Hello to all you people out there on the FFML. Since I haven't received 
any response from my prereader, Lady Ice, and I can't get through to her 
e-mail account, I've decided to send the second part of my 'fic out 
anyway. This hasn't been preread though so there are bound  to be 
mistakes. At the bottom you will find a rewritten scene from the 
prologue.

Standard Disclaimer: I don't own any of the people in the following 
piece of fanfiction. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Squaresoft, and 
whoever else has copyrights on them. I am not using this for profit. 
Simply to try and entertain fans.

The Nerima Returners
Part 2: The Chase, the Accident, the Truth.

	"RANMA YOU JERK!!!!" Akane yelled her familiar battle cry as she ran 
after Ranma mallet outstretched. Ranma had done the malletable offence 
#5, picking on P-chan. This time he went too far. He flicked poor, 
defenseless P-chan over the wall and now she couldn't find him!
	"RANMA, PREPARE TO DIE!!!" yet another familiar battle cry sounded in 
the air. This time, though, it was from Ryoga. Ryoga was totally PISSED! 
Flicking him over a wall just to keep him away from his darling Akane. 
He wouldn't allow it!
	"The cur Ranma Saotome hath been delivered unto the wrath of the Blue 
Thunder of Furinken High once more. I tell you what, Sorcerer Saotome. 
If you release the Pig-tailed Girl and the fair Akane Tendo, I shall 
only beat you to a point where you will be begging for mercy." Kuno once 
again was positive of his victory. And why shouldn't he be? He was after 
all the undefeated champion of the schools Kendo world. Saotome only won 
because he was merciful, but no more!
	It seems that idiot is going to have a busy day, mused Akane.
	"Leave alone Husband so he take Shampoo on date!" Shampoo yelled, 
trying to fend off all others in the area.
	"You leave my Ranchan alone, you hussy! He wants to get some 
okonomiyaki from my shop! Don'cha Ranma-honey?" Her tone implied immense 
pain if the wrong answer was given.
	"Why Ukyo;" Akane said, her voice dripping dangerously of sweetness; 
"Ranma always goes to your shop anyway, so why bother joining the 
chase?"
	"If I didn't stake my claim on him now, you or that Chinese hussy would 
think I'd given up my claim. Besides, I couldn't just let the lot of you 
beat up my Ranchan."
	"You can have him for all I care. Hmph." Akane pitied Ukyo. It was 
obvious that she loved Ryoga. She was convinced of that ever since she 
heard their conversation in the Tunnel of Lost Love. Now if only she 
could admit it to herself.
	"Ohohohohoho! It will be I that dates Ranma-sama. Not any of you 
peasants. Come to me my love!" With that, Kodachi starts shooting ribbon 
at Ranma in an attempt to snare him.
	"Ranma love Shampoo! Not Crazy-Psycho girl!"
	"Uh... Shampoo? Crazy and psycho mean the same thing," Ranma put in 
while he had a chance. He had to prove he wasn't a total idiot.
	"BE QUIET!" All the girls yelled at him. After all, he had no business 
butting in on their argument.
	"I love you, Shampoo! Marry me instead of Ranma." Mousse demanded, 
unaware of who he was actually glomping onto. 
	"Stupid, Mousse;" Shampoo said under her breath so that he wouldn't 
home in on her.
	"What scourge dare to mistake the masculine beauty of the Blue Thunder 
with the feminine beauty of the courageous, yet misguided, Amazon? Since 
my wrath is being directed towards the vile creature, Ranma Saotome, I 
will direct you to your love in hopes that your mistakes shan't be 
repeated." Kuno, having run out of breath between the chase and his 
speech, stopped his rant there and directed Mousse towards Shampoo.
	Suddenly, panties began to rain from the sky. Happosai dropped down and 
tried to collect them all, but failed. Seeing that Ranma was in the 
vicinity, he decided to blame all his problems on him, like everybody 
else.
	"You'll pay for this Ranma!" Happosai swore, " You'll pay for making me 
lose my biggest haul in two months.
	"Hey! You can't pin this one on me. I ain't got nothing to do with you 
losing your haul!" Ranma declared. Unfortunately, with his attention 
diverted to the side, he failed to notice they were heading towards the 
edge of Nerima which was bordered by a ravine.
	"Ranma, WATCH OUT!" Akane cried out as she saw where he was heading.
	When he heard the warning he jumped ahead as his head was still to the 
side, expecting a surprise attack from behind. Unfortunately, that 
brought him right into the middle of the chasm. The last thing he saw 
before casting his attention towards saving his hide was the worried 
faces of all the people(except Happosai) of Nerima that had put him in 
this position.
***************
	As he fell, it seemed that time had slowed down. He looked around 
desperately trying to find something, anything to grab onto. Seeing 
nothing, he flung himself at the cliff wall and dug his fingers in. It 
slowed down his descent slightly, but caused agonizing pain. As he, once 
again in slow mode time, surveyed his surroundings, he noticed a branch 
coming up just below him. He let go of the wall and, as he fell, grabbed 
onto it. He swayed back and forth for a few seconds, wondering whether 
or not it would hold. It did. He let out the breath that he didn't even 
know that he was holding. He decided to see what his surroundings were 
like as they were not zooming past at the moment. He then made the 
mistake that most people in a precariously high position make, he looked 
down. He noticed, quite calmly in fact, that there was still quite a 
drop left if he let go and would most likely end up as a pancake-type 
creation related to what Akane had attempted to make for breakfast. He 
was still quite calm. So, all of you out there must be asking, when does 
he start panicking? Well, sorry to disappoint you, but he doesn't. Then, 
as the unwritten laws of Anime state; just when he felt like he was 
going to survive, the branch snapped. As he fell, once again, to his 
doom; he could do nothing but look at the horrified faces of those that 
had put him in this situation.
***************
	Akane shrieked, along with the other fiancee's as they saw the factor 
most common to them plunge down to his death. The figure receded in the 
darkness of the chasm to where they could no longer see what was 
happening. Ukyo nearly vomited when they all heard the sound of flesh 
hitting water at a far to high velocity and that of bones cracking.
	**WHEE-OU-WHEE-OU!**
	As Shampoo heard the ambulance what had happened finally started to 
sink in. She looked up and saw Kuno come rushing over. For once he had 
been the sane and levelheaded one and had phoned an ambulance. That 
meant he had missed most of Ranma's fall.
	"What is the condition of Saotome?" he asked. Kuno had the sense not to 
try and antagonize anyone in such an serious situation. He cast his gaze 
over the assembled group and found his answer. He pursed his lips and 
lowered his head, hoping for a good outcome for even his semi-enemy.
	The women in the group finally got over the shock of what happened. 
Grief shook them. They huddled together and started to sob 
uncontrollably. For now they didn't care that they were rivals. All that 
mattered was that the one they loved, admitted or not, was quite 
possibly dead.
	When the ambulance finally arrived, Kuno, still being level- headed, 
informed them as to what had happened. The one question that he could 
not answer though was what condition they would find the body in or 
corpse if he hadn't survived.
***************
2 days later...
	The injuries were very serious. Critical in fact. If it weren't for the 
fact that the ambulance had arrived very quickly and that they were able 
to retrieve the body with minimum difficulties he would have surely 
died. Also, his great healing abilities allowed him to stay alive until 
help had reached him. Actually it was her now. The river had prevented 
some of the more serious injuries from occurring but had also caused 
quite a few. If Ranma hadn't floated up on the right side, he would've 
drowned.
	"Her wounds are very serious, you understand. We aren't allowing 
anyone, even family, to visit," explained the doctor. They had decided 
to keep the curse a secret. 
	"What exactly are hi... her injuries, Doctor?" Nabiki asked.
	"She has a broken arm, 3 snapped ribs, both legs are severely bruised, 
a severe head injury, also her fingers are scratched and cut up quite a 
bit, a bit of internal bleeding that we were able to stop and she's in a 
coma. I hate to be the one to tell you this, but victims this severely 
injured that enter a coma don't usually come out. If it weren't for the 
fact that she grabbed onto the side and was able to stop her momentum 
with the branch while falling, she most certainly would've died."
	"Is there any good news?" Nabiki asked again. She was the only one of 
the girls who was coherent besides Kasumi, most of the boys were in a 
still muttering shock and Ryoga had wandered off again.
	"Her bones are healing very fast and she should be out of her casts in 
about 3 weeks. The head wound is being constantly treated and there is a 
slim to none chance of it getting infected. Also the bruising and 
swelling on her legs has gone down tremendously since she's been 
admitted. The scratches and cuts on her fingers have all but 
disappeared. Never before have I seen such an ability to heal so 
quickly. If it weren't for the coma and unknown damage that the head 
wound might have caused, I'd give her a 99% chance of recovery. As it is 
now, only a 50% chance if we're optimistic."
	"Thank-you very much, Doctor. Excuse us." Nabiki herded the group out 
of the corridor and into a waiting room where they could have more 
privacy.
	"Okay everybody, snap out of it!" Nabiki demanded in a voice loud 
enough to reach through the shock but not loud enough to disturb other 
patients. Everybody stared at her.
	"Why was my Pig-tailed girl there? What happened to Saotome?" Kuno 
asked.
	"Yes; I, too, would like to know the whereabouts of Ranma- sama," 
Kodachi told them.
	"We'll explain that to you in a couple of moments. First of all, we're 
going to need to reach an adult of some sort about this. But who? Both 
our father's are on their training trip and unreachable and Ranma's 
mother can't be informed due to the curse. That to will be explained to 
you at a later date." The last bit was being directed towards the two 
Kuno's.
	"I think we should tell Mrs. Saotome anyway. Ranma is her son after 
all. I really don't think that any mother could kill her own child under 
any circumstances. Especially if the child just went through a near 
death ordeal. Don't you all agree?" Kasumi's argument did have some 
logic to it. At least it wasn't in her usual 'everything's fine' voice.
	"Shampoo not so sure. If Ranma mother willing make promise is likely 
she willing keep. Otherwise honor-stained, yes? So Ranma mother likely 
willing complete promise. In amazon village honor above everything else. 
That what seem like in this case."
	"Hmmm, you both have a valid point there. I say give it a week at least 
before telling her. If Ranchan still hasn't woken up by then, we tell 
her. Also, if something really important comes up, we'll have to tell 
her. Until then I suggest that we play it by ear. That way we don't do 
anything to hasty and get ourselves into a lot of problems." Ukyo took a 
deep breath as she had said her entire dialogue in one breath.
	Nabiki blinked. When had they all come out of their stupor? She looked 
over to her sister to see if she had emerged as well. No such luck. She 
sighed. "Well, I'm going to have to say that I like Ukyo's approach. 
Let's go home and rest. We'll definitely need it." Everybody started to 
protest when Kasumi spoke up.
	"Now everybody. When we're finally allowed to see Ranma you don't want 
to be drooping on the floor do you? Now off to bed. We'll meet here 
again tomorrow at noon. Oh, Kodachi, Tatewaki? Will now be a good time 
to talk?" They both nodded. "Well it all started when Ranma and his 
father went to a place in China called Jusenkyo... "
*************** 
	A week had flown by. The Kuno's took the story about Ranma's curse 
rather well. Only time would tell if they would warp it to their own 
means or not.
	Ranma's ribs and head wounds healed, but she still remained in her 
coma. Eventually they decided that, in case something did happen and 
Ranma never came out of the coma, Nodoka, Ranma's mother, would have to 
be informed. They elected Akane to tell her. 
***************
	A coppery haired woman opened the door of the Saotome residence. "Why 
hello, Akane-chan. What brings you here?" Nodoka asked. It is quite an 
understatement to say she was surprised when the younger girl through 
her arms around her to give her a tight hug. It was like the poor girl 
was hanging on for dear life. Nodoka guided the girl into her living 
room and sat her down. "Akane," Nodoka started calmly, "thank-you for 
coming to see me, but I must admit, I am a bit bewildered at the sudden 
visit." Nodoka stopped for a moment and gave a small smile. "I thought 
that I was the one who made those." A small laugh was about to escape 
her lips when she realized that Akane was very serious about whatever 
she came over for. "Now, tell me what you came over to see me for. It'll 
be better to get it off your chest now."
	The girl bit her lip. "It's about Ranma."
	For a moment Nodoka's eyes lit up at the mention of her son. Then she 
remembered how solemn Akane was and began to fear the worst. Moisture 
began to gather in her eyes. "W... What happened?"
	Akane pursed her lips, but continued. "There's been an accident. We... 
we were chasing him and it started to get out of hand. Nobody noticed 
how close we were getting to the chasm." Her words were starting to get 
more stressed and her voice was cracking. Both Akane and Nodoka were on 
the verge of tears. "When I finally noticed and yelled out to him, he 
was fighting Happosai. He thought that I was warning him of an attack 
and jumped out of the way to avoid it." She was hurrying now trying to 
get the story out before she broke out into uncontrollable sobs. "He 
landed in the middle of the chasm. H... he was able to slow his decent 
down some but still fell pretty hard. The doctors say that if he had've 
landed full force then he would've no doubt died." At this point both 
women broke down into uncontrollable sobs. They stayed like that for 
awhile.
	Suddenly, a thought occurred to Ranma's mother. "Where's my husband?"
	Akane winced. She hadn't been expecting this question to pop up. "He 
left a month ago with father on a training trip. It may take a year or 
so. We weren't able to get a hold of them. It makes me even more glad 
that the doctors said that Ranma would survive. For all his fault, I 
know that Uncle Saotome would hate himself if Ranma had've died and he 
wasn't there." A cracked sob started to break through again. It took all 
that was in her not to mention the coma or brain damage until she had a 
better grip on how Nodoka was going to react.
	Mrs. Saotome's face darkened. "He should've been more mature than that. 
Leaving a house full of teenagers without proper adult supervision." Her 
face then got sad again. "C... can I see my son now?"
	When Akane responded, her voice was tinged with worry and fear. "We 
can... but there's still more I have to tell you."
	"Well, could you continue now then. I would like to see my son as soon 
as possible. Maybe I can help him through the pain."
	Akane almost winced when she said 'him'. She now had to find out how 
far this woman would go for honor now. "I'll try to make it quick. 
Before I start, I need to know one thing. Would you go through with the 
Sepukku promise?"
	"What are you talking about, Akane-chan? What's this about a sepukku 
promise?"
	"Uncle Saotome told us, and Ranma, that you made him promise that if he 
didn't raise Ranma to be a man amongst men, they you would make them 
both commit sepukku. Isn't that why you always carry your katana 
around?" Akane was genuinely confused. What was going on?
	"I have no idea what you're talking about. I never made any such 
agreement with my husband, or anyone else for that matter. When he shows 
up again, I'm going to have to talk to him about hiding my son from me 
for no reason." She had a thoughtful look while she tried to think of 
why Genma would do this to her and her son.
	"So, you won't make him commit sepukku?" asked Akane with hope in her 
voice.
	"Heavens no child! Why does this matter anyway? Is there something that 
made you all think that I may not consider him manly?"
	Akane got a bit nervous at this point."Well, you see, there's this 
place called Jusenkyo. Do you know anything about it?"
	"Hmm, I seem to remember about reading an article about it in my 'China 
Monthly' recently. Isn't it the Cursed Training Grounds in China? I 
heard that the Guide is ranting and raving about all the people who have 
been visiting recently and keep on falling in... You're not telling me 
that Ranma and Genma...?" Nodoka put her head in her hands. Akane was 
about to start speaking again when Nodoka put a hand up to silence her. 
"Don't tell me. My stupid husband took my son there and they both go 
cursed, right?" Nodoka was very shaken at this point.
	"There's a little more detail than that," Akane started, "but that's 
basically right. If you want I can tell you what they turn into."
	"No, let me guess," Mrs. Saotome said a bit angry at her husband. 
"Ranma turns into 'Ranko' and my idiotic husband turns into 'Mr. 
Panda'." The youngest Tendo nodded her head to confirm it. "I should've 
seen it. Maybe I just didn't want to. Why did my husband make Ranma hide 
from me?!" She was almost sobbing again now. "It may be too late now. 
Remind me to kill my husband next time I see him." At Akane's mortified 
look she added "Not literally, of course."
	"Well, the reason I bring it up is that when Ranma fell, he landed in a 
river his curse was activated. We had to admit him into the hospital as 
a girl."
	"I don't see the problem. Can't you just explain it to the people at 
the hospital and have them change him back?"
	"It gets more complicated. We're afraid that some people may decide 
that they want to 'study' the effects of Jusenkyo with a test subject. 
Ranma would be a prime guinea pig for them. Also, when we talk to Doctor 
Tofu about it he said that the change back into a guy might cause 
complications in the injuries and to avoid it at all costs. We told the 
people at the hospital that she had a condition that made her skin very 
sensitive to warm-hot water. They accepted it. It's too late now to 
change what we've told them now. It'd just cause problems," Akane 
explained.
	Nodoka had been thinking and then thought of a question that she should 
ask before she forgot. "Is there anything else that I should know, 
Akane-chan? It'd be best to tell me now."
	Akane sighed. "I guess I should've known better than to delay the 
inevitable." She bit her lip, took a deep breath and braced herself for 
what she next had to say. "Ranma's in a coma. The doctors think that 
there might also be a bit of brain damage. They can't be sure though. 
It's because of this that they don't think that Ranma will live. I'm so 
sorry." The last bit was said as tears welled up in her eyes and with a 
shaky voice.
	Nodoka's eyes, once again filled with tears. Her lips had become a 
straight line. "May I go see him... her now? Please?" Akane knew that, 
by her subtle begging, she was desperate to see her child that she 
hadn't seen for 10 years.
	She smiled. "Of course you can. He is your son after all. The only 
reason we were wary of letting you see him before is that we weren't 
sure of how you'd react to his curse. C'mon. I'll take you to him now." 
Then Akane thought of something. "Why DO you carry your katana around if 
it wasn't for the sepukku promise?"
	"I've always been scared of being robbed or worse since I'm usually on 
my own. It's for protection if I should ever need to use it," The older 
woman answered.
	'Well,' thought Akane, 'that's one problem solved.' They then headed 
towards the hospital.
***************
	"He... she, looks so peaceful. I wish I could talk with my son, let 
him... her know I'm there if he, she, needs me," Ranma's mother told 
Akane.
	Akane gave a wry little grin. "He may look peaceful now, but when she's 
up and active, steer clear for fear of injuries." Akane's grin widened 
into a smile as she described this.
	"He was like that as a baby, too," Nodoka added in, smiling slightly. 
"'Bulldozer Ranma. Stay out of my way'." Both women let out a slight 
laugh at the thought. Unfortunately the peace was not to last.
	"You no keep Shampoo away from airen!"
	"OHOHOHOHOHO! I will be with my beloved no matter what you do to stop 
me!"
	"You can't keep us out! We demand to see Ranchan!"
	"Open the door!" all 3 girls yelled in unison.
	"What's going on, Akane-chan? Who are they?" asked a startled Nodoka.
	"Ranma's fan club. You'll need that katana of yours out!" Akane stated 
as she pulled her mallet out from nowhere.
	Just then, the door was blown open as 3 angry Ranma admirers. They had 
to face an upset mother and an angry Akane.
	"I told you to stay out right now for a reason!" Akane was shouting as 
she dodged a gymnastics pin.
	"You no let us see Ranma but bring in new girl to see! Is no fair! You 
both now die!" Shampoo was enraged.
	Akane-chan, why didn't you tell me about these girls before you let me 
see my son?" As Nodoka said this she sliced a bonbori in half.
	"Must've slipped my mind," was the mumbled response.
	Everything stopped moving.
	"Your SON!!!" All of the fan club yelled. Ukyo stepped forward. "Our 
humblest apologies Mrs. Saotome. We thought that you were another 
fiancee who was trying to steal him away from us. Please forgive us." 
The other two girls also mumbled their own apologies to make up for what 
they did.
	"Apologies accepted. Now what's this about 'another' fiancee?"
***************
	"So that's basically all of the important things that have happened in 
Ranchan's life," Ukyo finished. "That's how he ended up with 3 fiancee's 
and an admirer."
	"We decided to let the Kuno's in on the curse in hopes of less 
problems. It seems it wouldn't have mattered." Akane and the other girls 
glared at each other.
	"Girls, would you mind leaving me and Akane alone with my sone. I'd 
like to see him without a crowd." Nodoka made sure that she had 
carefully phrased that so that nobody was insulted. Not having any 
reason left to stay, the three girls mumbled there good- byes and left.
***************
Hours later....
	"Auntie Saotome, Auntie Saotome!" Akane called as she shook the older 
woman awake.
	"Hmm? What time is it Akane-chan?" she asked sleepily.
	"Four o'clock AM." There was a brief pause. " I think that Ranma might 
be waking up." Akane's voice was shaky.
	Nodoka was wide awake now. She glanced around the room from the chair 
she had fallen asleep in. Her eyes landed on Akane. "Why do you think 
that?"
	"Well, her breathing has become heavier and she's started to toss and 
turn."
	"Have you talked to a doctor about this..." Nodoka trailed off as a 
quiet moan arose from the figure in the bed. Ranma slowly sat up, a hand 
to her forehead.
	"Wh... What happened? Where am I?" the petite redhead asked confused.
	"It'll be okay, Ranma," Akane said soothingly. "You had an accident.
	"Ranma? Who's Ranma? Is that my name?" 
	And then Akane's fragile heart was shattered.
                    End Part 2
Next Time: No More Ranma

	It was brought to my attention that Nabiki couldn't learn more then 3 
or 4 spells from Mauduin so here is the rewritten version of the section 
from the prologue that provided a status report on Nabiki's spell 
learning.

Prologue: Revised Scene
	Many weeks later, Nabiki had mastered 20 spells and learned how to talk 
to Mauduin. This greatly surprise Terra since Mauduin was only capable 
of teaching a non-Esper a few spells. When she asked Nabiki about it she 
grinned a little at her accomplishment and informed Terra, for a small 
fee, how she did it. She would get Mauduin to describe the spell to her, 
what it looked like and what it did. Then, based on the impressions she 
got from casting the few spells that Mauduin could teach her she would 
guess at how to cast them and keep on trying with different variables of 
energy, chi and mana until she succeeded. 
	Meanwhile, Kasumi was trying to figure out what happened to the hour(s) 
between when she'd put something on to cook and when she'd wake up just 
before it's done cooking. Luckily, this annoying habit stopped happening 
after a while so she forgot about it and got on with her life.
	
	Thank-you to all those people who gave me C&C and support on my 
previous parts to this piece of fanfiction. It was greatly appreciated. 
I would also appreciate any form of response to this 'fic. Anybody who 
would like to preread for me is welcome and needed. Hope that you 
enjoyed this.
Jade Dixon
jadzia42@hotmail.com
-Fate protects, fools little children and ships named 'Enterprise'.
                                      -Commander Riker, Contagion. 

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