Nabiki glanced out the window, and sighed.
"Ranma. They're back."
Ranma jumped up out of his seat and ran to the door. "About
time. It's been damn near a month."
"Uh, Ranma..." Nabiki shook her head. "It's only Kasumi and
Risa. Akane's not with them."
Ranma stopped, his hand hovering over the doorknob. "You sure?
Maybe she's outside the wall, or--"
Nabiki shook her head again. "No, Ranma." She stepped back, and
dropped into a chair. "You'd best be ready to comfort your
daughter. She doesn't look very happy."
TailKinker Presents
Risa:
Identity
Nabiki shuffled out of her bedroom, rubbing her head. She was
not a morning person, as anyone who lived at the Tendo home could
attest. She staggered in the general direction of the kitchen,
hoping that Kasumi had beaten her to the coffee maker.
That way, I won't have to make it myself, or wait for it to brew.
A red-haired tornado roared past her, almost knocking her down.
"Sorry about that!"
Nabiki shook her head, and looked down at the pigtailed redhead
in the Chinese clothing. "Well, watch where the heck you're
going, Ranma!" She rubbed her forehead. "You could kill someone
like that."
"Umm..." The redhead grinned impishly. "It's Risa, Naki-chan.
Papa isn't here yet."
Nabiki paused, and studied the girl more closely. "What the
hell?"
Tendo Risa's hair was caught back in its usual pigtail, but her
bangs were not held back by pins or barrettes, and hung free in
her face. The style was an exact copy of her father's. Plus,
she'd managed to scratch up one of Ranma's old red silk shirts,
and even wore a pair of his bracers. The only flaw in the
illusion was that her pants were form-fitting black spandex,
something that Ranma would never have worn, regardless of
circumstances.
Well, check that. Ranma had worn a Playboy bunny suit, on at
least two occasions that Nabiki could recall, to win a challenge.
Risa held out her arms and turned on the spot. "You like?"
"Uh, yeah. Even when I first saw it, eighteen years ago. Very
cute." Nabiki shook her head in disbelief.
"Thanks. Gotta go--Ryouga-sensei and Papa are gonna be here any
second."
And in a red and black flash, she was gone.
Nabiki shook her head. "It's gonna be one of those days.
Where's that coffee?"
* * * * *
The kata was one of Risa's favourites, the result of six hours'
study and collaboration between her, her father, and her two
teachers. The resulting kata was part wu shuu, part kempo, part
musabetsa kakotou - and all hers. Not her father, nor her
instructors would use this kata, beyond helping her learn it
better. And no one else at all could possibly learn it.
Hibiki Ryouga stepped in through the main doors of the dojo, and
paused. His student - his first student, and in an odd way, his
final victory over his hated opponent and best friend, Saotome
Ranma.
Risa snapped and whirled her way through the kata. Her form was
not nearly as airborne as her father's school. This was his own
influence. At the same time, she lacked the punishing physical
power needed in his form, as well as the rigorous structure of
his wife's training. And what she brought to the form was her
own blazing speed, superior even to her father's.
The form was completed thirty seconds after he walked through the
door, and Risa shifted from the final ready stance to a long,
lazy stretch.
"Not bad, Risa."
Risa's eyes snapped open - it was the first that Ryouga had
realized she'd been going through the form with her eyes closed.
"Good morning, sensei."
"You're doing well." He sat down before the iroha, and Risa did
the same, facing him. "I'd say that Soun and Genma just wasted
all their worrying."
"How so?" Risa's face showed no concern; merely curiosity.
"Well...You remember that your grandfathers basically
arranged...your existence, right?" Ryouga looked rather nervous.
"What they wanted was the ultimate martial artist, and they were
rather disappointed when...when your parents had a girl."
Risa giggled. "It wasn't like they could pick, you know."
"Nonetheless...Genma and Soun were disappointed." He smirked.
"It's nice to see that you've exceeded all their hopes." He
hopped to his feet. "Let's start with the sixth basic kata
today."
"Where's Papa?"
"He's not coming today. Said he had things to do."
She frowned at this, then hopped to her feet and assumed a ready
stance.
* * * * *
"I tell you, Kasumi, it was really freaky." Nabiki stirred her
coffee absentmindedly, as she had been for the last five minutes.
"If Kuno-chan had seen her, he'd have lost what little of his
mind he has left."
Kasumi set her tea cup down. "It should hardly be surprising,
Nabiki. After all, he is her father. Some amount of family
resemblance--"
"Yeah, I know, Kasumi. But it wasn't just family resemblance,
okay? I mean, it was--" She sighed, and tossed the spoon across
the kitchen and into the sink. "Look, in the first place, she
musta gone a lot out of her way to get that stuff. The shirt and
the bracers. Doesn't seem like she could pull it off on a whim."
"Maybe she's been planning this for a while, then."
"You know our girl, Kasumi. She has nothing but whims. Though
when she does go after something, it's like watching a bulldog at
work. Total singlemindedness. You've been with her for the last
month. In China, yes, so she coulda gotten some of that stuff
there. Did you ever give her a chance to go shopping?"
"No, we didn't have the money for that."
"And you'd think after the trip, and the disappointment, that
she'd be moping about the house today. Instead she's a bundle of
energy."
"She's a teenager, and quite resilient."
"Resilient is one thing. She was depressed as hell yesterday,
and all cheerful and happy this morning." Nabiki took a long
pull from her coffee. "About the family resemblance. Need I
remind you that for Risa to have that much of a family
resemblance, Ranma would have to have been her mother, not her
father?"
Kasumi giggled--even at nearly forty, she could still get away
with it. "That would be an interesting thing to see."
"No thanks. He's unstable enough as it is." Nabiki chuckled.
"Do remember, sister, that Ranma in his female form strongly
resembles Saotome-san."
"True."
Kasumi nodded. "It's most likely that Saotome-san looked a lot
like Ranma, or Risa, as a young girl."
"Still...you can barely tell she's a Tendo." Nabiki leaned back
and sighed. "It's like...everything she has in her, came from
her father. And nothing from Akane."
Kasumi sighed. "Two years ago, you would have said that that was
a good thing."
"Hey, it's not like I hate my baby sister. I just don't care for
her recent actions, okay?"
"I know." Kasumi nodded. "I miss her too."
"Yeah. And so does Risa. She's probably just burying her
feelings; they'll bubble up again later. And we'll have to pick
up the pieces. Maybe I can head some of that off..." Nabiki
sighed, and raised her coffee cup to her lips again. And paused,
and frowned.
"She called him Papa..."
* * * * *
Nabiki didn't always have all the facts. It just usually seemed
that way.
The attic of the Tendo house was filled with treasures. Though
none dated back more than fifty years, they were many and varied,
and formed a living testament to the Tendo family trait of being
packrats. It was in the attic, several months ago, that Risa had
found the backpack, with the name 'Saotome Ranma' stitched into
the backing.
She'd wanted to take it with her on the trip, but had decided
against it. It might have been damaged, or lost. And her
father's possessions were few, and fewer still of those had found
their way to her.
Within the pack, she'd found several interesting things. Three
small wooden figurines, several blocks of wood, and a carving
knife. Ten silk shirts of various colours, some with no sleeves.
The leather bracers. Five pairs of identical black pants. Two
pairs of black satin slippers. A Chinese Maoist uniform, of all
things. A small photo album.
More out of a sense of fun than anything else, she'd thrown
together the Ranma outfit, modeling herself after one of the old
photos of her father. The black pants wouldn't fit her, and she
ignored the boxers, giving them no more of a thought than a
subvocalized "bleah."
At the moment, she sat cross-legged on her bed, in the room that
had once been her mother's. In her hand was one of the wooden
figurines.
A panda. I wonder why he carved a panda?
She carefully set the figurine on her dresser, then picked up the
carving knife and the block of pine.
* * * * *
"OW!"
Kasumi looked up from the dishes. "Oh, my." She reached
immediately for her first-aid kit.
Sure enough, Risa came trudging down the stairs, her hand wrapped
in a T-shirt. "Um, Aunt Kasumi...?"
"Come here, child." She uncapped a bottle of peroxide and set to
cleaning the small cut on Risa's palm. As she worked, she asked
the girl, "What did you do to yourself?"
"Well...I was trying to carve something."
"Oh?" She looked up. "You've never carved anything before."
"I know." She sighed. "I found some of Dad's old wood-carving
stuff, and I thought I might give it a try. I didn't expect to
cut myself, though. Dad's old carving knife isn't too sharp."
"I didn't even know he carved." Kasumi set an adhesive bandage
over the cut. "And perhaps you should take a little more care
when trying it yourself. Make sure your knife is very sharp. It
makes it easier to control."
"Okay, Aunt Kasumi."
"Oh, and I phoned your grandmother a few minutes ago. She said
she wants to drop by for dinner. Would that be okay with you?"
"Sure." Risa hopped to her feet.
"And wash that shirt, before you do anything else! Nothing
stains like blood."
"Okay!"
* * * * *
Ten minutes later, the carving completely forgotten, she was
sprawled on the floor of the family room, feet kicked up behind
her, a book open on the floor before her.
Nabiki paused as she walked through the family room. "Hey,
kiddo. Whatcha reading?"
Risa mumbled into the pages. "Book on healing herbs."
Nabiki craned her neck to look, but the page was written in
Korean. She shook her head in disbelief. Akane hadn't been the
greatest scholar in the history of Nerima, and Ranma was mostly
clueless. Why was it that their daughter was so bright? Risa
could read six languages, and speak four. She seemed to have a
natural ability to judge angles, distances and velocities. She
had memorized the appearance, names and properties of almost
every plant common to Japan, and was now apparently learning
those of Korea. Almost anything she set her mind to learning,
she learned. And while she wasn't yet equal to her father in the
martial arts, she would be soon. And soon thereafter, surpass
him.
"Listen, Risa. I kinda wanted a chance to talk to you."
Risa looked up. "Sure." She pushed herself back into a seated
position, crossing her legs before her.
Nabiki chuckled at Risa's unintentional display of flexibility as
she sat down across from the girl. "Must be nice to be young."
Risa looked startled, and opened her mouth to apologize, but
Nabiki waved it away. "Don't worry about it, kid. I'm not
exactly a dinosaur yet.
"First off: You know your mother wanted to be an actress,
right?"
Risa blinked. "No. Nobody ever told me about that."
"Surprise, surprise. She was good, Risa. She could really bring
feeling to a role. You've got some of that gift yourself."
"I do?"
"Yep. Now myself, I wanted to go into business. I like handling
money. And your Aunt Kasumi wanted to go into medicine."
"I held you guys back." Risa looked shocked. "If it wasn't for
me, you could have gone on to do whatever you wanted."
"What makes you think we didn't?" Nabiki grinned. "I had a fair
amount of money set aside, but I knew I couldn't make it last
forever. So I played in mutual funds, made a bid on some
stocks...We're not exactly rolling in dough, but the investments
I made will keep us fed and comfortable for the rest of our
lives. As for Kasumi...well, I think all she really wanted to do
was to take care of people. She's incredibly intelligent. I
know she doesn't show it very often."
Risa giggled. "That's how you know."
"Perhaps. But she's learned an awful lot since you came to live
with us. Including in medicine." She leaned forwards. "Kasumi
would really like to see you become a doctor.
"I..." Risa paused. "I kinda thought I might wanna do that."
She picked up the book. "I borrowed this from Shampoo, a couple
of days ago." She dropped the book.
"I had an idea you might. Heck, your mom dropped a single tear,
and it was forgive-and-forget, let's do anything to make her feel
better."
"But Auntie--"
Nabiki waved a hand. "Hey, I don't really blame you, okay? I
don't hate your mother. Really." She sighed, and her gaze
wandered to the window, to the west. "Why do I keep having to
tell everyone that?"
Risa shrugged. "To keep reminding yourself?"
"Yeah, maybe." She looked back at the girl. "What's with the
clothes?"
She shrugged. "I dunno. I felt like trying them on."
"Kasumi tells me you cut yourself trying to carve. You've never
picked up a carving knife before in your life."
"I found it upstairs, in the attic."
"Risa..." Nabiki closed her eyes; how to put this? "Why are
you trying to be so much like him?"
"I--" Risa paused. "I don't know." She picked up the book, and
stood up. "Grandma always told me that I should try to be like
him."
"I don't think this is what she meant." Nabiki grinned. "She'll
be here in a while...you can ask her then."
* * * * *
Ranma's skill in the kitchen was remarkable, for someone who
insisted on acting as manly as possible. And he had only
improved since the last time she'd seen him in this kitchen.
Upon hearing that his mother would be present for dinner, he'd
demanded to be allowed to help. Kasumi, of course, was only
happy to let him. And so he'd torn into the meal, moving about
six times faster than Kasumi, working on five different dishes.
And preparing so much that one would think he was making five
different meals.
Well, it made sense. Both Ranma and Risa were heavy eaters, and
Nodoka, for all that her manners were better, could tuck away an
awful lot as well.
Nabiki watched the barely controlled chaos in the kitchen, biting
her lip. She wanted to offer her help, for so many reasons, but
knew fully well that she was not anything like the equal of
either of these two.
"Hey, guys. Can I help?"
Kasumi glanced up from the rice. "Why, certainly, Risa. What
would you like to do?"
Nabiki bit her lip to keep from laughing. Like her mother, Risa
couldn't cook worth a damn. Unlike her mother, however, she was
showing slow but steady improvement, and a willingness to listen
to direction.
Risa craned her neck, to spy on whatever it was Ranma was
currently mixing up in a bowl. "Dad's gonna need some pork
filling for those buns, right? I can make some up from the
leftover meat in the fridge."
Kasumi's smile became a touch strained. "Perhaps you could chop
the meat. Make sure it's quite small. I'll work on the rest of
the filling."
"Okay!" Risa grabbed the largest butcher knife off the block,
only to have Kasumi take it away from her and hand her a smaller
blade. Nabiki snickered.
* * * * *
"Thank you again for having me." Nodoka bowed as she stepped
backward out of the house. She turned and began to walk down the
road, smiling slightly at the events of the evening.
"Grandma? Can I talk with you a minute?"
She turned back, to see Risa running towards her. "Of course."
She smiled. "I always have time for my favourite granddaughter."
"Grandma..."
"I know, it's an old joke." She sighed. "So serious at times.
What's on your mind?"
"I wanted to know..." She bit her lip. "Aunt Kasumi says that
Dad tried to visit me all the time, when he wasn't allowed to.
Twice a year."
"Yes, that's true."
"Why didn't he try harder?" She threw up her hands. "I mean,
it's not like Aunt Kasumi or Aunt Nabiki could really stop him,
right?"
"Well, I suppose that's true. Though I think you underestimate
your aunts. Especially Nabiki; she could always make your
father do whatever she wanted."
"But I mean...I don't know." She sighed. "I always figured he
could do anything he wanted to. I mean, once he set his mind to
it, there was nothing he couldn't do. So the only reason he
couldn't see me is if he didn't want to."
"Risa..." Nodoka sighed. "There was a very good reason why he
couldn't see you."
"What was it?"
"I asked him not to."
"...What?" Risa's face was a mask of shock. "You're kidding,
right?"
"No."
"But...But you told him to...?" She shook her head. "Why would
you do that? Why would you keep my dad away from me?"
Nodoka sighed. "I've not looked forward to this
conversation...You see, Risa, the courts were very unhappy about
the situation between your mother and your father. And though I
feel the problem mostly stemmed from your mother, Ranma was not
entirely to blame. He had his faults, not the least of which was
a bad tendency to tease your mother."
"You thought he was unfit."
"I thought he was much too young to be a father. He agrees with
this, by the way. But as to not seeing you...I knew that if he
caused any trouble, the courts would be pulled in again, possibly
the police. Your father could have ended up in jail, and you
sent off to Hokkaido or somewhere."
Risa thought about this. "So by keeping him out of trouble, you
kept me with my aunts, instead of with some strangers, somewhere
far away."
"I'm glad you understand."
"I don't think I do." Risa shook her head, tears flowing from
her eyes. "Couldn't he have done something? I mean, he could
have written, he could have--"
"I agree, he could have written. Though I'm not sure that that
would have been a good thing, either. But your father's not good
at such things; he has a very hard time telling anyone how he
really feels, you know that."
"Yeah." Risa smiled through the tears. "Seen that often
enough."
"Remember, I know what he went through. I can read him better
than most; I'm his mother. And I went through it as well; his
father took him from me when he was six, and I didn't see him
again until he was sixteen."
"I know...It just feels like he let me down, you know?"
"I know. Try to forgive him. He's doing the best he can now,
and that's a lot better than he could've done when you were
four."
* * * * *
"Did Nabiki tell you what she's been up to all day?"
Ranma blew the steam off of his tea before answering. "She said
that she was actin' weird, that's all."
"She found a pack of your clothes and such in the attic. She
came downstairs dressed up like you. She picked up a knife and
some wood--"
"I'd forgotten all about that." Ranma grinned. "I used to do
some woodcarving...helped while away time on the road."
"Well, she found that, and tried carving. Cut herself a bit,
nothing major."
"That's kind of odd..."
"I don't think so." Kasumi set down her tea. "After this trip,
to see Akane...well, she was rather crushed. She's been in a bit
of a funk all the way back from China. And I think this is some
type of lashing-out at her mother."
"Maybe."
"Most likely. Now, I'm not a psychiatrist, but I'd say she's
going to get over that. She'll probably lash out at you in some
way. Try not to take it too hard."
Ranma nodded.
Risa moped into the room; Kasumi needed only one glance. "Why,
Risa! You've been crying!"
"A bit, yeah." She nodded. "I'm okay, though."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah..." She sat down at the table, and picked up a cup of tea.
She grinned; Kasumi had already prepared it the way she liked
it, lots of milk and sugar.
"Listen, Risa...I found something for you today." Ranma reached
under the table and pulled out a small box. "I had to look hard
for it, I tell ya, but I think you'll like it."
"What is it?" Risa took the box.
"It's a videocassette." Ranma grinned. "Nabiki was sure she'd
lost it, but we found it in a box in the attic."
"What's on it?"
"Well, your aunt Nabiki made a movie once, for a course she was
taking. Your mom was one of the stars. Thought you'd like to
see it."
"...Yeah. I think I would." Risa opened the box, glanced down
at the cassette. "Aunt Nabiki told me that Mom wanted to be an
actress."
"That she did. I ruined her first big chance, sad to say, but
she did really well in this one. So did Nabiki; she got top
marks."
Risa looked up. "Why did you...?"
Ranma shrugged. "You've seen lots of me over the last few years,
but you've only had a week with your mother. This tape has all
the out-takes in it, too; you can have a good laugh over it."
"Are you in it too?"
"Yeah...so laugh hard."
"Okay...thanks, Papa. This means a lot to me." She smiled
impishly. "By the way, we only have a DVD player here...I don't
even know what sort of machine will play this tape. You find one
of them too?"
"Ah..." Ranma scratched the back of his head.
Kasumi giggled.
THE END