Memoirs: Chapter 4. Memoirs of An Artist
I followed closely behind her, as she looked as if she knew where she was going. I'd never seen this girl before, so maybe I was in Hokkaido, or somewhere in Europe. I had no idea, but then again, I never did.
Then it struck me. She had very red hair. I mean...not just a brown red, or an auburn red, but red like a brand new American fire-truck on a sunny day.
This boded closer examination, as I knew very few redheads.
I started to follow closer, trying to get a look at her face, but as I got within about ten yards of her I saw the way she was walking, with that cocky, confident saunter that only HE had, and I realized that it was Ranma.
But she didn't notice me. Surely HE wasn't that oblivious, ever. Surely Ranma would have poked me in the back of the head, by now, or lost me on his tortuous route to....hey...this must have not been Hokkaido.
I began to get excited as I realized that since Ranma was here, that this must have been Nerima.
I began to run to catch up with Ranma, to give him a beating for leaving Akane for so long. I was sure I was following her closely, but somehow a huge building leaped out in front of me.
* * *
From the Diary of Kuonji Ukyo. Feb 2, 2000.
Dear Diary,
Ranko looked so happy during dinner tonight, something had changed, and it was wonderful. Akane was looking better for it as well. I had to ask. I just had to.
"So...did you two get it on last night?"
Ranko turned a dark shade of pink and Akane kicked her under the table that we were occupying inside of the Ucchan.
"Ucchan! You're not supposed to ask that type of thing!" Ranko gave Akane a nervous look.
"Ranko nearly freaked when she woke up this morning. You should have been there!" Akane was laughing, making me wish I'd seen it. "She's much more fun than P-chan ever was, Ukyo!"
I laughed nervously, knowing that Ranko would probably like to avoid this subject, and already beginning to see signs of stress on her formerly tranquil face.
"Ryoga tried to follow me home today." Ranko, done with her meal, got up and approached the stairs.
Akane, confused, moved to grab Ranko's shoulder as she approached the stairwell, but Ranko...blurred and was on the second step just as Akane reached the bottom of the stairs.
Akane stopped dead. "How did you do that, Ranko?"
Ranko shook her head and went the rest of the way up the stairs.
* * *
How did she do that?
Nobody could be that fast!
I quickly ran the rest of the way up to my room to find Ranko there, staring out the window, wrapped in a blanket.
I quietly walked over and sat next to her.
"You didn't tell us you'd gotten better, Ranko. That's exciting!"
"Spare me, Akane. You want to know what's going on." Ranko gave me a level stare, emotionless.
"Yes..."
"But that wouldn't be fair, would it?"
I was befuddled. Ranko obviously knew something I didn't.
She got up, letting the blanket drop off of her shoulders, still looking out the window and revealed a familiar-looking ornate envelope. "Herb sent me a letter."
I nodded slowly, the realization of my folly dawning on me.
"Why didn't you tell me Herb helped you find me, Akane? He doesn't want revenge. He just wanted to give an apology and spar with me a bit! Did you have to hide the truth from me?" There were tears developing in the corners of Ranko's eyes.
I was speechless. Had I alienated her again?
My friend, my lover looked up at me. "Ryoga will show up at our door in a few minutes. Tell him I will put him in the hospital if he follows me again."
I nodded slightly, and watched as, for the second time, my love left my life.
It didn't occur to me to ask why Ryoga would be showing up here.
* * *
I needed an excuse to leave, and to get to where nobody would be harmed in the ensuing battle, so I used the letter.
That hurt, but I couldn't let her know what I had to do to him.
I was going to have to bend my promise a bit.
Ryoga would not be allowed to toy with Akane any more.
I couldn't let her see what I was about to do, so I hopped up onto the roof, and waited. Sure enough, the lost boy appeared at Ukyo's door, a small electronic device in his hand, and knocked.
When Ukyo opened the door he caught her by the neck and tossed her against the cement wall that lined the other side of the street. I guessed it was time for me to make my appearance.
Things were not going as planned. I was going to regret this and I knew it.
"Where is Saotome, Kuonji? Tell me and you can keep all of your limbs intact. I will see that bastard dead." Ryoga bared his canines at my friend, which was about when I made my first battle-call.
"Houdou-ken Revised, technique number three! Hiryuu no Yubinofushi!" Ryoga looked faintly surprised as he flew through the wall through which he was planning to send Ukyo.
I lifted Ryoga out of the dust that he lay in and placed him back on the street, face down.
I turned to Ukyo. "Are you okay?"
My friend nodded and gestured at Ryoga, who was getting up.
"Whoever you are, and whatever reason you have for defending Ukyo, you'll pay for that." The lost boy put his hand to the back of his head and noticed the blood that I had drawn there. "Not even Saotome was able to make me bleed."
"Take a closer look, Pig-boy. You may start to show fear." I gave Ryoga my most winning smile.
Ryoga stared at the ground, building up a Shishi-Hokodan. "I have no reason to fear some weakling girl."
"Look, and you may find that you have a reason now."
I allowed my triumph to show as Ryoga got a good look at my face, and then became enraged. This was going to be fun!
Ryoga gave his battle cry as he charged, finger pointed, at the cement wall behind me. He never was the most graceful of my opponents. Not wanting to deal with pebbles, I caught his finger, twisted, and snapped it.
Ryoga let out a rather loud scream in pain as I caught his wrist.
"Let's try this again, Ryoga-P-chan! Leave now and you will have all of your limbs mostly intact!"
Ryoga punched at me with his free hand. I snapped his wrist, causing him to momentarily drop his guard as I bombarded him with a few hundred kicks.
"You don't learn, do you? I said forfeit!"
The eternal lost boy attempted to punch at me again. I imagine that this was his last conscious thought that day, as that was the point where I decided launched a few kicks at his face.
I told Ukyo to call Dr. Tofu and left for the Nekohanten. Cologne would know what to do about this.
* * *
As I talked on the phone to Dr. Tofu I brooded upon what I had just seen. Ranko was stronger than she had ever been, even stronger than when she had been a he.
I headed upstairs to where I last saw Akane, only to find her sitting on her bed, crying into a blanket.
"She left, Ucchan! She got a letter from Herb, and she left."
"I know, Akane. I just saw her beat the living daylights out of Ryoga, he's unconscious downstairs. Tofu's on the way." I sat down next to Akane.
"Why does Ryoga want to kill Ranma, Ukyo?" I froze up as Akane said this, and I knew she noticed.
I shook my head.
"Damnit! Tell me, Ukyo! I have a right to know!"
I shook my head again and got up.
"That's for Ranma to tell you, Akane. It's between Ryoga, you, and Ranma."
I got up and left Akane to her tears, not knowing what else to do.
* * *
As I opened the front door of the Nekohanten Cologne was there, waiting for me.
"Hello, granddaughter." The mummy pulled a chair over to a table for me.
"I just fought Ryoga." Cologne nodded.
"Did he live?" I winced at the harshness of the Matriarch's question and nodded.
"It was so easy. It was like he was moving in slow motion. Not only that: he was weaker. I snapped his breaking-point finger and his wrist with so much ease. It was as easy as fighting Kuno used to be."
"You're stronger than you ever have been, granddaughter. I can offer you no consolation, except for the fact that I have found you a cure to your aging problem."
I perked up at the good news. "When can I get it, and how?"
"That's the hard part, granddaughter. You must bleed."
"I've bled before, mummy. It's nothing," I said, starting to get annoyed, "it can't be that ba-"
"By bleed I mean that you must lose blood to the point of near-death. The fluid that is tainted with the curse must leave your body, and you must be regenerated, so to speak, with fresh fluid. There are quite a few dangers to this, though."
"Like what? Nothing could be worse than-"
I caught Cologne's cane before she rapped me on the head with it.
"First of all is the obvious danger of death through loss of blood. Second, losing this blood may essentially tell your body that the curse is already gone..."
"Meaning..." I hoped that she didn't mean what I thought she meant.
"Meaning you would be permanently and naturally female." She meant it.
I put my head in my hands. This was too much.
The crone put her hand on my shoulder. "I'm afraid there's more. I have no way of knowing what effect this will have on your curse. In other words, I don't know if the Nannichuan will ever work on you again if we go through with this."
"I need time to think, Obaba-san."
Cologne simply nodded as I made my exit and headed back to Ucchan's.
* * *
I sat near Ryoga in Tofu's clinic, surveying his bruises. How could he hate Ranma so much?
Ryoga stirred, mumbling, and I took his hand.
"Ungh...Akari. I....feel like a ton of bricks hit me...let's go home now..." I realized that he wasn't awake.
"Oh, Ryoga. Why do you hate Ranma so much?"
"He's the reason why I turn into the pig."
* * *
As I got to Ucchan's I noticed a small note on the door.
"Gone to Tofu's to deal with Ryoga. Hopefully see you there. From Ucchan"
Just then I heard a rather large telltale rumble
"Oh, great!" I began to run for the clinic as quickly as I could. As I got there, the second-floor wall was blown out, and Akane was holding Ryoga by the neck over the now-crumbling ledge.
* * *
When I finally came to after my battle with Ranma, I was in an unpleasant position, to say the least. I was dangling by my neck like a ragdoll, two stories up, held in the hand of the lovely Tendo Akane.
"W-why..." was all I could manage before Akane gave my neck a tight squeeze.
"How could you have lied to me, for so long? What possible motive could you have had to pose yourself as that...pig?" Damn. This was not good.
"Did Ranma tell you? That bas-" Akane slammed me into a wall on the side of the opening she had created in the clinic wall. Pain shot through my shoulder, telling me of its dislocation.
"Don't you dare insult Ranma! He was more of a man than you will ever be. Even as a woman, Ranko is more than you will ever be!"
"Akane!" Ranma was below me. "Don't kill him! Remember what revenge did to me! Don't walk that path! Don't kill! I can't bear to lose you again! Please, Akane-chan. I need you." Ranma dropped to the ground, apparently passing out, and Akane dropped me face-first onto the cement.
Then I knew no more.
* * *
As the rage left my vision, I surveyed my surroundings. Maybe I was in shock, but tearing a hole in the wall and dropping that immoral pig head-first onto the pavement didn't seem like such a bad thing. As a matter of fact, there was only one thing wrong with this picture.
Ranko was unconscious next to Ryoga.
I quickly shot a glance at Tofu, who was sitting in the corner of the room, his arms akimbo, surveying the damage I had just done. Catching my glance, he rushed out to drag Ranko and Ryoga into the clinic.
Within minutes, I was in another room, still dazed, standing next to she who I had come to love, and he who I had come to loathe, while Ukyo gingerly put one hand on my shoulder. Ranko and Ryoga were both still unconscious.
Seeing my worried glances at Ranko, Tofu made haste to check on her, all but ignoring the lost boy for the time being.
"She's just burned out, Akane. Seemed to be using all of her ki simply to keep from fighting, to hold off her emotions."
"She was holding back?" Ukyo exclaimed in surprise, walking forward. "She levelled a concrete wall without trying and beat the living daylights out of Ryoga before he could even blink, and you say she was holding back!?"
Tofu nodded and walked over to Ryoga. "Broken right index finger. Broken right wrist, strained tendon on the left side of his neck, broken nose, and a minor concussion, sustained approximately thirty minutes ago." He shook Ryoga awake and propped him up. As the fool met my eyes he made a vain attempt to twiddle his fingers, which ended up in him yelping in pain. If I wasn't too busy actively loathing him I could have almost laughed.
Ukyo walked forward. "Ryoga, I'd like you to meet Ranko." She gestured to the sleeping form in the bed near Ryoga. "You could say that she's sorta like Ranma's sister, but not quite. She is the cause of most of the damage that you've sustained, and if you ever touch me again, I'll make sure I don't stop her next time."
Ryoga edged up in his seat and took a look at the girl sitting next to him as Tofu bandaged his skull.
"So...this isn't Ranma?" Ryoga looked from Ukyo to myself, questioning the reality of his perceptions.
I went to Ranko's bedside and gave her hand a squeeze. "Ranma died a long time ago, Ryoga." The freak had the dignity to look sheepish, though now I knew exactly what was going through his mind.
"So, Akane, would you like to oomph!" Ryoga shut up as Ukyo planted a fist in his groin.
I paid them no heed, and gently massaged Ranko's hand, hoping that she was okay.
* * *
I awoke with a start, and found myself in a hospital bed, surrounded by Ukyo, Akane, and Tofu.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Ranko!" Tofu was the first to speak, and it was good to hear cheer in someone's voice, for once.
"How long was I out for?" I looked at the expressions of worry on Ukyo and Akane's faces.
"Just a few hours, Ranko. It's almost 10PM now. It seems that your battle with Ryoga burned you out." Ukyo edged closer to me. "Thank you, Ranko, for saving me."
I simply nodded at her, walked over to Akane, and gave everybody else a meaningful look that said, clearly enough, "We need to be alone."
Ukyo and Tofu exited, dragging Ryoga's gurney along with them.
Akane looked at me with those gentle eyes that I so rarely saw. "What's wrong, Ranko?"
"Cologne may have found a cure for my aging process." Akane looked as if she could jump for joy as I said this, but I kept a firm grip on her hand and held her down. "But there are...risks. The process may or may not give me somewhat of an immunity to the Nannichuan. There's also the chance that it will make me completely female, forever. The lesser of these risks is the fact that there is a decent chance that I will not survive the process."
"The lesser? Ranko, I love you! I don't care whether you're male or female anymore! I don't even care that you didn't tell me about Ryoga, I'd guess that he talked you into that somehow." Akane wrapped her arms around me and began to cry.
I cradled my love in my arms, nuzzling her cheek softly. "I've lived without the possibility of manhood for two years now, Akane-chan. I can live with it for the rest of my life, but not without you. This just scares me because I always had the possibility of eventually regaining that manhood. Losing that chance frightens me, Akane."
Akane nodded and buried her face in my chest.
"I'm going to try this cure, Akane. I have to risk it. You understand?" She nodded silently and tightened her grip on me.
"I want you there, Akane. Will you please come with me?"
Akane nodded again and, after what seemed like hours, began to speak. "I'd follow you anywhere, Ranko. That includes to the gates of Hell, if need be."
* * *
As we approached the Nekohanten, myself for the second time that night, Cologne was waiting out front.
"Welcome, granddaughter, and Tendo Akane. Are you ready for this, Ranko-chan?"
Ranko nodded, fear in her eyes, but doing the best to exude her old confidence.
We followed the old crone into the back room of the Nekohanten, where there was an ornate, reclined bamboo chair with Chinese symbols on it, and odd clamps where the elbows and knees of whoever was sitting in the chair would be. As I investigated the clamps I noticed that they each had about twenty very small needles on the inside, large enough to puncture at the veins, but not large enough to scar.
I gave Ranko a look, and she nodded at me. Somehow this managed to allay my unease at the entire situation.
Cologne led Ranko to the chair as she explained the tenets of the chair's function. "These needles are coated with concentrated water from each of the Jusenkyo springs. As the needles drain your blood, neatly into this basin down here, they will perform a sort of intravenous injection of the water. This is what may give your body an immunity to the springs. Of the documented uses of this cure on Chisuiton victims, half of them have been locked in their cursed forms."
Cologne finished checking the chair and gave Ranma a look. Seeing the young girl nod, the crone pulled on a lever, closing all of the clamps, causing Ranko to wince in pain.
"Just a warning, granddaughter, there will be dreams, and they will not be enjoyable. I wish you luck." With that the crone gingerly pressed a point on Ranko's neck, putting her to sleep.
"You may stay here as our guest, young Tendo. Feel free to pull up a chair and keep an eye on Ranko, for she needs you now, more than ever."
* * *
When I awoke, I had no idea where I was, except that I was tied to a chair, and everything hurt.
I couldn't see. Something was wrong! The old mummy said nothing about blindness!
Slowly, blurry outlines began to form. Three, maybe four, men. No, there were many. Twelve at least. I saw menace in their eyes as my vision got better, but for some reason I could still not see them. Something was wrong.
Then I realized that it was not menace in their eyes, but lust. I tore at my bonds, tried to fight, but I couldn't move. The men came closer and closer. I couldn't let them do this, I just couldn't.
Suddenly, there was a flash of black as another man, taller, gentler, came in between the dark figures and I. I recognized this one, but the light that emanated from him was so bright that I couldn't make out his features.
The light figure cut my bonds, then left, even as the dark ones approached me again.
"You think you can escape that easily," one of them said in a voice familiar but distant. "You're just one little bitch. How could you possibly take on all of us? You can't even keep your ki in balance."
The speaker moved before I could even blink, grabbed me by my left leg, and flung me against the wall. Something broke and I realized that I no longer had use of that leg.
The first speaker finally came into the light. It was some perversion of nature, half man and half swine. He wore only a bandana while his thick fur hid the rest of his skin.
That bandana....
This was Ryoga.
I got up, and propped against my good leg as I surveyed my opponent.
"So, bitch...are you ready to tango?" He moved and pinned me against the wall, upside down, by my broken leg. I tried to scream again, but no sound could penetrate my vocal cords.
The pig man gingerly peeled the skirt off of my sweating legs and began to perversely massage my thigh with his deformed snout. "Did I ever tell you how attracted I've always been to you, Ranma? You've got such a hot little bod. You're always gonna be this little pint-sized package, nice n' easy to pick up."
I tried to say that I wasn't Ranma any more, and this only resulted in the pig swiping me across the face, leaving three deep, stinging cuts.
"You can't lie to me, you little bitch! I know Ranko is just a facade, because though you're more feminine now than you can admit, your core hasn't changed. You're still the same cross dressing bastard I've always known." The pig began to roughly lick upwards along my leg.
"Y-you're crazy, Ryoga! Everybody changes! Of course I'm different! I've been surrounded in femininity for almost two years! Things change. People lose their loves, people gain new loves, that's life!"
The pig man stopped on his twisted route just as he reached my upper-thigh and backed off. He slowly disappeared into the woodwork, and I knew oblivion once more.
* * *
Ranko tossed and turned in her sleep. Gods, what I would give to see what she was seeing, what I'd trade for a chance to walk alongside her, not behind her, for once.
I heard footsteps and looked up to see Shampoo entering.
"Is she going to make it, Akane?" The worry in the Amazon's voice surprised me.
"I-I don't know, Shampoo." I clung to one of Ranko's hands, bloody but soft in it's femininity.
"Akane, it's been hours. Please dine with me?" I shook my head at Shampoo's proposition.
"I stay with Ranko." I made sure I sounded more resolute than my mood dictated.
"Fine. Then I bring food to you." Shampoo turned and left the room, to return with a piping hot bowl of ramen only moments later.
I nodded my thanks to Shampoo and polished off the bowl of ramen rather quickly.
As I looked up from my bowl, Shampoo had a haunted look on her eyes.
Ranko had started tossing and turning again
* * *
I awoke to find myself in the chair once again, but at least I was no longer tied down. My arm seemed to have been tended to, and fully healed. It must have been some medicine of the Mummy's.
I looked around and realized, to my chagrin, that most of the dark figures were still there.
The largest of them walked forward and caught me by the neck, lifting me out of the chair.
It was some sort of bear-creature.
Pop.
"Oh the horror! My Son has brought my family such dishonor!"
Genma-panda smashed me against a wall and began tugging at the dress I wore.
"You have to repent for your dishonor, Ranko-chan." Seeing that his paws failed to unbutton the dress, Genma resorted to ripping it to shreds.
The creature harshly pressed himself up against me and started nuzzling my neck.
"You were always so much better as a girl, Ranko-chan," I couldn't help but gasp as the beast thrust himself upon me, punctuating the feminine honorific he had attached onto my name. What sort of hell was I in?
I managed, after what seemed like days of this sick game, to gain enough command of my body to speak.
"I never brought the dishonor upon our family. It was always you with your thievery and your ridiculous engagements. Did you ever think that maybe there are more important things in life than a halfway-decent meal?!"
The panda halted as if someone had just turned him off. He silently dropped me on the floor and withdrew.
I wasn't prepared for the next voice I heard.
"What about my honor, my son? You made it so I could never show my face in Kyoto again!"
My mother walked towards me, looking somehow unnatural.
"How could you dare kill in the presence of the matriarch of the clan Saotome?"
A trickle of dark, potent red began to appear on my mother's snow-white obi sash.
"How could you beat a helpless old man into submission when our family's honor was at stake?"
The red deepened, dripping down Nodoka's sash and kimono, dying them a sickly brown-red, and finally reaching the floor, where it began to pool and curdle.
"How could you become a girl when you swore that you would be a man amongst men?"
She put her hand to her midsection, and flung her kimono open, for me to see the cut that lay across her belly.
"You killed me, my son. You sent me to hell. Maybe I should take you back there with me! Would you like that, Mother and Daughter in our own little section of torment together?"
Nodoka edged closer to me, adopting the stereotypical shuffle of a zombie.
As she came closer, I saw that a red stripe was appearing on her neck. I shut my eyes and hoped with all of my might that this was a dream.
I heard a sickening thump on the ground, and I knew that the ghast was dead.
I curled up into a small ball and waited for the world to end, and finally the oblivion I wished for came.
* * *
I awoke to find that my hands were getting drenched in Ranko's blood.
This scared me a bit, to say the least. I got up and looked around the cafe to find Cologne.
"Is she done yet, Cologne? I'm worried about her."
The crone came with me back into the room where Ranko was sitting and took a look.
"Not quite, Tendo Akane."
"But she looks so pale..."
Cologne gave me a reassuring glance. "Ranko hasn't lot as much blood as it looks like. The needles just make it seem that way because they spread the flow of blood around. In about another hour Ranko will awaken. She will awaken, that is, if she survives. This promises to be one of the hardest hours of her lifetime."
The Crone, having nothing else to say, left.
I returned to my post and held Ranko's hand, praying to all of the gods that she would survive.
* * *
I awoke again, still only in my underclothing, to find myself surrounded by the remaining dark figures. This time I could recognize them. Pansuto, Mousse, Kuno, Herb, Hiroshi, Daisuke and Gosunkugi approached me with the now all-too-familiar menace in their eyes.
Pansuto, looking barely human, lifted me off the ground and wrapped his arms around me.
"Who's on top now, eh? Trans-gender bitch!" I tried desperately to move, but found myself weakened and helpless against his onslaught. Pansuto had his way, giving thrusts with his half-demonic body, and then handed me off to the Furinkan boys, who took their turns. I needed help. I needed someone badly.
Suddenly, an ethereal glow came from somewhere I could not see. The light caused the shadowy figures to shy away, and then help arrived. It was Akane.
I tried to run to her, and found myself too weak. My love came to me and lifted my prostrate form from the cold, wet ground.
"Come back to me, Ranko. I need you. I want you to be mine, forever. I don't care what you are so long as who you are doesn't change."
I drifted off into another form of oblivion, but this one was soft, caressing my mind, promising of the fulfillment of dreams to come.
* * *
On the morning of February 3, 2000, Saotome Ranko awoke into new awareness. I was just lucky to have accompanied her on the way, and fortunate to have been her love.
I had slept uneasily the night before, watching and feeling Ranma suffer, feeling her blood, slick in my hands. When she awoke I quickly bandaged her wounds and took her home. Cologne said that she would know what the results of the ritual were within a month.
Strangely enough, after the needles were withdrawn from Ranko's arms and legs, they left no mark. I was happy, but a bit confused at this.
I couldn't dwell on that night for long, though, as there was much else that I had to deal with.
Herb arrived the next day, and gave us some startling news.
The Kaisui-Fu had not been destroyed.
*******
Disclaimer: All characters from Ranma 1/2 are the property of Takahashi Rumiko. All other characters in this work are mine, and mine alone, mwa ha ha ha!!
for C&C Mail Inu_Ranma@yahoo.com, that is all.
Chapter 5 should be revised, and possibly chapter 6 (the final chapter) out before next sunday, May 26th.
Special thanx again to Figment, Fall, and Reddjango
Still very special thanx to Riyousha
