[FFML] [Ranma/OMG]A New Life 2

"Do you want anything Ranma?" Kasumi asked as they
walked into the house. Ranma muttered under her
breath for a moment, she was still very tired.
"I'm kinda thirsty," she said finally. "Can you
grab me a soda or something?" She sat down holding
Midori carefully.
"I'll be right back," Kasumi said simply nodding.
"So why did you name her Midori?" Akane asked.
"Uhhh, I asked Nabiki," Ranma said pointing to the
other girl who was sitting down in her normal spot at
the table.
"Dollars, green, Midori," Nabiki said shrugging.
"Not to mention emeralds. The shipcheon won bill,
etc..." Akane glanced at her questioningly. "I
wasn't exactly thinking straight when he asked for an
idea. They had me on some sort of pain killer..."
"I think it's a wonderful name," Nodoka said
sighing as she looked into her grandchild's sleeping
face.
"I named my kid after money," Ranma muttered,
rolling her eyes. Kasumi came back in with an opened
can of one of soda. "Oh thanks, Kasumi."
"Hey that's mine," Nabiki protested as Ranma gulped
it down.
"Wow," Ranma said brightly. "I feel a lot better,
can I have another one of those?"
"Sure," Kasumi said, "Let me just bring you a few."
"I save those for waking up in the morning you
know," Nabiki said.
"Huh?" Ranma asked.
"There's enough caffeine in that stuff to jump
start a semi," Nabiki explained.
"Now, somebody explain to us just how this
happened," Genma demanded. "And why are you still a
girl, boy?"
"All right, all right," Ranma said.
She willed the change and was suddenly a guy again.
His parents and Soun stared in shock, Kasumi walked
in at this point and merely wondered how Ranma had
gotten some hot water.
"How did you do that boy?" Genma demanded
desparately.
"I think it's parta what that cure of Nabiki's
did," Ranma said grimmly. Midori yawned in his arms
and shifted.
"What," Genma turned to Nabiki. "Where did you get
this cure?!"
"Do you really think it would work on you?" Nabiki
asked, indicating Ranma. "Really, it wasn't meant to
have anything to do with Jusenkyo. From what I can
tell it was probably meant as some sort of super
fertility drug. Except..."
"Except what?" Akane asked.
Kasumi noticed the blue triangles that now adorned
Nabiki's and Ranma's faces under their eyes and were
mirrored in Midori's face. All three had a third mark
in their forehead, but this was unique to each of
them.
In Ranma's and Nabiki's case the symbols seemed to
be mirrored versions of the yin-yang, in varying
shades of blue. In Midori's case it was a stretched
diamond shape like an arrowhead pointing up from her
nose.
"You drank it as well," Kasumi reasoned. Nabiki
nodded.
"But it didn't really do anything to me," she said.
"Except for these things on my face. I think the
Jusenkyo curse might be part of why it worked
differently on Ranma." She frowned. "Then again, I
might find myself in a similar situation the first
time I do anything in the sack as it were..."
Akane leveled a glare at Ranma as her sister talked
about the possibilities.
~What did I do?~ Ranma wondered bitterly.
"And what do you plan to do about this when all
these other girl's learn?" Akane asked.
"I've got that worked out," Nabiki said. "Midori
is Ranma's child by someone he met in China before
coming to the Tendo dojo, she died and so now the
child is Ranma's responsibility."
It wasn't even a lie as far as Nabiki was
concerned. No need to mention that the child's mother
was about one thousand, five hundred years did. The
little girl with the shock of dark violet, sort of a
mix of Ranma's female hair color and a number of black
and other colored hairs spaced so that the illusion of
violet hair was produced.
This child was partially her responsibility, and
she would provide for her as well as she could. She
sighed, that would mean cutting back her mangas quite
a bit. Time to go back to reading fanfic, thank god
for free entertainment.
Her gaze turned to Ranma and Akane and frowned.
"You bet it's Ranma's responsibility," Akane said.
~Oh great,~ Nabiki sighed. ~Now she's going to be
jealous that Ranma's a mother first too.~
She loved her sister, and once she grew up a little
Akane would be wonderful person. Still, Akane did
sometimes worry Nabiki. She kept going for easy
routes of strength for one thing, she wanted to be as
good as Ranma without working for it simple for the
purposes of sheer pride and envy. As long as she and
Ranma kept their prides, they weren't going anywhere.
"Akane," Nodoka lectured. "You should be willing
to help my son in this time."
"Among other things," Nabiki said. "We might need
to make sure Midori isn't hurt when this news gets
out, if it isn't already." Ranma snapped his head up.
"Oh shit," he said. "I should go work out a little
to see if I can get the kinks outta my system for
that, uh Ak..." He stopped when as Akane turned her
head away and put her nose in the air. He glanced to
Nabiki, who was willing, but still had a broken arm
and thus, to Ranma's mind, out.
"I'll watch her for you Ranma," Kasumi said.
"Thanks, Kasumi," Ranma said, handing the sleeping
baby over. "I'll be in earshot..." He stood up
shakily and downed another soda, Nabiki counted five
cans now. Then he walked out toward the dojo.
"I should go do some financial planning," Nabiki
said, standing up and heading for her room. "And
tomorrow we need to go shopping for necessities. Oh
and tell me when Ranma crashes from that caffeine."

*****

Ranma frowned as he practiced his kata, his ki
wasn't there. Now that he was somewhat less
distracted, he was beginning to notice all sorts of
differences.
His senses were sharper for one thing. The sun was
setting, and twilight was draping over the land, but
he could see as easily as if it were midday still. He
could hear Akane complaining about him in her room
upstairs, as if it was his choice to do women things
first too. He could smell the wood and sweat in the
dojo, faded and almost gone under a barrage of
Kasumi's cleaning methods. Methods which did not use,
as Ranma was surprised to learn, any sort of smelly
substance that did more to hide a mess than get rid of
it.
That wasn't the scary thing though. The scary
thing was that his ki was...non-existant. This was an
impossibility. No mortal could live without ki.
There was Saffron, of course, but he wasn't mortal.
The question of how he was alive without his ki did
not worry him over much just yet. What did was that
he couldn't access his enhanced physical abilities or
attacks without ki. He was exceptionally vulnerable.
Ranma slipped into a chi mending kata and searched
inward looking for that spark of life force that he
always been able to find easily before. He virtually
stumbled on it. A life force, one not of chi, but of
something else.
~Let's see if I can use this stuff,~ Ranma
muttered.
What followed was a long stretch of time of trying
to channel his new life forces to achieve the feats he
was familiar with.
He stayed with basic stuff, leaps, acrobatics,
speed, strength and stuff. He realized, eventually,
that on a basic level it was merely a question of
finding new pathways for the energy to travel. He'd
have to find ways to reinvent his high level
techniques, or make new ones.
On the plus side, certain techniques would no
longer work on him. Like the Hiryu Shoten Ha,
Strength-Sapping Moxibustion, Happo-Go-En-Satsu, most
pressure points, and everything else that depended on
a human ki.
At all times he kept an ear out for any sign of
trouble from Midori, but Kasumi apparently had
everything well in hand.

*****

Nabiki frowned as she continued to work, something
was off, and she couldn't put her finger on it. Still
she continued to go on planning, enjoying the charge
she got from handling money. For some reason it
seemed to be more pronounced than usual.
Nabiki was distracted from her work when she heard
a baby crying. The sound of Kasumi taking care of the
situation came then, and she relaxed. Until Midori
started crying about ten minutes later. She stood up
and stretched before hurrying out of her room to find
Kasumi trying to feed Midori.
"Oh, Nabiki," Kasumi said relieved. "I can't
figure out what's wrong, I fed her the formula, but
she still seems to be hungry."
Nabiki frowned but thought she could guess what the
problem was. She would have been curious about just
how she so easily figured it out, but at the moment
there were other things to consider.
"I think I know what she needs," Nabiki said.
"Just let me get Ranma." Kasumi nodded.
Nabiki headed for the dojo, knowing somehow that
only Genma was in the room she had passed on the way
downstairs. Neither she nor Kasumi had yet noticed
that her arm was no longer broken.
"Ranma," Nabiki called out as she entered the dojo.

She frowned and shook her head as she found Ranma
flat on his face, unconscious. She moved forward and
kneeled next to him to check for a pulse. She was
relieved to find one.
"He must have exhausted himself practicing," Nabiki
muttered. She considered the situation for a moment
and then quickly returned to the living room where
Kasumi and a crying Midori was.
"It's four o'clock in the morning," Akane's voice
called out wearily. "Can't you get her quiet?"
"This isn't time for that," Nabiki snapped. Akane
grumbled and her door closed upstairs. "Kasumi, do I
have any more sodas left? Or anything with caffeine
in it?"
"No I'm afraid Ranma already drank it all," Kasumi
said. Nabiki grumbled. "Why?"
"Ranma's out like a light," Nabiki said. "And I
kinda got this feeling maybe some caffeine would wake
him up."
Nabiki frowned, now it would take a trip for the
store, and she didn't want to make Midori wait that
long. That same instinct that had been giving her
answers all night gave her another one that didn't
seem quite possible to her logical mind.
"Damn," Nabiki said finally. "I'll have to do it."
"Do what?" Kasumi asked. "Nabiki, when did you
take your arm out of the sling?"
"Huh..." Nabiki looked at her arm in curiousity.
"That is weird...but later...okay. Here, I'll take
Midori for now and can you go to that convienence
store downt the street and get all the caffeinated
stuff you can, okay?"
"What will you do?" Kasumi asked again as she
handed Midori to Nabiki.
"Doesn't matter," Nabiki said, fighting down a
blush. "I got this handled." Kasumi nodded and
headed out into the night for the requested beverages.
As Kasumi headed into night, Nabiki looked around
nervously to see if there was anybody to watch her.

*****

Ranma woke up to the sensation of something
slamming down his throat. He sputtered into awareness
and blinked around finally catching sight of Nabiki
holding a can of soda.
"Okay, Saotome," Nabiki said. "We've got to set
some sort of system here."
"Huh, what?" Ranma blinked, he noted Nabiki's arm,
especially since she was toying with a coin in that
hand. "How long have I been out?"
"About three hours I think," Nabiki said. "I
didn't look at the clock when I stopped hearing you
down here. Anyway, Ranma, there's a problem about
Midori."
"What?" Ranma gasped, standing up. The girl was
HIS daughter even if her arrival had been unexpected,
and unasked for.
"Nothing to worry about right now," Nabiki said.
She handed him another soda, he downed it. "I took
care of it, and she's fast asleep, okay?" Ranma
relaxed and nodded.
"So what was the problem," Ranma asked insistantly.
"The problem is, I don't think formula is going to
feed your little girl," Nabiki said. "She needs
breast milk. And what's more, I think it has to come
from one of us." She pointed to the marks on her
head.
"Oh just great," Ranma said, he sat down and
sighed. "Well, I'd better just get...wait a minute,
how did you know that you could..."
"I said I took care of it," Nabiki said, blushing.
"Oh my..."
"Don't even think about telling anybody about
that," Nabiki said. "I barely got my shirt back on
when Kasumi got back from the store!"
"Right, right," Ranma said. "I won't let that
happen again, sorry Nabs."
"Don't make promises you can't keep Ranma," Nabiki
said. "You might be unconscious again or gone
somewhere it would be a bad place to take a little
baby, and I'd have to fill again. What's more, she
might get hungry when we're BOTH out of action and
then what?"
Ranma looked frightened at that thought. Nabiki
hadn't bothered to mention that biologically she
shouldn't have been able to produce milk so easily,
having not had the baby herself. It SHOULD have taken
a lot to get her body to react that way. However, she
found herself quite easily providing what was needed.
"So, when we go shopping today," Nabiki said. "You
and I have to make sure to get a breast pump, okay?"
"A what?" Ranma asked. Nabiki frowned.
"It's a little machine that you put here," she
cupped her breast. "And pumps out milk for use later.
And what we do with that is save it for those
aforementioned emergencies when neither of us is
capable."
"Oh," Ranma said, looking a little queasy. "I
see."
"By the way," Nabiki said. "I'm not sure why, but
I think you should keep some of these around, too."
She held up a can of soda, Ranma took it and drank it,
almost reflexively. She continued dryly. "Or
anything else with caffeine."
"Oh, sorry," Ranma said, embarrassed.
"No problem," Nabiki said smirking. "They seem to
do a better job of waking you up than they do me."
On the other hand, she had been up non-stop this
entire time without really feeling tired, it was
beginning to make her curious.
"I don't really wanna get dependent on caffeine,"
Ranma said. Nabiki shrugged.
"And Ranma," Nabiki said, glancing over her
shoulder. "I have no problem with feeding your
daughter again."
"You sure?" Ranma asked, hesitantly.
"It just felt...right," Nabiki said softly,
shrugging. Her hard face came back. "Don't ever tell
anybody what I'm doing though, got it?"
"Got it, got it!" Ranma said.
Ranma, still somewhat tired, failed to notice the
sound of somebody slipping away from the dojo in the
night.

*****

A picture of Nabiki Tendo appeared in mid air, a
slim holograph by all appearances. Next to it was a
picture of Ranma Saotome, in both forms, and beside
that was a violet haired teen that appeared to be
half-chinese and half-japanese.

A readout sat next to each picture.

Name: Nabiki
Class: Class 3, Category 1, probationary license
Domain: Provision/Providing
Secondary Domain: Mischief
Energy Source: Handling Money
Transportation: Telephones

Name: Ranma
Class: Class 3, Category 1, probationary license
Domain: Change
Secondary Domain: Motion and Energy
Energy Source: Caffeine
Transportation: Water

Name: Midori
Class: Class 3, Category 1, probationary license
Domain: Rebirth
Secondary Domain: Health
Energy Source: Singing
Transportation: Music

"Shouldn't we tell tell them, milord?" a tall man
asked. "They'll be going through some hard times on
their own."
"If there are any major problems then we can inform
the Norns," a voice said.
It wasn't particularly certain what the nature of
the voice was, male or female, human or otherwise,
though mostly it seemed to share the traits of the
man's voice to whom it was speaking at the moment.
"They will need time to get accustomed to this,"
the voice said. "And I will give them that time."
"The young god's mortal rivals are already learning
of the new situation," the tall man said. "By
tomorrow it the situation may be too heated for the
safety of the child. New blood will not revitalize
heaven if it is spilled across midgard."
"And they will handle it," the voice said.
"Really, Lycanus, you'd think you'd be more proud that
this little gambit of yours has born fruit."
"To tell the truth," he said, not even surprised to
know that his part in these events was known. "I was
thinking that the people who eventually discovered and
used that elixir would know more or less what was
happening."
The Gabriel, the archangel of death, frowned and
considered his behavior. He was acting like most
people did when he showed up, impatient, unreasonable.
He supposed that was just the way one acted when
faced with something that knew so much more than
oneself.
"All will be well," the voice said. It seemed to
be smiling fondly, if a voice could smile, as a parent
to a child.

=====
"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

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