A Ranma1/2 fanfic by PansutoTarou5925
-------------------------------------
Disclaimer to follow at end of chapter
-------------------------------------
Ranma and Kasumi looked at each other in confusion, then Ranma
quickly sat up and looked her daughter straight in the eyes. "Since
when do you have a sister?"
"Since I found out that my mother was really my father and my aunt
was really my mother!" Chiyeko exploded angrily, fixing a betrayed
glare on Ranma. "That was - wait, you didn't know?" Chiyeko said,
Ranma's question having finally penetrated.
"No, I know nothing of any sister of yours," Ranma said. "What are
you talking about?"
"Um, I was talking about Urd, Sifu's aunt," Chiyeko said.
"Her aunt?" Ranma said, confused.
"Yeah, her mother's older sister," she continued. "She-"
"Wait, wait," Ranma said, interrupting. "Her mother's older sister?
How? Hild was my age when I met her! Sifu's your age, even if her
mother had her at the same age... that doesn't add up!"
"Urd looks a lot like me though, and a lot like Hild," Chiyeko said,
frowning.
"Maybe they're sisters?" Kasumi said, offering her take.
"No, she definitely said that Hild was her mother. I was there,"
Atasuke said, putting his two cents in. "And Skuld and Sifu said
that too, and none of them seem the type of people who would tell
lies about that kind of thing."
"This makes no sense," Ranma said, rubbing her head.
"Ranma," Kasumi asked tentatively, "how old is Hild, anyways?"
Ranma opened her mouth and closed it several times. "She would
always tease me when I asked her, saying I shouldn't ask a woman
her age," Ranma said. "I honestly don't know. She looks like she's
my age. That's all I can say for sure."
"You don't know her age?" Chiyeko asked, surprised.
"She dodges the question!" Ranma retorted. "But she definitely
looked like she was my age when I met her, and she still looks my
age now."
"Maybe it was the mushrooms," Kasumi said.
Ranma's eyes lit up. "Of course! The mushrooms!"
Both teenagers looked back and forth, completely lost. "Time out!"
Chiyeko said, "What mushrooms? What are you two talking
about?"
Kasumi looked at Ranma. "This would be your story, Ranma."
"Yeah," she said, then collected her thoughts. "Ahem. When I was
Chiyeko's age, or a little younger, actually, Ryoga found these
strange mushrooms on one of his journeys-"
"-On a quest to find the mythical men's room at the mall, no
doubt..." Chiyeko added under her breath
Ranma glanced at her by way of warning her to shut up. "-and they
changed your age. However long they were determined how old
they would make you. Small mushrooms made you young, and
large ones made you older." Ranma paused. "So, if she ate a small
mushroom after she had Urd..."
"...Then things make sense. She'd look as old as you did," Kasumi
finished.
"Magic age-changing mushrooms," Chiyeko said, rolling her eyes.
"I have pictures," Kasumi said, with an evil gleam in her eyes.
"I thought I paid Nabiki to get rid of those!" Ranma groaned.
"Let me see!" Chiyeko said, suddenly more interested in Ranma's
magic mushroom story.
"Hey!" Ranma said, deciding to get things back on track. "There
are more important things than photos of mini-me!"
"No, there isn't!" Chiyeko said somewhat angrily. "I have no idea
what you really look like... I mean... er..." She seemed to be lost in
thought for a while. "The boy in chinese clothes... that was you?"
she squeaked, stifling a laugh.
"Yes," Kasumi said, as Ranma twitched.
"That boy that Granny always referred to as 'the man among
men'?" Chiyeko said, now laughing openly. Ranma twitched a few
more times, but restrained herself until Chiyeko got it out of her
system. Once she had calmed down - "I'm sorry. There's something
very wrong about my mother being a man among men. Er, the
person I thought was my mother."
Ranma composed herself once again. "So, Chiyeko has a half-sister,
and Hild never told me. Interesting." Ranma seemed to think it was
more than interesting, it was a betrayal of trust. Her eye glinted
dangerously. She turned to Kasumi. "Where is Hild, anyways?"
"She left while you were fighting Chiyeko. She said she had to meet
someone today," Kasumi said.
"I bet I know who, too," Chiyeko said, grinning.
"She must be over Sifu's place!" Atasuke exclaimed.
"Exactly," Chiyeko said, nodding.
"Then that's where I'm headed," Ranma said, seriously. "I'll call up
Hinako and ask her where Sifu's living."
-------------------------------------
Ranma hung up the phone after dialing up the principal. "Well,
that's settled. Now I'm going to get some answers, because my
weird meter is pegged and it's been on TILT for years," she said.
"I'm coming too," Chiyeko said.
"When did I say you weren't? You're lazy, not curious," Ranma
said playfully as she walked away."Kasumi, you should probably
put our dinner in the fridge - we may be running late." She waved
goodbye and headed out the door.
"I am not lazy!" Chiyeko retorted. "I just do more than sleep, eat,
and do martial arts!" She quickly followed her father out the door
and down the street as Ranma walked towards Sifu's house at an
unhurried pace. Chiyeko stared at her disbelievingly. "And you
accuse me of being lazy, obaba? I mean oyaji... arrgh..."
Laughing, Ranma turned her head. "Can't decide how to insult me,
huh?"
"No, I know just how to insult you. Crossdresser! Crossdresser!"
Chiyeko sang out, pointing to Ranma, and earning a sharp look
from the older martial artist. "But that wasn't what I meant. Usually
you at least walk on the fence or something."
"Oh," Ranma said, as if wondering how anyone could accuse her of
wanting to do such a thing, then turned away nonchalantly. "Well, I
figured you earned the right to be called a master of the art and all,
so I should go easy on you." She smiled. If Chiyeko didn't rise to
that bait like a trout to a fly, she didn't know her daughter half as
well as she thought she did.
"You probably just figure that you couldn't keep up jumping across
the fences and rooftops, you old man in an old woman's body!"
Chiyeko said, in that most irritating obnoxious-Saotome tone of
voice that was almost a technique unto itself. "Biiidah!"
"Oh yeah? Is that so? Then try to follow me, grasshopper," Ranma
said, and immediately jumped onto the nearest fence and ran along
the top of it.
Chiyeko smiled. This was kid's stuff, literally kid's stuff as Ranma
had made her practice this since she was in kindergarten (1).She
jogged along it easily, keeping pace with Ranma, who occasionally
looked back and smirked. "A walk in the park, obaba!" she yelled
out, deciding for the moment that Ranma really was an old woman,
not an old man, whatever her paternal status might be. It was bound
to piss her off more, at any rate.
Ranma just yelled back, "I'm just getting started!" as she ran along.
They eventually came back to the canal, where their fight earlier in
the day had been. The damage was still unfixed, though some
official workers seemed to be marking the damaged areas. "This is
where we separate the girls from me," Ranma said, and jumped out
onto the canal - and ran across the top of the water.
"No way!" Chiyeko said, awed by that impressive feat. She
couldn't believe her father was running across the water like that,
and looked closely to see how she was doing it, ignoring the
triumphant look on her father's face. Then she noticed the secret of
Ranma's amazing trick: she was actually stepping on tiny objects in
the water and stabilizing them with her ki. "Bah! A cheap trick!"
she yelled out, even as inwardly she was impressed, and jumped out
over the canal, landing on a small branch in the water.
She almost splashed into the canal, having underestimated the
amount of power needed to keep the stick steady, but managed to
jump to the next twig in time to avoid taking a bath. Soon enough
she was catching up to her redheaded father, even if her pants were
a bit wet from a few near misses. "Was that all you got, or are you
going to show me something really hard?" she taunted, as she
pulled alongside Ranma.
Ranma grinned. "A chip off the old block, I see. How about this
trick?" Leaping towards the side of the canal, Ranma twisted
around and landed on it as if it were solid ground. Then she started
running along the side of the wall, defying gravity.
Chiyeko shook her head in disbelief and jumped up to the top of the
wall. She couldn't even feel any aura around her father; either
Ranma was suppressing her ki more than she thought possible, or
she was running along the side of the wall using some other means.
Pacing her along the top of the wall, it took Chiyeko a while to
figure out Ranma's trick: she was somehow gripping a seam in the
concrete with her toes.
"No fair!" Chiyeko said. Her shoes weren't flexible enough to even
try that, unlike the thin slippers Ranma favored. She slowed down,
hopping on alternate feet until she got her shoes off, then jumped
down and ran along the seam herself. Unlike Ranma, she was
straining to hold herself to the wall, and straining even more to
make up the distance she lost by taking off her shoes.
Then, unexpectedly, the canal wall under her feet blew apart,
knocking her into the water with a tremendous splash. She emerged
to find Ranma perched on the wall laughing at her. "What the heck
was that?" Chiyeko said, wiping her hair from her eyes.
"Just something I cooked up. A little surprise for the Amazons,"
Ranma said, then peered down at her soaked daughter with her one
good eye. "Of course, I thought you might notice it. Being my
daughter and all." There was a brief pause, as Ranma adopted a
transparently fake sorrowful look. "Perhaps I went too easy on
you."
"Yeah right," Chiyeko said. "If you fed me to a pit of cats when I
was a kid, I think Hild would have words with you... among other
people."
"I'd never feed you to a pit of cats," Ranma declared virtuously, as
Chiyeko jumped up beside her.
"No kidding. How could you get the cats?" Chiyeko said, wringing
her shirt out as best she could without looking indecent. "I
remember when we were training in Korea, and you were cowering
in the bathroom because a stray got in and was pawing the door."
Curling her hand like a paw, she crossed her eyes and meowed at
Ranma a few times.
"There's a rat in your hair," Ranma said suddenly, her eyes
widening in surprise.
"WHERE?" Chiyeko screamed, grabbing at her hair for a few
seconds in a wild panic before realizing what Ranma was after. She
narrowed her eyes. "That was a low down, dirty trick."
"I'm glad to see you still respect me for something, Chiyeko."
-------------------------------------
They reached Sifu's apartment without further incident. "Pretty
small place," Ranma asked as she walked up to the building.
"Her parents still live back near Nekomi Tech in that temple,"
Chiyeko said. She'd only been there once... or rather, just outside
it. Something about that temple had spooked her badly, though she
wasn't about to admit that to her mother. Father. Whatever.
"Why isn't she going to school there, then?" Ranma asked. Another
weird mystery. Well, perhaps she'd just ask Sifu directly, and get an
answer. She pressed the buzzer marked MORISATO.
Soon enough, the chipper face of Sifu Morisato appeared at the
door, immediately turning into a frown upon seeing her guests.
"Chiyeko. Saotome-san," she said tonelessly.
"It's good to see you too, Morisato-chan," Ranma said happily,
putting on an energetic smile. She felt it was doomed to failure,
though; the younger girl always seemed to treat her like a
messenger from hell or something. Chiyeko managed a half-smile
herself. "I just wanted to ask a few questions, if you don't mind."
Seeing Sifu's dubious look, she pressed on. "About Urd... Urd and
Chiyeko."
Still looking like she'd rather be somewhere else, Sifu nodded. "I
guess..." she said lamely, then led the way back to her room. Upon
entering, she called out: "Auntie Skuld! We have guests!" She then
turned to Ranma. "Skuld is Urd's sister, so it's probably better to
ask her." Ranma nodded, having noted that Sifu seemed too wary
of her to really be comfortable talking to her for this anyways.
Skuld and Ranma sized each other up. Skuld had the advantage, of
course, of having reviewed Ranma's files from Yggdrasil an hour or
so ago, which brought up all sorts of interesting information - and
even more interesting questions.
Ranma glanced at Sifu for a moment, then returned her gaze to
Skuld. "You look more like her mother than her mother does,"
Ranma noted.
Skuld laughed, defusing the tension in the room. "She resembles
her father more, actually. And her Aunt Megumi."
"I'm more interested in her other aunt, Urd, I believe?" Ranma said,
deciding to get right to business.
"Urd stepped out a few minutes ago, she had someone to meet."
Skuld said blandly, deciding to see where Ranma was going with
this, as she sat down at the table. "Would you like some tea?"
"No thank you," Ranma said, as she sat down as well. "This
'someone' she's meeting... it wouldn't happen to be Hild, would
it?"
Skuld inhaled sharply. "It might."
Ranma stared intently at Skuld. "I also heard that Hild was Urd's
mother."
Skuld thought for a few seconds about how to field this one. It
appeared that both Chiyeko and Ranma were oblivious to Hild's
true nature. How would she break this to them? Not being able to
lie was such a handicap. She finally decided to just spit it out and let
Hild deal with it. "She is."
Ranma wilted visibly and held back a few tears. "How old is Urd?"
Ranma choked out.
Skuld and Sifu were confused at Ranma's reaction, but Chiyeko
was a bit angry now at Hild, as she understood what was eating
Ranma up.
"That would be difficult to explain," Skuld said, wondering how to
answer THAT question. Urd only looked in her mid-twenties; she -
like Skuld and Belldandy - were a lot older than that. Perhaps she
should set it to how old they were since their last rebirth?
"How could that be difficult to explain?" Ranma snapped angrily.
"You would be surprised," Sifu answered coolly.
"Urd would be about forty," Skuld said. Forty years since her last
rebirth, in any case. The Norns had been around a lot longer than
that; the Vikings had revered the trio governing Past, Present, and
Future over a thousand years ago and more.
Ranma's anger cooled somewhat as it was replaced by curiousity.
"Forty? But... Hild looks the same age I am." She decided to go
with her previous idea. "Skuld, did Hild ever regress in age, maybe
from some age-reducing mushrooms or something?"
Skuld winced. Another badly worded question... "Yes, but
mushrooms had nothing to do with it." Sifu looked at Skuld in
surprise. "I've seen Hild as a small child, as well as an adult. You'd
have to ask Hild about that yourself," Skuld said.
"Oh, believe me, I will," Ranma promised.
"How come I never heard about this?" Sifu complained. Skuld
briefly flicked her eyes from Sifu to Ranma and back by way of
warning: Not when mortals are around. "Nevermind," Sifu said
quickly.
Skuld drummed her fingers along the table for a few seconds before
coming to a decision. "Sifu, why don't you show Chiyeko the new
turbocharger you put on your motorcycle."
"What?" Sifu said at the sudden shift in topic. "Chiyeko wouldn't
care about that."
Skuld sighed, seeing that Sifu wasn't going to get the hint. She
stuffed a wad of yen in Sifu's hand instead. "Here, have some
money. Buy ice cream, go shopping, whatever. I'd like to talk to
Saotome-san in private."
Chiyeko sighed and got up as well and trudged out the door. Once
the younger generation was safely out of the room, Skuld turned to
Ranma. "There are some things you probably don't want discussed
in front of Sifu, Ranma. I know about your curse."
Ranma stiffened. "How... how could you possibly know?" she
asked, startled. She looked at Skuld suspiciously. "Even Chiyeko
didn't know until I told her."
"I know a lot about you, more than you think," Skuld said.
"I believe that," Ranma said. "That doesn't answer how."
Skuld smiled as a way of not technically lying presented itself to
her. "Maybe Nabiki told me."
"Figures," Ranma said, sighing. She then looked intently at Skuld
again. "That doesn't answer my questions about Urd, though. How
did Hild get young, or whatever? Why didn't she tell me about
Urd?"
"Maybe she thought you wouldn't believe Urd was her daughter,"
Skuld said without thinking.
"What, regressing in age? Been there, done that. Besides, I used to
be a guy. I'd believe it."
"Ranma, you shouldn't take this personally. Urd's older than you
are." A lot older, but let's not go there, Skuld thought.
"There are other questions I want to ask, too. Like, what are those
tattoos you all have? And Chiyeko has them too..." Ranma asked.
"They're magic. Beyond that, I really can't tell you. You have to
ask Hild." Skuld said.
"I intend to."
"She actually has good reasons not to tell you these things,
Ranma," Skuld said gently. For the first time in her life, she felt
sympathy for Hild. After all, Skuld had been forced to hide what
she was from Sentaro, after all.
"I couldn't possibly imagine what they might be," Ranma said,
looking very pissed.
"You will understand when she tells you," Skuld said. "To get off
the subject a bit... there's something I'd like to ask you." Ranma
looked at her curiously. "How did you meet Hild?"
Ranma scratched the back of her head. "Well, heh heh. That's kind
of a stupid story..."
"I've heard plenty of stupid stories, so don't worry," Skuld said,
smiling. Damn, she was getting good at this. Belldandy would be
proud.
Ranma sighed. "You know that I'm cursed, right? Well, I met Hild
in China..."
-------------------------------------
DISCLAIMER: Ranma ½ is the property of Rumiko Takahashi,
Shonen Sunday, Viz, and other parties; I make no claims of
ownership of any of the intellectual or other properties pertaining to
it. Oh! My Goddess belongs to Kosuke Fujishima, Studio Proteus,
Dark Horse, and other parties, and I make no claims of ownership
of any of the intellectual or other properties pertaining to it, either.
-------------------------------------
Author's Note: Cliffhanger! Short chapter, too, but after so long
without either the time or inclination to write, it feels good even
chugging this much out.
(1) Or whatever the Japanese equivalent is. Note: I don't actually
care what the Japanese equivalent is, either.