Memory of Rain and Lightening Chapter Ten- nihogoneko- rated T (just in case)

Akane fanfic- I'll Remember; Lost Memory and Lightening (I call it an Akane fanfic because it revolves around Akane Tendo, mainly.)

Summary: A girl wakes up in a forest clearing, with no idea who she is. She walks to the nearest town, and no one recognizes her. But she stays there and starts to build a life there as she searches for herself. Now a boy has appeared, claiming to know her.

Disclaimer: I do not own Akane, Ranma, or any of the other Rumiko Takahashi characters from Ranma 1/2, nor do I own the storyline. Sadly, I'm just not that good.

to my readers: I'm sorry that it took so long to update this story. I had made myself promise that I wouldn't update my stories unless I had a chapter ready for each of my 6 current stories so that I'm not updating one story faster than the other, but that meant that I had this chapter ready a while ago and couldn't post it. :( Sorry, but that's the only way I can ensure that I'm fair to all my readers at the same time.

Main Character List: Rain (Akane, who has lost her memory), Mrs. Smithy (the old woman who has given Akane a place to stay), Ranma (Akane's fiancé who has come looking for her), Shampoo, Ukyo and Ryoga (three mysterious people who seem to know Ranma)

Now, on with the story...

-11-

Chapter Eleven- Disruption and Deceit

previously in chapters...

"I-I don't know what happened to me." she replied, turning to look at 'him'. Ranma was disappointed that the look in her eyes had vanished, but this talk was too serious for him to dwell on that possible-almost breakthrough now.

"One minute, I was... there, and the next... I... I... "

Seeing that she wasn't ready to talk about it, Ranma backed off, redirecting her attention to something else. They could always figure it out later. He didn't want to push her too hard.

"Come on." he said, hoping to redirect her attention. 'He' stood up, offering her his hand.

"Everyone's waiting for us downstairs."

Not that he was looking forward to what would probably happen after. But it was better to get this over with now, before the situation became worse.

However, as everything else in Ranma's life, nothing ever got better until after it got much much worse.

now continuing with the story...

As Rain walked into the other room with Ranma at her side, she felt a mixture of relief and sadness. The fact that she had fainted wasn't some little problem, especially when, to the best of her knowledge, she knew that she was a healthy girl. And the fact that Ranma let her off the hook about trying to explain something that she didn't know how to was very nice of the girl. But... at the same time, she felt like the redhead was hiding something from her. And that somehow, she had... disappointed her.

They had barely turned the corner into the other room when the redhead beside her was tackled, or maybe the more precise term would be 'hugged', by the purple-haired girl. But Rain couldn't be sure of what it really was because to her it kind of looked like Ranma was being strangled. And yet, at the same time, as she watched she felt a strange burning sensation in her gut, fueled by a somehow very familiar fire-like heat in her chest.

"Shampoo so so happy to see Arien again! You no go off on own without Shampoo again!" the girl said in a high-pitched voice.

As she stood there, watching, the heat began traveling down from her chest to her arms until her fists felt hot too. And she had the strangest urge to hit Ranma, although from the way that the girl was struggling, she obviously didn't want the 'hug' the other girl was giving her.

But before she could make up her mind what to do, the purple-haired girl turned her head to glare at her, releasing Ranma in the process. Rain was taken aback by the hatred that she saw in the girl's eyes. And what's more, as the girl stood there, Rain could almost swear that the air around her began to change color, looking like she was giving off some form of heat.

"Kitchen-wrecker take Ranma away Shampoo, yes? No is forgive!"

She cracked her knuckles threateningly, surprising Rain even more. This girl meant to fight her? Over what?

"Now hold on, sugar." the brown-haired girl who had wielded spatulas on the roof spoke up. It was then that Rain realized that it wasn't just her, Ranma, and the girl who called herself Shampoo in the house- the spatula girl and the banana-wearing boy were also there.

"You can't just beat her up like that."

Rain was relieved that at least one of the strangers was on her side

"I have just as much right as you do. Ranma-honey shouldn't have gone anywhere without me."

... or not.

What was with those two? They seemed to be very attached to Ranma, and... jealous that they had found the redhead with her. Apparently, they all knew each other, considering the familiar way with which they spoke about Ranma, and each other. She glanced at the boy with the bandanna, who looked unaffected, as if this kind of thing happened often. But when their eyes connected, he blushed and quickly looked away.

Confused by his reaction, Rain didn't realize that she hadn't been listening to what the purple-haired girl had said until said girl took another step towards her.

-Ranma-

He watched Akane turn her attention back to the Amazon as she advanced. He didn't want to step in unless Shampoo raised a hand or weapon to attack, hoping that her and Ukyo's words may trigger some memory of them all in Akane's head. Because the three had fought so often with each other, he, in a strange way, was relying on that pattern and habit to make Akane fall back into old habits and jog her memory, like it had the time Shampoo had used that herbal shampoo on Akane a long time ago.

"You no take Ranma from Shampoo! Ranma Shampoo's!" Shampoo was saying to the short-haired girl.

"But..." Akane hesitated, looking confused and glancing at 'him' as she said her next sentence.

"Ranma's a girl."

Ranma felt himself start at the declaration. Yeah, it was technically true right now because of his curse (which he knew he had explained to her before now), but... what was she getting at?

Shampoo frowned at her, some of the fight seeming to go out of her at the out-of-place declaration, and he watched Akane read the confusion on the girl's face.

"Ranma no is girl. Ranma boy. No play stupid. No is funny."

Akane looked over at Ranma again, this time as if asking the red-head to confirm what Shampoo had said. And that was all it took.

Ranma stared at Akane, stunned, as pieces of the strange things she had been doing began to fall into place in a way he could comprehend.

That's why she didn't get angry about the kiss?

He stared at her in disbelief, unable to speak past the shock that had numbed his brain.

Akane had thought that he was a girl. A real girl.

He wasn't sure whether to laugh or...

-Ukyo-

It was later on that day that she managed to get the whole story out of her fiancé. Apparently, Akane had disappeared from the hot springs inn that she and her friends had been staying at, and Ranma had tracked her down when he heard about it because he had been worried.

That had hurt Ukyo to hear, but Ranma told her how no one else knew that Akane had gone missing, and that no one knew that he had gone looking for her- how everyone else thought that he was on a training trip. Ukyo felt another pain in her chest then too, because she had believed that too.

Ranma didn't know when Akane's memory would return, or how it had happened, but he was determined to stay with her until she was cured and remembered everything.

'All I really know is that she calls herself Rain now.' he had told her

'And, apparently' he gave a wry look as he said this

'she thought that I was a girl, after finding out about my curse, although I only just realized that now. Somehow, despite losing her memory, she managed to be just as dense as usual and jump to the wrong conclusion.'

After their talk, Ukyo had decided on her course of action. Despite what she knew in her heart of hearts that Ranma was hoping for, she would not help Akane regain her memory. Instead, this was the perfect opportunity for her to destroy their relationship as an engaged couple. That Amazon hussy was probably too dumb to do something like this right away, and if she got a head start, the ball would be in her court. With any luck, Ranma would give up on Akane soon after, and they could return home and get married! Just thinking about it gave her goosebumps of delight.

-later-

She managed to get Akane alone later that same day. By then, it had gotten dark, but considering that the setting was appropriate for what she was about to do, Ukyo didn't mind.

She spent several minutes assuring Akane that yes, Ranma was a guy (although honestly, if her plan didn't require the girl to know, she'd have preferred her to continue to think of him as a girl so she wouldn't try to make any moves on him). She described the Jusenkyo curse in detail, leaving out any mention of Akane herself as she continued on to tell the girl how she and Ranma had met up again after being apart for so long (also leaving out how Ranma's father had stolen her father's cart) and interacted in Nerima. She went on to say how close she and Ranma were to each other, being childhood friends and all. And judging from the girl's expression, she was believing everything that she said.

So far, so good.

-Rain/Akane-

She listened to Ukyo talk about Ranma. Despite the fact that initially, the girl had acted very aggressive towards her, when she had approached her a few minutes ago she had apologized about her behavior immediately, explaining that she had just been really worried when Ranma had disappeared because he hadn't told anyone where he was going.

As the girl had continued to talk about Ranma, Rain had begun to think back to how she had first met him, and about the feelings that had gone away deep into her heart when she found out about Ranma's curse. She had assumed that that he had been talking about being turned into a guy, and the fact that he was just as comfortable in his female body as his male body- if not more so at times, had only made her more convinced the longer she had spent with him. Although he had always seemed eager to turn back into a guy when he could.

Why she hadn't taken such an obvious thing into account, Rain couldn't be sure. Her only excuse was that she had been too concerned with trying to see if she could remember Ranma before her amnesia or not to notice too much about his habits and mannerisms. Ranma had always been nice to her- patient even, which she had somehow stereotyped as a female characteristic.

She wasn't sure why, but she felt that she had a lot of negative stereotypes about guys in general. Perhaps it was because she was at the moment going to an all-girls school, and hadn't really interacted with any males, except Ranma and maybe Mr. Tsuruga, since she had woken in that forest. But maybe, there was a deeper reason behind it all...

A voice cut through her thoughts.

"Ak- I mean, ah... Rain, were you listening to me?"

Rain realized that she had allowed her mind to wander, inadvertently tuning out of what Ukyo had been saying.

"So, Ranma actually is a guy?" she asked, her mind still going through memories of her time with Ranma that she could recall.

"Yes, sugar. He is. Why would you think otherwise?" Ukyo asked, her chin in her hand, with her elbow rested on her knee for support. The girl didn't look upset to have been ignored. In fact, there was a strange anticipation on her face, and she was smiling as if she had a secret joke that she was thinking of.

Rain wanted to ask her about it, but aside from the fact that she didn't really know anything about the girl (despite Ranma's assurance that she had known all of the new strangers before her amnesia), she had a thought in the back of her head that it wasn't anything she'd like.

-Ukyo-

She studied Akane as she apparently took this information in for the second time that day, watching the girl's face closely to see if what Ranma had said was true. And what she saw convinced her. Akane seemed to really have been surprised by the news, and more so, she wasn't getting angry about it.

Weird. Akane always got angry when Ranma didn't tell her something.

This amnesia of hers must be more serious than I thought.

Ukyo thought that it was time to deliver the final blow.

"I know it's a lot to take in, after spending all this time thinking that he was a she, but I had to make sure that you understood. After all, I'm pretty sure that same-sex marriages are illegal in Japan."

"Huh?"

"Well, Ranma and I are engaged, after all."

She smiled at the mix of emotions on the girl's face- shock, confusion, disbelief, and... just a hint of sadness.

"Oh... That's... nice." the girl's voice trailed off at the end, her words soft.

"Don't be surprised, sugar. Ranma doesn't like to talk about things like that much because he's too embarrassed, but we're very much in love. That girl in there- Shampoo? She appeared one day and tried to take him away from me. But I wouldn't let something like that happen, and she still hasn't one against me once. Ranma's mine, and I'll gladly fight for him against anyone."

She made sure that her threat, although hidden, was there for Akane to at least subconsciously understand. The less the girl fought with her about it, the better off she'd be. After all, Ukyo didn't care that Akane had lost her memory. It was still Akane. And if she tried to get between her and Ranma, she'd deal with her accordingly.

Besides, who knew when Akane's memory would return? If she made sure that she didn't approach Ranma as "Rain", Akane would probably be too embarrassed about being tricked by her to approach Ranma later on, if and when she got her memory back.

Ukyo sighed happily, enjoying her lie and looking forward to the outcome it would present to her in the end.

"We're so much in love."

She watched Akane's face carefully- was that a slight wince? But no, it couldn't be. Akane had no memories of Ranma prior to a few days ago. She couldn't have any of those sort of feelings for him again already.

"Sometimes it all seems like a dream."

Ukyo fell silent to stare up at the stars. The sky was clear, and she had a good view of what little moon there was, although it was too weak to shine enough light to reach them on Earth. It felt almost unnaturally warm outside, considering that it was night and that there was a slight breeze. She could almost swear that it was warmer than it initially was when they first stepped out.

"Well, I should get going to bed." she said finally, standing up and brushing off the seat of her uniform. It was time for the final nail in the coffin.

"You'll support my and Ranma's love, right, Rain?"

She held out her hand for the girl to shake, and watched her hesitate a second before placing her hand on Ukyo's outstretched one. The strange tingle she received from the contact, like when your arm falls asleep, almost made her miss Akane's quiet

"Yeah."

Unable to help herself, a large grin appeared on her face.

"That's great. Well then, sleep well, Ak- ah, Rain."

And with a final wave, she went indoors.

-Rain/Akane-

She barely heard Ukyo leave. It seemed too much an effort to stop staring at the ground, as if her eyes couldn't move. They hurt slightly, and she felt them become slightly watery from the minor pain.

Her throat burned as if something was painfully stuck in it, and her hands, no, her whole body, was very warm- warmer than it should be considering the cool outside weather.

The longer she stayed like that, the more aware she was of a growing pain in her chest. Rain almost absentmindedly rubbed the spot as she was finally able to bring her gaze off the ground and to the stars, which were beginning to be covered by what looked like storm clouds.

"Ow..." she muttered to herself, still rubbing the spot, just before a peal of thunder could be heard almost overhead and the heavens opened, pouring rain.

-end chapter.