A Duet of Pigtails
By Libby Thomas

Based on the characters and storylines of Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko Takahashi and Magic Knight Rayearth by CLAMP

Part Four:
Mit Brennender Sorge

So far the day had gone well.  A little after Hikaru had left, Satoru had called to let them know that he would not be able to go shopping for Hikaru's gift with them; Ranma and Ukyo had left about an hour ago.  A little while after that, both Tatewaki and Satoru had called to explain that they would be delayed, or in Satoru's case, further delayed.  As Ranma's 10:00 Self-Defense for Women course came in, Hibiki focused on the situation at hand; namely teaching these otherwise useless hopeless housewives who only had to take the self-defense course for fear of the slightly increasing crime in Tokyo.  

The two hours-long class was an exercise of sorts for him, as well.  One particular housewife--well, he thought she was, anyway--began to give him an appraising look.  Over the years, Ryoga had begun to realize and understand that look--mostly through those troubled teenaged years--but at least was able to control himself from debilitating embarrassment.  For the majority of the class, he strained to avoid the woman.  Despite his best efforts to avoid her, though, he ended up having to put up with her eagerness.  ((Oh well,)) he'd thought at the time, ((at least she's eager.))

When it was over, she actually came up to him and thanked him for the course.  She apologized in regards to her seeming forwardness, but there was something about Ryoga that reminded her about her husband.  After a second, she laughed with a cheerful tone and added that it must have been that stoic devotion to his wife, she said as she notioned to his wedding ring, that was just like her own spouse.  Noting that her friends were about to leave, she thanked him again, and expressed her hope that he would teach again soon.

As the last of the students exited the dojo, Ryoga wiped an errant bead of sweat of his brow in relative peace.  Ranma's students were a vast change from the lifestyle that he was accustomed to on the Unryu farm.  He could see why Ranma preferred a life of teaching rather than making tons of money in tournaments.  This life was simpler, more satisfying.  It was a world that perhaps Ryoga might consider as a sideline to the farm.  ((After all,)) he thought, ((I don't think there are many dojos in the Five Lakes area, and no one wants to travel all the way to Tachikawa for training.  I think I'll have to ask Akari her opinion on this one.))

As he picked up a broom, he heard a voice calling to him.  "Hail, friend Hibiki," a calm voice said in Shakespearean tones.

Without looking up, Ryoga continued to sweep and answered, "Hiya, Tatewaki.  How goes it?"

Kuno Tatewaki looked at his old friend and gave an appreciative nod for a man who'd once been a bitter rival.  "It goes well, for is it not that we should train for this day the students of my brother-in-law Ranma and his dear wife, the beloved Pigtailed girl?"  At the moment, he stood in a business suit, carrying a bag that contained, undoubtedly, his kendo clothing.  He offered to train Hikaru's classes for the day while Ranma and Ukyo attended to their part of the plan.

"Um...yeah.  Sure," he said blandly, while inwardly groaning, ((He still doesn't get it.))  After all these years, Tatewaki had finally found the identity of the woman he thought to be the legendary pigtailed girl--namely, Hikaru.  While it was a relative comfort to Ranma, it was bizarre for Hikaru, when first dating Ranma, to wonder why his sister's fiancée was paying so much attention to her.  Add to the outbreaks of fights between Ranma and Tatewaki over her, and things were rough for a few weeks--the only period that Ranma and Hikaru had difficulties in their flourishing relationship.  Nabiki had finally sat Hikaru down one night and explained the whole mess, clearing things up for the redhead.  Since then, Hikaru had put up with it with charm and grace, and Tatewaki accepted that Ranma truly did have the heart of the pigtailed girl.  Adding to his verbage, he asked, "What do you plan to do today with the class?"

"Oh, that's quite simple, Ryoga," another voice commented, as Shidou Satoru entered into the room.  "My students will be here in about ten minutes.  I thought that it would be interesting to have my sister's students spar against mine for training purposes, topped off with a match between me and Tatewaki."  Turning to Tatewaki, he commented, "Sorry I had to change it to this afternoon, but I had to tend to a few other last-minute things before I could arrive."

"Not a problem," Tatewaki coolly replied, "for it is I that am late as well.  A had a trifle of a business meeting that went well over the allotted time frame, so it is fortunate that both of us were tardy to our endeavors, correct?"

Ryoga chuckled at that one; since the two kendo masters had met at the Saotome wedding, they shared a friendship/rivalry that was very much the equal to that of he and Ranma.  "Ah...I think I may have to stick around to watch that one.  But first, I think I could use a shower.  I've been training all day, and Kasumi might use some help in the house."  With that, he stepped into the house.

Once in, he passed by the television on the way to the downstairs guestroom.  Sure enough, perched in front of the TV, watching her nephew and niece as they slept, was Kasumi.  The eldest Tendo daughter had never changed, and though she now lived with her husband Tofu, this was still very much her home, and for the most part, he couldn't picture the house without her.  Sitting there on a pillow, her nephew and niece at her side and her son Hiro on her lap as they watched some sort of monster movie.   Noticing him, she whispered, "Oh, hello, Ryoga.  The babies, as you can see, are asleep, and Hiro-chan and I are watching one of those monster movies."  With a strange wistfulness in her voice she said, "It reminds me of the old days, for some reason."

Ryoga didn't know how to answer that, so he added, "Tatewaki and Satoru have arrived, and'll be starting their classes in a few minutes.  I came in to see if you needed a hand with anything."

"Oh, that's very sweet of you!" she said, her smile as sweet as sunny as ever.  "But I hadn't planned on working on anything until an hour from now, when Ranma and Ukyo get home."  Nodding her head towards her child, she added, "Besides, Hiro wanted to me to watch terebi with him, and I love spending time with my son."

Ryoga stared a little more intently at the screen. "Nnn... 'Musabetsu Sentai Bushiranger'.  I used to watch that when I was his age.
I see he's got class."  Ryoga bent down to sit with the pair, when without warning, the screen changed to a Fuji TV Special Report.  The report showed the aftermath of a horrific, mindless massacre that had occurred at an amusement park an hour ago.  It really didn't catch the attention of either, until the words "Fujikyu Highland" were uttered by the anchorwoman, then confirmed as the video switched to an on-camera scene of the carnage.  As the pair watched in shock, the park looked absolutely destroyed, and there were still monsters running around, some apparently in combat with people who could defend themselves.  The video cameras showed the grounds, awash in a red, which could only be one thing.

So stunned were they by the grisly display, Kasumi blurted an expletive, despite her intentions not to curse in front of children: "Oh, my."  She then turned her eyes instinctively towards the sleeping children, then towards Ryoga.  Those eyes, once used to anything that had happened in this household, had been taken down a few pegs by the death of just about every member of her family.  Those eyes, looking at Ryoga's, now registered fear and a sick worry.

Without a second to spare, Ryoga leapt to his feet and scrambled in to the dojo.  As the two classes of kendo students were there, watching Tatewaki and Satoru demonstrate combat maneuvers (this was a demonstration, and not the promised match), it looked a little too real for Ryoga.  Screaming out "Bunretsu!" to the teachers, he foolheartedly leapt into the center of the pair, snapping each combatant's bokken with a pin-point Bakusai Tenkestu.

"What is the meaning of this, Hibiki?" an annoyed Tatewaki snarled as he ripped off the kendo mask.

"Stow it, Tatewaki," Ryoga replied.  "Both of you, get in the house, now."  Then, in a calmer, more restrained voice, he said, "Nabiki and Hikaru may be dead.  Something just happened at the park they were at."

~*~

In another part of Tokyo, Ranma looked nervously at Ukyo.  "So, do you think she'll like it?"

"Ranchan, she'll like anything you get for her," Ukyo assured him.  "She'll especially like this.  Haven't you been saying that she's wanted one of these for her very own for a while now?"  

"Yeah, but it is a little more expensive than the regular one."  Ranma looked up from the car, trying to put up with the sticker shock.  "I mean, I know Hikaru's been wanting a car for a while now, and I know she wants this particular one, but considering that I have to pay 80 thousand yen more for this one than the other...I just don't understand, Ucchan."  He stopped looking at the car, then turned to her.  "I'm paying 80 thousand just for a name and transmission difference, Ucchan."

"It's a girl thing, Ranchan," Ukyo replied.  "You'd have to be a girl to understand.  A REAL girl," she added in a playful tone.  "Honestly, If I was your wife--" To her credit, she did not sigh as she said that, "--I would be touched that you even went this far."

"Yeah, I s'pose," he admitted, "but then again, Hikaru is, y'know, special."  Ranma and Ukyo continued to look around in the Mazda showroom, continuing to look at the car that fit Hikaru's bill.  Since their Honeymoon in Hawaii years back, Hikaru had fallen in love with the type of the type of car they'd rented, the Mazda Roadster.  Normally, that would be easy enough, but there were complications involved--not a surprise, when dealing with the Saotome family.  The type that Hikaru had been hinting at wasn't exactly the ROADSTER, but the MIATA, the faster, more powerful American version with the funny name (the name SOUNDED Japanese, but the dealer had told him that the name was actually German for "gift").  What made it worse was that the color that she wanted it in (cherry red) was only available on the American models.  Fortunately, they had recently imported some models for specialty purchases, and one happened to be in that red she so wanted.  UNfortunately, this drove the price of the car up, from an already straining 2.4 million yen to a staggering 3.2 million.  And unlike what they'd heard about American dealerships, there was no price haggling here in Japan.

For the most part, the dealership was empty.  The majority of the sales clerks were sitting around in the rest area, watching something on the terebi. (( I wasn't aware that there was a basho going on, he thought.  Maybe the Giants are playing.))  Turning his attention back to Ukyo, he commented, "Well, it is for my wife, and I do love her, so I guess that it would be for the best."

"You betcha, Ranchan," Ukyo piped in.  "'Sides, with the kids, it'll be easier for her to get around in the long run with a car.  While tolls may be more expensive than a JR pass, it'll make up in the long run.  Besides, you want your children to be safe, right?"  Ranma merely nodded his agreement.

As they stared at the car long enough, one of the dealers, a slick elderly man, came back to talk to them.  "So, have you and your wife settled upon this fancy little number?"

"Oh, she's not my wife," Ranma replied out of habit as Ukyo rolled her eyes out of HER habit of hearing that, "just my best friend.  She's just here to help my choose a car for my wife's birthday."

"That's obviously sweet of you, miss," the dealer replied, his eyes twinkling in professional smoothness.  "Such devotion to your friend is to be commended."

((You have NO idea how devoted I am to my Ranchan,)) she thought, though she instead voiced, "I guess.  Hikaru seems to prefer your Miata models to the Roadster model, so I guess that's the one you're getting her, Ranma?"

"Yeah," he replied, his mind made up.  "It is for her, and I do want to make her happy.  I just can't wait to see the look on her face when she and Nabiki get home from Fujikyu tonight and--"

The dealer's face blanched.  "Y-y-you wouldn't happen to mean Fujikyu Highland, would you, sir?"

Ranma's innate sense of danger kicked in.  Eyes narrowing dangerously, he bit his words.  "Yes, yes I do.  Why?"  Although he hadn't seen it, Ukyo sensed upon his change in attitude and knew, from experience, that the world had just gone hellishly wrong.

The man, now somber, said, "You'd best come with me, sir.  I believe I have something to show you that you may not like."  Ranma's discomfort went higher as the man pointed to the lounge area, where the dealers were all looking at the terebi.

A second later, the showroom split into a cacophony of rage as Ranma screamed out a cry of anguish.  Watching him as he raced towards the exit of the showroom, Ukyo watched her friend in despair, thinking, ((Not again, please, not again.  Sweet kami in the earth, don't let this happen to him again....))  Knowing that her friend needed her more than ever, Ukyo bolted outside, hoping to catch up with Ranma before he went out of control.