Xero Presesnts
A Ranma½ Fanfiction
Forgotten Memories
Today was a typical day at Furinkan High School in Nerima Tokyo, normal that is for everyone except one student. Ranma Saotome had been having trouble sleeping lately, almost as if staying up for days on end was not even remotely tiring to the boy, he stopped his daydreaming as he focused back in on the teacher's lesson. Marketing was a rather new thing to Ranma, and as such he was paying attention, in fact he'd been paying attention in all his classes with a sudden mental absorbity that was surpassing a giant sea sponge. "Barcodes are a catalouging system, the bars each represent a number which a scanner can read, usually a ten digit number is encoded in them, pauses are represented by a blank space, and below the barcode is the number which that barcode contains," the teacher droned on, Ranma had stopped listening as he stared at the image of the barcode on the screen before him.
"What is your designation Soldier?!" a harsh voice yelled in his face, he catalogued everything about the man in an instant, how he moved, what he wore, distinguishing features and his face. "4401240676-001 Sir!" a young boy, maybe six years of age, exclaimed as he stood at rapid attention, close cut black hair in a buzz cut style, and blueish grey eyes, the latter of which focused squarely infront of him as he stood at attention with the rest of his unit, all of them similarly dressed in grey shirts and artic BDUs. "Very good soldier, the rest of you better follow his example, now as I count out, basic combat drills!" the man yelled, a baton tapping into his open palm, the guy was a drill seargent for Vividyne Labs in Tokyo. "Sir, Yes Sir!" the ten children answered as they began to all perform the same martial arts forms in single moves to the sergeant's yelling count.
"Mr. Saotome," A voice interrupted the boy's seeming memory, "Class is over Mr. Saotome, if you are this interested I can give you after school work", the teacher tapped his desk with a frown on her face. "Uh no thank you ma'am," Ranma said as he got up out of his chair and packed his books up, slinging bag over his shoulder as he walked out of the room and then the building, treking home slowly as he wondered aloud over just what it was he saw. "Too real to be a daydream, it was a memory of my childhood, but I thought I wasn't supposed to be able to remember anything about my childhood due to a training accident..., maybe I should see the doc," Ranma wondered as his body automatically took the route to Dr. Tofu's office, pushing the door as he wandered inside. Doctor Tofu heard the chime on the door and wandered in from his back office, spotting Ranma. "Anything I can do for you today Ranma?" the doctor asked warmly. "Ah yeah doc, do you know anything about memories, and I think I'm due for a checkup," Ranma admitted. Dr. Tofu checked his chart and nodded in the affirmative to both of Ranma's statements, ushering him in the back, he began the physical checkup first. His eyebrows rose as he checked the back of Ranma's neck, spying a black barcode on it. "Ranma have you gotten any tattoos I should know about?" Tofu asked in a concerned voice. "No sir, I don't like tattoos," Ranma admitted. Dr. Tofu held a mirror behind Ranma's neck and pointed at the office mirror, showing him the barcode. "I don't have any clue how that got there, honestly." Ranma admitted. "Alright Ranma, I believe you, let me just take a blood sample and I'll inform you of the results in a few days" Tofu said as he did so, noticing the boy didn't even flinch as he punched in the needle, he decided to make small talk, "So what memory did you have a question about?". Ranma frowned a bit as he contemplated telling the doctor but decided to anyway, "Lately I've been getting little memory flashbacks from my early childhood, but they're very weird, children in military uniforms, acting as if they're soldiers, in some sort of installation." Ranma explained. "Hmm..., I'll have to check on that, if I find anything I'll let you know Ranma, " Tofu said as he finished drawing blood and stoppered the vial, placing it into a rack to be tested later. "Thanks Doc, I appreciate this," Ranma said softly as he slid his shirt back on, while flexing his arm. "Not a problem Ranma, come by anytime, I'm always willing to listen," Tofu said as he ushered the boy out, "Say hi to the Tendou's for me!" he called out as he watched Ranma walk down the street, the boy merely yelled out "Sure thing!" as he wandered towards the Tendou Dojo in thought.
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As Ranma arrived home, he merely gave a nod to the family members, tossing his backpack against the wall, he strode outside and leapt up onto the Tendou roof, sitting down to think, which was odd to the others in the household. Akane showed a rare moment of concern and unsteadily climbed atop the roof, sitting down beside Ranma with a concerned look on her face. "Something wrong baka?" she asked teasingly. "Hnn, oh nothing Akane, just something is not making sense to me," Ranma mumbled "Care to talk about it?" the girl asked, not even conciously noticing she was showing feelings for the boy. Ranma exhaled softly as he tugged on his pigtail, a sure sign he was nervous or distressed about something, with a shrug of his shoulders he began to speak. "Lately I've been getting little flashbacks of my early childhood." he admitted. "Well thats great, we should all remember our childhood," Akane said with a smile. "But thats just it, I remember a doctor telling my father I would lose those memories due to a blow on the head during training," Ranma admitted. "Not all doctors are right, baka." Akane playfully admonished. "It's strange though, I actually couldn't recall any memories for the longest time, and today in marketing class, when the sensei mentioned barcodes I sort of blanked out and got an actual memory," he said. "So it triggered a memory, maybe thats a way to get them all back," Akane reasoned. "Proably, but I have no idea what the triggers are," Ranma said. Akane hugged him lightly, making sure nobody was watching and then walked off, Ranma's head turning to watch her go, as he did he didn't realize he was enhancing his vision, looking at the hint of vertical black lines that were hidden on the back of Akane's neck by her blouse. "4421298327452," Ranma whispered to himself, a sudden rush of memories besieging his brain caused him to groan and close his eyes. A six year old boy crawling through the grass next to a girl his age, both holding assault rifles, An image of the same girl smiling at him before she nodded and took off through the woods at a rather fast speed, along with another boy who looked just like himself. An image of her looking scared as they watched the facility start to burn, collapse, and explode around them, himself leaping out of a barred window with no injury, the girl and the others following as they ran into the woods beyond the compound. Hearing himself give orders in that childish voice to escape and evade, each person vanishing into the forest, the last image he had was of that girl and two others all going the same way in a small group.
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Ranma gasped as he sat back up, wincing as he felt a headache pounding in his skull. A quick glance around revealed he was still on the roof, the sun was setting and he figured he'd been up there at least two hours, with a grimace, he hopped off the roof and swung into his open window, headding downstairs towards the furo. Sliding the outer room door open, he shucked his clothing in a causal way before slinging a towel over his shoulder and stepped into the bathroom. Suprisingly the steam floating around the room didn't hinder his vision, through the gauze like wisps he caught the sight of a feminine form in the furo and immediately started to stammer an apology. Akane growled to herself as she realized who had walked into the bathroom, rising out of the furo with only anger in her mind, she didn't think to cover herself up, she stalked right over to the window and opened it to clear the room, closing it back, she then stalked towards Ranma and cocked her fist back in preparation for divine retrubition. Ranma swallowed hard as he couldn't stop his eyes from moving down Akane's body, then he blinked and looked down at himself, his flight instinct was screaming at him, but fear, and desire admittantly, held him rooted to the spot. Akane followed the gaze of his eyes, blushing in embarassment which only furthered her rage,then she saw him look down at she followed his head towards where he was looking then she turned absolutely beet red, she had caused THAT, but she always thought she wasn't attractive. "Ah, sorry bout that Akane," Ranma mumbled as he shot out of the bathroom, wrapping his towel around his waist on the way, he pressed back into the hallway's wall, muttering to himself about how stupid he was.
Akane blinked for a moment, her mind still trying to process the fact that she had caused him to grow erect. As she continued to wonder how she managed it, her anger slowly dissolved and her reasoning cleared, he liked her, he actually liked her, but she just scared the bejesus out of him, a frown creased her face as she remembered the way he tore out of the room, something familiar about that nagging in her head, shoving it aside, she decided on a course of action that would change the relationship between them forever. She poked her head out of the changing room and saw him leaning against the wall with his eyes closed while berating himself, reaching an arm out, she grabbed him by the pigtail and tugged hard, then began pulling him into the bathroom again, ignoring his mumbles of protest.
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Ranma's eyes opened slowly as he tried to recall what just happened the night before. A movement at his side immediately drew his attention and he looked over to see Akane lying beside him, instantly he recognized her room and tried to slip from her side unnoticed. "Nnnn, where do you think you're going, baka?" Akane asked as she sat up, the covers falling from her chest to reveal she was naked, or at least half naked. Ranma looked down at himself and dove for his boxers, pulling them on while trying to figure out just what happened. "Ah, I was gonna go wash up, maybe practice a bit..." Ranma said rather lamely. Akane noticed the little bit of fear in his eyes as she watched him tense up in preparation for a malleting from all hell and gave a soft smile, shaking her head lightly. "And eat I suppose, right?" she asked. Ranma nodded, "Ah yeah..., H-hey Akane...did we do what my brain keeps telling me we did last night?" Akane chuckled at that and rose from the bed, giving him a hug, "Yeah, and it was great, can't believe I was so angry at you for no reason," She tapped his nose before giving him a light kiss. Ranma blushed a bit at the kiss but smiled through it, nodding, "Yeah, it was, you wanna go wash up first?" he asked while looking over her body, something kept pulling at him a bit to do it. "Well, I know it's ladies first, but why don't we just go wash up together, no sense in being embarassed," Akane answered, which got a raised brow from Ranma. "....Alright, let me go check for anyone else first and I'll come back to get you," Ranma said as he slipped out the door and did just that.
As the rest of the Tendou family slowly awoke and descended to eat breakfast, it was not lost on them that the two most argumentative, stubborn and unrational people in the household were sitting on the porch side by side, with Ranma's arm around Akane's shoulders. "Did I miss something here?" Nabiki asked with her eyebrow raised. "Oh how nice, they finally decided to stop being so blind," Kasumi commented. Nabiki just blinked at her older sister for that comment. "Speaking of blind, I haven't heard a peep from the Amazon Bunch lately," Nabiki mused. As the Tendous all stared at the couple, except Kasumi, the phone rang and she rose to answer it. "Oh sure, he's right here, Ranma phone for you!" Kasumi called out. Ranma dashed to the phone to grab it and nodded, "Thanks Kasumi." "Uh, hello?" Ranma questioned into the phone. "Ranma, it's Doctor Tofu, I need you to come down to the clinic, your results are here." Tofu said. "Sure, be right over doc," Ranma said as he hung up and started walking towards the front door. "Who was that Ranma?" Nabiki asked from her lean spot on the wall. "The doc, says I need to come down there for something," Ranma answered. "I'll come with you," Akane piped up as she slid up beside Ranma and both exited the dojo.
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"Come on in Ranma," Dr. Tofu suggested as he sat down behind his desk, gathering papers. Slowly the two teens came in and sat down in the chairs presented, Akane looking a bit worried. "I found something odd in your blood test, it seems you have an abundance of pluroporphins, ah stem cells , in your blood, it would explain your quick healing," Dr.Tofu said seriously. "Although, normally stem cells are present only in fetsus, they become the cells that form any sort of organ, in fact they can become any cell thats needed in the body, I also did some research on what we found on your neck, turns out that I couldn't get your records on it, it's classified," He continued. Ranma looked worriedly at Akane before looking back to Tofu, " ....Classified, thats odd." Ranma said. "Extremely, so I got a friend of mine to crack it, turns out that that barcode on the back of your neck identifies you as a previous government experiment in Recombinant DNA technology, you weren't born, you were created," Tofu said heavily. Ranma just sat there staring for a moment, "I wasn't...born..." he mumbled, Tofu didn't say a word when Akane hugged him. "It dosen't make you any less human, in fact from what I gathered you're something more than human, almost the next stage of evolution, resistant to all disease, faster, stronger, more skilled, in short the perfect soldier, or so they thought,"Tofu said. "A soldier?", Ranma repeated in quiet question as he got a flashback of a drill sergeant yelling at him. Akane burried her head into Ranma's chest, sniffling quietly at the news, as if Ranma didn't have enough trouble. Tofu made a questioning noise, walking over, he peered at the back of the girl's neck. "Akane, how long have you had those black lines on your neck?" Tofu asked. "B-black lines?" Akane asked as she sat up, tilting her head down to let the doctor look. Tofu bent Ranma's head down and compared them, "They're not exactly the same, but just the opposite, they are, Akane how far back can you remember your childhood?" Tofu asked. Akane blinked at that question, trying to give an honest answer, "I can remember back to when my mother passed away, doctor" she answered. "And when was that?" He asked. "I was about...seven I think, thats as far back as I can go," Akane admitted. "Hmm..., so that would be when you were six, same as Ranma, I'm going to do some more research, you two seem like you need a bit of time to let Ranma come to terms with this, go on home, tell your fathers that there is to be no stress on him, OR you, doctor's orders," Tofu said as he smiled softly. "Alright, thank you doctor, come on Ranma," Akane took his hand softly and lead the lost in thought boy out.
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Ranma sat there on the biggest rock beside the koi pond, eyes mirroring the color of the water stared emptily into the shallow depths. A carp broke the surface with a mighty leap, well for a carp anyway, and was snagged by an arm that whipped by with a speed that seemed inhuman. Ranma shifted his eyes onto the carp, watching the colors playing over it's scales before letting it drop back into the water with a shrug. He rose from his seat and strode into the house at the call for dinner, sitting down at the table and eating in a slow manner, almost as if he were a puppet. Despite his slow eating, he managed to deflect Genma's attempts to grab his food while not even looking, turning his head to shift his vision to his father, his chopsticks snapped out and caught the fat man by the earlobe, twisting his wrist in a slight manner, he sent his father rolling backwards into the wall with a heavy thud. "Boy, you should respect your father!" Genma bellowed as he sat up and glared at Ranma. "You are not my father," Ranma said tonelessly. "If it wasn't for your mother, I'd severely beat you for saying that, boy," Genma threatened. Ranma suddenly shot up from his seat, moving at a speed which left slight afterimages, his foot crashed into Genma's gut, kicking the man up into the air, the boy leapt up and spun, slamming the heel of his other foot into the man's temple, completing the revolution, he lashed out with his other foot scoring a third hit, and landed without a sound, letting the overweight fool crash to the ground. "She's not my mother either," Ranma said softly. "Ranma, what's gotten into you?!" Soun demanded. "Simply the truth Mr. Tendou, my DNA dosen't match his, and most likely won't match Nodoka's either," Ranma answered. "Well if you aren't the fat man's son , then whose are you, Ranma?" Nabiki questioned. "Good question, I think I should find out," Ranma said as he walked upstairs towards his room.
"You're not really leaving me, are you baka?" Akane asked softly as she stepped into Ranma's room. "You can come with me, you have a barcode too you know," Ranma responded. "But this is my family, Just like Genma and Nodoka are yours," Akane protested. "I don't have any family Akane, your parents raise you, take care of you, mine treated me like a toy!" Ranma raged, tossing an object across the room, watching it shatter and the pieces fall to the floor. "Don't say that Ranma, please don't say that," Akane said as she moved over and hugged him. "What do you want me to say Akane, you heard the doc, I'm not even human," Ranma exhaled softly. "He said you're no less human than anyone else Ranma," Akane corrected the boy. "So what, I'm a test tube baby, I have no parents, all I have is a few scattered memories of some kind of government training, and the knowledge of how to kill someone in two hundred and fourty six ways," Ranma said quietly, running his fingers through the girl's hair. "But you're still Ranma, still the man I....I.." Akane stalled. "You what, Akane?" Ranma asked quietly. "You're still the person I love Ranma, " Akane said softly. "T-thanks Akane, but I have to do this, I have to find out who made me," Ranma kissed the girl lightly. Ranma then grabbed his pack and leapt out the window, vanishing over the wall shortly thereafter.
Today was a typical day at Furinkan High School in Nerima Tokyo, normal that is for everyone except one student. Ranma Saotome had been having trouble sleeping lately, almost as if staying up for days on end was not even remotely tiring to the boy, he stopped his daydreaming as he focused back in on the teacher's lesson. Marketing was a rather new thing to Ranma, and as such he was paying attention, in fact he'd been paying attention in all his classes with a sudden mental absorbity that was surpassing a giant sea sponge. "Barcodes are a catalouging system, the bars each represent a number which a scanner can read, usually a ten digit number is encoded in them, pauses are represented by a blank space, and below the barcode is the number which that barcode contains," the teacher droned on, Ranma had stopped listening as he stared at the image of the barcode on the screen before him.
"What is your designation Soldier?!" a harsh voice yelled in his face, he catalogued everything about the man in an instant, how he moved, what he wore, distinguishing features and his face. "4401240676-001 Sir!" a young boy, maybe six years of age, exclaimed as he stood at rapid attention, close cut black hair in a buzz cut style, and blueish grey eyes, the latter of which focused squarely infront of him as he stood at attention with the rest of his unit, all of them similarly dressed in grey shirts and artic BDUs. "Very good soldier, the rest of you better follow his example, now as I count out, basic combat drills!" the man yelled, a baton tapping into his open palm, the guy was a drill seargent for Vividyne Labs in Tokyo. "Sir, Yes Sir!" the ten children answered as they began to all perform the same martial arts forms in single moves to the sergeant's yelling count.
"Mr. Saotome," A voice interrupted the boy's seeming memory, "Class is over Mr. Saotome, if you are this interested I can give you after school work", the teacher tapped his desk with a frown on her face. "Uh no thank you ma'am," Ranma said as he got up out of his chair and packed his books up, slinging bag over his shoulder as he walked out of the room and then the building, treking home slowly as he wondered aloud over just what it was he saw. "Too real to be a daydream, it was a memory of my childhood, but I thought I wasn't supposed to be able to remember anything about my childhood due to a training accident..., maybe I should see the doc," Ranma wondered as his body automatically took the route to Dr. Tofu's office, pushing the door as he wandered inside. Doctor Tofu heard the chime on the door and wandered in from his back office, spotting Ranma. "Anything I can do for you today Ranma?" the doctor asked warmly. "Ah yeah doc, do you know anything about memories, and I think I'm due for a checkup," Ranma admitted. Dr. Tofu checked his chart and nodded in the affirmative to both of Ranma's statements, ushering him in the back, he began the physical checkup first. His eyebrows rose as he checked the back of Ranma's neck, spying a black barcode on it. "Ranma have you gotten any tattoos I should know about?" Tofu asked in a concerned voice. "No sir, I don't like tattoos," Ranma admitted. Dr. Tofu held a mirror behind Ranma's neck and pointed at the office mirror, showing him the barcode. "I don't have any clue how that got there, honestly." Ranma admitted. "Alright Ranma, I believe you, let me just take a blood sample and I'll inform you of the results in a few days" Tofu said as he did so, noticing the boy didn't even flinch as he punched in the needle, he decided to make small talk, "So what memory did you have a question about?". Ranma frowned a bit as he contemplated telling the doctor but decided to anyway, "Lately I've been getting little memory flashbacks from my early childhood, but they're very weird, children in military uniforms, acting as if they're soldiers, in some sort of installation." Ranma explained. "Hmm..., I'll have to check on that, if I find anything I'll let you know Ranma, " Tofu said as he finished drawing blood and stoppered the vial, placing it into a rack to be tested later. "Thanks Doc, I appreciate this," Ranma said softly as he slid his shirt back on, while flexing his arm. "Not a problem Ranma, come by anytime, I'm always willing to listen," Tofu said as he ushered the boy out, "Say hi to the Tendou's for me!" he called out as he watched Ranma walk down the street, the boy merely yelled out "Sure thing!" as he wandered towards the Tendou Dojo in thought.
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As Ranma arrived home, he merely gave a nod to the family members, tossing his backpack against the wall, he strode outside and leapt up onto the Tendou roof, sitting down to think, which was odd to the others in the household. Akane showed a rare moment of concern and unsteadily climbed atop the roof, sitting down beside Ranma with a concerned look on her face. "Something wrong baka?" she asked teasingly. "Hnn, oh nothing Akane, just something is not making sense to me," Ranma mumbled "Care to talk about it?" the girl asked, not even conciously noticing she was showing feelings for the boy. Ranma exhaled softly as he tugged on his pigtail, a sure sign he was nervous or distressed about something, with a shrug of his shoulders he began to speak. "Lately I've been getting little flashbacks of my early childhood." he admitted. "Well thats great, we should all remember our childhood," Akane said with a smile. "But thats just it, I remember a doctor telling my father I would lose those memories due to a blow on the head during training," Ranma admitted. "Not all doctors are right, baka." Akane playfully admonished. "It's strange though, I actually couldn't recall any memories for the longest time, and today in marketing class, when the sensei mentioned barcodes I sort of blanked out and got an actual memory," he said. "So it triggered a memory, maybe thats a way to get them all back," Akane reasoned. "Proably, but I have no idea what the triggers are," Ranma said. Akane hugged him lightly, making sure nobody was watching and then walked off, Ranma's head turning to watch her go, as he did he didn't realize he was enhancing his vision, looking at the hint of vertical black lines that were hidden on the back of Akane's neck by her blouse. "4421298327452," Ranma whispered to himself, a sudden rush of memories besieging his brain caused him to groan and close his eyes. A six year old boy crawling through the grass next to a girl his age, both holding assault rifles, An image of the same girl smiling at him before she nodded and took off through the woods at a rather fast speed, along with another boy who looked just like himself. An image of her looking scared as they watched the facility start to burn, collapse, and explode around them, himself leaping out of a barred window with no injury, the girl and the others following as they ran into the woods beyond the compound. Hearing himself give orders in that childish voice to escape and evade, each person vanishing into the forest, the last image he had was of that girl and two others all going the same way in a small group.
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Ranma gasped as he sat back up, wincing as he felt a headache pounding in his skull. A quick glance around revealed he was still on the roof, the sun was setting and he figured he'd been up there at least two hours, with a grimace, he hopped off the roof and swung into his open window, headding downstairs towards the furo. Sliding the outer room door open, he shucked his clothing in a causal way before slinging a towel over his shoulder and stepped into the bathroom. Suprisingly the steam floating around the room didn't hinder his vision, through the gauze like wisps he caught the sight of a feminine form in the furo and immediately started to stammer an apology. Akane growled to herself as she realized who had walked into the bathroom, rising out of the furo with only anger in her mind, she didn't think to cover herself up, she stalked right over to the window and opened it to clear the room, closing it back, she then stalked towards Ranma and cocked her fist back in preparation for divine retrubition. Ranma swallowed hard as he couldn't stop his eyes from moving down Akane's body, then he blinked and looked down at himself, his flight instinct was screaming at him, but fear, and desire admittantly, held him rooted to the spot. Akane followed the gaze of his eyes, blushing in embarassment which only furthered her rage,then she saw him look down at she followed his head towards where he was looking then she turned absolutely beet red, she had caused THAT, but she always thought she wasn't attractive. "Ah, sorry bout that Akane," Ranma mumbled as he shot out of the bathroom, wrapping his towel around his waist on the way, he pressed back into the hallway's wall, muttering to himself about how stupid he was.
Akane blinked for a moment, her mind still trying to process the fact that she had caused him to grow erect. As she continued to wonder how she managed it, her anger slowly dissolved and her reasoning cleared, he liked her, he actually liked her, but she just scared the bejesus out of him, a frown creased her face as she remembered the way he tore out of the room, something familiar about that nagging in her head, shoving it aside, she decided on a course of action that would change the relationship between them forever. She poked her head out of the changing room and saw him leaning against the wall with his eyes closed while berating himself, reaching an arm out, she grabbed him by the pigtail and tugged hard, then began pulling him into the bathroom again, ignoring his mumbles of protest.
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Ranma's eyes opened slowly as he tried to recall what just happened the night before. A movement at his side immediately drew his attention and he looked over to see Akane lying beside him, instantly he recognized her room and tried to slip from her side unnoticed. "Nnnn, where do you think you're going, baka?" Akane asked as she sat up, the covers falling from her chest to reveal she was naked, or at least half naked. Ranma looked down at himself and dove for his boxers, pulling them on while trying to figure out just what happened. "Ah, I was gonna go wash up, maybe practice a bit..." Ranma said rather lamely. Akane noticed the little bit of fear in his eyes as she watched him tense up in preparation for a malleting from all hell and gave a soft smile, shaking her head lightly. "And eat I suppose, right?" she asked. Ranma nodded, "Ah yeah..., H-hey Akane...did we do what my brain keeps telling me we did last night?" Akane chuckled at that and rose from the bed, giving him a hug, "Yeah, and it was great, can't believe I was so angry at you for no reason," She tapped his nose before giving him a light kiss. Ranma blushed a bit at the kiss but smiled through it, nodding, "Yeah, it was, you wanna go wash up first?" he asked while looking over her body, something kept pulling at him a bit to do it. "Well, I know it's ladies first, but why don't we just go wash up together, no sense in being embarassed," Akane answered, which got a raised brow from Ranma. "....Alright, let me go check for anyone else first and I'll come back to get you," Ranma said as he slipped out the door and did just that.
As the rest of the Tendou family slowly awoke and descended to eat breakfast, it was not lost on them that the two most argumentative, stubborn and unrational people in the household were sitting on the porch side by side, with Ranma's arm around Akane's shoulders. "Did I miss something here?" Nabiki asked with her eyebrow raised. "Oh how nice, they finally decided to stop being so blind," Kasumi commented. Nabiki just blinked at her older sister for that comment. "Speaking of blind, I haven't heard a peep from the Amazon Bunch lately," Nabiki mused. As the Tendous all stared at the couple, except Kasumi, the phone rang and she rose to answer it. "Oh sure, he's right here, Ranma phone for you!" Kasumi called out. Ranma dashed to the phone to grab it and nodded, "Thanks Kasumi." "Uh, hello?" Ranma questioned into the phone. "Ranma, it's Doctor Tofu, I need you to come down to the clinic, your results are here." Tofu said. "Sure, be right over doc," Ranma said as he hung up and started walking towards the front door. "Who was that Ranma?" Nabiki asked from her lean spot on the wall. "The doc, says I need to come down there for something," Ranma answered. "I'll come with you," Akane piped up as she slid up beside Ranma and both exited the dojo.
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"Come on in Ranma," Dr. Tofu suggested as he sat down behind his desk, gathering papers. Slowly the two teens came in and sat down in the chairs presented, Akane looking a bit worried. "I found something odd in your blood test, it seems you have an abundance of pluroporphins, ah stem cells , in your blood, it would explain your quick healing," Dr.Tofu said seriously. "Although, normally stem cells are present only in fetsus, they become the cells that form any sort of organ, in fact they can become any cell thats needed in the body, I also did some research on what we found on your neck, turns out that I couldn't get your records on it, it's classified," He continued. Ranma looked worriedly at Akane before looking back to Tofu, " ....Classified, thats odd." Ranma said. "Extremely, so I got a friend of mine to crack it, turns out that that barcode on the back of your neck identifies you as a previous government experiment in Recombinant DNA technology, you weren't born, you were created," Tofu said heavily. Ranma just sat there staring for a moment, "I wasn't...born..." he mumbled, Tofu didn't say a word when Akane hugged him. "It dosen't make you any less human, in fact from what I gathered you're something more than human, almost the next stage of evolution, resistant to all disease, faster, stronger, more skilled, in short the perfect soldier, or so they thought,"Tofu said. "A soldier?", Ranma repeated in quiet question as he got a flashback of a drill sergeant yelling at him. Akane burried her head into Ranma's chest, sniffling quietly at the news, as if Ranma didn't have enough trouble. Tofu made a questioning noise, walking over, he peered at the back of the girl's neck. "Akane, how long have you had those black lines on your neck?" Tofu asked. "B-black lines?" Akane asked as she sat up, tilting her head down to let the doctor look. Tofu bent Ranma's head down and compared them, "They're not exactly the same, but just the opposite, they are, Akane how far back can you remember your childhood?" Tofu asked. Akane blinked at that question, trying to give an honest answer, "I can remember back to when my mother passed away, doctor" she answered. "And when was that?" He asked. "I was about...seven I think, thats as far back as I can go," Akane admitted. "Hmm..., so that would be when you were six, same as Ranma, I'm going to do some more research, you two seem like you need a bit of time to let Ranma come to terms with this, go on home, tell your fathers that there is to be no stress on him, OR you, doctor's orders," Tofu said as he smiled softly. "Alright, thank you doctor, come on Ranma," Akane took his hand softly and lead the lost in thought boy out.
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Ranma sat there on the biggest rock beside the koi pond, eyes mirroring the color of the water stared emptily into the shallow depths. A carp broke the surface with a mighty leap, well for a carp anyway, and was snagged by an arm that whipped by with a speed that seemed inhuman. Ranma shifted his eyes onto the carp, watching the colors playing over it's scales before letting it drop back into the water with a shrug. He rose from his seat and strode into the house at the call for dinner, sitting down at the table and eating in a slow manner, almost as if he were a puppet. Despite his slow eating, he managed to deflect Genma's attempts to grab his food while not even looking, turning his head to shift his vision to his father, his chopsticks snapped out and caught the fat man by the earlobe, twisting his wrist in a slight manner, he sent his father rolling backwards into the wall with a heavy thud. "Boy, you should respect your father!" Genma bellowed as he sat up and glared at Ranma. "You are not my father," Ranma said tonelessly. "If it wasn't for your mother, I'd severely beat you for saying that, boy," Genma threatened. Ranma suddenly shot up from his seat, moving at a speed which left slight afterimages, his foot crashed into Genma's gut, kicking the man up into the air, the boy leapt up and spun, slamming the heel of his other foot into the man's temple, completing the revolution, he lashed out with his other foot scoring a third hit, and landed without a sound, letting the overweight fool crash to the ground. "She's not my mother either," Ranma said softly. "Ranma, what's gotten into you?!" Soun demanded. "Simply the truth Mr. Tendou, my DNA dosen't match his, and most likely won't match Nodoka's either," Ranma answered. "Well if you aren't the fat man's son , then whose are you, Ranma?" Nabiki questioned. "Good question, I think I should find out," Ranma said as he walked upstairs towards his room.
"You're not really leaving me, are you baka?" Akane asked softly as she stepped into Ranma's room. "You can come with me, you have a barcode too you know," Ranma responded. "But this is my family, Just like Genma and Nodoka are yours," Akane protested. "I don't have any family Akane, your parents raise you, take care of you, mine treated me like a toy!" Ranma raged, tossing an object across the room, watching it shatter and the pieces fall to the floor. "Don't say that Ranma, please don't say that," Akane said as she moved over and hugged him. "What do you want me to say Akane, you heard the doc, I'm not even human," Ranma exhaled softly. "He said you're no less human than anyone else Ranma," Akane corrected the boy. "So what, I'm a test tube baby, I have no parents, all I have is a few scattered memories of some kind of government training, and the knowledge of how to kill someone in two hundred and fourty six ways," Ranma said quietly, running his fingers through the girl's hair. "But you're still Ranma, still the man I....I.." Akane stalled. "You what, Akane?" Ranma asked quietly. "You're still the person I love Ranma, " Akane said softly. "T-thanks Akane, but I have to do this, I have to find out who made me," Ranma kissed the girl lightly. Ranma then grabbed his pack and leapt out the window, vanishing over the wall shortly thereafter.