Second of two for tonight....
DiScLaImEr: Rumiko Takahashi and a bunch of rich corporations own
all
the characters in this fic. My use of them in no way is meant to
undermine those claims, and suing me would be a huge waste of time.
If, for some reason, you actually think this meager tribute to RT's
genius deserves to be further distributed, you may do so, so long as
you: a) reprint this disclaimer; b) give me credit (blame?) for the
story and; c) don't actually sell it (Yeah, like that's a concern!).
And now, on with the fic.
*****************
* Illuminations *
*****************
**************************
* A Ranma 1/2 Fanfiction *
**************************
***************
* By Freemage *
***************
*Author's Note: This story draws on both the anime and the manga.
This is a dark story, with several sexually suggestive scenes,
although no outright Lemon scenes. If such material offends or
disturbs you, please consider not reading this story--Unless, of
course, you like being offended and/or disturbed....
Thoughts are denoted by {X}, text/Panda signs by [X].*
*********************
* Chapter Seventeen *
* Honor *
*********************
Kasumi glanced out the kitchen window as she prepared dinner.
"Oh, dear," she exclaimed.
"What is wrong, Kasumi?" Nodoka asked from the doorway.
"Oh, er, nothing really. It's just that...."
"Go on," Nodoka prompted.
"Well, it seems that Mr... Panda has... left."
"What!?" Nodoka ran to Kasumi's side, so she could see for
herself.
Sure enough, beyond the wreckage of Akane's earlier workout,
the stout chain which had bound "Mr. Panda" to the tree now lay
sprawled in the grass like some post-industrialist artist's
interpretation of a serpent. The beast himself was nowhere to be
seen. A large gap in the fence made the recent history of the
yard self-evident.
Nodoka said something under her breath that sounded decidedly
unladylike to Kasumi.
More clearly, the Saotome matriarch said, "We've got to find
that animal. It was bad enough it attacked your poor father
last night. There's no telling what it might do to someone
without the skills to defend themselves."
"Oh, I guess that would be true. Ran--Ranko should be home
soon, with Ryouga. I bet they can find Mr. Panda. In the
meantime, I'll go tell Akane and Father. They can start looking
right away."
"Yes. That would be a good idea." After Kasumi had gone into
the front room, Nodoka stepped outside and crossed the yard, her
fingers caressing the hilt of her katana. She paused when she
reached the broken fence, her head cocked to catch the slightest
sound. Satisfied, she moved forward, glancing each way as she
passed through the hole.
A few moments later, she returned to find Soun and Akane
standing in the yard, looking nervous. "It appears," she
announced, "that we will need to comb the neighborhood for the
creature." Turning to the house, she called, "Kasumi! Please
notify the Animal Control people of the problem. We shall begin
looking. If Ranko and Ryouga come back, tell them what has
happened, too. They can join us."
Kasumi smiled and waved in acknowledgement. Nodoka turned to
Akane and asked, "Now. How long ago did you finish your
workout?"
"Oh, I'd say it was about half an hour or so ago," Akane
replied, looking around at the wrecked practice dummies. "I
guess I forgot to clean up."
"There will be time enough for that later," Nodoka said,
patiently. "We have to stop this animal before it hurts
someone."
Soun nodded. "Quite right. Akane, you're the one of us three
with the most experience running around on the rooftops. I want
you to move as quickly as you can to the outside of 'Mr.
Panda's' likely range, and begin spiralling in back to the dojo.
"Nodoka, my dear, you and I shall also travel in spirals,
moving outward and in opposite directions. Hopefully we can
cover the most ground this way."
"Excellent plan, Tendou-san. Let us begin." Mentally, she
wondered at his sudden lack of formality, but decided against
bringing it up right then.
Akane, surprised at her father's lack of tears, leapt to the
nearest rooftop without another word. The two parents stared
after her for a moment before Nodoka commented, "You must be so
proud of her, Tendou-san."
"Ah, yes," he responded, softly, contemplating the view he had
just had of his youngest daughter in action. "Her strength, her
determination, her fire." {Her legs, the way she wears
underwear that rides into the crack, her almost perfect ass.}
"Well," he continued, after a moment's pause, "shall we
proceed?"
Nodoka merely nodded her assent.
***********************************************************
Still half-heartedly exchanging blows, Ranma-chan and Ryouga
ran up to the gate of the Tendou grounds. They pulled up short
at the sight of a somewhat frazzled, fairly annoyed-looking
Akane.
"Uh, hey, Akane... Still mad?" Ranma-chan asked nervously.
"About Hinako, I mean?"
She shot him a sarcastic smile. "Oh, no, of course not,
'Ranko'," she replied, emphasizing the pseudonym in a way that
made Ranma-chan wince. "Why should I be mad about that, when
you and your father give me so much else to focus on?"
Wishing, not for the first time, that she had been put up for
adoption as an infant, Ranma-chan asked with a groan, "Now what
has the moron done?"
"Well, for the last hour, your mom, my dad and I have been on
a search mission for 'Mr. Panda'. Of course, since she thinks
he's gone rabid, for her it's more like a search-and-destroy
mission. Of course, you decide to pick today to take your own
sweet time coming back from school. You can be sooo
insensitive, sometimes."
"Hey! Look, it's not my fault the dumb panda went for a
stroll when I wasn't here. If I'd'a known he was gonna make a
break for it--"
"Well, maybe you should have been able to guess. After all,
isn't that what he taught you all those years on the road? 'The
Saotome Final Technique'?"
"Why, you bull-headed, uncute--"
"Hey! You can't talk to Akane like that!"
Ranma-chan's eyes narrowed at the interruption. "OK, then,
Ryouga... I'll let you talk to her. Don't you have something
you need to tell her, anyway?"
Ryouga suddenly found himself staring into Akane's confused
face, unable to form a coherent sentence. "Oh, uhm... That is,
I mean, er...."
"Oh, honestly, Ra--Ranko. It's bad enough you and your 'pet'
keep messing up, but hiding behind Ryouga is really low." With
that declaration, Akane stormed back to the house.
Sighing, Ranma-chan turned and asked Ryouga, "So, ya wanna
spar before dinner?"
Ryouga, whose stunned expression matched the red-head's,
answered, "Sure."
The two curse victims headed to the dojo, Ranma-chan leading
Ryouga.
***********************************************************
Akane stormed through the living room, past Soun and Nodoka
towards the stairs.
Soun was speaking quietly to the Saotome matriarch. "It must
be so difficult for you, not having your husband around for so
long. I imagine that you are often quite lonely...."
Nodoka nodded vaguely, the faintest hint of tears in her eyes.
"Yes, of course I am. But I must bear it, and at least I can
take comfort in how manly my son has become." She stood up
suddenly, failing to notice Soun's pratfall as he attempted to
move in on the space she had just occupied.
"But none of that's important, right now. We must try to
find--" Her words were cut off by a horrific screech.
"Oh, dear, that sounded like it came from the dojo," Kasumi
exclaimed from the kitchen door.
Just as Akane returned, the words to the obvious question on
her lips, Ryouga burst in through the back door. "Everyone!
Come... come quick!" he cried.
Akane got a panicked expression on her face. "What is it,
Ryouga? Is it... Ranko?"
Ryouga just gave her a pained look. "It--it's bad Akane.
Come quickly, please!"
Hurriedly, the entire group ran to the dojo.
Just for a moment, Akane paused at the threshold. {Oh,
Kami-sama, it sounds worse than his Neko-ken howl.} Then she,
too, plunged into the deepening shadows of the early evening.
***********************************************************
Akane stood in the doorway of the dojo, trying to make sense
of the scene in front of her, but her mind just refused to wrap
itself around the tableau before her.
Ranma-chan knelt in the middle of the dojo. At her knees lay
the large, furry form of a prone Genma-Panda. So far, so good.
Akane had witnessed this scene often enough, especially as
Ranma had surpassed his father's skill level.
But she had never seen Ranma weeping before... and there had
never been so much blood.
The scarlet pool encircled the two cursed Saotomes, like the
lake of fire surrounding the Damned of Hell.
Ryouga's voice cut through her shock. "He was like this when
we came in. I... I think he used...." As his voice dried up,
the Lost Boy pointed feebly at one of Ukyou's throwing spatulas,
laying in the spilled lifeblood of the elder Saotome.
That was enough to snap Akane out of her trance. She moved
forward to comfort her fiancee, but was brought up short when
Nodoka brushed past her.
Stepping gingerly through the crimson tide, she laid her hand
on "Ranko's" shoulder, making soft comforting noises. The
distraught red-head turned to her unknowing mother and clutched
her with all her fading strength, weeping unabashedly into the
older woman's bosom.
Akane began to move forward again, trying to offer her own
solace without disturbing the comfort Ranma-chan was already
receiving from her mother.
As she drew nearer, she could make out the murmured words of
the Saotome matriarch. "There, there, Ranko-chan. I know this
hurts, but surely you realize this was for the best?"
Akane froze in horror.
Ranma-chan pulled away from Nodoka, confusion and pain etched
across her features. "What? What are you talking about?" she
gasped.
Nodoka's face was a mask of serene sorrow. "Why, you must
realize, now, that the poor beast was mad, and probably rabid.
We are all just fortunate that it chose to take its own life,
rather than that of some innocent bystander."
A torrent of emotions rushed across Ranma-chan's features;
disbelief, shock, anger, horror. Finally they settled on a
textbook illustration of hysteria.
She laughed, a dry, creaking noise that chilled the blood of
every person in the room. "Heh. A-heh. Of-of course it's for
the best, 'Auntie Saotome'. Why wouldn't it be? Why, I can
just get another one! In fact, I know just the place where they
can be had, just as easy as-as jumping in a pond!" Her voice
cracked at this point, rising higher with each syllable. "Why
don't you come with me? I'm sure you'd get a real charge out of
it!"
Nodoka fell back from the girl, uncertain how to respond. "I
understand that you are upset, Ranko-chan, but really, is it
necessary for you to take it out on the rest of us? I know you
and the animal were fond of one another, but this is really
taking things too far."
The young girl's cheeks blazed with such intensity that they
rivalledd her scarlet locks. Without hesitation, she moved with
the grace of a panther to close the distance to her unknowing
mother. "You-you insufferable BITCH!! How dare you, of all
people...." Her voice cracked, and then was replaced with the
sound of a single slap to the elder woman's face: a blow which,
despite the low force with which it was delivered, seemed to
echo for seven eternities in the space of the dojo.
"Ranko" ran past the small crowd at the doorway, tears
streaming unheeded down her cheeks. They all stood stock-still,
a motionless portrait of shock, until Akane, with a muttered,
"Not this time," dashed out the door after her fiance. Ryouga
paused only a moment before following the two into the deepening
twilight.
***********************************************************
With an almost supernatural calm, Kasumi finished cleaning the
dojo floor, appraising the result with an approving nod of her
head. "Well, that's finished. I do hope that Ranma and Akane
return soon. Ranma needs to talk to his mother," she said to
the empty room.
In the house, meanwhile, Soun continued his attempts to
console the wife of his dear, departed friend. "There, there,
Nodoka. Surely the girl has already realized her error. She
was just upset, and you were the nearest available target."
Sniffling slightly, the Saotome matriarch turned to him, her
eyes filled with pain and doubt. "Are you so sure of that,
Tendou-san? I'm afraid I really was being rather
insensitive...."
Chuckling heartily, Soun smiled and said reassuringly, "Of
course I'm sure. Why, I'll bet that after she's had a night or
so to think things over, she'll realize that you meant well.
Tomorrow, we'll all sit down after Nabiki gets home and work
things out, alright?"
He suddenly found himself in a steel vise of a hug. "Oh,
thank you, Soun," Nodoka cried into his shoulder with a sudden
and uncharacteristic burst of emotion. "You don't know how much
those words mean to me. My own family has been gone so, so
long. Ranko has come to be like a daughter to me."
"Yes, yes. I can see how deeply you care for the girl, and I
am certain she will see it, too, in the morning." Gently, he
returned her embrace, gently stroking the muscles of her back in
such a way as to reduce the tension he found there.
Due to a quirk of their original sitting positions, this meant
that his upper right arm frequently stroked the flesh of her
left breast, but she did not pull back. Indeed, she seemed to
sink deeper into his arms, her sobs softening into more steady
breaths that danced up his neck and around his ear lobe like a
serpent's tongue. If she noticed how his own breathing changed
as a result, she gave no sign.
He spoke softly. "Saotome-san...."
"Yes?" she asked, her voice taught with pent-up emotion.
"I'm done!" called Kasumi, briskly passing through the room,
her arms laden with cleaning supplies.
"Excellent, Kasumi. Thank you so much," said Soun from his
position near the Shogi board.
"Yes, Kasumi dear, it was wonderful of you. I'm so sorry I
wasn't able to be more help," said Nodoka from the couch in
front of the TV.
"It was no trouble, really. And you DID do me the favor of
removing the... the body. I'm just glad you seem to be doing
better. Father can be a great comfort sometimes, can't he?"
The unknowing widow had the grace to blush. "Why, yes, your
father was... most understanding."
Kasumi beamed at the two of them with an almost solar
radiance. "Well, I think I need a bath, now. Let me know if
Ranma and Akane get back, will you, Father?"
"Hrmph. Of course, of course," he replied as he lifted the
newspaper in a way that almost, but not quite, hid the fact that
he seemed to be unable to get comfortable.
"Would you like some company, dear?" inquired Nodoka.
"Oh, my, yes. That would be nice."
The two women went off to the bath. Soun sat stoically
reading his newspaper, his voice a soft whisper that only he
could hear.
"No. Absolutely not. It would be the height of indecency.
The poor woman isn't even aware that her husband has died, yet.
And that's your daughter, your own flesh and blood. I... Oh,
who the hell do I think I'm fooling?" he finished with a
disgusted snort. He paused on his way to the peephole only
long enough to grab a small jar of Vaseline from his bedroom.
***********************************************************
End Chapter 17
Author's Notes:
Yes, I know it's been awhile. And I know this was short. I couldn't
help it--stuff just came up. And besides which... well, I think that a
quick Omake will explain things:
*****************
* Illuminations *
* The Omake *
*****************
*******************
* By a very p-o'd *
* Freemage *
*******************
Key:
[Stage Directions]
{Panda Signs}
Scene: Freemage's Basement
[Chibi-Freemage stands staring at a chalkboard marked with odd
equations.]
Chibi-Freemage [muttering]: Okay, so if Pluto had her plans to stop
Happousai from using the Nanban Mirror to travel back and make sure
Ranma is raised as the world's greatest pervert interrupted by King Mob
on his way back from the '20s, then sentences about hentai-Ranma use
the
past triple subjunctive progressive... or is that the progressive
perfect double subjunctive?
Voice: I hate to interrupt, but you said you wanted to know the minute
he arrived.
C-F: Oh, he's here. Wonderful. Send him in. None too gently.
[A green, glowing portal appears in the ceiling, and a befuddled
Chibi-Genma-Panda falls through, landing on the concrete floor with a
*THUD*.]
C-F: So, furball... Any idea why I asked to see you?
Chibi-Genma-Panda: {I'm just a Panda.}
C-F: [Seizes sign, @baps CGP with it] Try again.
CGP: {Uhmm... You wanted my advice on future scenes?}
C-F: [Smiles insincerely, voice starts rising after "which"] Why, yes,
in a way. I'd be delighted to hear your suggestions for getting me out
of the little jam, which, I might add, was ALL YOUR FAULT!!!!!
CGP: {You wrote it.}
C-F: Oh, did I? Here, does this look familiar to you? [Holds out a
loosely bound stack of paper]
CGP: [Nods slowly]
C-F: Well, it should. It's today's script. Would you care to show me
where it talks about seppuku?
CGP: [Shuffles nervously]
C-F: No, you can't. And do you know _why_ you can't? [Pulls out
director's bullhorn] BECAUSE IT ISN'T IN THERE, YOU WORTHLESS REJECT
FROM THE WORLD WILDLIFE FOUNDATION!!!!! [Puts bullhorn away, starts
flipping through pages] Hmmm... Let's see... Genma-Panda runs away,
G-P
gets captured, winds up at zoo, escapes, is nearly decapitated by
Nodoka, manages to get back home, everyone is suitably on edge for the
Ryouga/P-Chan revelation next chapter. [slams script shut] Now, I
didn't see anything in there about, "Genma spontaneously develops a
sense of honor and does the necessary thing," did you?
CGP: [Shakes head vigorously]
C-F: [hopping up and down] Then _why_ did you do it?!
CGP: {I wasn't motivated by the scripted lines}
C-F: [Goes red] You... you didn't feel... Arrgghh!!! OK, that does
it, fleabag! [Evil gleam comes to the eye] In the next fic, during
the
"Sceneful of Lemon", you get a three-way...
CGP: [Looks up, interested]
C-F: ... with Happi and Monster-Tarou.
CGP: [Bigsweats]
C-F: And your the "lucky one"!
CGP: [Power face-faults]
[C-F punts now-prone CGP back through the portal, which closes behind
him.]
C-F: Feh. That'll teach him. [Turns back to chalkboard, then
realizes
CGP stole all the chalk to write signs with] AARRRGGHH!!!!!
*************
* End Omake *
*************
Sorry about that. Damn Animates They never seem to follow
directions....
As always, C&C, MSTs, even some flames fervently requested, either to
the list or directly to me. (Okay, you can send it to Hoboken, but it
won't do a whole lotta good, there.)
--Freemage
_________________________________________________________
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