A.N. I'm not exactly sure whether this will be a one shot, two shot, or series. The idea plagued me though, and so I wrote it down to share, for opinions and whatnot.
Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma 1/2
Shatter: Preface:
Fragile cracks spread across the psyche, triggered by an incident so traumatic that just one more happening as shocking and harmful as that could forever change everything. Two people, both broken and warped, can make each other whole. This is a strange courtship between the most unlikely of people. This is the start of a "beginning". This is the love story of Kuno Tatewaki and Saotome Ranma.
Prologue: Introspective
Betrayal at its worse form had come upon Saotome Ranma. It was bad enough that his family had forced him into this farce of a wedding. Bad enough that his so called best friend had become part of destroying his hope for a cure along with the hopes for a normal life. But to find out Akane had known the cure was there, while it was safe, only to remain silent on the matter.. just to have something to hold against him as leverage?
'Well, that went real well for her, didn't it,' he thought bitterly. After Saffron, Jyuusenko was utterly destroyed, wipe free of magic. There would be no Nannichaun for his cure anymore. And after the cure was destroyed, and partially by her own fault, Akane rejected ever marrying him. Not that the insistence kept the panda and old man Tendo from trying.
Akane's verbal denial wasn't as powerfully striking as the utter disgust that crossed her face when Ranma had wanted to hold her hand in girl form. The rejection of Ranma's dual nature had frozen something in him, as had his mothers threats and fathers supposed shame.
It was just as well the last hope at a cure was gone; He had begun to feel comfortable in both forms, and the lack of ability to change would be difficult on him. He could hold his pride and manliness as a male, but retain the soft emotional side his upbringing had nearly crushed as a female. But his mother, fiancees, father, none of them would ever be accepting of that.
He felt surrounded by deceit, no matter where he turned. His family was the worst. Why he considered the Tendos family, was perplexing to him, truly, for he had experienced nothing but neglect and abuse at their hands. Even from the angelic Kasumi, whose faked obliviousness hid her true face. Kasumi was a woman too full of sorrow and bitter loathing to step in and fix the problem, even when she could have. All the smiles and caring facade meant nothing; she saw him hurt time and time again, and did nothing.
It was irony that the only one who was completely (if not brutally) honest with him was Kuno. He may have been a delusional fool, but he was incapable of being dishonest. In hindsight he would remember this as a starting point.
Part 1: Broken Mirror Breaks
The rain reflected her sorrowful mood, Ranma felt, as she trailed in front of Akane, no desire to be under the umbrella (and probably be hit for being a "pervert") with her ex-fiancee. With it raining, she found it acceptable to mope, her cure having triggered. Her female form was so much comfortable to contemplate emotional hurt. As they approached the school, the rain began to drizzle then finally cease.
Further on, Gosunkugi Hikaru had plotted a way to overtake Ranma, with cooperation from Hibiki Ryoga. In Ryoga's travels, he had come upon a scroll with a curse that was the perfect way to defeat Saotome. The spell within, would lock Ranma in his worst memories, and while Ranma was suitably distracted, Ryoga would go in for the killing blow.
Hikaru cast the spell, and cackled when it took effect, and Ryoga rushed out to crush Ranma... in the wrong direction, forever the lost boy. Hikaru sweatdropped nervously and fled the scene.
It had to have been fate that caused this to take place in the courtyard of the school, where as normal the Blue Thunder of Furikan High waited for his loves. He was pleased to see the faire Akane was not accompanied by the foul sorcerer Saotome, but by the beautiful pig-tailed Goddess.
That pleasure disappeared rapidly as the pig-tailed Goddess collapsed into a crouching position, screaming in utter terror while blocking an invisible foe from attacking her head and face with her arms. 'Is this a curse caused by the foul sorcerer?!' Kuno Tatewaki thought in rapid paced thinking. 'No, for all his flaws, Saotome was protective over the pig-tailed Goddess and would not desire to inflict harm on her.'
Then, as he grew closer to the pair, familiarity with the issue caused a realization. He approached the pair slowly, making no threatening movements. The faire Akane was distastefully, and yes, cruelly, yelling at the pig-tailed Goddess for faking and embarrassing her. Her hand clenched and unclenched as the ki mallet Akane weilded so well began to form.
For once, Akane was no longer faire in Tatewaki's mind, the hatefulness in her gaze clear as the mallet solidfied and she raised her arms above her head quickly for a strike. Tatewaki quickly intercepted the blow, shocking Akane, nay, Tendo. For it was a consistent truth that he had never truly shown his skills to her; as she was a woman, he often held back. His skill may have been questionable compared to Saotome, but it would always be more refined than the thug like movements of Tendo Akane.
"Art thou a mad woman?" he queried with a fierce scowl. "Can thou nay see the pig-tailed Goddess' suffering?!" Akane only snarled and turned the mallet onto him, which he dispersed, not with his bokken, for he had not drawn it, but with his hands. The shock froze her for all of a minute, before she snarled out an answer. "The baka is just faking! He always does!"
Forcefully he pushed the stunned Tendo away from the no longer screaming but whimpering red haired girl. "Thou shall abstain from interfering, Tendo-san, or thy shall punish thee as thou deserve for this affront!" he snapped, his samurai killing intent pinning her.
The fear in her eyes faded to a fiery rage, and she stormed off into the school. Nabiki watched calculatingly as Kuno attacked her sister, her eyes narrowed. She would find out what was going on, and make him pay for it, in plenty of Yen, of course.
Tatewaki crouched down beside the girl, the ragged breathing and cries for help piercing his heart. "Tou-chan! Lemme out! Tou-chan, why?! The c-cats are hurting me! Mama! Save me! Mama! Where are you?!" Tatewaki's mouth firmed into a thin line. Yes, it was what he had feared. It was a psychotic break, triggered by flashbacks. Kodachi had the same issue, ever since she had witnessed their mother's suicide.
He could only hope that the same care he used to rouse his sister from this would bring his pig-tailed Goddess back. At the moment, she seemed oblivious to anything but her memories. This too, was very like Kodachi. Slowly, careful not to spook her, he drew a sedative, and pricking her shivering forearm with the syringe, watched as she relaxed, her eyes drifting to half mast.
He quickly put away the empty syringe and swept her up into his arms as she fell asleep. Giving her a loving look, he was relieved to see that she had calmed. She was so light.. as if underfed. Tatewaki pushed away the urge to blush as she curled into his chest, and grasped the material of his hakama. This was not the time to moon over her, and lose his senses as he usually did.
Glancing back to the school, he mentally shrugged. With it being his graduating year, missing a day would put him back, but the school was not a place his pig-tailed Goddess could wake to, and while his home was less than ideal, it was better than here. Tatewaki might have tried to take her home, to have her wake in a familiar setting, but, as he realized with a pang, he didn't actually know all that much about her. He felt incredibly guilty at the shallowness of his affections and pledged to do better.
The young Samurai was relieved that she stayed peacefully asleep the entire walk home, and that none of what the everyday citizen had dubbed the "Nerima Wrecking Crew" had found them and interrupted. It was, he realized, a small miracle.
Sasuke opened the door to the Kuno Estate as soon as he had sensed the young masters surprising return. He had also sensed Saotome Ranma, and if he was surprised that Saotome Ranma was in his female form, and that his master was not happy about it, despite her being in his arms... well he didn't let his surprise show on his face.
Tatewaki brought Ranma into the meditation room. The whole place was carefully set up to allow for the most relaxing and calming setting in the household. The entire household knew that no matter what drama went on outside this room in the estate, it never ever went on here. It had been designed soon after their mother's death to allow a place to mentally recover for the remaining family, and maintained by the kunoichi of the ninja squad caring for the Estate.
The corner of the softly lit room was covered by a matting of pillows, and as he attempted to place the pig-tailed Goddess on the cushions, he was unable to disentangle her hands from his hakama and refused to let go, only to whimper when he tried. Kodachi sometimes did this too, and Tatewaki resolved to treat this as if this was his mad, but dear sister, and not the woman he loved. He lay down, and tucked Ranma against his chest. The room was so relaxing... he tried to resist dozing off, but fell asleep regardless.
Part 2: Truth Reflects
He woke to weeping. The pig-tailed Goddess was crying into his chest, and slowly, carefully, Tatewaki raised his hand to stroke her hair. "Shh, thou art well," he soothed her. "Thy have rescued thee from thou pains." Big, shining, and reddened with tears eyes turned up at him.
"Nii-chan saved me from the pit..." she murmured with a broken but awe filled voice. "No one ever tried to save me before," she claimed shyly. Tatewaki furrowed his brow, but quickly smoothed his expression to not scare her. This particular issue was perplexing, but he had a single experience with it. It had only happened to Kodachi once; she had regressed to the memory of the event, mental age adjusting.
Some subtle inquiries caused the grateful girl-child to spill everything. She was five years old, and hadn't seen her mother in almost two years. Her father had been teaching her martial arts, but she wasn't getting better fast enough so she was thrown into a pit of starving cats for a special "Neko-ken" training. Meal time brought a new revelation; she was frequently starved in the name of training.
Overall, Tatewaki was appalled. She was not a Goddess, he realized, but a starved for affection and heavily abused child. She had learned affection came with pain, and Tatewaki realized with horror that the behaviors of the people around her as an adult coincided with that belief. But despite the abuse, she had not turned into an abuser; she had a beautiful soul, he discovered. Her joy in his care, and casual affection with no strings attached was overwhelming in its purity.
He found out early on that he had to leave his old fashion speech behind; his current ward at the mental age of 5 and next to no education had an incredibly hard time comprehending his flowery words. She had not really left toddler-speech behind, if only from lack of positive interaction. It made him uncomfortable, but this was a necessary evil.
The rest of the day progressed thus; the girl-child stuck close to his side as he went through his "weekend" routine, in hopes that normality would slowly pull her memories out of her damaged psyche. During Kendo practice, they sparred. While she had lost her overwhelmed knowledge of the martial arts she had previously knew, she still knew the basics, and retained her speed, energy, and reflexes.
Her first blow bent him over in the middle and she froze in shock before begging fearfully for forgiveness. He learned something new here; she didn't like to hurt people, but unless she was the best martial artist in the world, her Tou-san wouldn't let her see her Mama again.
She had finally, by the evening, totally opened up and began trusting him unconditionally when it nearly all came undone. It was hard enough swearing an oath not to treat her as his love while she was in the mind of a child, but bath time came and she pouted at his refusal to join her, causing him to break at her pleading.
He looked away as she showered off, sitting in the bathtub nervously, his bokken to the side. Kodachi had sometimes attacked him in the bathroom, as had his father, and it was normal to be prepared to deal with an attack. The pig-tailed Goddess looked at the mirror for a long moment.
"Nii-chan, I look funny," she said finally. "I look like Mama." Kuno finally glanced up at her, staring at the mirror. "That is because you have grown up," he said finally. "It is normal. Now hurry to the bath before you get a chill." She skipped over, and he closed his eyes at her bouncing, feeling awkward. He pictured the amazon matriarch in the nude, and his natural reaction to her movement died down.
Standing, he took her hand to help her down the stairs as she got into the bath, not wanting her to slip on the marble stairs. This was where it began to fall apart. When her hand and whole body shifted into the foul sorcerer, he took a leap back in shock and anger.
"Foul sorcerer! What did you do with the girl?!" he cried out angrily, and not only that, in fear for the girl. In her mental state she would be a easy target for her enemies. Saotome only looked at him in silence, and he grew angrier, a fierce scowl crossing his face.
"Thy shall kill thee for this affront," he snarled, grabbing his bokken and striking. Saotome paled, and dodged, but just barely. The next few moments seemed to go in irreversible slow motion. A cut opened across his cheek where the swords ki slash had been just barely dodged from the intent of taking off Saotome's head.
Tatewaki glared at his nemesis as he raised a hand to touch his cheek, shivering in fear and betrayal, looking at the blood on his hand. The next sound stopped Tatewaki from striking yet again, and filled him with horror.
"Nii-chan..?" Ranma sobbed out, in the same young voice the pig-tailed girl used, masculine, but.. Unlike the slow motion of the previous mistake, inside Tatewaki's head memories flooded him, one after another in quick racing sequence. His mind finally began to play connect the dots.
Images of Ranma claiming to be the pig-tailed girl, the reverse. The fact they always wore the same clothes, and were never seen around each other. The way all of pig-tailed girl's relationships were exactly like the Ranma's; they all treated them as if they were one and the same.
Then the memories from today, the admissions and psychotic break. Tatewaki dropped his sword and looked from his hand to the injury on Ranma's face in ever increasing horror. When he came back to himself, minutes later, be became aware that Ranma was about to bolt.
"Ranma," he started, his ex-nemesis name odd on his tongue. "I am sorry for scaring you. I had a shock, and I did not mean to harm you." He approached the trembling young man carefully and embraced him, his mind racing. He had to act quickly to keep Ranma from hurting himself for Tatewaki's mistake, but his actions and mind conflicted.
'Ranma is the pig-tailed girl. There is no foul sorcerer. There is probably magic involved, but it probably his father's fault, not Ranma's, from what the cycle of abuse had told him,' Tatewaki worked out. He may have been a bit mad himself, but he had a studied psychology to keep his sister from completely locking herself in his mind. Kodachi may pretend to hate him, but he had been more of a parental figure to her than their own father ever had. All the reactions and actions from Ranma slowly built up in his head, along with the actions of the people around him; Tendo Akane was a good example, even one who professed to care for him violently abused him.
His mouth thinned once again. 'And thy was nay better. The pigtailed girl is Ranma, and I loved the pigtailed girl and hurt Ranma. Ranma is the pigtailed girl, and I love the pig-tailed girl. Can I still love her, nay, him?' he thought of the broken shards he say in Ranma's eyes so much like his own and came to a conclusion, tightening his arms around the weeping Ranma.
'Yes, I can.'