[FFML] [Ranma]Lost Innocence: Resolution [Epilogue]

Genma frowned in confusion as he looked around the
Tendo house. He had expected to have to sneak in and
hide from whoever would happen to be at home. This
was just a scouting mission, to get a look at the lay
of the land, see if it would be safe to contact Soun,
but he hadn't expected it to be so easy.

"Where is everybody?" he wondered. He frowned and
looked for a calendar-clock to check the date. He had
been losing track of the days over the last year or so
on the road. "It is a weekday, so Ranma and Akane
should be in school. Soun and Kasumi should be home
though." He wasn't certain if Nabiki was even still
living at the dojo or not.

Genma scratched his head and walked into the kitchen.
It was as pristine as usual, though there was an
extra set of knives apparently. A lot of things were
kept lower to the ground than he remembered, as well.
If he didn't know better, he'd say that the kitchen
was used by two separate cooks.

He returned to the living room and passed through it
on his way to the dojo. There was a new trophy
sitting next to the small ones Akane had collected
from local tournaments. She had apparently won the
all Tokyo competition of late. Genma wasn't overly
impressed, such above board competitions never seemed
to possess adequate opponents. He saw the name Akane
on the trophy's plaque, and simply failed to register
the Saotome next to it as he glimpsed past it.

Of more important note was the fact that more of the
training equipment was out of storage. Genma shrugged
at that, Soun must have gone back to teaching on a
more regular level. There couldn't be that much
attention on the dojo, though. If the Tendo dojo's
most well known fighter had been thoroughly
humiliated, nobody would want to train there.

"Probably just Akane," Genma thought, leaving the
dojo.

He headed upstairs and walked down the
hall-way, intending to check the guest room to see if
he had left anything behind. He was surprised to see
a wooden plaque on the door. A red horse with Roman
letters carved into it reading "Ranma and Akane."

"What-" he glanced back towards where Akane's room
was and noticed for the first time that the duck
plaque was no longer on the door. Instead there was a
white cloud with the word "Nursery" engraved on it.

He blinked and then walked into the former guestroom
and looked around. It had more or less been converted
into a second master bedroom, with Akane clearly as
the decorator. That made some sense, the two
guestrooms were larger than any of the three girls'
rooms. What had Genma confused was the mere fact that
Ranma and Akane were sharing a room. The fact that
Ranma was still alive was surprising enough.

In addition to the large western-style bed there were
a few other pieces of furniture that Genma did not
recognize. A large desk with two chairs, papers and
books neatly stacked and organized. He picked up one
marked in clear calligraphy that, while not
exceptional, was still better than Ranma used to be
able to achieve.

"Musabetsu Kakuto Saotome-Ryu Revised Training
Techniques?" Genma read aloud, questioningly.

He flipped through a few pages and frowned. "How can
you teach the Ja Jinku no Apache without the
rattlesnakes?" He was flipping through the pages a
little further when he heard activity downstairs.

He moved to the door in a near panic. Listening at
the top of the stairs he heard a lot of feminine
carrying on, though he couldn't hear what the topic
was. He edged forward a little incautiously to try to
catch something of what was being said.

Which is how he heard someone coming up the stairs.
Thinking quickly, and in his normal cowardly manner,
he shut the door quietly and moved to exit out the
window. In a moment he was safely out of the building
on the roof.

"Hey, Pop," a quiet voice said.

Genma turned to see a familiar young woman sitting
there on the roof. She was wearing a light sweater
over a t-shirt, the neck of which Genma could barely
see, and a pair of black sweats. She had long red
hair and watched him in a nervous manner. It was a
moment before Genma recognized Ranma past all the
changes.

"I shoulda known you'd show up just ta make somethin'
like today more nerve-racking. I've had a coupla
tiring days, Pop, more tiring than my fights even."
Ranma said quietly. She looked him over and noted the
book in her father's gi. Suddenly her expression
turned hard, though her voice remained smooth and
quiet. "I probably should be resting."

"Ranma," Genma said, surprised. He quickly gained
his ground though, falling into the old act. "What
are you doing dressed like that? You're sitting like
a girl, and your hair. Have you done nothing to fix
that lock?"

"Pop..." Ranma started quietly.

"Never mind," Genma said. "Let's get out of here
before your mother discovers I'm back and goes through
with the contract." Ranma sighed and looked down at
the roof, keeping Genma visible from the corner of her
eye.

"That's all you care about, isn't it? I didn't
really understand that til I saw you sneaking away
from us with my book in your gi." Ranma pointed at the
object in question. "What would you do with me after
we get outta here? Sell me off to some brothel in
Hong Kong?"

"How dare you disrespect your father like that?"
Genma demanded quietly, remembering that Ranma wasn't
the only one home.

"You come to the house," Ranma said looking up and
glancing away, still keeping Genma in sight though.
"And after what ya had ta see you think you can start
right up like we never came here?"

"Stop this..."

"Quiet, Pop," Ranma said softly. "Somebody else'll
know yer here, an' some of 'em would really like to
hurt you. The only reason yer makin' any move is
'cause I caught ya. You'd rather have left with my
trainin' manual an' never even dealt with your son,
right?" Ranma looked toward him.

"These are my techniques boy," Genma protested.
Ranma's eyebrows arched in cool disbelief.

"I don't remember you training in them," Ranma said.
The sound of a baby crying drifted up to them and
Ranma looked down at the roof standing up. "Take the
manual and leave, I can make copies." She turned away
from her father down towards the courtyard.

"You don't understand anything, Boy," Genma
protested. He advanced on the girl and then suddenly
felt himself flying across the roof. Genma rolled to
his feet, he hadn't even seen a hint of Ranma moving.

"I got more important things than you to worry
about," Ranma said returning to a relaxed stance.
"Leave now, don't come back. Ever." Then she dropped
down to the courtyard and walked into the house.

Genma weighed the pros and cons in his head, and took
the opportunity Ranma offered him. Besides it was
already painfully obvious that Ranma wasn't the manly
young man he had raised. And now he had this book of
techniques revised by his son, certainly there would
be some of those Amazon techniques within. He really
was coming out of this ahead.

He didn't notice his wife watching him leaving from
the front gates of the complex. Nodoka watched him
leaving and frowned.

*********

"Yer thinkin' too much," Ranma said in a cautionary
tone. "Just do the techniques, don't think about it."
Akane looked up from the mat at Ranma and sat up,
looking at the gymnastic equipment they had borrowed
from Kodachi.

"When do we move on to the next technique?" Akane
asked stretching out sore joints. Ranma shook her
head.

"Sorry, Akane," Ranma said. "Not til' you get this
one down." They both looked to the obstacle course,
Akane had hit three of the five targets. One of the
contacts hadn't exactly been intentional.

"This last add on is a lot harder than I thought it
would be," Akane said.

"Yeah, well you gotta get used ta that," Ranma said.
"Things ain't always as easy as they look. Hardly
ever." Both had their attention pulled to the side of
the dojo as Shizu let her parents know that she wanted
something.

"Is something wrong, Mom?" Ranma asked anxiously as
she hurried over to where Nodoka was trying to comfort
their infant daughter.

"I'm sure she's fine," Akane assured Ranma, but the
expression on her face, looking over Ranma's shoulder
at Nodoka was just as nervous.

"I think she's just hungry," Nodoka said calmly,
remembering how she and Genma had been just as jumpy
when Ranma had first been born. Genma had seemed like
such a caring father at the time.

"She's definitely my kid," Ranma said, in mock
annoyance, relief coming through clearly. She turned
to Akane, who carefully tried to hide her own former
worry from Ranma. "I guess just try to run through it
a couple of times while I take care of her, kay,
Akane?"

"Just," Akane repeated, turning to look at the
acrobatic obstacle course again. "If you need any
help just say something." Ranma smiled as she took
Shizu from Nodoka and walked into the house. There
was no way she was going to nurse Shizu in a room as
open as the dojo.

"I think I can handle this myself," Ranma said.

"Well, like you said, she's your daughter," Akane
said. "And as hungry as you used to get..."

"You're not practicing," Ranma said as she left the
room.

"Excuse me," Nodoka said, following Ranma, leaving
Akane to her practice.

*********

"Do you mind if I sit in the room with you?" Nodoka
asked as Ranma turned into the nursery. Ranma looked
up and hesitated a moment before answering.

"Uhh, no," Ranma said. "I...uh guess that's fine."
She sat down in the western rocking chair Kodachi had
given them for the bridal shower and started to
unbutton her shirt.

That was a somewhat unwelcome change. Ranma preferred
shirts and sweaters that didn't have buttons or
zippers or such. Given the choice of having to
completely take off her clothes to nurse and wearing
clothes that could be opened, however, she went with
the latter.

"Does that make you uncomfortable?" Nodoka asked
sitting down on another chair. She herself was
analyzing the way Ranma was going about this
definitely female task.

"No, no, I'm fine," Ranma protested. Shizu cried in
her arms, and Ranma turned her attention back to her
daughter. "Ssssh, Mommy hasn't forgotten you."

"'Mommy?'" Nodoka repeated as Shizu started nursing.

"Well, I am her mother," Ranma said, hesitantly.

"And what will you tell her while you're male?"
Nodoka asked. Ranma shrugged but didn't answer,
looking away from her mother and carefully watching
her daughter. "Incidentally, shouldn't the lock be
coming off your curse within the next few days?"

"Well, maybe," Ranma said. Nodoka frowned.

"You don't sound either enthusiastic or concerned,"
Nodoka said. "It has been nearly a month since Shizu
was born."

"A little more," Ranma said.

"You have been keeping track," Nodoka said with a
little hope.

"I know Shizu's age to the second," Ranma said
softly, smiling down at her little girl. Nodoka
sighed as she recognized the same wonder she had
possessed in first year with Ranma. "She's a lot of
work, like everything else I got worth something."

"Shouldn't you have been able to change by now?"
Nodoka asked.

"I don't know," Ranma said. "I haven't been thinking
about it." She frowned slightly, she had known this
was coming.

"Haven't been thinking about it?" Nodoka repeated in
surprise. "Why not?" Even if Ranma wanted to stay a
woman, she had to consider the unlocking curse.

"Mom," Ranma said, she hesitated and looked down at
Shizu. She was certain that the little girl
understood a lot more than everybody thought. She
seemed like such a clever little girl. Ranma smirked
a moment. ~Hungry too.~

"Yes...dear?" Nodoka said. Ranma sighed and turned
serious again.

"I can't even remember much of what being a guy was
like," Ranma admitted quietly. "'Cept I was never
good 'nuff an' I had no friends, an' too many people
wanted a piece o'me..." She sighed and continued.
"One way or another."

"Well, certainly your current situation won't change
by going back to what you were," Nodoka said. "Do you
really think that people are your friends because you
have a female body now?"

"No," Ranma said after a long moment. "It won't get
any better to change either."

"You'll be a man again," Nodoka said. Ranma shook
her head.

"Nah, I'll be male half the time again," Ranma said.
She looked up at Nodoka nervously. "I'm Shizu's
mother, not her father." Nodoka looked to the walls
of the nursery. The wallpaper was very active with
Chinese style paintings of clouds and suns in lively
colors.

"You're certain about this?" Nodoka asked seriously.

"I suck at being a man," Ranma said. "I could never
figure out what I was supposed ta do, an' everybody
was tellin' me different stuff. Now, I don't talk
right, an' I ain't a soft little flower, an' I'm kinda
a tomboy. But at least I understand being a woman."

"And you want to stay that way?" Nodoka asked. "Do
you enjoy it?"

"Other than the jerks that think they can push me
around because...you know," Ranma said. "Or the
people that think I just can't handle stuff any more
'cause of the same thing. Other than that it's fine.
I ain't confused no more."

"I see," Nodoka said. Ranma looked down at her
daughter and sighed.

"Sorry, Mom," Ranma said softly. "You'll have to
settle for a daughter in love with another woman."

"And married to her," Nodoka said, she sighed and
looked around.

"You've discussed this with Akane?" Nodoka asked.

"Yes," Ranma said.

"It'll take some work..." Nodoka said after a
moment. "But Kasumi warned me you might make this
choice. I think I can handle this."

"Thanks, Mom," Ranma said quietly. She looked down
and smiled. "An' it looks like someone has their fill
for now."

Shizu blinked and yawned, sleepy after
nursing. Ranma burped the baby as she had been taught
and then held her until she fell asleep. Then Ranma
was lying Shizu down into the crib and buttoning her
shirt up again.

"I have everything I need," Ranma said. "I don't
need to change."

"I suppose not," Nodoka said. "You should check to
see how Akane is doing, I'll watch Shizu." Ranma
nodded, lingering to watch her daughter sleep a moment
longer and tuck her in.

"Hopefully, I can correct the method mistakes on the
next technique before she learns this one," Ranma said
shaking her head. She idly wondered if Genma had yet
figured out that the copy of the manual he had was
just notes on how to correct Genma's mistakes.

"Night night, Shizu," Ranma said quietly. She
ruffled her daughter's mop of red hair gently, so as
not to wake her up, blew her a kiss and then walked to
the door. "Thanks again, Mom."

"Your welcome," Nodoka said, pausing a moment.
"Aijou." Ranma blinked in surprise and then smiled
brightly before heading for the dojo.

Note: "Aijou", according to my sources, translates to
"beloved daughter"...of course since my sources are
Japanese-English dictionaries there is plenty of room
for error.

=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
"God has to have a sense of humor, it's the only explanation for sex." - my father
"I have to write a how-to paper for class, so I'm writing a paper on how to be psuedo-evil." - my brother

http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html

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