Cost of a Promise
Disclaimer: All materials copyrighted to Viz., and to the Rumiko-Sama
:Authors note: "I KNOW PEOPLE you've all had YOUR SHARE of fan fiction where Ranma is renamed Ranko and locked in female form, forced to stay in female form , or chooses to stay in female form her whole life, for a good deal of the time, or for a extended time period."
Well… im afraid that this is another fic in that genre
If that's a turn off for you DO NOT READ FURTHER.
:side note: "my knowledge of Nodoka comes almost entirely from Fan fiction and the episode "like water for Ranma"
Prologue the accident.
It was truly a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky… the sun was shining, the grass was green. The butterflies, and the birds were soaring
Ranma sighed.
Akane, a lot of the kids at school, even some of his best friends might have thought he was dense, but he was quite capable of appreciating this kind of natural beauty.
He was gazing out back from just inside the Tendo Dojo's dining room.
And just watched taking it in for a few minutes, of somewhat needed introspection.
He sighed and got up.
"If only my life could be like this"
He went through his daily ritual, and practiced for a half hour attacking the very air jumping making sure he knew each combination of moves perfectly.
Ranma as dense as he may have seemed was well aware that many students at school thought he was single minded, even obsessed… and he occasionally supposed they might be right… he could not say he would have minded having had a CHOICE on whether or not to go on the training trip.
But, be that as it may… their was almost nothing, he would give this up for.
And nothing that crossed his mind at the moment.
He heard the door opening behind him.
Entering none other then Genma-Panda
"Hey what is –"he started as a bucket was thrown at him.
"All right." Ranma-chan said irritatibly cracking a fist "what's the big idea old man… it had better be good."
Genma got out a sign saying "she's inside the house"
Ranma-chan paused. "She, who Shampoo?"
: sign replied: "someone more dangerous"
Ranma-chan frowned.
"More dangerous… Kodachi?"
: Genma shook his head and got out another sign
"Someone even more dangerous yet"
Ranma frowned this was starting to sound scary.
"More Dangerous then Kodachi… sounds like we have a major problem… oh are you talking about Akane" she laughed then gulped "she's not in the kitchen is she…"
"Something more dangerous yet", the latest sign replied.
Ranma replied with a scowl and a frustrated sneer "WHAT THE HECK COULD BE MORE DANGEROUS THEN-"
"Ranko haven't I told you you shouldn't yell inside someone's house?" a gentle, but reproving voice came from behind her.
Ranma turned around at being called Ranko and saw … her mother.
She looked at her in fear for just a second… always afraid that this time she would be found out but then remembered to keep up her charade… and besides she enjoyed just for a moment coming as close as she could to being her mother's son.
"Aunty Saotome" she burst out running into her mothers arms.
Nodoka was a little surprised by Ranko's sudden affectionate attitude but welcomed it, returning the hug.
"Ranko how are you doing?"
Ranma paused and then replied "Im doing fairly well aunty" she said smiling.
Nodoka asked
"Is Ranma here right now?" she said anxiously.
Ranma replied sadly and a tad nervously
"He just left" Thankfully , Nodoka missed the sulk, or had no idea what it meant.
"Again, that's a pity Ranko" she said a little sadly, then grinned broadly
"Tell me how your lifes going Ranko how are things going with Akane?"
Ranma paused "Well I'd be lieing if I said they were amicable. But theirs been little violence for quite a while."
Nodoka nodded "I hope so Ranko, you remember what I've told you before about violence."
Ranma nodded too. She DID remember and had NO desire to have to hear that lecture again.
"Hai Auntie, And Im trying to be less violent but its hard to break from old habits you know"
Nodoka nodded "I understand dear…"
Nodoka wasn't sure how to put this… for some reason Ranko always seemed reluctant to go shopping for feminine clothes, in fact she wasn't sure how often , if ever ranko bought what nodoka had bought on ranko's behalf.
She knew the girl wasn't selling it on eBay or something else like that, for the simple fact she had found the dresses still in the girls room… sometimes with the tags still on.
Nodoka chided herself mentally "Be patient, you have to keep up a steady, but gentle pressure on her… too little and she'll never change… too much, and she'll likely grow very nervous or even disobey just for the sake of showing she controls her own life"
Ranko I know we do this almost everytime I come over but , if you haven't grown bored with it yet… would you like to go dress shopping?"
Ranma made a face at that then saw the look in her mothers eyes and realized it would give her a chance to get to know her mother, probably the only one she'd have.
:she nodded: "I'd like that aunty."
"see anything you like dear?" Nodoka asked Ranma while going through the shop.
Ranma made a face at the thought of having to wear any of these outfits… but knew it might be best to select some herself rather then force her mother to do so.
"uh this light blue knee lengh dress, I like it auntie" Ranma sighed at least it wasn't excessively frilly, and it wasn't revealing enough to cause her mother to auto veto it.
All in all they selected 6 dresses that day.
After finishing they decided to head back to the Dojo.
Naturaly, as was often times the case in Nerima, by the time they had finished it had started pouring down rain (yes even though their were no clouds in the sky beforehand)
Their clothes were in relatively Waterproof bags… but they did not have that luxary.
They hurried as much as they could without tripping, and finally reached a traffic crossing.
One for a 4 lane road.
Nodoka being commonsensical and wise, stopped there… Ranma however kept goint.
"RANKO GET BACK OVER HERE!" Nodoka yelled.
Ranma paid her no heed , and made her way across … but then…
A car was zooming from behind… and like most cases when its raining… it was hard for that car to slow down anything resembling quickly. .. not to mention that with the heavy rain he wouldn't see her until he had almost hit her.
Ranma of course was to busy entertaining her views of herself as invincible… and so did not notice not until…
:she heard the veering of the engines behind her and reflexively turned around to see the car… but it was only a split second away too short a distance for even her to do something… but then…
Nodoka… showing an odd feat of agility for a woman in a kimono, jumpers across the road… knocking Ranma out of the way…. And was hit by the car herself.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO: Ranma yelled… feeling as if the car HAD hit her, and almost WISHED it had.
:the car stopped and the driver said.
"MY god are you all right?" He yelled.
Ranma cried "no were both dead… but its not your fault its mine…
"Ranko…" nodoka asked weakly.
"Mother?" Ranma asked, not able to bring herself to call her aunt, now that she was about to die.
"Come on" th guy said gruffly "we need to get out of the road so theirs no more accidents."
Ranma cryingly agreed and gently moved her mothers body to the sidewalk… hoping she'd feel healthy.
Nodoka smiled.
"You call me mother… that makes me happy… Ranko .. please promise me this one thing… it is a large favor… and one I think you will find difficult even impractical."
"Anything." Ranko quietly , but fervently swore.
"Ranko… Ranko… promise me that you will become a proper young lady, and put your tomboyish attitude behind you."
Ranma was stunned, but didn't know why she should be… this was precisely the kind of thing her mother would be thinking of, and ranko didn't know what say.
She now had to make a terrible decision.
She could either throw away the only life she had ever known, or she could refuse her mother's deathbed request.
Either way her life would be utterly destroyed in this moment…, she could not imagine living with either devastating change to her life… but she had to make a choice
"I Promise mother, I'll become a proper young lady, and my family proud" She said crying and holding her…
"But mother please… wont you be there? Please" Ranma said not needing girlishness to cry tears.
Nodoka sighed… "my one regret is I died without seeing Ranma… Tell him I… Love… him…I … free him aarh" Nodoka said as the light faded from her eyes, and she died.
"MOTHER!" Ranma yelled out in pain, and anguish. Crying by the accident sight
Ranma. could not tell the difference from rain and tears as she cried for who knew how long… she had NEVER Cried this much before in her life… not even during or after the nekohanten.
"Young lady?"
She turned around and saw what looked like some ambulance workers.
"We came as soon as we could… "
Ranma cried
"Can you tell us everything about the accident you know?"
"It was… it was all my fault… she told me stay back… but I didn't listen… I went ahead to show how good I was."
: He shook his head "Hind sight is often 20/20."
"Considering how much grief you seem to be in, I see no reason charges should be pressed against you , but I need a name to put on official documents.'
She was about to reply then thought better of it and said "My names Saotome Ranko" she said sadly.