Ranma ½: Changes
***************
Chapter 1
***************
Ranma Saotome was relaxing on the roof on the Tendo dojo. He never had a chance just to relax because of the various fiancées and rivals that were always after him. It was a sunny day in the middle of June, school had just let out for summer and Ranma was looking forward to being able to relax and not worry about homework or being late to school for the rest of the summer.
Suddenly, he heard a huge crash from the front of the house. 'That sounded like it came from the front yard.' he thought to himself as he jumped down from the roof and walked towards the front yard. He turned the corner just in time to see Shampoo and Ukyo destroy the rest of the gate as the wrestled with each other. He stood there for a second staring at them and while he was distracted, Kodachi appeared next to him and wrapped herself around him.
"Ranma darling, you simply must come with me on a date. Ha ha ha ha!" she laughed maniacally.
"Get off of me!" he yelled as he struggled to pull her off of him. His shout attracted the attention of Shampoo, Ukyo, and Akane who was just coming in through the remains of the gate.
"Get off Ranma!" Ukyo and Shampoo shouted together while Akane just stood, frozen, staring at the quartet.
The three girls in the yard started fighting while Akane stared at them, anger slowly beginning to burn away the shock at the sight of the three girls destroying her home. Again.
Suddenly her mallet materialized in her hand and she started swinging at the whole group in front of her. Shampoo was knocked into the wall while Ukyo was knocked in to the ground. Kodachi wound up lodged in the upper branches of the tree where she hung by the back of her tight leotard. Ranma, who had been turning blue from the choke hold on his neck, courtesy of Kodachi's ribbon, started to thank her but was cut of by the mallet that was planted in his face. Ranma was thrown backwards into the wall next to Shampoo, hitting it with a sickening crack.
Akane was slightly worried about Ranma as he silently slipped down but quickly pushed it aside, to angry at him for inviting those girls over.
Turning she stomped into the house and called Kodachi's house and had a servant come and pluck her out of the tree's top and haul her home. Next she called Cologne at the Cat Cafe and had her come pick Shampoo up. Sighing she then hauled Ukyo back to her restaurant.
After depositing the chef, she started back to the dojo thinking, 'I wish that Ranma would pay some attention to me like he does to the other girls, that pervert. He probably pays more attention to them because I'm such a tomboy. Ohhh, he makes me so mad!'
By this time she had reached the remains of the gate to the wall that surrounded her home. Inside she found Dr. Tofu, Kasumi, Nabiki, both of their fathers and Ryoga gathered around where Ranma lay against the wall.
"What's going on?" she asked as they turned towards her.
"Akane! It's so horrible. Some one broke in and attacked Ranma. Dr. Tofu thinks he has a concussion, a broken arm, four cracked, possibly broken ribs, and possibly some spinal damage." Kasumi exclaimed and then misjudged the shocked expressions on her sisters face. "Oh don't worry about anything. When he wakes up, I'm sure that he will be able to tell us who did this to him and then Ryoga, father, and Mr. Saotome are going to track him down and make him pay for what he did."
"Oh, ok." Akane said in a small voice and then hurried inside to her room.
Nabiki watched her go a suspicious look on her face.
Akane watched from her window as an ambulance came and carried Ranma away, leaving behind only the shattered remains of the gate, two holes in the wall, a couple of broken branches laying on the ground and a hole in the ground where Ukyo had been malleted into it.
'I can't believe that I hurt Ranma.' she thought. 'He is always so strong and confident. He's always saying that I can't do anything right and I guess that he is right a little bit. But that still gives him no right to make fun of me like he does. He deserved what he got.' though she thought this firmly a little voice in the back of her mind told her that she was wrong. She ignored the voice and headed back downstairs.
"Akane, we're going to go to the hospital for awhile. Would you like to come with us?" Kasumi asked as she met her at the door to the kitchen.
"Sure." Akane said softly.
Ranma was aware of nothing but pain that shot down his spine as he woke up. Opening his eyes, he saw a blurry outline of someone leaning over him. He blinked to try and clear his eyesight but the person stayed fuzzy.
"Ranma? Can you here me?" the figure said softly.
"Who you?" Ranma croaked out in a voice that sounded like gravel.
"Don't you recognize me? It's me, Dr. Tofu." the figure said.
"Can't really see." Ranma said slowly. Tofu nodded in understanding then disappeared from Ranma's field of vision. He could dimly hear the doctor saying something about spinal injuries affect nerves and how sometimes they were temporary.
"What's going on? Where am I?"
There was silence for a moment before Tofu started to explain. "You are in the hospital right now. You were attacked at the dojo and sustained some very bad injuries. You have 4 broken ribs, a broken arm, a minor concussion and a spinal injury that could affect the way you live for the rest of your life."
"What do you mean?" Ranma asked.
There was a long pause before Dr. Tofu answered and when he did it was very hesitant. "Your eye sight is part of it and your may be paralyzed. They need to run more tests before they can be sure but you may not be able to walk again."
Ranma just stared at the blurry figure for a minute before he turned his face away.
"Ranma?"
"Can I just be alone for a little while?" Ranma asked softly and a moment later he heard the doctor's footsteps heading towards the door. Once he was sure that he was a lone, Ranma let the tears he had been holding back slid down his face. He tried to sit up but another sharp pain shot down his back causing him to gasp in pain. He slumped back down and waited for it to fade. 'This can't be happening to Me.' he thought as he brushed the tears that were running down his cheeks away. 'This is all just a bad dream. I'm going to wake up any time now and be perfectly fine.' between one thought and the next, Ranma slipped back into sleep.
Akane had snuck in the room when Dr. Tofu had left and sat down in the chair facing the bed. Watching Ranma try to sit up and fail, then start to silently cry tore at her heart. She felt immensely guilty at what had happened though she still insisted to her self that it was still all Ranma's fault.
When she saw him fall asleep again, she quietly stood up and approached the bed and looked at his still face. He was pale and was sweating heavily and she could tell that he was in intense pain from the tears that still leaked from beneath closed lids.
Turning, she quickly left the room. The waiting room was empty so she sat down on one of the plastic chairs that lined the wall and buried her head in her hands.
That was how the others found her twenty minutes later after coming back from talking to the doctor who would help Dr. Tofu, a spinal specialist named Dr. Masaki.
"Akane? Where have you been? I was worried about you." Kasumi said as she sat down next to her youngest sister.
"I was walking around for a while." Akane said softly.
Seeing that her sister was very upset, Kasumi gave her a motherly hug and whispered some reassurances in her ear. They watched as the two doctors went into Ranma's room and then wheeled his bed out and down the hall. Their father and Ranma's stood next to the two girls as the bed rolled past them. Ranma was huddled on the bed, awake and obviously in pain, visible in the lines on his forehead and around his mouth that were out of place on his young face. His eyes were open and staring, unfocused and glazed.
Genma, Ranma's father, stopped the bed for a moment and asked quietly, "Who attacked you?"
Ranma paused for a moment then said firmly, "No."
Hearing this, Akane burst into tears. While Kasumi and Soun, their father, tried to comfort her, Tofu and Masaki wheeled Ranma on down the hall to the x-ray room to get some pictures of his spine.
"I do hope that he will be all right." Kasumi said as her sister continued to cry on her shoulder.
"I'm sure he will." Genma said in a firm voice but the look in his eyes showed that he wasn't as positive as he sounded.
Ranma sighed. It had been a year since he had been injured and months since he had seen anyone besides the doctors and Kasumi, who came by every once in a while to check up on him. His father had disappeared shortly after he had been injured and when his mother found out that he was cursed, had disowned him. She had felt that since he had lost most of the feelings and movement from his legs down, it would be kinder to disown him then have him kill him self.
**************
Flashback
**************
"Ranma, you have a visitor." Sakura, his nurse, said as she entered his room with a pitcher of water.
"Who is it?" he asked listlessly. He had been like that since he found out that he would never walk without aids again.
"A nice older woman who says she is you mother." the nurse said with a smile on her face. Behind her, the woman in question entered carrying a silk wrapped bundle and a piece of paper that looked like it was 13 years old.
"Will you please excuse us?" she asked the nurse who nodded in understanding.
As soon as she was gone, Nodoka sat down in the chair next to the bed.
"Ranma, do you know about the deal that your father and I made right before you left on the training journey?" she asked quietly, a hard look in her eyes.
"No. What deal?" he asked confused. In response to his question, she handed him the paper she had noticed earlier.
"This is the contract that we made. It was that he had to turn you into a man above men or both of you would commit seppuku. I recently received a letter from your father yesterday. He told me about what happened to you and also the fact that you turn into a girl. That violates our agreement about you becoming a man above men. But since I consider my self a woman with a sense of justice, I will not make you commit seppuku. Instead, you are no longer my son. I will pay for your hospital bills as my last act of kindness to my son." this said, she stood up and walked out of the room, leaving Ranma to stare in horror at her back still clutching the paper in his fist.
A tear slipped down his cheek as the nurse hurried back in. "Ranma? Are you ok?" she as asked worriedly.
Silently he handed her the paper and whispered "She said I was no longer her son but she would let me live even thought the contract was broken. I didn't even know about the deal between them."
Seeing that he was so shaken up by the visit, she wrapped him in a hug and let him cry on her shoulder.
****************
End flashback
****************
Ranma sighed as he remembered this. After she had left, the Tendos had come and told him that they were going to dissolve the engagement because he could no longer carry on the Anything goes school of martial arts with Akane.
Now eight months later, he was finally being released. Kasumi had arranged for him to live with his aunt and her family. She had remembered that Genma had a sister and called to tell them about what had happened to him and they had offered to let him stay with them and since Ranma didn't have anywhere else to stay for the moment, had agreed. He was planning on staying there only long enough to be able to save some money and get a place of his own. They were on their way to pick him up and would be there any minute.
"Ranma, your Aunt Irene is here." Sakura said as she led the family of four in to the room. He was sitting in his wheelchair next to the window. He turned his head to look at his new family.
Serena was nervous about meeting her cousin Ranma for the first time. Her mother and father had come before to see him, but this was the first time she and Sammy were to meet him. After entering the room, she was surprised to see the thin young man sitting in front of the window. She could tell that at one time he had been very muscular and active but all that remained now was a grim expression on his face and a thin body, his muscles having disappeared from non-use.
"Uncle Ken, Aunt Irene. Thank you for this." she heard him say quietly as he wheeled himself over.
"It's so problem at all, Ranma." Her father said in a cheerful voice. "These are your cousins, Serena and Sammy." he introduced them.
"Hi Ranma." Serena said quietly and Sammy started chattering at top speed.
"Hi Ranma! Do you like video games? I love them. I've beaten all the mortal combats games that have been released. Have you tried them?"
"Sammy, why don't you let Ranma answer one before asking another. Besides I don't think that Ranma wants to talk about a martial arts game right now." Irene said as she laid a hand on his shoulder as he rolled up to the group.
Turning to the nurse, Ranma said, "Thanks for everything you have done, Sakura. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been there with me this past year." reaching up, he gave her a hug.
"Well I loved to help. To me, you're just like my children." more quietly, she asked, "Have you told them about it yet?"
"No, I'm going to wait until we get there. I don't exactly know how to tell them."
"Why don't you tell that all about what has happened to you on the way to Tokyo. It's a long drive."
"I'll think about it." Ranma said softly before giving her another hug and releasing her. Ken had been close enough to hear what they had said and asked, "Tell us about what?"
"I'll tell you on the way." Ranma sighed.
Once on the road, Ranma started telling them everything that had happened to him since he had left on his first training trip, leaving out some of the worst things, like his fear of cats. When he got to the part of Jusanko, he said, "I'll show you when we get to the house, but for now believe that I do turn into a girl."
"But that's impossible, Ranma." Ken said from the front seat, looking in the rearview mirror at the black haired young man sitting in-between Sammy and Serena.
Ranma said nothing but continued his story. By the end the entire family was ready to find Genma and kill him slowly and painfully.
As they pulled into the drive way, Irene said "If I ever see my no good brother again, I'll kick his but back to China. I was better than he was when we were growing up, and I'm better than he is now. I can't believe that he did that to you. Even Hopposi, who was a stubborn man never did anything like that to us."
"You were trained in the anything goes martial arts? I thought that only pops and Mr. Tendo were trained by the old pervert." Ranma said surprised.
"Well, he never took me on any of his training journeys with the guys, but when they were home in Nerima, he taught me a little and the rest I learned while watching them. Of course I had to put up with him stealing my bras all the time." she muttered to herself as she helped get the wheel chair out of the trunk.
"He called me his student since he escaped from the cave they trapped him in but he never taught me anything. Probably because I was one of the best fighters in Nerima." Ranma said softly as he levered himself into the chair.
"Why would he call you his student if he never trained you? And he used to steal your bras ma?" Serena asked confused.
"Let me explain." Ranma said as Ken pushed his chair up to the front door. "Happosi is the master and creator of the anything goes martial arts training that I have been studying since I was five years old. Pop and Mr. Tendo went with him on journeys where he would make them help him steal bras and panties from women wherever they went. Finally, they trapped him in a cave where he was trapped until about two years ago, right after I found out about my engagement to Mr. Tendo's youngest daughter Akane. He considers himself my teacher because he created the style."
"Oh. I guess that makes sense." Serena said softly. They were in the living room by this time and everyone was starting to settle down on the chairs and couches. Suddenly Serena jumped up and went to the door behind Ranma. "Luna, there you are. Ranma, I want you to meet Luna." she said as she came around to the front for him holding the black cat.
"Who... c..c..Cat!" he screamed, terrified and started to twitch and shake in his chair. He lowered his head as the family looked at him in shock. Suddenly, he let out a soft growl and tumbled down off of the chair and on to the floor. Playfully, Ranma-neko meowed at Luna and batted a paw/hand at her. She jumped down and her playful cat instincts took over. She started to play with the human that was acting like a cat.
The Tuskinos just stared at the boy and the cat was the bounced around playing with each other. After a couple of minutes, Ranma turned around and jumped in to Serena's lap and curled up. Within a moment, he was asleep while everyone stared at him.
"Maybe we should bring him up to the guest room and let him sleep. After he wakes up, we can ask him what just happened, Irene said softly and her husband nodded and stood up to take him from his daughter's lap. But before he could, Ranma woke up with a start.
"Wha...what happened?" he asked sharply as he pushed himself off of Serena and onto the couch next to her.
"We were hoping that you could tell us that." Ken said quietly. "One minute, you were fine and the next, you were acting like a cat."
Upon hearing the word cat, Ranma immediately started to look frantically around. "You need to keep cats away from me." he said urgently. "It's very important. I can't control what happens when I see a c...cat."
"What does happen?" Sammy asked.
"It's because of what pop did to me to teach me a move called the cat fist. He strapped fish sausages to me and threw me into a pit of starving cats. Now because of that training, whenever I see a cat, I start acting like a cat and I use the cat fist if I feel threatened. It can slice through solid steel like paper. It is extremely dangerous." Ranma said urgently.
Hearing this, Serena told him to shut his eyes and then hurriedly picked Luna up and put her out side and told her to go talk to Artemis or something. Coming back into the living room, she said, "Good thing we were to surprised to do anything. I'm going to have one of my friends take care of Luna for a while until we can figure something out." sitting back down next to him, she asked something that was bothering her. "Ranma, when you went cat, you were able to run around and jump and move your legs. How?"
"I'm not completely paralyzed in my legs. Only about sixty percent and I'm not able to feel anything below the knees. I can walk somewhat with these big metal braces that are in one of my bags but it's kind of hard. I guess my cat form just ignores it and acts like it always does." Ranma said as he rubbed his forehead in a futile attempt to keep his headache from becoming a full-blown migraine.
"I can see that you are tired. Why don't you go to bed for a while and Serena will bring Luna someplace." Irene said gentle and he nodded and started to maneuver himself back into his chair, waving off they motions to help. By the time that he had succeeded, he was pale and shaking. "Where will my room be while I'm here?" he asked quietly.
"I'll show you. And you are welcome here for as long as you want." Irene said as she headed down the hall.
"I know but I want to get out on my own. Here I am 19 years old and the only time I've lived alone was when I was in the hospital and I don't really think that that can be considered as living alone." he said softly, becoming depressed again.
"Just take your time getting a place. We don't mind you here and a lot of places around here are nice." she said, then left him to take a nap.
He lay there for a minute staring at the ceiling. As always when he was tired, his mine drifted back to Nerima and all the friends and fiancée's that were still there. Ukyo had been by to see him only once since he had gotten hurt. She had said that it was just to painful for her to see him like that so she would be staying away from him while he was in the hospital and for as long as he need to wear the braces or use a wheel chair.
Shampoo and Cologne had visited twice. The first time had been to see how he was and how his injuries would affect him. The second time was to say good-bye. They had called off the husband thing claiming that she couldn't leave the tribe to marry a cripple and that they were going back to China the next day.
Kodachi hadn't even bothered to visit once. Merely sending a card saying that she didn't think she could love him any more.
Ryoga had wondered in about three months after he first got there and upon seeing his friend/rival laying there unable to work his legs properly, had left before he could say anything more than 'you brought this one yourself by the way you treat Akane' then he turned and walked right into the bathroom. Five minutes later, he finally found his way back to the main room where it took him another five minutes to find the exit.
Kuno had shown up and gloated that now that he was hurt, Akane and the pig-tailed girl were all his.
And then there was Akane. She had come by once after her father and told him his decision concerning the betrothal and asked him if he remembered what had happened. He had replied "Yes Akane, I do remember what happened. You must be very happy that your father broke the engagement." in a very calm, empty voice so unlike his usual manner of speaking that she just stared at him for a second. Finally she stood up without saying a word, and quietly left but not before he had seen the tear that slipped down her cheek.
That had hurt the most. She hadn't apologized to him or even said that she hoped that he would get better soon. She just left, without saying a word.
Turning over he slipped into a light and troubled sleep.
Upstairs, later that night, Serena was on the phone with Mina. "Yeah it was so weird. He just freaked out. It's because of this training his father put him through and he also said that he turned into a girl because of something else his father did to him for the sake of the Art. And you know the craziest thing? I think I believe him. It doesn't seem to matter to him anymore. When he lost most of the use of his legs, I think he went into a depression so deep that he can't get out of it."
"Yeah. After everything that you just told me, I would have to think that you were crazy and so was he but I think that he is telling the truth too." Mina said from across the line. Suddenly Serena could hear Artemis and Luna on the other end as Mina had it on speakerphone.
"Maybe you could use the silver crystal over a period of months and heal his legs or maybe do it all at once. But that would mean letting him know who you are." Artemis said softly.
"Yes but if she did it while he was asleep, then he wouldn't know. Serena I think you should heal him a little at a time while he is a sleep." Luna said firmly.
"Alright. I was going to ask you about healing him anyway. Well I think that I'm going to catch some sleep. I'm tired." Serena said as she stifled a yawn.
"Yeah see you at the arcade tomorrow. And bring Ranma, I would love to meet him." Mina said just before they each said goodbye and hung up.
*************
Chapter 3
*************
Serena set her alarm for midnight to wake her up so that she could start trying to help Ranma with the silver crystal, but she never ended up going to sleep. At 11:30 she got a call from Rei.
"Serena, get down to the park right now. There is a monster draining the energy from some people." Rei said urgently. Serena could already see that she had transformed into Sailor Mars.
"I'll be right there." She said and closed her communicator and quickly transformed into Sailor Moon. She jumped out of her window and hurried away, never seeing the face that was looking at her out of her downstairs window.
Ranma stared after the girl in the short skirt as she ran away from the house. He had woke up around eleven because he just wasn't used to this house yet. The smallest sound woke him up. When Serena had gotten the call on her communicator, the soft beeping noise had alerted him that something was up. Then had come the soft sound like the shimmering of a bell. He had only looked outside because he thought he had seen pink light reflecting off of the trees outside. Then the girl had jumped down from Serena's upstairs window.
He had heard stories from other patients in the hospital about the Sailor Scouts who protected Tokyo. Some had even shown him pictures of various scouts. His favorite had always been Sailor Moon.
Now Sailor Moon had just jumped out of Serena's window right after he had heard some unusual sounds coming from her room that was right over his head. It didn't a rocket scientist to figure out that his cousin was Sailor Moon.
Sitting up he grabbed his crutches from next to the bed and slipped out his window.
***************
Chapter 1
***************
Ranma Saotome was relaxing on the roof on the Tendo dojo. He never had a chance just to relax because of the various fiancées and rivals that were always after him. It was a sunny day in the middle of June, school had just let out for summer and Ranma was looking forward to being able to relax and not worry about homework or being late to school for the rest of the summer.
Suddenly, he heard a huge crash from the front of the house. 'That sounded like it came from the front yard.' he thought to himself as he jumped down from the roof and walked towards the front yard. He turned the corner just in time to see Shampoo and Ukyo destroy the rest of the gate as the wrestled with each other. He stood there for a second staring at them and while he was distracted, Kodachi appeared next to him and wrapped herself around him.
"Ranma darling, you simply must come with me on a date. Ha ha ha ha!" she laughed maniacally.
"Get off of me!" he yelled as he struggled to pull her off of him. His shout attracted the attention of Shampoo, Ukyo, and Akane who was just coming in through the remains of the gate.
"Get off Ranma!" Ukyo and Shampoo shouted together while Akane just stood, frozen, staring at the quartet.
The three girls in the yard started fighting while Akane stared at them, anger slowly beginning to burn away the shock at the sight of the three girls destroying her home. Again.
Suddenly her mallet materialized in her hand and she started swinging at the whole group in front of her. Shampoo was knocked into the wall while Ukyo was knocked in to the ground. Kodachi wound up lodged in the upper branches of the tree where she hung by the back of her tight leotard. Ranma, who had been turning blue from the choke hold on his neck, courtesy of Kodachi's ribbon, started to thank her but was cut of by the mallet that was planted in his face. Ranma was thrown backwards into the wall next to Shampoo, hitting it with a sickening crack.
Akane was slightly worried about Ranma as he silently slipped down but quickly pushed it aside, to angry at him for inviting those girls over.
Turning she stomped into the house and called Kodachi's house and had a servant come and pluck her out of the tree's top and haul her home. Next she called Cologne at the Cat Cafe and had her come pick Shampoo up. Sighing she then hauled Ukyo back to her restaurant.
After depositing the chef, she started back to the dojo thinking, 'I wish that Ranma would pay some attention to me like he does to the other girls, that pervert. He probably pays more attention to them because I'm such a tomboy. Ohhh, he makes me so mad!'
By this time she had reached the remains of the gate to the wall that surrounded her home. Inside she found Dr. Tofu, Kasumi, Nabiki, both of their fathers and Ryoga gathered around where Ranma lay against the wall.
"What's going on?" she asked as they turned towards her.
"Akane! It's so horrible. Some one broke in and attacked Ranma. Dr. Tofu thinks he has a concussion, a broken arm, four cracked, possibly broken ribs, and possibly some spinal damage." Kasumi exclaimed and then misjudged the shocked expressions on her sisters face. "Oh don't worry about anything. When he wakes up, I'm sure that he will be able to tell us who did this to him and then Ryoga, father, and Mr. Saotome are going to track him down and make him pay for what he did."
"Oh, ok." Akane said in a small voice and then hurried inside to her room.
Nabiki watched her go a suspicious look on her face.
Akane watched from her window as an ambulance came and carried Ranma away, leaving behind only the shattered remains of the gate, two holes in the wall, a couple of broken branches laying on the ground and a hole in the ground where Ukyo had been malleted into it.
'I can't believe that I hurt Ranma.' she thought. 'He is always so strong and confident. He's always saying that I can't do anything right and I guess that he is right a little bit. But that still gives him no right to make fun of me like he does. He deserved what he got.' though she thought this firmly a little voice in the back of her mind told her that she was wrong. She ignored the voice and headed back downstairs.
"Akane, we're going to go to the hospital for awhile. Would you like to come with us?" Kasumi asked as she met her at the door to the kitchen.
"Sure." Akane said softly.
Ranma was aware of nothing but pain that shot down his spine as he woke up. Opening his eyes, he saw a blurry outline of someone leaning over him. He blinked to try and clear his eyesight but the person stayed fuzzy.
"Ranma? Can you here me?" the figure said softly.
"Who you?" Ranma croaked out in a voice that sounded like gravel.
"Don't you recognize me? It's me, Dr. Tofu." the figure said.
"Can't really see." Ranma said slowly. Tofu nodded in understanding then disappeared from Ranma's field of vision. He could dimly hear the doctor saying something about spinal injuries affect nerves and how sometimes they were temporary.
"What's going on? Where am I?"
There was silence for a moment before Tofu started to explain. "You are in the hospital right now. You were attacked at the dojo and sustained some very bad injuries. You have 4 broken ribs, a broken arm, a minor concussion and a spinal injury that could affect the way you live for the rest of your life."
"What do you mean?" Ranma asked.
There was a long pause before Dr. Tofu answered and when he did it was very hesitant. "Your eye sight is part of it and your may be paralyzed. They need to run more tests before they can be sure but you may not be able to walk again."
Ranma just stared at the blurry figure for a minute before he turned his face away.
"Ranma?"
"Can I just be alone for a little while?" Ranma asked softly and a moment later he heard the doctor's footsteps heading towards the door. Once he was sure that he was a lone, Ranma let the tears he had been holding back slid down his face. He tried to sit up but another sharp pain shot down his back causing him to gasp in pain. He slumped back down and waited for it to fade. 'This can't be happening to Me.' he thought as he brushed the tears that were running down his cheeks away. 'This is all just a bad dream. I'm going to wake up any time now and be perfectly fine.' between one thought and the next, Ranma slipped back into sleep.
Akane had snuck in the room when Dr. Tofu had left and sat down in the chair facing the bed. Watching Ranma try to sit up and fail, then start to silently cry tore at her heart. She felt immensely guilty at what had happened though she still insisted to her self that it was still all Ranma's fault.
When she saw him fall asleep again, she quietly stood up and approached the bed and looked at his still face. He was pale and was sweating heavily and she could tell that he was in intense pain from the tears that still leaked from beneath closed lids.
Turning, she quickly left the room. The waiting room was empty so she sat down on one of the plastic chairs that lined the wall and buried her head in her hands.
That was how the others found her twenty minutes later after coming back from talking to the doctor who would help Dr. Tofu, a spinal specialist named Dr. Masaki.
"Akane? Where have you been? I was worried about you." Kasumi said as she sat down next to her youngest sister.
"I was walking around for a while." Akane said softly.
Seeing that her sister was very upset, Kasumi gave her a motherly hug and whispered some reassurances in her ear. They watched as the two doctors went into Ranma's room and then wheeled his bed out and down the hall. Their father and Ranma's stood next to the two girls as the bed rolled past them. Ranma was huddled on the bed, awake and obviously in pain, visible in the lines on his forehead and around his mouth that were out of place on his young face. His eyes were open and staring, unfocused and glazed.
Genma, Ranma's father, stopped the bed for a moment and asked quietly, "Who attacked you?"
Ranma paused for a moment then said firmly, "No."
Hearing this, Akane burst into tears. While Kasumi and Soun, their father, tried to comfort her, Tofu and Masaki wheeled Ranma on down the hall to the x-ray room to get some pictures of his spine.
"I do hope that he will be all right." Kasumi said as her sister continued to cry on her shoulder.
"I'm sure he will." Genma said in a firm voice but the look in his eyes showed that he wasn't as positive as he sounded.
Ranma sighed. It had been a year since he had been injured and months since he had seen anyone besides the doctors and Kasumi, who came by every once in a while to check up on him. His father had disappeared shortly after he had been injured and when his mother found out that he was cursed, had disowned him. She had felt that since he had lost most of the feelings and movement from his legs down, it would be kinder to disown him then have him kill him self.
**************
Flashback
**************
"Ranma, you have a visitor." Sakura, his nurse, said as she entered his room with a pitcher of water.
"Who is it?" he asked listlessly. He had been like that since he found out that he would never walk without aids again.
"A nice older woman who says she is you mother." the nurse said with a smile on her face. Behind her, the woman in question entered carrying a silk wrapped bundle and a piece of paper that looked like it was 13 years old.
"Will you please excuse us?" she asked the nurse who nodded in understanding.
As soon as she was gone, Nodoka sat down in the chair next to the bed.
"Ranma, do you know about the deal that your father and I made right before you left on the training journey?" she asked quietly, a hard look in her eyes.
"No. What deal?" he asked confused. In response to his question, she handed him the paper she had noticed earlier.
"This is the contract that we made. It was that he had to turn you into a man above men or both of you would commit seppuku. I recently received a letter from your father yesterday. He told me about what happened to you and also the fact that you turn into a girl. That violates our agreement about you becoming a man above men. But since I consider my self a woman with a sense of justice, I will not make you commit seppuku. Instead, you are no longer my son. I will pay for your hospital bills as my last act of kindness to my son." this said, she stood up and walked out of the room, leaving Ranma to stare in horror at her back still clutching the paper in his fist.
A tear slipped down his cheek as the nurse hurried back in. "Ranma? Are you ok?" she as asked worriedly.
Silently he handed her the paper and whispered "She said I was no longer her son but she would let me live even thought the contract was broken. I didn't even know about the deal between them."
Seeing that he was so shaken up by the visit, she wrapped him in a hug and let him cry on her shoulder.
****************
End flashback
****************
Ranma sighed as he remembered this. After she had left, the Tendos had come and told him that they were going to dissolve the engagement because he could no longer carry on the Anything goes school of martial arts with Akane.
Now eight months later, he was finally being released. Kasumi had arranged for him to live with his aunt and her family. She had remembered that Genma had a sister and called to tell them about what had happened to him and they had offered to let him stay with them and since Ranma didn't have anywhere else to stay for the moment, had agreed. He was planning on staying there only long enough to be able to save some money and get a place of his own. They were on their way to pick him up and would be there any minute.
"Ranma, your Aunt Irene is here." Sakura said as she led the family of four in to the room. He was sitting in his wheelchair next to the window. He turned his head to look at his new family.
Serena was nervous about meeting her cousin Ranma for the first time. Her mother and father had come before to see him, but this was the first time she and Sammy were to meet him. After entering the room, she was surprised to see the thin young man sitting in front of the window. She could tell that at one time he had been very muscular and active but all that remained now was a grim expression on his face and a thin body, his muscles having disappeared from non-use.
"Uncle Ken, Aunt Irene. Thank you for this." she heard him say quietly as he wheeled himself over.
"It's so problem at all, Ranma." Her father said in a cheerful voice. "These are your cousins, Serena and Sammy." he introduced them.
"Hi Ranma." Serena said quietly and Sammy started chattering at top speed.
"Hi Ranma! Do you like video games? I love them. I've beaten all the mortal combats games that have been released. Have you tried them?"
"Sammy, why don't you let Ranma answer one before asking another. Besides I don't think that Ranma wants to talk about a martial arts game right now." Irene said as she laid a hand on his shoulder as he rolled up to the group.
Turning to the nurse, Ranma said, "Thanks for everything you have done, Sakura. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been there with me this past year." reaching up, he gave her a hug.
"Well I loved to help. To me, you're just like my children." more quietly, she asked, "Have you told them about it yet?"
"No, I'm going to wait until we get there. I don't exactly know how to tell them."
"Why don't you tell that all about what has happened to you on the way to Tokyo. It's a long drive."
"I'll think about it." Ranma said softly before giving her another hug and releasing her. Ken had been close enough to hear what they had said and asked, "Tell us about what?"
"I'll tell you on the way." Ranma sighed.
Once on the road, Ranma started telling them everything that had happened to him since he had left on his first training trip, leaving out some of the worst things, like his fear of cats. When he got to the part of Jusanko, he said, "I'll show you when we get to the house, but for now believe that I do turn into a girl."
"But that's impossible, Ranma." Ken said from the front seat, looking in the rearview mirror at the black haired young man sitting in-between Sammy and Serena.
Ranma said nothing but continued his story. By the end the entire family was ready to find Genma and kill him slowly and painfully.
As they pulled into the drive way, Irene said "If I ever see my no good brother again, I'll kick his but back to China. I was better than he was when we were growing up, and I'm better than he is now. I can't believe that he did that to you. Even Hopposi, who was a stubborn man never did anything like that to us."
"You were trained in the anything goes martial arts? I thought that only pops and Mr. Tendo were trained by the old pervert." Ranma said surprised.
"Well, he never took me on any of his training journeys with the guys, but when they were home in Nerima, he taught me a little and the rest I learned while watching them. Of course I had to put up with him stealing my bras all the time." she muttered to herself as she helped get the wheel chair out of the trunk.
"He called me his student since he escaped from the cave they trapped him in but he never taught me anything. Probably because I was one of the best fighters in Nerima." Ranma said softly as he levered himself into the chair.
"Why would he call you his student if he never trained you? And he used to steal your bras ma?" Serena asked confused.
"Let me explain." Ranma said as Ken pushed his chair up to the front door. "Happosi is the master and creator of the anything goes martial arts training that I have been studying since I was five years old. Pop and Mr. Tendo went with him on journeys where he would make them help him steal bras and panties from women wherever they went. Finally, they trapped him in a cave where he was trapped until about two years ago, right after I found out about my engagement to Mr. Tendo's youngest daughter Akane. He considers himself my teacher because he created the style."
"Oh. I guess that makes sense." Serena said softly. They were in the living room by this time and everyone was starting to settle down on the chairs and couches. Suddenly Serena jumped up and went to the door behind Ranma. "Luna, there you are. Ranma, I want you to meet Luna." she said as she came around to the front for him holding the black cat.
"Who... c..c..Cat!" he screamed, terrified and started to twitch and shake in his chair. He lowered his head as the family looked at him in shock. Suddenly, he let out a soft growl and tumbled down off of the chair and on to the floor. Playfully, Ranma-neko meowed at Luna and batted a paw/hand at her. She jumped down and her playful cat instincts took over. She started to play with the human that was acting like a cat.
The Tuskinos just stared at the boy and the cat was the bounced around playing with each other. After a couple of minutes, Ranma turned around and jumped in to Serena's lap and curled up. Within a moment, he was asleep while everyone stared at him.
"Maybe we should bring him up to the guest room and let him sleep. After he wakes up, we can ask him what just happened, Irene said softly and her husband nodded and stood up to take him from his daughter's lap. But before he could, Ranma woke up with a start.
"Wha...what happened?" he asked sharply as he pushed himself off of Serena and onto the couch next to her.
"We were hoping that you could tell us that." Ken said quietly. "One minute, you were fine and the next, you were acting like a cat."
Upon hearing the word cat, Ranma immediately started to look frantically around. "You need to keep cats away from me." he said urgently. "It's very important. I can't control what happens when I see a c...cat."
"What does happen?" Sammy asked.
"It's because of what pop did to me to teach me a move called the cat fist. He strapped fish sausages to me and threw me into a pit of starving cats. Now because of that training, whenever I see a cat, I start acting like a cat and I use the cat fist if I feel threatened. It can slice through solid steel like paper. It is extremely dangerous." Ranma said urgently.
Hearing this, Serena told him to shut his eyes and then hurriedly picked Luna up and put her out side and told her to go talk to Artemis or something. Coming back into the living room, she said, "Good thing we were to surprised to do anything. I'm going to have one of my friends take care of Luna for a while until we can figure something out." sitting back down next to him, she asked something that was bothering her. "Ranma, when you went cat, you were able to run around and jump and move your legs. How?"
"I'm not completely paralyzed in my legs. Only about sixty percent and I'm not able to feel anything below the knees. I can walk somewhat with these big metal braces that are in one of my bags but it's kind of hard. I guess my cat form just ignores it and acts like it always does." Ranma said as he rubbed his forehead in a futile attempt to keep his headache from becoming a full-blown migraine.
"I can see that you are tired. Why don't you go to bed for a while and Serena will bring Luna someplace." Irene said gentle and he nodded and started to maneuver himself back into his chair, waving off they motions to help. By the time that he had succeeded, he was pale and shaking. "Where will my room be while I'm here?" he asked quietly.
"I'll show you. And you are welcome here for as long as you want." Irene said as she headed down the hall.
"I know but I want to get out on my own. Here I am 19 years old and the only time I've lived alone was when I was in the hospital and I don't really think that that can be considered as living alone." he said softly, becoming depressed again.
"Just take your time getting a place. We don't mind you here and a lot of places around here are nice." she said, then left him to take a nap.
He lay there for a minute staring at the ceiling. As always when he was tired, his mine drifted back to Nerima and all the friends and fiancée's that were still there. Ukyo had been by to see him only once since he had gotten hurt. She had said that it was just to painful for her to see him like that so she would be staying away from him while he was in the hospital and for as long as he need to wear the braces or use a wheel chair.
Shampoo and Cologne had visited twice. The first time had been to see how he was and how his injuries would affect him. The second time was to say good-bye. They had called off the husband thing claiming that she couldn't leave the tribe to marry a cripple and that they were going back to China the next day.
Kodachi hadn't even bothered to visit once. Merely sending a card saying that she didn't think she could love him any more.
Ryoga had wondered in about three months after he first got there and upon seeing his friend/rival laying there unable to work his legs properly, had left before he could say anything more than 'you brought this one yourself by the way you treat Akane' then he turned and walked right into the bathroom. Five minutes later, he finally found his way back to the main room where it took him another five minutes to find the exit.
Kuno had shown up and gloated that now that he was hurt, Akane and the pig-tailed girl were all his.
And then there was Akane. She had come by once after her father and told him his decision concerning the betrothal and asked him if he remembered what had happened. He had replied "Yes Akane, I do remember what happened. You must be very happy that your father broke the engagement." in a very calm, empty voice so unlike his usual manner of speaking that she just stared at him for a second. Finally she stood up without saying a word, and quietly left but not before he had seen the tear that slipped down her cheek.
That had hurt the most. She hadn't apologized to him or even said that she hoped that he would get better soon. She just left, without saying a word.
Turning over he slipped into a light and troubled sleep.
Upstairs, later that night, Serena was on the phone with Mina. "Yeah it was so weird. He just freaked out. It's because of this training his father put him through and he also said that he turned into a girl because of something else his father did to him for the sake of the Art. And you know the craziest thing? I think I believe him. It doesn't seem to matter to him anymore. When he lost most of the use of his legs, I think he went into a depression so deep that he can't get out of it."
"Yeah. After everything that you just told me, I would have to think that you were crazy and so was he but I think that he is telling the truth too." Mina said from across the line. Suddenly Serena could hear Artemis and Luna on the other end as Mina had it on speakerphone.
"Maybe you could use the silver crystal over a period of months and heal his legs or maybe do it all at once. But that would mean letting him know who you are." Artemis said softly.
"Yes but if she did it while he was asleep, then he wouldn't know. Serena I think you should heal him a little at a time while he is a sleep." Luna said firmly.
"Alright. I was going to ask you about healing him anyway. Well I think that I'm going to catch some sleep. I'm tired." Serena said as she stifled a yawn.
"Yeah see you at the arcade tomorrow. And bring Ranma, I would love to meet him." Mina said just before they each said goodbye and hung up.
*************
Chapter 3
*************
Serena set her alarm for midnight to wake her up so that she could start trying to help Ranma with the silver crystal, but she never ended up going to sleep. At 11:30 she got a call from Rei.
"Serena, get down to the park right now. There is a monster draining the energy from some people." Rei said urgently. Serena could already see that she had transformed into Sailor Mars.
"I'll be right there." She said and closed her communicator and quickly transformed into Sailor Moon. She jumped out of her window and hurried away, never seeing the face that was looking at her out of her downstairs window.
Ranma stared after the girl in the short skirt as she ran away from the house. He had woke up around eleven because he just wasn't used to this house yet. The smallest sound woke him up. When Serena had gotten the call on her communicator, the soft beeping noise had alerted him that something was up. Then had come the soft sound like the shimmering of a bell. He had only looked outside because he thought he had seen pink light reflecting off of the trees outside. Then the girl had jumped down from Serena's upstairs window.
He had heard stories from other patients in the hospital about the Sailor Scouts who protected Tokyo. Some had even shown him pictures of various scouts. His favorite had always been Sailor Moon.
Now Sailor Moon had just jumped out of Serena's window right after he had heard some unusual sounds coming from her room that was right over his head. It didn't a rocket scientist to figure out that his cousin was Sailor Moon.
Sitting up he grabbed his crutches from next to the bed and slipped out his window.
