In a message dated 4/12/99 11:04:29 PM, wingcat@soca.com writes:
<<
And, 4) Ami Mizuno and Akane Tendo are nothing alike in personality.
Now, if you really wanted to take this somewhere...
******
Ami slowly dragged herself to consciousness, the puzzle still consuming
her thoughts.
Her friends rushed her to the hospital after she got the worst of
another monster attack. Ami was mostly fine, but she lost a lot of
blood while her friends struggled against the one that took her down.
She wondered if it was just fate that her mother happened to be on duty
at the time, but no one questioned her mother when she took charge of
Ami's care.
Slipping in and out of lucidity, she was able to make out a few words...
"...no...our blood's not compatible...call Soun Tendo...genetic
match..."
Her next clear memory was of a girl, strangely like herself, but with a
martial artist's body tone and an angry edge that Ami could see in an
instant. Ami instantly recognized the twin IVs that pumped dark, life
sustaining fluid from the girl's arm to her own.
And now, she was awake, if still slightly weak. On a table near her bed
were medical charts. With nothing else to do, she leafed through them,
finding that they were her own - probably left behind by accident, as
she knew the hospital had a policy against letting patients see their
own medical data, especially when those patients were medically literate
enough to interpret the data and draw their own conclusions. The
hospital's lawyers insisted it kept down on malpractice lawsuits,
although Ami thought that was a misguided effort at best.
What little blood colored her cheeks drained away instantly when she got
to the last page, though. Ami had never seen her own birth certificate.
Most of the details were in order, but the parents' names, and her own
family name, had clearly been altered. The originals were scribbled out
in black ink; the names of those she had always called "mother" and
"father", and the family name "Mizuno", were penciled in next to them.
"Ami?" Ami's mother appeared at the door. Seeing what her daughter was
reading, she moved to take the files away. "Oh, there they are. Sorry,
dear, but you know the policy..."
"Mother."
"Is something wrong?"
Ami held up the birth certificate. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Her mother gasped, then snatched the files away. "I want you to forget
you ever saw that."
"Why?"
"It's for your own good, dear. For your safety."
"Mother!"
"Now, Ami..."
"First off, I think I'm old enough to look out for myself, now. Second,
you want me to just forget something like *that*?!?"
Ami's mother paused as that sank in, then sighed. "You're right. I
suppose you should know. But, please...what I am about to say, you say
to no one else."
"Mother!"
"At least not until you've had a chance to think about it, ok? That's
all I ask. If you tell this to the wrong people..." She shuddered,
then pulled up a chair. "Please?"
Ami glared, but soon nodded. "Ok. I won't tell anyone until I've
thought about it."
"Good. Now, first, I want you to know that I had your real mother's
full cooperation on this. She gave you to me willingly."
"So you knrw her?"
"She is...was...one of my best friends, before she passed away. She
died a few years after you were born. If she were alive today, I would
have told you by now, and taken you to see her."
"What would make someone give up their own child?"
"Two things. She knew your father and I were...having troubles, and
that we couldn't have children. Your father's infertile. It worked for
a time, but now...well, you know how long it's been since either of us
has seen him. At least he still writes to you."
Ami wanted to hold her mother when she saw her crying, but curiosity and
a very small bit of resentment prodded her on. "And the other thing?"
"Her husband was...not a well man, dear. Even before you were born, he
promised a friend that one of his daughters would marry his friend's
son. That promise would apply to you, too, if he knew about you. He
was interested in continuing his family, and his dojo, above seeing his
family as people. His daughters were mere pawns to him, Ami, and as far
as I can tell they still are. Your mother wanted at least one of her
children to grow up free of him. So, when she became pregnant with
twins, we agreed to pretend that she would only give birth to one child.
The other one...was you, Ami."
"So, the girl I saw..."
"...was your twin, yes. Her name is Akane Tendo. She's...well, she's
like your friend Makoto...or what she would be if Makoto had had to grow
up under that man!"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, Akane's this close to becoming a murderer. She has no control
over her anger, and she usually vents it on her fiancee, Ranma
Saotome...supposedly, the man she loves most in the world. I've seen
him in here several times, when she beats him up too badly for the local
clinic to take care of. And *he's* supposed to be a top martial artist.
Sometimes, when I see him, it's almost like he's been fighting side by
side with the Sailor Senshi...."
Ami tensed, but quickly put on her best poker face. She thought her
mother suspected about Sailor Mercury, maybe even actually knew, but
neither one had directly broached the topic. Ami was quite willing to
let her mother go first, in case she did not know.
"There are two elder sisters, who sometimes come in when Ranma's here.
Nabiki, I fear, is headed for the yakuza, but Kasumi is not too bad off.
She's kind of like Usagi, in a way, although every time I talk to her, I
fear she's about to burn out from taking care of her family."
"I want to see them."
"Now, dear, you promised you'd think about it."
"But..."
"Do you want to end up like them? Like I said, the reason I never told
you this was for your own protection." Ami's mother hugged Ami, burying
her daughter's head in her bosom. "You've got such promise, such
potential. I don't want to see you throw it all away. I'm scared,
Ami...scared that, if you see them, you'll become like them."
******
In the privacy of her own bedroom, Nabiki's eyebrows had long since come
to rest on the ceiling. They had another sister?!? Thank goodness she
had thought to bug the bedroom of that girl when some doctor, out of
nowhere, said that she was a genetic match for Akane and would Soun mind
asking Akane to please donate some blood quickly.
Her eyebrows came off the ceiling, and into an unflattering frown, when
she heard the doctor's description of the Tendo family. 'Headed for the
yakuza'? While Nabiki had to admit the idea was not totally repellant,
it was obvious that this Ami would not get an unbiased opinion of the
Tendos this way.
Time to make a new friend. And, for once, she could be legitimately
curious if the hospital staff asked why she wanted to see Ami. After
all, her sister *was* asked to save this girl's life; why should Nabiki
be suspect if she just wanted to find out why?
I don't like this new version for several reasons.
1. I believe that the author of the original
Ani Muzo/Akane Tendou fic was being
funny and did not mean for the fic to be taken seriously.
2. You corrupt the Ranma 1/2 universe in an
unjustifable way. I like darkfics and have nothing aganist them but that does
not mean that they can totally change they very essence of every Ranma
character. Soun loves his daughters and does not see them as pawns. Nabiki
might have a money obession but that is because it is traditional for the
woman in a Japanese household to control the money. Kasumi is not a burn out
and Akane is not a homicidal maniac. If you used actual manga evidence for
your darkfic proposes it would be much better, Genma uses Ranma as a pawn
more than SOun could ever imagine using his daughters.
3. You have a misconception of the engagement
deal. The deal was never spefically between Ranma and Akane, it was between
Ranma and any of the Tendou girls. Ranma could have been just as easily
engaged to Kasumi or Nabiki and Soun asks him "Which girl he wants?" Kasumi
and Nabiki are quick to assert Ranma as the choice. Any hardcore KTFer who
wishes to disagree well that's your problem.
Shadow
Anti-KTF