Chapter 2
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Several hours later, Rider and Sakura, hungry and tired, decided to take a break from walking and walked in one of the many cafes in Nerima district.
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"So, who do you want to see first?" asked Sakura after they finished ordering and waitress left.
"I'll deal with my father and those guys first. Don't want them to spoil my meeting with mother." answered Ranma and touched her glasses again, still afraid that they might fall off despite that even her jumps couldn't shift their position one bit.
"Why would they do that? Your father can't be that bad if you grew up such a good person."
"Heh. You don't know my father." Ranma looked around, hoping that their food was already arriving, but was disappointed. She turned back to Sakura and started to explain to the girl what life she lived before she was summoned.
"At the age of four he took me on the training trip. At age of six he tried to teach me Neko-ken by wrapping sausages around my body and repeatedly throwing into a pit that was full of hungry cats. Then… Hey, calm down."
Rider interrupted her monologue when she saw a transparent dark cloud appearing around Sakura and felt her hate towards her father.
"With memories I got recently, Neko-ken is easy to deal with, so it's harmless now. I can even say cat without stammering." Ranma finished telling the news that sounded great for her, but shadow around Sakura's body only deepened and it almost hid her eyes now.
"How could he do this to you?"
"Well, he's an idiot and I didn't know anything better until now. And he's my father after all." answered Rider, thinking how she could calm Sakura, both from feeling slightly uncomfortable that she was protected instead of protector and wanting to shield Sakura away from her troubles, since the girl had more then enough of her own and now deserved as carefree living as Rider could manage. But miraculously, she didn't have to say anything because she felt Sakura's anger suddenly removed by a surge of remorse that sharply contrasted with the girl's smile.
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'That's right… He is her father. And if she accepted even me then I don't have any right to hate him because I'm a much worse person.
The dark cloud around Sakura slowly dissolved and continuing to smile lightly, she asked.
"Do you remember what Ilya said about why you were the one summoned by me?"
Rider looked around searching if food was arriving yet and answered.
"Yeah. She said that if Master doesn't use an item that could belong to the hero they want to summon, then Grail will give him a Servant that would fit him the most."
"Maybe you change because that boy at Jusenkyo and you lived a harsh life and Grail mixed you two up on when you were summoned. Just like me and you."
"Heh, but that was until we met. I won't allow anything bad happen to you now, Sakura."
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Several minutes passed in silence that was broken by a happy yell when Rider saw several waiters carry trays full of food to them.
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While they ate, an interesting thought occurred to Ranma. She put another empty dish on top the pile that was gathering near her and asked, while she fiddled with her almost floor length purple hair that made many women on the streets sigh with envy.
"You know, I was wondering. What exactly happened at Jusenkyo? Am I me and this body is nothing but a curse or am I really in her body? The memories are so real they would be almost scary if they weren't so familiar."
"I don't really know. Toko said that you might as be both Rider and him. Or even Medusa who thinks that she's Ranma until your memories reassert themselves and become dominant or equal to his." answered Sakura, nibbling on her food that she still tried to eat only because she felt her sister's never wavering energetic mood.
Ranma sighed as she took another dish but paused, before she started to eat, to say with a small dejected sigh.
"Yeah, I suppose you might be right. But wouldn't that mean that my memories, hell even my personality is a lie?"
"Of course not, sister! You are you, and I love you that way. You don't have to reject something because it might not fit into some pattern. I know it very well!" heatedly protested Sakura as she heard her Servant's words.
Rider looked at her younger sister with amusement mixed with warmth and something that Sakura could call love.
'It's good to be able to her eyes now. They are so unusual.'
"Heh, if my Pops could hear your words. You know what he always told me? To be a man amongst men."
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They talked until they ran out of food, then continued over an ice-cream and finally in the nearby park where they went to watch the sundown.
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"It's so peaceful here." said Sakura as she watched the sun set the skies on fire as it came down to the horizon.
Rider shifted her position, taking care not to distract the girl, she as usual cradled in her arms, from the view they got when Ranma jumped on top of one of the buildings.
"Yeah, after that crazy week, a quiet evening is a bit weird."
The girl in her arms turned around to look at her sister. She saw her purple hair that fluttered in the wind and her smile and smiled herself.
"Where are going to spend the night?"
"Eh, I think the hotel we standing on is good enough." answered her Servant and began descending to the street, so they could get a room without confusing anyone.
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Once inside a room with two beds, Rider once again steadfastly refused to wear a nightwear that Sakura suggested. Summoning her combat outfit, she watched for almost a minute as Sakura changed before she caught herself and turned around, slightly blushing.
Soon they were asleep and as Rider hoped her dreams weren't about Ancient Greece.
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Ranma slowly, almost lazily, woke up and just laid with closed eyes, bathing in warmth from sunlight and feelings she got from Sakura through their link.
Soon she heard the girl snicker and decided that she rested enough. When she got out of her bed and opened her eyes, she felt deathly cold dread because she discovered that her glasses weren't on.
'Of course they are not on! I replaced them with my blindfold before going to bed. Idiot.' thought Rider relaxing and looked at Sakura who was setting up the table using food she probably bought in one of the nearby restaurants.
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"Good morning, sister. Did you sleep well?" asked the girl as she finished preparing breakfast.
"Yeah, but why didn't woke me up? Those bags look heavy and I would've been glad to help." asked Rider after she put her glasses on and walked to the table.
"I would never interrupt your sleep for such a small thing."
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Meanwhile, in one of the many dojos of Nerima district that wasn't far away from the hotel where Rider and her sister ate their breakfast, a heavyset man dressed into a worn white gi, and holding a bucket of water, sneaked towards the boy that slept in the guest room.
"Wake up, you lazy boy!" shouted the man and grabbed his arm before he threw him out of the window.
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As the boy flew through the early morning air, his eyes snapped open and he saw the pool rapidly approach, he understood what was about to happen to him. His body tried to move to ensure a safe fall, but instead he spent that time to yell in anger and some measure of despair as if trying to defy what was about to happen.
"Ranma, this is all your fau… glrt." Ryoga's words were muffled when he shot through the surface of the pond and sank to the bottom. Almost immediately he felt slight tingling that signaled the change and the start of the part he hated the most.
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'I hate you Ranma!' thought the small girl with long blue hair as she looked around with her crimson colored eyes and once again saw herself on the cliff above Jusenkyo.
'This is hell!' she sighed and started cursing, it was only way to express what she thought about her situation, because in this form her emotions were almost like they were frozen still and she always felt hatefully calm. She straightened her black dress and began descending to the springs. She knew the way perfectly, because every time she changed she appeared in the same dream that only ended when she came to the springs and saw the accident that happened to her at Jusenkyo.
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When she jumped over a boulder, she felt a barely resistible urge to turn into a cat and the girl gritted her teeth as she concentrated her will to remain human. She succeeded, but that distraction cost her dearly, she immediately got lost.
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Unknown to the girl who laid in the pond for several seconds already, the water's surface started to freeze and one of neighborhood girls who still slept in this early hour and saw a dream about an endless plain filled with her favourite flowers, discovered that she had a guest in her dream.
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'I hate you Ranma.' chanted the black-clad girl as she found herself in a flower covered plain.
Dejectedly sighing, she started to walk forward while her mind was busy trying to gather enough ki to break away from this place, something she discovered after spending almost a week in the dream world.
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Soon she had enough and gathering her in her hands, she shot a pale blue orb at the ground under her feet, shattering wherever she was and returning to Jusenkyo.
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The rest of her descent went peacefully and soon she saw a man walking out of the valley of cursed springs, an event that signaled that she was out of the danger of getting lost again.
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"Where that stupid boy went to?" growled Genma as he walked away from the training ground fuming that his plans that he carefully laid out ten years ago were now ruined.
"How dared he knock me out with a cheap trick and disappear!? Only a few more weeks and he would've been married to one of the Tendos, ensuring that I wouldn't need to work for the rest of my life. But now Nodoka will have my head for losing the boy."
Suddenly Genma noticed a boy dressed in traveler's clothes with a huge backpack that walked up the road on the Jusenkyo cliff with a martial artist's ease and a plan how to save his life once again, formed.
'I get this boy to replace Ranma. Undoubtedly he would want to study under me strongly enough to no notice a Jusenkyo curse. And with it even Nodoka won't say that he's not her child.'
Deciding on what he must do, Genma enveloped himself in the Umisenken veil and disappeared.
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Seeing Genma disappear, the crimson eyed girl sighed again and continued to walk to the springs, knowing that the end of this nightmare was close.
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"Ahh!" came the loud cry as the boy she saw earlier fell from the cliff and rose a tall pillar of water as he crashed through the surface of one of the pools, miraculously avoiding impaling himself on a bamboo pole that protruded from the water.
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"Are you all right Mr. Customer? You are lucky that the spring is no longer cursed." said the Guide when he saw the boy climb out of the water, thankfully unchanged.
"Why didn't he get cursed?" asked Genma as he appeared out of nowhere and frowning looked at the boy.
"Spring is uncursed. Just water inside."
'I can accidentally curse him later. Now I need to get the boy on my side.' Thought Genma and walked to the boy, who was still spitting out the water.
"What is your name, boy?"
"Ryoga."
"I have an offer for you. I see you know martial arts, how would you like to study under one of the best there is, Saotome Genma?" asked gi-clad man, taking a pose appropriate for such a proclamation.
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Ryoga slowly rose to his feet and asked barely hiding his emotions, a mix of surprise and anger.
"Saotome? You are father to Saotome Ranma? Where is he?"
Genma took his best 'Father almost dead from grief and suffering' pose and answered.
"That ungrateful boy betrayed everything I taught him and using a cheap trick he abandoned his poor father who gave everything he had and unimaginably suffered to raise him."
"Damn! I almost found you Ranma and you ran away again!" yelled Ryoga, clenching his fists.
"So how about my offer, boy? You won't be able to defeat him unless you train under me. And since Anything Goes is a family school you'll have to pretend being my son."
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The crimson eyed girl finally came close enough to recognize the scene and if she wasn't gleefully awaiting the end of the nightmare she would've noticed as a girl, that looked exactly as she did now, came closer to the boy and the blue light that gathered around her before she, literally, stepped into Ryoga's body.
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Ryoga heard what Genma said but didn't answer because the water on his body suddenly glowed and his form slowly morphed into the form he would soon hate with a passion because he would return to Jusenkyo in his dreams almost every time he was splashed with cold water.
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Back in Tendo household, Ryoga broke through the thin ice that covered the pool and shivering, walked to the house to get some hot water.
"You lazy boy! Stop napping in the water all the time, it's unfit for martial artist!" yelled Genma as he jumped out of the window and bouncing off the ground, he flew towards the small girl.
Feeling herself frozen to the core in more ways than one, the girl once again kept her silence and instead concentrated her ki. A heavy mist coalesced under her palm and when Genma was about to strike, she ducked and a spike of ice smashed into the man, throwing him into the wall.
"Oh, my. Would you like some hot water, Ranma?" asked the eldest Tendo daughter when she heard the noise and walked out with a kettle in hand.
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A\N: A brief description for character from Tsukihime that Ryoga turns into. (Third story in the same universe as other two) Maybe some day I'll figure out how to put this piece in the story, but for now it'll be here.
Ren is a magical being created by an old mage from remains of his cat to serve as his familiar (a mage's servant). She has the power to manipulate one's dreams or enter them, can use ice as a weapon and can turn into a cat whenever she wants. She prefers not to talk.
When the mage who created her was about to die, she was left in care of vampire princess, Arcuied, who, unfortunately couldn't supply her with Mana she needed to live, but Ren managed to live over 800 years without draining anyone because she's as powerful as mage himself was.
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So, the idea is that Ren who was travelling with Arcuied, found Ryoga and since he has a lot of energy, decided to drain some from him. Unfortunately for Ryoga when Ren *possessed* him, the uncursed water of Jusenkyo that remained on him became cursed and turned him into her. The curse will stay as long as she is inside of his body.
Ren, being very reserved and unimposing person she is, decided to give Ryoga a chance to get rid of her and every time he's splashed with cold water, she brings him into the dream world. If he meets her there, then she'll leave but Ryoga keeps getting lost in other people dreams he enters by subconsciously using Ren's powers and so far he never even noticed her.
