Well, the repost I started on Saturday has turned into a rewrite.
Parts 1 and 2 have only a few minor changes since then, but part 3,
and quite a few of the parts from here on, will change drastically.
This includes the elimination of one plot line that was interfering
with a number of the others.
----
Returning Home
Part 3
By David Farr
Characters are the property of Rumiko Takahashi.
This story and other of my works my be found at:
http://homepage.ihug.co.nz/~djfarr/
*****
Nabiki sat quietly, busily writing in her note book. The rest of
her class, including Kuno, sat about her, working on the math problems
their teacher had set. A quick glance at her watch showed that she just
had time to complete one more question. It wasn't difficult, she always
excelled at anything to do with numbers, although the real joy came when
the numbers referred to cash, preferably with lots of digits.
The lunch bell rang, signalling the end of class. Everyone looked
up and waited until the teacher dismissed them, then a number of small
conversations started as people filed out. Nabiki waited until the last
of her classmates left then made her way to the front of the class.
"Excuse me, sir." It galled her slightly to be asking nicely, but
she also knew that people were more willing to help if you had the right
attitude.
Mr Arokawa, Nabiki's teacher, smiled. "Ah, Miss Tendo, what juicy
bit of gossip do you have for me today?"
It was hard, but Nabiki suppressed her desire to retort.
"Actually sir, I need some advice."
"Oh? What on?" The man took his seat behind his desk and waved
his hand at the nearest chair.
"Did you hear what Kuno was going on about this morning?" she
inquired as she lowered herself into the chair.
"Your sister and Ranma Saotome having a child? Interesting tale,
unlikely though." He paused for a few moments. "But this being Saotome,
I'm guessing its true, despite the obvious problems."
"Yes." Nabiki sighed. "It's a long story, but it ends up with the
two of them having lived five years in our last three months, and now
they have two children."
Arokawa shook his head. "Only in Furnikan. So what is the
problem?"
"Neither of the children are registered as born with the
government. I was hoping you might be able to help us find someone to
deal with the legal problems."
"Like a pair of sixteen years olds having a four year old child?"
He looked thoughtful. "I've got a friend who deals with family law and
more specifically adoptions. She might be able to help you. I'll call her
and see if she will see you for an interview. Do you mind if I give her
your phone number?"
Nabiki smiled. "Thank you sir, please do." She stood and bowed.
"You have been most helpful."
"Consider it a free service, but remember it next time you hear
something that might affect me."
Nabiki gave him a look of shock. "Sir, are you accusing me of
gossiping?" she inquired.
"Gossip? No, your information is too good to be gossip."
Nabiki smiled. "Thank you sir."
*****
Nabiki staggered out of the teacher's lounge under a huge pile of
books and loose paper. Three months was a long time, Ranma and Akane's
teachers had delighted in giving the truant pair as much work as they
possibly could. Unfortunately this meant that Nabiki was doing some
unwanted weight training.
"Nabiki, is that you?" a voice asked from the other side of the
pile.
"Who's asking?" Nabiki snapped rudely. She wasn't in a good mood.
"Ukyo."
"What are you doing here? You should be home... oh right, the
other Ukyo." Nabiki tried to peer around the stack. "Umm, could you help
me with this?"
"Right." The stack was immediately lifted from her arms. Nabiki's
eyes almost bugged out when she saw Ukyo standing there, balancing the
pile on one hand.
"What did you want Ukyo?" Nabiki asked, dusting her hands.
"They say Ran-chan's back. Is that true?"
Nabiki sighed and shook her head. "Don't you check your messages?
Yes, they're home, but--"
"Is this stuff for them? I can take it to them if you want."
"Yes, it's the work they missed while they were away, but--"
Ukyo was already halfway down the corridor. "THANKS!"
Nabiki stamped her foot angrily. "What is with these people?! No
one listens to me!"
*****
Another of Kasumi's perfectly cooked meals lay spread out on the
table. Ranma and Akane sat on either side of their daughter, facing their
fathers, with Kasumi sitting between the two groups. Kasumi nodded and
everyone started helping themselves. As with breakfast Ranma and Genma
started fencing over the food. While their manners at times got on
Kasumi's nerves, it was also nice to know your food was so appreciated.
A knock at the door interrupted the meal. "I'll get it," Kasumi
sighed, getting to her feet. As she left she heard a chorus of muffled
"thank you"s.
Ranma continued protecting his and his family's plates, taking
bites where he could. Truth be told Genma was only using Akane and little
Ukyo to stretch Ranma's defences. The old man had quickly found out that
Ranma was very good at looking after others.
"Of course, we were just sitting down to lunch. Will you join
us?" Kasumi was saying as she approached the dinning room.
"Sure, ah, I brought some Okonomiyaki along, I hope you don't
mind," said the other person in the hall.
"Well, that makes three," Ranma commented dryly, snagging a piece
of fish from his father's chopsticks and sliding it back on Akane's
plate. "In one day, what's more."
Akane sighed and popped the recovered morsel into her mouth.
"It's to be expected really. We could never have a normal life."
Kasumi entered, followed by an ambulatory pile of papers that
smelled of freshly baked Okonomiyaki. "Please Ukyo, just put that down
and take a seat. I'm sure we won't mind sharing some of our lunch in
return for your food."
The pile was carefully turned, revealing Ukyo. She lowered the
books to the ground, then grabbed a box from the top. "Ran-chan, I
brought this..." her voice trailed off as turned and caught sight of the
little girl sitting at the table. Little Ukyo, realising she was being
stared at, went cross-eyed and poked her tongue out at her namesake.
The elder Ukyo looked first from the child, to her father, then
to her mother, then back to the child. The resemblance to the pair was
uncanny. Ukyo even remembered Ranma looking like that at that age. For
the first time in her life, Ukyo Kunoji swooned.
*****
"Nabiki Tendo!"
Nabiki looked up from her desk to find the tip of Kuno's bokken
hovering before her nose. Not surprisingly, the idiot himself was
standing at the other end. "What do you want Kuno-baby?"
Kuno went into one of those righteous poses he enjoyed so much.
"I wish to know the truth about the child I saw this morning!"
'I guessed as much,' Nabiki thought. She propped her chin on one
arm. "Truth is such an abstract notion. What do you really want to know?"
"Are Akane Tendo and Ranma Saotome truly her parents?" the
kendoist demanded.
"Right to the point, eh Kuno-baby?" Nabiki shifted in her seat
and gazed coolly at him. Taking a deep breath she started talking. "Well,
she calls them mum and dad, they answer to it, they look after her and
yet she couldn't possible have been born within the last nine months, let
alone conceived almost five years ago. Leaves us with a large problem,
doesn't it? Of course direct blood isn't the only thing that makes a
parent. So it's entirely possible that they both are and aren't. Then we
have the interesting fact that she's red headed, which neither Ranma nor
Akane are, unlike the pig-tailed-girl, so we've got another possibility.
Then of course we can get into the really wacky hypothesises. She could
be an alien who's disguised herself as a child and hypnotised Akane and
Ranma to make them believe she really is theirs, but that's just stupid."
She finally stopped talking, leaving Kuno and everyone else in earshot
blinking.
Time passed while Kuno wrestled with the deluge of information.
"So who are the child's parents?!" he demanded finally.
Nabiki drew another deep breath, but was waved silent by Kuno.
"Silence, I will obviously get no straight answers from you. I will seek
my own enlightenment."
As Kuno strode away (forgetting that class was about to restart)
Nabiki shook her head. "What did he expect for free?"
*****
Groaning Ukyo awoke to an aching pain in the back of her head and
the distant sound arguing. Whoever they were their voices were muffled
beyond recognition. Her eyes cracked open to the blurred image of red
hair. Someone was leaning over her.
"Ran-chan?" she inquired weakly.
The blurry image giggled like a child. "WRONG!" It vanished.
"Mum, dad, she's awake!"
The arguing voices stopped and in the silence she heard the
whisper of the door opening. Soft steps made their way across the room
and stopped by her. Ukyo blinked the sleep from her eyes and stared at
the ceiling.
"Ucchan?" It was Ranma, sounding very worried, but he hadn't
arrived alone, Ukyo would bet her reputation as a martial artist on that.
Ukyo propped herself up on her elbows and turned to face Ranma
and the others. Akane stood next to him, looking concerned, as if she
actually cared, and beside him, the red-haired little girl, still looking
all the world like a young version of Ranma's female form. Ignoring her
two friends Ukyo focussed on the little girl. Cute and smiling the child
stared right back.
"Ran-chan, Tell me she's some strange spin off from your curse,"
Ukyo said, almost pleading.
A snort escaped from Akane. "Well, at least she did better than
Kuno."
"Akane, darling, that's not very nice," Ranma commented, his
voice was only slightly scolding, more... loving? No, that was
impossible. Wasn't it?
"Ucchan," Ranma sat on the bed beside her, "we've got a lot to
talk about." He looked up at Akane, who nodded and wrapped her arms about
the child.
"Come on Ukyo, let's leave daddy alone with his friend," she and
the girl made away. Neither of the pair on the bed said anything until
the door clicked closed.
"Ukyo?" she asked, staring at Ranma, then "DADDY?!"
Ranma sighed, an unusually deep sigh for him. "It's a long story
Ukyo."
Ukyo glanced at her watch, school was half over and she wouldn't
need to open the restaurant for awhile. "I'm listening."
"That's a switch," Ranma commented dryly. "Okay then, where to
begin?"
"How about the day you two vanished?!" Ukyo suggested with not a
little impatience.
"Right, well it was on the way to school..."
*****
"You would have to make us late AGAIN!" Akane snapped, panting
heavily. She glared up at Ranma who dashed effortlessly along the fence,
keeping pace with her.
"Hey, it's not my fault, blame pops!" Ranma glanced down at her,
making sure she wasn't about to clobber him. It was this moment of
inattention that cost Ranma.
The only thing that saved him was the suddenly jarring that
struck his danger sense. He flipped clear of the explosion as it tore
apart the metal fence, and whipped his arms up to protect his face from
the shrapnel. He dropped into place next to Akane as she lowered her bag
from covering her head.
"What the--?" Akane demanded angrily.
"RANMA! How dare you?!"
Both teenagers looked up to find Happosai standing on the rooftop
of the nearby house. The diminutive master of martial arts seethed with
anger, his aura burning an angry blue.
"What have you done to him now?!"
Ranma glanced at her and shrugged before turning back. "What's up
ya old letch?!"
"You stole all my pretties and dare to ask me what's wrong?!"
Happosai demanded. "Well, Ranma, now you will pay the price!" He started
cackling.
"Ranma, you PERvert!" Akane whacked Ranma over the head.
"But, I didn't! What would I want with the letch's haul?!"
"Who else would steal them?!" Happosai returned.
*****
Back at the Tendo household Kasumi got out the basket of washing
she had taken down off the line. She'd have had it folded already, but
take nice man had called trying to sell her a subscription to a magazine.
He hadn't made a sale, but she was sure her name wouldn't end up on any
lists. After all, few salesmen liked being chattered to for an hour. Now,
all she had to do was figure out was how to return all the panties Master
Happosai had stolen.
*****
Meanwhile Happosai had whipped a scroll out from the folds in
his robes. "This time you have gone too far Ranma. I won't go easy on you
as I did with the Moxibustion of Ultimate weakness!" He unfurled the
scroll and started to chant.
"Akane, get back, there's no telling what he may do?!" Ranma
swept his arm back.
Akane answered by smashing her bag into his arm. "HEY! I'm a
martial artist too, I can handle it!"
Ranma turned on her. "Look, this is my fight!"
"Why you!" Akane growled, hunching up in anger.
As the pair argued Happosai finished his surprisingly short
incantation. Air rushed outwards explosively as space itself was torn
open, allowing an oozing mass of silver to flow out onto the pavement.
Happosai cackled. "I can not forgive you this time, Ranma! Even
if it means I will never see that beautiful girl side of yours again, you
WILL be destroyed!"
The creature had a very simple mind, and thus its sudden
relocation bothered it not a bit. Instead it continued to pursue the goal
for which it had been created. To this end it searched the area for
targets.
It divided everything into three categories; scenery, which it
was supposed to leave as undamaged as possible; threats, which were to be
destroyed instantly; and finally targets, which while secondary to
threats, were still a high priority on the "to kill" list.
In the immediate area there were lots of the first; buildings,
plants, it seemed to have arrived in some form of city. Determining this,
it quickly extended its senses, searching for threats in the form of
power sources, explosives or even lumps of metal or ceramics that might
constitute a firearm. Unfortunately for it, ridiculously over-power
martial artists weren't considered a threat, or even a realistic
possibility.
So it was that the creature immediately assumed that the three
human entities in the immediate vicinity were all viable, but
non-aggressive, targets. Being the efficient killer that it was, it
immediately categorised the targets further.
Most distant from it was a human that its sensors showed was old.
This condition dropped the target to the bottom of the lists of targets.
Next on the list was a male, teenage, certainly an important target.
However the final human was female and still capable of baring children.
It considered it most important to keep the enemy from reproducing.
Ranma and Akane had both taken an involuntary step back as the
blob oozed across the pavement, their argument dying on their lips. Both
stood, muscles tensed, as long seconds ticked past. Finally, with nothing
seeming to happen, Ranma relaxed and started to look back up at Happosai
to taunt him.
At that moment the silver blob reacted, throwing a tentacle out
at amazing speed. It took only an instant for Ranma figure out who the
target was, but even that instant was too long. He did the only thing he
could, throwing himself sideways, turning as he travelled, and slamming
into Akane.
He gave a cry of pain as the tentacle slammed into the small of his back.
It felt like one of Ryoga's punches.
What passed for the creature's thought processes were in
disarray. The young male had reacted to its attack with enough speed to
save the female, only to take it himself. Only it had survived and this
was something outside of its experience. The young male was not wearing
armour, was not unaugmented, and yet showed no signs of even suffering
from broken bones.
A special part of its mind suddenly flared to life in an attempt to deal
with the situation, overriding its normal thoughts. This was an anomaly,
and such anomalies interested its creators, so all their creations were
instructed to return to them with this anomaly.
Akane lay on the ground where she had fallen, Ranma on hands and
knees over her. His breathing was hard and she looked up into his face to
see something she had only seen a few times there. Pain, excruciating
pain.
The metal blob attacked again, this time sending a horde of
tentacles towards Ranma. Akane saw this and reacted quickly, folding her
legs up and planting her feet on his chest. Shoving upwards she sent him
flying, out of the path of the tentacles, then rolled away herself.
Pain flared through Ranma's body as he flipped in mid-air. He
would never admit it, but he had serious doubts about this battle. There
was nothing more he wanted than to scoop up Akane and make a run for it.
But his pride wouldn't let him.
The blob didn't give him time to recover. As the tentacles arced
around for another attack, attempting to ensnare him. Ranma leapt again,
hoping to clear the tangle of metal, but the thing's speed, combined the
pain burning in his back, was too much for him.
Akane watched in horror as the tentacles wrapped around Ranma,
trapped him in a cocoon of metal. The blob immediately started back
through the still open portal.
'It defeated Ranma,' Akane thought in disbelief as the last of it
vanished. 'Ranma needs help. Ranma needs MY help.' "YES!" Without another
thought she charged forward, following the thing into the darkness of the
hole in space.
Moments later the portal snapped shut, leaving Happosai staring
at an empty street, a crumbling parchment in his hands. He thought for a
second, as the true consequences of his actions sunk in. 'There are going
to be lots of people who won't like this. Time for a vacation I think.'
*****
The sudden change of scenery left Akane disoriented momentarily.
Gone was suburban Tokyo, replaced instead with a shanty town of poorly
constructed, and in some cases, destroyed, shacks. Just beyond the shacks
was a dense forest.
The blob, still holding Ranma's cocoon above it, was slivering
through the path of destruction in the village. About it men were crying
out in alarm, grabbing strange looking gun and starting to turn them on
its silvery surface.
"Don't worry Ranma! I'll save you!" Akane shouted, charging
forward.
The commandos had been surprised when the hole had sucked up the
man-killer, not that they were willing to look a gift house in the mouth.
It's sudden return had found them unprepared as they had started looking
after the wounded and started to evacuate the civilians. Of course they
hadn't expected a young girl surrounded by blue fire to run straight at
the thing. This was the only reason Akane didn't get shot to pieces in
the crossfire.
Mindlessly pursuing its current mission - to return the anomaly
to its creators - the man-killer was ignoring everything about it. All of
its energy was being diverted to defence and movement. In that condition
it could easy take hits from laser, assault rifles, even some anti-tank
weaponry without having to react.
It makers, though, had not thought protect it someone performing
a leap kick on a pseudo-pod. After all, no one could possibly kick hard
enough to separate the metal and anyway in standard practise a pseudo-pod
was a minor loss. Of course the "retrieve anomaly" subroutines in its
memory weren't fully integrated with the rest of its programs, so for
once, this wasn't true.
Which of course meant that Akane's ki-enhanced leap kick sliced right
through the metal, sending a shudder through her as the liquid metal
flowed over her body. She landed on the other side of the blob, and for a
moment just knelt there staring ahead, while the cocoon hovered in the
air, separated form the blob by an Akane sized hole.
Ranma felt his prison weakening and kicked off against the wall.
His outstretched fist was the first thing to pierce to the outside. The
young martial artist shot outwards as the cocoon melted behind him, and
splashed back down on the man-killer.
Pain shot through his back as he landed, and he stumbled to his
knees. Moments past as he fought for control, then he was aware of Akane
crying his name, and arriving by his side.
"Ranma, are you okay?" she demanded. For the first time in his
life Ranma heard real worry in her voice, and... caring?
"Yeah, I'll be great." He gasped as he rose. "But we gotta take
out that thing before it tries to get anyone else."
The man-killer, meanwhile, was having problems of its own. The
"retrieval anomaly" subroutines, holdovers from a pervious model of
weapon, had terminally crashed, leaving only the standard tactical
subroutines to deal with the problem. Unfortunately they were woefully
inadequate, and only had one solution, to run the now inoperable
retrieval subroutines.
This left it sitting wide open when the two martial artists
struck it with a vengeance, their aura's flaring wildly. In moments the
blob was reduced to a few thousand pools of metal covering parts of the
small village and a few of the nearby people.
Ranma and Akane stood, gasping for breath in the centre of the
devastation. The locals watched from shelter, not yet willing to approach
this pair that had just done what had long been considered impossible.
Ranma straightened, wincing in pain ah he did, and glared at
Akane. "Are you insane?! What made you think a tomboy like you could take
on that thing alone?!"
"What?!" she screeched. "I expected a thank you at least! I
should have known better, you jerk!"
"Thank you?!" Ranma shot back. "Why should I thank you? I didn't
need your help!"
"Oh, right, like you could have escaped yourself?"
"I don't need help from some clumsy tomboy!"
"Clumsy?! I saved your butt!"
"Right, and if you hadn't gotten in the way it wouldn't have hit
me in the first place!"
"Excuse me."
Ranma and Akane both turned to the man that had interrupted their
fight. He was large, European, dressed in camouflage fatigues and carried
a very big rifle in his hands. "BUTT OUT!" both youths snapped, then
paused as he registered.
The commando smiled at them as they stared back in surprise. "Hi,
I'm called Samuel Dallas, and I'd really like to know how you bet that
thing."
*****
Ukyo fixed the young martial artist with a glare. "Interesting
tale Ran-chan, but it doesn't explain much."
"Yeah well, it turns out that thing was made by some people, and
sent after Connor and his men. They were loosing badly when Happosai
summoned that thing into our world, and were rather shocked when it came
back." Ranma shook his head. "Unfortunately none of our new friends had
even the slightest idea what had really happened. So we threw our lot in
with them."
Ranma paused, and lowered his head. "We really didn't think we'd
ever get home, and even with all our new friends, it was kind of lonely.
Especially without our family," he looked up at her, tears mixed with
apologises shining in his eyes, "or friends. I guess it was only natural
that we'd grow close."
Ukyo shuddered and turned away. She couldn't bear to look into
those eyes.
"Without pop and Mr Tendo about to bother us, or someone popping
up at just the wrong moment, it wasn't hard for us to admit our feelings.
Ucchan, I'm... I'm sorry." He fell silent.
Ukyo's hands scrunched up the covers of the futon she was lying
on as thoughts conflicted in her head. She had never believed that Ranma
had actually loved Akane, they were always fighting so violently, and
that he was only going though with the marriage because of his honour. It
had always been her hope that he would find some way out of it and then
they could be happy together.
"Why Ranma?" she whispered.
"I don't know, I guess... it's the way I felt." He was whispering
as well, as if keeping quiet could lessen the pain.
"Not THAT!" she raged, turning on him. He recoiled from the anger
on her tear-streaked face. "WHY DID YOU LEAD ME ON?! Why did you let me
think I had a chance?! You loved her you bastard!"
"I... I... don't know. I was scared. I guess." He slumped
forward, head hanging low again. "I like you Ucchan, and I didn't want to
loose you as a friend. What I did to you was wrong, absolutely wrong,
like something pop would do. There's no excuse, and I'm not gonna offer
one, just ask if you can forgive me." He looked, his eyes pleading with
her.
Despite everything, the pain, the betrayal, she couldn't stay
angry. As the feelings drained away she allowed herself to collapse back
onto the futon. "So what about Akane, and the girl? How? I mean, in three
months?"
"Well, it wasn't three months for us, it was a lot longer." He
shrugged, cutting off her questions. "Anyway, we married and in time
Akane got pregnant. When we saw it was a girl we decided to name her
after someone we knew, you know, try to claim back some part of what we
still thought we'd lost for good. Akane suggested Kasumi, but even as a
baby she was too, I dunno, fiery, for her, so I suggested your name and
Akane agreed. So we had a little Ukyo and life seemed good."
Ukyo looked at him. "I guess that's a good second place prize
then."
"Best I could think of," Ranma grinned. He reached over and
brushed a tear off her cheek. "I was kinda thinking you might like to
help us train her. She's really into using that spear of hers, and you
are about the only person that fights with a weapon I would trust to
help."
"Thanks Ranchan, I think I'd enjoy that." She paused. "Maybe you
should finish your tale, just so I don't get any other surprises."
Laughing, Ranma started once more into his story, this time more
at ease. Every so often the pair would burst into laughter. They were
still going when there was a knock at the door and Akane poked her head
in.
She smiled at the pair. "Excuse me for interrupting, but I think
Ukyo should be opening her restaurant soon. Ranma, you and I have a lot
of work to catch up on for school too."
Ukyo glanced down at her watch. Time really had flown past, and
soon the after school rush would begin. "The grill's not even hot yet!"
She hopped out of the bed and raced to the door. As Akane stepped out of
the way, she turned back. "Do you two mind if I come back after closing
to hear some more about your adventures?"
"We'd be glad to talk Ukyo," Akane volunteered. "Just make sure
you call first, we might be in the middle of a fight with Shampoo or
something equally insane."
Ukyo's laughter followed her down the stairs.
Ranma was still smiling as he stepped up to his wife. "That went
well." His arm wrapped about her waist.
"Yeah, a little too well," murmured Akane as she was pulled
close. Her comment went unheard.
*****
Kuno paced Furnikan High's gym, muttering to himself. The
basketballers had long since given up practice, as Kuno, deep in thought,
had kept walking into their game and absently slashing his bokken at
anyone who got too close.
"The child called Ranma father and he treats her like a
daughter," he muttered, for the fourth time that afternoon. "Akane
believes Ranma's spawn to be her own, yet the child bears more
resemblance to my pig-tailed-goddess." He the end of the gym, spun and
started to march back. "Yet too little time has passed for any of them to
bear child and for her to grow up."
He stopped pacing and took on what he considered to be a
thoughtful pose. In fact he looked remarkably like the statue of 'The
Thinker.' "But what if the child's resemblance to the pig-tailed-girl is
more than what it appears? What if this is some cunning plot by that foul
devil Saotome to keep her from me?"
Thwack! His bokken slammed into the palm of his hand. "That's it!
Somehow that sorcerer, in an attempt to keep them from me, has youthened
the pig-tailed-girl and convinced Akane Tendo that she is their daughter.
Then he can have them both!"
So distracted was Kuno by his flash of brilliance that he missed
the twin crashes from beneath the bleachers. As Furnikan's resident loon
raced from the building the two spies looked at each other. Once he was
gone Hiroshi and Daisuke hurried off to find a phone. Nabiki would be
kind to anyone who offered her a warning about this, and that was much
better than peeping at the cheerleaders practising.
*****
Ucchan's Okonomyaki had been more packed than ever before.
Everyone from Furnikan had come asking about Ranma and Akane. The more
observant ones had stopped after she had served her fourth burnt
Okonomyaki. It had been a battle for self-control, as various groups
openly speculated on the pair's disappearance and recent reappearance.
Few of them realised just how close they were to the truth.
Finally the last of the customers left, waving goodnight to the
smiling chef as they walked into the darkened streets. Ukyo slid the door
closed and slipped home the bolt. She rested her head on the wooden
frame and just stood in perfect silence, listening to the quiet murmur of
distant traffic.
"Oh Ran-chan." A single tear rolled down her cheek and hung for a
moment from her chin before falling away.
The ringing of the telephone startled Ukyo out of her funk.
Shuffling, she crossed the room and lifted the receiver. "Moshi moshi."
She shook herself and tried to put a bit more of her usual brightness
into her voice. "Ucchan's Okonomyaki."
"Naihao, is Shampoo here!" The amazon's cheerful voice was the
last thing Ukyo wanted to hear. In the background Ukyo could hear cars
humming.
"Hi Shampoo, how's China?" Ukyo asked, continuing to put on her
best voice.
"Is same as always. Grandmother get mercenary girl's message. Is
true Ranma back?"
Ukyo sighed, what else would Shampoo call about. "Yeah, he's
back. Actually I was about to go over and see them."
"Is violent girl there to?" her voice was more dangerous now.
Akane had a habit of bringing that out in Shampoo.
"Yep, Akane's here too. Look Shampoo, there's something I've
gotta tell you--"
"It have to wait," Shampoo interrupted, "Shampoo's money about to
run out."
"Wait, don't..." She trailed off as the phone clicked and the
line went dead. "Damn."
*****
"This is going to become a reoccurring theme," Nabiki commented,
having heard Ukyo's account. They, Akane and Ranma sat about the Tendo
dining room table, talking quietly so as not to disturb the two go
players.
"What do you mean?" Akane asked.
Nabiki shrugged. "So far every time anyone's tried to give an
advanced warning about you two, they've been cut off. Not too surprising,
but frustrating never the less. So any ideas where they were?"
"China somewhere," Ukyo hazarded, "I don't really know."
Nabiki sighed. "At least we don't have to worry about them for a
few days. Which brings us to our next point of business."
"Since when was this a corporation?" Ranma joked.
One of Nabiki's patronising glares struck Ranma. "Don't make fun
of what I do Ranma, I am helping you."
"Sorry Nabiki," Ranma hurriedly apologised. "So what else is
wrong?"
"Well, I got a call from a pair of informants that tell me Kuno's
on the warpath and perhaps more dangerous than ever. He was overheard
saying that he now believes that Ukyo, ah the child, not you, Ukyo, is in
fact the pig-tailed-girl."
Ukyo snorted, trying to hold back her laughter. "I can't wait to
hear this one."
"It might be my fault a little," Nabiki admitted. "I tried to
confuse him and it seems he picked up a few things and twisted them."
"I'm sure you didn't mean to," Akane soothed her, patting
Nabiki's hand.
Nabiki stared at her sister in shock for a few seconds. "Right,
ah thanks Akane. Anyway, he apparently thinks Ranma has turned the
elusive pig-tailed-girl into a child and turned her and Akane into his
family."
"That's a leap, even for Kuno. So what's he gonna try?" Ranma
leaned forward.
"Come on Ranma, you know Kuno as well as I do."
Ranma shook his head. "Nup, I've seen him once in the last five
years."
"He's got you there Nabiki honey," Ukyo pointed out, smiling.
"Well," Nabiki thought for a second, drawing the word out as she
did, "I'd guess he'd try to break the spell..." her voice trailed off.
"Ukyo!" Ranma and Akane chorused, leaping to their feet and
smashing through the go game, leaving a pair of crushed fathers in their
wake. They were only halfway across the yard when a high pitched screech
rent the air. Ukyo and Nabiki arrived at the dinning room door in time to
see light flash inside the dojo.
Akane hit the door before Ranma, and smashed through it,
showering those inside in wood chips and tissue paper.
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