These characters all belong to there original creators.
Bittersweet Memories Chapter 1, Ranma and Ranko.
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Sitting at the edge of Tokyo, a quaint little hospital sits quietly. Tokyo being the biggest city in Japan, some buildings are quite hard to miss, while some are not. The hospital, while not big as some, still serves the purpose of caring for paying citizens. Many trees sit on either edge of the hospital, the leaves ruffling in the breeze, while passing citizens wearing business suits and such walk by without so much as a second glance.
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A doctor dressed in a white lab coat raises his hand to a frantic parent dressed in a white gi, wide round glasses and a white bandana.
"I'm sorry sir. You cannot see your wife while the birth is taking place." The man adjusts his glasses with his middle finger and shakes his head.
"You must let me!" The man in the white gi raises a fist to the doctor.
"Sir." He adjusts the papers while still glancing at the man. "You wife is in capable hands. Nodoka will be find Mr. Saotome." In the room behind him, a few faint words escape the confines of the sound proof room.
"Push harder Miss!!"
"AGHHHH!!!"
"Keep it up! I can see the head!"
"UGHHHHHHH!!!" The cries of pain increase, causing Genma to jump back. Him being a martial artist prepares him for cries of pain, but this is his wife.
"The first is out! Get him cleaned up!" Through the window, a newborn baby with its umbilical cord hanging loosely to the side is handed off to a nurse for cleaning.
"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Nodoka's screams increase, the pain being almost too unbearable.
"I see the head! Almost there!" The doctor helping Nodoka with the child birth genially pulls on the head, hoping to give it slight leverage.
"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" Nodoka gives one last push.
"Good job Nodoka!" The doctor hands the second baby off to another nurse for cleaning, its umbilical cord laying across the belly and down the shoulder. Nodoka's hair is very ruffled from her experience she just had.
Looking up, Nodoka sees Genma enter the room with a crash, just as her two children were handed to her, one wrapped in a blue towel, while the other wrapped in pink.
"Congratulations Miss." He hands Nodoka her two babies; Nodoka is positively beaming, while Genma is contemplating something within the depths of his mind, which no one will ever understand.
'Finally! The schools will be joined! Tendo will so glad! Hmm...when should I start training him?' He shifts his glasses up his nose with his middle finger. A different man walks in and Genma walks over to him.
Nodoka head shifts up to see a man with long black hair, a moustache and a green robe walks in besides Genma, who both are laughing happily.
"Oh Saotome! Now the schools will be joined!" The mustached man places a hand on Genma's right shoulder, while Genma places his hand on the mans left.
"Finally Soun! Our dream will be realized!" Tears are flowing freely from both of the mans eyes.
"What's this about schools being joined!?" Both Genma and Soun stop there crying and physically jump and turned to see a glowing red Nodoka.
"Umm..." Genma starts twiddling his thumbs while Nodoka sighs heavily.
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A six year-old black hair pigtailed boy chases around a six year-old red hair pony tailed girl around there backyard. The boy is wearing a white training gi, while the girl is wearing a white T-shirt and white shorts.
"Nehhh!" The red haired girl pulls down her eyelid and sticks her tounge out.
"Your gonna get it now Ranko!" The black haired boy starts running after his sister even faster.
"Just try Ranma!" Ranko runs behind one of the trees in there backyard, while Ranma is trying to sneak up on her. The breeze of the wind gently sways the tree, a few leaves escape from the low hanging branches, while screaming in the background startles both the children.
"A TEN YEAR TRAINING TRIP!?" The voice is definitely feminine, while many of the passerby's suddenly jump at the outburst.
"What was that!?" One of the passerby's points to the Saotome house.
"Just the Saotome's." Many of the other passerby's sigh and then go about there business.
"C...C...Calm down Nodoka!" Inside the house, Genma is trying to escape from Nodoka, who had visibly drawn her families katana and proceeds to chase Genma around the house, cutting apart several pieces of furniture and such; oak tables are deftly cut in half, while many wooden chairs have several legs chopped off.
"YOUR NOT TAKING EITHER OF THEM WITH YOU!!!" Genma narrowly avoids a lunge from Nodoka, who is taking the fight outside. Both siblings jump back when they see the glint off the katana blade flying through the air and the red of her hair and kimono.
"D..Don't worry! I'm not taking a weak girl on a training trip! She would just slow us down." This only got Nodoka pissed off even more. Ranko is on her knees now, while Ranma looks down at her confused.
"What's wrong sis?" Ranma crouches down to Ranko's height and tries to comfort her.
"What's daddy saying about a trip?" Ranko is about ready to burst into tears. Ranma sighs and lifts up Ranko's head, azure blue eyes of Ranma meeting the brown of Ranko.
"Pops says somethin' bout a training trip for me an' him." This does cause Ranko to burst into tears.
"B..But (sob) wh..what abo..(sob)..about.." Ranko goes into uncontrolled sobbing while Ranma tries to comfort his sister.
"Don't worry none.." Ranma hugs Ranko to himself, hoping to get her to calm down.
"I do..(sob)..on't wan..t y..(sob)..you to.." Ranko then faints in her brothers hug, while Nodoka finally stops chasing Genma. She calmly walks over, her formal kimono gently swaying behind her, while Genma is just picking himself up off of the ground. Nodoka takes the fainted girl from her son, all the while rubbing her back and whispering into her ear.
"Shh...It'll be ok. Don't worry Ranko..." She takes her family's katana and throws it at Genma, who jumps back before hitting him, stabbing into the ground.
"You better..." Her voice raising with ki emanating in her voice. "...TAKE CARE OF MY RANMA!" Both Genma and Ranma jump back from Nodoka, Genma looking scared out of his wits,
while Ranma is confused.
"Ye...yes ma'am." Genma stops shaking and Ranma walks back outside with his father. Who start training.
"What's with Mom, Pops?" Ranma says as he dodges a round house kick directed to his stomach, who counters with a sweep. Genma jumped over his son's sweep and delivered a kick to his forehead an sent him back into the tree, leaves gently falling down around the boy.
"Your mother is upset about our trip!" Genma sighed and crossed his arms, fixing his glasses with his middle finger. "But were going regardless! This will make you a Man Among Men!" Ranma lazily got up and charged at his father again, kicking up downed leaves.
Meanwhile, Nodoka looked down on the sconce of her two favorite men training. She had a slight smile, but words speak louder then expressions.
"I'm sorry Ranko..." She looked back at the sleeping form of her daughter, the rising and falling of her baby blue sheets, her hair was now untied and loosely feel around her pillow and shoulders. Nodoka shed a quick tear, but quickly wiped it away with her sleeve.
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Ranko's tears freely flowed down her face, her mother not trying to stop them. Nodoka already knew this would be hard on her daughter. Ranko clung to her mothers right leg in uncontrollable sobs, waving and yelling to the departing form of her brother.
"BYE RANMA!" She quickly waved back and forth with all her might, the tears from her face now forming a small pool of tears.
"BYE RANKO!" Ranma was waving back and crying also as Genma dragged his crying son away.
"STOP CRYING BOY!" Genma slugged Ranma in the back of his head, a lump quickly forming on the back of his head, a lump quickly forming as Genma picked up the unconscious boy and ran off with him, not listening to his weak daughters cries (Genma of course, still cares for his daughter, but he still thinks of ALL women as weak.).
"(sniffle) PAPA...WHY DID YOU DO THAT!?" Ranko was picked up into her mothers arms as she cried more and finally fainted into her mothers arms.
'Genma if you do anything to my son they hurts my daughter, you will pay for the rest of your life' Nodoka silently made that vow that she would uphold for the rest of her life.
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A nine year-old Ranko silently walked down the street towards her home, escorted by her mother. It was this same Sunday 3 years ago that Genma left with Ranma to make him the greatest martial artist ever. Ranko was dressed in a formal kimono that was exactly the same as her mothers. Her mother wanted her to become a 'proper' young lady, she never argued with her mother, ever; she didn't want her mother to become angry with her. She was just as sad about Ranma's leaving as she was herself.
Both of their kimono's were made in a stunning color of red silk, pink sakura flowers following a pattern form the front to the back (even Nodoka wears different kimono's) and black obi around the waist and traditional getta. Her natural red hair was done in a ponytail, tied back with a silver band.
Ranko was partially glad because she made friend with a one Akane and Nabiki Tendo, who she had herd were engaged to her brother to be married, but they hadn't found out yet-her mother specifically said not to tell of them-there old house in Tokyo was demolished (1) so they decided to move to Nerima, the pinnacle of weirdness. Akane always seemed to be getting into fights, standing up for herself and Ranko, which Ranko hates ALOT, but Akane did it anyways, since her mother didn't think it proper for young ladies to practice martial arts.
She always felt for Akane though. 'She gets bruised and hurt because of me.' Ranko looked at the ground, but continued walking by her mother. 'She always says 'Don't worry! It'll be fine!' then she usually made it worse by adding in a 'It's not your fault your mother thinks your weak' something along those lines. That always made her mad beyond words, but she didn't want to take her anger out on one of her only friends. Most people made fun of her traditional ways- mostly boys - who had no idea why she always followed these ways; even many girls murmured things behind her back.
'Oh look! Its the little princess!'
That was one of the most recent comments. She always kept to herself though, she didn't want to think people hated her and get transferred to an all-girls school, she personally like the public schools, a lot even.
"Ranko." Ranko broke her train of thought and smiled up to her mother.
"Were home." Ranko looked forwards and saw her home, or the place she called home for now. It was a modest one story house, many planter boxes adorning the front near the windows: pinks, yellows, whites and many other bright colors of flowers. The front yard held a small wooden gate with a sign saying 'Saotome' nearby on one of the fences, stretching out about 20-30 feet on each side, going back for about 20 feet, then coming together directly were the gate in the front was.
She casually twiddled with her thumbs and waited for her mother to unlock the gate, still deep in thought.
'I wonder if mommy will teach me Kendo...' Her train of thought was broken by her mother calling out to her. She walked gracefully through the gate, the clank of her wooden getta sounding on the stone walkway. She walked away from her mother and waved to her, her mother casually waving back to her. She ran to the back of the house while her mother smiled at her.
'My little girl is growing up. I hope she brings me many grandchildren!' She beamed with pride as she watched Ranko run out to the back of there house, one of her all time favorite spots.
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A nine year-old Ranma, dressed in a dirty white gi and a black pigtail, looked as his father strangely.
"Nekoken?" Ranma cocked an eyebrow and his father just nodded and pushed his glasses up with his middle finger. The place they were in had no furniture, windows and only one set of doors leading out. Behind Ranma was a trap door, filled with many angry starving cats.
"Yes." His father reached behind himself and pulled a string of fish sausages from nowhere and tied them around Ranma, who looked at his father questionably, Genma stepped on a place in the floor and the bottom opened up. He picked up Ranma by the scruff of his gi and threw Ranma in the pit.
"AHHHHHHH!!!" Ranma promptly landed and looked around, but to no avail; it was way too dark. Ranma's senses jumped when he heard a low growling noise and several cats appeared around him. Ranma suddenly realized what he was tied in.
"Nice kitties..." Ranma tried to jump out, only to be kicked back down by his father.
"Master this technique and we can return home faster!" This mentally got Ranma pumped up.
'If I master this technique, I can return home and see Ranko again!' Ranma stood still as he could to confine his fear and screams. 'Don't worry Ranko. I'll be back!'
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Ranko waited a few minutes before digging up her 'treasure'. She dusted off her hands before running her fingers on the kanji inscribed box, which spelled 'Treasure'. She looked around and silently walked to a side of the house, her box wrapped under her arms. She sat down and silently lifted the boxes cover, placing it down besides her, showing a partially worn scrolls that had 'Umi-Sen Ken' written on the outside. She silently unrolled the scroll, placing it down on the ground before her.
"The Umi-Sen Ken, or 'Thousand Sea' scroll...based upon making ones ki vanish..." She silently mumbled the rest of the scroll to herself, while above her, Nodoka was looking at her, concern clearly glazing her eyes.
"I knew you would end up like this. Akane always told me about some of the bullies picking on you..." Tears starting welling in her eyes as she watched her daughter grow up. "Tendo-san also told me about a conversation you had before."
FLASHBACK (Ranko's view)
Ranko, her hair tied in a ponytail, dressing in white T-shirt and shorts sat down near Soun Tendo, who was dressed in his usual green robe.
"Mr. Tendo..?" Soun turned his head to his old friends daughter, giving her his full attention. "What's ki?" Soun, who was drinking coffee, nearly choked as he looked at Ranko. He silently apologized as he cleaned up coffee that managed to escape his mouth.
"Why do you ask?" He said, now intrigued.
"Well, I found an old scroll of my fathers and it said something about 'making one's ki vanish'." Soun was now very confused, could Saotome actually made a good technique? He coughed into his hand before answering.
"Well, ki is one's body energy. It is within every living thing; you, me, your mother, Kasumi (maybe it had something to do with that peace aura of hers?) and so on. Some people may have a lot more ki then others, while some people it may be so faint, it is almost impossible to notice without several hard years of martial arts." He looked at Ranko, who was nodding with his description. She silently got up before bowing to Soun, who just nodded.
"Thank you Tendo-san." She vigorously ran, which looked almost as graceful as if she was walking, while Soun was deep in thought.
'What could it that Genma's daughter needed to know something like that? What have you created old friend?'
END FLASHBACK
Nodoka decided it was now or never, she had to interfere eventually. Nodoka knew that Ranko felt bad for Akane always sticking up for her. Nodoka carried herself with grace as she glided out of Ranko's room, down the hallway and to the door step, putting on her shoes. Nodoka silently walked out the door and turned the corner to see Ranko still looking at the scroll. She silently knocked on the wall, which made Ranko jump and quickly try to hide the scroll, but only succeeded in falling on her face, while her mother sweat-dropped.
"Ranko dear, I already know about how your trying to master the Umi-Sen Ken." Ranko scratched the back of her head and sweat-dropped before looking at the ground. Ranko looked up, only to see Nodoka sitting beside her, a look of...happiness in her eyes?
"Mom..." Nodoka put a finger on her daughters lips before shaking her head.
"No. I understand completely." Ranko gasped. "From what Akane had told me, I wouldn't blame you. And I won't stop you be..." Nodoka was cut off short as her daughter glomped on her, tears steadily flowing from her eyes.
"Thank you mommy!" She said while crying tears of happiness onto her mother's shoulders. Nodoka managed to pry herself from the Daughter Glomp before looking at her.
"But..." She held up a warning finger in her right hand, a dramatic, but slow wind blew past, blowing her mothers kimono in a dramatic way. "I will only allow you to continue training with the Thousand Sea if you allow me to teach you Kendo to prevent hurting your hands. Kendo will also allow you to keep your distance." Her daughter was nodding quickly while wiping tears from her face with her kimono's left sleeve. (1)
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Ranko, now sixteen, was wearing a pink kimono with designs of red flowers on it, ran with sweat pouring down her face. Currently, she was boggled down with shopping she just finished. Her mother asked her to go out for to do some shopping for the Tendo's, who they were having dinner at there house. It didn't help that there were various street punks chasing after her relentlessly. Worse of all, even though her mother didn't, she forgot to put on a bra before she left the house.
A calming wind seemed to blow through the streets of Nerima, her kimono blew behind her silently as her getta made a clanking sound with each of her steps. She looked around for any help, but it seemed most people had become accustomed to seeing weirdness in Nerima before, so seeing a girl being chased by guys wasn't that strange, but this was irritating. She looked back behind her, only to see the thugs catching up to her every moment.
'Kami, please help me.' She said that silently prayer to herself, only to trip the next moment, her face hitting the concert street, bruising herself. She picked herself up quickly and backing into an alley, only to find herself surrounded. All the street punks were dressed similar in white muscle T-shirts, leather jackets, cut-off blue jeans, boots and mussed up hair. One of the punks, probably the leader stepped forwards and lifted her face up with his hands.
"Heh. What's a pretty girl like you doing her?" She was on the verge of tears as the thugs breath smelled like the inside of a barrel of fish heads.
"No..nothing be..before you chase me..." The man slapped her hard across the face, the sound echoing throughout the alley and the silent streets of Nerima.
"Shut up bitch!" He glared at Ranko, who was now crying, not able to hold in the tears. He slapped her hard agian across the face. "I said shut the fuck up damnit!" She wiped her tears, only to find her vision blurred with the given redness of her eyes.
"LEAVE THE LADY ALONE!" All heads turned to see down the alley, only to be confronted by a shockwave and two of there members flying through the air, yelling at the pain, only to be silenced as they flew into the wall, leaving a huge dent.
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?" The leader yelled at the man, who was cloaked in shadows. He stepped forwards for all eyes to see. He had long blue hair, which came down past his shoulders about 3 inches, tied in the back. His hair was spiked some at the front, running spikes down the length of his hair backwards. On his forehead was a yellow bandana, keeping his hair out of his eyes. His blue monobrow and brown eyes accented his face. His blue jacket and red shirt only accented his well defined, firm muscles. His tan skin also only increased his attractiveness. His pants were khaki colored, where many pockets ran down the lengths to be tied at the bottom, where a pair of white tennis shoes were.
'Oh my.' Ranko blushed at his well defined muscle tone and dark skin, which made him very attractive in his eyes. The tan man stepped forwards and smiled, showing a pair of fangs, which also made him seem more attractive.
"Oh. I ain't no one special. Just leave ta lady alone and I won't hafta pummel ya." He smiled as the thugs rushed at him, brandishing various knifes, clubs, metal pipes and such. "4 against 1? Gotta say. Sound like fun!" He ran forwards with a close line, sending the first thug flying towards the wall, which he hit, and slumped down unconscious as the knife dropped from his hands.
The second made a fierce downward swing, only for it to be blocked by the man's arm, which broke it abruptly, half of it landing with a clank. The second thug was soon on the ground unconscious from a punch to the face, his nose now bleeding profusely.
The remaining thugs stared wide-eyed at there two comrades, now unconscious. The leader stepped back, waving his arms back and forth.
"Hey now...lets not have anymore trouble. RETREAT!" The remaining thugs turned tail and ran, leaving a trail of dust as many newspapers silently ruffled at the speed of the fleeing thugs.
"Heh. Retards." The blue-haired man looked at Ranko and smiled, who only returned the smile while getting to her feet.
"Who are you?" She held her head low, trying not to look at the man's muscles.
"Ahh. I ain't no one special." He turned to her as he put his hands behind his head and smiled again. Ranko lifted her head and blushed.
"Will you help me back to my house? Those thugs might come back." The man shrugged and only nodded, walking out of the alley. The streets of Nerima were now quiet, people busily trying to get where they were supposed to be. A gently breeze now blew through Nerima. It seemed only to increase the peacefulness of Nerima.
"So why are you here?" She glanced up to the man who only shrugged. She blinked twice as the man fell to the ground clutching his stomach, while rolling over, receiving many strange glances from passerby's before continuing on.
"Uhh...are you hungry?" The tan man nodded vigorously, while Ranko sweat-dropped. "Well you can come to my house. I'm sure Kasumi wouldn't mind cooking fo..." She was startled as she was swept off her feet and being carried to the Tendo Dojo.
"Uhh...who are you anyways?" She said while looking up at the strange man. He looked down and smiled before continuing on.
"I'm Shizuma Kusanagi! Nice ta metcha! Now lets go get some grub!!!" Ranko sweat-dropped as Shizuma rushed towards the Tendo dojo.
Next time, Ranma comes to the Tendo Dojo!
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(1). Oh come on now! Did you think Nodoka would let her daughter brawl with people!? She is after all a martial artist's wife, so she knows some danger involved. And also, did you think I would let Ranko be defenseless!?
Well that's Chapter 1. I hope everyone enjoyed it. This is mostly an experiment, thought. I thought if Ranma had more responsibility, it would make a fan fic lot more interesting. This fic might continue if people are actually interested in it. And if anyone is wondering, this is three weeks before Ranma arrived in Nerima.
Well I'll see yall till the next chapter!