The Guyz
By: BGCrisis
"Dedicated" to: This story was inspired by such great apartment fics as Robster80's "The Boyz", for which this fanfic is named in tribute of, and Fanboyimus Prime's "The Apartment."
Note: If anyone has a gripe about technology levels comparative to the dates I set, I refer you to television shows in the fifties and sixties, not to mention comic books. The technology we were expected to have by now was far greater than reality. Seeing as this is an alternate universe anyway, it makes little difference. Besides, the calendar sitting here is for 2000, and my 2001 catgirl cosplayer one is downstairs.
Disclaimer: If you think I'm gonna do an actual disclaimer you're nuts, if you've seen one you've seen them all.
Chapter 01 - Ranma
-----
Friday, June 2, 2000
-----
"Tai, why don't you grab a seat over there with Duo and we can get down to business." Ranma, as the actual lease holder of the apartment was taking charge of things.
"Get down to business? You make it sound like we're here to plan a crime," Duo said, a smirk on his face the whole time.
"Believe me, if you talked to some of the people I've regularly had to deal with we are. I figure that we should tell each other about ourselves. I'm going to go first, to give you guys a chance to decide if you want to stick around or not. My life is a royal pain, and I'm not sure if it's going to take my warning seriously and try to find me here or not." Ranma was taking this whole thing a lot more seriously than anyone thought he should.
"Oookay," commented Duo, always the fount of witticism.
"Why don't you explain what you're talking about, so that we can decide things for ourselves." As always, Gohan was being a logical voice of reason.
"Well, for you to really understand what I've had to deal with, why I'm here, and what I'm worried may come here after me, I'm basically going to have to tell you my life story. Literally."
After watching the others blink a few times Ranma started his tale. "It all started when I was about four or five, and my father took me away from my mother for the sake of 'training,' or so he called it." And so began a retelling of Ranma's life, from when his father took him on that ill-fated training trip, all the way through his battle with Saffron at Jusendo, and to his first failed (forced) wedding.
***
An hour later...
"Good lord... how in the hells did you live through that?" came the response from a disturbed Duo.
"I haven't got a clue. The part isn't even the worst half of it, really."
"You mean there's more?" asked a slightly shell shocked Tai. He may have been the Bearer of Courage, and had faced some of the worst evils the Digital World could throw at him, but he never had to do so alone.
"There's always more. With a life like that, it never ends," came the response from Gohan, who had a slightly far away look on his face.
"Sounds like you know something about it Gohan, but yeah, you're right. It didn't stop after Saffron or the bombed wedding."
"I honestly don't know what those idiots were thinking. They'd just seen me tear apart a God and half a mountain with my bare hands in a single attack, and they turned around and attacked the people that were closest to me. And it hurt when I woke up later under the rubble of the destroyed dojo; they hadn't bothered to look for me, not even my own mother."
"I had hoped that things would've calmed down for a while after that, but as with everything else in my life, no one cared what I wanted. Akane was colder to me than ever, and Nabiki had the gall to blame me for everyone showing up. Old man Tendo and Pop were all over me for 'disregarding family honor,' 'disrespecting their wishes,' and other crap like that. What hurt the worst though was my mother, she blamed the whole thing on me, like I had anything to do with it."
"Kasumi was the only one that didn't try and make me feel worse. She didn't take my side either, though, so I had to put up with all of their crap alone. And it wasn't just everyone at home, I had to deal with all the lunatics at school too, not to mention the rest of the wackos who thought they had a say in my personal life didn't let up either."
"For a month that went on, everyone blaming me for everything that went wrong, and taking their aggressions out on me. By then final exams were literally right around the corner. Now, everyone knew that my grades weren't stellar, which is to be expected with little to no formal education. Kasumi, believe it or not, helped me study for them, and because it was her helping me everyone had no choice but to leave me alone, after all no one was stupid enough to piss off Kasumi."
"So I take it that you passed?" asked Gohan.
"Yeah, with a C+. Nothing stellar, but then again I wasn't really trying." That got them all blinking in confusion. "Remember, most of my life has been dedicated to martial arts. Everyone basically expected me to be some brash uneducated idiot, so I just gave them what they wanted to see."
"So you mean that all that time you were there, you were just acting?" Duo, blunt as an explosion.
"What's the first rule of warfare? Never show your hand, always hold back and let your opponent underestimate you. You'd think they would have figured it out though, I mean no one as dumb as I pretended to be could learn and adapt as quickly as I do, and come up with strategies so well."
"So how well do you think you could have done if you had put some real effort into it?" asked Tai.
"At least a B all around, but one of the reasons I never did too well was because I didn't do any of the homework. With all the attention at home, and the number of times I was randomly attacked it would've looked too out of place."
"You mean that you never did the homework, and still pulled that high of a grade?!" Tai was pretty much in shock, must not do too great in school or something.
"Someone definitely should have noticed that, it's blatant," Gohan said. "How did you pull that off anyway?"
"That's what I'd like to know," concurred Duo.
"Simple, I have a photographic memory."
"So what happened after that? You've still got another year till you're up to date," questioned Duo, as he sank back into his seat.
"Well, since Kasumi had gotten Nabiki out of my hair prior to finals, I didn't have to worry about her anymore, really. Especially since she was having to prepare to head off for college once summer was over."
"Summer went about how I expected: people trying to kill me, girls trying to marry me, parents trying to force me to marry, and people trying to hurt me everywhere in between."
"I was glad when summer was over though. While I did have to go back to school, it also meant that around seven hours out of the day would be spent away from the parents, and that the chance of someone attacking went down some (not much, but every little bit helps)."
"The 'adults' and the girls kept pushing for a wedding, and slowly got more and more insistent. Luckily for me no more 'new' fiancées showed up."
"Over Christmas break though, the shit really hit the fan. The morons tried another forced wedding. Firstly, I don't see what made them think it would work, and secondly I don't see what make them think that me being married would stop any of the other girls. I know Shampoo would try to kill anyone I married that wasn't her. I'd say pretty much the same for Kodachi, but she let up after that first attempt."
"Well, needless to say, the second attempt was about as successful as the first. It was just that this time no one was stupid enough to bring exploding food or draw live steel. When things started to go sour I used the Umi-Sen-ken to hide myself, and went off to a quiet little corner to watch things degenerate. Things came to halt though when one of Shampoo's bonbori broke at the haft, and the head flew at Kasumi."
"Before anyone knew what had happened I had atomized the thing with a chi blast. The next thing they knew, they were all ejected from the dojo by me, regardless of who they were (except for Kasumi) or what their relation to me was."
"I think they all got the picture at that point and broke it up. When Mr. Tendo and my 'parents' tried to pull some kinda bull on me later that day Kasumi stood up for me, which no one had done without ulterior motives in a long, long time. That shut them up pretty quick, no one wants to offend Kasumi since she's basically what keeps that family going."
"About a week later Cologne said she wanted to talk to me, alone. When I met with her she did the smartest thing I'd ever seen her do since meeting her: she offered me a deal. I don't mean some bullshit deal where I give Shampoo a child and they go away, but a real deal. She knew that Shampoo had about as much chance of winning me as there was of me locking myself in cursed form and petitioning for membership in their tribe."
"So she did the only thing she could: she made a deal for the safety of her people. She knew what I had done to Saffron, something that her people couldn't have done and kept the cost low enough to be acceptable, and she didn't relish the idea of me turning my power against her and her people."
"In exchange for my not killing herself, Shampoo, and the rest of her tribe, she would level the playing field, not to mention respecting my final decision. She would no longer give Shampoo any kind of assistance in her quest for my heart, except verbal advise, without any hidden double meanings. Shampoo would no longer have access to any form of magical artifacts, potions, etc. that could in any way, shape, or form alter a person's perceptions, feelings, emotions, beliefs, and/or anything else along those lines. If Shampoo somehow obtained something like that on her own, Cologne would stop her from using it. If Shampoo had in fact stolen it from Cologne, her punishment would have been to have her locked in her cursed form, after it had been altered to that of a man. Following that, she would be forever banished from the village, forbidden to have contact with her family or seeking revenge on anyone. The penalty for violating those dictates would be death by an Amazon hunting party."
"Damn," came the stunned response from Duo. "Isn't that a bit harsh? I mean, she was talking about her great granddaughter."
"Yeah, but what's one person in comparison to your whole civilization? After all, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or one," responded Gohan, using logic to see into the heart of things.
"Yeah. It might have been hard for her, but sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the greater good."
"Well put Tai, but yeah, you're all right. It took me a while to decide on whether or not to agree. I'd dealt with Cologne before and she always had some trick up her sleeve. This time, though, she didn't. She wasn't going to gamble with everything she knew and held dear on the line, no sane person would. After about a half hour I finally agreed to her terms. After signing, and having me sign, a document detailing the whole agreement, in triplicate, I was free to go, secure in the knowledge that at least one of the threats to my final decision was more or less taken care of."
"Why did you have to do three copies?" asked Gohan, his eyebrow raised.
"Yeah, that's what I'd like to know," seconded Duo, as Tai shook his head in agreement.
"One copy for Cologne, one for myself, and one was sent to the tribal council in the Amazon village back in China. When I left we were still waiting on the confirmation of it being received. The other elders may not have liked it, but as the Matriarch Cologne has more power, and since she was the only one in Japan and had been in close proximity with me for so long she had the final say in the matter. Only a complete vote of disapproval by all council members would have stopped it, in which case a third party mediator would have been brought in to deal with things. Cologne doesn't think that will happen though."
"So what happened after all that went down?" questioned Tai, voicing the silent question all three had in their eyes.
"Well, with Cologne no longer helping, or even truly encouraging Shampoo, Mousse backed off on attacking me. With things cooling down on the Amazon front, things got a little better with the Tendos and Ukyo. With a little more free time on my hands, I was able to do something I've always enjoyed: helping others."
"You see, while everyone in the house respected Kasumi, no one really paid attention to her. She was as alone in her own home with her family, as I was surrounded by my fiancées. So I did the one thing no one ever would have expected: I talked to her. You have no idea how happy she was just having someone to talk to on a regular basis, and I mean really talking not just someone voicing their complaints to her without wanting to know how she felt."
"Now, about three months before finals started, the tensions started to rise. It wasn't noticeable right away, but every couple days they would get a little higher. That wouldn't have been that big of a deal if they had actually gone down any, but they didn't."
"Finally, two months before finals, I'd had enough of it. My family's home had been fully repaired since Christmas, but we hadn't moved back. Twenty to one odds say I know exactly why, but I digress. I was sick of living under someone else's roof, and having rules dictated to me, when I had a perfectly good home to go to. So I forced my mother to see some sense, and got her to move back home and 'take me' with her."
"Needless to say, that didn't go over too well with some of the others. Pop and old man Tendo were against it from the get go, but Kasumi helped keep them in line. The other girls stopped bitching once they realized that it kept me apart from Akane."
"Things were a little better for me in the long run from it, but it gave the others a 'better' reason to be more forceful when I was around. By the time finals finally arrived, I was sick of their bull. I made my mom forbid anyone but her, myself, and Kasumi from being on the property."
"Don't tell me that actually stopped them?" Duo asked.
"It wouldn't have, if I didn't also force her to make a few threats to go along with it. If they didn't respect her wishes, engagements would be disavowed and the police would be involved. That, combined with the fact that they thought it would only last a little while, and that I was 'fair game' outside the house, made them listen to her."
"I knew, though, that as soon as finals were over, they'd be all over me again. More than likely, the old fools would try to force me into another wedding attempt. I sure as hell wasn't gonna deal with that if I could avoid it, so I did what I had to. I decided to leave so I could get some time to myself and decide what I wanted to do."
"As soon as I got the results to my finals, I packed my stuff up and left. I left a note behind saying that I'd be back and if anyone came after me I wouldn't be back no matter what."
"You think that'll stop them?" inquired Tai.
"Normally, no, but I've always kept my promises, unlike my pop. Besides, they'll think I'm off in the woods somewhere, training, not in a city living in an apartment. I think you can figure out the rest of the story from there."
Duo, Gohan, and Tai all nodded at that.
Shaking his head, Duo spoke up. "That's one hell of a life you've led." Everyone nodded their agreement to that statement.
"I'm hoping that none of those people will come after me here, but I'm not positive my threats will dissuade them all. If any of you don't want to deal with that, now is your chance to bow out."
A minute passed in silence, and no one moved.
"Well, I guess I speak for all of us when I say that we're prepared to deal with your problems should they show up," spoke Gohan.
"Here, here," concurred Duo.
"I'm with you guys. I'm not afraid of a few ill-tempered girls and a pack of idiots," came Tai's two yen.
"Believe me, if you ever meet them, you will be," was Ranma's response, along with a sour expression.
A moment later the four teens broke out into laughter.
-----
Author's Notes:
Well, this certainly took a while to do. I tend to only be able to get myself to write when I'm in class, go figure. I wrote a large chunk of this while out of town to attend a funeral. If that doesn't say that my force for writing is messed up, I don't know what does. I had hoped to get this out to my pre-readers before I left for Anime Weekend Atlanta, but I ran out of time. As soon as this gets back from them and I can fix it up based on their comments it'll be posted. Hope you enjoyed it. The next couple chapters will show what has happened in the lives of the other guys since the intersection points in the canon stories.
C&C is welcome, so long as it is constructive. Flames will be referred to my lawyers as hate mail.
By: BGCrisis
"Dedicated" to: This story was inspired by such great apartment fics as Robster80's "The Boyz", for which this fanfic is named in tribute of, and Fanboyimus Prime's "The Apartment."
Note: If anyone has a gripe about technology levels comparative to the dates I set, I refer you to television shows in the fifties and sixties, not to mention comic books. The technology we were expected to have by now was far greater than reality. Seeing as this is an alternate universe anyway, it makes little difference. Besides, the calendar sitting here is for 2000, and my 2001 catgirl cosplayer one is downstairs.
Disclaimer: If you think I'm gonna do an actual disclaimer you're nuts, if you've seen one you've seen them all.
Chapter 01 - Ranma
-----
Friday, June 2, 2000
-----
"Tai, why don't you grab a seat over there with Duo and we can get down to business." Ranma, as the actual lease holder of the apartment was taking charge of things.
"Get down to business? You make it sound like we're here to plan a crime," Duo said, a smirk on his face the whole time.
"Believe me, if you talked to some of the people I've regularly had to deal with we are. I figure that we should tell each other about ourselves. I'm going to go first, to give you guys a chance to decide if you want to stick around or not. My life is a royal pain, and I'm not sure if it's going to take my warning seriously and try to find me here or not." Ranma was taking this whole thing a lot more seriously than anyone thought he should.
"Oookay," commented Duo, always the fount of witticism.
"Why don't you explain what you're talking about, so that we can decide things for ourselves." As always, Gohan was being a logical voice of reason.
"Well, for you to really understand what I've had to deal with, why I'm here, and what I'm worried may come here after me, I'm basically going to have to tell you my life story. Literally."
After watching the others blink a few times Ranma started his tale. "It all started when I was about four or five, and my father took me away from my mother for the sake of 'training,' or so he called it." And so began a retelling of Ranma's life, from when his father took him on that ill-fated training trip, all the way through his battle with Saffron at Jusendo, and to his first failed (forced) wedding.
***
An hour later...
"Good lord... how in the hells did you live through that?" came the response from a disturbed Duo.
"I haven't got a clue. The part isn't even the worst half of it, really."
"You mean there's more?" asked a slightly shell shocked Tai. He may have been the Bearer of Courage, and had faced some of the worst evils the Digital World could throw at him, but he never had to do so alone.
"There's always more. With a life like that, it never ends," came the response from Gohan, who had a slightly far away look on his face.
"Sounds like you know something about it Gohan, but yeah, you're right. It didn't stop after Saffron or the bombed wedding."
"I honestly don't know what those idiots were thinking. They'd just seen me tear apart a God and half a mountain with my bare hands in a single attack, and they turned around and attacked the people that were closest to me. And it hurt when I woke up later under the rubble of the destroyed dojo; they hadn't bothered to look for me, not even my own mother."
"I had hoped that things would've calmed down for a while after that, but as with everything else in my life, no one cared what I wanted. Akane was colder to me than ever, and Nabiki had the gall to blame me for everyone showing up. Old man Tendo and Pop were all over me for 'disregarding family honor,' 'disrespecting their wishes,' and other crap like that. What hurt the worst though was my mother, she blamed the whole thing on me, like I had anything to do with it."
"Kasumi was the only one that didn't try and make me feel worse. She didn't take my side either, though, so I had to put up with all of their crap alone. And it wasn't just everyone at home, I had to deal with all the lunatics at school too, not to mention the rest of the wackos who thought they had a say in my personal life didn't let up either."
"For a month that went on, everyone blaming me for everything that went wrong, and taking their aggressions out on me. By then final exams were literally right around the corner. Now, everyone knew that my grades weren't stellar, which is to be expected with little to no formal education. Kasumi, believe it or not, helped me study for them, and because it was her helping me everyone had no choice but to leave me alone, after all no one was stupid enough to piss off Kasumi."
"So I take it that you passed?" asked Gohan.
"Yeah, with a C+. Nothing stellar, but then again I wasn't really trying." That got them all blinking in confusion. "Remember, most of my life has been dedicated to martial arts. Everyone basically expected me to be some brash uneducated idiot, so I just gave them what they wanted to see."
"So you mean that all that time you were there, you were just acting?" Duo, blunt as an explosion.
"What's the first rule of warfare? Never show your hand, always hold back and let your opponent underestimate you. You'd think they would have figured it out though, I mean no one as dumb as I pretended to be could learn and adapt as quickly as I do, and come up with strategies so well."
"So how well do you think you could have done if you had put some real effort into it?" asked Tai.
"At least a B all around, but one of the reasons I never did too well was because I didn't do any of the homework. With all the attention at home, and the number of times I was randomly attacked it would've looked too out of place."
"You mean that you never did the homework, and still pulled that high of a grade?!" Tai was pretty much in shock, must not do too great in school or something.
"Someone definitely should have noticed that, it's blatant," Gohan said. "How did you pull that off anyway?"
"That's what I'd like to know," concurred Duo.
"Simple, I have a photographic memory."
"So what happened after that? You've still got another year till you're up to date," questioned Duo, as he sank back into his seat.
"Well, since Kasumi had gotten Nabiki out of my hair prior to finals, I didn't have to worry about her anymore, really. Especially since she was having to prepare to head off for college once summer was over."
"Summer went about how I expected: people trying to kill me, girls trying to marry me, parents trying to force me to marry, and people trying to hurt me everywhere in between."
"I was glad when summer was over though. While I did have to go back to school, it also meant that around seven hours out of the day would be spent away from the parents, and that the chance of someone attacking went down some (not much, but every little bit helps)."
"The 'adults' and the girls kept pushing for a wedding, and slowly got more and more insistent. Luckily for me no more 'new' fiancées showed up."
"Over Christmas break though, the shit really hit the fan. The morons tried another forced wedding. Firstly, I don't see what made them think it would work, and secondly I don't see what make them think that me being married would stop any of the other girls. I know Shampoo would try to kill anyone I married that wasn't her. I'd say pretty much the same for Kodachi, but she let up after that first attempt."
"Well, needless to say, the second attempt was about as successful as the first. It was just that this time no one was stupid enough to bring exploding food or draw live steel. When things started to go sour I used the Umi-Sen-ken to hide myself, and went off to a quiet little corner to watch things degenerate. Things came to halt though when one of Shampoo's bonbori broke at the haft, and the head flew at Kasumi."
"Before anyone knew what had happened I had atomized the thing with a chi blast. The next thing they knew, they were all ejected from the dojo by me, regardless of who they were (except for Kasumi) or what their relation to me was."
"I think they all got the picture at that point and broke it up. When Mr. Tendo and my 'parents' tried to pull some kinda bull on me later that day Kasumi stood up for me, which no one had done without ulterior motives in a long, long time. That shut them up pretty quick, no one wants to offend Kasumi since she's basically what keeps that family going."
"About a week later Cologne said she wanted to talk to me, alone. When I met with her she did the smartest thing I'd ever seen her do since meeting her: she offered me a deal. I don't mean some bullshit deal where I give Shampoo a child and they go away, but a real deal. She knew that Shampoo had about as much chance of winning me as there was of me locking myself in cursed form and petitioning for membership in their tribe."
"So she did the only thing she could: she made a deal for the safety of her people. She knew what I had done to Saffron, something that her people couldn't have done and kept the cost low enough to be acceptable, and she didn't relish the idea of me turning my power against her and her people."
"In exchange for my not killing herself, Shampoo, and the rest of her tribe, she would level the playing field, not to mention respecting my final decision. She would no longer give Shampoo any kind of assistance in her quest for my heart, except verbal advise, without any hidden double meanings. Shampoo would no longer have access to any form of magical artifacts, potions, etc. that could in any way, shape, or form alter a person's perceptions, feelings, emotions, beliefs, and/or anything else along those lines. If Shampoo somehow obtained something like that on her own, Cologne would stop her from using it. If Shampoo had in fact stolen it from Cologne, her punishment would have been to have her locked in her cursed form, after it had been altered to that of a man. Following that, she would be forever banished from the village, forbidden to have contact with her family or seeking revenge on anyone. The penalty for violating those dictates would be death by an Amazon hunting party."
"Damn," came the stunned response from Duo. "Isn't that a bit harsh? I mean, she was talking about her great granddaughter."
"Yeah, but what's one person in comparison to your whole civilization? After all, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or one," responded Gohan, using logic to see into the heart of things.
"Yeah. It might have been hard for her, but sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the greater good."
"Well put Tai, but yeah, you're all right. It took me a while to decide on whether or not to agree. I'd dealt with Cologne before and she always had some trick up her sleeve. This time, though, she didn't. She wasn't going to gamble with everything she knew and held dear on the line, no sane person would. After about a half hour I finally agreed to her terms. After signing, and having me sign, a document detailing the whole agreement, in triplicate, I was free to go, secure in the knowledge that at least one of the threats to my final decision was more or less taken care of."
"Why did you have to do three copies?" asked Gohan, his eyebrow raised.
"Yeah, that's what I'd like to know," seconded Duo, as Tai shook his head in agreement.
"One copy for Cologne, one for myself, and one was sent to the tribal council in the Amazon village back in China. When I left we were still waiting on the confirmation of it being received. The other elders may not have liked it, but as the Matriarch Cologne has more power, and since she was the only one in Japan and had been in close proximity with me for so long she had the final say in the matter. Only a complete vote of disapproval by all council members would have stopped it, in which case a third party mediator would have been brought in to deal with things. Cologne doesn't think that will happen though."
"So what happened after all that went down?" questioned Tai, voicing the silent question all three had in their eyes.
"Well, with Cologne no longer helping, or even truly encouraging Shampoo, Mousse backed off on attacking me. With things cooling down on the Amazon front, things got a little better with the Tendos and Ukyo. With a little more free time on my hands, I was able to do something I've always enjoyed: helping others."
"You see, while everyone in the house respected Kasumi, no one really paid attention to her. She was as alone in her own home with her family, as I was surrounded by my fiancées. So I did the one thing no one ever would have expected: I talked to her. You have no idea how happy she was just having someone to talk to on a regular basis, and I mean really talking not just someone voicing their complaints to her without wanting to know how she felt."
"Now, about three months before finals started, the tensions started to rise. It wasn't noticeable right away, but every couple days they would get a little higher. That wouldn't have been that big of a deal if they had actually gone down any, but they didn't."
"Finally, two months before finals, I'd had enough of it. My family's home had been fully repaired since Christmas, but we hadn't moved back. Twenty to one odds say I know exactly why, but I digress. I was sick of living under someone else's roof, and having rules dictated to me, when I had a perfectly good home to go to. So I forced my mother to see some sense, and got her to move back home and 'take me' with her."
"Needless to say, that didn't go over too well with some of the others. Pop and old man Tendo were against it from the get go, but Kasumi helped keep them in line. The other girls stopped bitching once they realized that it kept me apart from Akane."
"Things were a little better for me in the long run from it, but it gave the others a 'better' reason to be more forceful when I was around. By the time finals finally arrived, I was sick of their bull. I made my mom forbid anyone but her, myself, and Kasumi from being on the property."
"Don't tell me that actually stopped them?" Duo asked.
"It wouldn't have, if I didn't also force her to make a few threats to go along with it. If they didn't respect her wishes, engagements would be disavowed and the police would be involved. That, combined with the fact that they thought it would only last a little while, and that I was 'fair game' outside the house, made them listen to her."
"I knew, though, that as soon as finals were over, they'd be all over me again. More than likely, the old fools would try to force me into another wedding attempt. I sure as hell wasn't gonna deal with that if I could avoid it, so I did what I had to. I decided to leave so I could get some time to myself and decide what I wanted to do."
"As soon as I got the results to my finals, I packed my stuff up and left. I left a note behind saying that I'd be back and if anyone came after me I wouldn't be back no matter what."
"You think that'll stop them?" inquired Tai.
"Normally, no, but I've always kept my promises, unlike my pop. Besides, they'll think I'm off in the woods somewhere, training, not in a city living in an apartment. I think you can figure out the rest of the story from there."
Duo, Gohan, and Tai all nodded at that.
Shaking his head, Duo spoke up. "That's one hell of a life you've led." Everyone nodded their agreement to that statement.
"I'm hoping that none of those people will come after me here, but I'm not positive my threats will dissuade them all. If any of you don't want to deal with that, now is your chance to bow out."
A minute passed in silence, and no one moved.
"Well, I guess I speak for all of us when I say that we're prepared to deal with your problems should they show up," spoke Gohan.
"Here, here," concurred Duo.
"I'm with you guys. I'm not afraid of a few ill-tempered girls and a pack of idiots," came Tai's two yen.
"Believe me, if you ever meet them, you will be," was Ranma's response, along with a sour expression.
A moment later the four teens broke out into laughter.
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Author's Notes:
Well, this certainly took a while to do. I tend to only be able to get myself to write when I'm in class, go figure. I wrote a large chunk of this while out of town to attend a funeral. If that doesn't say that my force for writing is messed up, I don't know what does. I had hoped to get this out to my pre-readers before I left for Anime Weekend Atlanta, but I ran out of time. As soon as this gets back from them and I can fix it up based on their comments it'll be posted. Hope you enjoyed it. The next couple chapters will show what has happened in the lives of the other guys since the intersection points in the canon stories.
C&C is welcome, so long as it is constructive. Flames will be referred to my lawyers as hate mail.