instructions on." Ranko sighed. "Right, the thing…"
She sat up straight in what Ryouga was coming to recognise as her 'serious business Ranko' mode. "So… ya can probably tell, I've hadta pretend to be like, a bunch of different people, and also at no point had I really found myself in that mess, right?"
Ryouga nodded. "Right."
"So… I wanted to find myself. Not find who Nayotake Himeko, or Rena Mizuko, or Kaname Yoiko were, Saotome Ranko." Ranko looked down at her coffee and kicked her legs. "I mean, I got some ideas already, but I just… I don't think I know myself so well." She sighed again. "So… I figured, to find myself, I gotta get lost somewhere that the only person I hafta be is me."
She smiled at him. "That's where you come in, Ryouga. Ya see, I know of one person for whom getting' lost is an art form."
Ryouga snapped his gaze to her. "So what, you just want me to cart you around?! Is that all I am?"
Ranko shook her head. "No, idiot, I want to travel with you. You must see some real interestin' things and… I dunno. You're the only one of that lot of idiots who decided to leave me alone at the wedding. Everyone there was trying to do their own thing. 'Ceptin' for Akane, you're the only one who thought about what I wanted. You're my friend, Ryouga."
Ryouga's ire left as quickly as it came. "…Sorry. I guess I just…"
"I getcha. And you don't have to do it. I've got some things to give you if you do, but I'll probably do so even if you don't agree. I just…" She folded her arms and rested her chin on them, looking at him. "Wanna wander a bit. See the world when I'm not bein' trained in ways that make torture look appealin'. And I always thought it must be real lonely for ya." She smiled sadly at him. "No one goin' with you, just on the road all the time. Specially without Akari to come back to, or our scraps to return to."
Ryouga looked down at his lap. "…Yeah."
Ranko sat up and reached across, taking one of his hands and squeezing it. "You don't have to say yes or no quite yet. Just… think about it, alright? I'd like to go with you, see what you see, see how the world is for you. I think it'd be interesting, and to be honest, you're the only person I'd trust to go with like that. Maybe Akane would, but I'd be dodging mallets all the time."
Ryouga looked at her and shrugged. "I'll think about it." He said, softly. "Thanks for telling me."
Ranko smiled at him. "You're welcome, Ryouga. I'm not gonna lie to you again, no tricks or anythin'." She let go of his hand and leaned back on the chair, sighing.
"Hey let's check some stuff out and get back to the ship, huh?"
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Nabiki looked up from her laptop as Ranko and Ryouga burst into the room singing. Ranko's voice was still the same soprano she'd been perfecting during their time making the money to come on the cruise, but Ryouga's could wake the dead.
What really caught her attention was Ryouga's outfit. He'd swapped his tunic outfit for what appeared to be an outfit for a mariachi band.
"Hora senorita!" Ranko yelled, Ryouga echoing and tipping his hat. The two of them were flushed with laughter and she wasn't entirely sure if they were drunk or just high from some dumb antics.
"You two dorks realise that mariachi is Mexican, not Spanish, right?" She eyed Ryouga. "Wait, what am I saying, of course you don't. Ranko wouldn't know good geography of anything outside of China or Japan and you're… you." She said to him.
Ranko shrugged. "Doesn't matter, we still got the outfit and sang."
"Oh kami, please don't tell me you got caught by someone with a camera."
"Nah, I did that chi blurring thing with wind. Ain't gonna cut into your profits."
Nabiki sighed and closed her laptop. "And you're both drunk."
Ranko giggled. "Maybe a little." She said.
"What happened?"
"Martial Arts craziness." Ranko said, laughing bitterly. "What else, Nabs? Guess I can't always escape it!" She rolled her neck, making a satisfied noise. "Naturally, Ryouga and I make a fuckin' awesome team, even if I wasn't dressed for the occasion. Did you know this moron knows trumpet?"
"Hey, I had to learn an instrument in school!" Ryouga protested. Ranko waggled her fingers.
"Man, if he could do things with his fingers like that with a lady you'd think he'd be less bashful."
"Ranko could you stop?" Ryouga sounded plaintive.
"Why?" She challenged. "I like flirtin', and you're so receptive to it! Lookit them ears burn!" She beamed and poked him.
Nabiki sighed. "Nice to see you two getting on."
"Aw, he don't mean to be grumpy." Ranko grinned. She hooked an arm around Ryouga. "But look at him, ain't he cute? Just wanna take him to the bed an' nibble him a bit."
Ryouga went red, though not as red as he would have had he not had a few. Neither was particularly drunk, but they were at least tipsy. He grinned. "Ehhh, I'm not sure I'd enjoy being eaten…"
Ranko grinned at him. "Oh, I bet I could change your mind on that." She said. "For now, it's dinner time!" Ranko paused and then laughed naughtily. "Well, dinner as in food, not-"
"Yes, I think we both know what you mean." Nabiki said. "I can't believe I'm the one telling you to slow down."
"Yeah yeah." Ranko said, moving to drop her bags in her room while Ryouga followed her. They both returned no longer laden and Ryouga having taken the jacket and hat off.
Nabiki sighed and followed the two out of the suite once they'd put their souvenirs down.
Someone had to watch these two idiots while they sobered up.
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I hope the fight scene was fun - I've never felt I was very good at describing them so I'm kinda nervous about this one since it's Ranko debuting her path.
She hasn't dug out ALL the tricks yet, but she's got most of the basics there for a spar. There will be a time in Part 3 when she does pull all the stops though.
I might explain what else the idiots got up to but there'll be more RanRyo fluff later on!
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