Chapter 4 - Friends and Family
In the apartment above a small Okonomiyaki-ya, a young woman is
startled awake by an unexpected flash of light. As she blinks her
eyes in sleep and confusion, she suddenly feels and hears a bone deep
crash and rumble. The windows rattle and dust shakes itself loose
from the ceiling. Several small items fall off her dresser.
Somehow, she feels what must have happened. "Oh dear God, Ranchan"
she says with a sudden catch of worry in her throat.
"Mistress Ukyo, are you alright ?" calls a gentle, feminine sounding
voice from outside her door.
"It's Ranma, something's happened to Ranma, Konatsu." Ukyo stands and
opens her door, revealing an attractive young woman, um, man in a
nightdress.
With a nod, Konatsu exclaims "I shall endeavor to discover master
Ranma's condition." With that, she, um, he disappears into the
shadows of the hall.
Ukyo merely sits down at the edge of the futon, clutches her arms to
herself, and shivers.
***
Across town, an attractive middle aged woman stands near her bedroom
window, looking toward Nermia, some unknown feeling having pulled her
from her sleep. Upon seeing the sickly yellowish green pillar flare
and fall against the night sky, visible even above the light of the
streetlights, and hearing the following low rumble faintly audible
even at this distance, she nods to herself.
Turning, Nodaka Saotome prods a sleeping panda into wakefulness.
"Husband, it is time we saw our son."
***
Far out of the town of Nermia, in a small forest, A powerful young man
in worn yellow and black traveling clothes and with a yellow bandanna
in his hair sits idly by a small fire, watching the sky. As his
eyes trace down to the horizon in the distance, he sees a sickly
yellowish green pillar of light climb above the horizon, and fall
again. Several minutes later, he feels the subsonic echos of a large
blast under the soles of his feet.
"Ranma," he growls, as his eyes harden in anger, "only you could do
that, damn you." Without taking his eyes from the now dark spot of
the horizon, he stands, kicks out his fire and puts on his pack.
Ryoga begins to walk.
***
Morning eventually dawns everywhere, even over a depressed currently
female world class martial artist. Ranma slowly wakes to the sunlight
streaming through the still open porch door into her face where she
lies on the living room couch, and finds herself unaccountably at
peace. The death grip she seems to be maintaining on something warm
and comfortable might have something to do with it, she decides,
muzzily, at least until that something unexpectedly shifts and mutters
underneath her. Ranma slowly prys opens her eyes and finds her face
inches away from a restlessly sleeping Nabiki's.
"Tired. Wan'na go back sleep" Nabiki mutters.
"ACK !" Over a year of programmed survival reflexes kicked in,
propelling Ranma in a record breaking leap. At least, it would have
been record breaking, if there was an Olympic event for "Lying down on
someone with your arms entangled Broad Jump, thus unceremoniously
dumping you both on the floor now tangled in the blanket."
Well, the survival reflexes hadn't worked very well earlier in the
year, either.
"Oh, good morning Ranma, Nabiki. I see you're awake." Kasumi smiles
at the unfolding scene from the doorway to the kitchen.
"Ite ! And get your perverted hands _OFF_ !" shouts Nabiki,
attempting to push her way clear of the entangling blanket and
deceptively massive onna Ranma.
"GomenisaiGomenisaiGomenisaiGomenisai, this ain't what it looks like
!" stumbles Ranma as fast as she can, until she catches a glimpse of
an ex-back yard out the currently open screen door to the porch. She
stills her own struggles in shock, eventually allowing Nabiki to worm
free and stumble back onto the couch, clearing Ranma's view.
"Kuso", she states in trepidation upon being granted a clear view of
the new crater, accented by a couple of scorched fish. "What
happened ?"
"You did Ranma." Nabiki comments dryly, trying to stretch out the
kinks. "Don't you remember ? And then you fell asleep on me, and
wouldn't let go. Ugh. I think my arm is still asleep."
"Aw, man, I'm sorry." Ranma quiets and accepts a kettle from Kasumi,
regarding it sadly before dumping the contents over her, now his head.
"If I'm going to cause this much trouble, maybe I should just leave"
he mutters as he casts his gaze down.
"Saotome, I thought we had this conversation yesterday. You're not
going anywhere until one of us releases you from your promise. Got
that ?" Nabiki groused and stands. "I'm going to take a bath. We've
got a lot of studying to do today, and we still have several more
people to deal with."
"Also, I could use some help cleaning up the yard, later, if it's not
too much trouble" asks Kasumi with a little sadness, but also with a
genuine smile.
Ranma looks back and forth between the sisters. "Alright already. I
know when I'm beat. I suppose I'd better get started on the back yard
before breakfast." He stands and makes his way outside to find a
shovel and rake.
"Don't forget Ranma, you agreed to start training me before
breakfast" calls Nabiki. "I'll be out as soon as I've bathed and
changed."
Kasumi turns toward her younger sister. "Nabiki, are you alright ?
You've been working yourself very hard these last several days."
Nabiki is caught by surprise by Kasumi's sudden insight. "First
Cologne, now you. Jeez, why does it seem I can't hide anything from
anyone anymore."
"Perhaps because you're as hurt inside as any of the rest of us,
little sister. Just remember to take time for yourself, too, okay ?"
Nabiki shakes her head in negation and turns to make her way up the
stairs. "I can't Kasumi, not until I know for certain that the baka
out in the yard will be okay. You saw how he was last night. If it
had been anyone else, that blast would likely have killed him. I can't
let that happen. I owe it to Akane, and to Ranma."
"Oh little sister, be careful" Kasumi whispers. "I can't loose you,
too." Sadly, she goes to wake her father for the morning.
***
Ukyo quickly makes her way down the street toward the Tendo Dojo,
wearing her traditional outfit and carrying a take out box. She had
received Konatsu's report of a destroyed yard, and a crying Ranma
being cared for by two of the three Tendo sisters, but no Akane. She
didn't know what to think, so she decided to pay an early morning
visit, certain a couple of Ranma's favorite Okonomiyaki would help him
through whatever was happening.
Nervously, she pauses at the outer door, straightens her hair, and takes
a deep breath before knocking on the door.
Shortly, the door swings open to revealing to Ukyo a decidedly unusual
sight, Kasumi not looking happy. In fact, unless she was badly
mistaken, not only was Kasumi not happy, she appeared definitely sad.
"Kasumi ? Is everything alright ? What happened to Ranma ? Where is
Akane ?"
"Good morning Ukyo. Please forgive me, but this is not the best
time. I'm afraid that Akane is no longer with us, and Ranma is taking
this rather hard."
"Oh my god. I'm sorry Kasumi." This was worse than Ukyo had thought.
Still, unbidden, and guiltily, a hope for herself surfaced inside.
"May I see Ranma, please ?"
"Of course. I believe Ranma and Nabiki are out cleaning and training
in the back yard. Just go around to the back."
"Nabiki, training ?" Ukyo mutters as she walks. As she rounds the
corner of the house, she is treated to the same war zone like view
that Ranma woke to, minus, by now, some of the cooked fish. She also
sees the unusual sight of a sweating, dirty, gi clad Nabiki, wielding
a hoe to defend herself from flying clods of dirt. She swings the hoe
at each incoming dirt clod, either breaking it up or hitting it back
across the yard. In between swings, she uses the hoe to smooth a
mound of dirt and broken rock.
Already have been exposed to a morning full of shocks, only magnified
by the the sight of a Nabiki apparently performing manual labor and
martial arts training, she misses following the flight path of one of
the dirt clods, until one deflected from Nabiki's hoe flies toward
her. Reflexively, she drops her take out box, seizes the baker's peel
from her back, and uses it to swat the clod back in the direction it
came.
The dirt clod from an unexpected angle hits Nabiki in the side,
breaking up into smaller chunks and dust. Nabiki squawks, windmills
her arms for a bit, and looses the battle to stay upright, landing on
her rump with a squeal of indignation.
From across the yard, Ranma suddenly comes to Ukyo's notice with the
exclamation "That was great Ukyo. We needed an unpredictable
element."
Ukyo turns her eyes toward her erstwhile finance and gasps as she
takes him in. Even from across the yard, she can tell that Ranma has
obviously seen far better days. She's not certain if the yard or
Ranma looks worse.
"Ranchan ? What's going on here ? Are you alright ?"
"Damn, I should have waited until after training to bathe, now
I'll have to do it again" snarled Nabiki, leveraging herself up. "You
might as well come in, Ukyo, we can explain inside."
***
"Ranchan, what you said to Shampoo, that doesn't apply to me, too,
does it ?" Ukyo desperately hopes what she heard is false, but can
barely bring herself to face the pain evident in Ranma's expression in
order to confirm or deny it.
"Ucchan, I'm sorry. I just can't marry anybody else, okay ? And I
meant it about locking myself female if I gotta. Look, this isn't
much, but I'll talk to my Mom about your honor. Maybe we can do
somethin."
"I, I see." Ukyo desperately attempts to layer a happy attitude over
her feelings. "Well, I did bring you all some Okonomiyaki for
breakfast, but I've got to get back to the restaurant to open up for
the breakfast rush, okay ? I'm, I'm sorry about Akane, okay ? I've
really gotta go though. Talk to you later, Ranchan." Cutting off her
babbling and turning her head as she fails to hold back tears, Ukyo
doesn't quite rush out of the house.
Ranma looks even more hurt, if possible, and Nabiki puts her hand on
Ranma's arm, again without thinking about it. Ranma turns slowly
to her and just quietly shakes his head. Now, he's lost his fiancee,
alienated Shampoo, and may be loosing his best friend. Too drained to
feel anything else, he gets up. "I'm not hungry right now. I'll be
up in my room studying if you need me."
Nabiki watches him slowly climb the stairs.
***
Author's notes
I intended to also deal with Soun and Ranma's parents and with Ryoga
in this chapter, in addition to Ukyo. It started to get a bit long,
however, so those situations will have to be put off until the next.
In the apartment above a small Okonomiyaki-ya, a young woman is
startled awake by an unexpected flash of light. As she blinks her
eyes in sleep and confusion, she suddenly feels and hears a bone deep
crash and rumble. The windows rattle and dust shakes itself loose
from the ceiling. Several small items fall off her dresser.
Somehow, she feels what must have happened. "Oh dear God, Ranchan"
she says with a sudden catch of worry in her throat.
"Mistress Ukyo, are you alright ?" calls a gentle, feminine sounding
voice from outside her door.
"It's Ranma, something's happened to Ranma, Konatsu." Ukyo stands and
opens her door, revealing an attractive young woman, um, man in a
nightdress.
With a nod, Konatsu exclaims "I shall endeavor to discover master
Ranma's condition." With that, she, um, he disappears into the
shadows of the hall.
Ukyo merely sits down at the edge of the futon, clutches her arms to
herself, and shivers.
***
Across town, an attractive middle aged woman stands near her bedroom
window, looking toward Nermia, some unknown feeling having pulled her
from her sleep. Upon seeing the sickly yellowish green pillar flare
and fall against the night sky, visible even above the light of the
streetlights, and hearing the following low rumble faintly audible
even at this distance, she nods to herself.
Turning, Nodaka Saotome prods a sleeping panda into wakefulness.
"Husband, it is time we saw our son."
***
Far out of the town of Nermia, in a small forest, A powerful young man
in worn yellow and black traveling clothes and with a yellow bandanna
in his hair sits idly by a small fire, watching the sky. As his
eyes trace down to the horizon in the distance, he sees a sickly
yellowish green pillar of light climb above the horizon, and fall
again. Several minutes later, he feels the subsonic echos of a large
blast under the soles of his feet.
"Ranma," he growls, as his eyes harden in anger, "only you could do
that, damn you." Without taking his eyes from the now dark spot of
the horizon, he stands, kicks out his fire and puts on his pack.
Ryoga begins to walk.
***
Morning eventually dawns everywhere, even over a depressed currently
female world class martial artist. Ranma slowly wakes to the sunlight
streaming through the still open porch door into her face where she
lies on the living room couch, and finds herself unaccountably at
peace. The death grip she seems to be maintaining on something warm
and comfortable might have something to do with it, she decides,
muzzily, at least until that something unexpectedly shifts and mutters
underneath her. Ranma slowly prys opens her eyes and finds her face
inches away from a restlessly sleeping Nabiki's.
"Tired. Wan'na go back sleep" Nabiki mutters.
"ACK !" Over a year of programmed survival reflexes kicked in,
propelling Ranma in a record breaking leap. At least, it would have
been record breaking, if there was an Olympic event for "Lying down on
someone with your arms entangled Broad Jump, thus unceremoniously
dumping you both on the floor now tangled in the blanket."
Well, the survival reflexes hadn't worked very well earlier in the
year, either.
"Oh, good morning Ranma, Nabiki. I see you're awake." Kasumi smiles
at the unfolding scene from the doorway to the kitchen.
"Ite ! And get your perverted hands _OFF_ !" shouts Nabiki,
attempting to push her way clear of the entangling blanket and
deceptively massive onna Ranma.
"GomenisaiGomenisaiGomenisaiGomenisai, this ain't what it looks like
!" stumbles Ranma as fast as she can, until she catches a glimpse of
an ex-back yard out the currently open screen door to the porch. She
stills her own struggles in shock, eventually allowing Nabiki to worm
free and stumble back onto the couch, clearing Ranma's view.
"Kuso", she states in trepidation upon being granted a clear view of
the new crater, accented by a couple of scorched fish. "What
happened ?"
"You did Ranma." Nabiki comments dryly, trying to stretch out the
kinks. "Don't you remember ? And then you fell asleep on me, and
wouldn't let go. Ugh. I think my arm is still asleep."
"Aw, man, I'm sorry." Ranma quiets and accepts a kettle from Kasumi,
regarding it sadly before dumping the contents over her, now his head.
"If I'm going to cause this much trouble, maybe I should just leave"
he mutters as he casts his gaze down.
"Saotome, I thought we had this conversation yesterday. You're not
going anywhere until one of us releases you from your promise. Got
that ?" Nabiki groused and stands. "I'm going to take a bath. We've
got a lot of studying to do today, and we still have several more
people to deal with."
"Also, I could use some help cleaning up the yard, later, if it's not
too much trouble" asks Kasumi with a little sadness, but also with a
genuine smile.
Ranma looks back and forth between the sisters. "Alright already. I
know when I'm beat. I suppose I'd better get started on the back yard
before breakfast." He stands and makes his way outside to find a
shovel and rake.
"Don't forget Ranma, you agreed to start training me before
breakfast" calls Nabiki. "I'll be out as soon as I've bathed and
changed."
Kasumi turns toward her younger sister. "Nabiki, are you alright ?
You've been working yourself very hard these last several days."
Nabiki is caught by surprise by Kasumi's sudden insight. "First
Cologne, now you. Jeez, why does it seem I can't hide anything from
anyone anymore."
"Perhaps because you're as hurt inside as any of the rest of us,
little sister. Just remember to take time for yourself, too, okay ?"
Nabiki shakes her head in negation and turns to make her way up the
stairs. "I can't Kasumi, not until I know for certain that the baka
out in the yard will be okay. You saw how he was last night. If it
had been anyone else, that blast would likely have killed him. I can't
let that happen. I owe it to Akane, and to Ranma."
"Oh little sister, be careful" Kasumi whispers. "I can't loose you,
too." Sadly, she goes to wake her father for the morning.
***
Ukyo quickly makes her way down the street toward the Tendo Dojo,
wearing her traditional outfit and carrying a take out box. She had
received Konatsu's report of a destroyed yard, and a crying Ranma
being cared for by two of the three Tendo sisters, but no Akane. She
didn't know what to think, so she decided to pay an early morning
visit, certain a couple of Ranma's favorite Okonomiyaki would help him
through whatever was happening.
Nervously, she pauses at the outer door, straightens her hair, and takes
a deep breath before knocking on the door.
Shortly, the door swings open to revealing to Ukyo a decidedly unusual
sight, Kasumi not looking happy. In fact, unless she was badly
mistaken, not only was Kasumi not happy, she appeared definitely sad.
"Kasumi ? Is everything alright ? What happened to Ranma ? Where is
Akane ?"
"Good morning Ukyo. Please forgive me, but this is not the best
time. I'm afraid that Akane is no longer with us, and Ranma is taking
this rather hard."
"Oh my god. I'm sorry Kasumi." This was worse than Ukyo had thought.
Still, unbidden, and guiltily, a hope for herself surfaced inside.
"May I see Ranma, please ?"
"Of course. I believe Ranma and Nabiki are out cleaning and training
in the back yard. Just go around to the back."
"Nabiki, training ?" Ukyo mutters as she walks. As she rounds the
corner of the house, she is treated to the same war zone like view
that Ranma woke to, minus, by now, some of the cooked fish. She also
sees the unusual sight of a sweating, dirty, gi clad Nabiki, wielding
a hoe to defend herself from flying clods of dirt. She swings the hoe
at each incoming dirt clod, either breaking it up or hitting it back
across the yard. In between swings, she uses the hoe to smooth a
mound of dirt and broken rock.
Already have been exposed to a morning full of shocks, only magnified
by the the sight of a Nabiki apparently performing manual labor and
martial arts training, she misses following the flight path of one of
the dirt clods, until one deflected from Nabiki's hoe flies toward
her. Reflexively, she drops her take out box, seizes the baker's peel
from her back, and uses it to swat the clod back in the direction it
came.
The dirt clod from an unexpected angle hits Nabiki in the side,
breaking up into smaller chunks and dust. Nabiki squawks, windmills
her arms for a bit, and looses the battle to stay upright, landing on
her rump with a squeal of indignation.
From across the yard, Ranma suddenly comes to Ukyo's notice with the
exclamation "That was great Ukyo. We needed an unpredictable
element."
Ukyo turns her eyes toward her erstwhile finance and gasps as she
takes him in. Even from across the yard, she can tell that Ranma has
obviously seen far better days. She's not certain if the yard or
Ranma looks worse.
"Ranchan ? What's going on here ? Are you alright ?"
"Damn, I should have waited until after training to bathe, now
I'll have to do it again" snarled Nabiki, leveraging herself up. "You
might as well come in, Ukyo, we can explain inside."
***
"Ranchan, what you said to Shampoo, that doesn't apply to me, too,
does it ?" Ukyo desperately hopes what she heard is false, but can
barely bring herself to face the pain evident in Ranma's expression in
order to confirm or deny it.
"Ucchan, I'm sorry. I just can't marry anybody else, okay ? And I
meant it about locking myself female if I gotta. Look, this isn't
much, but I'll talk to my Mom about your honor. Maybe we can do
somethin."
"I, I see." Ukyo desperately attempts to layer a happy attitude over
her feelings. "Well, I did bring you all some Okonomiyaki for
breakfast, but I've got to get back to the restaurant to open up for
the breakfast rush, okay ? I'm, I'm sorry about Akane, okay ? I've
really gotta go though. Talk to you later, Ranchan." Cutting off her
babbling and turning her head as she fails to hold back tears, Ukyo
doesn't quite rush out of the house.
Ranma looks even more hurt, if possible, and Nabiki puts her hand on
Ranma's arm, again without thinking about it. Ranma turns slowly
to her and just quietly shakes his head. Now, he's lost his fiancee,
alienated Shampoo, and may be loosing his best friend. Too drained to
feel anything else, he gets up. "I'm not hungry right now. I'll be
up in my room studying if you need me."
Nabiki watches him slowly climb the stairs.
***
Author's notes
I intended to also deal with Soun and Ranma's parents and with Ryoga
in this chapter, in addition to Ukyo. It started to get a bit long,
however, so those situations will have to be put off until the next.