Rejected

Part 7 - Saturday.

By Lord Archive

This is a sad and possibly a little dark. 

Characters are owned by Rumiko Takahashi, Viz Video, etc..., and are 
used without permission. I'm only borrowing them. I'll return them. I 
can't afford the overdue charge Nabiki insists on.

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

I shall, once again, attempt to free my love from the accursed marriage 
she has found herself in. It pains me to know, by her own words, that 
Saotome has indeed taken liberties with her body. Forced her to share 
his bed. He shall face the true wrath of the Blue Thunder for his crimes.

I do not go home after leaving the hospital, for there is no time to 
lose. I must free Tendo Akane now!

I stride past the gate and into the very domain of my foe and of my 
love. This day Akane shall be free. Only death shall stop me from my 
goal.

Ah! At last I've found the villain. "Saotome Ranma, you vile beast! How 
dare you take Tendo Akane's hand in marriage? I SHALL KILL YOU!" I 
strike an awe-inspiring pose.

He looks to me with eyes that already speak of his defeat at my hands. 
"I dare because she gave it to me. She gives me her love, where you only 
get to dream about it."

He dares speak to me with such contempt! "Saotome, you are not even 
worthy to be called a man let alone..."

My senses must have blackened out since fair Akane now stands above me in 
all her fury. Her body absolutely glowing with power. "Kuno-baka, if you 
ever say that again, I WILL KILL YOU! Ranma is a thousand times the man 
you are!" Her words of anger are like that of a rabid wolf. It pains me 
to see how Saotome's spell afflicts her.

"Now Akane," the vile one speaks, "Kuno-sempai only said what is true." 
He takes a step back into the koi pond.

My other love appears and the vile sorcerer is gone! Can it be that I 
have won? That my loves are free?

"How can I be a man if I have a body like this?" My love doth speak in 
riddles.

"Tendo Ranma!" Akane shouts angrily. "That body isn't your true body! 
You're a man! Your spirit doesn't change because of that body you've 
been cursed with!"

Is my love, Tendo Akane, delusional? Can she not see that is the 
pig-tailed girl and not Ranma who stands before her? And what is this 
other nonsense she speaks of?

"Come on, Akane? Do I really look like I'm your husband with this body? 
I turn the heads of more guys than you ever could. I've got a body any 
man would want." True, what glorious beauty she has.

"So magic has given you a body of a girl that's better looking than 
mine, so what? Your male body turns the heads of even more girls. 
Besides, the spirit of the man I love is still in there. You are a man, 
my husband, and my love, no matter what you look like." Magic? Body of a 
girl? What does Akane mean by this? Has she truly gone mad?

"NO!" the pig-tailed girl screamed. "I'm not a man! How can I be a man 
if my own mother didn't think so? How can I be a man if I have periods? 
If I have a woman's body? Real men don't know women's needs or women's 
problems, but I do!" Yet more riddles? She is a women, and yet she wants 
her mother to believe she is a man?

Akane was taken aback by the vociferous outburst. "R-Ranma... You're a 
man to me. Your mother only knew you for a day. She didn't try to get to 
know you. All she ever saw was that body. So what if you have periods 
and know things only women do. I don't think it makes you less of a man. 
It makes you more of one. All a woman ever wants is a man that 
understands them, and you can do that more than any other man."

Akane approaches the pig-tailed girl. "I love you, Ranma. You are 
everything to me. Knowing that you are my man is more important to me 
than breathing. Your mother didn't think you're a man, because she 
didn't know you. But I do know you and I know you're a man. The man I 
love."

A-Akane is kissing the pig-tailed girl. She calls the pig-tailed girl 
Ranma. What madness is this? Has the spells of Saotome corrupted their 
minds?

"Well, Kuno-chan, I suppose you want to know what that was about, ne?" 
the cold Tendo Nabiki asks me.

"Hai. I wish to know what madness this is that would cause Akane to see 
the pig-tailed girl as Ranma."

Nabiki looks amused. "The person you believe to be the pig-tailed girl 
is Tendo Ranma. A couple weeks before he first arrived here, Ranma and 
his father went to the cursed training grounds, Jusenkyo. They didn't 
know, until after they fell into one of the springs, that whoever fell 
in took the body of whatever drowned there. In Ranma's case, it was 
Nyannichuan, cursed spring of drowned young girl. His father turned into 
the panda you saw around here."

"You expect me to believe such fallacy?"

"Kuno-chan, you are being really stupid. How much proof do you want? 
Ranma transformed before your eyes. Akane argued with the pig-tailed girl 
about her being a man. What would it take you to believe it? To be 
cursed yourself?"

"Such magic does not exist!"

Nabiki scowls at me, fiercely. "Oh, but mind control magic does? Kuno, 
really, there is more than enough evidence that Ranma is the pig-tailed 
girl and that Akane loves him. Get it through that thick skull of yours."

"I will not believe that! These are lies and I shall prove them as such!"

Nabiki glares at me with a look that'd freeze the blood of lesser men. 
"If you want more proof that I'm telling the truth, follow me."

Her look and tone tell me if I do not follow, she will cause great 
financial woe to the Kuno estate, for that is how Nabiki exacts pain. "I 
shall, but I doubt there is such proof." 

Nabiki leads me away. While I fear for my loves, I don't know what action 
to take without the cursed Saotome present.

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

Nabiki leads me to the den of one of the sorcerer's concubines, the 
Neko-Hanten. Oddly, it is closed on this glorious Saturday, a day it 
should be open and brisk with business.

"Hello, Shampoo," Nabiki greets as the Amazon opens the door.

Shampoo looks as if she is in mourning. "Nihao, Nabiki. What want?"

"Sorry about disturbing you. Kuno is having a hard time believing Ranma 
and Akane are really married and about the Jusenkyo curse. I want to 
make it absolutely clear to him, so he won't try to go after Ranma 
again."

The purple haired minx glares at me. "Want Shampoo turn cat?" What does 
she mean by that?

"I was hoping you had some instant Jusenkyo, particularly Nyannichuan." 
Nabiki's words turn cold as the arctic winds, "I want him to know 
exactly what it feels like after he said to Ranma he wasn't worthy to be 
called a man."

Shampoo stares at me in shock, then anger most vicious, and now grins at 
me like a ferocious, evil tigress. "Oh, think Great-grandmother left 
that. Shampoo go check." Her words are filled with venom.

Why do I suddenly have a bad feeling about all this? That I really 
should be somewhere else. But I stand firm, fears are for lesser men.

Moments pass and my patience grows thin. I must free my loves.

Shampoo shouts from a second story window. "No instant girl spring, but 
got some from instant wolf spring."

"Hmm... even better." Nabiki grins like the Cheshire Cat.

A moment passes and the purple haired Amazon appeared at the door with a 
bucket of water. Nabiki steps away as the contents of the bucket soak my 
personage.

I feel... strange... changed... weird.

My senses warp. I no longer see colors, just black and white. I smell... 
everything, and hear.. everything.

My clothes, somehow, no longer properly fit.

I'm standing on all fours?!

What madness is this? I... I'm a wolf?!

Nabiki crouches down in front of me. "You see now, K-Chan? Jusenkyo 
magic does exist. We have used a temporary form on you. It will wear off 
soon enough."

How can you do this to me? This is sorcery most vile! I am no longer 
human. I'm not a man, but a base creature. There is nothing more evil 
than this.

Nabiki moves to remove my clothes. She dare do that! I snap at her, 
fighting to keep my dignity.

"K-Chan, stop that. You're a wolf for now. I won't tell you how to turn 
back unless you do as I say." 

I relent. What else can I do? For I know not of how to lift this curse. 
I will see that she pays for this.

She removes my clothes to my embarrassment. I am nude for the world to 
see. 

"K-Chan look kawaii!" The Amazon sorceress giggles in delight of my shame.

K-Chan indeed. Such a lousy name for one as great as I.

"Thanks for the help, Shampoo," Nabiki says.

"No problem. Kuno hurt Ranma, so Shampoo hurt Kuno. Is fair." Shampoo's 
demeanor becomes sad. "How is Ranma?"

"I'm not sure what harm Kuno's outburst did, but the true test comes 
Monday when he returns to school. Until then, I can't be to sure."

"Oh. If Ranma need Shampoo's help, no hesitate to call."

"We won't, and thanks again." Nabiki turns to me. "Come on K-chan. Let's 
go back to my home and you'll be able to see how much Akane is in love 
with Ranma without you opening that big mouth of yours."

I growl at her, but follow anyway, for she knows of my cure. And she has 
my clothes.

This body I am cursed with may come with advantages, but it is not my 
body. It is not who I am. I am Kuno Tatewaki, the Blue Thunder, and I 
shall be a man again!

I am in control of what I do. I see with a wolf's eyes, but think with a 
man's mind. The sensations I feel are strange and aren't mine. How could 
anyone live like this? I do not know. The feelings are foreign, they are 
and are not part of me. I cannot comprehend what I really feel.

Nabiki now speaks to me, "Now K-Chan, a few ground rules. One, you will 
not attack Ranma. Ranma or Akane might think you're rabid, or something, 
and kill you. You'd be buried as you are and no one, but me, would know 
you died." I shudder at the thought. I must restrain myself if I'm ever 
to be a man again.

"Two, you will behave yourself. You will watch them and not interfere." 
I will not stand by and watch him work his evils.

"The better behaved you are the sooner I lift the curse." Grr... Fine.

"Three, remember, you are a dog, behave as such."

Do I have much choice in this?

"Do you believe yet that Ranma is the pig-tailed girl?"

I shake my head, because that is a lie, for she is my love!

"You have a better sense of smell in that form, right? You can tell the 
difference in people by how they smell."

I nod. My own experience with dogs, and how good my sense of smell is 
now, tell me this is true.

"Then four, you will get a good scent of Ranma as both forms. If his 
smell doesn't differ too much, then you'll know both are Ranma."

Such should prove that I am the right, that they are not the same.

We arrive at the Tendo home. Nabiki leads me inside and gives me one 
last warning to behave.

Where are my loves? I shall find a means to aid them, to free them.

Hark! I hear the fair Akane from upstairs. She is making strange noises. 
She screams! I must save her! I growl and move to save my love.

"K-Chan SIT!" Nabiki commands forcefully.

I snarl at her. Does she not hear her sister scream?

"Akane is in no danger, so sit!" 

But... my love...

"Sit or you'll stay that way."

Love or my manhood? I can move to save her, but then I may never be able 
to love her as a man. Regretfully she must endure whatever torture 
Saotome is putting her through, for I shall eventually free her and love 
her as a man! For now... I sit.

The gentle Kasumi now approaches. "Kawaii! A wolf." She smiles gently, 
and pats me on the head. I could get used to that.

Kasumi looks at Nabiki and says in tone of voice colder than I've ever 
heard from her, "Have you handled Kuno yet?"

"Work in process. Hopefully everything will be settled with him by 
tonight."

Tonight? All I have to do is put up with this and I shall be human again 
tonight.

Akane screams again. I must... but I can't. Oh, Nabiki, you shall pay 
dearly.

Kasumi sighs. "I do wish they'd be quieter when they make love." Make 
love? Akane is with Ranma and you let them... I will see you all pay!

"With Ranma's curse, he knows how to pleasure a girl. He could make 
anyone a screamer," Nabiki smirks. She's enjoying my discomfort. 

"Guess you're right about that. No wonder so many girls were after him." 

Nabiki stares at Kasumi oddly. "Ah... yeah."

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

I wait in the dining room. It has been an hour since I got here, and 
only a half-hour since they... stopped. Oh, what tortures she goes 
through, and her family does nothing. They all shall pay for their crimes.

Finally, I hear a pair of foot falls on the stairs. My love has left the 
room of her pain. Akane stops at the door to the dinning room, while the 
vile Saotome continues on. 

"How is he?" Nabiki asks.

"He didn't take Kuno's comment well. I want to make Kuno pay for saying 
that." Akane's fist shakes angrily. Oh, how the spell afflicts her so.

Akane sighs and leans against the door. "Though it was nice how Ranma 
'proved' he was a man after that." My love has an odd look of happiness 
and sadness at the same time.

"I'm sure it was. You were disturbing K-Chan, here, with the noises you 
were making."

"I was?" I think Akane is blushing as her face takes another shade of 
gray. "Oh, what a kawaii dog, Nabiki."

"Certainly is." Nabiki scratches me behind the ear. That's what it feels 
like?! No wonder dogs like that. "I'm keeping an eye on him for a 
friend. Hopefully he'll pick him up tonight, tomorrow at the latest."

Tomorrow? You shall make me a... Oh, I really like how she is scratching 
me now.

Ranma returns. "Akane, do you know where the aspirins are? The medicine 
cabinet is empty."

Akane nods, and calls out, "Kasumi, can you get some aspirins for Ranma?" 
I hear Kasumi give an affirmative answer.

"Why is the medicine cabinet empty?" Ranma asks in a cold tone.

"Well, um," Akane say nervously, "We were worried you might... 
try to kill yourself." The vile Saotome is suicidal?!

"Come on, Akane, do you really think I'd do that?"

"Ranma, we're worried about you. You've taken your parents' death really 
hard. I don't want to lose you because you couldn't take the pain 
anymore. While I doubt you would try it that way... we didn't want to 
take any chances. Besides, we have to be careful with Daddy, too. Your 
father was his best friend, and he's been over-emotional ever since Mom 
died."

Ranma shakes his head. "I appreciate the concern, but you don't have to 
be THAT concerned."

"I can't help being that concerned. I love you and I couldn't go on 
living without you." She touches him with such gentleness I have never 
known. She is kissing him. This sight sickens me so.

Kasumi gives Ranma the aspirins. They then sit at the table and watch TV. 
They sit together so closely you'd think they weren't two different 
people.

Nabiki controls me. She does so not with words, but by scratching my 
head. I wonder if people would scratch their dogs if they knew it had the 
kind of effect it has.

I continue to watch them. They behave not as I know them. They do not 
argue. No insults said. 

Yet I continue to watch. Waiting for him to show his evils. Waiting to 
be proven true.

Damn it! Do something wrong! Be the evil man I know you to be!

Still I watch. He still has yet to do wrong. How can evil, such as he, 
lie in wait?

Time continues on, and Ranma and Akane have shown to speak to each other 
without speaking. Such is truly sickening, for how can this be true?

It's been hours and still nothing. 

I can see a visible, almost tangible, closeness existing between them. 
This is wrong. Akane cannot love him so. How can she love him? He is 
evil! Evil, I say! DON'T LOVE HIM! 

She... she does love him. By all that is holy, she loves him. A spell 
may have brought that love, but that love exists. To break such love 
would break her, would kill her.

I lay by Nabiki like a wounded animal. My goddess of the hunt is in love 
with another, to a man of evil. I can do nothing for now... perhaps never. 

But what of the pig-tailed girl? She is nowhere to be seen. I can yet 
free her.

Why is it that I feel, now, that I shall be proven wrong in this as 
well? That Ranma is the pig-tailed girl.

It is now time for supper, and like all dogs, I sit watching them. I do 
not do so for food, though I am hungry. I do not do so to play the act 
of being a dog, though I do take the food Nabiki offers. She enjoys that 
too much. I do so to see that he is evil. Perhaps I can find how he 
works his evils. Find a means to unravel them.

Nabiki makes a deliberate move to 'accidentally' knock over a glass of 
water. It's contents finds itself on Ranma. Now my red haired love sits 
in his place. Nabiki apologizes for her 'mistake.'

I smell her scent. It moves across my senses. Smells like... Ranma. But 
there are subtle, small differences. The pig-tailed girls scent has 
something different to it... something that is similar to the other 
girls in the room. It is the scent of a woman, but the remainder of the 
scent is Ranma's.

Ranma truly is the pig-tailed girl! Oh what bitter ironies?! The loves 
of my life have married each other. Shakespeare would love such a 
concept.

I walk from the table. My loves are not in love with me, and one is a 
man. I want to vomit at the thought. While it is said by some of my 
ancestors, the truest love is between men, comrades in arms, I want only 
the love of a woman.

I look into the koi pond. Stare at the reflection of the wolf that I now 
am. Maybe I would be better this way. Wolves care not for love. Their 
hearts are not torn asunder by the loss of love.

The water is clear and placid, while in sharp contrast, my heart and 
mind is clouded and in turmoil. The water seems to beckon me. Yearn to 
me. Call to me. I could drown out my sorrows in this pool, and forget 
the heartache of lost love.

Water... Ranma has changed form with water! I can return to a man with 
water! I jump in without another thought.

Damn it! I'm still a wolf. Will I ever be a man?

"What's with the dog?" Akane asks.

"Like I'd know. I'm only watching him," Nabiki said, amusement clear in 
her voice.

I crawl out of the koi pond. I rest to the side of it. My mind is a 
turning sea of thoughts. 

I look at my loves... No, they are not my loves. They have never been my 
loves. They are beauty which one yearns for, but that is not love. Never 
were my loves... and never shall be my loves.

But what evils that Ranma has wrought? Should I not help fight against 
his evil? The evil that he's done to... No, that was a delusion. How 
could he rape himself as I thought? What about the numerous girls that 
chase him... Yes, chase him, for he runs. He does not want them.

I think about my life now, and see it not as I had, but see it as if I
wear new eyes. I ignore what I felt then, seeing things as I wanted them
to be, since I now see them as they really are.

My world is shattered. All that I knew was a lie. A lie I told unto 
myself, as I refused to see reality. Refused to see things as they are, 
preferring to see things as I chose.

I am nothing but a lie.

I am a lie. 

I am false. 

I am nothing.

After they complete supper, Nabiki approaches me. She sits on a rock, 
next to where I now lay. She speaks to me in a soft, low voice, "Do you 
understand now? That Ranma and Akane love each other? That Ranma is the 
pig-tailed girl?"

I nod sadly to her in response to her questions. For now I see the truth 
I have denied myself.

"Come on. I'll give you a nice warm bath. That'll change you back."

Warm bath? So it is the temperature of the water that triggers the 
change.

I follow her to the bathing room. My clothes are already in there. After 
I enter, she shuts the door behind me. I hop into the furo's warm water. 
I feel the change occur. YES! I am a man again! I am whole!

I quickly dry myself with a towel and get dressed. I exit the bath, 
striding past Nabiki. There is something I must do.

I return to the dinning room, where Ranma and Akane are. They look to me 
with anger and hate. Yes, hate and not the love I had thought it was. How 
I've been blind.

I kneel before them. "Tendo Akane, Tendo Ranma," I begin, "I, Kuno 
Tatewaki, apologize. I have acted wrongly towards you. I am the one who 
is dishonorable. I am the one who is not truly a man. Ranma, you are 
truly a man. I see this now. I am sorry for what I've done."

They stare at me in shock and surprise. The look on Ranma's female face 
is priceless.

"I do not expect that you shall ever forgive me, but know this, for as 
long as the Kuno clan exists it shall be in service to the Tendo clan 
whenever it is in need."

I bow low to them, for they are the right, the superior. I have always 
thought superiority came from my breeding, through wealth. This is not 
the case. Superiority comes from the person, from within. I am not 
superior, for I know not what is within me, nor do I know that which is 
on the outside. I am lost, but I shall find my way.

"Darn, and here I thought you were about to give me a blank check, 
K-Chan," Nabiki smirks. I am not that stupid anymore... I think.

"K-Chan?" Akane squeaks.

I sigh. "Nabiki thought I should pay for my ignorance and reluctance to 
see the truth by having the Amazon temporarily turn me into the wolf."

"You were K-Chan?" Akane stares at me in disbelief.

I nod. "It has been a sobering experience to say the least. But I have 
found it to be... enlightening. I refused to see the world through my 
eyes, so I had to see the world through a wolf's eyes. My vision may 
have been black and white, but for the first time, in a long time, I 
have truly seen."

"So now you know what it's like," Ranma says.

"Yes. For while I spent most of the day not as a man, I am a better man 
for it. Again, I am truly sorry for my actions." I stand up. "Ranma, if 
you are not a man, then no one can claim to be. For while you may have 
that body, you have proven to truly be a man amongst men."

I bow once more, and leave. Nabiki follows me to the door.

"Nabiki, I wish to thank you. You have opened my eyes, forced me to take 
off my rose-colored glasses, if you will. I can never repay you for that 
service. Still, I ask if I ever refuse to see reality for what it is, you 
will make me see it."

Nabiki gives me a wry grin, "Oh, I'll give you a nice kick in the ass if 
you ever get out of line again. One thing before you go, do you think 
you can handle your sister?"

"I shall," I nod. "Um, am I no longer cursed?"

"It was a one-shot use. You don't need to fear water as Ranma does."

I sigh with relief. With a bow, I say, "I shall see you later."

"Goodbye, K-Chan."

I growl at the name. I think that only encouraged her.

I walk from the home of my loves, knowing they are out of my reach. My 
heart does not ache as it would if I had truly loved them. I know now it 
was only infatuation. That I wanted them for their beauty.

They say it is better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved 
at all. I don't know this to be true, for I have never known love. Not 
love even from my parents or from my sibling. Love is unknown to me. To 
be a full man I must find love, but I know not where to begin to look. I 
do not want to live life without love, for that would be a waste of my 
life. I'd have done nothing, been nothing, worth nothing.

I look at my hands. My manly hands. I never want to go through such 
experience again. To be not as you are, but something else. A creature 
whose form is unknown and yet known to you, for you are that creature. 

To not be a man. To fear that you shall never be a man again. That 
you'll spend the rest of your life as something you were not born to be. 
How Ranma has lived with that curse, I shall never know. Never want to know.  

A truck splashes me with water. Where once I'd curse the indignity, but 
now I am happy. I am still a man.

I arrive at my home. I walk to my room, only to hear the insane laughter 
of my twisted sister. It sounds far worse now than I've ever heard 
before. She must know of Ranma's wedding then. I must face her, prevent 
her from working against the Tendos as I've promised.

I move towards her green house. Her laughter grates on my nerves. I want 
to run, for I fear my sister. She is an alchemist and may have concocted 
an evil brew to bring down one of the Tendos. I must stop her, though she 
might use it on me. I must stand against my fear.

"Dear sister, what is it you are doing?" I ask as if I didn't know.

"Why, I'm going to get my darling Ranma-sama away from that wretched 
Tendo girl," Kodachi speaks fiercely.

"Then you seek to destroy Ranma? For if you take him a way from Akane, he 
is nothing. He would be destroyed."

"What nonsense do you speak of, brother dearest."

"I speak of love most pure. Love we have never known. Ranma and Akane 
love each other to degrees I did not know existed."

"So you have given up on Akane to Ranma? You let your love slip through 
your fingers. I shall not! I love Ranma and nothing will stop me from 
saving him from that vile marriage he's in." My sister is, indeed, not 
well in the mind as I was.

"I cannot let you do harm to them." I move to the ready.

"You dare stand in my way? I thought you hated Ranma." She steps back, 
ready to strike like a snake.

"Oh, I was deluded as you still are. I have had my eyes opened."

"Then I shall close them!" And she strikes.

We fight each other, though I wish no harm to my sister. She would bring 
more harm if I do not fight her.

We exchange blows. She has cut me. Toxins are now in my system. I hope 
they are her usual brand of paralization, for which I'm immune to. I see 
by the look on her face that it is so.

We continue to fight on. Our battle rages through the grounds of the Kuno 
estate.

A trap! Gases engulf me. I stagger to the pool, and fall in.

I quickly get out of the pool. My sister's pet would likely find me a 
tasty snack.

What devilment is this?

My sister laughs. "I did not think my gases could do that! I must make 
more of it." She leaps away, laughing her insane laugh. It hurts my 
senses now more than ever.

Slowly, reluctantly, I move to the pool's edge. 

I look at my reflection.

no.

No.

NO!

"HHHOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!" I scream into the night.

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

Author's note:

Evil can be fun ;)

In case you didn't noticed Akane and the 'pig-tailed girl' speak in more 
Kuno-esque style than normal when the story is from his perspective, 
since this is Kuno's interpretation of things. 

Thanks to my numerous pre-readers for checking this chapter.
And thanks to all of you who sent me C&C on this series.

You can send C&C to archive@mich.com

You can find previous chapters my other stories at
http://www.mich.com/~archive/anime


			 / LORD ARCHIVE \
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