Ranma Nibunnoichi - Reflections : Vol. 01 - Stuck in the Middle With You
A. V. Morgan <avmorgan27@comcast.net>


Diverging continuation of the Two Ranmas story (V35 P1-4). Revision.
Mature Content Warning. Disclaimer and Notes at the end of Part One.
Original Version can be found at FanFiction.Net in the R rated category:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1029261/1/


Part One: Three Ranmas!?


The promise of spring hung in the air over Tokyo's Nerima Ward. It was
a warm day for late winter, spiced by the scent of rain. The shower had
lasted just long enough to soak anyone caught out in the open to the
bone. Or, in Ranma Saotome's case, just long enough for him to become
her. Trudging home from the train station, she stopped to adjust her
clothes, ignoring the incredulous stares of those who were witnessing
the transformation for their first time. But one of her startled
witnesses was impossible to ignore, staring at her with wide, sapphire
blue eyes from only a hand span away. As she met his shocked gaze,
Ranma closed her eyes, her pose of defiant indifference crumbling as
she reached for it. The face she was trying to block out was too
familiar. She saw it in the mirror whenever she was a he.
Unfortunately, the last mirror he had looked into had been cursed,
giving birth to this living reflection.
"You can stop staring now," she grated ominously, still aware of
the weight of his gaze.
"Y-you� you turned in-into HER," the unnatural twin gasped.
Ranma did not need to open her eyes to tell he was pointing
between her and her other reflection, the duplicate of her female side
that had been created a week earlier.
"Pretty neat, isn't it?" the original, female duplicate piped
up, pulling Ranma into an "aren't my twin and I cute?" pose.
"Do you have to do that?" Ranma complained, cringing. Her mind
flashed back to her first visit to Mirror Mansion.
On a weekend training trip, Genma and Ranma had stumbled across
the mysterious manor while seeking shelter from a violent storm. Genma
was hardly in the door before he zoomed in on table bearing a basket
full of fruit. Stems and peels were flying before the old man who let
them in could complete a warning about the shrouded mirror. Before she
knew what was going on, Ranma had slipped on a banana peel, crashed
into the mirror and tore down its protective seal, scrambling
desperately to stay on her feet. Somewhere between flailing to keep her
balance and phrasing an acidic accusation to throw at Genma, Ranma's
brain registered the old man's warning against tampering with the seal
of the cursed mirror. A ghost obsessed with finding true love--or at
least a lover--would possess the reflection of anyone who looked into
the mirror. Ranma had not needed the explanation, however. The warning
was little more than a narration of what was happening as she
confronted her self in the mirror that first time.
For one week, the girl created by the cursed mirror had chased
after Ranma and made life around the Tendo home twice as chaotic as
Ranma, alone, ever could. The first few days had been the worst, before
the copy realized that Ranma was not willing to be her lover and she
"surrendered" to her fate. But that had been a ruse. She had used the
remainder of the week to plot out her conquest of Ranma. When Ranma and
Akane brought her back to the mansion to seal her away in the mirror,
Copy--as they had been calling her--captured Ranma in the trap mirror
that the old man of the mansion had given to Ranma in order to capture
her. But when she tried to escape with him into the mirror Akane had
interfered, tripping her with the fruit basket and releasing Ranma from
the trap mirror. But as he emerged, Ranma landed on a piece of fruit,
skidded out of control, and crashed into the new, warded curtain
covering the cursed mirror.
Ranma could still feel the sick sense of inevitability that he
felt as the curtain was torn away in the collision and he glanced, once
again, into the cursed mirror. That feeling had grown worse as the new
reflection became instantly obsessed with the old reflection. Ranma
tried to console herself with the thought that the copies would be less
trouble as a couple than they would be as individuals.
It only took a second for the girl twin to prove her wrong.
After studying her new love interest's reaction to Ranma's
transformation, she rubbed her cheek against Ranma's, purring, "I'd
share her with you if you shared him with me."
"Erk!" Akane, walking a few paces ahead, jerked around in
outrage and glared at the girl twin. The duplicate simply grinned and
cupped one of Ranma's breasts provocatively, eyes fixed on the male
reflection. Ranma's pigtail shot straight up in the air, as did the boy
twin's--his eyes widening and mouth going slack.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing!?" Ranma snapped, opening
her eyes to glare at her clone. "Leggo of that!?"
"Wha- why� how� did he turn into you?" the male clone demanded
in alarmed confusion, his eyes glazing.
"We don't have time for this," Akane grumbled in annoyance,
eyebrow twitching ominously.
"I didn't turn into her!" Ranma barked in an offended tone,
suddenly standing in front of the boy duplicate, two or three paces
away from the girl duplicate. "Like I toldja earlier, she's the copy of
my girl side!" Ranma declared, staring up at her new nemesis
critically. Then she turned back to the girl copy, rubbing at a bruised
breast. "And what the heck were you thinkin'!?" Glaring at her twin,
Ranma fought against the spinning, falling sensation that gripped her
at the memory of her "sharing" comment.
Ranma and Akane had gone to several lengths to keep the two
clones separated during their return to Nerima. From the moment they
had laid eyes on each other, the clones had been obsessively attracted
to each other. Neither of them seemed to have possessed a clue what to
do with a lover, once found. The "throw yourself at someone and kiss
them" tactic the girl twin had used the week before was almost comical
when doubled. It took them a while to stop lunging at each other and
banging heads. By the time they were on the train bound for Nerima, the
pair had impulsively progressed to hugging and kissing. Whenever the
image of the two making out in their seat on the train popped into her
head, shocking chills shot through her body. When the girl had been
chasing after him, a part of Ranma had been flattered, but the very
notion of the new male copy pursuing Ranma with the same kind of intent
made her shudder.
"I was only trying to think of your happiness!" the girl twin
protested sincerely. "I mean, a boy like a girl like you needs a girl
like me and a boy like him. How else can you fit in? But, now that you
mention it�" the girl twin put a finger to her chin and turned to study
the boy twin thoughtfully. She snapped her fingers and smiled at Ranma.
"I get it now! He's too much of a man for you! Just like I was too much
of a woman for you! This finally explains your feelings for that macho
pervert-girl!"
"Hey!" Ranma and Akane shouted in unison, fuming.
"So, she is� a boy?" the boy twin asked the girl twin, pointing
at Ranma in confusion
"When he isn't a girl," the girl twin confirmed with a cheerful
nod.
"I am NOT a GIRL!" Ranma shouted, looming up on both of them.
"You are TOTALLY a GIRL!" the girl twin retorted, cupping
Ranma's breasts again for emphasis. The sight of one redheaded girl
fondling the other once again shorted out certain synapses in the
confused and agitated mind of the male copy. Boy or girl, Ranma was
indistinguishable from the object of his affections. Since SHE was a
girl, then by direct association, so was Ranma. That concluded, his
brain suspended all coherent thought and proceeded to simply enjoy the
view.
"That's it! People are staring at us! Let's go," Akane
announced, grabbing the confused boy by the arm and dragging him away
from Ranma. Still arguing, Ranma grabbed her girl twin by the hand and
followed.
When they reached the canal, Ranma and her duplicates all hopped
up to walk on the fence by reflex. Akane took a deep breath, pacing the
boy twin as she continued along the sidewalk alone. Concentrating on
tuning out the sound of Ranma arguing with her look-alike, Akane stared
straight ahead and tried to pretend her life had never become this
insane. When only a few puddles and damp spots in the shade remained,
and everything else--including the teens' clothes and hair--had dried
in the sun, Akane sighed and glanced up to the side. The boy walking
nonchalantly along the top of the fence--unchanged by the freak down
pour--was not Ranma, but all of the little things she had grown
accustomed to, the little things that were unique to Ranma, like the
way he moved, his careless grace and confidence, called out to her.
"This is really starting to creep me out," Akane muttered.
Looking up to the side again Akane repeated her initial complaint. "Why
did he have to be male?"
"What are you starin' at?" the boy twin asked, catching her
glaring up at him.
"Baka," she turned her head and kept on walking.
"Kawaiikune!" he muttered, turning to look at the red-headed
girls walking hand in hand along the fence top after him. "What is that
chunky, tom-boy's problem?" he asked in confused annoyance.
Ranma-chan looked at her twin, then back at the boy, and
suppressed a shudder. "This is creeping me out too," she muttered under
her breath. Bending her head sternly, she pushed the boy on, "Keep
moving. I need to get you to the dojo and out of sight before either of
you get me into any more trouble!"
The boy allowed Ranma-chan to push him along the fence toward
their destination. He showed no discomfort or concern at backpedaling
down the fence pole in front of Ranma. He was still somewhat disturbed
that the boy who had let him out of the mirror had turned into a
perfect twin of the girl he had loved at first sight. The resemblance
was so great that he needed this sort of cue to determine which girl
was which. Taking her free hand, as a means to keep track, he returned
to the question that was bothering him. "So. You gonna tell me why you
turned into a girl? Why you look like her?"
"Aw, man! I told you I'd explain it all if you came with me to
the dojo."
"You said that before you� changed."
Ranma-chan grit her teeth. "Whatever. Get this straight first. I
don't look like HER. SHE looks like me! I was in this form the first
time I looked in the mirror, and I was a guy when I looked in it back
there!" she growled, referring to Mirror Mansion. "Both of you are
copies of me," she asserted for the hundredth time.
The boy tensed in alarm, "You don't mean�!? Aw, man! I'm not
going to turn out to be a freak like you, am I?" He twisted away in
horror.
Ranma-chan cringed and her face darkened with anger as Akane's
voice trailed back to them, "If you're so disgusted, WHY ARE YOU STILL
HOLDING HIS HAND!!?" Akane kicked the fence so hard it wavered under
their feet and spilled all three of them into the canal opposite the
sidewalk. Ranma-chan plummeted toward the water in resignation. The
girl twin betrayed only the slightest surprise, while the boy twin went
into a full-blown panic. The three plunged into the water and surfaced,
spluttering in shock at the cold, shouting in unison, "What didja do
that for!?" The boy was patting himself on the chest in terror until
Akane leaned over and stuck out her tongue.
"Baka! Didn't you notice that the rain had no effect on you?"
Before the boy could answer, he was launched over the fence by a
sleeper uppercut from Ranma. She had moved in an instant rage, wounded
once more by the simple fact that the boy was immune to her curse.
Before she had stopped shaking in silent fury, the girl twin grabbed
her by the collar.
"Hey! Go hit on pervert-girl!" the girl shouted launching Ranma
over the fence with a vicious uppercut. Akane stood frozen for an
instant, her eye twitching madly again, as Ranma crashed down in the
middle of the street. The girl twin had started calling Akane "pervert-
girl" during her amorous pursuit of Ranma, and clearly did not intend
to stop.
While Akane silently debated between maiming and murder, the
girl twin leapt over the fence, went to her counterpart's side and
cradled his head in her lap. "Hey! Are you okay?"
Akane lurched forward to pound the girl into the pavement, as
Ranma popped to her feet and rushed forward to tackle the girl, moving
neatly into position to intercept Akane's elbow drop. Ranma was slammed
down into her duplicates with enough force to knock the air out of all
of them.
As they lay there stunned, Akane grabbed the boy clone by the
pig-tail and dragged him off towards the Tendo Dojo. Despite the fact
that the boy twin was proving to be just as annoying as Ranma, Akane
had agreed to keep the couple separated until they were all safe at the
dojo. By the time Ranma and her twin had recovered, Akane was dragging
him around a corner. The girls stood up muttering a litany of
unflattering things about Akane and limped the last two blocks to the
dojo.

-----

Akane heard the two redheads rushing to catch up to her as she passed
through the gates of the dojo. Tuning out their loud cries for her to
wait for them, she stalked up to the house. "Tadaima!" Akane announced
her return, dragging "Ranma-kun" into the genkan.
Kasumi turned from watering a little bonsai tree, which sat on a
narrow table in the hall across from the entrance, and took in the
boy's disheveled, unconscious state. One hand came up quickly to cover
her mouth. "Oh my," she murmured softly, before composing herself.
"Okeirinasai, Akane-chan, Ranma-kun," she smiled. Before she could ask
about Ranma's condition, Soun and Genma burst into the tiny entry,
loudly demanding a report.
"Oi! Akane-kun!�"
"It's about time, Boy!�"
"�Did you get rid of that menace?" they chorused.
Taking in "Ranma's" state, Genma hauled the boy twin to his
feet, shaking him, "This is no time to be napping, Boy! Tell me you've
done your duty as a martial artist and sent the evil back to where it
came from!"
Akane cleared her throat as the boy mumbled in semi-conscious
confusion. "About that�" she began.
At that moment, Ranma swept open the entry screen and leaned in
with her clone, "Akane! Wait! What are we going to tell�?" Everyone's
eyes snapped to the two redheaded girls in surprise, as Akane hung her
head in embarrassment. Ranma recoiled in dismay.
"Well, this is hardly a surprise," Nabiki commented, appearing
in the hall behind Soun and Genma. With a mischievous grin, she cleared
her throat and said loudly, "Will the REAL Ranma Saotome please stand
up?"
Ranma immediately began sweating and waving her hands, "Wait,
wait. I can explain everything! It's not my fault!"
"And we have a winner!" Nabiki smirked and watched as Soun and
Genma loomed over the panicking girl.
"RanMAAAA! What is the meaning of this?" wailed Soun angrily.
"Foolish Boy! How could you fail in such a simple task?"
Akane grabbed the girl twin and pushed her forward, clearing her
throat, "Actually, um� This is mostly her fault."
"Hey!" the buxom redhead complained instantly, ignoring the
fuming fathers to turn on Akane. "You were the one who threw the fruit
basket!"
"You! You were the one who brought that damned compact along and
tried to steal Ranma with it!"
"What? You mean you actually want him?"
"N� No!" Akane blushed and growled, "That doesn't have anything
to do with it! You can't just kidnap people like that!"
"Oh, what wonderful news, Saotome-kun! My little girl rescued
your son from an evil demon!"
"Who are you callin' a demon!?" the mirror girl snarled at Soun.
As Soun lurched back in fright, he knocked the pitcher of water
out of Kasumi's hand. It sailed unnoticed overhead, seeking a suitable
target, before coming down on Genma. "Oh! She's so SCARY!" Soun
whimpered, cowering in the corner.
"Oh my!" Kasumi finally interjected. "Maybe we should all sit
down and discuss this over tea?"
There was a short pause, then a round of shrugs as everyone
silently agreed to her suggestion.
Ranma and Akane marched the clones through the living room, and
out onto the patio. Ranma picked up a hot teakettle from the table as
she passed, and stepped out onto the grass to quickly explain the curse
to the duplicates.
"Alright, pay attention. I'm not gonna explain this twice," she
began, explaining how her father took her to Jusenkyo and knocked her,
at the time him, into the Nyanniichuan. Using half the water in the
kettle, he restored himself to normal, and as expected, the boy twin
instantly produced cold water to test the curse. Ranma fumed, but
recalled how others had reacted to the same story. Ukyo had spent hours
pouring hot and cold water over her, out of sheer amusement. Ranma,
using the last of the hot water, warned the couple that the curse was
the only problem in his life they were spared from. He then took a
moment to try to convince them that it was in their own best interest
to avoid contact with anyone outside the dojo. Not that he believed he
could truly keep the two from bring new chaos to his life, but it was
worth a try.
After wringing out his shirt and airing it for a few moments to
dry, he joined the others at the table, where Akane had finished
explaining what had happened at Mirror Mansion. It was a quick
explanation, since everyone already knew about the cursed mirror, the
spirit of the noblewoman that stole the image of whoever looked into it
to fulfill her dream of finding true love, and the little trap mirror
they had received from the old man of the mansion. Nor was it
surprising that the girl twin had made one last attempt to abduct Ranma
and take him with her back into the mirror. When Akane finished
explaining how the boy twin had been freed from the mirror, Nabiki
turned to collect a handful of yen from her father and Genma. She then
took a third of the pile of cash and handed it over to Kasumi. Akane
did not even bother to ask what the bets had been. She just shook her
head and explained that she and Ranma had seen no other option but to
bring the couple home until repairs to the mirror's seal could once
again be completed.
"Another week!?" Soun moaned, as Kasumi poured tea next to
Akane.
Ranma glanced over his shoulder and saw the couple mooning over
each other. Closing his eyes, he reminded himself that they were just
reflections, and what they did had nothing to do with him. He could
only hope that their mutual absorption would prevent a repeat of girl's
rampage.
"You are so cute!" the boy declared, taking the girl's hands in
his.
"You are more handsome!" she protested modestly, her eyes
twinkling.
"The perfect couple!" Ranma quipped, oblivious to the fact that
it sounded like he was bragging.
"You are so right, Ranma!" Kasumi smiled, delighted by the sight
of at least one happy couple in the house.
"They're so alike too�" Nabiki deadpanned.
Akane just sat there with her eyes narrowing, pretending to
complete indifference to the situation. Genma wore the same expression,
safe in the retreat of his panda form at the end of the table.
"I guess this is sort of like a honeymoon for them," Kasumi put
in thoughtfully, after a moment. Tea sprayed forth from Akane and
Genma. Ranma jerked as if he'd just been hit by lightening, his eye
twitching madly. Nabiki raised an eyebrow.
"Ka- Ka- Kasumi!" Soun stammered, looking shocked.
Genma whipped around to look at the mirror twins, closing in for
a kiss, and jumped up frantically waving a sign, [Stop them! We can't
let them mate!]
Ranma and Akane flinched away as lurid images of boy-type Ranma
molesting girl-type Ranma danced through the minds of everyone but
Kasumi.
Akane whipped around on her knees, shouting, "YOU PERVERTS!" A
roundhouse punch accompanied the cry, catching Ranma on the chin and
blasting him out the open door into the mirror twins, spilling them all
out into the yard.
Ranma, after skipping all the way into the koi pond, splashed to
her feet shouting, "I'm not LIKE that!"
"What didja do THAT for?" the other two demanded in unison.
Soun, who had never bothered to mentally distinguish Ranma from
his clones, came out onto the balcony and protested, "Ranma! How could
you cheat on my daughter this way!?" Shifting an accusing finger from
the boy to the girl, he commanded. "I forbid you to sleep with Ranma
under my roof!"
Everyone stared at Soun for a second. Kasumi, who had not
bothered to read Genma's wildly flailing sign until the panda froze
holding it right in front of her nose, gasped as the synapse marked
"clue" connected to the synapse marked "ecchi" in an instant of
unrepressed thought.
"Oh my!" Kasumi blinked. "You don't think they'd do THAT, do
you?"
Several present found themselves smacking their faces against
the table in an attempt to dislodge the mental images being conjured
up.
Ranma sprang to her feet again, growling at Soun, "I don't even
know what you're TALKIN' ABOUT! How can I NOT sleep with myself!?"
"Ranma-kun! Think about what you're saying!" Nabiki warned with
a shake of her finger, but Akane had already reacted.
"Ranma no HENTAI! Don't you have ANY restraint or morals!!?"
Akane advanced on her fiance, mallet-sama in hand, amidst a pillar of
blue flames.
Ranma backed up slowly, hands out in warding gestures. "W- wait!
Are you insane? Do you ever hear what I am saying?"
"You said you wanted to sleep with yourself!" Akane growled.
"PERVERT!"
Ranma hung her head, while Akane closed the distance menacingly.
On an instinctive level, the redhead estimated the power and intent of
the other girl's rage. By that analysis, Akane had truly snapped. If
she ran, Akane would charge and probably kill her. If she stood her
ground, Akane would charge and probably kill her. If she wanted to
live, it might be a good idea to defend herself this time. But even in
deadly peril, such as her keenly honed instincts assured her she was
in, she didn't want to raise a hand against Akane. At the same time,
she was sure she had not said nor done anything to deserve her
fiancee's anger. Almost to herself, she muttered, "Damn it, Akane,
there ain't nothin' wrong with a guy sleepin' by himself. It ain't like
I've got any other option�"
Akane, having closed to attack range, had already swung her
mallet high. As those words penetrated, her hands suddenly let go on
the downswing, and the mallet flew off over the compound wall and out
of sight. Akane stood there, meeting Ranma's eyes, for several long
breaths. "Did� did you say� b- by yourself?"
Ranma scowled, "What didja think I was sayin'?"
"You don't want sleep with one of THEM?" The raven haired girl's
hand snapped up to point accusingly at the now cringing couple.
"Do you think I am some kind of pervert!?" Ranma roared in
outraged disbelief.
"Geez, Ranma-kun! Get a clue!" Nabiki shook her head.
Akane and Ranma remained squared off, both of them blushing in
confused fury. Ranma's clones stared at the two of them with wide eyes.
Off in the distance, a large object could be heard crashing to Earth
with a skull ringing clunk, followed shortly by a distant bellow,
"Raaaaanmaaaaaa! This is All YOUR FAULT!!!"
Kasumi broke into the silence to muse aloud, "Having three
Ranma's in the house could get confusing. Maybe we should come up with
some different names so there are no misunderstandings."
"Now there's an idea," Nabiki smirked.
"What's wrong with calling them Copy?" Ranma asked, scowling
with indifference. She found the notion of giving them names very
disturbing, as if naming them might encourage them to stick around.
That certainly seemed true of cats, in her mortified experience.
"Oh, sure. Then we can just confuse them with each other instead
of you. Give it up, Ranma. You know they're going to be mistaken for
you anyway," Nabiki pointed out sarcastically. "We might as well take
advantage of that. Fortunately, they don't change sexes and you've got
an alias for your girl side. That gives us a way to distinguish them
from each other and from you. We could go for merely descriptive and
call them Copy-no-Ranma and Copy-no-Ranko."
"Oh, yes. If Auntie Nodoka were to show up, it would be a lot
easier for us if Copy-chan was used to being called Ranko. Why, Copy-
no-Ranko is practically the same thing!" Kasumi gushed with growing
excitement.
Ranma shuddered. "Oh man! If Mom shows up now, I'm sooo dead!"
"I don't know. It's a little too long, Sis," Akane shook her
head, ignoring Ranma's panic attack. "We kinda know they're both
copies. Why not just drop the 'Copy' part and use No-Ranma and No-
Ranko?"
"Maybe just shorten 'Copy' to 'Ko' and make it, Kono-Ranma and
Kono-Ranko!" Kasumi proposed.
"Okay," Akane agreed, nodding, "and those can be shortened to,
Konoma and Konoko!"
"Maybe Noma and Noko?" Soun jumped in, getting caught up in the
game Nabiki had started.
"I don't think you can reduce it any further than that," Nabiki
rolled her eyes.
"No way! That's like giving them real names!" Ranma protested.
"What do you want us to do, Ranma? Go on confusing them with
you?" Nabiki retorted. "Then how about Ranma-no-ni and Ranko-no-ni, for
Ranma and Ranko number two?" she proposed. "That would make it really
easy to drop the extra parts if Auntie Nodoka does pay us another
surprise visit."
Suddenly, the copies were sitting next to Ranma, the boy
sandwiched between the identical girls. "I think we should call him--"
the girl twin began.
"Gyaaah! No! Don't let them name themselves!" Ranma shouted,
leaping to her feet and speed-gagging the duplicates. Memories of
Pantyhose Taro trying to conjure up the perfect name for himself had
surged forth the instant the clones took a direct interest in the
discussion. Ranma did not want to know what sort of ridiculous
suggestions his doppelgangers were capable of. Giving Nabiki a
desperate, determined look, she finally relented, "Alright, we can do
that last one."
"Ranma-no-ni and Ranko-no-ni?" Nabiki clarified helpfully.
Ranma nodded energetically.
"I don't know, it IS quite a mouthful�" Nabiki nodded in Akane's
directions.
"So we can use Ranma and Ranko for short, and the rest if we
need to be specific!" Ranma insisted, less concerned about the twins
using her names than about either of them getting a real name of their
own.
"Hmmm� We could DO that, but," Nabiki shrugged, giving the
copies a studied glance.
"But what?" Ranma gritted her teeth, wondering what new twist
Nabiki was about to spring on her.
"Oh, it's nothing, Ranma-kun," Nabiki assured the cursed
martial-artist. "I should have known better than to try and simplify
things."
"Uh, okay," Ranma proceeded to scratch her head, wondering what
part of Nabiki's suggestions had been simple. After a moment, she just
threw up her hands and declared, "Whatever. It's settled, then. We can
keep them straight now, and we don't have to give them cute nicknames."
Turning to the copies, she reminded everyone pointedly, "They're only
gonna be here for a week, after all."
With that, Ranma marched out of the room headed for the nearest
source of hot water.

-----

As afternoon settled toward evening, Ranma and Akane completed their
homework in something of an armed truce. Ranma kept glaring at Akane,
silently bitter over the fact that she had never responded to his last
question, nor apologized for the misunderstanding. Akane kept glaring
at Ranma suspiciously, waiting for him to prove what a pervert he
really was. The two mirror clones had given up on trying to sneak off
for some privacy, because Soun and Genma had shadowed them at every
turn, harassing them into sullen complacency in front of the
television. Nabiki was also keeping close tabs on the mirror twins. By
eaves dropping, she had discovered that they had come up with their own
solution to the name issue. They did it by dropping out the initial
consonant and pronouncing their borrowed names as Anma and Anko.
Ranma spared a glance from his homework to check on the
doppelgangers. They were sitting close together, speaking in hushed
voices, paying more attention to each other than the show on
television. He resisted the urge to go over and hear what they were
discussing so intently. The conspiratorial whispering made fine beads
of sweat pop out over his brow. Since there were no cats around, he
decided a lethal dose of curiosity was not needed at the moment, and
forced himself to ignore the couple. His mind strayed off on a tangent,
though, as he wondered how to harness the "curiosity killed the cat"
technique. Naturally, this proved more important to him than his
homework.
Time passed, marked by the sound of chimes dancing in the
breeze.
"Time to eat, everyone," Kasumi announced a short time later,
from the door to the kitchen.
Akane and Ranma jumped up to clear the table and put their
schoolwork away. It was left to them to help set the table, as Nabiki
continued to lounge in front of the television, spying on the clones,
and Genma and Soun remained glued to their game of Shogi. Neither of
them dared turn to acknowledge Kasumi with a look, or the other would
swiftly rearrange the board.
Inevitably, the smell of food lured Genma's attention and Soun
cheered his victory. The fathers joined the rest at the table and
praised the bounty loudly.
"Itedakimasu!" everyone chorused, and dug into the food. A quick
four way battle ensued between Genma and the "triplets" with the older
man struggling to defend his meal on three fronts.
As dinner came to a close, conversation turned to sleeping
arrangements. Soun's declaration still stood, though it was Kasumi who
restated it as, "It just would not be proper for our new guests to
share accommodations." The clones looked on, glares sharpening with
every word. Ranma and the others could not help but try to keep them
separated. The idea of the two of them getting together, intimately,
was too creepy for them to stand. They were in silent agreement. No one
particularly cared about them fawning over each other, but� the thought
of where that might escalate to brought on all sorts of twitching and
shuddering.
"It would be best if Ranko-no-ni slept with you tonight, Akane-
chan. Ranma-no-ni can sleep with Ranma-kun and Saotome-ojisan," Kasumi
suggested.
"Are you sure it's a good idea to put those boys together,
Oneechan? I mean, one little splash of water and�" Nabiki held up her
hands and shrugged. It need not be said that chaos would ensue.
"Erk!" Ranma choked. "I'd rather spend another week sleeping in
a tree!"
"Hah! Like I'd do anything with a pervert like you!" Anma denied
fervently.
"Hey! That's MY line!" Akane fumed.
"No one is going to come between me and MY Ranma!" Anko
declared, standing. "Put that silly panda outside for the night, let
Akane sleep with HER Ranma, and that leaves a futon for me and MINE!"
The mere idea that this was a way to get Ranma and Akane
together was enough to get Soun and Genma to their feet, pushing the
clones together, "That's right! What a perfect solution!"
Ranma cut in, mockingly, "Oh? You mean you're volunteering to
sleep outside then, Old Man?"
"Er� No, boy. Tendo-kun will surely let me sleep on the floor in
his room. Right Tendo-kun?"
"Ah, ha ha! Right Saotome-kun!" Soun strained to agree, sweat
suddenly beading his brow.
"But, Father� Surely these two should be married, or at least
engaged first?" Kasumi asked wide-eyed.
Genma looked over and opened his mouth, "As their effective
father, I�"
Ranma pounded his father out the open door. "Are you insane!?
Don't EVEN go there!" Ranma stood in the opening, huffing, as his
father landed in the koi pond. To himself, he muttered, "I can't
believe he'd even THINK of granting permission for somethin' like
that!" He had barely begun to vent his outrage when a human missile
hurtled into the yard, ricocheting off the crown of Ranma's head and
into the house.
The sound of Ranma's body being slammed to the floor was
punctuated by a familiar cry of victory. "Whatta haul! Whatta haul!!!"
Genma sank meekly back into the koi pond at the sight of his
dreaded master dropping in to dinner.
Ranma lay twitching, sprawled across the porch threshold.
Looking up, he found himself taking special note of the fact that the
sky above the Tendo home was a deep, velvety blue. He found it quite
mesmerizing.
Happosai dumped a bulging bag of lingerie on the floor and
quickly reached for a bowl full of food. While the diminutive old man
was rapidly stuffing his face, Anko leaned over in curiosity and pulled
out a few pieces of lingerie. Her eyes widened with delight as she
recognized the opportunity before her. Snatching up the bag, she
sprinted upstairs crying, "Kyaaaaa! I have to try these on!"
Happosai sat there in open-mouthed disbelief. His little mind
whirled in apoplectic confusion for several moments while tears of joy
and anger mingled and spilled from his eyes. Finally, what he had just
seen and heard clicked fully into place. He sprung to his feet,
"Sweeto! Ranma-chan! I am coming!"
Ranma stopped twitching and blinked, as his rattled brain
suddenly rebooted. Sitting up, he slapped his fist into his palm.
"Happosai!" he growled, automatically seeking out the miniature master
of panty pilfering. He quickly spotted the old man chasing Anko out of
the room. Blinking again, he scanned the room, noticing that Soun and
his daughters sat frozen, final bites of their evening meal halfway to
their open mouths. Another blink, and it struck Ranma that Anko had
liberated a wealth of stolen, sexy lingerie from Happosai. A final
blink, and the most important data finally filtered through to Ranma's
consciousness: Happosai had not even given Ranma a second look!
"What luck!" Ranma declared and picked up his bowl to resume
eating, delighted to be spared molestation for once.
"Ranma-chan! Let me help you into those silky darlings!"
Happosai's voice echoed down the hall.
As Happosai chased the girl up the stairs, Nabiki and Akane
snapped out of their shock and rose quickly to their feet. One with an
eager look of anticipation and her camera in hand, the other with a
vengeful look of determination and a shinai in her fist.
"Are you just gonna sit there and eat while that wicked old man
molests your twin!?" Akane shouted, dragging Ranma to his feet,
propelling him along to aid in stopping Happosai, and the girl.
"It's not my problem! Why don't you drag him�" Ranma trailed
off, finally noticing that his male twin was absent from the table.
Looking up, they spotted him following Anko and Happosai eagerly, ready
to cast his vote for the best ensemble. "That pervert!" he growled,
finally taking interest in the chase.
"Hey! That's my line!"
They raced up the stairs, following the "perverts" into the
spare bedroom. Happosai was proudly laying out lingerie as Anma gaped
at the sight of Anko shedding her clothing with total abandon. Leaping
into the room, Akane pounded the "pervert" male-clone, while Ranma
tackled Anko to keep her from stripping out of her underwear.
"When are you going to stop being a problem!?" Ranma demanded.
"Hey! Watch the hands, mister!" Anko bonked him on the head.
"Don't get so excited! I'm pretty damn familiar with�" the words
"female anatomy" were cut off in a gasp as Happosai lobbed an ice cold
water balloon in Ranma's face. "Gyaaah! Cold!"
While Ranma adjusted her clothes to suit her altered anatomy,
Happosai handed her a second pile of lingerie.
"I knew there were two of you running around!" Happosai had
blundered into the middle of Anko's campaign to capture Ranma the week
before, but had yet to learn how or why the kami had blessed him with
multiple Ranmas. As far as he was concerned, there could never be too
many of his favorite student! Always quick to exploit said favorite, he
added, "There's no need to fight over them, Ranma-chan! There's plenty
for you to model too!"
Akane turned, spotted Ranma with the heap of lingerie in her
arms, and pounded her into the floor boards. Anko stared at this with
wide eyes for a moment. Akane did not even spare her a glance, raving
at Ranma, "This will teach you, you shameless, perverted hussy!"
Ranma reared up, bits of tattered lingerie hanging off of her
battered form, "You sexless, macho, tomboy! How many times do I hafta
tell ya, I AM NOT *LIKE* THAT!" Practically hardwired to return insults
in kind, Ranma could not have said anything else even to save her own
life. Akane puffed up, balling her fists and hammered the disheveled
red-head straight back into the wall.
"You're just as bad as HE is!" Akane shouted.
"Who do you think you're talking to!?" Ranma roared back.
Anko blinked, shrugged indifferently, and gleefully finished
stripping down to slip into something slinky while Ranma yelled at
Akane. "Kyaaa! This is SO sexy!" She twirled around and then froze in
shock as something small and bony pressed itself into her bosom.
"AAAhhhh! Getitoff, gettitoff!"
As Anko's distress reached ear-splitting decibels, Anma snapped
awake and lurched to his feet. He twisted and lunged in to attack, his
leg blinking through space like a strobe light. An angry, black blur
danced around the lightening series of kicks, then bounced into focus
near Anma's shoulder. Without hesitating, the boy dropped to his chest
and whipped through a windmill kick, hands planted on the floor boards.
The kick launched Happosai at a wall, but the agile, old master
rebounded, laughing madly as he pulled a second water balloon out of
his gi. "Not too shabby, son!" Happosai crowed, dousing the boy with
water. "Three of them! Oh happy day!" Rocketing in on sheer momentum,
arms spread to grope the succulent bosom this excellent technique would
summon, he crashed into the boy's hard, flat chest. "No! What is
this!?"
In the moment of distraction, the boy perked up, and squeezed
Happosai tight in a bear hug. He locked the old man in place, his
gnarled old face pressed to the damp shirt to keep him from ogling his
girlfriend. "Gotcha, old man! No way you're gonna peek on MY girlfriend
now!"
Ranma caught this out of the corner of her eye, her gaze
hardened in response to Anma's declaration. While muttering about the
"girlfriend" comment, she appraised the situation. Happosai leeched
energy from his female victims when he molested them. Happosai clearly
had not understood that her clones did not share her curse, and had
choked on the masculine energy he'd leeched from Anma.
While the boy kept Happosai distracted, Ranma darted past Akane,
snatching a blanket to cover the girl up. Akane had finally noticed the
other red-head and used that instant to lunge forward with her shinai.
Anko sensed Akane's attack and dodged, unwittingly allowing Akane to
get in Ranma's way. Ranma had whipped the blanket out to snare Anko,
and did not notice as it wrapped itself around Akane. Anko, catching on
to Ranma's interference, dropped into a leg sweep, tripping the bundled
Akane into Ranma, who took the brunt of the impact, as both of them
tumbled to the floor.
"Ha! You two couldn't work together to save your own lives!"
"Dammit!" Ranma swore as the girl bounced out of reach.
Beginning to get annoyed, she growled menacingly, "Ranko!"
"Don't mind me!" Anko pulled down her eyelid and stuck out her
tongue, as Ranma wrestled with the writhing mass of Akane in the
blanket. While the two of them struggled to untangle themselves, Anko
quickly changed through a series of outfits. This provoked Anma and
Happosai to renew the fury of their struggle. Anma still held Happosai
in a tight embrace, twisting and writhing to block Happi's view as the
old man strained to get his face around for a good look. The old goat
writhed even harder as Anko cheered, "Oh! This is so nice! And this
too!"
"Let me see! Let me see! Ranma! You are going to pay for this!"
"Stop wiggling around you old toad!"
"Oooo! Look at this!"
Nabiki, who had taken station at the door after Ranma and Akane
raced in, kept the shutter on her camera clicking with glee. "You go,
girl! Smile!" and Anko dutifully posed for the camera. "Marvelous, now,
turn to the side. What can I say, Anko, you are a natural!"
Happosai finally squirted out of the boy's grasp and the two
began bouncing around the room. Anma launched himself after him without
hesitation.
"Nabiki!" Akane sputtered, halfway free of the blanket, "Don't
encourage her like that!"
In spite of the struggling tomboy, Ranma was making progress
freeing her fiancee from the blanket, albeit becoming more entangled
herself in the process.
Happi fumed, realizing that he was being forced to divert his
attention from Anko's display in order to dodge ahead of Anma's
attacks.
"Akane, please relax for a minute," Ranma-chan begged, trying
desperately to keep her favorite blanket from being shredded by the
other girl's struggles.
Akane did pause, not so much to heed Ranma's request, but to
reflect on the observation that Anko somehow managed to complete each
wardrobe change in the instants where the old man and the boy kept each
other distracted from her. Considering where Anko came from, Akane
found it hard to credit her with possessing any instinct or intention
to preserve her modesty. Certainly not when the outfits seemed more
sinful and shameless than abject nudity. Still, in the time it took
Ranma to untangle them from the blanket, Anko never once stood naked
before male eyes.
Relieved to have unraveled Akane from her blanket without having
it destroyed, Ranma quickly folded it and tucked it safely away in the
closet before returning her attention to her unwanted twin.
As Ranma sped over to try and stop Anko from continuing with her
little fashion show, Akane tried in vain to intercept Happosai.
Nabiki continued to click the shutter on her camera. After a
moment, Nabiki noticed that her little sister's attention was focused
more on Anko than the old lecher. "I see you noticed it too," Nabiki
casually addressed Akane.
"Huh? You mean 'Ranko'?"
"Yes. It's an ingenious strategy. She draws their attention to
herself when she's 'presentable.' They renew their struggle and become
distracted. She has a bit of privacy to change and then she starts the
cycle again," Nabiki appraised admiringly. She saw no need to mention
that this strategy had not foiled her camera. As Anko evaded a hammer
strike from Ranma, the Tendo sisters stared as Anko suddenly called on
the Saotome-exclusive and technically "sealed" art of the Umisen-ken.
Anko vanished, followed almost at once by Ranma's clothes.
"D-d-dammit! Now you're askin' for it!" Ranma-chan growled.
Naturally, Ranma retaliated in kind and stripped the other girl bare
using the same technique. Not about to be undone, Anko adapted the
technique on the fly to dress Ranma in a stunning bedroom ensemble.
Nabiki silently thanked the kami that she had upgraded her camera,
holding the rapid-advance tightly. Anko was able to dress the pair as
quickly as Ranma-chan could strip away the lingerie. Under such
circumstances, Nabiki set a personal speed record changing out the film
in her camera, desperate not to miss a single frame.
"Ranma, you're just making it worse," Akane growled. Her own
efforts to deal with the old man and the boy were fruitless as well.
Happosai bounded around the room evading Anma, and Akane was spinning
in circles just to keep track of them. It was not unlike watching Ranma
and P-chan fighting. It was time to switch tactics. "Leave her to me,
and get those two out of here!" Akane snapped in frustration.
For once, there was no argument. Ranma was happy to retreat from
the humiliating onslaught of panties and bras and other unmentionables.
That did not mean she was above taking advantage of her presently
lingerie clad form to lure Happosai from the room, while Akane put up a
screen to hide the other girl from view. With a flirty "Come and get
me!" Ranma drew the attention of old man and the boy to her.
Looking around and not seeing the other red-head, Happosai and
Anma pursued her out the door and down the stairs.
It took only a moment for Anko to notice her audience had rushed
out of the room. Before she could follow, ostensibly to get Anma's
opinion on her current ensemble, Akane blocked her, "Hold it right
there!"
"Why do you insist on getting in my way!? Huh?"
"Don't get the wrong idea. If you want to be molested by
Happosai, be my guest. Just tell me one thing first," Akane crossed her
arms and looked at her sternly. Anko sighed and gestured for her to get
on with it. "How can even a pervert like you stand to be wearing
underwear stolen from someone else?" Akane demanded with a shiver and a
look of pure disgust.
"S-st-stolen? As in, other people have worn these!?" Anko gaped
as Akane nodded. Anko stripped off the lingerie, kicking everything
into a pile. "Ick! Ew! Gross!" Before Akane could celebrate her success
in stopping Anko, the girl ran out of the room stark naked and swearing
under her breath.
"Where do you think you're going like that!?"
"I gotta take a bath, you idiot! What do you think?"
"You freak! Put some clothes on!"
Anko streaked down the stairs, plowing through Soun and Genma
who had frozen in shock at the sight of her as they were routed from
the living room by the mad dance erupting in Ranma, Happosai and Anma's
wake. Anko vanished into the furo as Akane paused to check on the
fathers. Each bore an angry red footprint square in the middle of his
face. Akane dragged the pair into the living room as Ranma raced into
the kitchen, barely ahead of Anma and Happosai.
"Darling! Don't run!" Anma beseeched.
"Hotcha! Nowhere to run to!" Happosai cackled.
For an instant, the two unwittingly cornered Ranma. "N-now, hold
on a sec�" Ranma-chan tried to edge into reach of the kettle that was
heating on the stove. The boy, thinking she was edging over toward him,
moved at the same time as Happosai. Ranma darted for the kettle and
crashed into Anma's open arms. He seized her passionately, and their
combined momentum jerked them out of Happosai's path. Happosai sailed
through the space Ranma had just occupied, and rebounded off the wall
above the stove. He snatched the kettle as he passed, and tossed it
into the sink where it cracked open and spilled the hot water down the
drain.
"Good work, Ranma my boy. Now, just hold her still for me�"
"As if I'd let a pervert like you touch my girlfriend!" Anma
jeered. Pushing Ranma behind him, he raised his guard to the old man.
Happosai laughed, still flying right at him.
As the boy opened up with his amaguriken attack, Happosai handed
him a couple Happodaikarin and launched himself over Anma's head at
Ranma.
Ranma spotted the small, dark blur and reacted instantly,
whipping a large pot off the pot rack.
Anma managed to catch the bombs and spun around, throwing them
at Happosai just as Ranma lunged forward with the pot, scooping
Happosai and the bombs out of the air. Once the pot slammed down on the
floor, Ranma and Anma hopped on top of it to keep the old man trapped.
A moment later, the Happodaikarin detonated in the confined
space, throwing the pair back away from each other. While Happosai
could have danced around Ranma all night, two of Ranma proved too much
for the old man. Trapped with his own bombs, he was fortunate to
survive the experience merely blasted into oblivion and charred head to
foot.
Without a word, the Ranma and Anma sprung back into action. One
of them was raiding the refrigerator for food and bottled water as the
other raced upstairs to collect all the lingerie, returning a moment
later to wrap it all up in a bundle with Happi inside. The boy pulled
out a small hammer, as Ranma produced the magical compact mirror she'd
received from the man at Mirror Mansion. Anma bopped the old man on the
head, and Ranma captured his gaze with the small mirror as his eyes
flickered open.
With a whoosh, the wizened old master vanished into exile.
"I knew this thing would come in handy again!" Ranma
congratulated herself.
"At last, that pest is out of our way, Darling!" Anma snatched
Ranma up in a loving embrace.
Ranma looked up in shock, moving into perfect position for the
descending kiss.
Akane appeared just in time to join Ranma in pounding the boy
senseless. "Bakahentai!" they chorused, stomping the poor boy
underfoot.
They managed to get a hold of themselves as they realized his
continuing struggles were actually reflexive twitches of pain.
"That's two down," Akane breathed in relief.
Ranma nodded silently and picked the boy up, carrying him over
her shoulder. They dragged him to Ranma and Genma's room and laid him
out on the futon. While Akane covered him with a blanket, Ranma went to
her closet, grabbed some things from inside, and went downstairs for a
quick bath.
Anko was sitting at the table, done with her bath, oblivious to
Ranma-chan's passing.
Male and dressed normally, Ranma returned from the bath a short
while later, with a bundle of roses. Sitting across from her, he held
them out silently, while Akane fumed from the door. Before she could
storm in, Ranma held up his hand, holding her off.
Akane puffed up, ready to bellow her usual challenge, as Anko
bent her head to breathe in the scent of the flowers and suddenly
swooned. Akane paused, a glimmering of understanding passing through
her, and raised an eyebrow. The roses must have been from Kodachi, to
knock the girl unconscious like that. Akane deflated, her thoughts
warring between the obvious fact that Ranma had come on to the girl,
and yet in the process put her out of commission. Unable to conclude
that he had done either the right or wrong thing, she simply helped
drag the girl to her room.
"That's three," Ranma declared, wearily.
"I'm kind of surprised it's over already," Akane sighed, shaking
her head.
The two spent the next few minutes straightening up after the
pandemonium. Kasumi had already cleared the table and cleaned the
kitchen, while her sisters had been upstairs with the triplets. Kasumi
had apparently avoided all the chaos by stepping out on the upstairs
porch for a bit of fresh air. Ranma sought her out to explain the
destruction of one of her pots, promising to replace it the following
afternoon on his way back from school.
It was a small price to pay for getting rid of Happosai.

-----

Disclaimer: Ranma Nibunnoichi, and the associated cast and concepts are
the property of Rumiko Takahashi and those publishers and distributors
to whom she has given official rights. It is not the intention of this
work to infringe upon those rights. This story may not be purchased or
sold without the express permission of the writer, meaning me, the
creator, meaning Rumiko Takahashi, or those agencies to whom the
creator has given such rights or privileges. The ideas explored are
those of the author, and should not be construed to express the
opinions or intentions of the creator or associated agencies.

Author's Note: I have been an avid fan of Ranma ? manga, anime and fan
fiction for years. I am also a writer and artist. In spite of these two
things, I did not seriously consider creating any of my own fan fiction
until now. Before addressing the story I chose to write, I want to
comment on why I chose to write it. Over the past few years I have seen
other fans take this cast and explore a wonderful assortment of
possibilities. Many excellent ideas have been developed, and I felt I
would have been walking in someone else's shadow, or stepping on
several people's toes, to explore the ideas inspired by their additions
to Ranma ?. Still, I had those ideas, and they eventually led me back
to the original series where I discovered an excellent possibility I
had not yet seen explored. In the original series, the conclusion of
the "Two Ranmas" storyline was left entirely to the imagination of the
readers. It was a perfect invitation for a fan fic, and offered me a
foundation for many volumes of ongoing fan fics. Ranma Nibunnoichi -
Reflections begins after Part 4 of Volume 35, and explores the events
which unfolded during the week when the Tendo Household was stuck with
two amorous copies of Ranma, one male and one female.

Revision Note: This is the first installment of the new, revised
version of Ranma Nibunnoichi - Reflections retitled Reflections V.1 -
Stuck in the Middle With You. This story has been evolving from day
one. By the time I finished Reflections, I had produced enough material
for three complete volumes and the story was still evolving in new
directions. It had taken on a life of its own at some point. I could
not stop the ideas from spilling out. Before I knew it, it was no
longer the story I had intended to write. Nor was it the best story I
could have written. As I worked on the fourth volume, intended as a
transition from Ranma Nibunnoichi to Ranko Nibunnoichi, I realized it
would become necessary to go back and revise everything, taking
advantage of things I learned in the process of writing Reflections and
the "bonus" volume, It's All in the Reflexes. Thanks to all of the
reviews I received for both stories, and the special efforts of Daniel
Jess Gibson and Fangorn (Thanks guys!) that process has begun.

In order to accommodate the growth of the story and the writer,
I needed to update it a bit so that it can continue. Some of the
changes are simply structural. It will be a five volume story, each
volume having fifteen chapters. In the fifth volume you will find out
why the next story is called Ranko Nibunnoichi - Refractions. Sadly,
that does mean there will be noticeable changes. Some of the changes
will be very subtle, while others will be screamingly obvious. For
example, the reflections will no longer be identified as Copy-chan and
Copy-kun. The suffixes -chan and -kun, by which the copies were
previously distinguished from each other, were not really suitable. In
Ranma's case, the same suffixes have developed into a tongue in cheek
way to emphasize which side of Ranma is being referred to, but that is
not a proper way to distinguish a boy from a girl. The -chan/-kun
suffixes are normally used to indicate a level of familiarity between
two people regardless of their gender. In addition, the first chapter
has been expanded to include a rough recap of the events in the manga
leading up to this story, and part of what was originally featured in
the second chapter.

I am sorry if this upsets some of you. Feel free to stick with
the version you like best. I will keep a copy of the original version
here, if Fanfiction.Net allows it, and on my personal site. For the
most part, I am doing this revision for my own satisfaction. So far, I
have published a rough draft. What I want to create, what I hope you
will also appreciate, is a story that makes the most out of the ideas
invested in it. I hope to make it a little less confusing as well.
Comments and Criticism are welcome as always. This is still my first
fan fic, after all. My only request is that my readers offer examples
or explanations to ensure that their suggestions will enable me to
improve the story. Comments and Criticism are welcome as always. This
is still my first fan fic, after all. My only request is that my
readers offer examples or explanations to ensure that their suggestions
will enable me to improve the story.

Mature Content: Because Reflections was originally intended to
integrate with the series, before it evolved into an outright
divergence, it faced some obvious limitations, which many fan fic
readers found disappointing. On the surface, the situation screamed for
a lovely lemon flavor. I have a healthy (avid) interest in sex and
sexuality, so it was not a case where I couldn't or wouldn't go there�
it was just that going there would have upset the status quo
tremendously. Now that Reflections is no longer a "missing chapter" of
the original series, the ideas that support a lemon filling, can be
explored. Part of the story deals with sexual awakening and
experimentation, and some of the plot hinges on sexual events, and must
be included in the R rated version. In some cases, the fact that sex
occurred is the only thing a lemon scene contributes to the plot, and
those scenes will be found only in the unrated version of the story.
Even those scenes have a value and significance beyond mere fan
service, since the way people act and interact in intimate
circumstances is as important as how they conduct themselves in other
circumstances.


[FanFic][Ranma][Divergence][Rev] Reflections Vol 1 Part 01

Ranma Nibunnoichi - Reflections : Vol. 01 - Stuck in the Middle With You
A. V. Morgan <avmorgan27@comcast.net>


Revision. Mature Content Warning. Disclaimer and Notes at the end of
Part One. Original Version can be found at FanFiction.Net in the R
rated category under the titles of "Ranma Nibunnoichi : Reflections"

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1029261/1/


Part One: Three Ranmas!?


The promise of spring hung in the air over Tokyo's Nerima Ward. It was
a warm day for late winter, spiced by the scent of rain. The shower had
lasted just long enough to soak anyone caught out in the open to the
bone. Or, in Ranma Saotome's case, just long enough for him to become
her. Trudging home from the train station, she stopped to adjust her
clothes, ignoring the incredulous stares of those who were witnessing
the transformation for their first time. But one of her startled
witnesses was impossible to ignore, staring at her with wide, sapphire
blue eyes from only a hand span away. As she met his shocked gaze,
Ranma closed her eyes, her pose of defiant indifference crumbling as
she reached for it. The face she was trying to block out was too
familiar. She saw it in the mirror whenever she was a he.
Unfortunately, the last mirror he had looked into had been cursed,
giving birth to this living reflection.
"You can stop staring now," she grated ominously, still aware of
the weight of his gaze.
"Y-you� you turned in-into HER," the unnatural twin gasped.
Ranma did not need to open her eyes to tell he was pointing
between her and her other reflection, the duplicate of her female side
that had been created a week earlier.
"Pretty neat, isn't it?" the original, female duplicate piped
up, pulling Ranma into an "aren't my twin and I cute?" pose.
"Do you have to do that?" Ranma complained, cringing. Her mind
flashed back to her first visit to Mirror Mansion.
On a weekend training trip, Genma and Ranma had stumbled across
the mysterious manor while seeking shelter from a violent storm. Genma
was hardly in the door before he zoomed in on table bearing a basket
full of fruit. Stems and peels were flying before the old man who let
them in could complete a warning about the shrouded mirror. Before she
knew what was going on, Ranma had slipped on a banana peel, crashed
into the mirror and tore down its protective seal, scrambling
desperately to stay on her feet. Somewhere between flailing to keep her
balance and phrasing an acidic accusation to throw at Genma, Ranma's
brain registered the old man's warning against tampering with the seal
of the cursed mirror. A ghost obsessed with finding true love--or at
least a lover--would possess the reflection of anyone who looked into
the mirror. Ranma had not needed the explanation, however. The warning
was little more than a narration of what was happening as she
confronted her self in the mirror that first time.
For one week, the girl created by the cursed mirror had chased
after Ranma and made life around the Tendo home twice as chaotic as
Ranma, alone, ever could. The first few days had been the worst, before
the copy realized that Ranma was not willing to be her lover and she
"surrendered" to her fate. But that had been a ruse. She had used the
remainder of the week to plot out her conquest of Ranma. When Ranma and
Akane brought her back to the mansion to seal her away in the mirror,
Copy--as they had been calling her--captured Ranma in the trap mirror
that the old man of the mansion had given to Ranma in order to capture
her. But when she tried to escape with him into the mirror Akane had
interfered, tripping her with the fruit basket and releasing Ranma from
the trap mirror. But as he emerged, Ranma landed on a piece of fruit,
skidded out of control, and crashed into the new, warded curtain
covering the cursed mirror.
Ranma could still feel the sick sense of inevitability that he
felt as the curtain was torn away in the collision and he glanced, once
again, into the cursed mirror. That feeling had grown worse as the new
reflection became instantly obsessed with the old reflection. Ranma
tried to console herself with the thought that the copies would be less
trouble as a couple than they would be as individuals.
It only took a second for the girl twin to prove her wrong.
After studying her new love interest's reaction to Ranma's
transformation, she rubbed her cheek against Ranma's, purring, "I'd
share her with you if you shared him with me."
"Erk!" Akane, walking a few paces ahead, jerked around in
outrage and glared at the girl twin. The duplicate simply grinned and
cupped one of Ranma's breasts provocatively, eyes fixed on the male
reflection. Ranma's pigtail shot straight up in the air, as did the boy
twin's--his eyes widening and mouth going slack.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing!?" Ranma snapped, opening
her eyes to glare at her clone. "Leggo of that!?"
"Wha- why� how� did he turn into you?" the male clone demanded
in alarmed confusion, his eyes glazing.
"We don't have time for this," Akane grumbled in annoyance,
eyebrow twitching ominously.
"I didn't turn into her!" Ranma barked in an offended tone,
suddenly standing in front of the boy duplicate, two or three paces
away from the girl duplicate. "Like I toldja earlier, she's the copy of
my girl side!" Ranma declared, staring up at her new nemesis
critically. Then she turned back to the girl copy, rubbing at a bruised
breast. "And what the heck were you thinkin'!?" Glaring at her twin,
Ranma fought against the spinning, falling sensation that gripped her
at the memory of her "sharing" comment.
Ranma and Akane had gone to several lengths to keep the two
clones separated during their return to Nerima. From the moment they
had laid eyes on each other, the clones had been obsessively attracted
to each other. Neither of them seemed to have possessed a clue what to
do with a lover, once found. The "throw yourself at someone and kiss
them" tactic the girl twin had used the week before was almost comical
when doubled. It took them a while to stop lunging at each other and
banging heads. By the time they were on the train bound for Nerima, the
pair had impulsively progressed to hugging and kissing. Whenever the
image of the two making out in their seat on the train popped into her
head, shocking chills shot through her body. When the girl had been
chasing after him, a part of Ranma had been flattered, but the very
notion of the new male copy pursuing Ranma with the same kind of intent
made her shudder.
"I was only trying to think of your happiness!" the girl twin
protested sincerely. "I mean, a boy like a girl like you needs a girl
like me and a boy like him. How else can you fit in? But, now that you
mention it�" the girl twin put a finger to her chin and turned to study
the boy twin thoughtfully. She snapped her fingers and smiled at Ranma.
"I get it now! He's too much of a man for you! Just like I was too much
of a woman for you! This finally explains your feelings for that macho
pervert-girl!"
"Hey!" Ranma and Akane shouted in unison, fuming.
"So, she is� a boy?" the boy twin asked the girl twin, pointing
at Ranma in confusion
"When he isn't a girl," the girl twin confirmed with a cheerful
nod.
"I am NOT a GIRL!" Ranma shouted, looming up on both of them.
"You are TOTALLY a GIRL!" the girl twin retorted, cupping
Ranma's breasts again for emphasis. The sight of one redheaded girl
fondling the other once again shorted out certain synapses in the
confused and agitated mind of the male copy. Boy or girl, Ranma was
indistinguishable from the object of his affections. Since SHE was a
girl, then by direct association, so was Ranma. That concluded, his
brain suspended all coherent thought and proceeded to simply enjoy the
view.
"That's it! People are staring at us! Let's go," Akane
announced, grabbing the confused boy by the arm and dragging him away
from Ranma. Still arguing, Ranma grabbed her girl twin by the hand and
followed.
When they reached the canal, Ranma and her duplicates all hopped
up to walk on the fence by reflex. Akane took a deep breath, pacing the
boy twin as she continued along the sidewalk alone. Concentrating on
tuning out the sound of Ranma arguing with her look-alike, Akane stared
straight ahead and tried to pretend her life had never become this
insane. When only a few puddles and damp spots in the shade remained,
and everything else--including the teens' clothes and hair--had dried
in the sun, Akane sighed and glanced up to the side. The boy walking
nonchalantly along the top of the fence--unchanged by the freak down
pour--was not Ranma, but all of the little things she had grown
accustomed to, the little things that were unique to Ranma, like the
way he moved, his careless grace and confidence, called out to her.
"This is really starting to creep me out," Akane muttered.
Looking up to the side again Akane repeated her initial complaint. "Why
did he have to be male?"
"What are you starin' at?" the boy twin asked, catching her
glaring up at him.
"Baka," she turned her head and kept on walking.
"Kawaiikune!" he muttered, turning to look at the red-headed
girls walking hand in hand along the fence top after him. "What is that
chunky, tom-boy's problem?" he asked in confused annoyance.
Ranma-chan looked at her twin, then back at the boy, and
suppressed a shudder. "This is creeping me out too," she muttered under
her breath. Bending her head sternly, she pushed the boy on, "Keep
moving. I need to get you to the dojo and out of sight before either of
you get me into any more trouble!"
The boy allowed Ranma-chan to push him along the fence toward
their destination. He showed no discomfort or concern at backpedaling
down the fence pole in front of Ranma. He was still somewhat disturbed
that the boy who had let him out of the mirror had turned into a
perfect twin of the girl he had loved at first sight. The resemblance
was so great that he needed this sort of cue to determine which girl
was which. Taking her free hand, as a means to keep track, he returned
to the question that was bothering him. "So. You gonna tell me why you
turned into a girl? Why you look like her?"
"Aw, man! I told you I'd explain it all if you came with me to
the dojo."
"You said that before you� changed."
Ranma-chan grit her teeth. "Whatever. Get this straight first. I
don't look like HER. SHE looks like me! I was in this form the first
time I looked in the mirror, and I was a guy when I looked in it back
there!" she growled, referring to Mirror Mansion. "Both of you are
copies of me," she asserted for the hundredth time.
The boy tensed in alarm, "You don't mean�!? Aw, man! I'm not
going to turn out to be a freak like you, am I?" He twisted away in
horror.
Ranma-chan cringed and her face darkened with anger as Akane's
voice trailed back to them, "If you're so disgusted, WHY ARE YOU STILL
HOLDING HIS HAND!!?" Akane kicked the fence so hard it wavered under
their feet and spilled all three of them into the canal opposite the
sidewalk. Ranma-chan plummeted toward the water in resignation. The
girl twin betrayed only the slightest surprise, while the boy twin went
into a full-blown panic. The three plunged into the water and surfaced,
spluttering in shock at the cold, shouting in unison, "What didja do
that for!?" The boy was patting himself on the chest in terror until
Akane leaned over and stuck out her tongue.
"Baka! Didn't you notice that the rain had no effect on you?"
Before the boy could answer, he was launched over the fence by a
sleeper uppercut from Ranma. She had moved in an instant rage, wounded
once more by the simple fact that the boy was immune to her curse.
Before she had stopped shaking in silent fury, the girl twin grabbed
her by the collar.
"Hey! Go hit on pervert-girl!" the girl shouted launching Ranma
over the fence with a vicious uppercut. Akane stood frozen for an
instant, her eye twitching madly again, as Ranma crashed down in the
middle of the street. The girl twin had started calling Akane "pervert-
girl" during her amorous pursuit of Ranma, and clearly did not intend
to stop.
While Akane silently debated between maiming and murder, the
girl twin leapt over the fence, went to her counterpart's side and
cradled his head in her lap. "Hey! Are you okay?"
Akane lurched forward to pound the girl into the pavement, as
Ranma popped to her feet and rushed forward to tackle the girl, moving
neatly into position to intercept Akane's elbow drop. Ranma was slammed
down into her duplicates with enough force to knock the air out of all
of them.
As they lay there stunned, Akane grabbed the boy clone by the
pig-tail and dragged him off towards the Tendo Dojo. Despite the fact
that the boy twin was proving to be just as annoying as Ranma, Akane
had agreed to keep the couple separated until they were all safe at the
dojo. By the time Ranma and her twin had recovered, Akane was dragging
him around a corner. The girls stood up muttering a litany of
unflattering things about Akane and limped the last two blocks to the
dojo.

-----

Akane heard the two redheads rushing to catch up to her as she passed
through the gates of the dojo. Tuning out their loud cries for her to
wait for them, she stalked up to the house. "Tadaima!" Akane announced
her return, dragging "Ranma-kun" into the genkan.
Kasumi turned from watering a little bonsai tree, which sat on a
narrow table in the hall across from the entrance, and took in the
boy's disheveled, unconscious state. One hand came up quickly to cover
her mouth. "Oh my," she murmured softly, before composing herself.
"Okeirinasai, Akane-chan, Ranma-kun," she smiled. Before she could ask
about Ranma's condition, Soun and Genma burst into the tiny entry,
loudly demanding a report.
"Oi! Akane-kun!�"
"It's about time, Boy!�"
"�Did you get rid of that menace?" they chorused.
Taking in "Ranma's" state, Genma hauled the boy twin to his
feet, shaking him, "This is no time to be napping, Boy! Tell me you've
done your duty as a martial artist and sent the evil back to where it
came from!"
Akane cleared her throat as the boy mumbled in semi-conscious
confusion. "About that�" she began.
At that moment, Ranma swept open the entry screen and leaned in
with her clone, "Akane! Wait! What are we going to tell�?" Everyone's
eyes snapped to the two redheaded girls in surprise, as Akane hung her
head in embarrassment. Ranma recoiled in dismay.
"Well, this is hardly a surprise," Nabiki commented, appearing
in the hall behind Soun and Genma. With a mischievous grin, she cleared
her throat and said loudly, "Will the REAL Ranma Saotome please stand
up?"
Ranma immediately began sweating and waving her hands, "Wait,
wait. I can explain everything! It's not my fault!"
"And we have a winner!" Nabiki smirked and watched as Soun and
Genma loomed over the panicking girl.
"RanMAAAA! What is the meaning of this?" wailed Soun angrily.
"Foolish Boy! How could you fail in such a simple task?"
Akane grabbed the girl twin and pushed her forward, clearing her
throat, "Actually, um� This is mostly her fault."
"Hey!" the buxom redhead complained instantly, ignoring the
fuming fathers to turn on Akane. "You were the one who threw the fruit
basket!"
"You! You were the one who brought that damned compact along and
tried to steal Ranma with it!"
"What? You mean you actually want him?"
"N� No!" Akane blushed and growled, "That doesn't have anything
to do with it! You can't just kidnap people like that!"
"Oh, what wonderful news, Saotome-kun! My little girl rescued
your son from an evil demon!"
"Who are you callin' a demon!?" the mirror girl snarled at Soun.
As Soun lurched back in fright, he knocked the pitcher of water
out of Kasumi's hand. It sailed unnoticed overhead, seeking a suitable
target, before coming down on Genma. "Oh! She's so SCARY!" Soun
whimpered, cowering in the corner.
"Oh my!" Kasumi finally interjected. "Maybe we should all sit
down and discuss this over tea?"
There was a short pause, then a round of shrugs as everyone
silently agreed to her suggestion.
Ranma and Akane marched the clones through the living room, and
out onto the patio. Ranma picked up a hot teakettle from the table as
she passed, and stepped out onto the grass to quickly explain the curse
to the duplicates.
"Alright, pay attention. I'm not gonna explain this twice," she
began, explaining how her father took her to Jusenkyo and knocked her,
at the time him, into the Nyanniichuan. Using half the water in the
kettle, he restored himself to normal, and as expected, the boy twin
instantly produced cold water to test the curse. Ranma fumed, but
recalled how others had reacted to the same story. Ukyo had spent hours
pouring hot and cold water over her, out of sheer amusement. Ranma,
using the last of the hot water, warned the couple that the curse was
the only problem in his life they were spared from. He then took a
moment to try to convince them that it was in their own best interest
to avoid contact with anyone outside the dojo. Not that he believed he
could truly keep the two from bring new chaos to his life, but it was
worth a try.
After wringing out his shirt and airing it for a few moments to
dry, he joined the others at the table, where Akane had finished
explaining what had happened at Mirror Mansion. It was a quick
explanation, since everyone already knew about the cursed mirror, the
spirit of the noblewoman that stole the image of whoever looked into it
to fulfill her dream of finding true love, and the little trap mirror
they had received from the old man of the mansion. Nor was it
surprising that the girl twin had made one last attempt to abduct Ranma
and take him with her back into the mirror. When Akane finished
explaining how the boy twin had been freed from the mirror, Nabiki
turned to collect a handful of yen from her father and Genma. She then
took a third of the pile of cash and handed it over to Kasumi. Akane
did not even bother to ask what the bets had been. She just shook her
head and explained that she and Ranma had seen no other option but to
bring the couple home until repairs to the mirror's seal could once
again be completed.
"Another week!?" Soun moaned, as Kasumi poured tea next to
Akane.
Ranma glanced over his shoulder and saw the couple mooning over
each other. Closing his eyes, he reminded himself that they were just
reflections, and what they did had nothing to do with him. He could
only hope that their mutual absorption would prevent a repeat of girl's
rampage.
"You are so cute!" the boy declared, taking the girl's hands in
his.
"You are more handsome!" she protested modestly, her eyes
twinkling.
"The perfect couple!" Ranma quipped, oblivious to the fact that
it sounded like he was bragging.
"You are so right, Ranma!" Kasumi smiled, delighted by the sight
of at least one happy couple in the house.
"They're so alike too�" Nabiki deadpanned.
Akane just sat there with her eyes narrowing, pretending to
complete indifference to the situation. Genma wore the same expression,
safe in the retreat of his panda form at the end of the table.
"I guess this is sort of like a honeymoon for them," Kasumi put
in thoughtfully, after a moment. Tea sprayed forth from Akane and
Genma. Ranma jerked as if he'd just been hit by lightening, his eye
twitching madly. Nabiki raised an eyebrow.
"Ka- Ka- Kasumi!" Soun stammered, looking shocked.
Genma whipped around to look at the mirror twins, closing in for
a kiss, and jumped up frantically waving a sign, [Stop them! We can't
let them mate!]
Ranma and Akane flinched away as lurid images of boy-type Ranma
molesting girl-type Ranma danced through the minds of everyone but
Kasumi.
Akane whipped around on her knees, shouting, "YOU PERVERTS!" A
roundhouse punch accompanied the cry, catching Ranma on the chin and
blasting him out the open door into the mirror twins, spilling them all
out into the yard.
Ranma, after skipping all the way into the koi pond, splashed to
her feet shouting, "I'm not LIKE that!"
"What didja do THAT for?" the other two demanded in unison.
Soun, who had never bothered to mentally distinguish Ranma from
his clones, came out onto the balcony and protested, "Ranma! How could
you cheat on my daughter this way!?" Shifting an accusing finger from
the boy to the girl, he commanded. "I forbid you to sleep with Ranma
under my roof!"
Everyone stared at Soun for a second. Kasumi, who had not
bothered to read Genma's wildly flailing sign until the panda froze
holding it right in front of her nose, gasped as the synapse marked
"clue" connected to the synapse marked "ecchi" in an instant of
unrepressed thought.
"Oh my!" Kasumi blinked. "You don't think they'd do THAT, do
you?"
Several present found themselves smacking their faces against
the table in an attempt to dislodge the mental images being conjured
up.
Ranma sprang to her feet again, growling at Soun, "I don't even
know what you're TALKIN' ABOUT! How can I NOT sleep with myself!?"
"Ranma-kun! Think about what you're saying!" Nabiki warned with
a shake of her finger, but Akane had already reacted.
"Ranma no HENTAI! Don't you have ANY restraint or morals!!?"
Akane advanced on her fiance, mallet-sama in hand, amidst a pillar of
blue flames.
Ranma backed up slowly, hands out in warding gestures. "W- wait!
Are you insane? Do you ever hear what I am saying?"
"You said you wanted to sleep with yourself!" Akane growled.
"PERVERT!"
Ranma hung her head, while Akane closed the distance menacingly.
On an instinctive level, the redhead estimated the power and intent of
the other girl's rage. By that analysis, Akane had truly snapped. If
she ran, Akane would charge and probably kill her. If she stood her
ground, Akane would charge and probably kill her. If she wanted to
live, it might be a good idea to defend herself this time. But even in
deadly peril, such as her keenly honed instincts assured her she was
in, she didn't want to raise a hand against Akane. At the same time,
she was sure she had not said nor done anything to deserve her
fiancee's anger. Almost to herself, she muttered, "Damn it, Akane,
there ain't nothin' wrong with a guy sleepin' by himself. It ain't like
I've got any other option�"
Akane, having closed to attack range, had already swung her
mallet high. As those words penetrated, her hands suddenly let go on
the downswing, and the mallet flew off over the compound wall and out
of sight. Akane stood there, meeting Ranma's eyes, for several long
breaths. "Did� did you say� b- by yourself?"
Ranma scowled, "What didja think I was sayin'?"
"You don't want sleep with one of THEM?" The raven haired girl's
hand snapped up to point accusingly at the now cringing couple.
"Do you think I am some kind of pervert!?" Ranma roared in
outraged disbelief.
"Geez, Ranma-kun! Get a clue!" Nabiki shook her head.
Akane and Ranma remained squared off, both of them blushing in
confused fury. Ranma's clones stared at the two of them with wide eyes.
Off in the distance, a large object could be heard crashing to Earth
with a skull ringing clunk, followed shortly by a distant bellow,
"Raaaaanmaaaaaa! This is All YOUR FAULT!!!"
Kasumi broke into the silence to muse aloud, "Having three
Ranma's in the house could get confusing. Maybe we should come up with
some different names so there are no misunderstandings."
"Now there's an idea," Nabiki smirked.
"What's wrong with calling them Copy?" Ranma asked, scowling
with indifference. She found the notion of giving them names very
disturbing, as if naming them might encourage them to stick around.
That certainly seemed true of cats, in her mortified experience.
"Oh, sure. Then we can just confuse them with each other instead
of you. Give it up, Ranma. You know they're going to be mistaken for
you anyway," Nabiki pointed out sarcastically. "We might as well take
advantage of that. Fortunately, they don't change sexes and you've got
an alias for your girl side. That gives us a way to distinguish them
from each other and from you. We could go for merely descriptive and
call them Copy-no-Ranma and Copy-no-Ranko."
"Oh, yes. If Auntie Nodoka were to show up, it would be a lot
easier for us if Copy-chan was used to being called Ranko. Why, Copy-
no-Ranko is practically the same thing!" Kasumi gushed with growing
excitement.
Ranma shuddered. "Oh man! If Mom shows up now, I'm sooo dead!"
"I don't know. It's a little too long, Sis," Akane shook her
head, ignoring Ranma's panic attack. "We kinda know they're both
copies. Why not just drop the 'Copy' part and use No-Ranma and No-
Ranko?"
"Maybe just shorten 'Copy' to 'Ko' and make it, Kono-Ranma and
Kono-Ranko!" Kasumi proposed.
"Okay," Akane agreed, nodding, "and those can be shortened to,
Konoma and Konoko!"
"Maybe Noma and Noko?" Soun jumped in, getting caught up in the
game Nabiki had started.
"I don't think you can reduce it any further than that," Nabiki
rolled her eyes.
"No way! That's like giving them real names!" Ranma protested.
"What do you want us to do, Ranma? Go on confusing them with
you?" Nabiki retorted. "Then how about Ranma-no-ni and Ranko-no-ni, for
Ranma and Ranko number two?" she proposed. "That would make it really
easy to drop the extra parts if Auntie Nodoka does pay us another
surprise visit."
Suddenly, the copies were sitting next to Ranma, the boy
sandwiched between the identical girls. "I think we should call him--"
the girl twin began.
"Gyaaah! No! Don't let them name themselves!" Ranma shouted,
leaping to her feet and speed-gagging the duplicates. Memories of
Pantyhose Taro trying to conjure up the perfect name for himself had
surged forth the instant the clones took a direct interest in the
discussion. Ranma did not want to know what sort of ridiculous
suggestions his doppelgangers were capable of. Giving Nabiki a
desperate, determined look, she finally relented, "Alright, we can do
that last one."
"Ranma-no-ni and Ranko-no-ni?" Nabiki clarified helpfully.
Ranma nodded energetically.
"I don't know, it IS quite a mouthful�" Nabiki nodded in Akane's
directions.
"So we can use Ranma and Ranko for short, and the rest if we
need to be specific!" Ranma insisted, less concerned about the twins
using her names than about either of them getting a real name of their
own.
"Hmmm� We could DO that, but," Nabiki shrugged, giving the
copies a studied glance.
"But what?" Ranma gritted her teeth, wondering what new twist
Nabiki was about to spring on her.
"Oh, it's nothing, Ranma-kun," Nabiki assured the cursed
martial-artist. "I should have known better than to try and simplify
things."
"Uh, okay," Ranma proceeded to scratch her head, wondering what
part of Nabiki's suggestions had been simple. After a moment, she just
threw up her hands and declared, "Whatever. It's settled, then. We can
keep them straight now, and we don't have to give them cute nicknames."
Turning to the copies, she reminded everyone pointedly, "They're only
gonna be here for a week, after all."
With that, Ranma marched out of the room headed for the nearest
source of hot water.

-----

As afternoon settled toward evening, Ranma and Akane completed their
homework in something of an armed truce. Ranma kept glaring at Akane,
silently bitter over the fact that she had never responded to his last
question, nor apologized for the misunderstanding. Akane kept glaring
at Ranma suspiciously, waiting for him to prove what a pervert he
really was. The two mirror clones had given up on trying to sneak off
for some privacy, because Soun and Genma had shadowed them at every
turn, harassing them into sullen complacency in front of the
television. Nabiki was also keeping close tabs on the mirror twins. By
eaves dropping, she had discovered that they had come up with their own
solution to the name issue. They did it by dropping out the initial
consonant and pronouncing their borrowed names as Anma and Anko.
Ranma spared a glance from his homework to check on the
doppelgangers. They were sitting close together, speaking in hushed
voices, paying more attention to each other than the show on
television. He resisted the urge to go over and hear what they were
discussing so intently. The conspiratorial whispering made fine beads
of sweat pop out over his brow. Since there were no cats around, he
decided a lethal dose of curiosity was not needed at the moment, and
forced himself to ignore the couple. His mind strayed off on a tangent,
though, as he wondered how to harness the "curiosity killed the cat"
technique. Naturally, this proved more important to him than his
homework.
Time passed, marked by the sound of chimes dancing in the
breeze.
"Time to eat, everyone," Kasumi announced a short time later,
from the door to the kitchen.
Akane and Ranma jumped up to clear the table and put their
schoolwork away. It was left to them to help set the table, as Nabiki
continued to lounge in front of the television, spying on the clones,
and Genma and Soun remained glued to their game of Shogi. Neither of
them dared turn to acknowledge Kasumi with a look, or the other would
swiftly rearrange the board.
Inevitably, the smell of food lured Genma's attention and Soun
cheered his victory. The fathers joined the rest at the table and
praised the bounty loudly.
"Itedakimasu!" everyone chorused, and dug into the food. A quick
four way battle ensued between Genma and the "triplets" with the older
man struggling to defend his meal on three fronts.
As dinner came to a close, conversation turned to sleeping
arrangements. Soun's declaration still stood, though it was Kasumi who
restated it as, "It just would not be proper for our new guests to
share accommodations." The clones looked on, glares sharpening with
every word. Ranma and the others could not help but try to keep them
separated. The idea of the two of them getting together, intimately,
was too creepy for them to stand. They were in silent agreement. No one
particularly cared about them fawning over each other, but� the thought
of where that might escalate to brought on all sorts of twitching and
shuddering.
"It would be best if Ranko-no-ni slept with you tonight, Akane-
chan. Ranma-no-ni can sleep with Ranma-kun and Saotome-ojisan," Kasumi
suggested.
"Are you sure it's a good idea to put those boys together,
Oneechan? I mean, one little splash of water and�" Nabiki held up her
hands and shrugged. It need not be said that chaos would ensue.
"Erk!" Ranma choked. "I'd rather spend another week sleeping in
a tree!"
"Hah! Like I'd do anything with a pervert like you!" Anma denied
fervently.
"Hey! That's MY line!" Akane fumed.
"No one is going to come between me and MY Ranma!" Anko
declared, standing. "Put that silly panda outside for the night, let
Akane sleep with HER Ranma, and that leaves a futon for me and MINE!"
The mere idea that this was a way to get Ranma and Akane
together was enough to get Soun and Genma to their feet, pushing the
clones together, "That's right! What a perfect solution!"
Ranma cut in, mockingly, "Oh? You mean you're volunteering to
sleep outside then, Old Man?"
"Er� No, boy. Tendo-kun will surely let me sleep on the floor in
his room. Right Tendo-kun?"
"Ah, ha ha! Right Saotome-kun!" Soun strained to agree, sweat
suddenly beading his brow.
"But, Father� Surely these two should be married, or at least
engaged first?" Kasumi asked wide-eyed.
Genma looked over and opened his mouth, "As their effective
father, I�"
Ranma pounded his father out the open door. "Are you insane!?
Don't EVEN go there!" Ranma stood in the opening, huffing, as his
father landed in the koi pond. To himself, he muttered, "I can't
believe he'd even THINK of granting permission for somethin' like
that!" He had barely begun to vent his outrage when a human missile
hurtled into the yard, ricocheting off the crown of Ranma's head and
into the house.
The sound of Ranma's body being slammed to the floor was
punctuated by a familiar cry of victory. "Whatta haul! Whatta haul!!!"
Genma sank meekly back into the koi pond at the sight of his
dreaded master dropping in to dinner.
Ranma lay twitching, sprawled across the porch threshold.
Looking up, he found himself taking special note of the fact that the
sky above the Tendo home was a deep, velvety blue. He found it quite
mesmerizing.
Happosai dumped a bulging bag of lingerie on the floor and
quickly reached for a bowl full of food. While the diminutive old man
was rapidly stuffing his face, Anko leaned over in curiosity and pulled
out a few pieces of lingerie. Her eyes widened with delight as she
recognized the opportunity before her. Snatching up the bag, she
sprinted upstairs crying, "Kyaaaaa! I have to try these on!"
Happosai sat there in open-mouthed disbelief. His little mind
whirled in apoplectic confusion for several moments while tears of joy
and anger mingled and spilled from his eyes. Finally, what he had just
seen and heard clicked fully into place. He sprung to his feet,
"Sweeto! Ranma-chan! I am coming!"
Ranma stopped twitching and blinked, as his rattled brain
suddenly rebooted. Sitting up, he slapped his fist into his palm.
"Happosai!" he growled, automatically seeking out the miniature master
of panty pilfering. He quickly spotted the old man chasing Anko out of
the room. Blinking again, he scanned the room, noticing that Soun and
his daughters sat frozen, final bites of their evening meal halfway to
their open mouths. Another blink, and it struck Ranma that Anko had
liberated a wealth of stolen, sexy lingerie from Happosai. A final
blink, and the most important data finally filtered through to Ranma's
consciousness: Happosai had not even given Ranma a second look!
"What luck!" Ranma declared and picked up his bowl to resume
eating, delighted to be spared molestation for once.
"Ranma-chan! Let me help you into those silky darlings!"
Happosai's voice echoed down the hall.
As Happosai chased the girl up the stairs, Nabiki and Akane
snapped out of their shock and rose quickly to their feet. One with an
eager look of anticipation and her camera in hand, the other with a
vengeful look of determination and a shinai in her fist.
"Are you just gonna sit there and eat while that wicked old man
molests your twin!?" Akane shouted, dragging Ranma to his feet,
propelling him along to aid in stopping Happosai, and the girl.
"It's not my problem! Why don't you drag him�" Ranma trailed
off, finally noticing that his male twin was absent from the table.
Looking up, they spotted him following Anko and Happosai eagerly, ready
to cast his vote for the best ensemble. "That pervert!" he growled,
finally taking interest in the chase.
"Hey! That's my line!"
They raced up the stairs, following the "perverts" into the
spare bedroom. Happosai was proudly laying out lingerie as Anma gaped
at the sight of Anko shedding her clothing with total abandon. Leaping
into the room, Akane pounded the "pervert" male-clone, while Ranma
tackled Anko to keep her from stripping out of her underwear.
"When are you going to stop being a problem!?" Ranma demanded.
"Hey! Watch the hands, mister!" Anko bonked him on the head.
"Don't get so excited! I'm pretty damn familiar with�" the words
"female anatomy" were cut off in a gasp as Happosai lobbed an ice cold
water balloon in Ranma's face. "Gyaaah! Cold!"
While Ranma adjusted her clothes to suit her altered anatomy,
Happosai handed her a second pile of lingerie.
"I knew there were two of you running around!" Happosai had
blundered into the middle of Anko's campaign to capture Ranma the week
before, but had yet to learn how or why the kami had blessed him with
multiple Ranmas. As far as he was concerned, there could never be too
many of his favorite student! Always quick to exploit said favorite, he
added, "There's no need to fight over them, Ranma-chan! There's plenty
for you to model too!"
Akane turned, spotted Ranma with the heap of lingerie in her
arms, and pounded her into the floor boards. Anko stared at this with
wide eyes for a moment. Akane did not even spare her a glance, raving
at Ranma, "This will teach you, you shameless, perverted hussy!"
Ranma reared up, bits of tattered lingerie hanging off of her
battered form, "You sexless, macho, tomboy! How many times do I hafta
tell ya, I AM NOT *LIKE* THAT!" Practically hardwired to return insults
in kind, Ranma could not have said anything else even to save her own
life. Akane puffed up, balling her fists and hammered the disheveled
red-head straight back into the wall.
"You're just as bad as HE is!" Akane shouted.
"Who do you think you're talking to!?" Ranma roared back.
Anko blinked, shrugged indifferently, and gleefully finished
stripping down to slip into something slinky while Ranma yelled at
Akane. "Kyaaa! This is SO sexy!" She twirled around and then froze in
shock as something small and bony pressed itself into her bosom.
"AAAhhhh! Getitoff, gettitoff!"
As Anko's distress reached ear-splitting decibels, Anma snapped
awake and lurched to his feet. He twisted and lunged in to attack, his
leg blinking through space like a strobe light. An angry, black blur
danced around the lightening series of kicks, then bounced into focus
near Anma's shoulder. Without hesitating, the boy dropped to his chest
and whipped through a windmill kick, hands planted on the floor boards.
The kick launched Happosai at a wall, but the agile, old master
rebounded, laughing madly as he pulled a second water balloon out of
his gi. "Not too shabby, son!" Happosai crowed, dousing the boy with
water. "Three of them! Oh happy day!" Rocketing in on sheer momentum,
arms spread to grope the succulent bosom this excellent technique would
summon, he crashed into the boy's hard, flat chest. "No! What is
this!?"
In the moment of distraction, the boy perked up, and squeezed
Happosai tight in a bear hug. He locked the old man in place, his
gnarled old face pressed to the damp shirt to keep him from ogling his
girlfriend. "Gotcha, old man! No way you're gonna peek on MY girlfriend
now!"
Ranma caught this out of the corner of her eye, her gaze
hardened in response to Anma's declaration. While muttering about the
"girlfriend" comment, she appraised the situation. Happosai leeched
energy from his female victims when he molested them. Happosai clearly
had not understood that her clones did not share her curse, and had
choked on the masculine energy he'd leeched from Anma.
While the boy kept Happosai distracted, Ranma darted past Akane,
snatching a blanket to cover the girl up. Akane had finally noticed the
other red-head and used that instant to lunge forward with her shinai.
Anko sensed Akane's attack and dodged, unwittingly allowing Akane to
get in Ranma's way. Ranma had whipped the blanket out to snare Anko,
and did not notice as it wrapped itself around Akane. Anko, catching on
to Ranma's interference, dropped into a leg sweep, tripping the bundled
Akane into Ranma, who took the brunt of the impact, as both of them
tumbled to the floor.
"Ha! You two couldn't work together to save your own lives!"
"Dammit!" Ranma swore as the girl bounced out of reach.
Beginning to get annoyed, she growled menacingly, "Ranko!"
"Don't mind me!" Anko pulled down her eyelid and stuck out her
tongue, as Ranma wrestled with the writhing mass of Akane in the
blanket. While the two of them struggled to untangle themselves, Anko
quickly changed through a series of outfits. This provoked Anma and
Happosai to renew the fury of their struggle. Anma still held Happosai
in a tight embrace, twisting and writhing to block Happi's view as the
old man strained to get his face around for a good look. The old goat
writhed even harder as Anko cheered, "Oh! This is so nice! And this
too!"
"Let me see! Let me see! Ranma! You are going to pay for this!"
"Stop wiggling around you old toad!"
"Oooo! Look at this!"
Nabiki, who had taken station at the door after Ranma and Akane
raced in, kept the shutter on her camera clicking with glee. "You go,
girl! Smile!" and Anko dutifully posed for the camera. "Marvelous, now,
turn to the side. What can I say, Anko, you are a natural!"
Happosai finally squirted out of the boy's grasp and the two
began bouncing around the room. Anma launched himself after him without
hesitation.
"Nabiki!" Akane sputtered, halfway free of the blanket, "Don't
encourage her like that!"
In spite of the struggling tomboy, Ranma was making progress
freeing her fiancee from the blanket, albeit becoming more entangled
herself in the process.
Happi fumed, realizing that he was being forced to divert his
attention from Anko's display in order to dodge ahead of Anma's
attacks.
"Akane, please relax for a minute," Ranma-chan begged, trying
desperately to keep her favorite blanket from being shredded by the
other girl's struggles.
Akane did pause, not so much to heed Ranma's request, but to
reflect on the observation that Anko somehow managed to complete each
wardrobe change in the instants where the old man and the boy kept each
other distracted from her. Considering where Anko came from, Akane
found it hard to credit her with possessing any instinct or intention
to preserve her modesty. Certainly not when the outfits seemed more
sinful and shameless than abject nudity. Still, in the time it took
Ranma to untangle them from the blanket, Anko never once stood naked
before male eyes.
Relieved to have unraveled Akane from her blanket without having
it destroyed, Ranma quickly folded it and tucked it safely away in the
closet before returning her attention to her unwanted twin.
As Ranma sped over to try and stop Anko from continuing with her
little fashion show, Akane tried in vain to intercept Happosai.
Nabiki continued to click the shutter on her camera. After a
moment, Nabiki noticed that her little sister's attention was focused
more on Anko than the old lecher. "I see you noticed it too," Nabiki
casually addressed Akane.
"Huh? You mean 'Ranko'?"
"Yes. It's an ingenious strategy. She draws their attention to
herself when she's 'presentable.' They renew their struggle and become
distracted. She has a bit of privacy to change and then she starts the
cycle again," Nabiki appraised admiringly. She saw no need to mention
that this strategy had not foiled her camera. As Anko evaded a hammer
strike from Ranma, the Tendo sisters stared as Anko suddenly called on
the Saotome-exclusive and technically "sealed" art of the Umisen-ken.
Anko vanished, followed almost at once by Ranma's clothes.
"D-d-dammit! Now you're askin' for it!" Ranma-chan growled.
Naturally, Ranma retaliated in kind and stripped the other girl bare
using the same technique. Not about to be undone, Anko adapted the
technique on the fly to dress Ranma in a stunning bedroom ensemble.
Nabiki silently thanked the kami that she had upgraded her camera,
holding the rapid-advance tightly. Anko was able to dress the pair as
quickly as Ranma-chan could strip away the lingerie. Under such
circumstances, Nabiki set a personal speed record changing out the film
in her camera, desperate not to miss a single frame.
"Ranma, you're just making it worse," Akane growled. Her own
efforts to deal with the old man and the boy were fruitless as well.
Happosai bounded around the room evading Anma, and Akane was spinning
in circles just to keep track of them. It was not unlike watching Ranma
and P-chan fighting. It was time to switch tactics. "Leave her to me,
and get those two out of here!" Akane snapped in frustration.
For once, there was no argument. Ranma was happy to retreat from
the humiliating onslaught of panties and bras and other unmentionables.
That did not mean she was above taking advantage of her presently
lingerie clad form to lure Happosai from the room, while Akane put up a
screen to hide the other girl from view. With a flirty "Come and get
me!" Ranma drew the attention of old man and the boy to her.
Looking around and not seeing the other red-head, Happosai and
Anma pursued her out the door and down the stairs.
It took only a moment for Anko to notice her audience had rushed
out of the room. Before she could follow, ostensibly to get Anma's
opinion on her current ensemble, Akane blocked her, "Hold it right
there!"
"Why do you insist on getting in my way!? Huh?"
"Don't get the wrong idea. If you want to be molested by
Happosai, be my guest. Just tell me one thing first," Akane crossed her
arms and looked at her sternly. Anko sighed and gestured for her to get
on with it. "How can even a pervert like you stand to be wearing
underwear stolen from someone else?" Akane demanded with a shiver and a
look of pure disgust.
"S-st-stolen? As in, other people have worn these!?" Anko gaped
as Akane nodded. Anko stripped off the lingerie, kicking everything
into a pile. "Ick! Ew! Gross!" Before Akane could celebrate her success
in stopping Anko, the girl ran out of the room stark naked and swearing
under her breath.
"Where do you think you're going like that!?"
"I gotta take a bath, you idiot! What do you think?"
"You freak! Put some clothes on!"
Anko streaked down the stairs, plowing through Soun and Genma
who had frozen in shock at the sight of her as they were routed from
the living room by the mad dance erupting in Ranma, Happosai and Anma's
wake. Anko vanished into the furo as Akane paused to check on the
fathers. Each bore an angry red footprint square in the middle of his
face. Akane dragged the pair into the living room as Ranma raced into
the kitchen, barely ahead of Anma and Happosai.
"Darling! Don't run!" Anma beseeched.
"Hotcha! Nowhere to run to!" Happosai cackled.
For an instant, the two unwittingly cornered Ranma. "N-now, hold
on a sec�" Ranma-chan tried to edge into reach of the kettle that was
heating on the stove. The boy, thinking she was edging over toward him,
moved at the same time as Happosai. Ranma darted for the kettle and
crashed into Anma's open arms. He seized her passionately, and their
combined momentum jerked them out of Happosai's path. Happosai sailed
through the space Ranma had just occupied, and rebounded off the wall
above the stove. He snatched the kettle as he passed, and tossed it
into the sink where it cracked open and spilled the hot water down the
drain.
"Good work, Ranma my boy. Now, just hold her still for me�"
"As if I'd let a pervert like you touch my girlfriend!" Anma
jeered. Pushing Ranma behind him, he raised his guard to the old man.
Happosai laughed, still flying right at him.
As the boy opened up with his amaguriken attack, Happosai handed
him a couple Happodaikarin and launched himself over Anma's head at
Ranma.
Ranma spotted the small, dark blur and reacted instantly,
whipping a large pot off the pot rack.
Anma managed to catch the bombs and spun around, throwing them
at Happosai just as Ranma lunged forward with the pot, scooping
Happosai and the bombs out of the air. Once the pot slammed down on the
floor, Ranma and Anma hopped on top of it to keep the old man trapped.
A moment later, the Happodaikarin detonated in the confined
space, throwing the pair back away from each other. While Happosai
could have danced around Ranma all night, two of Ranma proved too much
for the old man. Trapped with his own bombs, he was fortunate to
survive the experience merely blasted into oblivion and charred head to
foot.
Without a word, the Ranma and Anma sprung back into action. One
of them was raiding the refrigerator for food and bottled water as the
other raced upstairs to collect all the lingerie, returning a moment
later to wrap it all up in a bundle with Happi inside. The boy pulled
out a small hammer, as Ranma produced the magical compact mirror she'd
received from the man at Mirror Mansion. Anma bopped the old man on the
head, and Ranma captured his gaze with the small mirror as his eyes
flickered open.
With a whoosh, the wizened old master vanished into exile.
"I knew this thing would come in handy again!" Ranma
congratulated herself.
"At last, that pest is out of our way, Darling!" Anma snatched
Ranma up in a loving embrace.
Ranma looked up in shock, moving into perfect position for the
descending kiss.
Akane appeared just in time to join Ranma in pounding the boy
senseless. "Bakahentai!" they chorused, stomping the poor boy
underfoot.
They managed to get a hold of themselves as they realized his
continuing struggles were actually reflexive twitches of pain.
"That's two down," Akane breathed in relief.
Ranma nodded silently and picked the boy up, carrying him over
her shoulder. They dragged him to Ranma and Genma's room and laid him
out on the futon. While Akane covered him with a blanket, Ranma went to
her closet, grabbed some things from inside, and went downstairs for a
quick bath.
Anko was sitting at the table, done with her bath, oblivious to
Ranma-chan's passing.
Male and dressed normally, Ranma returned from the bath a short
while later, with a bundle of roses. Sitting across from her, he held
them out silently, while Akane fumed from the door. Before she could
storm in, Ranma held up his hand, holding her off.
Akane puffed up, ready to bellow her usual challenge, as Anko
bent her head to breathe in the scent of the flowers and suddenly
swooned. Akane paused, a glimmering of understanding passing through
her, and raised an eyebrow. The roses must have been from Kodachi, to
knock the girl unconscious like that. Akane deflated, her thoughts
warring between the obvious fact that Ranma had come on to the girl,
and yet in the process put her out of commission. Unable to conclude
that he had done either the right or wrong thing, she simply helped
drag the girl to her room.
"That's three," Ranma declared, wearily.
"I'm kind of surprised it's over already," Akane sighed, shaking
her head.
The two spent the next few minutes straightening up after the
pandemonium. Kasumi had already cleared the table and cleaned the
kitchen, while her sisters had been upstairs with the triplets. Kasumi
had apparently avoided all the chaos by stepping out on the upstairs
porch for a bit of fresh air. Ranma sought her out to explain the
destruction of one of her pots, promising to replace it the following
afternoon on his way back from school.
It was a small price to pay for getting rid of Happosai.

-----

Disclaimer: Ranma Nibunnoichi, and the associated cast and concepts are
the property of Rumiko Takahashi and those publishers and distributors
to whom she has given official rights. It is not the intention of this
work to infringe upon those rights. This story may not be purchased or
sold without the express permission of the writer, meaning me, the
creator, meaning Rumiko Takahashi, or those agencies to whom the
creator has given such rights or privileges. The ideas explored are
those of the author, and should not be construed to express the
opinions or intentions of the creator or associated agencies.

Author's Note: I have been an avid fan of Ranma 1/2 manga, anime and fan
fiction for years. I am also a writer and artist. In spite of these two
things, I did not seriously consider creating any of my own fan fiction
until now. Before addressing the story I chose to write, I want to
comment on why I chose to write it. Over the past few years I have seen
other fans take this cast and explore a wonderful assortment of
possibilities. Many excellent ideas have been developed, and I felt I
would have been walking in someone else's shadow, or stepping on
several people's toes, to explore the ideas inspired by their additions
to Ranma ?. Still, I had those ideas, and they eventually led me back
to the original series where I discovered an excellent possibility I
had not yet seen explored. In the original series, the conclusion of
the "Two Ranmas" storyline was left entirely to the imagination of the
readers. It was a perfect invitation for a fan fic, and offered me a
foundation for many volumes of ongoing fan fics. Ranma Nibunnoichi -
Reflections begins after Part 4 of Volume 35, and explores the events
which unfolded during the week when the Tendo Household was stuck with
two amorous copies of Ranma, one male and one female.

Revision Note: This is the first installment of the new, revised
version of Ranma Nibunnoichi - Reflections retitled Reflections V.1 -
Stuck in the Middle With You. This story has been evolving from day
one. By the time I finished Reflections, I had produced enough material
for three complete volumes and the story was still evolving in new
directions. It had taken on a life of its own at some point. I could
not stop the ideas from spilling out. Before I knew it, it was no
longer the story I had intended to write. Nor was it the best story I
could have written. As I worked on the fourth volume, intended as a
transition from Ranma Nibunnoichi to Ranko Nibunnoichi, I realized it
would become necessary to go back and revise everything, taking
advantage of things I learned in the process of writing Reflections and
the "bonus" volume, It's All in the Reflexes. Thanks to all of the
reviews I received for both stories, and the special efforts of Daniel
Jess Gibson and Fangorn (Thanks guys!) that process has begun.

In order to accommodate the growth of the story and the writer,
I needed to update it a bit so that it can continue. Some of the
changes are simply structural. It will be a five volume story, each
volume having fifteen chapters. In the fifth volume you will find out
why the next story is called Ranko Nibunnoichi - Refractions. Sadly,
that does mean there will be noticeable changes. Some of the changes
will be very subtle, while others will be screamingly obvious. For
example, the reflections will no longer be identified as Copy-chan and
Copy-kun. The suffixes -chan and -kun, by which the copies were
previously distinguished from each other, were not really suitable. In
Ranma's case, the same suffixes have developed into a tongue in cheek
way to emphasize which side of Ranma is being referred to, but that is
not a proper way to distinguish a boy from a girl. The -chan/-kun
suffixes are normally used to indicate a level of familiarity between
two people regardless of their gender. In addition, the first chapter
has been expanded to include a rough recap of the events in the manga
leading up to this story, and part of what was originally featured in
the second chapter.

I am sorry if this upsets some of you. Feel free to stick with
the version you like best. I will keep a copy of the original version
here, if Fanfiction.Net allows it, and on my personal site. For the
most part, I am doing this revision for my own satisfaction. So far, I
have published a rough draft. What I want to create, what I hope you
will also appreciate, is a story that makes the most out of the ideas
invested in it. I hope to make it a little less confusing as well.
Comments and Criticism are welcome as always. This is still my first
fan fic, after all. My only request is that my readers offer examples
or explanations to ensure that their suggestions will enable me to
improve the story. Comments and Criticism are welcome as always. This
is still my first fan fic, after all. My only request is that my
readers offer examples or explanations to ensure that their suggestions
will enable me to improve the story.

Mature Content: Because Reflections was originally intended to
integrate with the series, before it evolved into an outright
divergence, it faced some obvious limitations, which many fan fic
readers found disappointing. On the surface, the situation screamed for
a lovely lemon flavor. I have a healthy (avid) interest in sex and
sexuality, so it was not a case where I couldn't or wouldn't go there�
it was just that going there would have upset the status quo
tremendously. Now that Reflections is no longer a "missing chapter" of
the original series, the ideas that support a lemon filling, can be
explored. Part of the story deals with sexual awakening and
experimentation, and some of the plot hinges on sexual events, and must
be included in the R rated version. In some cases, the fact that sex
occurred is the only thing a lemon scene contributes to the plot, and
those scenes will be found only in the unrated version of the story.
Even those scenes have a value and significance beyond mere fan
service, since the way people act and interact in intimate
circumstances is as important as how they conduct themselves in other
circumstances.





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