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I did a different thing this time (I put endnotes so numbers in the middle of parentheses have endnotes!!!!!)

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                     ~ Chapter 5 ~

_...Ranko -- or should I say Ranma's family is an unusual bunch. Nabiki... I don't know what to make of her... she made it so hard for me to understand
                her... such a complex person..._

 Nabiki watched as Ranma trained her only son into the Art that only the Saotome Clan posses -- the Anything-Goes Martial Arts. Nabiki, although apt in the Arts was not good in teaching and since her brother was better than her she let him teach Sei, along with his daughter.

 Ranma had decided today he would further their knowledge in the arts, Nabiki shrugged as she watched in the sidelines, the arts wasn't her specialty. She sighed as she watched her son, he looked so much like his father... his father...

***

 Nabiki looked at the dead man in shock... 'This could not be happening to me...' she thought rising from the blood soaked tatamis. She called for one of her samurai escorts, but her throat seemed mysteriously dry.

 Her husband found her later staring at the dead body, it was his brother with... with Nabiki's sword through his back. He looked at her for a moment then at his brother. It was well known both had not been agreeing lately.

 He said a few words and he shook her, but she heard only one question. "What reason have you for killing him?"

 Nabiki gulped, her voice had not yet returned, all was just this haze surrounding her, another blow came. 'Oh... Kami... what will I do... he will order me to commit seppuku! Sei... I'm sorry...' Shortly she was left alone with two samurai guards up front... she wondered briefly if her husband would go to their liege lord... He probably was.

 She snapped out of her stupor when she felt the trickle of water against her face... and she looked at her son... her three year old son... with a rag and a bowl of water... washing her face...

 "Okaasan... I don't believe that you killed uncle... you couldn't have." The child whispered the damp rag moving across the cake of blood in her face... she would have to teach him how to properly wash a wound, this would never do for a son of a samurai... "You always told me that uncle was that way because he cares for us... and you wouldn't have killed him."

 His voice melted in the sea of voices, Nabiki was utterly convinced she would go crazy, and she held her son's little hand against her face, she licked her cracked lips, "Go on Sei... go to your father... if he sees you here... does he know you're with me?"

 "No okaasan, Foster Mother Sewa (1) said she won't tell dad that I came here, she'd cover for me like when I get lost in the forest." He smiled a little, and Nabiki's heart went out to her son, he was only trying to cheer her up, "When you didn't visit me, I thought you were sick so I went here, but you were hurt and its been some sticks since you were supposed to check on my writing."

 "Sei, if your father sees you here..." Nabiki's eyes went to the shoji, her impeccable ears picking up the footsteps of her husband, she stood up and opened the shoji opposite her, she hugged her son as she whispered, "Listen to me my son, remember everything I tell you. Go to the forest, take the fork in the road less traveled by... do you know that?"

 He nodded, Nabiki was relieved, it would lessen the problems, it was good that her son loved the forest, "At the end of that road, you will find a hut it belongs to one of your uncle's old samurai, tell him that you're my son and that you're to go to Ranma Saotome. Wait for me, if I don't go within a day flee as fast as you can to Ranma, tell him everything you know. Run as fast as the wind my son."

 'He's just a little boy... and yet he has to grow up too soon...' He leapt out of the shoji, Nabiki frantically shut the door and sat in the middle of the room taking the bowl and the cloth into her hands just as her husband entered the room, "The Lord Kintaro has ordered your presence immediately."

 Kintaro was the head of the clan and the local daimyo. "As you wish..." Nabiki answered setting the bowl aside and trying to stand up with as much dignity as she can muster. She swayed a little but refused help from her maid nor the samurai that flanked her.

 Her husband took her by the shoulder as she passed by him, "Tell me Nabiki, did you kill my brother?" There was a pleading in his eyes, "If you say yes, Lord Kintaro might be able to permit to you seppuku... admit it Nabiki and you will not be cast away or put to death like a common criminal."

 She shuddered at his offer, and yet she truly did not kill his brother and hell would freeze over before any woman like Nabiki would admit another person's crime. She looked at him at the eye, "I never touched your brother, my lord. Although it is my shame that my sword was stolen from me and used against his most foul murder I will not claim any act that I have not done. I still have my honor."

 It was as long six days, and yet she was not hanged like some common criminal, on the seventh day her brother Ranma came and visited her from the dump... the newly instigated prisons they have.

 She stood before him as a man and not as a woman, someone had knocked off a stupid bowl of water to her face. Another annoying fact was that she had also been ordered to leave all her garments before entering the cell, not only was she dirty, but she freezing because of the lack of garments.

 "Do you want me to buy you out, Nabiki?" Ranma asked concerned, it wasn't common practice to buy out prisoners... hell it wasn't common practice to have prisoners, the jail was a new thing, before it was trial and then your death. It seemed pointless... confinement was only there to prolong the inevitable. After all they believed that prison does not stop crime, merely abates it for a time. The sword was what they need... all they needed(2).

 "I did not do it, Ranma, and you know as hell I didn't either." She spat out.

 "I know... It was Kodachi." It was her testimony against Nabiki that solidified that case... she had used Nabiki's brother-in-law to get into Lord Kintaro's stronghold for some ingredients she needed for a potion, after she had sex with him ... in Nabiki's room ...  she killed him off.

 It was perfect, it was known that her brother-in-law was secretly in love with Nabiki, Nabiki the only person not knowing that and openly hating his guts. She was the perfect scapegoat. Ranma had known this from Sasuke who he had told to keep watch of what Kodachi was doing.

 Of course Sasuke managed to report after Sei managed to reach his house.

 Since Ninja weren't the most reliable thing to testify against your veracity... and Sasuke being the only one who knows the truth... Nabiki was in very deep trouble.

 There it was out in the open, there was silence. Nabiki had a sneaking suspicion about that, Kodachi was the last person she saw before she lost her precious sword... it had been her mother's gift when she had mastered it. "It seems your wife always is at the thick of things. I wonder why that old man ordered you to marry the woman in the first place."

 "This isn't--"

 "I know. Is... my son alright?"

 "He is."

 "Teach him to be a good samurai, and the family art." She hesitated for a second, she wanted the best for her son, and she believed that her brother could give him that. "Refuse him to his father, change his name if necessary, and tell him he's a Saotome. ADOPT HIM." Nabiki gave him no time to protest.

 "Ikkasei(3) Nabiki?" The guard called from the gate.

 Ranma's eyes moved them, "Do you want me to come with you?"

 Her hand sought for his, he squeezed it and she let it go. "Please."  She was given hot water before her audience with the lord.

 Fortunately for her, she wasn't sentenced to death like a common criminal, unfortunately, she wasn't permitted to seppuku. Her name was stricken off the Ikkasei Clan. She was also forbidden to become a nun. She was shocked, the only other solution is for her to go back home... and Happosai will turn her down... he didn't like her particularly... what life would she lead then? She could only be ronin now.

 "She must be branded(4) first before she leaves and never steps in our domain again." One of the old men said as he took out a metal stick and laid it out on the fire. Her screams of agony were shameful... even to her ears, her tears flowed freely. Ranma stood in the distance, in a ready stance (which to anyone not practicing Anything Goes looked like he was just standing)... with his eyes he asked her if he should attack Kintaro(5) and save her... she refused.

 To this day Nabiki wondered what lunacy persuaded her to refuse her brother's offer... war between the clans maybe, possibly because she didn't want Ranma to die (even he could not defeat Kintaro in his own land) but most of all because she needed to see her son alive and well. Not to be ordered the same shame that his mother received.

 She knew that from the moment the boy had escaped from his foster mother to help her, that she had damned her son to the same fate as herself. That is why she had ordered him to seek sanctuary in Nerima. Ranma could protect her only son. She had lost her first, she was not going to loose another.

 Against her prediction... Happosai had grudgingly taken her back into the household, on strict order that her conduct was under review and that she was under Ranma's jurisdiction and not to leave the boundaries of Nerima unless he saw it fit.

 When she got her hands on Kodachi, she had drawn her knife at her, willing to kill her then and there, for her life could be forfeit once she did so, Kodachi wasn't much of a fight, she hadn't kept up with her training, her form was lousy and her movements slow, jerky and predictable. Nabiki had her knife on her throat easily, "You lying, scheming bitch! Tell me why I shouldn't end your life right now?"

 "Because you can't." Blood trickled from the knife which had already broken skin, Kodachi looked up to her eye to eye.

 She held the knife at the throat for a moment then threw Kodachi down on the tatami, damning herself for the move she couldn't make. Her foster father was right, he had raised the twins too soft. She turned to talk to Ranma who was standing on the sidelines... mindful of the rules.

 "I knew it." Kodachi rasped, her hand clutching her bleeding neck, luckily for her the wound was only superficial, she wiped the line of blood in her neck, "For all your bravado, you can never kill in a duel of honor."

 Steeling herself Nabiki turned back, her eyes slowly regarding Kodachi, "Maybe so Lady Saotome, but that wound will be just like the kanji on my back. I prefer that you suffer here, a hell on earth, rather than be reborn or go to whatever seven hells Christianity believes in. I still have my honor... and though in scraps... it will keep me warm -- and *you* are nothing but a cheating liar, you have no honor."

 "If I'm the one who has no honor," Kodachi drew out madness present in her eyes again as Sasuke helped her up, "Then why is it you who has been banished?"

 "But I was accepted back! If you were banished Kodachi... would anyone care enough to accept you again?" There was a ringing in her ears that she wished would die down. The reason probably was that she knew... she knew that some intervention had happened in her case. Exile... somehow she knew Happosai would not take her in again.

 After this, Ranma went to his sister's side, looking at some of the cuts and bruises Kodachi managed to inflict. She may be out of shape, but she still had some semblance of skill, they rounded the corner of the house before she finally took his offered arm, "I'm sorry for being weak, Ranma."

 "It wasn't weakness... Kodachi would still scoff us in her death, at least alive... alive she suffers mortality just as we do." Ranma offered his sister a smile, "You were right Nabiki, killing Kodachi won't remove the past... making sure she lives through it will... it will sting her pride to know she's beaten. Beaten by a woman who she had damned."

 "No... nothing can erase our past?" She then took up the smile in his face, it was good to be home... exhausting, but good.

 And Ranma... feeling that the mood has gone too sour wiped the drying blood on Nabiki's cheek. "Is this the way you return? Soaked in blood and getting Kodachi get to your nerves?"

 "It's hard not to, Kodachi always grates my nerves." Nabiki whispered, then maybe because she was exhausted, or maybe because she was totally numb from her encounter with all the people she has seen the past few days, Saotome Nabiki collapsed in her brother's arms, for the first time in so many years.

 Nabiki didn't worry about her son's disappearance from her husband's fief, the foster mother she had chosen was loyal to her and not her husband... and smart. She would cover for her son's disappearance, and would probably weave up something like he had been lost in the forest, which was, in a way, true.

 Her husband sought for her one day and asked Happosai her whereabouts, Happosai had told him he had ordered her killed. Her husband was never heard of again.

 How *had* she managed to flee him for this long? Nabiki had Jusenkyo at her side, the curse, which her husband never found out, was her saviour.

***

 "Hey, Nabiki, you alright?" Ranma waved his hand in front of her face, worry breaking out clean into his deep blue eyes.

 Nabiki forced a smile, "Yes... I'm fine, really Ranma, thank you for your concern, but shouldn't you be watching the children spar?"

 He cocked his head to the side then sat down beside Nabiki, "I let them take a break some time ago Nabiki, I've been trying to talk to you ever since."

 She mumbled a weak apology, but Ranma waved it off, he was sure she had remembered her husband again, her son was growing up to be the spitting image of his father, "Would it hurt so much to share so great a burden with me?"

 She sighed as she folded her hands neatly on her lap, "How come Happosai agreed on letting me in the clan again? It's against practice, most women would turn ronin against lesser instances... and yet I wasn't, when it was obvious that I am his most despised samurai. Why?"

 "Oh..." Ranma said lamely staring off to the same distance as she did, "Well, I really don't know Nabiki."

 "Liar." She accused softly.

 Ranma's faith in his sister's ability to find out the impossible was absolute, and yet this was one of the instances that he had wished she wasn't so damned sharp.

 "You convinced him didn't you?"

 "Nabiki... it's been four years. Why bring this up now?" He pleaded, he really didn't want to talk about it.

 "Because it's only since your last leave that I've had proof." Her eyes shone glassily the sheen of tears threatening to pour, "How could you take my punishment for me?"

 "It's not a punishment, just a consequence." Ranma reasoned out, and not for the first time, Nabiki wished that when she was in a serious argument with her brother he wouldn't be so ... smart. "How could you have done something so STUPID?"

 "Nabiki... I don't think..."

 "That's it! You don't think at all!" Her temper was controlled, but still she was seething inside, 'Why did he have to ask to share this? Why?', "You could've gotten divorced from Kodachi, Ranma. You could've... don't you see? With me as a ronin, the Kunos' bind over Kodachi is worth null. You could have divorced her and then claimed Rose Brier. With me in the picture, back as a safeguard, Kodachi *can't be killed off*."

 "Because I feel responsible for you, Nabiki!  It was Kodachi's fault that you were in that mess. It was my *duty* to get you out."

 "But it is mine to see you live." Nabiki sighed then turned to question something other than the obvious, after she had visibly, and you should note it was only to the eye, calmed down she took a deep breath and began again, "So tell me, what did you bribe Happosai with to get me back on the clan? And don't tell me you didn't bribe the old bastard, because I'm sure he hates my guts as well as I do his."

 "I bought him the contract of one of the better courtesans(6) in Nerima... acquired a couple of his silky 'darlings' for him, do you know how hard it is to get an under-kimono(7) in Nerima? And... he had Ranko publicly wash the penitentiary. That's all." Ranma fidgeted under her scrutiny, he wasn't used on them being on opposite ends of an argument, at least an argument this serious.

 "I don't believe you."

 Nabiki brandished one of her knives from her obi. Ranma eyed it wearily. He believed that Nabiki wouldn't kill him off. Within a blink of an eye, she had turned him around and cut a circular hole in the back of his kimono, she suppressed a gasp. "Damn you Ranma, why do this?"

 "You know you could've asked. Silk is hard to come by(8)." Ranma joked a little, she glared at him, although he could not see her face for the glare to take effect.

 She traced the kanji-scar across his back. Most of the scars there were brought from the sword, this was brought from a hot poker... It was identical to the scar on her back. "Why?"

 Ranma sighed as he turned to face Nabiki, "It was this or your son's back. I kept it from you because I don't think it would've mattered. You were too upset to take my problems, and when you weren't it was just too long to care for it anymore."

 Nabiki hugged her brother, menial labor was a terrible blow to his pride, but the scar had to have been more, it was an ever-present mark to be carried to remind him of his suffering on her behalf.

 She suspected as much, Happosai was a demanding leader. He is not satisfied with half measures and compromise. A demand that only he can make and does not apologize for, clearly signifying that he holds them all. A man who didn't give out his favors lightly, but could be persuaded... with the right amount of persuasion.

 Apparently, even though Ranma was his favorite among his descendants, public humiliation would be worth her return. She swore, someday, Happosai was going to pay, and her brother... he was going to take that perverted fool's station in the Saotome clan.

 "No... Nabiki... Don't." Ranma whispered.

 "Don't what?" She let go of him and then turned his face to her, so she could see his eyes, his deep blue-gray eyes.

 He took her gaze head on, and he smiled faintly, switching to Chinese for fear of being overheard, "[Take revenge on Happosai, not because of me, there are other things... nobler causes than me... I do believe Happosai... we have the same stand on Happosai I don't like him either... but-- Promise me you won't kill off Happosai because of me.]"

 "And what makes you think..."

 "Because I'm your twin." He reasoned out, he took her hand in his, "[The best way to get even is to forget.]"

 Her hand tightened against his. "You fool, you sweet, stupid, fool."

 Ranma never noticed that she never gave her word.

***

 Ranma had decided to lock himself up at the dojo with that girl named Nabiki and throw away the key. What they did there, Akane could only guess, but she could hear the whispers from both, the sobs, which she mistook for laughter, and the occasional thuds that was distinctly flesh against wood.

 Even the constant honor guard the two kept were limited to the parameters, apparently, the brother and sister had dismissed them to be alone. Hanae and a boy she did not recognized were playing along the koi pond. From the hostile glances of the samurai around them, speaking to them would not be advisable at the moment.

 The dojo kept from her, her training was limited to running across the beach. But even she couldn't do that all day. Once she had been tempted to demand entrance, she had chickened out after a particularly loud fall against the floor and Hanae's giggling upon hearing that.

 She sat before one of the shelves and picked out what seemed to be a good read. Ifuku came later to inform her that Ranma had suggested that she visit the seamstress some time that week and that a stable hand, Ko-uma(9), had been sent to make an appointment already.

 Surprised about her husband's sudden interest in her wardrobe, Ifuku supplied her with an answer, "I don't suppose you remember that the Lord Happosai has ordered all his important samurai to his fort in the Kanto mountains?"

 That came as a shock to Akane and the number, close to a hundred, surprised her even more. "It's to honor my the day of birth of my Lady Nodoka-- that's Lord Ranma's mother." Ifuku supplied.

 Now she was in panic, it was one thing to have Ranko's family over, another to learn that it was a yearly affair, and yet another to learn Ranma's family would probably be here as well seeing as it was his mother's ball. They'd probably be hostile to her.

 It would be a great challenge to her. For two months she had been secluded in Rose Brier, with only Ranma, Hanae and Ranko as contact with the real world. Both their family and his brood of friends was going to make her seem like an outcast -- in her own home!

 Plus she wouldn't know how to act, Ranma's reaction to her shorts and shirt was proof that she knew next to nothing about medieval Japan.

 Amnesia would be her salvation in some places, but it still meant keeping her temper, watching her dress code, leaving the good things to do to the men and biting her tongue. Those restrictions were going to be hard. She had grown up into a time where she could do anything, that she was any man's equal.

 She was sure she was going to surprise a lot of people with her behavior if she couldn't. She could never reign her temper nor her tongue, though it was light, it was damn hard to hold.

 It seemed like she was going to have to start learning.


 Akane finished up with her lunch the next day which was composed of some sushi and yakitori, she missed some of the modern foods, but she introduced some healthy menus to the cook when she looked at the recipe books.

 Briefly she wondered why the cook wouldn't let her come near the kitchen after she tried to cook the food, but dismissed it when she heard a commotion outside. Apparently one of the two families had arrived.

 She gave her reflection in the mirror a once over before she headed towards the garden. She frowned at the dark kimono and patted a stray hair back to the edge of her ear. She practiced a smile that quickly turned into a frown when she ran out to the garden.

 As she moved the last shoji blocking her way she gulped down her anxieties. 'This is not going to be easy.' She was not part of the happy family she saw in the garden.

 The woman, who presumed to be Ranko's mother from the uncanny resemblance they held was a woman in her early forties, and remarkably beautiful. Ranma, Ranko -- both were slightly damp and wore identical clothes -- and the two children bowed, and the woman pleased bowed back as well. Then she hugged the two little kids.

 She frowned at Ranko, she hated the fact that in feudal Japan consorts to samurai were allowed, that meant she had to share her husband. Call her selfish but one of the things that she really didn't want to share with anybody else was that single person.

 Now she was being disregarded in her own house by his consort and her daughter...

 She wrung her outer kimono unconsciously waiting for someone to notice her. When they did, she wished they hadn't. The woman cleared her throat and motioned towards her, both Ranma and Ranko turned towards her direction, Ranma matching Ranko's expression when they saw her.

 "Ranma?" The woman asked one eyebrow raised, curiously she was looking towards the red-head of the two.

 She fidgeted a little, all eyes turned to her. She felt her embarrassment rise and forced her reluctant feet down the garden, her face growing hotter with each step. She smiled at the three scowls set in her way.

 She turned towards the kids and was about to usher them out so the grown-ups could talk, when Ranko put herself between them and her, just as Ranko had done that morning with Ranma and Hanae, just as Ranma had done with Hanae when he arrived, a manner that was clearly protective.

 "Kodachi, please, we need to talk." She said sternly. Angered by this Akane stepped back.

 "What is it with you guys? Kodachi was stupid -- I know but she really wouldn't have hurt the children would she?" It had been done twice to her and he was angry, upset and hurt. When she realized she had talked in the third person again she muttered a soft oath. "Damn."

 At their confusion Akane looked at them questioningly, "Ranma didn't tell you?"

 At that Ranko rolled her eyes. "Kodachi insists that she has amnesia and quite *conveniently* has no memory of you or her misdeeds." She said it in a way that clearly meant she did not believe a word of it.

 There was a moment of silence as they took that in. Nodoka was the first one to speak. "Well then Ranma," She paused after that looking at the young woman sternly, why Akane didn't know, "Introduce me to your wife, then."

 Akane found this situation weird since both Ranko and Ranma piped up, Ranma gave the woman a warning gaze before he continued with such stiff formality, "Saotome Nodoka, my mother, and let me formally introduce you to Saotome Sei, Nabiki's son and since you have not been formally introduced, this is Saotome Hanae. I'm sure you know Ranko."

 Ranko just glared at Ranma, while he gave her a smirk, she wondered what by-play was happening then she turned to Sei, "Saotome... so Nabiki is part of the family?"

 "Oh? Didn't you know?" Ranma drawled, the cocky smile never leaving his face, "Nabiki is my twin sister."

 This came to a shock to Akane, then the words of Ifuku came back to her _She runs the household as our lord likes it._ She stared at him in shock, '*I* don't run the household because his sister does... what kind of...' She hardly saw Nabiki, just that one time when she first stepped out of her room. The house was uncanny that way, there were always samurai, but she did not see them... the household melted into the shadows, and it seemed that Nabiki could as well.

 Another fact that struck her as odd was that Sei took up his mother's maiden name. Surely he would have taken up his father's... after all he was a boy... and potentially an heir. But put it in the back of her mind, she would never understand how society works.

 "I... ah... didn't know." She turned to go but then stopped another thing dawning on her, "Saotome... Nodoka, you're Ranma's mother?"

 Nodoka frowned at the impoliteness of the girl, "Yes? Why is that?"

 "Well... I ahh... thought you were *Ranko's* mother, you look so much like her." She looked at the uncanny resemblance... if they were related...

 "I am Ranma's mother and I am Ranko's mother... have these two not explained the matter of Jus--"

 "It's just that Ranko's been consort to me since I married you and mother thinks of her as her own daughter -- the resemblance is to the fact that --"

 There was a queer pause in his statement, before Ranma continued, "-- Master Happosai is known for his 'indiscretions' and Ranko's one of them, he ordered me to take her so... you know she'd be under my wing(10)."

 She looked at the two of them disgust showing in her face, "So you're related?"

 "Very far apart." Ranko glared at Ranma. Akane wondered at this but spent no time to think about it. If she wondered at every little thing... like the fact that if Ranko was one of Happosai's indiscretions and that Nodoka looked like her... and Nodoka was married into the Saotome name... the shouldn't be related at all but still in-laws right? If she thought over every thing... there wouldn't be much time left to do what was supposed to be done.

 There was a pregnant pause.

 Akane then forced a smile, "Well, I'm going out to see if Nabiki's near, then I'll leave you to... ah... talk. Then, shall we have dinner at... seven(11)?"

 There was a pause... all of them looked at her weirdly and she almost cursed... she had forgotten that time was said differently now...

 Still, Ranma assumed it was the time and he shrugged, "We're going out for dinner."

 That stunned Akane, it not only implied that *she* wasn't coming, which she could take, but also said that *Ranko* who was Ranma's *consort* was coming along. She mentally seethed, her fingers cracked in anger and had she been holding a pencil, she was sure it would have broken into two.

 But she didn't do anything about it... after all it wasn't like she could bash Ranma's head for taking Ranko who was all chummy to his mother, right? Right... but damned it all, she wasn't going to like the redhead hussy.

 "And you don't have to look out for Nabiki. She uses the queerest doors." Ranma added as an afterthought. Something Akane barely heard as she tried to calm herself.

 "I'll see you tomorrow then." She said with forced cheerfulness that even to her, didn't sound natural. She turned her back at them and tried to climb the stairs. By the time she reached the last step, she was crying.
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