DISCLAIMER: Relatively standard stuff. Existing characters are properties of the people who made them up. Mitsuki, and several other characters are mine, and so's the story, hence ownership and copyright of them belongs to me. Contact me at domino@linksnet.nu if you want permission to use anything I've written for whatnot purposes.
TRUTH
by
Raymond Cooper
Chapter 20
** Kiss of Death **
Minako stepped through her basic training routine, while Ranma stood by and watched, towel in hand. He observed as she threw a punch, and shook his head. Minako moved into a waiting stance while he demonstrated the correct style of punch they had practised. "Rotate the wrist through one hundred-eighty degrees and aim to finish with your wrist in line with your elbow."
"Like a piledriver."
"Yeah." He leaned back, and watched as Minako tried again. Not accurate in the least, but better than it had been. She threw several morein timed succession. They got better as she progressed.
"She seems to be learning the basics fine," Hotaru noted from behind Ranma's back. He didn't turn around.
"Faster than you guys did, that's for sure. But maybe that's because she had no real training or thoughts of training before." Ranma shrugged. "The rest of you did. Or thought you knew it all." He could feel Hotaru blush. While that wasn't completely accurate, she had believed that as the senshi of destruction, she knew something more than Ranma did about fighting.
After all, the ultimate finishing move (or opening move, even) was blowing up a planet.
Of which Hotaru was capable.
But now, she was dressed in her school uniform, fluffed out skirt waving in the breeze up on the mountain. Her briefcase containing homework and lunch was clasped in both hands in front of her, and she waited. The breeze blew from behind her, towards Ranma, and he sniffed. Wow. Turning, he raised an eyebrow.
"Perfume?" Hotaru nodded. "Heh. Remind me to tell you a story about that one day. You looking for a ride down the stairs?" She nodded again. "Gimme five minutes to grab a shower, and I'll be out. Okay, Minako, that's enough for now. You'd better get ready for university today, too."
"Okay..." Minako muttered, concentrating and throwing one last punch. The ki spike from it made Ranma blink. He looked at Hotaru, and she cocked her head to one side.
"Guess."
"You're kidding." The younger girl shook her head. "You're not kidding. Wow. You girls just keep turning up everywhere."
Minako eyed Hotaru. "You told him?"
Hotaru shrugged. "He, uh, found out half of us pretty damned quick. He keeps his mouth shut about it, too." She shrugged again, and pushed Ranma towards the dormitory's front doors. "Hurry up and shower."
"I'm going, I'm going," Ranma muttered, and headed off inside.
******
At the bottom of the stairs, Ranma lowered Hotaru from his back, and rubbed at the back of his head slightly embarrassed as she patted her billowing uniform skirt down. Actually, though, the more he looked at it, the more it seemed familiar...
"Hotaru?" he asked. "Uh... what school do you go to?"
Okay, Hotaru decided. Now's the time to tell him the truth - or to lie. How would be react to knowing that I'm... interfering in his life? Or protecting him, howvere you want to put it. Would he react calmly? Or would he react angrily? She knew he wasn't fully over recent events, not by a long shot. Hell, he still wouldn't allow Mitsuki into the training in the morning, although he wasn't automatically turning away from her, either. He just wasn't acknowledging her now.
Which, technically, was an improvement.
At least Hotaru could safely let them be in the same room together, alone, knowing that there wouldn't be blood on the wall when she returned. Who's she couldn't say these days. Why not? Well, as much as Ranma had been teaching them, and as much as they'd learnt about Ranma, Ranma could still run rings around them. He simply knew more about fighting than they did - and it seemed he knew more about warfare, too, judging by some muttered comments in impromptu strategy meetings at morning training.
Which also meant, while Hotaru thought he'd be okay with the knowledge that she was help to stop formal rivals from attacking him over breaking off his engagement, she really didn't want to try and place more of a load on Ranma's shoulders until he'd gotten over Mitsuki's attack on Shampoo.
Which meant a lie.
"Juuban West High," she replied, the lie sticking somewhere in her teeth. It certainly didn't sound convincing to her. Yet Ranma smiled, and nodded, as if he wasn't really listening. She probably could have grabbed his ear, yelled, "I'M GOING TO FURINKAN HIGH, DOLT!" and he'd have just smiled and nodded. Hotaru thought, anyway.
"Well, I'm heading off for the day," he continued, looking down the road. He had a fair walk ahead of him... and he wanted to be in Nerima before lunch... he'd hit the school on his way home, most likely. Simply because he'd have to check up on what kind of things Nabiki had been saying in the last few months, and that would mean he'd have to steel himself and run the gauntlet. He waved, and headed off.
Hotaru breathed a sigh of relief, then started off for the local train station.
******
"Hotaru-chan!"
Nabiki called out of the heads of half a dozen boys clustered around her. She was doing her morning take, Hotaru noticed, running the betting pool. She wondered what the latest was. She also noticed a girl standing next to Nabiki... well, hanging upside-down next to Nabiki, at any rate. Bleached blond hair, tanned skin. Wearing the Furinkan High uniform a little oddly, looser than usually done by girls.
Ah, Kaolla Su, Hotaru remembered. From the dorm that Ami's ex-boyfriend came from - what, the Hinata Sou? Yeah, that was it. She nodded at Kaolla, and stepped up behind Nabiki. "Yes, sempai?"
Nabiki stopped taking bets for a few moments to turn around to Hotaru. She bent down to peer into Hotaru's wondering eyes. As always, Nabiki's mind was perfectly open: you're my little slave and you don't know it, those eyes said. Hotaru grinned inside. As long as she kept up the sycophantic cover, Hotaru would be in no danger. "Hotaruuu... I've got a job for you."
"Yes?"
"You remember me talking about that boy who cruelly dumped my sister?"
Yes, of course she did; she'd spent the previous night leaning up against him on the couch while they watched Ranger Rescue SD. She nodded. "Yes, sempai."
"Kaolla says he's coming this way today. I want to make a special welcome for him at the school. Can you run around the classes and tell them Ranma Saotome will be arriving around lunch time?"
What are you up to, Nabiki Tendo? Hotaru wondered. She glanced at Kaolla, who grinned happily and vacantly. "Yes, sempai. I can do that." And then Nabiki had turned back, was taking bets again.
Kaolla leaned in, excited. "Yes! Again, the world will tremble at the sight of -" She paused, thinking about something, very obviously forcing herself to remember something. "Maybe not. Mecha-Tama 4 isn't as big, nor as complicated as the others..."
"What?"
"Mecha-Tama 4 is a miniaturised espionage device!" Kaolla punched the air. "The world will learn to fear Mecha-Tama 4's invasion of their privacy!" She bounced off, almost literally, to continue on her rantings and ravings, leaving behind a confused Hotaru and one other girl.
She looked somewhat similar to Hotaru, even had the embarrassed blush that Hotaru had perfected the first few days in the Ai Sou around Ranma, as she bowed forward. "Sorry. I'm so sorry. Kaolla is a little exciteable with her new toys."
Hotaru knew the girl. She'd transferred in with Kaolla and another girl... Sara? Weirdly enough, they too lived with Keitaro Urashima. Shinobu, that's right. The name clicked into Hotaru's mind, and she nodded. "That's okay. This is going to cause some excitement."
"You know this Ranma?" Shinobu asked, her eyes still down on the ground. Hotaru paused a moment before answering.
"I've... met him."
"He sounds like the monster Narusegawa-sempai makes my Keitaro-sempai out to be." Another blush. Wow, this girl had it down good.
"Ranma isn't a monster," Hotaru replied. "He's... Nabiki-san is a little angry at him. You didn't notice she's telling different stories to different people?"
Shinobu nodded her head. "He still sounds worse than my sempai."
"He's..." Now, how exactly could Hotaru defend her own "sempai" without landing herself in it? She knew for a fact her Ranma was better than Keitaro... she'd seen them both, she'd fought against both - and in fighting, you found out more about the person than even a thousand hours of talking. Why? You saw how they attacked problems, how they got past defeats, all masks ripped away by fury, when one rarely had time to think - let alone feel. But Ranma did both in his fighting. Hotaru knew him to be a careful thinker - although he didn't like to show it - and a very careful strategician. He'd probably approach love-making the same way, she thought.
That brought that blush she'd learnt to cultivate to her cheeks unaided. Deeper than usual, too. Hotaru ducked her head. Shinobu caught it.
"You know him?"
"I've... seen him in action." Boy, had she ever. And he looked so cute in that little fuku... She found herself wondering if she could convince him to wear it *without* her having to douse him in cold water first...?
"Ah." A pause. Then, a little more forceful, "My Keitaro-sempai is still better."
Obviously an addled, addicted brain, Hotaru decided, and merely nodded in response. The conversation was getting weird, and Hotaru didn't feel she could safely argue Ranma's merits without (a) letting on she knew him rather well, (b) letting on they were snuggling on a common occurance (starting up again after a short break), and (c) that she was working to contain Nabiki Tendo here. As long as she didn't turn up at the Ai Sou again any time soon... the longer Ranma had away from this crazy place, the better. The more he would mature and move away from here.
Shinobu waved, made some goodbye, then stepped after Kaolla Su. Hotaru watched her leave, then turned, and started telling the people of the school what Nabiki Tendo wanted them to know. Of course, she had a stop to make along the way...
******
"Ah. Ranma." Kasumi's face was as cheerful as ever, but her voice... well, that sounded normal, although there was this underlying tone of ice that promised (or threatened) much in there Ranma didn't like. He'd remembered Nabiki's threat from the time she had come to see him, just after he'd broken up with Akane. No, he didn't want to face Kasumi mad.
Anyone that self-assured just *had* to be a badass.
She stepped aside from the doorway, and gestured inside. There was something missing... Ranma realised after a moment, with a start, what it was... the steady thok-thok-thok of the Go board. And there it was, on the garden's verandah, a game in progress. Not knowing how else to start off conversation, Ranma lifted his hand behind his head defensively, and gave a nervous chuckle. "I guess Happosai must have really scared them, huh, Kasumi?"
"He did, Ranma." There was the sound of Kasumi drying her hands in her apron, and when Ranma turned around, she was smiling, head tilted to one side, hands clasped in front of her hips. "So, what are you here for today?"
That sounded odd, even for Kasumi. "Uh..." He remembered, and pulled off his backpack. His earnings, to pay for the repair of the dojo, which because of the Akane and Nabiki incidents, he hadn't felt right about dropping by to give. So he'd picked a time when both Akane and Nabiki would be gone to stop by.
Well, in part.
"The money, Kasumi. For the repairs. I'd have brought it back earlier, but, uh... you know..." His voice trailed off under the silent deadly onslaught of smiles from the elder Tendo sister. He held the backpack out mutely.
Kasumi took it, weighed it in her hands without once opening her eyes to check. "Feels heavier than it should. Does this mean you're coming back to the dojo now?"
Ranma shook his head, not trusting himself to speak. When it was clear Kasumi expected something, he replied, "Naah... I've gotta see this job through."
"You've got other duties to perform, too," Kasumi reminded him, opening his eyes. "And honour demands duty must be obliged." Now that sounded like a threat.
"Kasumi..." Ranma started, not knowing where to go with it.
"When will you be fulfilling your duties to your family, Ranma Saotome?" If not a threat, then promise of one. "You have duty to this family now, too."
Yep. Threat.
Ranma shook his head, and stepped back. "No, Kasumi."
"No? You would abandon your personal and family honour so easily?" She drew her head upright now, still smiling. But Kasumi's eyes had long-since stopped smiling. It frightened Ranma a little. But this had to be booted around sometime.
"It means a lot to me. That's why the backpack's so heavy. All the money I'd have earnt with this job? It's in there." He nodded at it. "Why? I'm buying my way out of the engagement. I don't want this life anymore. I'm workin' to change it. My honour might be tarnished... but that I can recover. My personal integrity... has to remain intact. I never agreed to this engagement - that's Pop's idea. That should be enough money to pay your family for the burden I've been, and enough for a dowry or somethin' for Akane. Restitution anyways. I will always consider Akane a friend. And I'll never stop liking her... but I can never love her, Kasumi. I don't mind explaining I got bruises from training... but from my *fiance*?" He shook his head.
"So, you're leaving us, then."
He nodded at the backpack. "That's plenty of money. Pops can make his own restitution to your family for his burden on you. I don't want to be bothered again. Shampoo... found out what happens when the people I live with get riled. And they're protective. I don't want anyone getting hurt because of me and because they were too stupid to stay away."
"Is that all?" Kasumi asked when Ranma fell silent.
"No. Not all. Kasumi -" He bit the inside of his lip as he thought how best to say this. "Kasumi, tell Akane that when she grows up a bit, I'd be glad to call her a friend. Until then... tell her to get over me. I'm worthless, bought out of our engagement to get our fathers off my back, whatever. Tell the truth or lies, in the end it won't matter. Tell her to get on with her life."
Kasumi nodded, her eyes dark and hooded. For a moment, Ranma thought he saw a flash in there, and an ice chill ran up his spine. He wanted to flee the garden, jump the walls and never come back. But the eldest daughter of Soun Tendo stepped back into the house by the lounge sliding doors, and nodded. She spoke quietly. "I have yet to decide how to feel here, Ranma. You did hurt my little sister. I... respect your reasons for doing so, respect the ways in which you've tried to atoned. But I might not respect you anymore for this. You hurt my sister." With that, she nodded again, in dismissal this time, and pulled the door shut. Ranma felt a trickle of sweat roll down his spine, following the chill. And right then, he decided to get out of the yard, away from the house, before that door could open again.
Kasumi scared him.
From above, tear-stained eyes watched him leave from behind a bedroom window. Kind of angry, tear-stained eyes. Being dumped for a younger model wasn't quite how Akane would have liked their relationship to end. And she was rather angry.
******
"Tatewaki Kuno."
Kuno knealt on the ground. "Yes, my cosmic pan-dimensional magical goddess, I hear your every utterance and obey!" He gave a laugh, to his ears sounding heroic - to everyone else's, sounding slightly deranged.
Hotaru sighed, looked around, then grabbed the kneeling Kuno's ear and dragged him off into an empty classroom. "I've told you not to call me that when I'm dressed like this!"
"Ah, but your fair interstellar beauty shines through any paltry human disguise, my lady! How may I escape the brilliance of your presence when -"
"You want me to transform."
Kuno nodded, heroically, manfully, unabashed. "Yes, it would please me no end, knowing I was being addressed by a true goddess, rather than her human skin."
That sounded disturbing, but Hotaru knew how Kuno's hormones... well, what passed for his mind, worked. Kind of. For some reason known only to him, he couldn't keep his eyes off her cleavage. Hotaru inwardly shrugged. If it got his attention, it worked. Did that make her evil? Maybe just a *little* bit. At least Ranma would never know. "Saturn planet power make-up," she muttered, and she flared up into the guise of Sailor Saturn. "Tatewaki Kuno -" He liked it when she addressed him by name - it gave him a kick or something, knowing a great power was interested in his service. True to form, while his eyes were meeting hers, they were threatening to drop downwards.
One of these days, Saturn was going to have a nice talk with whomever had had the idea to give the uniforms of the senshi such short mini-skirts.
"Tatewako Kuno, you have been selected by Sailor Saturn, most powerful of the Outer Senshi and second in strength only to the Moon Princess, for a dangerous mission. You are to protect Ranma Saotome's life with your own if necessary against the evil machinations of Nabiki Tendo." Damn, but that was easy to say. If Saturn wasn't careful, she could very easily get the hang of speaking like Kuno.
It was something she'd have to watch.
Kuno bridled at the thought of having to help Ranma, and his eyes now did lock onto Saturn's, hatred burning there. Nor just hatred by itself. There was loathing there, fear, sadness. Behind his seeming madness. But was it directed at Ranma? No, it was something internal, that he was fighting against. Somethingfrom his own past, she pondered, that Ranma reminded him of? But what? Ranma, according to Kuno, held against her will a beautiful pig-tailed goddess - Ranma's female form that Hotaru had known about for a long time now. So could it be something to do with that? She didn't know. But it would be interesting to find out.
Kuno's eyes returned to what passed for normal for him, and he nodded, then bowed deeply. "This, I shall do and cherish carrying out your word, my planet-sized goddess."
Saturn nodded, and let her transformation slip from her, returning to her Furinkan uniform. Kuno bowed again, and left. Hotaru frowned, then looked after Kuno's departing form. Did he just call her fat?
******
Ranma made it to the school not long after the lunch bell had rung. Students were out in the front courtyard, idling, standing up against trees and the wall. Sitting on the stairs, the footpath, and the grassed area to either side. Not... completely unusual, but usually it signified something that Nabiki had set up - some great new bet or something.
The doors to the school opened, and Nabiki stepped out. "Oh, Ranma! What a surprise. I'd have never expected you to appear here again, not after what you did."
Ah. So that was what this was about. He was most likely the bet. Or event. Or something. Anything could be crawling around in the money-hungry parts of Nabiki Tendo's mind. It involved him, that he could be sure of.
"Yes, I broke off the engagement," Ranma confirmed, loudly enough for everyone assembled to hear. "Anyone wanna make something of it?" He glared around, and there were lots of angry growls and stares - but everyone remembered Ranma could *fight*. He could fight monsters and demons, and high school kids just didn't cut it anymore. He returned his gaze to Nabiki. "So what's this about?"
"Why'd you come back, Ranma?"
"To pay Kasumi for the damages Pop caused. And to pay off the engagement. Akane's officially a free woman now. With a nice dowry, or compensation, or whatever your family wanna call it."
His stance directly challenged Nabiki's. But she felt she still had the upper hand here. She played her next card. "So, you think you can just ignore my family's honour, and my sister's, and dump her whenever you want?"
"If we're going to talk about honour, how honourable is it to suffer violence in silence? I'm too nice to hit Akane back, Nabiki: you know that." Tit for tat. Nabiki frowned. He wasn't taking the bait as fast as she thought.
"Still, her honour remains tarnished at your hands. And there are some people who don't agree with that."
"Are you challenging me, Nabiki?"
"I'm not." Nabiki tossed her head over towards the edge of the courtyard. Students parted like the Red Sea, and there was Kuno, standing in a relaxed position with his bokken, glaring at Ranma. "They are... oh, where the HELL is Ryoga?" Someone whispered in her ear, and she sighed. "He is. Kuno-baby?"
Kuno stared at Ranma some more, and was silent for a full thirty seconds. Then he began a slow stride from his position to stand barely two metres from Ranma. Ranma didn't react. He waited for action from Kuno.
Kuno's actions surprised him. "I cannot act in such a case, Nabiki Tendo," he replied, quiet, but his voice carrying to Nabiki's position. She was surprised. "For he, while he may be an evil sorceror... is under my... protection." He glanced back at Ranma, who was easily equally surprised as Nabiki. "I'm on a mission from a goddess."
Which Ranma thought was weird, but not as weird as some things Kuno had said. There was usually a grain of truth in the things he carried on about, so while Ranma listened to Nabiki, he let his body relax, and reached out to feel battle auras.
"What? Kuno! How COULD you?" Nabiki was flabergasted, and lost for intelligent conversation and planning. "Akane is hurt! Akane -"
"The Blue Thunder of Furinkan High has it on the best authority that -"
"He *DUMPED* her! How can you forgive that?"
"That... merely gives her a chance to date the great Tatewaki -"
Nabiki gaped as Kuno continued. Who was this guy, what had he done with the real Kuno? No matter. She did have one more trick up her sleeve. Cologne had talked to her several weeks before about Shampoo's encounter at Ranma's hands... that he did live with powerful women who guarded his safety closely. And she'd turned up something that *might* help. But the original lore had been passed down verbally, and by the time it was in print form, it had diluted a little, and the effects hadn't been deemed of import enough to be noted. So she stalked down to Ranma, pushed Kuno aside to get to him, lifted a clenched fist.
Opened it. Blew on her palm.
Glittering particles blew at Ranma, and while he jumped back quickly, some were inhaled before he could do anything. But it did nothing to him immediately, and he calmed down a little. "This isn't getting you over this, Nabiki. I'll return when you've calmed down a little." He turned to Kuno. "Great seeing you again. And... thanks."
Kuno nodded to Ranma gravely. "Thank the goddess. Were it not for her intervention, I might be tempted to take the middle Tendo sister up on her offer. Had the oldest made it..."
"Yeah, I know," Ranma replied, before giving Kuno a nod of thanks and leaving. Time for home, he felt. And he had a long walk ahead of him...
SAILOR MOON SAYS:
Another one that's taken a while to write. Hope it comes out fine. Dunno why Kuno's the way he is - whether other fan fic authors have tried explaining it or not, or whatever has been said about it. But, well, a thought struck me while writing this. It won't resurface now, but will come back to it, definitely. It would certainly explain a lot.
I hope this is up to the standard being expected.... if not, complain, let me know ;) Rant, rave, slip some of that evil constructive criticism in while you're doing so.
The title referred to the fact that there's no going back now. Ranma's chosen his path for sure. He can't return. He's left the door open for others to come into his life, but he won't be going back to his old life - you can never go back.
Heh. Kasumi's creepy. I've always found her creepy to write for. Why? I dunno. *no one* can be that happy and blase about things all the time. It has to hide something. But what?
Anyways, next time on Truth: blank space here. Anyone got any ideas? New monster alert. Old monster alert. Natsumi caught with her pants down.
Geeze, what *would* Ranma look like in that fuku... man, I'm getting some quite frankly sick ideas here... I'm scared, hold me?
TRUTH
by
Raymond Cooper
Chapter 20
** Kiss of Death **
Minako stepped through her basic training routine, while Ranma stood by and watched, towel in hand. He observed as she threw a punch, and shook his head. Minako moved into a waiting stance while he demonstrated the correct style of punch they had practised. "Rotate the wrist through one hundred-eighty degrees and aim to finish with your wrist in line with your elbow."
"Like a piledriver."
"Yeah." He leaned back, and watched as Minako tried again. Not accurate in the least, but better than it had been. She threw several morein timed succession. They got better as she progressed.
"She seems to be learning the basics fine," Hotaru noted from behind Ranma's back. He didn't turn around.
"Faster than you guys did, that's for sure. But maybe that's because she had no real training or thoughts of training before." Ranma shrugged. "The rest of you did. Or thought you knew it all." He could feel Hotaru blush. While that wasn't completely accurate, she had believed that as the senshi of destruction, she knew something more than Ranma did about fighting.
After all, the ultimate finishing move (or opening move, even) was blowing up a planet.
Of which Hotaru was capable.
But now, she was dressed in her school uniform, fluffed out skirt waving in the breeze up on the mountain. Her briefcase containing homework and lunch was clasped in both hands in front of her, and she waited. The breeze blew from behind her, towards Ranma, and he sniffed. Wow. Turning, he raised an eyebrow.
"Perfume?" Hotaru nodded. "Heh. Remind me to tell you a story about that one day. You looking for a ride down the stairs?" She nodded again. "Gimme five minutes to grab a shower, and I'll be out. Okay, Minako, that's enough for now. You'd better get ready for university today, too."
"Okay..." Minako muttered, concentrating and throwing one last punch. The ki spike from it made Ranma blink. He looked at Hotaru, and she cocked her head to one side.
"Guess."
"You're kidding." The younger girl shook her head. "You're not kidding. Wow. You girls just keep turning up everywhere."
Minako eyed Hotaru. "You told him?"
Hotaru shrugged. "He, uh, found out half of us pretty damned quick. He keeps his mouth shut about it, too." She shrugged again, and pushed Ranma towards the dormitory's front doors. "Hurry up and shower."
"I'm going, I'm going," Ranma muttered, and headed off inside.
******
At the bottom of the stairs, Ranma lowered Hotaru from his back, and rubbed at the back of his head slightly embarrassed as she patted her billowing uniform skirt down. Actually, though, the more he looked at it, the more it seemed familiar...
"Hotaru?" he asked. "Uh... what school do you go to?"
Okay, Hotaru decided. Now's the time to tell him the truth - or to lie. How would be react to knowing that I'm... interfering in his life? Or protecting him, howvere you want to put it. Would he react calmly? Or would he react angrily? She knew he wasn't fully over recent events, not by a long shot. Hell, he still wouldn't allow Mitsuki into the training in the morning, although he wasn't automatically turning away from her, either. He just wasn't acknowledging her now.
Which, technically, was an improvement.
At least Hotaru could safely let them be in the same room together, alone, knowing that there wouldn't be blood on the wall when she returned. Who's she couldn't say these days. Why not? Well, as much as Ranma had been teaching them, and as much as they'd learnt about Ranma, Ranma could still run rings around them. He simply knew more about fighting than they did - and it seemed he knew more about warfare, too, judging by some muttered comments in impromptu strategy meetings at morning training.
Which also meant, while Hotaru thought he'd be okay with the knowledge that she was help to stop formal rivals from attacking him over breaking off his engagement, she really didn't want to try and place more of a load on Ranma's shoulders until he'd gotten over Mitsuki's attack on Shampoo.
Which meant a lie.
"Juuban West High," she replied, the lie sticking somewhere in her teeth. It certainly didn't sound convincing to her. Yet Ranma smiled, and nodded, as if he wasn't really listening. She probably could have grabbed his ear, yelled, "I'M GOING TO FURINKAN HIGH, DOLT!" and he'd have just smiled and nodded. Hotaru thought, anyway.
"Well, I'm heading off for the day," he continued, looking down the road. He had a fair walk ahead of him... and he wanted to be in Nerima before lunch... he'd hit the school on his way home, most likely. Simply because he'd have to check up on what kind of things Nabiki had been saying in the last few months, and that would mean he'd have to steel himself and run the gauntlet. He waved, and headed off.
Hotaru breathed a sigh of relief, then started off for the local train station.
******
"Hotaru-chan!"
Nabiki called out of the heads of half a dozen boys clustered around her. She was doing her morning take, Hotaru noticed, running the betting pool. She wondered what the latest was. She also noticed a girl standing next to Nabiki... well, hanging upside-down next to Nabiki, at any rate. Bleached blond hair, tanned skin. Wearing the Furinkan High uniform a little oddly, looser than usually done by girls.
Ah, Kaolla Su, Hotaru remembered. From the dorm that Ami's ex-boyfriend came from - what, the Hinata Sou? Yeah, that was it. She nodded at Kaolla, and stepped up behind Nabiki. "Yes, sempai?"
Nabiki stopped taking bets for a few moments to turn around to Hotaru. She bent down to peer into Hotaru's wondering eyes. As always, Nabiki's mind was perfectly open: you're my little slave and you don't know it, those eyes said. Hotaru grinned inside. As long as she kept up the sycophantic cover, Hotaru would be in no danger. "Hotaruuu... I've got a job for you."
"Yes?"
"You remember me talking about that boy who cruelly dumped my sister?"
Yes, of course she did; she'd spent the previous night leaning up against him on the couch while they watched Ranger Rescue SD. She nodded. "Yes, sempai."
"Kaolla says he's coming this way today. I want to make a special welcome for him at the school. Can you run around the classes and tell them Ranma Saotome will be arriving around lunch time?"
What are you up to, Nabiki Tendo? Hotaru wondered. She glanced at Kaolla, who grinned happily and vacantly. "Yes, sempai. I can do that." And then Nabiki had turned back, was taking bets again.
Kaolla leaned in, excited. "Yes! Again, the world will tremble at the sight of -" She paused, thinking about something, very obviously forcing herself to remember something. "Maybe not. Mecha-Tama 4 isn't as big, nor as complicated as the others..."
"What?"
"Mecha-Tama 4 is a miniaturised espionage device!" Kaolla punched the air. "The world will learn to fear Mecha-Tama 4's invasion of their privacy!" She bounced off, almost literally, to continue on her rantings and ravings, leaving behind a confused Hotaru and one other girl.
She looked somewhat similar to Hotaru, even had the embarrassed blush that Hotaru had perfected the first few days in the Ai Sou around Ranma, as she bowed forward. "Sorry. I'm so sorry. Kaolla is a little exciteable with her new toys."
Hotaru knew the girl. She'd transferred in with Kaolla and another girl... Sara? Weirdly enough, they too lived with Keitaro Urashima. Shinobu, that's right. The name clicked into Hotaru's mind, and she nodded. "That's okay. This is going to cause some excitement."
"You know this Ranma?" Shinobu asked, her eyes still down on the ground. Hotaru paused a moment before answering.
"I've... met him."
"He sounds like the monster Narusegawa-sempai makes my Keitaro-sempai out to be." Another blush. Wow, this girl had it down good.
"Ranma isn't a monster," Hotaru replied. "He's... Nabiki-san is a little angry at him. You didn't notice she's telling different stories to different people?"
Shinobu nodded her head. "He still sounds worse than my sempai."
"He's..." Now, how exactly could Hotaru defend her own "sempai" without landing herself in it? She knew for a fact her Ranma was better than Keitaro... she'd seen them both, she'd fought against both - and in fighting, you found out more about the person than even a thousand hours of talking. Why? You saw how they attacked problems, how they got past defeats, all masks ripped away by fury, when one rarely had time to think - let alone feel. But Ranma did both in his fighting. Hotaru knew him to be a careful thinker - although he didn't like to show it - and a very careful strategician. He'd probably approach love-making the same way, she thought.
That brought that blush she'd learnt to cultivate to her cheeks unaided. Deeper than usual, too. Hotaru ducked her head. Shinobu caught it.
"You know him?"
"I've... seen him in action." Boy, had she ever. And he looked so cute in that little fuku... She found herself wondering if she could convince him to wear it *without* her having to douse him in cold water first...?
"Ah." A pause. Then, a little more forceful, "My Keitaro-sempai is still better."
Obviously an addled, addicted brain, Hotaru decided, and merely nodded in response. The conversation was getting weird, and Hotaru didn't feel she could safely argue Ranma's merits without (a) letting on she knew him rather well, (b) letting on they were snuggling on a common occurance (starting up again after a short break), and (c) that she was working to contain Nabiki Tendo here. As long as she didn't turn up at the Ai Sou again any time soon... the longer Ranma had away from this crazy place, the better. The more he would mature and move away from here.
Shinobu waved, made some goodbye, then stepped after Kaolla Su. Hotaru watched her leave, then turned, and started telling the people of the school what Nabiki Tendo wanted them to know. Of course, she had a stop to make along the way...
******
"Ah. Ranma." Kasumi's face was as cheerful as ever, but her voice... well, that sounded normal, although there was this underlying tone of ice that promised (or threatened) much in there Ranma didn't like. He'd remembered Nabiki's threat from the time she had come to see him, just after he'd broken up with Akane. No, he didn't want to face Kasumi mad.
Anyone that self-assured just *had* to be a badass.
She stepped aside from the doorway, and gestured inside. There was something missing... Ranma realised after a moment, with a start, what it was... the steady thok-thok-thok of the Go board. And there it was, on the garden's verandah, a game in progress. Not knowing how else to start off conversation, Ranma lifted his hand behind his head defensively, and gave a nervous chuckle. "I guess Happosai must have really scared them, huh, Kasumi?"
"He did, Ranma." There was the sound of Kasumi drying her hands in her apron, and when Ranma turned around, she was smiling, head tilted to one side, hands clasped in front of her hips. "So, what are you here for today?"
That sounded odd, even for Kasumi. "Uh..." He remembered, and pulled off his backpack. His earnings, to pay for the repair of the dojo, which because of the Akane and Nabiki incidents, he hadn't felt right about dropping by to give. So he'd picked a time when both Akane and Nabiki would be gone to stop by.
Well, in part.
"The money, Kasumi. For the repairs. I'd have brought it back earlier, but, uh... you know..." His voice trailed off under the silent deadly onslaught of smiles from the elder Tendo sister. He held the backpack out mutely.
Kasumi took it, weighed it in her hands without once opening her eyes to check. "Feels heavier than it should. Does this mean you're coming back to the dojo now?"
Ranma shook his head, not trusting himself to speak. When it was clear Kasumi expected something, he replied, "Naah... I've gotta see this job through."
"You've got other duties to perform, too," Kasumi reminded him, opening his eyes. "And honour demands duty must be obliged." Now that sounded like a threat.
"Kasumi..." Ranma started, not knowing where to go with it.
"When will you be fulfilling your duties to your family, Ranma Saotome?" If not a threat, then promise of one. "You have duty to this family now, too."
Yep. Threat.
Ranma shook his head, and stepped back. "No, Kasumi."
"No? You would abandon your personal and family honour so easily?" She drew her head upright now, still smiling. But Kasumi's eyes had long-since stopped smiling. It frightened Ranma a little. But this had to be booted around sometime.
"It means a lot to me. That's why the backpack's so heavy. All the money I'd have earnt with this job? It's in there." He nodded at it. "Why? I'm buying my way out of the engagement. I don't want this life anymore. I'm workin' to change it. My honour might be tarnished... but that I can recover. My personal integrity... has to remain intact. I never agreed to this engagement - that's Pop's idea. That should be enough money to pay your family for the burden I've been, and enough for a dowry or somethin' for Akane. Restitution anyways. I will always consider Akane a friend. And I'll never stop liking her... but I can never love her, Kasumi. I don't mind explaining I got bruises from training... but from my *fiance*?" He shook his head.
"So, you're leaving us, then."
He nodded at the backpack. "That's plenty of money. Pops can make his own restitution to your family for his burden on you. I don't want to be bothered again. Shampoo... found out what happens when the people I live with get riled. And they're protective. I don't want anyone getting hurt because of me and because they were too stupid to stay away."
"Is that all?" Kasumi asked when Ranma fell silent.
"No. Not all. Kasumi -" He bit the inside of his lip as he thought how best to say this. "Kasumi, tell Akane that when she grows up a bit, I'd be glad to call her a friend. Until then... tell her to get over me. I'm worthless, bought out of our engagement to get our fathers off my back, whatever. Tell the truth or lies, in the end it won't matter. Tell her to get on with her life."
Kasumi nodded, her eyes dark and hooded. For a moment, Ranma thought he saw a flash in there, and an ice chill ran up his spine. He wanted to flee the garden, jump the walls and never come back. But the eldest daughter of Soun Tendo stepped back into the house by the lounge sliding doors, and nodded. She spoke quietly. "I have yet to decide how to feel here, Ranma. You did hurt my little sister. I... respect your reasons for doing so, respect the ways in which you've tried to atoned. But I might not respect you anymore for this. You hurt my sister." With that, she nodded again, in dismissal this time, and pulled the door shut. Ranma felt a trickle of sweat roll down his spine, following the chill. And right then, he decided to get out of the yard, away from the house, before that door could open again.
Kasumi scared him.
From above, tear-stained eyes watched him leave from behind a bedroom window. Kind of angry, tear-stained eyes. Being dumped for a younger model wasn't quite how Akane would have liked their relationship to end. And she was rather angry.
******
"Tatewaki Kuno."
Kuno knealt on the ground. "Yes, my cosmic pan-dimensional magical goddess, I hear your every utterance and obey!" He gave a laugh, to his ears sounding heroic - to everyone else's, sounding slightly deranged.
Hotaru sighed, looked around, then grabbed the kneeling Kuno's ear and dragged him off into an empty classroom. "I've told you not to call me that when I'm dressed like this!"
"Ah, but your fair interstellar beauty shines through any paltry human disguise, my lady! How may I escape the brilliance of your presence when -"
"You want me to transform."
Kuno nodded, heroically, manfully, unabashed. "Yes, it would please me no end, knowing I was being addressed by a true goddess, rather than her human skin."
That sounded disturbing, but Hotaru knew how Kuno's hormones... well, what passed for his mind, worked. Kind of. For some reason known only to him, he couldn't keep his eyes off her cleavage. Hotaru inwardly shrugged. If it got his attention, it worked. Did that make her evil? Maybe just a *little* bit. At least Ranma would never know. "Saturn planet power make-up," she muttered, and she flared up into the guise of Sailor Saturn. "Tatewaki Kuno -" He liked it when she addressed him by name - it gave him a kick or something, knowing a great power was interested in his service. True to form, while his eyes were meeting hers, they were threatening to drop downwards.
One of these days, Saturn was going to have a nice talk with whomever had had the idea to give the uniforms of the senshi such short mini-skirts.
"Tatewako Kuno, you have been selected by Sailor Saturn, most powerful of the Outer Senshi and second in strength only to the Moon Princess, for a dangerous mission. You are to protect Ranma Saotome's life with your own if necessary against the evil machinations of Nabiki Tendo." Damn, but that was easy to say. If Saturn wasn't careful, she could very easily get the hang of speaking like Kuno.
It was something she'd have to watch.
Kuno bridled at the thought of having to help Ranma, and his eyes now did lock onto Saturn's, hatred burning there. Nor just hatred by itself. There was loathing there, fear, sadness. Behind his seeming madness. But was it directed at Ranma? No, it was something internal, that he was fighting against. Somethingfrom his own past, she pondered, that Ranma reminded him of? But what? Ranma, according to Kuno, held against her will a beautiful pig-tailed goddess - Ranma's female form that Hotaru had known about for a long time now. So could it be something to do with that? She didn't know. But it would be interesting to find out.
Kuno's eyes returned to what passed for normal for him, and he nodded, then bowed deeply. "This, I shall do and cherish carrying out your word, my planet-sized goddess."
Saturn nodded, and let her transformation slip from her, returning to her Furinkan uniform. Kuno bowed again, and left. Hotaru frowned, then looked after Kuno's departing form. Did he just call her fat?
******
Ranma made it to the school not long after the lunch bell had rung. Students were out in the front courtyard, idling, standing up against trees and the wall. Sitting on the stairs, the footpath, and the grassed area to either side. Not... completely unusual, but usually it signified something that Nabiki had set up - some great new bet or something.
The doors to the school opened, and Nabiki stepped out. "Oh, Ranma! What a surprise. I'd have never expected you to appear here again, not after what you did."
Ah. So that was what this was about. He was most likely the bet. Or event. Or something. Anything could be crawling around in the money-hungry parts of Nabiki Tendo's mind. It involved him, that he could be sure of.
"Yes, I broke off the engagement," Ranma confirmed, loudly enough for everyone assembled to hear. "Anyone wanna make something of it?" He glared around, and there were lots of angry growls and stares - but everyone remembered Ranma could *fight*. He could fight monsters and demons, and high school kids just didn't cut it anymore. He returned his gaze to Nabiki. "So what's this about?"
"Why'd you come back, Ranma?"
"To pay Kasumi for the damages Pop caused. And to pay off the engagement. Akane's officially a free woman now. With a nice dowry, or compensation, or whatever your family wanna call it."
His stance directly challenged Nabiki's. But she felt she still had the upper hand here. She played her next card. "So, you think you can just ignore my family's honour, and my sister's, and dump her whenever you want?"
"If we're going to talk about honour, how honourable is it to suffer violence in silence? I'm too nice to hit Akane back, Nabiki: you know that." Tit for tat. Nabiki frowned. He wasn't taking the bait as fast as she thought.
"Still, her honour remains tarnished at your hands. And there are some people who don't agree with that."
"Are you challenging me, Nabiki?"
"I'm not." Nabiki tossed her head over towards the edge of the courtyard. Students parted like the Red Sea, and there was Kuno, standing in a relaxed position with his bokken, glaring at Ranma. "They are... oh, where the HELL is Ryoga?" Someone whispered in her ear, and she sighed. "He is. Kuno-baby?"
Kuno stared at Ranma some more, and was silent for a full thirty seconds. Then he began a slow stride from his position to stand barely two metres from Ranma. Ranma didn't react. He waited for action from Kuno.
Kuno's actions surprised him. "I cannot act in such a case, Nabiki Tendo," he replied, quiet, but his voice carrying to Nabiki's position. She was surprised. "For he, while he may be an evil sorceror... is under my... protection." He glanced back at Ranma, who was easily equally surprised as Nabiki. "I'm on a mission from a goddess."
Which Ranma thought was weird, but not as weird as some things Kuno had said. There was usually a grain of truth in the things he carried on about, so while Ranma listened to Nabiki, he let his body relax, and reached out to feel battle auras.
"What? Kuno! How COULD you?" Nabiki was flabergasted, and lost for intelligent conversation and planning. "Akane is hurt! Akane -"
"The Blue Thunder of Furinkan High has it on the best authority that -"
"He *DUMPED* her! How can you forgive that?"
"That... merely gives her a chance to date the great Tatewaki -"
Nabiki gaped as Kuno continued. Who was this guy, what had he done with the real Kuno? No matter. She did have one more trick up her sleeve. Cologne had talked to her several weeks before about Shampoo's encounter at Ranma's hands... that he did live with powerful women who guarded his safety closely. And she'd turned up something that *might* help. But the original lore had been passed down verbally, and by the time it was in print form, it had diluted a little, and the effects hadn't been deemed of import enough to be noted. So she stalked down to Ranma, pushed Kuno aside to get to him, lifted a clenched fist.
Opened it. Blew on her palm.
Glittering particles blew at Ranma, and while he jumped back quickly, some were inhaled before he could do anything. But it did nothing to him immediately, and he calmed down a little. "This isn't getting you over this, Nabiki. I'll return when you've calmed down a little." He turned to Kuno. "Great seeing you again. And... thanks."
Kuno nodded to Ranma gravely. "Thank the goddess. Were it not for her intervention, I might be tempted to take the middle Tendo sister up on her offer. Had the oldest made it..."
"Yeah, I know," Ranma replied, before giving Kuno a nod of thanks and leaving. Time for home, he felt. And he had a long walk ahead of him...
SAILOR MOON SAYS:
Another one that's taken a while to write. Hope it comes out fine. Dunno why Kuno's the way he is - whether other fan fic authors have tried explaining it or not, or whatever has been said about it. But, well, a thought struck me while writing this. It won't resurface now, but will come back to it, definitely. It would certainly explain a lot.
I hope this is up to the standard being expected.... if not, complain, let me know ;) Rant, rave, slip some of that evil constructive criticism in while you're doing so.
The title referred to the fact that there's no going back now. Ranma's chosen his path for sure. He can't return. He's left the door open for others to come into his life, but he won't be going back to his old life - you can never go back.
Heh. Kasumi's creepy. I've always found her creepy to write for. Why? I dunno. *no one* can be that happy and blase about things all the time. It has to hide something. But what?
Anyways, next time on Truth: blank space here. Anyone got any ideas? New monster alert. Old monster alert. Natsumi caught with her pants down.
Geeze, what *would* Ranma look like in that fuku... man, I'm getting some quite frankly sick ideas here... I'm scared, hold me?
