The Humble Home of a Strong Heart

Chapter Three

Disclaimer: Mind you, all characters of Ranma 1/2 are the creation of Rumiko
Takahashi and the characters of Sailor Moon are the creation of Naoko Takeuchi.


"Hold on, Akane!"

Ranma spun effortlessly in the air, touching down with the gentlest of touches.
Behind him, Hinako-sensei giggled, her body shrunk into that of a 10-year-old.
"Give it up, Ranma!" she sang.  "This time, I'm unbeatable!"

Ranma could care less of what she thought at the time.  Akane was unconscious,
her face buried deep in the crook of his neck, and though she took deep, slow
breaths in his arms, he had wanted to check to make sure she was fine.  More
importantly, however, he wanted to get his hands on the one who was responsible
for knocking her out in the first place.

"Ryoga!!!!"

The guy in question was standing stock-still in the open, water still leaking
from the now-empty bucket.  He looked at the bucket in his hands and let it
drop, clanging, to the ground. He turned towards Ranma, his mouth working, his
face turning pale.

<Oh, great.  As if I didn't have enough trouble.>

Ranma crouched and leapt straight in the air.

Ryoga threw back his head and howled, "AKANNNNEEEE!!!"

Ranma shifted his grip on Akane (she really must be putting on weight; it was
hard getting a hold on her) as the blast from the Shi-shi-houkoden propelled him
up and over.  He alighted on a nearby roof, no more worse for wear other than
his mussed clothes.

In his arms, Akane stirred and muttered something huskily.

As the smoke cleared, Ranma surveyed the damage below him.  It seemed Ryoga's
blast had done less damage than normal, unless you count the damage done
beforehand.  Ryoga stood, wild-eyed, in the center of a crater a good ten feet
across, smoke rising from his clothes.  A few buildings listed dangerously, and
as Ranma watched, a figure clambered woozily from a pile of rubble where a shed
used to be.  Hinako-sensei shook the dust from her dress and looked about wide-
eyed.  Catching sight of Ryoga, she strode up to him and kicked him in the shin.
"What's the big idea, messing up my dress?!" she hollered.  "That was my
favorite, too!  Now I have to go get a new one.  Phooey!"

Ryoga goggled at her as she marched off, her tiny fists balled.  Ranma snickered
to himself.  Looks like he was done trying to cure his sensei for the day.  At
least until tomorrow.  He would have to ask Happosai some time how long he was
going to humiliate himself to have her cured.

As for the present..."Hey, stupid," he yelled (after pulling more of Akane's
hair out of his mouth).  "What's the big idea?"

Ryoga glanced up at him, his face twisted in agony.  "Akane..."

"She's fine, you nincompoop.  At least she would've been if you haven't threw
water at her.  What the hell were you thinking?"

Akane groaned.  "Uhhh..."

Ryoga opened his mouth, just as Kuno towered behind him.  "My dear sweet Akane!
HOW COULD YOU!"

*WHACK*

As Ryoga suddenly attained the ability to fly, Ranma shook his head as he leapt
gently back to the ground.  <And it just never ends, does it?>  Against his
neck, Akane groaned again and a bittersweet feeling swept unwillingly through
him.  <Akane...I hope you're okay.>

"What happened?," She murmured huskily.

Ranma frowned. <Wow, maybe that ki-blast burnt her vocal cords or something.>

Akane was stirring harder now, pushing against his chest, her voice muffled but
uncannily deep.  "What--what happened?  Where..."

"It's alright, Akane.  Everything's fine."  He pulled away to look at her.
"Everything's just...just..."

Kuno reared up, tears pouring from his eyes.  "Oh, my dear Akane.  Such a cruel,
cruel thing to happen to yo--"

Ranma's foot connected with Kuno's face and he tossed the upperclassman over his
shoulder without thought.  His eyes were riveted to the sight before him.

"Akane?"

He couldn't tear his eyes away, even as Ryoga came to the end of his trajectory,
bounced a couple of times, and slid forward to fetch hard against Akane's lap.
Or rather...

"A...A...Akane??"

Something in Ranma's voice made Ryoga open his eyes groggily.  Ranma had drawn
back, his mouth hanging open in utter astonishment.  What he seemed astonished
about, Ryoga couldn't tell.  His eyesight was obscured by two large, round
humps...

Blinking, Ryoga raised his head.

His eyes took in what his face had been unceremoniously grounded into...or
rather......uh...

<Oh, boy.>

Blood immediately began rushing towards Ryoga's head as he scrambled back with a
squeak not unlike that of, well, a piglet might make when it realizes, in
running from its master, it had run straight into a butcher's shop.

He yanked his eyes away, stammering, "Akane-san!  I, er, that is, uh,
gomen...gomen...nasai.."  His voice trailed away as his eyes, if possible,
widened larger than, uh...

Her hair had grown.  Really, really, grown. A light hazelnut, it streamed behind
her in a long ponytail, except for two wisps framing her face.  Her face had
slimmed, but only a little, developing higher cheekbones and lighter eyebrows.
As he gawked, her eyes slid open to reveal impossibly deep pools of green,
unfocused on Ranma.  Her entire body seemed to had increased in size, stretching
the fabric of her school uniform...including...including...

Ryoga could feel the blood making a mad dash straight to his nose.  His voice
climbed higher. "I, uh,... I, uh..."

"Oh, my head..."  Even the voice, deeper, rougher...huskier...her eyes wavered
to Ryoga, where they focused.

"Where am I?"

As if to make the scene complete, Ryoga looked down to see the top button on
Akane's overly-stretched blouse pop off, bounce off his forehead, and clatter to
the ground with a slight plink.

This was followed by a less-audible pop, a faint gush as redness fountained in
the air, and a thud as Ryoga toppled backwards into a dead faint.

Ranma was oblivious to all this.

"A-A-A-Akane???" He squeaked.

The girl looked back at him and struggled to sit up.  She raised a hand to her
head and rubbed her temples.  "Cripes, what a blast! How long was I out, ten,
fifteen minutes?"

"Uhh," replied Ranma.

She looked around, tugging at her ear unconsciously.  "Wow, I must've been
knocked further than I thought.  That blast nearly blew me into oblivion. The
others...I have to..."  She lurched to her feet, causing Ranma to gape before
also scrambling up. <She's grown so much...her legs! Yikes! They go on forever
and ever! Better get up before she pounds me for gawking...>

"I have to go back...before those aliens..." she swayed, and lurched forward,
and before Ranma could stop himself, he grabbed her.

"Akane...wait..." <Aliens?>

She stared at him, her green eyes widening, her arms flung over his shoulders.
It was disconcerting enough that he was holding her so close. It was even more
disconcerting to notice that he was looking directly into her eyes without
bending his head.  <She's the same height as me!  What's going on?>  Any moment
she was going to smack him with a mallet for holding her.  Good.  Maybe he'll
wake up from this dream...

Instead she continued staring at him.  For one brief moment, he swore he saw
stars enter her eyes.

<No way.  Uh-uh.  Akane would never look at me like that.  Never.  Would she?>

Then, she pushed him away, albeit gently.  "Whoever you are, thank you." She
said.  "But, I have to go.  The others...they need me."  She flashed him a
stunning smile and pushed the hair from her face.  "Thank you again."

She turned and walked off, her steps becoming less wobbly and more sure. Ranma
gawked at her before weakness overcame him and he dropped to his knees in utter
astonishment.

<That wasn't...how come...what the...>

A low groan beside made him realize that Ryoga had come to and was now in the
same position and wearing the same dazed expression as he.  Two reddening pieces
of tissue were jammed up his nostrils.  "That wasn't--I mean--what the--" he
whispered nasally.

The girl (Akane?!) was still visible, head and shoulders taller than the
pedestrians, most notably men, who screeched to a halt and made no attempt to
hide their gawks at the tall woman weaving down the street in a school uniform
obviously several sizes too small for her.

"Masaka," Ranma said.  "This can't be..."

"Akane," Ryoga continued.  "How did she..."

"It must've been when..."

"Hinako-sensei release the ki-blast..."

"It hit her at the same time as the water..."

"You don't suppose..."

"Hinako-sensei's attack..."

"Did the same thing to..."

The two stared at each other in shock.

Then, Ryoga's face tightened.  Along with his fist.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, RANMA!!!!!!!!"

*KA-POW!!!!!!!*

=================================================================

Lita made her way down the street, trying her best to ignore the gawks and
mouths dropped open at her appearance.  <Sheesh! Those aliens must've done some
number on me. Wish I had time to glance in a mirror and straighten up a bit.>

But the other scouts needed her.  If those aliens had enough power to knock her
into another neighborhood, she hated to think about what happen to the others.
<If they've been getting their brains beat out while I've been dozing in la-la
land in the arms of that guy,> She broke out into a run, scrubbing at her
watering eyes.  <I'll never forgive myself.  Never, never, never...>

She rounded a corner and screeched to a halt, blinking.

The square was empty.

Dazed, she walked out.  There were no sign of the aliens, or the other Scouts,
for that matter.  In fact, there were hardly any signs of battle. No scorch
marks, no cracked pavement.  A few bums, whose eyes bugged at the sight of her,
but other than that, nothing.  As if nothing had happened.

She frowned, looking about.  Somehow, it just didn't feel...right.

"Excuse me," she leaned over a grandfatherly sort feeding pigeons from a bench.
"But have you seen four sailor-suited girls around here?"

The old man looked up and promptly keeled over, breadcrumbs and all. "EEEE!!!!!"

As if he never seen a girl her size before.  What was wrong with men today?
Lita sighed.  Or at least tried to. For some reason, she couldn't take a deep
breath, as if her chest was constricted somehow.

Perhaps they were able to defeat the aliens.  Or maybe the aliens defeated
themselves.  But if that was the case, she would've felt it.  Or one of the cats
would've hung around to tell her.  It wouldn't make sense for them to up and
leave, unless they were looking for her.  That would make more sense.  They
probably saw her sail into kingdom come and was right now searching for her.
<Uh, oh.  I better let them know I'm all right.> She chuckled as she dipped her
hand in her dimensional pocket for her communicator. <Serena never completely
got over the day when we fought the Doom girls.  She's probably sobbing buckets
by now--WHAT THE--?!>

This last thought was said aloud as Lita stared down.

Her clothing was gone.

Well, it wasn't exactly gone.  It had changed.  She was no longer wearing her
Scout outfit, or her regular clothes for that matter.  She was dressed in a
light blue blouse and jumper that was *far* too small for her (well, that would
explain why she couldn't breathe).  Her toes peeked out from busted white bobby
socks; all that remained of her shoes was a loose strap of leather encircling
her right ankle.  No wonder the old man had freaked.

Him, and those two guys, and all those people...

<Oh, no!  I can't go around looking like this!>

It was a good thing her apartment was a few blocks from here.  She took off,
feeling horribly self-conscious and baffled.  <What's going on? Why am I dressed
in this--this getup?  This is so weird.  It's like some warped dream, or--or--
or-->

Her thoughts tumbled to a halt.

So did she.

It was the right street.  She had walked this way countless of times. There was
the corner store, there was the restaurant.  There was, however, no apartment
building. There was not even a building.

Lita found herself gawking at a parking lot.

======================================================================

Ranma peeked around the wall.  Akane...or whoever it was...had stopped in front
of a parking lot and was staring at it.  "Hurry up!" He hissed over his
shoulder.

Ryoga looked up from where he had set up an impromptu campfire.  "Will you wait?
It takes time to boil water!"

They had discussed, while zipping over rooftops, the cause of Akane's new form
and came to the conclusion that the water mixing with Hinako-sensei's ki-blast
may have caused a reaction similar to the pools of Jusenkyo.  Akane's body must
had somehow absorbed the ki-blast, resulting in the abnormal acceleration of
growth (although Ryoga hardly called it abnormal--they had nearly blown their
cover when Ranma nearly kicked Ryoga off a roof after he mentioned that his
nights as P-chan would definitely be interesting if she kept that form).

It didn't explain why the girl striding confidently below them looked nothing
like body-accelerated Akane (or a normal-sized Akane, for that matter), nor did
it explain her amnesia or her complete change of character, but one thing they
were certain about--if Soun Tendo ever saw that his little girl was not so
little anymore, they would be lucky to escape Japan with just the clothes on
their backs.

But how could they change her back?  Ryoga had suggested finding Hinako-sensei
and make her use her 5-yen to suck the energy out of Akane, but Ranma pointed
out that not only was that extremely painful, but she wouldn't be able to do it
anyway.  She was cured for the day--remember? The only other alternative was the
Jusenkyo curse remedy.  A fuming, hot-water-drenched Akane was better than an
Akane screaming as her energy got sucked out of her.

"This better work, Ranma," Ryoga whispered as he handed him a steaming
teakettle.  "Or else..."

"Yeah, yeah.  I know, I know. Wish I had your talent for getting lost at the
right times."

"It's not a talent!" Ryoga hissed, but Ranma was already creeping up behind her.

A simple splash on the shoulder should do it.  She wasn't moving at all, as if
she was petrified in shock or something.  It was a faint hope, but if everything
goes well--uttering a prayer, Ranma lifted the kettle...

A faint blur, and the kettle went flying into the air.  Ranma blinked before he
realized he was also traveling backwards at a remarkable rate. His shout of
surprise turned into a pained "Oof!" as his trip abruptly ended against a brick
wall.

He didn't have time to question, because an arm rammed to the left and the right
of his head, hemming him in, and he found himself staring into the raging green
eyes of the girl, her hot breath on his face.  "WHAT -- THE --HELL -- ARE -- YOU
-- DOING?!?!?!?!?"

He stammered  "Akane! It's -- It's not what you think--"

"The hell it's not!"  A hand slapped onto his chest, grabbed a good hunk of his
shirt, and Ranma was dragged even closer to those livid eyes.

"You've been following me all this time!  My apartment's gone, the Scouts are
gone, and I wake up dressed in this--in this--"  She began choking on her words,
the hands on his shirt bunching tighter before she could speak again.  "What are
you, some kind of freaking PERVERT? What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"I did nothing!" Ranma protested.  "I swear! It's all Ryoga's fault!  I tried to
warn you away from that ki-blast, but you ran right into it! And Ryoga threw
water at you...well, actually, he was throwing it at me, and I told you to get
out of the way, but Akane, you wouldn't listen, you were running right towards
me, and..."

"Ryoga?  Akane?  What are you talking about?"

Ranma's words were growing more desperate.  "Don't you remember, Akane?  I was
fighting with Hinako-sensei.  You were yelling at me, as usual..."

She frowned, loosening her hold on his shirt.  "Akane?  My name's not Akane."

Ranma blanched.  <It's worse than I thought.>  Soun would never accept this.
Stuck in a body like that, and with amnesia? Soun wouldn't beat him out of town.
He'll make him commit seppuku.  The usual vision of himself driving a sword into
his stomach popped into his head, with the inflamed head of Soun towering over
where his mother would usually appear.  He squeaked, "But...but...you're in
shock.  That's it.  All of this must've knocked out your memory, Akane.  Maybe
you should lie down for a bit. Kasumi would fix some green tea for you..."

The girl blinked, then slowly released his shirt and propped her hand against
the wall again, using the other hand to point a thumb at herself. "Listen, pal,"
she stated. "I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about or who you
are.  My name is Lita Kino, and over there is what used to be my apartment
building, except now it's a parking lot.  I haven't the faintest clue what
happened to me, except--" she hesitated a little "except I was in a fight, a
really bad fight, and something happened...and the next thing I knew, I'm waking
up in your arms."

Another button popped off Akane's blouse, smacking Ranma squarely in the
forehead.  He didn't even flinch.

"Lita Kino?" Ranma said, utterly confused.  "Then, you don't know me?

Ryoga appeared next to them.  "You're really not Akane?"

The girl hesitated longer, as if she was deliberately choosing her words. "I'm
a...well, I live in Tokyo by myself.  I attend Juban High.  I was with four
other girls..." Her voice trailed off, but Ranma sensed that she was hiding
something.  She frowned deeply.  "Exactly how did you find me anyway?"

This was no mere case of amnesia.  Something had happened, something beyond
Ranma's comprehension.  Perhaps, if he relayed what happened. "Well, you see, I
was fighting with Hinako sensei, and Akane, this girl you see," He might as well
play along with this girl's delusions that she was who she thought she was.
"Well, Akane was trying to tell me to stop, and P-chan here..."

"Will you quit calling me P-chan?!!!!" *THUMP*

"Ryoga here decided for some *bizarre* reason to turn me into a girl, so he
throws a bucket of water at me, and Akane got in the way just as Hinako let
loose this huge ki blast towards her, and then..."

"Hold it, hold it.  He threw water at you to turn you into a what?"

Ranma rolled his eyes.  "Please don't ask me about it, Kino."

"Please, call me Lita."

"Why do you want to be called by your surname?"

"Lita isn't my surname.  It's my first name."

"Huh?"

"Never mind.  Just call me Lita."  She blinked suddenly and stepped back. "Did
you say this girl got hit with water and this ki-blast at the same time?"

"Yeah.  The next thing I know, you come flying out, so naturally we assumed that
you..."

But the girl wasn't listening. She stepped away with a faraway look and wrapped
her arms around herself, her lips moving silently.  Ranma and Ryoga looked at
each other and shrugged.

=======================================================================

<No.  It can't be.  That's impossible.>

Lita never prided herself on being smart.  She would laugh with the other girls
when Serena brought home yet another lousy test score, but inwardly she knew she
would do just as badly, or probably even worse, if presented with the same test.
She wondered oftentimes if the other girls laughed at Serena just to cover up
their own shortcomings in the brains department.

But she didn't have to have Amy's IQ to piece together what had happened.

("...he throws a bucket of water at me, and Akane got in the way...")

It was coming back to her.  Hazy memories of deep rage, of raising her arms to
release her own power.

And Serena was shouting something.  What was she saying?

Pain.  Searing pain on her backside.  But it was shoved to the back of her mind,
she was so mad.  It hadn't registered.

("...Lita!...")

Serena had cried out something.  And just as she released her dragon, she had
felt something else, something before the world went boom.

Water splashing against the back of her legs.

("...the next thing I know, you come flying out...")

She looked down at herself.  The last button on her shrunken blouse was
trembling violently.  Gingerly, she touched it and it flew loose with a pop of
relief, followed by a rip as the jumper tore down the middle and a "Sproing!" as
the bra went flying.  But what caught her eye was the writing, scrawled just
inside the hem of the jumper.  It was scrawled in characters that made no sense
to her, but written just below it in smaller letters, in a neat hand, were the
words "TENDO AKANE".

=====================================================================

Ranma and Ryoga stared at each other as, behind them, the girl dropped to her
knees and began pounding the pavement with her fists, shrieking out a number of
words.

"You know," Ranma said.  "I'm beginning to think that that's really not Akane."

Ryoga frowned as he shoved two more pieces of tissue up his nose, then nodded, being very careful not to look behind him. "I have to say it, but you're right.  Akane would *never* use language like that."



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LaShawn M. Wanak (tbone_m_jenkins@yahoo.net)
T-bone Enterprises * In Touch With Yours Truly
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