Subject: [FFML] [fanfic][ranma][rewrite]Thyself Known ch7:I, Ranma
From: Zorknot
Date: 7/17/2005, 5:05 AM
To: ffml@anifics.com

I added a dream sequence in the beginning and I fixed
a few grammar and logistical errors. An html version
of the chapter can be found here:

http://www.geocities.com/zorukonotsu/tk7.htm

And previous chapters can be found here:

http://www.geocities.com/zorukonotsu/TK.html

or here:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/377434/1/

I should be sending out the next chapter shortly.If
you see any formatting or grammar errors you would
like to tell me about, or if you just want to tell me
how great/mediochre/terrible this fic is, feel free. 

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Thyself Known
Ch.7: I, Ranma
By Zorknot

Disclaimer: Ranma1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi and 
her cohorts. 

What Has Come Before:  Ranma and Nabiki's mind meld 
caused them to exchange weaknesses as well as 
strengths, as evidenced by the fact that they were 
recently featured on the six o'clock news, screwing 
each other's brains out and making wild cat noises. 
Now they are both in prison for exposing themselves, 
but its been a day and they haven't been let out yet. 
Turns out Detective Inamura has some questions to ask 
regarding the death of a friend of Nabiki's, Tomo 
Hoko. 

~~~~~Ch.7~~~~~

"Has he lost his mind? 
Can he see or is he blind? 
Can he walk at all, 
Or if he moves will he fall? 
Is he alive or dead? 
Has he thoughts within his head? 
We'll just pass him there 
why should we even care?"
-Black Sabbath 

~~~~~dream~~~~~

Ranma is a cat. A leopard or panther or something 
equally fierce. He paces back and forth behind the 
bars of his cage as people pass by. His mate, Nabiki 
is watching with a bored expression. She begins to 
lick herself. Shampoo,  the other female is in the 
other corner of the cage. She will not attempt to 
mate again for some time. 

There is a noise. The door to the cage is opening. 
There in the entryway stands a human female. She 
laughs covering her mouth with the back of her hand 
"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!"

She flings out a ribbon. It wraps around Shampoo's 
throat. "This one will look good on my wall!" She 
pulls and the head comes off. 

Ranma lunges at the girl but a smaller cage comes 
down around him from the ceiling and he bangs against 
the bars brutally but to no avail. "You're mine, 
Ranma-sama," the girl says. "Mine and no one else's" 

"No one's" She wraps her ribbon around Nabiki's 
throat. She laughs.

~~~~~reality~~~~~

Ranma woke up in a cold sweat. He had that feeling 
again that his dream meant something. That it 
foretold the future somehow. It was different this 
time, but most of it was the same. Kodachi killing 
someone he loved, and him powerless to stop it. 

Someone he loved. He had loved Akane, he still did a 
little, but now, he was madly in love with Nabiki.

I'm such a hypocrite, Ranma thought as he lay on the 
top bunk of his prison cell, staring at the dim 
fluorescent light of the ceiling. Until yesterday, he 
hadn't had any feelings at all for Nabiki, and 
now...He wanted to spend the rest of his life with 
her. He had spent a year saying that he didn't want a 
fianc�e...that he wasn't ready. But after she 
intercepted him yesterday in that intersection, and 
kept him from going after Shampoo... He wanted to 
marry her right now, ready or not. 

It wasn't just the sex, though that had been awesome; 
it was...well, she was literally a part of him, and 
he of her, but that didn't describe it well enough 
somehow. At any rate, he was now sure that at least 
two parts of the legion of personalities he carried 
with him were in love with Nabiki: the Nekoken and 
his "base" personality, the one he seemed to come 
back to all the time.

Ranma sat up and gazed at the white metal bars of his 
cell. They had kept him here an awfully long time. 
The guy with the sunglasses said it would only be for 
a few hours, but that was yesterday afternoon. Ranma 
really didn't mind too much. He kind of enjoyed the 
peace and quiet, and had used the time for training 
and meditation. 

He stretched his legs idly on the bunk. He was 
wearing gray prison clothes now, as his Chinese shirt 
and pants weren't functional as clothing when he was 
arrested. The material was kind of scratchy and stiff. 
Okay for now, but he would be changing back into his 
silk Chinese outfit as soon as possible. 

It was strange, though... He would have thought that 
a prison would be noisier. And weren't they supposed 
to serve food? Ranma's stomach growled in agreement. 
Still, Ranma had been in far worse places than this.  
It was wondering what had happened to Nabiki that 
really made him want out of here.

Looking at the bars and remembering the level of 
security in the hallways, he had already come up with 
seven different ways of escaping, two of which would 
only take some five minutes, and one of which could 
be accomplished without much effort at all, and that 
wouldn't even really be illegal.

Nodding to himself, Ranma decided to go for this last 
one. He closed his eyes and thought of buying ice 
cream, of beating up Happosai, of cooking, of... 
being pretty. He thought of little things...the way 
people looked at her, the way people did things for 
her...the way she could do things for other 
people...if only they weren't so violent...

Ranma felt her body change from male to female as she 
thought of feminine things�

She went a little too far.

"Oh dear!" Ranma exclaimed out loud as she was filled 
with revulsion at the memories she now had. "Nabiki's 
just a good friend! I would never..." But she did, or 
rather he did. 

It helped to make the distinction. That crass boy was 
not her. If it hadn't been for Genma, none of that 
would have happened.

Ranma blushed a little, realizing that she couldn't 
bring herself to regret the memory, and now all of a 
sudden she felt like thanking her father. She shook 
her head. She was not a lesbian. It was a valuable 
experience, and she would be able to use it when it 
came time for her to please her husband maybe, but 
she wanted a family with children and neighbors and 
afternoon tea, just like when she was young and she 
and Akane would play in the yard, and Mom and Dad 
were still together...

She'd never have that if she were a lesbian. Besides, 
there were plenty of handsome men around. Ranma 
wondered idly if she'd be able to tear their clothes 
off with as much vigor as Nabiki had shown with her 
male counterpart... She blushed a little deeper at 
that.

It was really a revelation to her though...apparently 
some men were actually attracted to strong women. She 
had thought for so long that a woman had to be quiet 
and submissive in order to attract a man. "Maybe I 
should be more like Nabiki," Ranma considered aloud. 
In truth, she was a little jealous of Nabiki, so 
powerful and yet so undeniably feminine...

What was she doing? Ranma wanted to know. She was 
suddenly worried. What if something happened to her?

"I gotta get out of here." Ranma murmured to herself 
and stopped her line of thought as she noticed the 
changeover of her personalities from uber femme hit 
on the head Ranma to normal everyday female Ranma. 

"Woah. I don't know if I'm ever going to get used to 
that....kind of hope I don't really..." 

She jumped off the bunk, her bare feet landing on the 
cold concrete. Shoes were always a problem. The 
moment someone invented truly adjustable footwear, 
Ranma planned on buying it in bulk. Again she stopped 
herself. She would only need to do that if she 
planned on keeping her girl form. Do I really want to 
get rid of the curse? she asked herself, as she had 
in the past. And now it seemed stupid. It wasn't even 
a curse really anymore. The only reason she was a 
girl at all was so she could see Nabiki again. 

Ranma reflected on recent events while she rolled up 
the sleeves of her prison shirt and made cuffs in her 
pants. Really, ever since she did that mind merge 
with Nabiki things had been going so much better. She 
hadn't even had to use those earrings...

The earrings that were now somewhere in the streets 
of Nerima, getting run over by countless vehicles and 
pedestrians...

Ranma slapped her forehead chuckling, "Dammit why 
didn't I think of that when I was having hot sex in 
the middle of the city?" She wasn't really concerned. 
Still, she'd ask Tofu about it when she got out. 
First things first...

"Excuse me� Mr. Warden sir?" she called out sweetly 
to the somewhat gaunt looking man in uniform down the 
hall. 

The hall, Ranma realized with a start, seemed quite a 
bit longer than she remembered. Idly looking up, she 
couldn't find the ceiling. Just pale green, 
flickering fluorescent lights that seemed to float 
above the floor. She blinked, shook her head and 
tried to look again, but there was no change. 
Probably just a weird optical illusion, Ranma told 
herself, not quite believing it.

The warden sauntered lazily toward Ranma's cell. He 
had a strange gait, keeping his left leg completely 
straight and swinging it around his other foot to 
progress a step. His face reminded Ranma of Gosunkugi, 
only with a rakish, toothless grin added to the 
already sickening countenance. "What can I help you 
with?" he asked with a good helping of sarcasm.

This was giving Ranma the creeps but she stuck to her 
plan, "As you can see, there's been some kind of 
mistake. This is a prison for guys, and I'm a girl. 
Could you please let me out?"

The warden smiled. "So...you're a girl now, are you, 
Ranma? That's nice. I wonder what your pussy tastes 
like?"

"Excuse me?" Ranma backed away. This guy knew her? 
And apparently he had a perversion that didn't just 
end with inanimate objects. "Who are you?"

The warden laughed and it sounded like the engine of 
an antiquated diesel trying to start. Then he shove a 
spindly arm through the bars of the cell snatching at 
Ranma, "I feel you. Feel you come undone. Like a 
present. Like string. You flow. Flow into different 
molds, different worlds You burn white hot liquid 
fire!"

Ranma backed farther away, her back touching the bowl 
of the sink behind her. She wished she could use the 
Tobu Sennuki she came up with yesterday on the creep 
but she didn't have the soul of ice going, and after 
what it did to Happosai, what if it killed the guy?  
She looked around for things she could use to attack 
the man through the bars. She swallowed and tried to 
calm herself. It was just an old guy with a limp. She 
could take him no problem...but he gave her the 
creeps. "Listen, man, I don't know what your problem 
is. I just...I haven't had my phone call yet. Can I 
get my phone call?" 

"No phones in Hell! No phones in Hell!" he screeched. 
Then he grabbed the bars with his hands and laughed 
his carburetor laugh. "I've been here so long waiting 
for a way out. Waiting for you! And here you are all 
wrapped in a pretty package. I am the master of this 
space. I am...Iron man."

Ranma guffawed before she could stop herself. "Iron 
man? What kind of name is that? You play too many 
videogames or something?"

The bars that the warden held started to glow. Ranma 
felt intense heat wash over her, and she had to 
shield her eyes against the light. Suddenly she felt 
a terrible pain in her gut, a pain that increased 
exponentially as she felt herself lifted up and 
pinned to the glass of the mirror above the sink. She 
smelled something burning. Flesh. Cloth. Her eyes 
adjusted to the brightness enough to see the cackling 
face of the warden, his arm now ending in long sharp 
spear that impaled her stomach. 

Smoke curled around her head and the weight of her 
body pushed her down, the hot metal cutting up her 
torso like butter melting on a knife. She couldn't 
scream, it was too painful. Too much. She saw spots 
in her vision...the room grew darker.

"That's it, pretty one. Pass out. Let me inside that 
body of yours. Let me escape into the world of 
men..."

Ranma snapped her eyes open. If she passed out this 
bastard would kill her. She was probably dead anyway 
but...she had to keep going... if only just to see 
Nabiki one last time. "Nabiki..." Ranma wheezed out, 
a wisp of smoke coming out of her mouth.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Nabiki was startled into a standing position out of 
her chair in the interrogation room, jingling the 
links of her handcuffs. 

"Sit back down, Tendo. You aren't leaving here until 
I get some answers," Detective Inamura ordered. His 
eyes burned with a fire Nabiki had never seen before 
in the man's eyes. His aura, Nabiki noted, was a deep 
purple. It darkened and brightened in flashes, like a 
bladed weapon wielded in the light. 

One of Nabiki's closest contacts was Inamura's 
daughter Yuki, and so Nabiki had met the man a few 
times before. He had seemed positively silly then, 
although he had a rather macabre sense of humor. Now 
though...She almost sat down again without thinking, 
compelled by the intense glare of the goateed man's 
eyes. 

It was however Nabiki's custom to resist another's 
strength when she encountered it, and remained 
standing, defiantly. "Ranma...where is he?"

"I told you already, he ran off. He wasn't in his 
cell this morning and he hasn't contacted your family. 
Now please, Tendo, sit and explain to me again how it 
is that your fingerprints are all over what's left of 
Tomo Hoko."

Nabiki gritted her teeth and sat. "Detective, you 
know I wouldn't hurt Hoko. We've been to your house. 
Your daughter is a friend of mine and so was Hoko. 
Ranma isn't the kind of person who would run away 
from something like this. I've got to see him. You 
can tail me if you want, but I have to get out of 
here or..."

"You aren't leaving this room, Tendo. I know you 
didn't do it. But you know something you're not 
telling me, and that makes me wonder."

Nabiki had known as soon as she had seen Hoko at 
Tofu's that something had gone terribly wrong. Hoko's 
aura had been normal on the surface, but underneath 
it...almost imperceptible was this terrible 
flickering blackness. Nabiki thought at first that 
maybe Hoko was having problems at home or that maybe 
her sickness earlier that morning was some kind of 
curse, and if it hadn't been for Shampoo showing up 
and chasing after Ranma she might have looked into it. 
But now, after Detective Inamura showed her the 
gruesome pictures of Hoko's body parts, she knew 
exactly what happened. 

It was then that Nabiki first found that Ranma was 
missing. She had wanted to talk with him about it, 
wanted to see what he would say, needed to really. 
But he had apparently escaped his cell and was no 
where to be found. It just didn't make sense...

Something had killed Hoko and was now pretending to 
be her. Nabiki wanted to grieve. She wanted to cry, 
but it was too much to take in. The cold darkness 
overtook her. It was worse than ever. She didn't just 
want death, she wanted to crush throats, to expose 
entrails, to tear apart bones and suck the marrow. 
She bit her hand, trying to stop having the images 
parade through her head. 

Her teeth drew blood before she could regain 
composure. So ironic. Thinking of death used to give 
her composure...

She came to some rather unpleasant conclusions as she 
gathered her thoughts in the restroom of the police 
station. First, by announcing that Hoko was dead, the 
police had probably lost their best chance of finding 
the killer. The bastard would surely change bodies 
and then there'd be no way of knowing who he, she or 
it would show up as.

Second, Nabiki would have to be extremely careful 
what information she gave to the police. The killer 
could be one of them, and if she revealed that she 
could detect who it was, then it would only be a 
matter of time before she was the next victim.

The police would not be able to solve this. It was up 
to her. 

Which brought her to her present predicament. She was 
holding back something. And while she had an 
excellent poker face, there was no getting past 
Detective Inamura. 

Normally she'd suffer through the interrogation, and 
manage to provide an alibi and a viable reason for 
her apparent lack of cooperation, but now she had a 
terrible feeling...a certainty really. Ranma was in 
danger. Ranma was dying.

Even though she knew the fastest way out of the room 
was to calm down and give the detective some 
semblance of what he wanted, she couldn't do that now. 
She was thinking through desperate escape 
plans...maybe she could throw a chair through the 
silvered observation window on the wall, jump 
through...

An officer came in with a cup of coffee. It was 
officer 542, Kawagami Hiro. The man who had helped 
save her life. 

She still couldn't quite get over that one. She had 
died, and any doubt about that fact was countered by 
bright patterns of energy she could now see around 
every living thing around her. Kawagami's eyes were 
blue, she noticed. His sunglasses were in his breast 
pocket of his white uniform shirt. There was nothing 
abnormal about the aura at first, but Nabiki looked 
closer...and there it was. 

A dark flickering, behind the visible pattern.

Inamura accepted the coffee with a grumbled out 
"thanks," took a sip without letting it cool at all, 
and set it down on the table.

"Is there anything else I can help with?" Kawagami 
asked.

"Just let me know if anything new turns up in the 
investigation," Inamura said gruffly. 

"Of course. Sorry to disturb you," the blue-eyed man 
smiled and turned to leave. 

After Kawagami shut the door, Inamura's brow furrowed 
as he noted Nabiki's expression. "You look like 
you've seen a ghost, Tendo. What's wrong with you?"

Nabiki got a hold of herself. She was finding it 
harder to keep her emotions from showing since the 
mind meld with Ranma. She really wasn't sure if that 
was really a bad thing or not, but she couldn't 
afford to be read so easily in these circumstances. 
"I need to make my phone call," she said. "Now." 

Inamura nodded slowly. "I suppose that'd be a good 
idea."

~~~~~*~~~~~

The real Kawagami Hiro was, of course, tied up in 
Hoko's closet, catatonic from the sleeping pills 
Copycat had found in Tomo-san's medicine cabinet, and 
would stay that way until he was sure that Nabiki was 
in jail and hopefully Ranma along with her as an 
accomplice. He chuckled as he returned to his desk in 
the precinct and organized some papers to make it 
look like he was working. Soon it would be a simple 
matter of taking a prisoner's body and organizing a 
trap for the hapless pigtailed boy and then he'd 
finally have his vengeance. 

And then what? Once he's dead...what will I do?

Copycat shook his head free of the thought. Killing 
Ranma was all that mattered. After that, he'd be free.

This was the first time he had ever incapacitated a 
real police officer for a disguise. He did it in 
desperation when he saw the cop come to the door of 
the Tomo residence yesterday. He surmised immediately 
why the cop was there and as soon as Copycat, in the 
guise of Hoko Tomo, opened the door and the cop 
entered the house, he struck a pressure point at the 
base of the cop's skull and the man collapsed 
predictably to the floor. 

Force feeding him sleeping pills while he was 
unconscious was more difficult, but Copycat wasn't 
the squeamish sort and so he had just opened Hiro's 
mouth and used his finger to shove them down the 
throat. Tomo-san was in the backyard attending her 
flowers while Copycat dragged the tall muscular body 
into Hoko's room and shoved him into the closet. Then, 
after telling Tomo-san that he was going to go see 
Nabiki and might be staying over, he took a picture 
of Hiro with his cursed camera to get his personality 
and appearance down, tied him, gagged him, used the 
blanket to change into him and left.

Now Copycat wondered why he hadn't taken over a cop's 
life before. He was learning so much about police 
procedure. He had made so many stupid mistakes; he 
would have never made it without the cursed blanket. 
But he was still in a dangerous situation until he 
was sure the search for Hoko's killer was over. Sure 
he could escape if he absolutely had to, but then 
he'd have to find another way to get close to Ranma 
and that could take months, and they might be 
watching for him.

He was a little worried about Tomo-san finding the 
cop. It'd been a day now, and while Copycat had 
checked on him in his Hoko disguise, a lot of things 
could have happened while he was away.

Copycat actually jumped when the phone on Hiro's desk 
rang. He smiled at his own nervousness. It had been a 
long time since he was this excited. He was so close! 
But he had to be careful. 

On the third ring he picked up the receiver. "Nerima 
Prefecture Police Station. Officer Kawagami 
speaking."

The voice on the other end was strong, clear, and yet 
unmistakably feminine. It was Tendo Nabiki. "What do 
you want?" she asked. It seemed emotionless... almost 
robotic, but Copycat fancied he heard a trace of 
desperation all the same.

After a pause he answered, "I want what every cop 
wants, lady. Justice" Copycat smiled. He should have 
been upset that Nabiki found him out, but for some 
reason he was actually glad.

"Justice? Against whom? For what?" Copycat closed his 
eyes, imagining Nabiki's face as she asked the 
questions...so calm...so composed. If he could see 
her, would there be the slightest twitch of an 
eyebrow? A small disgusted sneer to the lips? Or 
would she just show her anger in her fierce burnt 
sienna eyes? Those pools of emotion that even her 
great control could never quite hide.

"He's gotten you too now hasn't he? All this time 
you've stood back, amused at all the girls who threw 
themselves at him, and now you're just another 
flunkie, no different from your homicidal sister, or 
the airheaded Amazon, or that pathetic codependent 
crossdressing caterer."

"This is about Ranma," Nabiki said simply.

"Yes, I gather you know the perpetrator then? The 
identity thief? The soul stealer?"

"That sounds more like your department." There was a 
definite tone of acidity in her response.

"Hoko knew exactly who she was when she died. When 
you killed her. You know what she said when she 
looked up from her stabbed stomach and saw your face 
looking down at her?" Copycat was speaking in hushed 
tones now, his voice barely above a murmur, "She said 
she understood. She understood, Tendo. Will you be 
able to say that if you died right now?"

"You want to kill Ranma."

"Don't you? You used to be so sure of yourself. Now 
you don't even know what you want anymore, do you?"

"You won't be able to kill him in prison. He'll just 
escape and leave the country, and then you won't be 
able to get near him."

Copycat winced. She was right.- Hadn't he already 
done just that? In a day no less. "True, that is a 
setback, but I'll find a way."

"I can help you. I can give you the chance you need 
to kill him."

"What?" he almost yelled out the question.

"You heard me. I just want a few things in return..."

"No. You can't fool me, Tendo. You love him. This is 
some sort of trick."

"No trick. I can supply all the resources you need 
and can get you closer to him than anyone else. Of 
course I can't do that if I'm in prison."

"What is your proposal?" 

"The police are looking for Hoko's killer. Right now 
all the signs point to me and I'll likely be stuck in 
jail at least until there can be a trial. But Hoko 
isn't necessarily dead, is she? If she were to show 
up, then the arm and torso would have to be an 
elaborate fake. The police would spin their wheels 
for a little while trying to find out what happened, 
but in that time you could have your chance with 
Ranma."

Copycat forced himself to be cautious. "How can I be 
sure you won't just point me out as the killer as 
soon as I show up as Hoko?"

"You could always say the dead Hoko was trying to 
kill YOU. Tofu will confirm that you are the real 
thing and at that point no one would believe me even 
if I did say something."

"This chance...you'll let me have any means at your 
disposal? You won't obstruct me in any way?"

"Not at all. You have my word."

"And the moment I get the slightest idea that your 
word is worthless, that is the moment you die. You 
understand that, right?"

"Of course."

Copycat stood up behind Kawagami's desk with the 
receiver to his ear, not bothering to hide the wide 
grin that plastered his face. "Then, Tendo, I believe 
we have a deal."

~~~~~*~~~~~

Nabiki put the receiver of the pay phone back onto 
its cradle and shuddered. She was not the religious 
sort, still she prayed to the gods that she was doing 
the right thing. All she knew was that Ranma was in 
trouble NOW...that she had to get to him NOW and that 
an unsure danger later was at best a secondary 
concern. Not only that, but this way she would know 
exactly who the doppelganger was. Still, she had just 
agreed to become pals with Hoko's killer, and while 
there was something to be said for keeping enemies 
close, this seemed to be taking it a bit too far. 

Was there any other option? Maybe. But she couldn't 
see it now. Every other thought was a voice screaming 
at her to move, to run. She had to struggle not to 
knock down the officer that watched her and make a 
break for it, even knowing that unless she had the 
power to bend metal and burst through concrete, which 
she didn't, she wouldn't get far before they managed 
to detain her. It was so frustrating knowing so many 
of Ranma's moves, but lacking the strength and poise 
to make them effective. 

The conversation on the phone had exhausted her, but 
still her heart raced. Hardly realizing she had 
entered again, Nabiki found herself in the 
interrogation room once more.

Inamura's dark brow furrowed. "I've never seen you 
this nervous, Tendo. I've never seen you nervous at 
all. What's bothering you?"

"I need to see Ranma. He's in trouble," Nabiki said 
without thinking. It was only then that it occurred 
to her that it was odd that she would be able to know 
that. And that made her wonder just how it was she 
expected to help him.

"Do you think the killer might be after him? Is that 
it?"

"Yes. No..." Nabiki mind needed to rest, to 
recuperate from that conversation, "it's a long 
story."

"Why don't you tell it to me, Tendo. Is your lawyer 
coming?"

"Something like that. Ranma's in trouble, Detective. 
Isn't there any way you can let me out?"

"I'm afraid not, Tendo. But if you tell us where he 
is we'll be happy to..."

"You can't do anything! He hasn't left his cell. He's 
still there, only...Detective, believe me, I respect 
your profession, but there are things in this world 
that are completely beyond your jurisdiction and this 
is one of them."

Inamura leaned back in his chair. "So," he pulled out 
a cigarette from his pack and lit it. He took a puff 
and blew the smoke out of his nostrils before turning 
his head once more to Nabiki. "You're saying that 
Ranma is trapped in some sort of alternate reality 
and that you're the only one that can save him."

Nabiki squelched her urge to reach across the table 
and strangle the goateed man. She looked into his 
eyes stonily and said, "Yes. That is exactly what I'm 
saying."  

Inamura studied Nabiki's expression for a good minute 
and took another pull off his cigarette. He held it 
with all four fingers and his thumb as if it were a 
joint. He looked up at the fluorescent light and blew 
out the smoke. He lowered his gaze to Nabiki again. 
"And Hoko Tomo?"

"Killed by a doppelganger that's going to come into 
the police station in an hour or so looking exactly 
like her."

"So in other words, the reason your fingerprints are 
on Hoko's arm is that this...doppleganger...was using 
a perfect copy of your body while disposing of her?"

"Yes."

Another pull off the cigarette, and Inamura asked, 
"You're aware of how inane this is right?"

"Regardless, it is the truth."

Inamura stubbed the cigarette directly on the table, 
since there was no ashtray. "How old do you think I 
am, Tendo?"

"I mean you no disrespect, Detective I'm only..."

"How old?" Inamura interrupted Nabiki.

"You're at least as old as my father. I don't see..."

"I'm fifty-seven years old, Tendo. And guess where 
I've been living all this time."

Nabiki just remained silent. 

"Nerima, born and raised. And yet you, a seventeen-
year-old slip of a girl think that you know more 
about what's going on than I do."

"You knew?"

"In the real world, people don't hit their heads and 
forget all about police procedure. And Kawagami would 
never be in here without his sunglasses on. His eyes 
are sensitive to the light. Calling him was very 
dangerous, and now things aren't going to go as 
easy."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, of course we had your conversation tapped. I 
have to say, Tendo that was pretty stupid what you 
did. Extremely dangerous, lying outright to someone 
like that. You could get killed. Of course we'll be 
watching now, but still. You're walking a thin line. 
A real  thin line."

"Wait  a minute. You're saying you knew it was a 
doppelganger all a long?"

"The M.O. matched that of another body part found 
about a year ago. A Tanaka Buntaro. If we went on 
fingerprints or DNA we'd have had to conclude it was 
a suicide, but even if the kid was talented enough to 
manage sawing his own arms and legs off, the wounds 
were post mortem; so either Buntaro had an evil twin 
that his mother didn't know about, or there was some 
kind of doppelganger loose. We had a similar incident 
back in '75 when Dark Sombrero the Mexican mad 
scientist created an android that could duplicate 
human forms. Thankfully we found some pop idols and 
dressed them in sexy robot suits and were able to 
stop the problem."

"Why are you joking around! Ranma's in danger!"

Inamura shrugged "You have nothing to worry about. 
The only transdimensional demon we have here is 
Airanman and someone has to have a serious mental 
disorder in order for him to be any threat."

Stifling her throttle reflex, Nabiki said, "Ranma is 
going through something called the Ijuu. He isn't the 
same person from one minute to the next. Does that 
count as a serious mental disorder?"

"Crap." Inamura hurried behind Nabiki and unlocked 
her cuffs. They fell off her wrists and rattled to 
the floor. Then he unholstered his pistol, cocked it 
and pointed the barrel to the ceiling. "We don't have 
much time."

Inamura explained as he and Nabiki hurried through 
the corridors of the police station. "The precinct 
exists in a quantum irregularity. Time gets distorted 
more and more as you approach the jail and often we 
get dimensional crossover. It can get pretty nasty, 
but if we take the right path I can get you to Ranma 
before whatever's happening starts to happen."

"Don't you have any larger weapons?" Nabiki asked. 

"Just �ole reliable here." Inamura waved his pistol, 
but Nabiki's growing sense of imminent doom made it 
seem terribly inadequate. "Won't need anything else. 
The only way to beat Airanman is through force of 
will. Don't think there's a weapon around that'll 
dent that guy."

"Then what's the gun for?"

"For your boyfriend, in case Airanman takes control 
of him."

"You can't shoot him! He didn't do anything!" 

"Look, Tendo, I'll try to help out if I can, but I 
suggest you think of some pretty words to say to your 
fianc�, cause this might be the last time you see him 
alive."

~~~~~*~~~~~

The pain wouldn't stop. It grew. It seemed to be 
trying to cover Ranma's entire body. Something else 
was happening too...something was telling Ranma who 
she was. She wanted to fight back to stop the pain 
but...

You don't want it to stop. You like pain. You like 
the hot searing fleshiness of it. You're a girl. A 
little whore. Your name is Airanko. You like it when 
people hit you. You like it when people hurt you. The 
more they hurt you the more they love you. See how 
much I'm hurting you. You're my little bitch. My 
painsickle. My vessel...

"No..." Ranma tried, "Nabiki..." the pain subsided 
somewhat, but that was worse. Ranma wanted it. It 
made her feel complete...the pain...

What you had with Nabiki wasn't real. It was a wet 
dream nothing more. You cannot expect Nabiki to drop 
everything to marry you. What have you to offer her? 
Martial Arts? Please. She's destined for greatness 
while you're destined for street fights. You'll have 
your fling maybe. She'll use you for a while and then 
you'll be discarded. Just like your mother discarded 
you. Just like your father discarded you. Just like 
Akane...

She felt the pain growing, filling her, flowing 
around her.

I'm going to surround you. I'm going to make you 
impenetrable.. You'll never feel the torture of love 
again. You'll have me, my little death doll, forever, 
and you will never need anyone else again.

"Yes..." Airanko whispered and she felt the liquid 
metal encompass her as it started to cool. The pain 
was positively sweet now. And it would all be over 
soon.

"No!" A clear alto voice rang out. It was familiar to 
Airanko but... Oh no! The pain! The pain was leaving!

"Go away! Go away whoever you are!" she screamed. She 
wanted the pain back. The beautiful pain that made 
her numb...

"Ranma, it's Nabiki."

"My name's not Ranma, it's Airanko!"

"No. You are Saotome Ranma. You are the heir to the 
Anything Goes School of Martial Arts. You saved my 
life and now you're my fianc�...the one I love. I 
name you. I claim you. You're mine, Saotome, and I'm 
not letting you go. So hurry up and kick this guy's 
ass."

A flash. Airanko felt the metal recede further. "No! 
He gives me pain. I need pain. Must have pain. I feel 
so numb...so numb."

"Ranma...if it's pain you're looking for, wait till 
we're married. I'll make you're life a living hell."

"Promise?" Airanko asked. 

There was a pause.

See? She can't give you what you need. Only I can. 
She'll throw you away like scrap. I will mold you 
into something new and shiny and sharp. You'll have 
more pain than all your little friends could ever 
give. You'll be immortal, my little injury queen, and 
your screams will make the earth melt and the heavens 
burn away. 

Nabiki's voice came through again though. It was dark 
and cold. "Ranma, what the fuck does that thing know 
about pain?"

Airanko frowned. The pain was ebbing, and this was a 
new exquisite pain. Airanman didn't seem to 
understand. He was trying to get her to take him back 
in but he didn't understand. Nabiki...Nabiki could 
take everything Airanman told her and multiply it by 
ten. Getting hurt by Nabiki would be worse than any 
burn, any fracture, any laceration. Because it would 
be from her. 

Ranma shook her head free of the smoke. She grimaced. 
"Get the fuck off of me, you creep!" she yelled.  

And confronted with the force of Ranma's new-found 
will Airanman nearly did exactly that. But he rallied 
forth one last ditch effort and lunged, screaming 
like metal across metal, "NOOOO!" 

Ranma's eyes widened as she felt the searing hot 
liquid metal pass once again into her stomach... felt 
it somehow against her back. "I am not your BITCH!" 
Ranma screamed and Airanman was blown away into the 
bars of the cell opposite Ranma's.

Ranma slid down the wall, and passed out.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Akane sneezed. 

Cologne opened her eyes and glanced in Akane's 
direction. "Someone talking about you?"

"I guess," She was sitting with the Amazon elder in 
the office of the assistant principle, who was 
fishing some papers out of Principle Kuno's office 
and so would probably be a while in coming back. She 
rubbed her nose and moved to a different position in 
her seat. For some reason she thought of waiting 
outside of the classroom with Ranma, holding buckets 
of water, and she felt like crying again.

"Last night was hard for you," Cologne observed, "I'm 
glad. If you showed up bright eyed and cheerful I 
would have been worried."

"I just..." Akane tried, but there was no easy way to 
crystallize the shame into words. Every time she 
thought she had finally reached emotional rock bottom 
she thought of some other terrible thing she'd said 
or done to Ranma and it drove her deeper into the 
dirt. "We could have...but the fianc�e stuff and then 
Shampoo..." she spoke the name with more venom then 
she intended. She wanted to blame her for everything, 
but she resisted. Even if Shampoo was to blame for 
Akane being unable to learn how deal with Ranma, it 
was still Akane that had mocked Ranma, jeered at him, 
attacked his greatest weakness with a gusto that was 
sickening. And there was no way she could make up for 
that now. She once... had something with Ranma. There 
was... love there once, but now... Could they even be 
friends? How could he ever trust her again? How could 
she trust herself? 

The family was getting ready to see Ranma and Nabiki 
in jail when Akane left home with Cologne to get here. 
She could barely face her father and Kasumi, she knew 
seeing Nabiki or Ranma was completely out of the 
question. She had done too much to even begin to ask 
for forgiveness. And what made it worse was knowing 
they would give it to her if she asked. They would 
forgive her when she had blamed them for everything.

Becoming Amazon was the only thing that kept Akane 
from losing it all together. She had a new chance now. 
A new code of honor she could adhere to after she had 
shattered her old one. She would not let herself be 
weak. She would not fuck this up.

Cologne nodded. "It's over now. It's good that you 
realize that. And Shampoo deserves your vengeance. 
But if you want to stand a chance in challenging her, 
you must have patience. You are entering a period 
where learning will come very easily and patience 
will be difficult to maintain. That is why you must 
learn patience now. Reckless knowledge is as 
potentially disastrous as reckless ignorance."

Akane closed her eyes and tried to calm herself. 
Patience. That was why they were both in this office, 
waiting for the assistant principal to return instead 
of helping him find the necessary forms so she could 
work at the Nekohanten while attending school. Akane 
could only imagine what sort of booby traps the 
Hawaiian madman might have set up, and it could very 
well be that the assistant principal was unconscious 
underneath a pile of coconuts or something. She knew 
it would be faster to go herself and get the papers, 
but she would stay. As maddening as it was, she would 
sit and think. And she thought about all the times 
where sitting and thinking would have done her so 
much good.

And she felt like crying again.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Ukyo had never seen so many customers. They just kept 
coming in! Ukyo was making three okonomiyaki at once 
and still she was working non stop. She knew what it 
was of course, but she didn't want to think about it 
too much. Her new room mate was more than paying for 
herself already. In fact, Shampoo was almost too good 
of a waitress. 

Ukyo had evened out Shampoo's shortened hair for her 
and she looked cute in the Ucchan's uniform. Ukyo 
herself didn't swing that way, but she had spent 
enough time in a boy's school to know what guys liked, 
and Shampoo was it. She could kid herself that she 
was cuter, but it was a conceit that didn't stand up 
to scrutiny. If it weren't for the fact that Ranma 
liked tomboy types, Ukyo wouldn't have a chance. 

That sneaky bitch Nabiki...

Ukyo flipped an okonomiyaki too soon and the batter 
spattered on her hand, burning her skin. "Fuck." Ukyo 
seethed, and she tried to get the image of Nabiki 
doing just that to poor innocent, defenseless Ranma 
in a city intersection while helicopters flew over 
head... out of her troubled mind. They were still 
showing it on the news at regular intervals with all 
the naughty bits blurred by computers.

But of course Ranma wasn't innocent. Anybody could 
see he was participating just as much as Nabiki. It 
just wasn't fair. 

Ukyo focused on the okonomiyaki. She envisioned 
pouring all of her negative energy into the batter 
letting it all go into the mix. When she finished her 
next okonomiyaki, she felt a lot better. She wouldn't 
want to serve it to anyone though. It simply wasn't 
ethical to serve an okonomiyaki that wasn't made with 
love. Taking a short break without letting Shampoo 
know, Ukyo took the okonomiyaki with her out the back 
door to the yard outside. She threw it Frisbee-like 
into the thick trunk of a large deciduous tree. She 
wasn't exactly surprised when it exploded, but when 
the tree toppled over, Ukyo knew it was time to close 
for the day. 

She was getting too many ideas.

~~~~~*~~~~~

"Unnnh..." Ranma moaned, holding a hand to her head 
just above her right eye. "Did anyone get the number 
of that �?"

"Over-used clich�?" Nabiki finished for him. She sat 
crosslegged in a plastic chair in the recovery room. 
She put down the latest issue of Forbes and tsked. 
"You're a bit high maintenance, aren't you, Ranma?"

"Huh?"

"I mean I'm just after free food and money, but you, 
you expect to be rescued from sado-masochistic demons 
from the fifth dimension, and on the second date no 
less!" Ranma sat up and Nabiki helped her to her feet. 
"Daddy and Kasumi are here, having a worrying contest. 
So far Daddy's winning with his trademark waterfall 
of tears, but Kasumi may be a dark horse candidate 
with her incessant hand wringing ."

"What about Pops?"

"Oh he came by, but then he said he had to leave. 
Family business, he said."

"Well, sheesh, you're family, why couldn't he tell 
you?" Ranma felt odd. Her balance was a little off 
and she felt strangely numb. She could feel things 
but she couldn't really FEEL them. 

Nabiki kissed Ranma. She felt THAT.

"What was that for? Not that I'm complaining."

"I don't know. I haven't been myself lately. So many 
things have happened I haven't even really 
assimilated and then you�It feels good to be part of 
your family, Ranma. I don't know why, but it does."

Ranma found herself rising to meet Nabiki's lips 
again. When she was done she frowned, "Why are Daddy 
and... I mean why are your father and Kasumi worried 
about me?"

Nabiki smirked "They saw us having intimate sexual 
relations on live television while we were both 
acting like cats. More recently they found out while 
in jail I was six feet away from a raging demon that 
almost killed you. Daddy is beginning to think I'm 
standing a little too close to the fire," Nabiki 
nudged Ranma. "Kasumi, well...she's just Kasumi."

 Ranma nodded.

The next second a wooden door with a square window 
opened and Kasumi came in. "Oh my," she said.

Ranma and Nabiki gave themselves a quizzical look. 
"What's up, Kasumi?" Ranma asked.

"We don't have much time. Father will be back soon. I 
need to talk to you both."

"Okaaay�what about?" Nabiki asked.

"It's rather difficult to explain I'm afraid. Ranma-
chan, do you still have the Saiserefu Noon?"

"Ah�heh, heh," Ranma scratched the back of her head, 
"I kind of lost it when Nabiki and I were�"

"Hmm yes," Kasumi interrupted, "Please, I want you to 
think. When exactly was the last time you wore it?"

"The earrings kind of just fell out after I did that 
mind meld with Nabiki"

Kasumi nodded. She turned away from them and looked 
through the window of the door, checking the hallway.

"What is it, Kasumi?" Nabiki asked."

Turning to face them both again, Kasumi wrung her 
hands and said, "Ranma, Nabiki, I want you to promise 
me something. Ranma you're family now too and I think 
you respect our family more than your original one. 
So I want both of you to swear on the honor of our 
departed mother."

Ranma and Nabiki swallowed. "Swear what exactly?" 
Nabiki asked.

"Don't ever leave each other's side."

"I swear," Ranma said solemnly

"Nabiki?" Kasumi asked.

"Of course I swear, but why the theatrics, Kasumi? We 
weren't planning on being apart anyway."

"I think something about the� mindmeld caused the 
Saiserefu to move from Ranma's earrings to you. You 
are now Ranma's Thyself Known." 

Nabiki nodded slowly."That would explain how I knew 
what to do when Ranma was fighting Airanman," 

"That's not all I'm afraid. I think it goes both ways. 
Nabiki, Ranma is your Saiserefu just as much as you 
are Ranma's. As long as you two are together you'll 
be perfectly fine. But if you're apart for very long, 
I'm afraid your personality may fracture just as 
badly as Ranma's has."

"How romantic," Nabiki deadpanned.

"Hold on a second," Ranma interjected, "How do you 
know this, Kasumi?"

Kasumi's brow furrowed. She checked the hallway again. 
"Father mustn't find out. It's too dangerous to tell 
you everything. When Tofu was fifteen, he lost 
something precious�a part of himself. I had to give 
him part of myself or he would have died.  I was nine 
then. You were seven, Nabiki."

"That was when mom�"

Kasumi nodded somberly. "Remember I had pneumonia 
that month?"

"It wasn't pneumonia, was it." 

"No." Kasumi checked the hallway again.

"So you and Tofu did a mind meld too?" Ranma asked, 
"But I thought you had to be identical twins or 
something?"

"It wasn't the same thing. It can last a decade, 
maybe fifteen years and then�"

"Death?" 

Kasumi nodded, "'The two will become one.' Tofu and I 
had our own Ijuu. We too were our own Thyself Knowns, 
but for us, in order to stay ourselves we had to stay 
apart. I'm just starting to remember everything that 
happened. Tofu must be remembering too. We're�we're 
running out of time�" she wiped a tear from her cheek.

Ranma found herself standing up and putting an arm 
around Kasumi before she even realized it. She sat 
Kasumi down in one of the chairs and sat next to her. 
"We'll find a way to fix this. There has to be 
something we can do."

It was then she noticed that she was holding Nabiki's 
hand even as she was comforting Kasumi with the other. 
She realized she had said "we" twice. Not "I" but 
"we". And she knew then that whatever it was she was 
going to do, she was going to do it with Nabiki.

~~~~~*~~~~~

When Hiro Kawagami woke, his entire body felt like 
fruitcake. His eyelids were particularly heavy 
fruitcakes, the kind passed around for generations. 
When he finally got them open the sandpaper sensation 
the air from the dank closet provided made him close 
them again promptly.

 His stomach was angry at him about something, it 
kept trying to throttle him, but thankfully all it 
succeeded in doing was forcing the warm, chunky 
remains of the hot dog and coffee he had some twenty 
hours ago at the Hot Dog and Coffee out of his 
burning esophagus past his epiglottis and all over 
the hard wood floor by his head. The vomit stank a 
great deal.

He managed to get into a sitting position, which 
seemed like a good idea at the time, but his inner 
ear mistook this as an attempt to do a back flip off 
world's fastest rollercoaster right after the third 
loop. His stomach tried to throttle him again, and in 
the midst of all this violence, he fell over, his 
shoulder splatting in the puddle of vomit, which had 
become cool but no less fragrant for the two or three 
minutes he had spent trying to sit up.

A minute or so passed as Kawagami lay there thinking 
of vomit flavored fruitcake. There were a lot of 
fruitcakes in Nerima he mentally segued. Maybe 
getting tied up, shoved into a closet and drugged was 
a normal thing. He wasn't getting paid enough if that 
was the case.

He was just about to try sitting up again when the 
closet door opened almost blinding him for a moment 
with the light from outside. 

"Morning, sunshine," his own voice taunted at him. 
"Well it's two in the afternoon actually, but who the 
fuck gives a shit."

"What do you want?" Kawagami groaned.

"Revenge. No wait. That's not it. Satisfaction. If it 
were just revenge, I'd just let the Ijuu take its 
toll on the bastard and watch him fall apart. That'd 
be eye for an eye. No, I want the fucker dead. Him 
and his bitch."

"You mean Ranma and Nabiki?"

"No, I mean the Pope and the Queen of England. Of 
course Ranma and Nabiki!"

Still recovering from his stupor, Kawagami said "Come 
on, the Pope and the Queen of England have nothing to 
do with each other."

The figure seemed to ignore him. "They bought you 
some time. I was going to kill you chop you into bits 
and spread your remains across the countryside, make 
a day trip out of it, see the sights. Now that plan's 
fucked. The bitch is giving me a way to get close to 
her manwhore. Of course it's not going to go down 
like she thinks. She thinks I'm going to go 
galavanting in there screaming �I'm alive! Please 
arrest me!' But I've got an idea."

"I suppose you're going to tell it to me, huh? I 
thought evil masterminds only did that in movies."

"Yes, I'm telling you the plan, because you're going 
to make it work."

"Yeah well I'm not going to help you so you might as 
well think up a new one."

Kawagami's eyes had adjusted enough to see the smirk 
on the doppelganger's face. Then the fetch waved some 
dark cloth across his field of vision. It was like 
his entire body were taffy being pulled and 
compressed and molded. He felt extremely odd.

"You're going to help me, or you'll never be Kawagami 
Hiro again."

" What do you�" Kawagami started, but then he stopped. 
That was not his voice. Much too high. That was�that 
was�

"Get up, Tomo Hoko, I'm taking you to the police 
station. Inamura's going to have a lot questions to 
ask, but I'm sure between the two of us we can set 
him straight, don't you think?" 

~~~~~[Author's Note]~~~~~

Okay. It's been a long time since I did a chapter on 
this. I'm sorry to have left you hanging with that 
last, but there were several problems I had with the 
politics of the police station and such. I'm sure 
someone will catch some glaring error and I'll have 
to go back and change something, but for now this is 
the chapter. 

I suppose I have to face facts, the plot point that 
I'm planning between Ranma and his mother has been 
irrevocably sublimated by everything else. I'll 
eventually get to it, but not before a hundred other 
things happen, and that's likely to take a very long 
time. I'm in Grad School now and I'm working on 
several original fiction works and so chapters are 
going to come even slower. I only finished this 
because several people emailed me about it.

Anyway I do plan on continuing this, and I thank you 
for bearing with me as time slogs forward like a 
forwardly slogging thing.

It gets weirder.

###

7/15/05 : Added Ranma's dream. Made some other 
changes.

Thanks, Abdiel, for critiquing 

And thanks as well to the reviewers of Fanfiction.net 



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