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One of my prereaders pointed out that I should've waited to
post this when part 3 is ready, because part 2 contains a
lot of connecting material. He's absolutely right, but since
I'd already committed myself publicly to a posting date,
here it is. Enjoy...
**********************************************************
Hearts' Healing 2 - The Paths of Honor
A Ranma 1/2 - Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki FanFiction
By
D.F. Roeder
This and other fanfiction or mine can be found at:
http://home.flash.net/~dfroeder/index.html
C&C very welcome. Respond to FFML or privately to:
dfroeder@flash.net
----- Continuity -----
This is a Ranma divergence fic, the divergence occurring at
the beginning of the Ranma storyline, the day before the
fateful trip to Jusenkyo at the end of the 10-year training
trip.
This is also a continuation of the TM! OAV storyline,
although the concentration will be on one character, with
the remaining cast coming in as appropriate.
You will also have to have read "Hearts' Healing", "Hearts'
Healing Interlude - Wedding", and "Hearts' Healing 2, Part
1" for the events in this story to make much sense.
----- Acknowledgments -----
Many thanks to T.H. Tiger, Louis Philippe-Giroux, XStylus,
and Vincent Seifert for pre-reading. Thanks to Andrew
Norris, Kevin Hammel, and Anand Rao for spot-reading along
the way. If I've left anyone out, you may frog me at your
leisure. ^_^
========================================
Part 2: Conflicts of Interest - I
========================================
[September 16, 2003]
Her eyes blinked as she awoke, and confusion settled in.
"Where am I?" she asked the ceiling in a whisper.
The slow breathing of another drew her attention, and she
turned her head to see an elderly woman sleeping in a bed on
the other side of the room. The wrinkled face triggered her
memories of the events that had brought her to the home of
her husband's one-time adopted mother, and Ryouko smiled at
Wong Liu, as the old woman continued to nap away the first
blush of morning.
Even though she'd only been there about a day and a half,
the former space pirate and Demon of Destruction had already
found a place in her heart for Liu. Ryouko rolled over and
started as she realized Ranma was gone. She felt a moment's
panic, but he was *always* up before her. She hated and
loved that about him, and shook her head in exasperation.
"I married a morning person. I can just *hear* Aeka
laughing," she muttered, climbing out of the tiny bed.
Ryouko knew that Ranma was, in fact, *not* a morning person
per se, but someone who took sleep when he could snatch it
and rose when he'd had enough; Ryouko was the true master of
late morning dalliance. Also, Ranma would occasionally
suffer from uneasy sleep and would rise early, discomfited.
She was rarely awake enough to notice it, though.
As she padded out of the bedroom, Ryouko mentally cast about
for Ryou-ou-ki, more out of habit than need, these days. Her
space-faring partner was nosing around one of the fields,
probably having followed Ranma out. Ryouko examined the only
other sizable room of the house and then moved into the
kitchen, noting a teakettle and two clean cups sitting on
the table. <Oh, you are such a sweetheart...> Smiling, she
poured herself some of the brew, its strong, bitter odor
entering her nose and making her mouth ache for its hot
caress. She sipped appreciatively before setting out to find
her errant mate.
Casting her attention to the open door to the bedroom, Liu's
light snores were still audible. Ryouko nodded to herself
and rose from the ground, floating out the back door just as
the first speck of the sun appeared on the gentle roll of
the horizon.
Ranma was seated on an old section of upended log, banks of
morning fog drifting by on an unfelt breeze. As the air
cleared between Ryouko and her husband, the log displayed
numerous gashes and shaved areas to her eyes where a sharp
object had, over time, whittled away at the wood's crown.
Although Ryouko didn't know it, it was the very chopping
block at which Ranma had spent many an hour splitting tinder
for the fire. Ranma's attention was on the rising sun, and
Ryouko decided to sneak up on him.
Moving through the air, ghosting through the mist, Ryouko
made no sound that she could hear, but she missed seeing one
of Ranma's ears twitch and a smile appear on his face.
~~~~~
The tall marker stone at the turnoff to Wong Liu's farm bore
silent witness to the rising sun, as it had for the nearly
two hundred years that it had served its purpose. Even now,
the first rays of sunlight were starting to burn away the
low fog, leaving it to collect in low-lying sections of the
surrounding land, including part of the main road.
The peace of the morning was interrupted by the soft slaps
of many leather-soled feet on bare dirt. It echoed dimly up
from the fog-enshrouded dip in the road, and after a moment,
the Nyuuchiezuu appeared like variegated apparitions from
the gray.
Shan Pu, the group's leader and primary candidate for future
matriarch of their village, motioned twelve of her thirteen
accompanying warriors off in pairs using hand signals,
indicating that they should come at the farmhouse from
different angles. The hulking warrior Dowel, who was
carrying a shriveled old woman on her back, Cologne, stayed
with Shan Pu, and the three of them headed up the two-wheel
track, turning off into the fields just as the farm came
into view over a low rise.
~~~~~
He could tell her good morning, but that would ruin her fun.
Ranma schooled his features and feigned surprise when his
wife embraced him from behind. "Gah!" he exclaimed, but his
poor acting tipped her off.
Ryouko frowned at him. "Liar. You knew I was there, didn't
you?"
"Well..."
She sighed. "Just you wait, Hakubi Ranma. One of these
days--"
Ranma interrupted her by pulling her around into his lap,
almost spilling her tea, and grinning at her. "I would hope
that all my training of you wouldn't be for nothing."
Putting on an air, Ryouko huffed. "Are you saying I'm no
good?!"
He chuckled. "You're good; just not as good as me," he
teased.
"I'll arm-wrestle ya!" Setting her tea on the ground, Ryouko
put her fist in the air, leaving her upper arm level, and
patted her bicep. "Ain't failed me yet!"
Ranma laughed aloud at that. "No bet! I didn't say I was as
*strong* as you."
Allowing herself to be mollified, Ryouko put her arms around
Ranma's neck and kissed him, breaking only after she was
satisfied. "Ohayou, my husband."
"Ohayou, my wife."
Even after five years of marriage, being called 'wife' still
raised goosepimples over her body. She attacked her husband
with greater fervor.
~~~~~
"Oh, my achin' bones." Wong Liu sat up in her bed, resting
even from that small effort. She smiled at the mussed guest
bed; it was wonderful having Ranma and his wife visit. She
was as proud of the boy -- no, young man -- as if she'd been
his real mother. <A *doctor*, of all things.>
Grimacing as she rose to her feet, favoring her game leg,
Liu hobbled into the living room and then into the kitchen
to find a fresh pot and a clean cup waiting for her. "Ah, my
dear boy. Always thinking of others. Makes sense you being a
doctor." She poured and then sipped. "Good, good. Now, if we
can just get you and your pretty wife to have a baby or
five, this old woman's life would be complete."
Liu looked out one of the few windows the house could claim
and smiled at the sight of Ranma and Ryouko necking in the
backyard.
~~~~~
Shan Pu cursed the mist still clinging to the ground around
the dense vegetation of the long-fallow field. She knew
approximately where she was, but that wasn't good enough.
She wanted to know exactly where she was relative to the
prey.
She looked backed to see Dowel duck-walking to keep Cologne
and her own height from giving them away. Shan Pu shook her
head and decided to risk rising above the chest-level mist.
With only the top of her head, her odango, and her eyes
above the dispersing fog, she located the house and then the
prey.
Her eyes narrowed at the strange woman enjoying herself with
Nyuuchiezuu property. She looked a bit too thin to be a
warrior, although the hair wasn't *too* outre for village
fashion. <Doesn't look like a fighter, but if she is, then
she becomes an obstacle. And obstacles...>
Deciding where she wanted to be when the moment came, Shan
Pu stepped forward, but her foot landed on something oddly
soft and hard at the same time. Its voice, however, was
definitely hard on the ears.
"MIYAAAAAAA!!!" it screamed.
A bonbori slammed into the ground, but the creature had
fled. "Shit!"
~~~~~
Liu was two steps out of the back door, intending to have a
little fun embarrassing Ranma and his wife -- <If I could
only move a little faster,> she thought -- when a bizarre
and piercing cry echoed over the field from the left.
Ryouko's strange pet shot out of the last of the mist and
streaked towards her owner. Both Ranma and Ryouko had gotten
to their feet when fourteen women seemed to melt out of the
fields.
Ranma held out his hand. "LIU!"
The old woman hobbled as quickly as she could to stand next
to them. The strange women ignored her, as she posed no
threat.
"Who is, Liu-san?"
"Nyuuchiezuu."
Ranma's eyes narrowed. "Great, just great," he muttered in
Japanese.
"What do we do, Ranma?" Ryouko had shifted around so that
Liu was between them. "I don't want to, ah, 'you know' them
if I don't have to." Ryou-ou-ki was at her feet, hissing at
the purple-haired warrior that had trod on her.
"Wait and see what they want, I guess."
The Amazons formed a circle; Ranma noted their cool gazes
and gulped. After a few seconds of mutual appraisal, the
purple-haired woman facing Ranma stepped forward and spoke.
"You there, male. You will come now."
"Wha-- WHY?!"
"It is not for you to question; you are Nyuuchiezuu
property. Come, and the others won't be hurt."
"What did she say?" Ryouko whispered over her shoulder.
"Um... The dialect is off a little, but I think she called
me their 'property'."
"NANI?!" Ryouko spun around to look at the Amazon, her face
a mask of amazement mixed with fury.
The leader looked at Ryouko, and then dismissed her with her
eyes. "It is time to leave, male."
"No."
"No? You talk too much. Be more obedient, or the others..."
She trailed off and gestured at Liu and Ryouko, leaving it
to his imagination. She had no real intention of hurting
innocents, but the ten-year smear on her honor, slight
though it was, and the jokes she'd endured, even if
good-natured... Shan Pu wasn't about to leave without her
prize to flaunt in certain faces.
Ranma was becoming a little desperate, and he decided to
resort to a tactic that should be universally understood.
"No! Ranma fight-- no, er, challenge you! Then YOU leave!"
"That is acceptable," she intoned with a smirk.
Worried, Ryouko placed a hand on his shoulder. "Uh... If I
understand this right, are you sure about this?"
Liu, on the other hand, was frantic. "Ranma! You CAN'T!"
"I believe--" He never had the chance to finish as the
leader leapt at him, forcing him to back away and dodge her
maces.
"So, your name is Ranma." She executed a vicious double
strike with her bonbori, the second clipping Ranma's head,
but not enough to daze him. "I am Shan Pu, and you are about
to belong to me."
Having recovered from the surprise assault, Ranma led her
around, dodging and assessing her fighting style, and the
practice was beginning to annoy the Amazon. In the center,
Liu was babbling at an uncomprehending Ryouko and pointing
at Ranma and his opponent, but the combatants were too busy
to notice.
"Stupid male! Fight back!" Shan Pu was growing weary of
hitting air. Ranma just smiled and waited while she expended
energy.
Still seated on the chair strapped to Dowel's back, Cologne,
the current Nyuuchiezuu matriarch, smiled to herself and
nodded at his tactics. <He's wily, Great-granddaughter. Yes,
I think he'll make a fine husband for you. You could use
more tempering in battle tactics.> *Sigh.*
Shan Pu continued her assault, growing angrier, but Ranma
dodged and waited until he saw his chance. With a cry of
outrage at the perceived insult he gave her by not engaging,
Shan Pu overextended, at which point he relieved her of one
of her bonbori with a kick to the hand. The mace went
flying.
Shan Pu stopped and licked a cut from the exchange, and then
smiled, chiding herself for the loss of self-control. "Not a
problem." She tossed her other bonbori aside and rushed him.
His blocking was good and complete, but then her hands
started to blur. About twenty-five punches slammed into him
in less than two seconds and sent him flying across the
clearing.
"RANMA!!" Ryouko screamed. She growled and spun towards Shan
Pu.
"RYOUKO!" Ranma called. "No... I'll finish this." He
groggily rose to his feet, watching a pair of purple-haired
women coalesce into one.
"But, but--"
"Please? I... need to. I challenged and she accepted."
"Oooo! Men!" Ryouko clasped her left wrist, pulling off a
wide bracelet and stuffing it into her bodice. No one
noticed the action except Cologne. She didn't feel any
magical discharge, so she wasn't sure what to make of it...
although something wasn't right about her... something about
her eyes? Too far away to judge further, Cologne kept part
of her attention on Ryouko, while turning most of it back to
the fight.
Without taking his eyes off his opponent, Ranma smiled at
Ryouko's anger. Shan Pu walked towards him, her eyes blazing
in some emotion he couldn't identify. "You are strong, as
will be our children," she mused.
Ranma blinked; almost a mistake. She was on him like
lightning, and he was forced to dodge her incredibly fast
punches as well as other feints and attacks. <So, she has a
few tricks up her sleeve,> he thought. <Well, so do I.>
Another exchange forced him to put some distance between
himself and his opponent, which he wanted. She smirked at
him and charged again. He waited until she was almost upon
him before dodging right and sending his aura left. Shan Pu
stumbled for a split-second, her senses giving her
contradictory information, and Ranma used her hesitation to
twist around her and hit several pressure points on her left
side.
Shan Pu recovered her wits almost instantly, jumped away,
and landed awkwardly. Her left arm hung useless and her left
leg was only partially under her control... and she was
livid. Cologne's cackle went unheard by the combatants.
"RAAAAHHH!!!" Shan Pu yelled as she loped to the attack.
<One good hit... THERE!>
Ranma didn't oblige her, and evaded, keeping Shan Pu from
putting her planned attack into effect; he stayed just out
of her reach. They danced their deadly dance for another
minute until Shan Pu stopped and glared at him. <DAMN him!>
"WHY do you RUN?!"
He smiled faintly and carefully approached to just within
her range, and to Shan Pu's surprise, his battle presence
winked out.
"Wha--"
And she sensed someone attacking from behind. Shan Pu spun
around, right arm up and ready to block, and saw no one.
>From the stinging fire of fingertips stabbing her body, she
knew that she'd been duped, and she gasped and fell to the
ground, unable to move anything, not even her mouth.
Ranma stood over her for a second and then relaxed. The mad
cackling finally impinged on his awareness, and he turned to
see a shriveled old woman with a staff jump down from behind
the largest woman in the party. To his amazement, she hopped
on the staff to in front of him, still balancing.
"Impressive, young man!" she said in almost accent-less
Japanese. She hopped down and examined Shan Pu, nodding her
head in a cross between amusement and grudging respect.
"Indeed. The arms and legs are easy, but the mouth and her
labored breathing, keeping her weak without killing her, is
subtle work." She looked back up at him. "I thank you for
not taking her life," she said with utmost seriousness.
Ranma relaxed further, nodding and believing the situation
resolved.
"Who taught you your knowledge of pressure points?" Cologne
asked.
"My father. He's a doctor."
"Ah. And what do you do?"
"I'm a doctor, too."
Cologne's mouth spread in a wide grin, showing perfect
teeth. "Better and better." Cackling yet again, her fingers
flew over her motionless great-granddaughter, undoing what
had been done.
Shan Pu sat up slowly, holding her head. "Hurts," she
moaned.
"It will pass, Great-granddaughter. Now, I believe there is
something you must say to this young man."
Ranma prepared himself to receive her apology, but he began
to bigsweat as she lifted her head to gaze at him. <What is
THAT look for?!> She leapt from the ground and, chagrined,
Ranma realized he'd left himself open to attack. However,
when her arms went around his neck and her lips mashed
against his, he opened his mouth to protest, which left him
further open to an invading organ. Stunned, he stood there
while his prior opponent kissed him soundly.
She finally broke the kiss and looked at him with loving
eyes. "Wo ai ni. Wo de airen!"
Ranma felt the world starting to gray. "Wha... Wha..."
"Congratulations, Son-in-Law. Per three-thousand years of
Nyuuchiezuu law, you have defeated Shan Pu and are now her
husband."
"Wha--Wha-- NO WAY!!"
"Indeed, it is... Come here, Shan Pu. It is unseemly to hang
off of a male like that." Ignoring a feeling of
disappointment, Shan Pu moved to stand next to Cologne.
"But, but, but..." Ranma cranked his head around to look at
Ryouko, who was blinking owlishly, stunned at the bizarre
result of Ranma's victory and still too lost in the
surrealism of the moment to be angry.
Cologne appraised Ryouko again, wondering what it was about
the woman that bothered her, but she dismissed it and shook
her head. "She is obviously unworthy of you; not a warrior
at all."
Ranma whipped his head around to stare down at the
diminutive old crone. "Uh..."
Cologne went on. "It is the Law of the Nyuuchiezuu that
strong woman warriors find suitable husbands. I cannot, in
all good conscience, let such a fine specimen as yourself
get away."
Looking back at Ryouko, Ranma saw her start to twitch. "Um,
I don't think you fully understand the situation."
"Yes, yes, boy, I understand your reluctance, but the law is
the law. Look at it this way: you'll be contributing to
three-thousand years of Nyuuchiezuu glory!"
"Well, you see, I think you're short about two-thousand
years."
Cologne looked up at him, her annoyance rising. "What ARE
you talking about?"
Reluctant to disclose his wife's origins, Ranma stumbled
over his words. "Ryouko is... She won't... This just isn't
going to work!"
"Boy! I am not here to bandy words with you! You WILL come
with us!"
"What is the problem?" Shan Pu asked, turning the
conversation back to Chinese.
"He is reluctant to leave his previous wife," Cologne said,
snorting.
"Feh. I will show him that she is unworthy." Pulling out her
retrieved bonbori, Shan Pu stalked up to Ryouko. "You there!
Ranma will be MY husband!"
"What is she saying, Ranma?" Ryouko's voice was cool, making
Ranma uneasy.
"That I will be her husband."
Ryouko's left eyebrow twitched as Shan Pu continued. "You
are no warrior!"
"You are no warrior," Ranma echoed weakly.
"You are UNFIT!"
Ranma coughed. "You are, um, unfit... Try not to kill her,
Dear."
"And I will prove it!!" Shan Pu launched herself at Ryouko,
bonbori leading. Ryouko caught both globes of the maces in
her hands, stopping them completely.
"Un--... worthy?" Twitching, Ryouko's fingers dug into the
hollow metal of the mace. "How DARE you!" In the blink of an
eye, Ryouko had released the bonbori, and the severed
forward halves of the mace heads fell to the ground, an
afterglow ringing the edges. Shan Pu crossed her eyes at the
orange point of an energy sword hovering over the slope of
her nose, and then backed hastily away.
Cologne barked a command, and the remaining Nyuuchiezuu
readied their arms and tightened the circle.
Ranma blanched and backed away from Cologne and Shan Pu.
"You, ahhh, shouldn't have done that." Eyes were then drawn
to the ground as it began to tremble, then shake.
"An earthquake?" Cologne said. "I didn't sense--"
A brilliant flare from their right stole their eyes again
and revealed Ryouko shaking in a towering rage and
surrounded by a building corona of brilliant orange. A
trinity of red stars blazed, one each at her throat and on
her wrists. Her eyes were squeezed shut, blind to the energy
she radiated that grew in strength with that of the quaking
ground, and if the glare hadn't been so strong, the gawkers
might have seen tears leaking out of the corners of her
clenched eyelids.
The corona shattered into a thousand points and swirled
outward, eerie in the sudden silence of the now motionless
ground, encompassing the immediate area, warriors and all.
Then Ryouko's eyes opened, revealing a glowing scarlet hell.
"Un-- Un-- worthy... Ryou-ou-ki," she said in a dead voice.
"Get Ranma and Liu out of here."
"Miya!" the cabbit chirped. She galloped a short distance
and jumped... and kept going up. A few of the Amazons
tracked her, their eyes starting to bulge, only to almost
pop out when Ryou-ou-ki exploded into expanding crystalline
shards. In seconds, a bizarre spaceship hovered over the
farm. An indistinct rosy light fell from the ship to cover
the clearing. All felt a tug, but only Ranma and Liu rose
into the air.
"AAAAH!! WHAT'S HAPPENING?!" Liu tumbled, end over end,
followed by dead grass and the odd bit of paper.
"Calm down, Liu! It's oka--"
They both faded away, the colored light disappearing and
leaving only Ryouko, charring the ground around her feet.
She slowly levitated four meters into the air, holding
Cologne with her crimson eyes.
"Unworthy?" she hissedm, and then shouted, "UNWORTHY?!?!"
She shook for a moment, then said, "I spent FIVE THOUSAND
*YEARS* being unworthy and only a FEW learning to be HUMAN
again!! I am WORTHY!! DAMN you! *DAMN* YOU!! Not YOU... or
TSUNAMI... or ANY BLEEDING GOD ON HIS PLANET CAN SAY *THAT*
TO ME!!!"
She held her arms out, and the points of orange energy
swirled back into her palms.
"NO ONE will TAKE the LOVE that I - HAVE -- *EARRRNED*!!!"
Having collected all the energy in two large globes, her
arms swept down to point at the ground, and the globes
collapsed in on themselves and disappeared, leaving only the
gems shining hot.
"Run... or die," she said in an even tone, the fire in her
eyes burning cold. The power returned in two brilliant,
massive flares that shot from her downward-facing palms in
thick orange beams. The resulting explosion from the
compression of vaporized soil and rock and its release out
and down excavated a crater wide enough to almost reach
Liu's farmhouse, and it sent the Nyuuchiezuu flying.
As she arced through the air to land hard in the high grass
surrounding the farm, Cologne wryly noted that she'd done
something she hadn't done since her youth: she'd made a
tactical error by proceeding with too little information and
not fully understanding her opponents. <A beginner's lesson,
you foolish old wo--> "OOF!" <You KNEW something was off
about her. Bah!>
"Move it, Dowel. Unless you want to know what's it like to
be instantly well done." Blanching, the lumbering
Nyuuchiezuu warrior took off at a run, although Cologne
managed to hop into the seat before she was up to speed.
Explosions rocked all around, turning the surrounding farm
into a blast zone of craters. Cologne noticed that none of
the blasts had claimed any victims, and she was grateful
that the woman, or whatever, was being at least that
merciful. Her special cold ki-hot ki attack was considered
and discarded; she'd need to be quite close to make it work
and Cologne's intuition told her that the ease with which
their attacker generated the blasts meant that she had only
scratched the surface of her available power. No, one
mistake a decade was all she allowed herself.
By the time they reached the road, the assault had ceased.
The ship was still visible over the rise, and it hovered in
place for about a minute. Amazement clear on her ancient
features, Cologne then watched the object zoom straight up
into the sky and disappear with a twinkle.
She turned to see Shan Pu sitting on the ground, her eyes
wide and staring.
"Ai... ren..."
~~~~~
Satisfied that her point had been made and with her rage
vented, Ryouko materialized on Ryou-ou-ki's bridge, still
glowing and her gems still burning, only to be confronted
with a cowering and crying Liu, hiding behind Ranma. He gave
Ryouko a pained look.
"She's in shock," he said, "and scared witless. Um... Turn
yourself off, Dear."
"Wha--? Oh, sorry." All of Ryouko's emanations died away.
"Liu? Liu? It's all right," Ranma said, trying to soothe
her. The old woman didn't respond, continuing to cry and
shake, and then he saw the right side of her face go slack
and her right arm go limp, and she started to topple on a
nonfunctional right leg. "Oh, no. No! LIU!" Ranma caught her
and held her to him.
"What?!" Ryouko asked.
"I think she's having a stroke! LIU! Damn me for a FOOL!
LIU!!"
"Lay her on the floor!" Ryouko commanded.
"WHAT?!"
"DO IT!!"
Blinking, Ranma gently set the elderly woman on the deck.
"Ryou-ou-ki! Medical stasis!"
Ranma watched as the deck flowed up and over the stricken
Liu. After a few seconds, the deck flowed away, leaving the
woman frozen inside a clear crystal.
"Uh..."
"She's on hold, Ranma. We'll take her to see Washuu -- your
medicine can't help her enough. Sorry, my love."
"No... No, you're right... Let's go, then. I can't stand
seeing her like that."
"Let's go, Ryou-ou-ki. Hail Washuu."
"Miya," the worried cabbit chirped. A giant screen popped
up, curving along the inside of the environmental dome. It
stayed gray for a few seconds, and then an elfin face
surrounded by chaotic red hair appeared.
"Ryouko-chan! So good of you to call your mother. It's only
been, what? TWO MONTHS?!"
Sighing and shaking her head -- and trying to refrain from a
case of stress giggles -- Ryouko pointed to Liu encased in
the crystal. "We've got a patient for you."
"Hmmm." Unseen, Washuu's hands typed furiously for a few
seconds. "Major thrombosis in the left hemisphere. The
bleeding has pretty well soaked the entire side. Bad stuff.
Terminal." Ranma jerked. "No necrosis as yet, but she was
stalled on the cusp of it. Still going to be ticklish work."
She stopped typing. "I'll prep the main floor of the lab.
Teleport directly in."
"Hai."
Washuu looked over the distraught group. "Ja." The
communications screen winked out.
Ryouko gathered Ranma up in her arms and held him while he
stared at the only mother he could clearly remember having,
tears beginning to run down his cheeks.
~~~~~
After a long period of time spent regrouping, Shan Pu led
her shaky team back to the site where the confrontation had
taken place. Everyone had scrapes and bruises, but there
were no serious injuries of any kind. Cologne nodded to
herself at the fact, adding it to the mental picture of the
woman who could've killed them all with only a minor
difference in aim. She wasn't fooling herself. Ever the
tactician, she'd noted that the blasts had all been about
the same distance from the fleeing women, so it was only the
woman's desire not to kill that kept them from meeting their
ancestors prematurely.
Shan Pu stood in the center of the initial blast zone,
shaking her head at the size of the crater from a point
about ten feet below ground level. She turned and looked up
at the rim where her great-grandmother still perched on
Dowel's back. "NOW what?"
"A good question, child. For the time being, I think your
air--" She stopped, uncertain whether the man would *ever*
end up being Shan Pu's husband. "I think the young man is
out of our reach, for now."
The shift in address with regard to her rightful and lawful
spouse annoyed Shan Pu, and she scowled up at Cologne.
"Airen," she said flatly.
"We'll see," the elder rejoined.
One of the other warriors that had been poking about ran up
to Cologne. "Elder, I don't know if it's important, but I
found this." She held up a small piece of heavy, stiff paper
to the matriarch.
The small rectangle was singed, but otherwise, the writing
upon it was legible. Cologne smiled as she read the name and
address and was intrigued by the list of skills.
"What is it, Great-grandmother?" Shan Pu had scrambled up
the rim of the crater and now stood before Cologne.
"A clue, Shan Pu. A clue." Cologne put the business card
away in her robe. "Gather your party. We're leaving."
____________________
Pensive and casting looks into the foyer where the door to
Washuu's laboratory was located, Ranma sat in the den of the
Masaki home. Ryouko had remained in the lab, ostensibly to
keep an eye on the proceedings, but Ranma knew it was to
avoid contact with either Tsunami or Tenchi. There was, of
course, nothing to see concerning Liu's treatment because
the old woman was inside some type of pod while Washuu
worked on her from her lab station.
"Here. Drink it. It will relax you."
Looking up into the kind, pink eyes of Tenchi's wife, Ranma
smiled. "Thanks, Tsunami-san."
She bowed and then sat opposite him. "None of that 'san'
business. You are family--"
Ranma shifted, uncomfortable, and sipped his tea.
"--despite the hard feelings of others."
He sat his tea down on the table. "Thank you. I, er, do
appreciate it."
"Not at all... I just wish..." Tsunami looked over at the
door to Washuu's lab. "Never mind."
Changing the subject, Ranma asked, "So, where is Tenchi?" He
almost flinched at the name as he said it.
Tsunami chuckled. "On Jurai, of all places. Okaasama and
Funaho-okaasama insisted he come for a visit. I suspect
they're trying to get Otousama to at least not despise him."
"Why didn't you go with him?"
The smile left her face, and it was her turn to shift
uncomfortably.
"I apologize. It's none of my business," he said.
"That's all right; it's no secret... off-planet. The Emperor
is... disturbed concerning me." She sighed. "To be Tsunami,
the ephemeral goddess, was one thing; to have her merge with
his youngest child and become an amalgam of the two is
something else entirely." She caught Ranma studying her and
paused before continuing. "You are wondering why, of course.
Why the early assimilation?"
Embarrassed, he said, "Oh, no. I mean, I wouldn't dream
of--"
"You wouldn't be any different from the others," Tsunami
interrupted, shaking her head and reaching to pick up her
own tea. "At least with you, I have a chance for an unbiased
hearing." She sipped her tea once, then said, "It would've
happened eventually anyway, sooner or later, when the
alignment of certain factors was... more favorable."
Ranma only had a rough idea of what the situation had been,
and certainly not enough to comment. He only nodded in
response, trying not to think of Ryouko's feelings on the
matter.
Tsunami studied Ranma in turn. "I think I would like for
*you* to understand. I miss Ryouko. She was... *is* part of
this family."
He nodded again.
"The thing I fear no one will believe is that it was NOT the
choice of Tsunami to move the final assimilation up; it was
Sasami's." She got to her feet and walked to the front
window.
Aeka had stopped at the foyer entrance to the den, frozen by
Tsunami's last words, and had then moved back out of sight
to listen. If either Ranma or Tsunami were aware of her,
they showed no sign of it.
"No, Sasami was frightened of a number of surprisingly adult
things, regardless of her youth," Tsunami continued. "She
was afraid that the final assimilation would distance her
from her family, which, sadly, it has. She was afraid that
as assimilated goddess, no one would want her, love her for
herself. The only person she knew... that she could
*imagine* that didn't seem to mind was Tenchi." She leaned
against the glass, staring out over the water of
Masaki-no-ike.
"And Tenchi was starting to come around to Aeka and Ryouko.
Another year or two, perhaps, and something solid would have
probably grown between the three of them." She laughed.
"Despite their fights, Aeka and Ryouko love each other, and
it would have probably turned into even more, given time."
She bowed her head. "For denying that a chance to live, I...
we are truly sorry."
Her words disturbed Ranma -- some of them hit too close to
home -- but rueful, she turned and smiled at him, and he
dropped his dark expression. "Forgive me. Speaking of the
past through two sets of memories is awkward."
"Ah, no problem. I can't imagine what it must be like."
"No, and you don't want to, although it's not painful or
anything. Just... extraordinarily odd." She glided back to
her seat at the couch and sat down.
"I miss Ryouko. Aeka-oneesama is here, of course, although I
don't know why she stays, really. She only speaks to me when
necessary." She paused. "Sasami wanted Tenchi, and was
afraid that he wouldn't be there for her when she grew up,
and she was afraid that when she grew up and had fully
assimilated with Tsunami, no one else would be able to see
past Tsunami to the person inside. So... she *forced*
Tsunami to act."
>From her hiding place around the corner of the doorway, Aeka
started, putting her hand up to her mouth.
"Forced?" Ranma said, echoing Aeka's thoughts.
"Indeed, forced."
"How?"
Aeka nodded to herself at Ranma's question.
Tsunami brooded on her tea for a moment. "When Tsunami saved
a little girl that fell to her death in the Royal Nursery
over seven-hundred years ago, she could do so only by
intermingling her life essence with Sasami's physical body.
Sasami's life was dependent on Tsunami's... and the reverse
was, to a lesser degree, also true. Had something happened
to Sasami, Tsunami would likely not have died, but she
would've been severely diminished and become ineffectual."
Her eyes grew hard. "That was, and is, unacceptable."
She smiled again, and to Ranma, the room seemed to brighten.
"So you see, because of the initial assimilation, she
wielded a kind of indirect power over Tsunami. Sasami was
growing depressed over her situation and her impending
future, and Tsunami began to catch stray thoughts from her,
picturing herself tired and alone, and the thoughts became
steadily darker."
Tsunami waved her hand in the air. "Oh, it might not have
ever come to anything... permanent, but Tsunami could not
take the chance. Too much... future was at stake, so Tsunami
granted her unspoken wish. Her desires became Tsunami's, and
the fusion, we... *I* got what Sasami wanted."
She paused. "And may the creator have mercy on my soul," she
said softly, her voice carrying throughout the room, "for
many I love will not."
Ranma was stunned to silence, and a quietly weeping Aeka
moved away from the door and climbed the stairs,
disappearing into her room.
Tsunami looked up at him. "I still love Ryouko like a
sister, and I would do almost anything to have her
forgiveness... or Aeka-oneesama's."
"I'll... talk to Ryouko," Ranma said uncertainly, "but I
can't, *won't* promise anything. Even now, she'll barely
speak of it, and when she does..."
"I see..." Tsunami sighed, noticing a pain of some deep kind
washing across his face. "Thank you for listening at such an
awkward time."
"It was nothing. It kept my mind off things."
Tsunami looked at Washuu's door. "Ryouko is approaching. I
will leave you two to your news. If there's anything you
need, please ask." She smiled as she rose, and glided out of
the room.
The door to the lab opened in time for Ryouko to see a brief
glimpse of Tsunami's back as the woman disappeared out of
her limited field of view. An ugly glare appeared on
Ryouko's face and then vanished, and she walked into the
den. "Ranma, come inside. Washuu is finished."
~~~~~
Washuu was studying the readouts on her holo-monitors when
the glowing disk of the lift settled to the floor and then
rose out of sight, leaving Ranma and Ryouko at the bottom.
"Ah. Take a seat." Washuu indicated Ryouko's chair and a
second chair that rose out of the substance of the floor
next to it.
After they were seated, Washuu finally turned from her
displays and regarded Ranma. "I have good news and so-so
news." She leaned back. "All the damage has been corrected
or replaced. I've even taken care of her leg and a few other
things that were close to happening." She sighed and rubbed
her face.
"However, in the process of releasing the medical stasis,
some necrosis of brain tissue occurred before I could get
nutritive fluid into the brain case and have it filter down
to all the parts. The dead material was easily regenerated,
of course, and the motor and autonomic functions easily
mapped out and repaired. But..."
Washuu sighed. "She will suffer some memory loss, Ranma.
Usually, there's enough fault-correction through repetitive
storage to reconstruct lost memories, but Ranma, the woman
is old, and she was suffering some memory loss already and
loss in brain-percentile usage. And the damned stroke
cleaned out a number of redundant storage locations for
recent memories. I don't know what she won't remember or
will, but you should be prepared. I reconstructed what I
could, so I *think* it will be minimal, but look for the
worst. The brain is still a tiny, tiny bit of a mystery,
even to me." She paused for a second, and then said to
herself, "And perhaps that is as it should be."
She shrugged and looked seriously at Ranma. "Are you
prepared to care for her, help her relearn anything she's
forgotten how to do?"
"Of course." There was no hesitation.
Turning to Ryouko, Washuu asked, "And you?"
Ryouko nodded.
"Very well. Here we go."
Returning to her holo-keyboard, Washuu typed a sequence of
commands, and a large, ersatz sarcophagus materialized in a
cleared area. The surface of the container peeled away in
sections, each disappearing into the one beyond, opening a
rectangle of increasing size. Soon, the top had vanished,
revealing Liu sleeping peacefully within. Washuu punched a
button, and Liu's eyes fluttered open.
Ranma was at her side in a flash. "Liu? Liu-san? How you
feel?"
Liu turned her head and blinked. "Ranma? What...? Where AM
I?"
Laughing, Ranma picked her up in his arms. "You're safe,
that's where." He gently placed the old woman on her feet.
She looked around, and then looked at Washuu and Ryouko.
"Hello. Do I know you?"
"Hmmm," Ranma noised, switching to Japanese. "I don't think
she remembers you, Ryouko."
Ryouko slumped, then brightened. "That may not be... all
bad."
Ranma caught on. "Yeah, I think you're right." He switched
to his broken Chinese. "Liu-san?" He pointed to Ryouko.
"That my wife, Ryouko."
"Oh!" Liu beamed, and she began speaking in flawless
Japanese. "I am Wong Liu. I'm very pleased to meet you!"
Both Ranma and Ryouko turned to stare at Washuu, who had her
back to them and was whistling innocently while she typed.
Ryouko just shook her head.
Blinking, Ranma turned back to Liu. "Uh... How are you
feeling, Liu-san?"
"Right as rain, oddly enough. I seem to remember... hurting
my leg? Funny. It's okay now."
"Err, yeah," Ranma temporized. "Um, Ryouko's mother fixed it
for you... amongst other things."
"Oh?"
"Yes... Maybe we should go out to the living room and talk
about this a little bit." Ranma ushered Liu in front of him
towards the laboratory lift. Ryouko started to follow.
"Ryouko," Washuu said, "a moment, please."
Ranma nodded at his wife, and he and Liu ascended out of
view.
"What?" Ryouko walked up to Washuu's workstation.
Crossing her legs and linking her fingers behind her head
and leaning back, Washuu said, "I want you two to stick
around for twenty-four hours. It'll give me enough time to
monitor Liu for any irregularities."
Ryouko nodded and started to walk off again.
"And there's something else, something I've been meaning to
talk to you and Ranma about."
Stopping and turning her head around, Ryouko said, "Oh?"
"Yes... Actually, Liu is just fine and go home at any time,
but I wanted you two to stick around, because this is
something near and dear to my heart."
Ryouko's body turned to match her line of sight, and she
canted her head to one side, asking the obvious question.
Washuu clasped her hands together, little sparkles in her
eyes. "GRANDCHILDREN!"
The once universally feared space pirate tipped forward and
planted her face on the lab floor.
____________________
"A grand morning," Tendou Soun hummed to himself as he
walked down the lane from a nearby market, a pack of
cigarettes in one hand and a generous bottle of sake in the
other. "Saotome-kun should be up and about in a while, and
then we'll see about which of us deserves the title of Grand
Master of Unrestricted Shogi. Yes, indeed... Hello, what's
this? The clinic's reopening!"
Soun stepped up to the door and read the hand-written notice
aloud. "'Back on Wednesday. Clinic will open on Monday,
September 22nd.' Well, that's good news!" He turned and read
the name on the placard... and frowned.
~~~~~
"Kasumi!" Soun doffed his street slippers and walked
barefoot down the hall and into the kitchen, finding his
eldest daughter at her usual work.
"Oh, hello, Father. Did you go out this morning?" she said,
flashing him a smile before going back to stirring the pot
of miso on the stove.
"Er, yes, I did. Did you know that the clinic is reopening?"
Kasumi's wooden cooking spoon spun out of her hand, spraying
a line of dusky red liquid, and clattered on the floor. "Oh,
dear..."
"Is something wrong, Kasumi-chan?"
She bent over and retrieved the spoon, avoiding looking into
her father's eyes. "No, no. Just clumsy this morning."
"Oh." Soun set the sake and cigarettes on the counter as
Kasumi reached to place the dirty spoon in the sink. "I
found it more than a little odd that the new physician is
named Ranma."
The spoon fell out of Kasumi's hand and banged against the
brushed steel of the sink. Soun gaped as he watched his
daughter grip the edge of the counter tightly, her eyes
closed. He rushed over and supported her, his hands along
her slender arms.
"Kasumi! Maybe that doctor isn't getting here quick enough!"
"No... Father. I am not... ill." She opened her eyes and
bowed her head.
He blinked at her, then said, "Well... if you say so... Are
you sure?"
"Quite sure." She straightened, still keeping her head down.
"Will you come with me, Father?"
Nodding and confused, Soun followed Kasumi out of the
kitchen, through the tearoom, out the open shoji, and into
the doujou. She stopped in the middle of the floor and
turned to face him.
"Please sit, Father. There are some things that I must tell
you. It seems the goddess of luck is not smiling upon me...
or Nabiki... or Akane."
Soun dropped to the floor and sat on his shins, fearing
illness in his precious daughters. Kasumi mirrored him a
short distance away, and she surprised him by bending
forward and placing her forehead on the floor.
"I am very truly sorry for what I am about to tell you, for
I and my sisters have dishonored our family, and... it may
not be recoverable."
"Kasumi! Please get up! What is this all about?!"
She didn't move, but sighed and began a tale, the sound of
her voice against the polished wood floor both muffled and
strangely reverberant. After a few moments of listening,
Soun began to pale.
~~~~~
"Tadaima!" Tendou Nabiki cheerily called out to her birth
home, having taken a personal day off from work by falsely
citing a family emergency. It was something of an emergency,
though, because she needed to speak with Kasumi without
delay -- the reopening of the clinic was a timebomb just
waiting to explode. She took off her business shoes and slid
her feet into her slippers that Kasumi always kept waiting
for her, and she wondered where her usually omnipresent
older sister was.
As she stepped into the hallway, her father appeared at the
other end. She waved and said, "Hi, Daddy. I took a day off
to--"
"Daughter." Soun was grim and formal. "Come to the doujou. I
would have words with you." He turned and stalked through
the tearoom and out of the house.
Hovering in place on her toes, Nabiki swallowed once, then
twice. She wondered just what exactly had blown up in their
faces -- hoping it had nothing to do with current
developments -- and whether or not she'd be able to doctor
its spin. Blowing air out of her mouth, "Calm, Nabiki," she
traced Soun's path to the outlying building on the property.
____________________
"Oh! Hello. Who are you? My, you're a pretty one!" Liu bowed
once to a bemused Tsunami.
Tsunami returned the gesture with her usual grace. "Hello,
Wong Liu-san. I am Masaki Tsunami. I welcome you to my
home."
A four-year-old girl with midnight blue hair peeked around
from behind Tsunami's house kimono. "Achika-chan, say hello
to Wong-san."
"Ohayou, Wong-san," Achika said in a tiny voice, her large
red eyes peering intently at their guest.
"Oh, myyy, what a darling little girl! Come give Auntie Liu
a hug." Liu buried the girl in her arms.
Tsunami edged over to Ranma and whispered, "How is she?"
"Fine," he whispered back, "but a little *too* happy." He
smirked at Liu.
"Washuu, no doubt."
"Yes. Probably an anti-anxiety medication or something
similar."
Liu straightened, and Achika fled back behind her mother,
peeking around at the old woman.
Now gazing at Tsunami, Liu said, "What an interesting hair
color. If I were back home, I'd think you were Nyuuchiezuu."
It wasn't tactful, but there was a certain pharmacological
innocence to the question, and Tsunami couldn't help but
smile.
"Thank you," she said. "Nyuuchiezuu?"
"Um, there hangs a tale," Ranma said, bigsweating.
"I can't wait to hear it," Tsunami chuckled.
"Are those tattoos?" Liu asked, reaching up and poking the
two round dots on Tsunami's forehead, causing her to blink.
"Where is your husband?"
The assimilated Juraian goddess had to fight down a case of
the giggles. "Er, something like that," she temporized, "and
Tenchi is on a trip... family business."
"Ah. Takes his responsibilities to family seriously, I see.
Good, good."
Tsunami brought a hand up to her mouth to hide a smile.
"Something... like that." She briefly wondered to what
tortures of courtly politeness the rulers of Jurai were
subjecting her poor Tenchi.
"Liu-san," Ranma said gently, "let's, um, go into the den
and have a talk. There are some things you should know about
what has happened recently."
She batted Ranma's arm. "Oh, you young people are always so
serious. Well, lead on!" Liu preceded them out of the
kitchen.
Tsunami patted Ranma on the shoulder as he shook his head.
"Go forth, serious young man, and explain."
"Ha, ha," he said wryly.
"I will bring in tea shortly."
"Thanks, Tsunami." Ranma steeled himself and strode into the
den to find Liu looking out through the picture windows at
the pier and the lake. "Liu-san."
"Look, Ranma! Isn't it gorgeous?"
He couldn't find it in himself to be impatient with her, so
he smiled and joined her at the window, enjoying the view.
"Yes, it is. This valley has always been beautiful to me."
Looking down at the simple wonder on Liu's face, Ranma
wondered when he'd lost that. No, he hadn't lost it; he felt
it every time he looked at the wonderful being that was his
wife. Ranma put his arm around Liu and enjoyed the view.
~~~~~
As she waited for the kettle to heat, Tsunami looked out the
kitchen window and smiled at Achika playing in the yard. She
suddenly felt eyes upon her, and turned to see Ryou-ou-ki
sitting on the floor about ten feet away, staring. Tsunami
turned back to her kettle and put a hand on the counter to
steady herself. <Ryou-chan!>
The part of her that had been Sasami was causing her to
almost burst into tears. She so wanted Ryou-ou-ki's
friendship and love again. Hesitantly, smiling, Tsunami
turned back to the cabbit, who hadn't moved.
Tsunami walked obliquely to Ryou-ou-ki and sat in a nearby
chair, turning to face her once and, hopefully, future
friend. They simply sat, regarding one another, until
Tsunami felt she would burst. She held out a hand.
"Ryou-chan--"
But the cabbit turned and scampered away. Tsunami stared
after her, and then put her face in her hands and began to
quietly sob. She didn't see Ryou-ou-ki peek around the
corner and watch, her large yellow eyes sad and confused.
~~~~~
"Hey, hey? Hitting on other women already?" Ryouko padded
into the room, smiling at the picture of Ranma and Liu at
the windows. Ranma turned and playfully leered at his wife,
under which she preened. Liu, however, was on Ryouko in a
trice.
"Ryouko, did you see that darling little girl of
Tsunami-san's? Are you and Ranma going to give me a little
grandchild to bounce on my knee? Please?!"
Ryouko's left eyebrow twitched, and Ranma came to the
rescue. "Liu-san, please! Now, we've all had a hard day."
"We have?"
"Er, yes, we have."
"Oh... But it's still morning!" Liu allowed herself to be
guided to a seat on one of the couches.
"Um..." He turned to Ryouko. "What did Washuu want?"
"I'll, er, tellyoulater," she finished in a rush and
hurriedly sat down opposite Liu.
He stared at her for a second, but nothing more was
forthcoming, so he sat beside Liu. "Liu-san, um, earlier
this morning... Let's see..."
"Yes?"
"Ah, well, you see, we were at your farm earlier this
morning."
"We were? I don't remember that."
"Well, there's a reason you don't remember. You, um, had a
stroke this morning."
Liu blinked at him. "I did?"
"Yes, you did, but Ryouko's mother fixed you up."
"Oh, well, I must thank her, then." Liu started to rise, but
Ranma gently brought her back down.
"I've got more to tell--"
"If I had a stroke, why do I feel so good? Shouldn't I be in
a hospital?"
Ranma glanced over at Ryouko, who was clearly enjoying his
discomfort. <No help there,> he thought ruefully. "You see,
Liu-san, Ryouko and Washuu and Tsunami are, um, different
than, er, other people you know."
"Oh? Are they rich?"
"Uh, HAHA! Well, some of them are, but that's not what I'm
trying to say."
"Well, spit it out, son. I *don't* remember you being so
indecisive... ... My, I'm not speaking Han, am I? What am I
speaking?!"
"Uh, Japanese. You see--"
"Japanese?! How?"
Ryouko couldn't contain herself any longer and laughed
aloud. "Liu, what Ranma is dancing all around is that
Washuu... Tsunami, and I are aliens."
Liu considered that. "Oh. What country are you from?"
Fighting off the urge to tip over, Ryouko said, "No, no. You
should ask, ah, what planet we're from... where applicable."
Liu considered that, also. Then considered it some more. She
turned to Ranma and said, "Ranma-chan, I know a few girls
back at the village that would flip over you." She then
cupped a hand around her mouth, her voice falling to a
whisper. "And they're not crazy, either."
Ryouko finally did tip over, and Ranma had to fight off his
own laughter, settling for a broad grin. "Liu-san, Ryouko's
not crazy, heh. She, ah, well... I guess you're going to
have to show her, Honey."
Levitating up from her prone position on the couch, Ryouko
straightened and waved at Liu.
"Hmph! Wires."
Ryouko fell out of the air, and then was right back up. She
teleported to another location in the house and then back to
the couch.
"Mirrors, but very well done."
The pirate slapped her forehead, and then produced her
energy sword.
"Errr... How did you do that? I didn't know you did magic
tricks!"
"ARGH!! RYOU-OU-KI!!"
After a moment, everyone heard a bang on the outer wall and
a wail. Ryouko rolled her eyes, while Ranma chuckled. There
was a moment of scratching, then silence. A determined
cabbit finally phased through the outer wall of the den and
scampered up to Ryouko. "Miya?"
Ryouko moved to hover over Liu. "Do you trust me?"
"Well..." Liu looked to Ranma, who smiled and nodded. "I
suppose so..."
Gathering a startled Liu up in her arms, Ryouko floated
towards the wall. "Ryou-ou-ki, let's go outside for a
minute."
"Miya!"
As they approached the sheet-rocked inner wall, Liu started
squirming. "The wall is getting close."
"That's okay. We're going through it."
The wall was upon them before Liu could say anything
coherent in reply. "AAAHHH!!-- Ungh?!" Liu looked back to
see the undamaged outer wall receding. "How...?!"
"We phased through it. Um, our, er, atoms and stuff passed
between the atoms of the wall. It's handy."
"Yes... I suppose it would be," Liu warbled.
They stopped a short distance from the house, Ryou-ou-ki
having run alongside, and Ryouko alit on the ground and set
Liu on her feet.
"Ryou-ou-ki, ship mode."
"Miya?"
"We're trying to convince Liu that we're from outer space."
"Miya?"
*Sigh.* "Just do it, please?"
Ryou-ou-ki chirped an affirmative, and then galloped a short
distance before jumping.
"MIYOOOOOOWWWWWLLLL!!!" Her body exploding into giant
crystalline constructs, Ryou-ou-ki expanded into a
quadrilateral spaceship, her yellow environmental dome
glinting in the sunlight. She hovered very near.
Liu was clutching her chest, staring. Ryouko put her arm
around Liu and said, "Ryou-ou-ki is a living spaceship.
We've been together, sort of, for over five-thousand years."
"Five... THOUSAND?!"
A thoughtful expression settled on Ryouko's face. "Yes, Liu,
five thousand. Except... I don't remember most of it...
thankfully. But that's a story for another time." She looked
up at Ryou-ou-ki and then back to Liu, smiling again. "Wanna
take a joyride?"
~~~~~
"Ranma?"
Turning from looking out the window as Liu and Ryouko
boarded Ryou-ou-ki, he saw Tsunami standing in the kitchen
entry. Her eyes were red and puffy.
"Tsunami? Is everything all right?!" He hurried over to her,
stopping just shy of invading her personal space.
"Oh, I'm fine. It's nothing you need concern yourself over.
No, I'd forgotten to tell you that your father called
looking for you. He said it was urgent."
"Oh! Well, thanks... Are you sure you're all right?"
"Yes, thank you for asking." She turned and walked back into
the kitchen rather abruptly, and Ranma wondered what could
possibly have upset her. She was the most even-tempered
person he knew.
Shrugging, he walked into the foyer to the telephone table
next to the stairway. He picked up the receiver and dialed a
familiar sequence of numbers.
~~~~~
"Where could that boy BE?!" Ono Toufuu paced in his living
room. "Not at the clinic. Not at the Masaki house. Not at
Mother's. Not ANY-where!"
He stopped his pacing and sighed. "You're just working
yourself up. Stop it." His tea had, by now, cooled to almost
room temperature, but Toufuu sat down on the couch and
sipped anyway. It was the least he felt he deserved.
His pony-tailed hair jerked as he shook his head forcefully.
"What were you thinking, Toufuu, waiting for the right
moment? There is no such thing as the right moment, and now,
it may be awkward at the very best... if you're lucky."
Saotome Nodoka had been a charming woman, but obviously a
woman with her own agenda where Ranma was concerned, and
their meeting had left him more than a little at sea as to
how to inform Ranma of her impending visit. He had mused,
then considered, and then struggled with how best to tell
his adopted son that his biological mother had found him.
The only hope was that it wasn't too late for Ranma to
prepare himself.
The phone rang, startling Toufuu and causing him to drop his
tea into his lap. "Ah! What a mess!" He hovered in place for
a second, debating as to whether a towel was in order, but
the second ring suggested to him that current matters at
hand were far more important than a damp lap. In four steps,
he was at the phone and picking it up.
~~~~~
"Father! Hey, it's me. Is something wrong?"
Ranma listened and grew steadily more still as the minutes
ticked by.
~~~~~
Washuu stepped out of her lab through the storage room
closet door and saw Ranma standing over the phone, staring
at the device.
"Did it do something it wasn't supposed to?" she asked.
Ranma jumped. "Washuu! Uh, what?"
"The phone. Did it do something it wasn't supposed to or
designed to do? I got rid of the improved model."
He looked at her blankly, and she rolled her eyes.
"Never mind. Come with me." She turned and re-entered her
lab.
"Um..." Ranma felt a slight queasiness in his stomach.
Washuu's lab was dangerous ground when going in alone -- or
even with someone -- unless there was some specific reason
for being there.
"Come on!" A voice rang from the closet. "I haven't got all
day!"
Ranma found himself walking through the door. "Oh, the
things I do for peace in the family," he muttered. "What's
this all about, Wa-- ERK!!"
The door shut, cutting off the muted hum of machinery and
the receding but still frantic yells of yet another guinea
pig caught.
____________________
The walk from her place of work was not terribly long, but
long enough for Akane to have time to think. Her primary
occupation was, of course, teaching at the doujou, trying to
pass on what she knew of the Tendou Ryuu of Musabetsu
Kakutou to a paltry few, but Akane was not terribly happy
with her circumstances. Her father's training had been
desultory at best, and she was left feeling like there was
an entire dimension to her family's school of martial arts
that she hadn't been exposed to, especially after listening
to Saotome-san's training stories, when he felt like talking
about it, that is. And it wasn't easy being a woman martial
arts instructor to begin with; few students were comfortable
with or willing to learn from a woman in such a setting. <A
husband and wife team would've brought students in droves,>
she wryly thought. Thus, to a degree, her skills felt empty,
but it was her duty to the family.
She sighed, concentrating on the seams in the concrete
sidewalk. Working part time at the Nerima daycare was both a
joy and a necessary social outlet for her... and a torture,
but one to which, however, she gladly subjected herself. She
had never married, and at twenty-seven, she was past what
was considered marriageable age in Japan. She'd had the
occasional date after turning twenty-six, but they were
largely interested in just seeing how far they could go on a
first date and nothing more. The few exceptions had much
younger women fawning over them, knowing a good catch when
they saw one. <Too bad you weren't able to do that at the
right time,> she thought with a comfortable bitterness.
She worked at the daycare for the children, all of whom she
dearly loved, even the problem cases. She related well to
the latter category, having been something of one herself.
It was for the children, in lieu of those it seemed she
would never have.
Akane looked up to see the gate to her home as she crossed
the intersection where the wall around the Tendou compound
began. Stopping briefly before the gate, she gazed further
down the road, where a lifetime ago she had once entertained
hope of a romantic kind... until she crushed it with her
fear of the unknown.
Shaking her head, she pushed the gate open and entered. Once
in the house proper, she didn't even bother announcing
herself as she doffed her shoes and put on her slippers.
Padding down the hall, she peeked into the kitchen only to
find it empty.
"Huh."
The tearoom was likewise uninhabited, so she retraced her
steps to the stairwell, ascended, and looked in all the
rooms, only finding Genma still snoring in his futon.
"Well, honestly! Unless everyone's taking a bath together...
Not! Maybe somebody's in the doujou."
Her steps faltered even before she was halfway down the
covered walk that connected the doujou to the house. An
ominous density seemed to hang in the air, and Akane wasn't
certain she wanted to proceed. She grumped and shook her
head, "Silly, silly," and marched straight to the closed
shoji, firmly opening them.
"Oh! Hi, every... body..."
The sight that greeted her explained the atmosphere she'd
sensed, but Akane was mystified as to its cause. Kasumi and
Nabiki were seated on their shins off to one side. Kasumi's
face was streaked with tears, although she had since
composed herself and was trying to appear normal. Nabiki's
face was expressionless, and it was only long association
with her that allowed Akane to see that Nabiki was uptight;
it shouted at her from the middle sister's unnatural
stillness.
"Um..."
"Akane," Soun said, seated precisely in the middle of the
doujou floor, "come in and shut the door." His voice was
even, but strained, and his face was stony, so unlike the
usually teary man.
Akane swallowed, wondering what in the world had happened,
and turned and closed the shoji. She walked to the center of
the room, uncertain where to place herself, then opted for
the other side of Nabiki from Kasumi. Sitting on her shins,
she waited for her father to speak.
Soun was silent for many long and uncomfortable minutes.
When he did speak, his voice shook from the control he was
exerting on his emotions.
"A-Akane."
"H-Hai."
"When... When Saotome-kun lost his son, the honor of both
families was... strained. An agreement had been made, but it
seemed as though it would never be fulfilled. No matter the
reason why, it put our honor on tenuous ground. Now..." He
trailed off, clenching his eyes shut and becoming very
still.
Akane hazarded a look at Nabiki, who slid her eyes over to
her younger sister.
*What?* Akane mouthed.
*Guess who?* Nabiki returned.
Akane frowned in incomprehension.
*Ranma* Nabiki pointed down. *Here - Clinic - Doctor.*
Akane blanched and slowly turned her head to look at her
father, who was still concentrating. She looked down at her
hands, the enormity of the situation filling her chest with
fear.
<Oh, kami... We are without honor. And... And it's all my
fault.> She felt tears gather in her eyes, and shortly, they
began running down her face.
"It's... It's my fault... Oh, gods, it's all my fault!"
Akane burst into heaving sobs, burying her face in her
hands. "We've got DO something!!"
Soun's meager control shattered, and he began weeping,
albeit more quietly. "Wh-Why, Akane? Why did you do this?!"
"Father," Kasumi interrupted, finally smiling again, "it
wasn't just Akane's fault. We all kept our silence, so we
have to be strong now."
"But Akane KNEW him!"
"She didn't know who he was until well after he had left,"
Nabiki said, her voice annoyed but her face still
expressionless. "And Ranma frightened her, Daddy."
"I... I don't understand," Soun said weakly. "Frightened?"
Akane pull her hands away from her red and damp face.
"Daddy, he, uh... uh... turned into a girl... right in front
of me! I... didn't know what to think. I didn't know what to
DO! It was scary. Like... something out of a movie."
"The Jusenkyou curse," Soun muttered. "So... It's real. Oh,
the horror. Genma, you always were just a little more
foolish than me." He sighed, having spent his tears for the
moment. "Akane, why didn't you say something when
Saotome-kun arrived?" He looked up suddenly, and bored into
Akane with his eyes. Akane flinched. "THAT'S why you were so
frantic when you found out who Saotome was!"
"... Hai..."
"Oh, Akane! Do you know what you've DONE?!"
"... ... Hai. I've... dishonored our family..." Her face
firmed, however. <This can be fixed. Yes! Fixed!>
"No, Akane," Kasumi said, trying bestow some measure of
calm. "We all have. Each of us is as much to blame for
keeping our silence."
Descending into tears once more, Soun slumped. His daughters
waited him out, and after several minutes, he spoke.
"What... What are we going to do? He IS married, Nabiki?"
"Hai... Five years, now."
"And two families removed, and he owes nothing to the
Saotome name."
Akane rubbed her nose. "Daddy? Doesn't he? I mean, if he
married someone else, wouldn't he be dishonored, too?! I
mean, surely this can be fixed!"
"You don't understand the whole situation, I think,
daughter. Tell me, did he know the name of our school?"
Akane blinked as she fought to remember. "Uh... Um... Oh!
Yes, he did. I remember telling him about the Musabetsu
Kakutou. Why?"
Soun looked down at his hands, hands that could once crush
stone. It had been a long time since he was that young.
"There are only two schools of Musabetsu Kakutou, Akane. He
HAD to have known that we were connected with Saotome-kun.
Do you understand what that means?"
Nabiki and Kasumi's eyes widened in realization, but Akane
was still confused. "Not... exactly, Daddy."
"That means, Akane, that he declared himself ronin,
intentionally or otherwise, by not seeking out his father or
those who might know of his whereabouts. An almost
incomprehensible state, in this day and age, but should
someone decide to adopt him into their family, and it
appears that Toufuu-sensei did just that, Ranma would have a
clean slate. No dishonor at all. I'm a little shocked,
frankly; Toufuu didn't strike me as the kind of man who
would throw away another family's honor like that."
Akane slumped, vexed. "We can fix this, somehow..." she
mumbled, her mind racing.
"I doubt he knew of the agreement, Daddy," Nabiki said,
ignoring Akane for the moment. "I don't believe Saotome-san
told Ranma about the engagement before he was, er, cursed,
and if Ranma didn't know..." She let the conclusion hang in
the air.
"I suppose you're right, Nabiki," Soun said wearily. "So
much gone wrong, just because he was afraid to tell his
son."
Kasumi frowned, but Nabiki beat her to the punch. "As I
recall, WE didn't find out about it until the last minute,
either."
Soun winced. "Errr, we thought it best not to give anyone...
Never mind."
Scowling, Nabiki crossed her arms, but declined to press him
for the completion of his thoughts. "Whatever, but that
strategy thoroughly backfired, ne? So NOW what? Keep
everything under wraps? Works for me."
"No, that won't work," Soun said.
"Saotome-san won't settle for that, I suspect," Kasumi said.
"He doesn't seem the type. And since Ranma is here, they are
bound to cross paths. Everyone goes to the clinic at some
point."
"I don't know what we'll do," Soun continued, "but I will
have to speak with Saotome-kun about this. Then... we'll
see."
"This can be fixed! Right?!" Akane said, her voice rising.
"Come on! He was the one who went ronin! It's not our fault!
Right?!" She looked around at the bleak expressions on the
others' faces. "Right?" she said more quietly.
Soun shook his head. "I am not entirely happy with you or
your sisters over this matter -- we may all suffer because
of the silence that was kept -- but... I think I understand
why you were afraid. And as for repairing the situation, I
don't know... He really turned into a girl?"
Akane nodded. "Big boobs and everything," she said in a tiny
voice.
Cocking an eyebrow, Soun said, "I *see*. Kami, I cannot
imagine what the poor boy went through with something like
that."
____________________
"Did you really have to take my clothes off for this?!"
Washuu snickered. "Not really. It's just more fun for me,
this way."
Ranma rolled his eyes, and then blanched as Washuu leaned
over, lifted his boxers open, and looked at his penis.
"My, my, my. No wonder Ryouko-chan never wants to let you
out of the bedroom."
"Washuu-chan!!"
"Ne, ne! Call me 'Okaachan'!"
Grunting in frustration, Ranma turned his head away,
frowning.
"Initiating scan. The bar will make several slow passes, so
just relax for a bit."
Ranma was held horizontal on an examination table by the
restraint device that Washuu seemed to favor: a sphere with
four retractable tentacular arms. A long metallic bar
hovered over Ranma without visible support as it made an
achingly slow pass down his body, starting from the head.
When the bar reached his collarbone, Washuu could see that
Ranma's mind was far away.
"A Jurai penny for your thoughts."
"Huh? Oh..." Ranma looked at the bar after glancing at
Washuu. "It's... nothing."
"No? Awful weighty nothing."
He couldn't help but smile crookedly. "So it is."
Nothing more was said until the bar was over his navel.
"So?" Washuu said, a slight edge of impatience in her voice.
"What is it?"
Ranma grimaced and looked at her. "I don't really want to
talk about it yet."
"Hmmm." Washuu stepped back, and Ranma's eyes nearly popped
out of his head as the scientist grew until she was a
well-endowed adult. She pulled a syringe filled with clear
liquid out of... somewhere and held it up for his
inspection. "Well, since you don't want to talk about it,"
her deeper, smokier voice purred, "I guess I'll just have to
entertain myself another way." She hefted the syringe. "Know
what this is?"
Ranma vigorously shook his head, his eyes still wide.
"Aphrodisiac, and it never fails. Developed it myself over
fifteen thousand years ago." She approached, pulling her
tunic down over one shoulder, and settled the tip on the
needle on Ranma's arm. "You'll love it!"
"AAAHH!! NO! I'LL TALK!!"
Washuu pouted. "Are you sure? This would be lots more fun."
"YES! I mean, yes, ahem, I'm sure." Ranma shivered.
"Right, then. What's up?"
"Um, um..." He tore his gaze away from the syringe. "Father
has been trying to get ahold of me, and--"
"How is Toufuu-san?"
"Um, fine. Teaching and doing a little practice on the
side."
"Well, you tell him he's long overdue for a visit. I don't
get to talk shop very often, and you're always too busy with
Ryouko-chan."
Ranma just looked at her, and Washuu sweatdropped. "Anyway,
Ranma-chan, what were you saying?"
"Father told me that my... mother has... found me, and
she'll be visiting me at the clinic... soon, in fact." His
head straightened, and he looked up at the ceiling, his eyes
shifting back and forth, unconsciously searching the
darkness above him.
"That's definitely... weighty." She crossed her arms,
bringing one hand up and resting her chin in the palm. "How
does that make you feel?"
Ranma didn't answer for a moment, but then said,
"Uncomfortable, uneasy." He glanced at the scanning bar,
which was at his knees. "I thought... I thought that was all
behind me, I guess."
"The past has a funny way of catching up with you," Washuu
said in a distant tone of voice. Without looking, Ranma
nodded. "So you are definitely going to meet with her?"
"I don't think I can avoid it."
"Would you if you could?"
"... No, I don't think so."
"Why not?"
"I don't know... Curiosity, I suppose. I've always wondered
what she was like. I wonder what Pops told her about me. I
wonder..." He trailed off, frowning.
"What?"
"Nothing."
Washuu placed the injection needle next to his arm.
"AH! Uh, I was wondering if she's going to be
disappointed... in me."
Taking the syringe away, Washuu sat back down on her
cushion. "Yes, she might be."
Surprised, Ranma finally turned his head to peer at her
again. "Why do you say that?"
Shrugging, she said, "It's hard having your child taken from
you. It happened to me once... no, twice, although the
circumstances were different for each. Still, it hurts.
Terribly."
"So she would be disappointed because...?"
"Are you sure you're a doctor? You're being dense."
Ranma glared at her.
"Fine, fine. What I mean to say is that she'll probably be
disappointed you didn't look for her. She might think you
didn't love her enough to look."
"I don't even KNOW her, Washuu-chan. How could I LOVE her?"
"Well... I see what you mean, but think of it from her
perspective. It's likely that she isn't thinking along those
lines. All she knows is that the child she brought into the
world has been gone since he was six. I can almost guarantee
that she still loves *you*."
"I suppose... I just don't have any sense of what to expect,
how to act when I meet her."
"Just be yourself, Ranma-chan. You've certainly charmed the
socks off of the alien contingent in Okayama."
Ranma snorted and laughed, genuinely feeling better. A soft
thump sounded as the scanning bar reached his feet and
reversed course.
"By the way, Washuu-chan, why are you scanning me so
thoroughly?"
"Ah. I'll explain tomorrow morning, after I've had a chance
to go over your readings. I don't want to have to go through
it twice or if it's going to be a moot point."
"Nothing's wrong, is there?" Ranma asked nervously.
"No, no. Like I said, I'll explain tomorrow. You and
Ryouko-chan can come in after breakfast."
"Oh... Okay."
There was no conversation for the remainder of the scanning
bar's return pass until it arrived over the top of Ranma's
head and stopped.
"Okay, Ranma! Time to change!"
"Huh? ACK! THPTH! PPT!"
Washuu had squirted the contents of the syringe onto Ranma's
face, the amount calculated by her to be just a little more
than enough to activate the curse. Some of the fluid had, of
course, gotten into Ranma's mouth, and the redhead was
indignant.
"HEY! That's just saline!"
"Yup!" Washuu grinned from ear to ear.
"Cheap trick, Washuu-chan! Hmph! Some 15,000-year-old
aphrodisiac!"
Wagging her finger at the bound woman, Washuu said, "Oh, I
never said there WASN'T such a thing. And..." She looked
onna-Ranma up and down once, "...I'm not entirely gender
specific in my tastes."
Ranma swallowed thickly to Washuu's cackling laughter.
~~~~~
"WHEEEE!! Do it again!!" Liu cried, her face plastered to
Ryou-ou-ki's currently transparent environmental dome. Her
anti-anxiety medication was still in full swing.
Ryouko's eyes rolled in her head and she dramatically
clutched her stomach; doing corkscrews around Saturn's rings
on top of Washuu's little bombshell about babies was not
doing her digestion any favors.
"Ryou-ou-ki," Ryouko called weakly, "once more, then head
for home."
The main control crystal, with an image of a familiar cabbit
projected onto the insides of its facets, bobbed once,
projected eyes rolling.
"... miya..."
____________________
The best description for the atmosphere pervading the
evening meal was tense and cautious, Genma decided.
Something had happened, but nobody was talking. Soun had
opened his mouth several times, but had then closed it,
staring at a point just beyond his plate but not quite
reaching the serving bowl in front of him. After a moment,
he would slowly resume eating.
The girls were silent and kept their eyes down, although
Akane mumbled to herself occasionally. Kasumi looked tired,
and Nabiki was even more economical in her movements than
usual. All of this set off Genma's mental alarms, but he
quietly sighed and finished the rest of the food in front of
him, noting that it wasn't up to Kasumi's usual standards.
<None of my concern,> he thought.
The girls waited patiently until everyone had finished
eating, and they cleared the table in record time, all three
disappearing into the kitchen, none of them moving far from
the others.
Genma mentally shrugged. "Well, Tendou-kun, shall we pick up
where we left off? I believe you were three tiles down." <A
good game will lift his spirits!>
Soun smiled faintly. "I think you were the one down, and by
four tiles... No, Saotome-kun, there is a matter between our
two families which must be addressed. Will you join me with
your pipe on the engawa?"
"Certainly."
The two men gathered their smoking materials, Soun his
cigarettes and Genma his long-stemmed pipe and tobacco
pouch, and proceeded to the porch that extended across the
side of the home facing the koi pond. Both lit up and sat
silently for a time.
"What's on your mind, Tendou?" Genma looked over at his
friend, and started at seeing tears already beginning to
course down his face. "Tendou-kun?"
"Saotome-kun... A large secret was... *kept* from us...
concerning your son."
Genma froze, then slowly puffed his pipe. "Such as?" he said
evenly.
"It, ah, seems my daughters... knew of him, but for reasons
I am about to tell you, kept their silence. I do not condone
their actions, but I would ask that you to hear this out."
His teeth cutting into the cheap plastic-resin tip of the
pipe, Genma ground out, "Speak."
After Soun finished relating all he'd learned, Genma was
surprised to find he'd crushed the bowl of his pipe in his
hand and had snapped the pipestem off in his teeth, grinding
it between the molars on the right side of his mouth. He
dropped and spat out the remains of his pipe. "Married?" he
forced out. "Five YEARS?!"
"Saoto--"
"MARRIED?!" His face worked for a moment, and then he stood,
turning to walk into the house. He stopped after only one
step, however, and looked down at Soun. "If... If this can't
be put right, Tendou, do you know what this MEANS?!"
Soun blinked up at him. "Put right? How can it be PUT
RIGHT?! Will he just walk away from a wife of five years?!
How--"
"You leave that to me," Genma said, his voice soft. He gave
his friend a hard look and stalked into the tearoom. He
paused just outside the kitchen, looking in; Soun's
daughters were quietly cleaning up.
"What do you think they're saying?" Akane whispered to
Nabiki, turning from the counter to suddenly see Genma
staring at her. "EEP!" The other two women turned at the
exclamation and caught sight of him.
He just stood there, no expression, no emotion, although his
mind was awhirl. <I can't claim to not know them. One of
them may end up being my daughter-in-law yet, and this isn't
my home.> Without any better response to the situation, he
caught and held each of their eyes for a few seconds before
turning and moving down the hall. He climbed the stairs,
entered his room, and shut the door.
Opening the closet, Genma dragged out his pack and started
going through it, not sure what he was looking for, not sure
he was looking for anything, and not sure he wasn't just
doing it to keep his hands and mind busy. He began muttering
to himself.
"No, boy, you're not just going to walk away from this. No,
indeed. I did not spend all that time training you just so
you can go off and play at being a doctor. No, sir. My life
is worth FAR more than that. This is will be corrected.
He'll be made to see the error of his ways..."
He sighed, dropped his pack, and sat on his futon. "A plan.
I need a plan..." Bending his mind to the problem, Genma
exercised mental muscles that had been honed at the shogi
table: strategy, guile, taking advantage of momentary
unwariness on the part of his opponent to change the odds to
better favor his ultimate victory... He drew a blank.
"I need to know the lay of the land."
So saying, Genma stood and concentrated, falling slowly into
a crouch. He stood there, sweating, for a moment, and then
his breath exploded out of his body.
"Bah. You've let yourself get soft, Genma."
He set himself and tried again. This time, he felt the
technique fall into place, and he knew he'd be able to move
about the entire house without being detected. Genma let the
technique go, and took a deep breath.
"He WILL give us an heir." Genma left the room, and then the
house, heading for the clinic.
~~~~~
As the Tendou daughters completed the cleaning of the
kitchen, Akane stopped and placed her hands on the
countertop, closing her eyes and leaning forward until her
forehead rested against a cabinet door. <There has GOT to be
a way to fix this...>
She jumped when Kasumi hugged her from behind, and Akane
turned and buried her face in Kasumi's shoulder. After a
moment, Nabiki's hand rested on Akane's arm in an
uncharacteristic show of support from the middle daughter.
Soun entered the kitchen, took in the sight, and shook his
head, moving to gather his precious daughters into his arms.
========================================
END HEARTS' HEALING 2 PART 2
Part 3 *should* be ready shortly after Christmas, as most of
it is already written.
Thanks for reading,
*******************************************
D.F. Roeder
FanFiction - http://home.flash.net/~dfroeder/index.html