Subject: [FFML] [fic][Ranma]Epiphany Chapter 9 - A new day, a new curse, and old fears.
From: "Tripolar Disorder" <tripolar@hotmail.com>
Date: 1/2/2002, 11:35 PM
To: "Ffml Post" <ffml@anifics.com>

Epiphany Chapter 9

By Tripolar Disorder.

A new day, and a new curse, and old fears.

Previous Chapters of this story and all my Fanfics can be found
at my site:
http://www.geocities.com/tripolareq/fanfic.htm

Bear with as all the links will be functional soon, if not
already.

Now, on with the continuing saga.....

*****************************************************************

Akane was sitting on the examining table in Doctor Tofu's office.

Ranma-chan was sitting across from her.  She was currently
watching Akane's tail as it rhythmically curled up and down.

Tofu came back in with a folder in his hands.  "Well Akane, I
have to say that you are in fine shape, despite your new look.
However I did notice a couple items that I think you should be
aware of."

As he said this Ranma-chan began to pale.  Akane noticed this and
her ears easily picked up the redhead's nervous gulp.

Tofu noticed this as well.  "I would not worry Ranma, these are
minor things that Akane will have to adjust to in her cursed
form, much like the adjustments you have to make when you are a
girl."

Ranma-chan looked back at Tofu, completely lost as to what he was
referring to.

Akane began to giggle.  "You girl form is a bit more top-heavy,
isn't it Ranma?"

Ranma-chan still had the quizzical dog-head tilt.

Tofu had to start laughing.  "Ranma, is your balance the same
when you are a girl?"

Understanding hit the redhead.  "Oh you mean my breasts."  She
put her finger on one.  "Yeah, I gotta balance different."

Akane had to smile as she shook her head.  "You are so silly
sometimes Ranma.  It is so cute."

Ranma-chan began blushing.  Meanwhile, Akane turned back to the
doctor.  "What adjustments, Tofu?"  She asked.

"First of all, you seem to be a bit stronger in your legs then in
human form.  That would explain how you jumped out of the pond.

Your arms are also just a touch weaker.  In fact I would say they
are matching your legs.  You seem to be more even in muscle
distribution.

You may also find yourself more agile in this form Akane.
It is difficult to tell at this point, but you may notice it
after a few days."

"Okay Doc, Can we go?  I'm hungry."  Said Ranma-chan.

Tofu nodded and showed them out.

*****************************************************************

Ranma-chan was walking a few feet in front of Akane.  She seemed
to be trying to keep distance between them.

"Ranma, is there something wrong?"  Asked Akane.  Her ears
twiching to hear Ranma's breathing.

"Uhm, no Akane.  I'm fine."

"What's wrong then?  You have been jumpy this morning.  What is
your prob...."

Ranma-chan stopped.  Still facing away from Akane, she spoke.
"Yes Akane, I am scared of you."  I want you to hold me because I
am anxious, but you are what is causing it.  I am having...."

Akane could see Ranma-chan's knees buckling under her.  <This is
hurting her.>

"Ranma, can you force the change?  So I am normal?  And less
painfully then your number on Ryoga?"

Ranma put out her hands behind her.  "Hurry Akane, I have to be
in contact with you."

Akane wrapped her arms around Ranma-chan, and the redhead
shuddered, and then closed her eyes.  Akane felt her hearing
become muted, and felt like she had cotton in her ears.

As this happened, Akane noticed Ranma starting to collapse.
Akane swept Ranma-chan's feet out from under her, and cradled her
in her arms.  Then she began sprinting the last block home.

*****************************************************************

Kasumi and Nodoka were sipping tea at the table when Akane
brought Ranma-chan inside the patio shoji doors.

"Onechan, Auntie, come quick!  Something is happening to Ranma!"

Sure enough, Ranma-chan was shaking and curling up into a ball.

Kasumi was the first to respond.  "Akane, he is having an attack
like I told you about.  You need to ...."

Akane interrupted.  "I am the reason he is having an attack, I
have to get away from him!"

Nodoka took Ranma-chan out of Akane's arms.  She held her
daughter while Kasumi got a blanket and wrapped it around her.

Akane was curled up in the corner.  Her knees nearly hiding her
face.

"What happened Akane?"  Asked Nodoka.

"His fear of cats, he said he needed a hug, but my ears were
causing the problem.  He can't even be near me."

Akane was starting to cry.  Kasumi and Nodoka could hear the pain
in her sobbing.

Ranma-chan soon started to return to reality.  She looked around
and saw what was going on.  "Akane, please don't be mad at me."

Akane stiffened.  "Mad at you?  No, I am not mad at you."  She
slid up the wall until she was standing up.  "I am mad at
someone else, for all the things he did to you.  But I am not
going to let him win Ranma."

"What do you mean Akane?"  Asked Ranma-chan.

"What I mean is, that I am going to get you over your fear of
cats."

Another nervous gulp.  "I was afraid you were going to say that."

*****************************************************************

Nodoka, Tofu, Kasumi and Ranma-chan were in the Dojo.  Nodoka and
Tofu stood against the wall, and Kasumi was holding Ranma-chan
from behind as they stood in the middle of the floor.

Ranma-chan was taking deep breaths.  She also had her eyes closed
as she was doing her best to remain calm.

"Ok, Ranma.  When Akane comes in you have to look at her.  If you
want to be rid of your fear, you must face it."  Tofu relayed.

Ranma-chan nodded.  "I d-d-don't wanna be afraid of Akane.  I-I
wanna be normal."

Kasumi giggled.  "Ranma, you are never going to be normal.  No
one expects you to be normal, just be yourself, and be happy for
once."

Just then the Shoji door opened and Akane-neko stepped in.  She
was wearing a bathing suit, which now sported a hole for her
tail.

She set the Thermos bottle that she was carrying down and turned
to look straight at Ranma-chan.

The redhead was shaking and tears were coming out her eyes.  "I
w-w-will not be s-scared."  Akane could barely see the look in
Ranma's eyes, but glimpses told her that Ranma-chan was trying
her best not to freak out."

Akane thought about how fearless Ranma always seemed, and his
courage to face any opponent.  How this same person looked so
terrified, and over something such as lovable house cats.

She then noticed Ranma began struggling out of Kasumi's grip.
"I-I-I c-c-can't do this.  I c-could hurt you."

*****************************************************************

Inside Ranma's mind, Ranko stood in a braced stance, trying to
hold herself against the torrents of pain and fear that were
trying to take over.

As she stood there, covering her face from the winds, she could
not understand why he had not gotten this bad in the furo that
morning.

<She was on top of him, and her ears nearly in his face, what was
going on?  I thought that his fear was not that bad.>

*****************************************************************

Akane stood there, Ranma-chan had stopped moving.  Her head
hanging low as Kasumi held her in her grip.  Ranma-chan suddenly
looked up into Akane's eyes.  "I.... love.... you.... Akane.
I.... want... to.... show.... you."

Ranma-chan gritted her teeth.  She stiffened and Tofu felt an
energy escaping the girl.  <She is using every ounce of internal
strength to fight it.  If her aura becomes more powerful, it
could burn Kasumi.>

Ranma-chan's breathing was heavy, but through gritted teeth she
spoke.  "Akane, please come closer."

Akane hesitantly took a step forward.

*****************************************************************

Ranko was barely holding her own against the winds when she felt
something else, another force from out in front of Ranma.

<Ye Gods, That's it.  It was Akane.  He could feel her thoughts
and it was calming him down.>

As Ranko reached out to touch Akane's presence.  <Shit, and she
isn't helping him this time.>

Ranko shouted into the swirling void.  "Ranma..... You can feel
Akane's emotions."

*****************************************************************

Ranma-chan stopped shivering for a moment.  "Akane, I-I can
f-feel how n-nervous you are.  I c-can actually f-feel it."

Akane was shocked.  Tofu used his other sense and nodded.
"Indeed, Giving Akane a curse with your magic has linked you
both.  I never saw it before because your emotions were never
this strong."

Akane stopped.  "So I am making him worse?  Because I am not
calm?"

Tofu nodded.  "You need to calm yourself Akane.  You need to put
away your fear of his problem, you are only adding to whatever is
happening in his mind."

*****************************************************************

Ranko could hear it, and the storm was getting worse.  <The
doctor is right, maybe this link can help.>

She felt Akane getting closer, and Akane's thoughts became
clearer.

As the howling winds and the echoing pain got worse, Ranko could
no longer hold on.  <I need some help here, wait.... that's it.>

*****************************************************************

Akane could see Ranma-chan eyes.  They were full of tears.  But
suddenly she watched them glaze over.

Ranma-chan stopped shaking, and Tofu felt the aura die down.
Everyone gasped as they thought the cat had taken over.

Ranma-chan's head slumped forward for a moment then came back up.

Tofu felt a new presence.  "Who are you, and why have you
possessed Ranma?"

She turned toward the questioner.  "I am Ranko, formerly Ranma's
curse magic.  You must promise that no matter what, that Akane
and Ranma do not separate."

Before Tofu could question Ranko, she had turned to Akane.  "I am
sorry Akane, but I need your help in a way you will not
understand until I show you."

With that, she lunged at Akane, breaking Kasumi's grip and
knocking both girls to the ground.

Tofu ran over to the pile.  He noticed that Ranma-chan had a
locking grip around Akane's chest and that both girls were out
cold.

He stood up and turned to Nodoka.  "Ranko has bridged the gap
between them.  Ranko needed Akane's help inside Ranma's mind."

Kasumi gave the "Oh my!"   Nodoka asked.  "Is there anything we
can do about it?"

Tofu nodded.  "Ranko said not to separate them, and I will stay
here to make sure that it does not happen.  It could be fatal to
either of them."

*****************************************************************

Akane looked around.  She was in a dark, seemingly endless void.
A foul wind blew around her and made her shiver.  She felt her
ears fold backward and her tail wrapped around her.  It made her
feel a little warmer.

She suddenly felt someone behind her.  It was a female Ranma.

"Ranma, where are we?"

The girl sighed.  "I am not Ranma, I am Ranma's curse.  Call me
Ranko."

As Akane understood what had happened in the Dojo, she asked.
"So this is Ranma's mind?"

Ranko nodded.  "This is it.  The total expanse of darkness caused
by a life of pain and loneliness."

Akane shivered.  Ranko saw this and shivered with her.  "Consider
yourself lucky Akane. You mind is warm and I would personally
love to be there right now, but I need your help."

Akane puzzled.  "What do you need my help with?"

Ranko took her hand.  "I have something to show you."

Akane found herself being lead across the vast windy planes.
Ranko sighed as she walked.  "A few minutes ago, I could not even
stand up because the wind and the pain was so strong.  That is
when I figured out that you can help and I took over Ranma to get
you."

Akane had tears in her eyes.  "I never realized that Ranma was
this way.  That he was tortured in his own mind.  I would never
have hurt him.  I never realized how alone he felt."

Ranko turned and put her arms around Akane.  "I know hon, his
life has been much worse then even you knew, until now.  But with
your help, maybe we can change it."

Akane collected herself, and Ranko continued onward.  "Where are
we headed Ranko?"

Ranko giggled.  "We are looking for Ranma's sensitive side.  It
is very small and I don't remember exactly where he left it
last."

"Can you tell me what it looks like, so I can help you look?"
Asked Akane.

"It looks like a chibi-Ranma-chan.  About the same size as a
toddler type too."

Suddenly Ranko tripped and Akane found herself tumbling to the
ground.

Ranko swore.  "Kuso, there it is."  She brushed off a stone
statue of a chibi-Ranma-chan.  In the center of it, where a human
heart would have been was a dim glow.

Akane helped Ranko pull it out of the dune of sand it was buried
under.  They set it upright.  Akane swore she noticed the stone
eyes followed her, as she walked around it.

"It is really weird, isn't it Ranko?"

Ranko swore again.  "Don't insult it, or what little of Ranma's
softer side you see will bury itself further within.

This entire place is merely a physical representation of Ranma's
mind.  Everything you see is metaphorical for part of himself.

Ranma was forced to suppress his feelings.  So you could say he
incased them in stone.  He was never able to express himself
because of it.  But you and his mother have helped to break the
stone.

When he got the curse, the little boy, now a girl, in anger broke
out of this and attacked me.  I was evil then, and I did not care
about him.  I merely wanted to make his life hell.

His emotional side told me that all Ranma had done in his life to
try and make his mother love him.  All the pain, and the
suffering.  And I had taken his only happy dream away.  Then...."

As Ranko paused, she wiped a tear from her eye.  Akane looked at
her.  "Then what Ranko?"

Ranko looked at her.  "He said that if I thought I could make his
life hell, I had to see something.  That was when he attacked.

His emotions merged with me, and then the gates of his mind
opened."

Ranko slumped to the ground.  Her eyes had tears in them, and
Akane put her arms around her.  Ranko calmed down after a moment,
then continued.

"I cannot tell you what that experience was like Akane.  I
thought my head was being ripped apart.  I saw in the span of
mere moments, his entire life.  I felt the claws, the whips, the
burns, everything.  I tried to get everything off me, but I found
that it was useless.  I was in more pain then I could possibly
imagine.

I had the ability to search his mind and I tried to find a single
happy memory to hide within, but I could not find anything.  I
saw his happy dream, but now I was in it and it shattered as
Ranma's fears took over.

Then I found myself being pulled into this statue.  It had
reformed to shade his emotions from the deluge being inflicted
upon me.  It was now a little girl, and I screamed out as it
pulled me inside.

Whenever Ranma changed into a girl, he started using his
emotions.  It was just a little at a time, but the stone was
getting weaker.

I was forced to watch Ranma's life and I hoped that someone could
finally break his stone seal.  As he expressed himself more fully
as a girl, I found myself sharing his feelings.  He gave a
little part of himself to me, and so I started to care.  I began
to care about him.

He started having attacks because of his emotions were more
exposed and he didn't know how to defend them.

But Nodoka came and she said she loved him anyway.  It was an a
serious event down here."

"What happened?"  Asked Akane.  She made a sweeping gesture
across the barren dunes.  "Why does it still look like this
then?"

Ranko giggled again.  "Still?  It has NEVER been this bright
until Nodoka came along.  This place was like the middle of the
night on top of a volcano during the thickest fog.  You knew
there was a death trap nearby, but you couldn't see it at all.

When Nodoka said she loved him, this place went nuclear.  First
of all, my prison here shattered as the years of memories tore
out of it like a banshee.  It released me, but I no longer was
mad at him.

His dream had come true, and for about ten minutes, this place
was bright and nearly beautiful.

I watched as the walls he had spent a lifetime building to
protect himself were vaporized into the dunes of dust you see
around us.  His entire concept of life changed, in a single
instant.  He had someone who still loved him, who wasn't going to
hurt him."

At the mention of it, Akane hung her head.  "I know, I could have
been there for him."

"Yes you could have, Akane, but it took me taking over his body
for a day, and showing you what you meant to him, for you to see
it.  And I took over his body against his will today, and managed
to pull it off, because he was busy fighting other battles inside
here."  Ranko said, the sarcasm seething in her voice.

"Then why is it a stone statue again?"  Asked Akane.  "You said
it exploded and..."

Ranko interrupted her.  "His mother has no idea what her actions,
have done to him.  You actions too for that matter."

"What do you mean by that?"  Akane asked, her hand now on her
hips.

Ranko sighed.  "His mother missed 'Ranko Tendo', we heard her say
it.  She likes Ranma as a girl.  She wasn't as pleased with
Ranma-Kun as he thought she would be.  And your treatment of
Ranma until the other day was horrible at best.  Thanks to all
the ridicule and mixed emotions, Ranma is struggling to find who
he is, and so he started protecting himself again.  He only wants
to make his mom happy and you happy, and it is hurting him.  He
doesn't know who he is anymore."

Akane knelt in front of the statue.  "So tell me what to do."

Ranko put her hand on Akane's shoulder.  "Do you love Ranma?
Do you think you can love him, even if he was a girl?  He has
protected his heart so he won't be hurt emotionally."  Ranko put
her hand over the statue's glow.  "You have that power over
Ranma's heart.  He loves you, but he doesn't know you feel the
same way."

Akane looked at the statue, and then back at Ranko.  She turned
back at the statue.  Its frozen eyes still seemed to be staring
right at her.

"Ranma, I love you.  I don't care what you look like, because I
fell in love with you when I first met you."  She heard Ranko
go "Huh?"  Akane giggled.  "I saw the look on your little
redheaded face and I thought you were cute.

Then when I noticed you were a girl, I stopped looking at you as
a Fiancee, and more as a possible friend.  I saw the look in your
eyes and I thought you looked lonely. You looked like you needed
a friend.  I am sorry I forgot about that face when you became a
boy.  I was too angry to care about you as a person.  I'm sorry.

I still think you are cute, I just wouldn't admit it, even to
myself.  You can be whatever, or whoever you feel like and I will
be here."

As she watched, the statue began cracking and shattered.  A
myriad of whispering spirits and phantoms emerged.  They were all
brightly colored, and they swirled and collected back together
and formed into a young redheaded girl.

She looked about seven or eight years old.  She ran forward and
hugged Akane.  Akane hugged her back.

"You really thought I was cute, 'kane?"  Akane nodded.  The
little girl giggled.  Akane ruffled Chibi-Ranma's red mop of
hair.

Ranko put her hands on the smaller girl's shoulders.  "This is
part of Ranma.  The reason she looks younger is that Ranma has
kept her locked up and so she has not grown as fast.  But she
will.  But we need to merge all of him, so that Ranma's emotions
aren't restricted to just being a girl."

Chibi Ranma-chan stood up, and Offered her hand to Akane.  

"Lets do it Akane, huh?"

*****************************************************************

Putting the pieces together, and what will the
result be?

Wouldn't you like to know.
Wait until next chapter and I think you will find out.

<Insert Maniacal laughter here>

Tripolar.
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