Subject: [FFML] [Ranma][Fanfic] Your Fault
From: "Jane" <jcrockfo@gladstone.uoregon.edu>
Date: 11/9/1998, 5:59 AM
To:
CC: <sonyab@darkwing.uoregon.edu>

Your Fault

By Jane Crockford

This story involves characters created by Rumiko Takahashi.  I am not
her, nor do I claim to be.  This is just a simple excursion into story
writing.

--------------------


"Kasumi!"  At the sound of the  heart wrenching cry, all action in the
backyard of the Tendou complex in Nerima, Japan, stopped.  The dust
settled gradually, revealing the forms of a half-dozen teenagers
frozen in combat positions or sprawled on the lawn, slowly regaining
consciousness.  They all stared in shock as Nabiki Tendou, queen of
ice, sobbed over the battered form of her older sister.

Ryouga Hibiki was the first to respond to the situation.  Dusting off
his clothes and tightening his signature yellow headband, he pulled
himself off of the ground and stalked woozily over to his rival.
Ranma had knocked him out early in the battle.  "Ranma, this is all
your fault!  Your carelessness has injured the innocent Kasumi Tendou!
I will make you pay for this injustice, enemy of women!"

By now, everyone had braced themselves, waiting for another round of
insults followed by a quick fight. The quiet that would surely follow
Ryouga's being booted out of the yard would be very welcome.

"Merrow."

Ryouga stared into his rival's eyes and stood transfixed, his current
anger momentarily forgotten.  The fierce Ranma Saotome, best martial
artist of his time, stared back blankly before making a strange
guttural sound and pouncing at a passing fly.

"Ranma?" said Akane Tendou, creeping up behind Ryouga and watching as
her fiance  gave up on the fly and rolled and stretched in a sunny
part of the yard.  "Here kitty, kitty, kitty."

"Kitty?" asked Ryouga in bewilderment.  "Why is he acting like that?"

Akane took the laces out of one of her shoes and dangled it in front
of Ranma as she told Ryouga Ranma's story.  "It's because of that
cat-fu training his father put him through all those years ago.  When
his fear of cats becomes more than he can bare, he escapes it by
thinking that he is a cat himself.  That's odd...where would he have
seen a cat - Shampoo!"  Akane whirled and searched for her rival.  A
faint mewing sound drew her attention to a tree branch above, where a
small pinkish kitten was trapped between two branches.  Akane followed
the cat's gaze down to a stump where a branch had been sliced off
cleanly.  She then looked down to where the branch landed and
remembered with a start why the fight stopped in the first place.
Running over to her older sisters, she stared fearfully into Nabiki's
eyes.  "Is she ok?"

Nabiki shook her head and tried to wipe the tears from her eyes.  "I'm
going to go call the police and an ambulance.  Make sure everyone
stays put."  Her voice caught and she ran inside before anyone could
see her tears.

--------------------


"The victim's name was Kasumi Tendou.  Daughter of Soun Tendou.  Two
younger sisters, Nabiki and Akane.  Cause of death was a blow to the
head by a tree branch.  The branch was sliced off of the tree by some
kind of blade, which fell onto Miss Tendou as she walked into the yard
to serve tea and cookies to her younger sisters and their friends."  I
read the grim details again and allowed a small frown to crease my
face.  Everyone in Nerima liked Kasumi, and I was no exception.  I
found myself wishing that any other one of those kids that were always
getting in trouble could have been killed instead.  Anyone deserved it
more than Kasumi.  I pressed a button on the intercom on my desk.
"Please show Mr. Saotome in.  You may as well just keep sending them
in one by one when I'm done with him."

Moments later, the door creaked open and Ranma walked in.  It had been
a week since Kasumi's 'accident', and Ranma looked like he hadn't
slept since.  He stared at the floor as I introduced myself to him.
"I am Detective Sakamoto.  I'm investigating the events surrounding
Kasumi Tendou's death.  I hope you will cooperate."  His eyes bore
into mine as he spoke.  "I did it.  It was all my fault.  It has to
be."

To say that I was surprised would be an understatement at best.  I
hadn't expected him to speak at all, let alone tell me that he was
solely responsible for it.  "You killed Kasumi?  Why do you say that?"

"Everyone else says so.  Akane says it did it and Nabiki says I did
it, and Ryouga says that only a freakish cat could cut down a tree and
not remember, but I did."

"Tell me about everything that happened that afternoon."

"I was heading out to the dojo to practice, and Ryouga came storming
into the yard yelling about how I had done something to him.  I think
he was angry with me 'cause I called Akane a tomboy again or
something.  He started trying to punch me, like he usually does, so I
dodged around him for awhile.  Before too long, Shampoo walked in,
trying to force-feed some ramen to me..."

"Shampoo?"

"Yeah, you know, the Chinese Amazon.  She thinks she has to marry me
or something, since I accidentally beat her up once.  Anyway, she was
trying to make me eat some kind of ramen, probably drugged, when Akane
comes in out of nowhere and whacks me for being 'friendly' with my
'girlfriend'.  She wouldn't listen when I told her that I was trying
to get away from Shampoo... Somewhere in there, Ukyou came in - she's
my other fiancee, it's all Pop's fault, really, he set them all up -
and soon Akane, Shampoo and Ukyou were all attacking each other and
Ryouga hit me for ignoring him.  I fought him for awhile and finally
just knocked him out, since he wouldn't stop throwing those bandanas
around.  Shampoo glomped onto me again, but no one noticed since Ukyou
had insulted Akane's cooking skills again.  I don't see why that
tomboy has such a hard time accepting honest observations about her
cooking.  She should just accept it as poisonous."  Ranma paused and
shuddered at the thought of Akane's cooking.  "Anyway, I finally
managed to pry Shampoo off of me, which pissed her off.  She said
something about me regretting making her angry, and jumped in the
pond.  She climbed out again in c-c-cat form, and then I blacked out.
When I woke up again, I was a girl and Kasumi was..."  Ranma looked
like he was trying very hard not to cry.  "I must have cut the branch
off when I was a cat.  I hurt the nicest person in Nerima."

I didn't think the kid was speaking clearly.  Either that or I
misheard.  "You said something about cat form and being a girl.  Care
to explain that?"

"Jusenkyou.  It's this valley of ancient cursed springs.  Everyone who
falls into a spring takes the form of whatever drowned in that spring
hundreds of years ago.  Shampoo fell into Spring of Drowned Cat and I
fell into the Spring of Drowned Girl.  So are you going to throw me in
jail now, or what?"

"Honestly?  No.  I'm just investigating now.  We don't have enough
details to make arrests yet."  I leaned back in my chair.  "You can go
now, Saotome.  We may want to talk to you again later."  I watched as
the youth dragged himself back out the door and waited for the next
visitor.  I'm still not sure what to make of Saotome's story about
Jusenkyou.  It seemed far-fetched, but I had grown used to the
strangeness of Nerima.  Most people wouldn't believe half of the stuff
I've seen.

An hour later, I was still waiting.  I pushed the button in the
intercom box again, "I thought I asked you to send another kid in when
I finished with Saotome."

"I did, sir," my secretary answered.  "I sent in Mr. Hibiki over an
hour ago."

"Hibiki?  He must have run away.  Oh well, we'll send someone out to
find him later.  Send in-"  Just then, the door opened, and a
bandana-clad face peeked in.  "Never mind.  I think I found him."  I
took my finger off the button.  "Mr. Hibiki, I presume.  Why did it
take an hour for you to get here?"

"Oh how I searched to find this office.  From the waiting area, down
the hallway, across the desert and through that rainforest.  I could
have been killed by that poisonous snake.  I don't see why you make
people go through ordeals like that just to find this office, and then
complain that they took too long."

I had heard of Hibiki's spectacular talent for getting lost, but I had
assumed that they were exaggerations.  I really should apologize to my
informants for doubting them.  "Whatever.  Can you tell me what
happened the afternoon of the incident?"

"It was all Ranma's fault!"

"What was all Saotome's fault?"

"Everything.  If anyone is miserable, it is likely the fault of that
fiend!"

I closed my eyes and counted to ten, massaging my temples.  "Fine.  I
want to know how it was his fault.  How did that fight start, and how
did it end up with Kasumi getting hit?"

"Well, it all started earlier that afternoon.  Akane was upset because
Ranma insulted her, yet again.  I went to seek him out to punish him
for such cruelty.  I challenged him to a duel, and started swinging at
him, but all he did was dance around me like the girl he really is.
Shampoo came in and the Womanizer started hanging all over her.   Then
he insulted the wondrous Akane yet again when she came in and scolded
him for it.  Then his other girlfriend walked in and he started
talking to them and just ignoring me, so I hit him again, to make him
pay attention.  He hit a pressure point on me and I fell asleep.  When
I woke up again, I was in the middle of this huge cloud of dust.  I
could tell from the sounds of fighting that Ranma was in the center of
it, so I threw a few of my bandanas at him.  Next thing I knew, there
was a hiss and a loud crashing sound, and someone was crying for
Kasumi."

"You threw...bandanas?"

"Of course."  Ryouga pulled off his bandana, revealing another one
underneath it and flicked his wrist.  The colorful bit of cloth
stiffened and spun around like a miniature saw blade.  He tossed it at
my coat rack and it sliced neatly in half.

"Did you hit anything with your bandanas when you threw them during
the fight?"

"No, I don't think so.  Ranma wasn't bleeding or anything."

"You don't think that a saw-like blade could cut a branch off of a
tree?"

"Sure, it could cut off a tree branch just like the one that
fell...on...Kasumi.  Oh no."

I felt sorry for the kid for a minute when he figured out that he may
have thrown the fatal blade.  No one wants to think that they may be
responsible for hurting someone like Kasumi.  I tried to reassure him
like Saotome by telling him that it's hard to tell what happened, and
I was just doing some preliminary questioning.  As much as I wanted to
just arrest all of them and sort it out later, I knew that it would
cause more trouble than it would fix.  I had my secretary lead him
back out to the lobby and send in Akane Tendou.  She was the youngest
sister of Kasumi, and was taking the loss horribly.  Poor girl lost
her mother years ago, and was now without her adoring big sister as
well.  "Akane?  I want you to tell me everything that happened on the
afternoon in question."

She sniffled and looked up at me with a scowl.  "It was all that
pervert's fault!"  She dug her fingers in the arms of her chair,
leaving small holes.  "He had to go and flirt with the other girls!"

"Who did?  Ranma?"

"Of course.  If he didn't keep them around, I'd still have my big
sister.  He was just playing with them, like he does with me.
Tormenting them and probably doing all sorts of perverted stuff.  It's
Shampoo's fault too."

This was interesting.  This was the first time that anyone volunteered
information against someone other then Saotome.  "What did Shampoo
do?"

"That hussy made Ranma go cat!  Ukyou made fun of my cooking again
when I was fighting them, and I tried to make her take that back.  My
cooking really isn't that bad, but no one ever tries it.  They just
run away screaming whenever it's my turn to make dinner.  Anyway, I
was trying to hit Ukyou and she hit me in the face with a bag of
something.  It blinded me for a minute, and I couldn't see anything,
and the noise got so loud and there was a crash and Nabiki was
screaming and Kasumi wasn't moving and my sister is gone and Ranma was
a cat and Shampoo did it and Ranma must have shredded the branch and I
should have seen him go cat and stopped him but I didn't so now
Kasumi's-"

I picked up my glass of water and splashed it in Akane's face to snap
her out of her ranting.  Her temper flared for a moment then faded as
she collapsed in tears, curling into a ball in her chair.  I sighed
deeply, and called my secretary in to take care of the girl, still
cursing the gods for letting the victim be Kasumi Tendou.  I vowed to
get to the bottom of this mess and make that group of kids see reason
before the day was done.  I was still ranting internally when there
was a soft knocking on the door and Ukyou Kuonji came into my office.


"You wanted to talk to me?"

"Yes.  What were you doing at the Tendou home the afternoon in
question?"

"I was there to stop the wedding."

That was a new one.  I had spoken to several people already and not
one of them mentioned anything about a wedding.  "What wedding?"

"The one between Ranma and Akane.  I asked Nabiki to tell me if their
parents planned on forcing them to get married again, and I was in my
restaurant cleaning up after the lunch rush when I got a phone call
telling me to come over.  So I went."

"You stopped the wedding?"

"That's the strange part.  There wasn't a wedding.  What I did find
was that Chinese bimbo draping herself all over Ran-chan like a cheap
suit and Akane pounding him with a kendo sword from the training hall,
so I pulled out my spatula and joined in.  I couldn't let Shampoo go
on like that.  He's my fiance, not hers."

Ah, yes.  The infamous financee fiasco.  Everyone in Nerima's heard of
that one.  I heard that none of the merchants deal with Genma Saotome
unless he pays them with cash, up front. "So you joined the fight to
defend your fiance.  What then?"

"Then I guess I said something to Akane about that sludge she calls
food.  She got really mad, then started throwing weights and stuff at
me.  I don't know where she pulls that stuff from.  After I ducked a
couple dumbbells and a barbell, she pulled out that mallet.  I knew I
would be in trouble if I didn't act quickly, so I tossed a flour bomb
at her, so she couldn't see me.  Unfortunately, I used a bigger flour
bomb than I should have, so I couldn't see either.  I tripped over
something, probably the barbells or that stupid mallet and dropped my
spatula.  When the flour cleared up I saw it lying over by the tree,
next to a couple of Ryouga's bandanas.  I almost didn't recognize them
since they were white instead of yellow because of all the flour.
What a mess."

I stared at her for a little while.  Why couldn't she see the
implications of where her spatula landed?  An oversized sharp object
that was airborne at some point during the confusion.  I cursed my
luck again.  Where there had once been too few leads, now there were
too many possibilities.  I couldn't bring myself to point this out to
Kuonji, so I just let her go and asked her to make sure Nabiki came in
next. Nabiki Tendou tapped on the door and let herself in.  I had
dealt with the middle Tendou sister quite often.  Ever since she was a
kid, she's been coming in here with information about the illegal
activities of various citizens.  Her prices have gone up over the
years, from candy to increasing amounts of money, and so has the
complexity of some of the conspiracies she told us about.  I have
often considered recruiting her for the police force someday, but I've
heard that she leans more towards business.  Too bad, she'd make a
great detective.  What has always impressed me most about Nabiki is
her air of calm confidence.  That was all gone when she sat down in
the chair opposite me.

"You want to know why I told Ukyou there was a wedding to stop."  It
was a statement, not a question.  An accurate statement, too, and I
told her as much.

"Honestly?  I don't know why I did.  I saw all the excitement in the
yard and thought it would be more interesting if everyone were
involved.  You can't call someone and tell them that there's a big
mess and you want to see it get worse.  I didn't even charge her for
it.  I know it was wrong to do it, but you get used to seeing all of
the confusion.  It's really funny, cause no one gets hurt.  I didn't
think Ukyou would use the flour bomb, I didn't think Shampoo would
turn against Ranma, and I didn't think Kasumi would try to bring
cookies to the lunatic squad while the yard was filled with that cloud
of flour.  People aren't supposed to get hurt."

"Did you see who cut the tree branch?"

"No.  There was too much dust.  All I could see was a white cloud.
Later I assumed it was Ranma's 'claws' like everyone else."

"Thanks, Nabiki.  You can go for now."  She left quietly, and I was
alone with my thoughts again.  Things were starting to come together,
but I was still trying to find out what happened in the white cloud.
Which weapon sliced through the tree at the exact moment Kasumi walked
outside?  He only had one witness left to talk to, but I had heard
that she wasn't the brightest bulb in the barrel.  Could Shampoo
actually tell me something new.

When Shampoo burst through my door, I braced myself for another tale
of Ranma saying something or doing something and the rest of the
action obscured by the white dust.  One thing I hadn't anticipated was
her poor grasp of Japanese.

"Hi!  You want ask Shampoo questions?"

"Um, yes.  What happened during the fight? Why were you there?"

"Shampoo went to give ramen to Husband.  Bandana Boy fought Husband
and Violent Girl yelled at him.  Then not-nice Spatula Girl challenged
Shampoo and Violent Girl."

My head was spinning as I tried to figure out who attacked whom.
Fortunately, I had heard the same scene multiple times before.  "So,
Ryouga Hibiki and Akane Tendou were fighting with Ranma Saotome before
Ukyou Kuonji challenged you and Akane."

"That right.  Spatula Girl said something about Violent Girl cooking
and forgot Shampoo.  So Shampoo hug Husband.  Ranma tell Shampoo he
not want to be hugged, so Shampoo angry.  Shampoo jump in fish pond
and go cat and leap into Ranma's arm.  He scream and scream until
scream turn into cat-meow.  Shampoo not mean to make him to cat, just
wanted to scare Husband."

"What happened after he went into the cat-fist?"

"Ranma pick up Shampoo and throw into tree.  Shampoo stuck between two
branches.  Couldn't go away. Very dangerous.  Almost get killed when
glowing sword flew past.  Clipped Shampoo's whiskers."  She held up a
lock of hair to show that some had been cut off.

Wait.  "You could see things?"

"Of course.  Shampoo very high up.  All Shampoo see when look down is
white cloud.  From branch, Shampoo see lots of things fly by."

Finally! Someone who saw everything.  I gave Shampoo a big hug and
told her I would probably want to talk to her again later.

I couple of her comments confused me.  'Shampoo see lots of things fly
by.'  There shouldn't have been that many things tossed.  Just the
spatula, and the bandana, and that glowing sword...Glowing sword?  No
one mentioned that before.  My curiosity piqued, I called Shampoo's
restaurant to get a more complete list of objects.  She remembered
them pretty well, since she had nearly been hit by most of them.

It was time to visit the Tendou home.

The house was a mess.  Kasumi must have done the cleaning, and with
her gone, none of the family had the energy to take her place.  The
house did seem much colder without her cheerful presence.  The front
door was open, but I knocked anyway, bringing Akane downstairs.

"Hello, Akane.  Can I ask you a few more questions?"

She nodded sullenly and led me to the training hall, so we could talk
in peace.  What was once an active, cheerful teenager had become a
pale ghost of her former self, dragging her feet across the lawn and
nearly tripping over a tree root.  I could see her blinking back tears
and guessed that this was the first time she'd ventured out back since
Kasumi died.  When we reached the center of the training hall, she sat
down, gesturing for me to do the same, and waited for my questions.

I was not looking forward to this.  "Akane, how did you create that
mallet?"

"Mallet?"  Her face creased as she thought deeply.  "I created a
mallet?"

"Ukyou said that you swung at her with a mallet, when you were
fighting.  It was after you threw the dumbbells, and before the flour
bomb went off in your face."

I could see her running through the events of the battle, complete
with slight arm and body movements to relive the fight.  She looked
even more confused than before.  "I-I don't know."

"What did you do when the flour hit you?"

"Do?"  She closed her eyes and put her arms in front of her face in a
blocking pattern.  Then she started waving them around.  A small fan
appeared in her hands and hurtled across the room.  The fan was
followed by balls, mallets, gymnastic ribbons, and finally a glowing
sword that traced a graceful arc high in the air before sinking into
the floor, point first.  It lingered long enough for Akane to open her
eyes before it vanished.  Akane paled and looked sick.  "I did it,
didn't I?  I killed Kasumi.  My sister's gone and it's all my fault.
My fault, I did it."  She tucked her knees in close to her body and
rocked back and forth.  "I'm sorry.  I'm sorry.  So sorry, please
forgive me..."

I was at a loss.  I was the only person who had seen where the sword
had come from.  It wouldn't be worth the pain to make her go through
all of that again just to prove her guilt.  I watched her sob for five
minutes, before calling a friend of mine.  She's a psychologist
specialized in dealing with grief, guilt, and the loss of loved ones.

I looked at the corner where the sword had landed, just inches away
from a newly constructed shrine.  A picture of Kasumi smiling her
happy, accepting smile was prominently featured.  From where I sat,
Kasumi appeared to be smiling her forgiveness to her baby sister.  I
smiled faintly and hoped for the best.  It was Kasumi's way.


-------------------------

Author's Notes and Ramblings...

Oh dear, where did this thing come from?  Take one writing debate, add
homework assignment and favorite anime series, and pound well with a mallet.
I also read too many mystery stories and got caught up in the wonderful
Stigma that was released not long ago.  I hope you liked it at least a
little bit...

First Ryouga's Promise, now this.  I think now that all I can do is torture
my favorite characters.  Akane and Kasumi rank one and two for my love, so
this hurt me just as much as it hurt them.

Special thanks go out to my pre-reader, Ben <hi, Ben!>  He helped me work
out my wholes when I got stuck and fixed my wording and helped me put it all
in a presentable format so that everyone can read it.