Returning Home
Chapter 10
By David Farr
Ranma 1/2 is copyrighted by Rumiko Takahashi/Shogakukan,Inc and is used here respectfully for the purposes of fanfiction. This story may be redistributed only if unchanged and no fee is charged.
*****
At the same time as a pair of married martial artists and a lesbian sword mistress were spinning the tale of their meeting, another martial artist was suffering under the agonising weight of a dreadful decision. He stood at a busy intersection, ignoring the signposts, since they were obviously in a foreign tongue and glanced about, trying to figure out which way lead to the port, and a possible ride back to Japan.
It should be pointed out here that, thanks to a conversation with a certain interdimensional traveller while she wasn't wearing her translator, Ryoga Hibiki was of the belief that he had, somehow, ended up in some foreign land. Of course the fact that the shops in this distant country all had Japanese signs out had yet to penetrate his highly focussed mind.
Frustrated by being more lost than he had ever been before in his life, Ryoga struck up, his fist impacting on a lamppost. "Ranma, somehow this is all your fault!" he growled, falling back on the old safe cliches. Immediately he took off down the road, not really knowing, or caring, where he was going.
A few moments later, having waited until its attacker had left, the lamppost toppled, barely missing two girls in Furinkan High uniforms. Perhaps it was bad luck, or a mischievous kami, but the lamp had fallen onto the road, directly in the path of an oncoming truck. The driver slammed on his brakes, almost jack-knifing his truck.
Again the Kami struck. A rope holding the truck's cargo in place snapped. Thankfully, only a single drum was sent catapulting into the air. It arced over the cab and fell straight at a person walking along the pavement. Sensing the projectile, Ryoga casually stabbed his finger backwards, shattering the drum, and letting its contents, quite a few litres of "pure" water, rain down on him.
The two Furinkan students watched as the martial artist vanished in the sudden downpour of his own making. Both knew about Jusenkyo curses, having seen Ranma, Mousse and Shampoo change on occasions. Burning with curiosity, they stepped forward and watching as the lump struggled within the soppy material. Suddenly it shot free of the clothes in a black blur headed for a nearby alleyway.
"Sayuri, wasn't that P-chan?" one of the girls asked cautiously of the other.
"Akane's pet pig? Yes, it was, Yuka."
"So that means that Ryoga is Akane's pet pig, P-chan."
"Akane's pet pig, P-chan, that she holds close to her chest."
"Akane's pet pig, P-chan, that she tells all her secrets to."
"Akane's pet pig, P-chan, that she takes to bed with her."
The pair stood in silence for a few seconds, staring at the sopping clothes at their feet. "THAT PERVERT!" they screamed.
The passing Kami wandered on, so happy with a job well done that it would have been patting itself on the back, if it had hands to pat with.
*****
Kasumi calmly poured a cup of tea and calmly passed it across the table to Nodoka. Grateful, the Saotome matriarch accepted the cup, and took a careful sip from it. Meanwhile Kasumi had filled another cup and passed it to her father.
Her own cup filled, Kasumi turned to Nodoka. "Saotome-san--"
"NO!" the vehemence shout from the corridor caused all three to jump. The door to the corridor was shoved open and Nabiki stalked in, followed by a blonde gaijin stranger in black and neon green.
"Awww, come on Nabi-chan," the gaijin pleaded as she followed along.
"I don't do that!" Nabiki snapped, dropping down into an empty place at the table.
Blades fell down next to her, latching onto her arm. "You won't know what its like until you try it." Soun's eyebrow twitched as he listened to the exchange. The other two at the table exchanged glances.
"Excuse me Nabiki, who's your friend?" Kasumi asked sweetly.
Nabiki glanced down at the girl, who rested her head against Nabiki's shoulder and grinned back. "She is Ranma and Akane's friend, not mine."
"Awww, Nabi-chan, what a mean thing to say!" Blades whined. "I was just trying to make nice!"
This was more than enough to set off Soun. "WAH! My daughter's a lesbian." Fountains of tears cascaded from his eyes.
"Daddy, please!" Nabiki snapped. She calmed herself and turned to her sister. "Speaking of the loving couple, where are Akane and Ranma?"
"Oh, Uncle Genma wanted to have a talk with them." Kasumi replied. "They all went out to the dojo for privacy." Nodoka nodded in agreement, a touch of pride in her features.
Nabiki raised her head to stare in the direction of the dojo thoughtfully, unaware that she was receiving a similar look from Blades. Her eyes narrowed. "Excuse me, I think I have some homework to do." She started to get up, only to be reminded of the anchor on her arm. "Blades, could you let go?"
The gaijin girl pouted, but released her hold. "Hey, Nabi-chan, mind if I join you? I'm sure I can help."
Already halfway to the door, Nabiki turned back with a raised eyebrow.
Lifting her hand to the headset, Blades fingered the metal feathers attached to the dome. "Yeah, it's amazing what fun you can have with some high-tech gadgetry." She leapt to her feet, cross the distance between them in a flash and grabbed Nabiki's wrist. "Come on, I'll show you."
Behind them Soun burst into tears once more.
Nodoka turned to Kasumi. "Is it always like this?"
"Oh my, no," Kasumi replied sweetly and with only a pleasant smile. "Usually there's more property damage."
*****
Ranma glanced around the dojo, wishing, not for the first time, the he had a longer attention span. It would make waiting for his father to actually say something so much easier.
His eyes flickered from the scrolls on the walls, to the patches on the wall where a certain ardent amazon had decided there should be a door. Next he focused on some scratches on the well-polished floor, probably left over from Chibi-Ukyo's battle with Kuno. That led him to think about his daughter, and from there his wife, who he immediately turned to stare at. Akane, unlike him, was still watching Genma as he hummed and ahhed over whatever it was he was going to say.
"...well, you see boy... that is... I have something important, well not so much important as..."
It was painful to watch him, Ranma decided. For one thing, if he twisted the front of his gi anymore, he'd probably rip it off. Not a pretty thought.
"Look Pop, spit it out!" he snapped.
Genma straightened, and released the folds of his gi. "Right. What I wanted to say is... I'm sorry."
Ranma and Akane continued staring at him blandly. "What for now?" they chorused.
He took a deep breath, swelling up, and even managed to summon up a little indignity. "Nothing new. I am apologising for everything I've done to you up till now. The Neko-ken, the forced engagements, Jusenkyo, all of that. What I did to you, it was wrong, I've known that, but... I had my reasons."
Ranma nodded in understanding. "That's okay Pop. I got over most of that years ago." He paused dramatically. "I just hope it is over."
"Ahh... I think so," Genma stared off into the distance. "I certainly can't remember anything you don't know about."
Ranma burst into a grin. "Well, if anything does come to mind, you can just pull me aside and explain it to me, can't you?"
"Of course," he smiled back at his son.
"Now, gentlemen," Akane interjected. "I'd like to remind you that Ranma and I have an appointment to keep at a day-care centre."
"Ah, then I'll leave it to you." Genma bowed out, glad that there were no objections, and made a beeline for the house. Watching him, Akane and Ranma enjoyed a few moments in each other's embrace at the dojo door.
"He really is a funny old man isn't he," Akane commented, smiling up at Ranma, but reaching past him to snatch something from the door. She held up the gleaming metal feather for Ranma to see.
"Yeah, isn't he." Ranma glanced knowingly up at the Nabiki's bedroom window. He received a nod, and the pair started moving quickly and with trained grace into the house.
"You know, that must have cost him a lot, opening up like that," Akane commented easily, her voice not betraying their movements at all, even as they started up the stairs.
"Yeah, I'd hate it if someone was listening in," Ranma said as they halted at the door. He took a deep breath. "ESPECIALLY THROUGH A MICROPHONE!"
*****
Inside Nabiki's room, only an instant earlier. The two girls sat on Nabiki's bed, Blades' headset was held between them. The domes were twisted around so that they could both press one to their ear, and listening through the "feather" Blades had thrown at the dojo door.
"Yeah, I'd hate it if someone was listen in." It took a moment for Ranma's comment to filter through their minds, a moment they could (and should) have spent pulling away. Obviously, they didn't. "ESPECIALLYTHROUGH A MICROPHONE!"
The sudden shout shocked both girls, and they fell backwards in a mixture of pain and surprise. The way they were sitting meant that they collapsed together, and ended up in a tangle of arms. This was unfortunate for Nabiki as Akane slammed the door open at that moment, revealing the pair on the bed in a very comprising position.
Blades, on the other hand, considered it fortunate, for much the same reasons.
"Wow, Nabiki, I didn't know you were like that!" Ranma exclaimed, in mock surprise.
"I'm not... I didn't..." Nabiki spluttered.
"Nabiki, my love!" Blades cried in bad Japanese, and swept the Nabiki into her embrace.
"Blades! Don't make this worse!" Nabiki cried. Of course, Blades, without her headset, understood not a word of this.
There was a flash of light, a type of flash that was very familiar to Nabiki. It was the type you found on a camera. Nabiki squirmed underneath her ardent suitor, and peered at the door, expecting to see Ranma or Akane. Instead, she found they had been crowded out of the doorway by the rest of their families, and the camera was resting firmly in the hands of the oldest Tendo daughter.
"WAH! My daughter's making out with another girl!" Soun wailed.
Nabiki sighed and let her head fall back onto the bed, wondering how her day could get any worse.
"Really, Nabiki," Mrs Saotome sniffed. "While your lifestyle is no business of mine, I would hope you wouldn't go that far on a first date."
Nabiki raised her head, and found Nodoka staring disapprovingly not at her face, but lower, a lot lower. Slowly Nabiki lowered her head to follow the gaze and found that, sure enough, her skirt had risen up above her waist, displaying her panties for all to see. Then of course there was the Blades' hand on her hip, which was touching bare skin. That did not look good. Not good at all.
There was another flash of light. "I'm definitely keeping that one," Kasumi announced sweetly, and without a hint of malice.
*****
Ranma and Akane strolled casually along the road, watching as their daughter dashed about the footpath in front of them. They had abandoned the house before Nabiki or Blades dragged them into more discussion. The last member of their little party, Chibi-Ryoga, sat gurgling in his sling, which Akane was wearing for once.
Surprisingly no princes from a magical land showed up to harass them, no suitors bent on stealing one or the other, and not a single rival popped up with an insane and badly thought out plan to kill them. So they actually made it to the kindergarten with time to spare, something they had not planned on.
The building was a modest place, an L shaped building with one arm meeting the sidewalk and a heavily fenced yard out front. Ranma paused at the gate and looked across the yard at the building, then a tall the children playing the yard. He frowned when he noticed that a single girl with pink-red hair, - she looked no older than some of their school friends - was watching over them.
"We're early," Akane commented.
"Yeah," Ranma watched as the girl picked up one of the children and scolded her for something. "Think we should wait a little?"
"No, best to see how they handle the unexpected," Akane commented.
Ranma nodded and looked down at where their daughter was leaping up and trying to peek over the fence. "Yeah, the unexpected always seems to happen around this family." He reached over the gate and pulled at the latch, then pushed open.
As they entered the yard a transformation came over Chibi-Ukyo. Her usual extroverted personality vanished, and she immediately clung to her father's leg, glancing around at the other children playing in the yard. Ranma reached down and patted her on her head.
Ranma blinked as the school girl rushed up. "Good afternoon," she bowed deeply. "You must be the Saotomes."
The pair shared a look, and then nodded.
"Mrs Katsura is inside watching over the children painting," the girl told them. She then pivoted and ran across the yard to pluck a child from a mud puddle.
Ranma and Akane shared a second glance, and walked - or in Ranma's case, limped - towards the door.
The inside of the kindergarten was one large room with a small office at one end and a pair of cubicles in the crock of the L with signs on the doors proclaiming them to be toilets. The rest of the room was divided into different activity areas by shelves and low divider walls.
Looking around, Akane and Ranma spotted two more adults caring for the children. One was sitting, surrounded by fascinated children, reading from a picture book he held in a hand. The other, an older woman, was stooped over a table where a half dozen children, all wearing smocks made from old shirts obviously donated by parents, were trying to draw on some large pieces of paper. Of course, these being young kids, more paint was on the smocks than the paper.
The old woman straightened and turned to look towards them. Smiling she waved them over.
She smiled as they approached. "Ah, you must be the Saotomes. I'm Asako Katsura, owner and operator of Furinkan Kindergarten."
Akane bowed her head to the woman. "Pleased to meet you. I'm Akane, this is my husband Ranma and our daughter Ukyo."
"Pleased to meet you all," she gave them a short bow back. "You'll have to excuse me taking care of the children while we talk. I intended to take you into the office, but one of my volunteers called in sick, and I couldn't get a replacement." She smiled apologetically.
The girl the Saotome's saw in the yard skidded to a stop just outside the window, looking straight up. "What are you doing up there?" she demanded, then shot straight up, to come down a moment later with a child wrapped entirely in grey in her arms. "You know you aren't supposed to climb onto the roof."
Ranma glanced around at the room with a disinterested eye. "Nice place you got here, Katsura-san"
"Thank you," Katsura-san returned, ignoring his tone. "We've tried to make it as enjoyable as possible for all the children. Usually there are five of us here during the mornings and early afternoon, and by this time of day we can let turn the numbers back to just four as some parents come to pick up their children." She paused. "Before we go any further, I should ask if you little Ukyo is a 'special' child."
"'Special'?" Akane and Ranma both inquired.
"Yes, Nerima seems to attract some very unique individuals, and it only makes sense that they have special children. I'm sure you understand."
Akane joined Ranma in big sweating. "Aha, of course. And what if she was a... 'special' child?" she inquired hesitantly.
"Oh, it's just nice to have some warning. Until Asuko Natsume" she nodded out the window at the girl in the yard, "starting working here, I used to have problems with them, but now we can handle them."
Ranma and Akane glanced at each other, then out at Asuko, just in time to see her effortlessly uproot one of the climbing frames to let a child out who had managed to get herself stuck.
"I think she'll be able to handle anything," Ranma commented.
"Oh my yes," Katsura-san replied. "Asuko-san is an android, and a very caring one at that."
Akane shrugged. "We've seen stranger." She turned back to Katsura-san. "I suppose we should warn you about our little Ukyo," she glanced down at where their daughter was staring out at the kids painting. "She, like us, is a martial artist, and when she gets terrified she can get a little dangerous."
"Ah, one of Nerima's famous martial arts families. I fully understand."
"She's also got a spear she can call to her hand," Ranma added, he smiled down at Ukyo, "but we've had lots of discussions about her not using that except when she's in real danger, haven't we kiddo?" Little Ukyo nodded in response.
Katsura-san continued to nod and smile pleasantly. "Of course. I'll have Asuko-san watch over her when she's not busy. That is, if you decide to bring her here."
"It looks fine to me," Akane returned, "what do you think Ranma?"
Ranma grunted. "Yeah, looks tops. There's enough kids for her to make friends." He pulled Chibi-Ukyo from his leg and knelt down next to her. "What do ya say darling? Would you mind coming here while your mummy and I are at school?"
Chibi-Ukyo glanced around and looked at her father. "What if I don't wanna?"
Akane knelt down too, smiling. "It'll give you something to do during the day honey. I know you've been bored when your Auntie and Grandpa have been busy."
The child didn't answer, instead looking around at the room, and the strange faces.
"Maybe if you ask nicely your Auntie will pop in while she's shopping, to make sure you're okay," Ranma suggested. "But you're going to have to be very nice to her."
Chibi-Ukyo looked at her parents, and the almost pleading way they were looking at her. She normally would just do what her parents asked, and wouldn't be afraid of it, but this involved strangers, and no one she knew. Still, if it would help them, she could be brave. Slowly she nodded. "Okay, Mommy, Daddy."
"Then we'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning," Katsura-san announced. "And I'm sure the other children will enjoy having a new playmate."
Ranma and Akane both stood, then reached down to take their Daughter's hands.
"Tomorrow then, Katsura-san." Akane said with a nod. "Good-bye."
"Farewell," the older woman returned.
*****
Despite what everyone thought, Mousse had not spent his entire time in Nerima either working at the Nekohanten (and chasing Shampoo) or fighting with Ranma (and chasing Shampoo). Instead he had contacted an old friend of his family, who had supplied him with a nice little room above their store. It was here that he took Shampoo, still a wreck after her encounter with the monochrome swordsman.
He glanced over at the bed where she slept soundly, exhausted from her emotional roller coaster. She looked so cute and peaceful curled up on her side like that, her hands resting on the pillow in front of her face, and her luxurious purple locks streaming onto the white sheet behind her. One could almost forget that she was the greatest warrior of their tribe.
And, right now, having serious, serious, problems. Mousse didn't know what had happened while he was at the vet's, but he could easily admit she wasn't acting like herself. Before she had collapsed she had ranted for a little while, threatening revenge on unnamed people, and then she had scribbled out a list and told him to get it.
It was that list that frightened him the most. It read like the contents of the Jusenkyo salesman's attache case mixed in with some of the less deadly contents of the mummy's secret supplies. And that was only the stuff he did know. Whoever had angered Shampoo, they were not in for a pleasant time.
Sighing, he stood and grabbed the umbrella from where it leaned. Shampoo would be angry if the list was not at least started on when she woke, and in her current state he didn't want to face an angry Shampoo.
He paused at the door, glancing back at the girl, and wondered, for the first time, if she was worth it.