Team Tendo
A Ranma � fanfict by Tangent
Pre-reading and editing assistance by:
Lord Talon,
Nvrmore,
And some guy named Steve.
DISCLAIMER: 'Ranma �' and all characters therein
belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogagukan, Kitty, and Viz
Video. This fanfict has been produced for my own enjoyment
and to pass on without profit. Other characters that come
into play in this fanfict may or may not be pulled from other
sources (including other fanficts, RPGs, manga, anime,
literature, or possibly even *GASP* American comic books!).
A WORD FROM TANGENT: This story gets into some
sensitive issues. The diverging point is, as in a few other
fanficts, the neko-ken incident. Genma himself hasn't changed
too much, but he does still get some really stupid ideas. Well,
actually, he does many things to Ranma that are unquestionably
abusive, but these two incidents are way over the top. It too, like
the neko-ken, is the result of a really stupid idea, it's bad, and it's
mentioned in this chapter. So I'm not going to write any more
about it here.
PROLOGUE: Saotome Returned
Nodoka Tendo smiled gently as she looked across the table at
her husband. Soun was attempting to show their four-year-old son,
Isomu, how to play shogi. She was glad now that they had found
this solution as to how to join their clans after she had filed for a
divorce in absentia from Genma Saotome.
Her worthless first husband had left on a long training journey,
and had taken their only child, Ranma, along with him, vowing to
raise him to be a 'man among men'. It had broken her heart to let
them go. What had happened nearly a year later still gave her
nightmares from time to time. Nodoka had received that call... that
horrible call. That terrible call from the police informing her that her
son was in the hospital after having been dropped repeatedly, by her
husband, into a pit of starving cats.
Ranma still bore the psychological scars from the incident, even
if he had recovered completely in the physical sense. Despite years
of therapy, he was still afraid of cats, although he was no longer
prone to succumb to the neko-ken training unless he was confronted
with a large number of them or one or two that were obviously hostile
Despite this particular weakness, she still loved him. After all, he was
her son, and it wasn't his fault that Genma had inflicted him with
ailurophobia.
Genma, on the other hand, had passed out of her heart forever. What
he had done to their son was nothing short of monstrous. She would
never forgive him.
Casting such dark thoughts aside when she heard the scurry of
activity in the genkan (entranceway), she smiled and was about to join
her beloved Soun in inquiring about Ranma and Akane's first day at
school. They were twelve now, and were going to be attending a new
school next year, so they were going to make the best of their last year
of elementary school. The smile froze on her lips as Akane came running
into her parents' arms crying. Ranma was nowhere to be seen.
"Akane," asked Soun, his voice full of fatherly concern. "Where is your
brother?"
"A... a... <sniff>... a bad man came out of nowhere and took him away!"
Akane wailed. Nodoka paled at the news, suspecting the worst.
"Who took him?" Soun prompted. "What happened?" With that, their
daughter described, in her tear filled, halting voice, how a strange man
wearing a white gi, glasses, and a bandanna had ambushed her and
Ranma. Ranma had leapt to her defense automatically, despite the fact
that they were of equal skill, but had been knocked-out easily by the
strange man who called Ranma his son.
Nodoka and Soun exchanged horrified glances at this news. Genma
Saotome had returned, and had kidnapped the son he had lost all rights to
even see. Nodoka gathered Akane and Isomu into her arms as Soun
rushed to the phone to call the police, and wondered how she was going to
break the news to Kasumi and Nabiki...
CHAPTER ONE: The Return of Ranma
Rain was falling lightly in Nerima.
Soun sorted through the daily mail in the vague hope of finding news
about his missing son. It had been four years now, and there had been
no sign of Ranma or his biological father, Genma. Nodoka still wept over
the loss of her first child from time to time, as did Kasumi (who had
become something like a second mother to the boy).
Each of their other children had responded in similar ways to their loss,
but had come up with different methods of coping with it. Akane had
herself into her training with a passion that bordered on obsessive, apparently
having vowed to herself that she would not stand by helpless should anyone
threaten her family again. Isomu, who barely remembered his half brother,
had taken up the family schools of Anything Goes Martial Arts and the
Righteous Blade as Ranma had before him (apparently harboring a romantic
dream of adventure in which he would seek out and rescue his older brother).
Nabiki, having lost her first mother and then her adopted brother, became
reserved and had taken to learning all she could about how to gather
information and track down people. Particularly missing people, like her
brother. And Kasumi... well Kasumi had become the pillar of unyielding
emotional strength that saw her family through their years of trial and sorrow,
at least when she was where they could see her. But in the twilight hours of
the night, when she thought that no one else could hear her, Soun and his wife
often overheard the sounds of restrained weeping coming from the kitchen.
Soun reflected on all this as he sorted though the bills and letters. Then
he saw it. A postcard that depicted a panda in a bamboo forest. Hoping
beyond hope that it bore the news that they had waited so long for, he turned
it around. Joy leapt to his heart as he read the short message.
Dear Family,
I have missed you all and look forward to seeing you again. I have finally
escaped the old man in China, thanks to some new friends, and they are going
to bring me home. Traveling with me are Elder Cologne, her great-granddaughter
Shampoo, and Mousse (I think he's in love with Shampoo).
Akane, Shampoo and Mousse are both our age. I have told them both of how
we used to train together, and they look forward to meeting you. I hope you kept
up your training!
I love you all,
Ranma Tendo.
PS: You're not going to believe what happened to me! I'll have to show you.
"Oh how we have waited for this day!" cried Soun joyfully. Four years they had
waited. Four long and terrible years. Casting decorum to the wind, he rushed to
gather his family in order to give them the good news...
* * *
Ranma walked quietly down the streets that had once been familiar to him,
carefully holding his umbrella so that he would be able to be reunited with his
family in his proper gender first. The umbrella he had chosen for this purpose
was quite large, enough so that Elder Cologne could easily hop beside him and
share its shelter. Mousse has also purchased a large one, hoping to share it
with Shampoo, but she had gotten a smaller one for herself and walked alone
beside them. Not that any of them really minded getting soaked by the rain as
such, but it was important to Ranma to show up at home in his true form first.
Despite feeling pretty good at the prospect of being reunited with his family,
Ranma's mood became somber as he once again reflected on what the old man,
his biological father, had done to him over the past four years. Four years of
training so intense that it often went past the border into abusive. Genma rarely
pulled his strikes as much as he needed to during his training sessions. Not
after the first night after he had kidnapped Ranma anyway, when a young and
terrified boy had tried to return home. Nor did he restrict the physical punishment
to their 'sparring'. For four years, pain and fear dominated Ranma's life. Four
years of carrying everything the old man saw fit to bring with them in one huge
pack. Four years of fitful sleep, bound and gagged because he had never stopped
trying to get away from his 'master'. Four years of sporadic meals while he watched
his 'master' eat regularly and well. Four years of hell.
Followed by two weeks of blessed relief. That was when, once again on the run
from the old man, Ranma had entered Joketsuzoku with the intent of making *her*
final stand...
* * *
"It's his handwriting, all right," confirmed Nabiki, looking carefully at the
message on the postcard. "I don't like the post script though... it sounds
ominous."
"Who cares," Akane declared happily. "Ranma is finally coming home!"
"We will just have to find out what it is when he gets here," Kasumi pointed out.
"I wanted to be the one to rescue him!" Isomu pouted, causing a chuckle all around.
"When is he going to get here?" Akane asked.
"It shouldn't be too long now," Nodoka pointed out. "The post card was dated last
week, and it sounds like they plan to come straight here. Kasumi, why don't you give
me a hand in the kitchen so that we can prepare for them, just in case."
"I want to help too!" Akane declared. Nabiki and Isomu almost paled at the thought
before they remembered that their sister had been making progress under their mother's
tutelage. Not much, despite her years of effort, but now her cooking was somewhat
palatable (as opposed to completely inedible). With both Kasumi and their mother there
to work damage control, they might not even be able to tell which part of the meal Akane
had helped with.
The preparations for their Sunday dinner (with possible and much hoped for guests)
were almost complete when a knocking could be heard at the front door.
"I'll get it!" Nabiki called out. She still had to race her father and Isomu to the door
though. Waiting for them at the front door was a small group of people with umbrellas.
Three of them were obviously Chinese - a boy with waist length hair and glasses wearing
robes; a girl wearing clothing designed for acrobatic combat who had purple (?) hair; and
a withered old woman who may just old enough to be Soun's great-grandmother let alone
the girl's. The other boy was Japanese, familiar, and seemed to be somewhat amused by
Nabiki's skeptical examination.
"Hey, Nabs," the boy greeted, using a nickname Nabiki had last heard about four
years ago. "You'd think that you hadn't seen me in a while."
"Ranma!" Nabiki exclaimed, hugging her long lost brother. Soun and Isomu threw
themselves at him as well, and Ranma found his breath being forced out of him by his
family.
"Hurts!" Ranma gasped. "Can't... breathe... Need... air!" [Ah well,] he thought. [At least
I can die happy...]
"Let the poor boy go," the old Chinese woman admonished. "I didn't come all this way
just to have my new son crushed to death by his other family." She chuckled lightly to
show that she didn't mean anything disparaging by her comment.
"Other family?" Soun asked, letting his embrace loosen.
"Yeah," Ranma explained. "I kinda got adopted by the amazons after Octopus-face
chased me into their village."
"Octopus-face?" Soun inquired.
"You know," Ranma explained, "Genma Saotome. Do ya really expect me to still call
him 'Pop' after all he's done to me? You're my real father now, and the only one I have as
far as I'm concerned." Soun was touched by his adopted son's declaration, and smiled at
the boy. Ranma's eyes lit up, soaking in the smile of a father who truly cared for him. An
expression he hadn't seen on Genma's face since the first day he had been kidnapped.
It had been so long...
"What's wrong?" asked Nabiki concerned about the sudden shift in Ranma's mood.
The haunted look that passed his eyes, and the shudder that accompanied it, disturbed her.
"I'll tell you later," Ranma replied. "When everyone's together. It's not something that I
like to talk about, but you deserve to know what happened." Ranma's voice became somber
again. "You all do."
With that, the group entered the house.
Nodoka, Kasumi, and Akane were just about finished preparing dinner when Nabiki
came into the kitchen.
"Hey, guess what?" Nabiki began her announcement.
"What?" asked Akane, distracted from what was, admittedly, not one of her better
efforts at meal preparation. Sometimes supervision didn't help as much as everyone hoped
it would, but it did keep the kitchen intact at least. She'd learn how to cook decent food
with more consistency... eventually.
"Well, a certain missing brother is in the common room..." The middle Tendo daughter
quickly sidestepped as Akane ran past her. Nodoka and Kasumi started gathering
everything to bring out, and conscripted Nabiki to help them since Akane had run off.
Nabiki just shook her head and began to gather things herself as she tried to guess which
dishes Akane had helped to prepare...
Ranma was just about ready to sit in his accustomed spot at the table when he
suddenly ducked and bobbed to the side. Akane went sailing past him, a bit surprised
that her flying tackle and planned hug had been evaded, but she recovered and rolled
easily to her feet. Ranma smiled at her antics, and permitted her to hug him this time.
"Oh Ranma," Akane began tearfully. "You're back! When that mean old man took you
away and I couldn't do anything about it, I... I..."
"It's okay, Akane," Ranma said gently. "I'm back now... I'm back..." A shudder
convulsed through his body as his memories of the past four years once again ran through
his mind.
"Wh... what is it, Ranma?" Akane asked, echoing Nabiki's earlier concern.
"I'll tell you after dinner," Ranma said, pulling himself out of the pain of his memories.
"I'll tell everyone after dinner."
PASTE CHAPTER ONE, PART TWO HERE: