Ranma ½: Arrival

Ranma ½: Arrival

Ukyo and Her Darling Ranchan

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Chapter 8

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"Trowa, what happened to make you look older?" Duo asked and all motion stopped as everyone blinked blinked at him and then turned to the older Trowa, who blushed.

"He's right! He looks about as old as Zechs Marquee!" Quatre exclaimed and Duo started nodding franticly. "Yes! Yes! Exactly!"

"I can explain it." Sestuna said and she put her hand on Trowa's broad shoulder. "It's because of the Time Gates. Because he can also control them, he has a special bond with them and with me. We work better together when we are the same age so the Gates made us the same age. If he had more experience with the Time Gates than I did, I would have been turned into a sixteen year old instead of him being turned into a twenty year old." She said and the others stared at them for a moment before nodding.

"Well, that's ok, but who are the kids? Mina asked as she turned to the five younger boys standing off to one side.

"My name is Tai and I'm the son of Mina and Quatre. I am also Chibi-Venus Knight. It is a pleasure to meet you. If it is all right with you, I would prefer to call you Mina instead of mother as you are closer to may age now." Tai said as he nervously straightened his yellow T-shirt.

"Yeah, sure. What ever." Mina said, a shell-shocked expression on her face. Quatre wasn't as surprised after meeting Shin earlier and having suspicions from first seeing Chibi-Venus K.

The next to step up was a boy with black hair that was tied in a small pony tail and purple eyes he was wearing black Chinese style pants with a red silk, long sleeved Chinese style shirt over a white tank top, kind of like what Ranma was currently wearing, but Ranma's shirt was sleeveless. "I'm Chang Matt, son to Chang Wufei and Rei. I am also Chibi-Mars K." he said and Rei goggled at him in shock. Wufei was just mentally evaluating him.

"Odin Yuy. It's a pleasure." This came from the boy with messy short brown hair and deep blue eyes wearing black jeans with a blue tank top and black sneakers. "I'm Chibi- Mercury K." he said grudgingly as Shin elbowed him.

"H.! I'm Shin, or Duo Jr. Do not ever call me that. Like I said earlier, my parents are Duo and Hotaru Maxwell. I'm Chibi-Saturn K." he said cheerful. It wasn't a shock to Duo and Hotaru as they were already used to the idea.

"I the oldest child of the Time Guardians, Sestuna and Triton Bloom, who goes by Trowa Barton to avoid confusion. My name is Triton and I'm Chibi-Pluto K." he said as he stepped forward and gave a small bow to everyone. With his forest green hair that hung over one light brown eye, and his tight blue jeans and black turtleneck with the brown soft skin boots, it was very easy to believe.

Sestuna took a step forward after a moment of wrapped her arms around her future son, surprising most of the people present. Sestuna isn't a person that showed her emotions in public and now, here she was hugging someone, almost crying, and Trowa, who usually, you could never read his expression, was openly smiling as he, too, approached and wrapped his arms around his little family.

Soon, the children were surrounded by their families, with Ranma, Ryoga, Haruka, and Michiru, and Lita standing off to one side as they watched. After about ten minutes of everyone getting to know everyone else, Serena spoke up.

"I know Rini can stay with me again, but where are you guys going to stay? We already have Ranma and Ryoga staying with us, so I don't think there will be enough room for anyone else."

"I can have two stay with me if they don't mind sharing a room." Darien said and Serena smiled at him gratefully.

"Matt can stay at the shrine. He'll just have to do a few chores for Grandpa." Rei said and her future son nodded in agreement.

"We have plenty of room at the safe house. The rest can stay there with us, and the others can come over anytime." Quatre said with a bright smile hat was echoed on Mina and Tai's faces.

"I'll stay at the safe house!" Shin shouted and Duo grinned and Odin immediately said, "Then I will stay with his Majesty." The others laughed at the eagerness Odin showed at getting away from the hyperactive Shin.

"I want to stay at the safe house as well." Tai said and Triton nodded. With that taken care of, Sestuna cleared her throat to get everyone's attention.

"I was meditating last night at the time gates, before the monster attack in America, and I have some news for Haruka and Michiru." Once she had the two outer scouts complete attention, she said, "Your Knights are Treize Kushrenada and Zechs Marquee. It will be up to you two what you do about this information." She said and left after saying good-bye to her new family. Between one moment and the next, she disappeared.

Michiru and Haruka left soon after that in Haruka's sports car. Serena, Rini, got a ride back to Serena's house in Darien's car with him and Odin, who were going to Darien's house afterwards, and Hotaru and Duo led the others back to the safe house to get everyone settled, with Rei and Matt heading towards the Cherry Hill Temple. Ranma and yoga decided to walk home, as there wasn't enough room in Darien's car for both of them.

As they walked, Ranma and Ryoga talked about training and the scouts and their surprise guests from the future. But they were about to get another surprise guest. This time from Ranma's past.

Ukyo stepped off the train in Jubaan, her spirits high. With her pack on her back and her giant spatula strapped to her pack, she asked a tall girl with long green hair for directions. After getting them, she walked off, leaving the girl staring after her in puzzlement.

'What would that girl have to do at Serena's house?' Sestuna thought. She quickly opened a portal to the Time Gates, which she could do without transforming, and slipped though. Calling up a window, she watched at Ukyo walked determinedly towards the house, while at the same time Ranma and Ryoga approached from the opposite direction.

Ranma had put his leg braces on and had started using his crutches, the closer they got to the house, so that if anyone saw them, it wouldn't look as strange. After all, he was supposed to be partially paralyzed and he wasn't supposed to be able to walk with out the braces and crutches.

As they started up the walkway to the front door, with Ranma grabbing Ryoga every once in a while to keep him on the right path, Ukyo turned the corner and caught sight of the familiar pigtail.

"Ranchan!" she squealed as she dashed up the walkway. Ranma turned at the familiar name just in time for her to tackle him onto his back in a hug.

"Ukyo?" Ranma gasped as he tried to pry her arms from around him so that he could sit up. There was a rock digging into his spine.

"It's so good to see you!" she said as she planted a kiss on his mouth. It took her a minute to realize that her wasn't returning her kiss and was in fact struggling to get away. "What's wrong darling?"

"What's wrong? What's wrong? What's wrong is you abandon me when I needed you the most. Heh, everyone abandoned me except Kasumi. But now, after all this time, you come here calling me Ranchan and darling!"

"What? I didn't abandon you, I went on a training journey because it hurt to see you like that." She said and he snorted in disbelief.

"Yeah right. Now state what you want and go away." He said coldly.

"Want? You're my fiancée."

"No I'm not. You broke it off and even if you didn't, we're still not engaged."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that I'm no longer a Saotome. Your fiancé is Genma's son and he no longer has one. Ranma is dead to the Saotomes. If you want to get your honor back for Genma stealing you dowry, than go to him. I'm sure his wife Nodoka would love to met you. After all, his problems are her problems." Ranma said sarcastically. Turning away from the stunned girl, he said, "Ryoga, can you give me a hand? I can't get up with these things on."

"Sure."

Ryoga's voice knocked Ukyo out of her shock and she scrambled to her feet. "But Ranchan! I'm your cute fiancée! You love me!" she exclaimed as she scrambled to her feet.

"I may have loved you once, a long time ago, but you have never loved me. To you, I was just a way to salvage your family's honor. I was nothing but a possession to you and Shampoo and Akane. Not one of you loved me and it is over now. I refuse to let you ruin my life again." Ranma snapped.

"Ruin your life? I never…" she started weakly, but he cut her off before she could protest more.

"Yes you did. You never gave me a chance to just talk to you or hang out with my old buddy Ucchan. Instead, you had to constantly remind me that I was you fiancée and that I had to marry you. Then when you, Shampoo, Akane, and Kodachi got into fights over me, I would end up being caught in the middle of it. Well, I'm tired of it all and I'm glade I don't have any of you for fiancées anymore. At least Lita likes me for who I am." He said and immediately regretted it as Ukyo straightened abruptly with fire in her eyes.

"I knew it! You're seeing someone else already! Probably another fiancée. She's tricked you into think that she loves you!" she exclaimed.

"No she didn't and she isn't my fiancée. She is just a friend of Serena's that is training with Ryoga and me."

"Right. When I find this Lita she's dead!"

"Who the hell are you coming to my house and threatening my friends?" a voice said from behind the enraged Ukyo, who spun around to face the new person.

"Serena." Ranma said, relief clear in his voice, a fact not missed by anyone who heard it.

"Serena? As in Lita's friend? You're just trying to take my Ranchan a way from me. You're just trying to get him for yourself!" Ukyo shouted as she whipped out a few mini spatulas to keep her busy while she grabbed her bigger spatula off her bag.

Serena screamed as she saw the sharp cooking tools flying at her and dodged to the side, but one of the spatulas sliced six inches off one of her pigtails, but Serena hadn't noticed it yet as she was flat on her back because she had tripped during her dodge. What caught her attention was the absolute stillness from everyone around her, including Rini and the rest of the family, who had come out to see what the screams were all about. Even Ukyo was still as Ryoga had her wrapped in his arms so she couldn't move.

"Ouch…hey! What's going on?!" she exclaimed when she saw that everyone was starring at her.

"Ser..rena…your hair…" Ranma stuttered as he pointed at her.

"What? What about my…hair…" she trailed off as she ran her hands down the length of her pigtails. When she came put short on her right one, she hesitantly looked down to see the small pile of hair on the sidewalk.

Her family winced in sympathy as tears started to snake down her face as she held up the shorted hair. "my pigtail…you cut off my pigtail you bitch!" she screamed, drawing shocked stares from her family as it was a well known fact that there was no swearing allowed and, even if it wasn't, Serena never swore. It just wasn't in her nature.

As everyone's attention was on Serena, Ukyo took this opportunity to throw her head back, smashing it into Ryoga's face, dazing him. As he loosened his grip, she wrenched herself away from him and grabbed her big spatula and started to swing it at the angry blond. Before she could finish her first over head swing, designed to knock her out, Ranma jumped into the path and blocked it with an up raised arm, shocking Ukyo to her bones.

"Ranma, what…" she started but he interrupted her.

"Leave her alone! Haven't you done enough already? I told you before, leave me alone! Just go away." He said coldly as she stared at him.

"I…it's her isn't it? She brainwashed you into thinking that you don't love me! Your dead!!!" she screamed as she dodged around Ranma and swung at the blond. Just before it hit, a crescent moon appeared on Serena's forehead and she started to glow with a silver glow that made it almost impossible to look at her.

Without a word, a beam of the silver light shot out and melted the spatula. As Ukyo stared at what remanded of her weapon, Serena started towards the chef, a deadly look on her face. Before anyone could do anything, she was in front of Ukyo. In the next few seconds, everyone's opinion of Serena changed because, it was then that she drew back her fist and slammed it into Ukyo's face. With one blow, Serena succeeded in doing something Shampoo had never managed to do in the two years they were fighting. She knocked her out with just one punch.

As Ukyo dropped like a ton of bricks, Serena's family and Ryoga stared at the blond. None of them had ever seen her like this. She was able and ready to stand up for her self and was able to stop an angry martial artist with one blow. She had finally grown p and her family couldn't be prouder, even Sammy was impressed. Rini was smiling while Ryoga and Ranma stared at her with a new sense of admiration. For one had been able to knock Ukyo out with one punch before. One mallet hit, yes, but never one punch.

Seeing the proud, but shocked, expressions on her parents' faces, Ranma quickly said, "Serena, congratulations! You have just learned to use you ki."

"Huh, ki?" Serena said as the sliver glow died down and the moon symbol disappeared from her forehead. He parents repeated her question right hater her.

"Yes. Ki is the energy in all living things. Very few people can manifest a battle aura or even do an attack, like your daughter just did." Ranma said with a smile.

"But that's impossible to do!" Ken protested, but Ranma just shook his head.

"No, it's possible. In fact, Ryoga and I can do it." He said and started glowing a bright green. After a moment of hesitation, Ryoga started glowing a green and gold swirled color. Both noticed the changes from their usual auras and made a mental note to talk about it later, after the others were gone.

"Wow! Can you teach me how to do that too?!" Sammy exclaimed eagerly and Ranma said, "I'll try, but everyone can't do it. I very surprised that Serena was able to do that because, usually the only people who are able to do what she did are yoga masters, martial artist masters or other people who are centered and have a lot of ki. Even most martial artists who are centered can't do more than a very small aura and can't even begin to learn how to do an attack." Ranma said as he and Ryoga dissipated their auras.

"I won't say that I understand this, but ok." Ken said and was about to turn back to his daughter when suddenly Ranma collapsed.

"Ranma!" everyone shouted as they rushed to the fallen teen. Turning him on to his back, Irene saw the huge cut on his arm that went almost to the bone that was still dripping blood. Taking her apron, she wrapped it tightly over the wound then ordered her husband to get the car. As everyone was rushing towards the car to get Ranma to the hospital, Serena turned and saw Ryoga was still standing next to the unconscious form of Ukyo.

"Ryoga? Are you coming?" she asked and he shook his head.

"No. I'll stay here and take care of her. I think I can get into the house later without getting lost." He said reassuringly and she nodded, throwing a quick smile at him before jumping into the car just before it left.

Sighing, he sat down next to Ukyo to wait for her to wake up. She started to stir a few minutes later and the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was Ryoga frowning down at her.

"What happened?" she groaned as she sat up, holding her head.

"You were knocked out when Serena punched you in the face." He said matter of factly.

"That…that bitch! I'll kill her for what she's done to Ranchan!"

"You will do nothing except turn around and go back to Nerima." Ryoga cut her off coldly.

"Why?" she snarled angrily.

"Because Ranma is going t hate you forever now. You and the others have been making his life a living hell for the past three years, and I admit that I did too, but we've settled our differences and are training together now. But you just attacked his cousin, who he is currently living with."

"Cousin?!" she exclaimed as she stared at him in shock, her anger forgotten.

"Yes, cousin. After he was disowned, and paralyzed, his Aunt and Uncle let him move in with them until he can get out on his own. You just don't understand, do you? Ranma Saotome is dead. The Ranma left is a weak, depressed guy who everyone except a few people abandoned him, including your self. Since he had been here and since I found him, he has changed for the better. Here he has peace and quiet and people that care for him." Ryoga said and thought, 'Peace and quiet? Right.'

"But I didn't abandon him!" Ukyo protested.

"Ok, you didn't abandon him. You just said that you were going to stay away from him until he doesn't have to use his braces, crutches, or wheelchair anymore, right? Well, incase you didn't notice, he is still wearing his braces. The doctor said that he would never be able to walk without them again." 'But that was before he was healed.' He thought as Ukyo looked at him in shock.

"But, he needs me and besides, he loves me! Why shouldn't I…" she started but he cut her off angrily.

"Haven't you been listening to him? He said he might have loved you once, but you ruined it a long time ago. And listen to your self! All you keep saying is that he loves you, but not once have you ever said that you love him. I bet what happened was that after being away from him for a year, you realized that you still wanted him, like a trophy or a object to be displayed. You found that without him around, you didn't get as much attention and decided the best thing to do was to bring him back. And when you found out that he wasn't in the hospital by, I'm assuming Kasumi?" At her nod, he continued. "You decided to go after him again. Right?"

Ukyo didn't say anything and Ryoga continued in a less harsh voice as tears started leaking out of her eyes.

"He's happy here. For the first time in years, he is surrounded by people who care for him not because anything besides what he is, and he has found his soul mate I think in the form of a girl that understands him better than you or anyone from Nerima ever could. Just go home and get on with your life, and let him live his own. If you hadn't been so obsessed with Ranma, you would have noticed the twenty guys who are in love with you back there, if you haven't driven them off for good this time, like that guy that dresses like a girl who works for you. He has loved you for the past three years."

"But he's always going after all those other girls saying they are the true love of his life." She said weakly and he shook his head.

"That is just one of his ways to see if you love him enough to get jealous about them. But notice he always comes back to you and he never goes back to them. He has put himself in danger to help you out of trouble and I think that he is perfect for you, if you can get him to stop dressing like a girl and mailboxes and signs and bushes and everything else." He said and she looked at him blankly for a moment before standing up and grabbing her pack. She left quietly, but he saw that she was deep in thought about what he had said.

Sighing, he turned towards the house and carefully made his way inside to the living room, being careful not to get lost. He had feeling that they wouldn't see Ukyo for a long time, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen from something from Nerima in the near future.

Duo and the others finally arrived at the safe house and Duo immediately dragged Hotaru and Shin upstairs, leaving the others to do what they wanted to. Once they reached the first landing that led to the second floor, he said "Quatre and Trowa have their sets of rooms on this floor along with a music room and another living room. There also rooms for ten of his sisters."

At the next landing, he said, "Wu-man and Heero stay on this floor. It has room for ten more sisters and ye another living room. There is also another room in the basement that they use for training. I'll show you guys later."

"Where do you sleep Duo? The next floor?" Hotaru asked as they headed up the stairs again.

"Nah. That floor is for guests and the rest of Quatre's sisters. I'm on the top floor." He said and showed them to the last landing.

"There are a lot of rooms up here. Does anyone else stay up here too?" Shin asked as they started down the hall.

"Nope. It's just me. The rest of the rooms are basically guestrooms. I changed on into a training room and another into a music room where I can blast my music. Because I'm so high up, it doesn't bother the guys that much." Duo said in a cheerful voice. The truth was that when they had moved into this safe house, he had been 'assigned' the top floor. The others hadn't wanted him around them as he didn't fit into their groups. Trowa and Quatre had their quiet, music playing group and Heero and Wufei had their tough as nails, mission and anti-weakness group. But Duo wasn't able to be like them. He was too different.

Turning to Shin, he said, "You can pick any room on any floor and we'll just move the stuff out of it and into one of these spare rooms if it occupied by one of the sisters. And you can stay here when ever you want to, Firefly."

"I like it up here. I stay in this room over here." Shin said with a smile as he opened a door and tossed his bag on the bed before rejoining his teenage parents.

"I'll take the room next to yours whenever I can stay over." Hotaru said as she wrapped her arms around Duo who smiled and hugged her back. They stayed like that until Shin rejoined them.

"So what kind of music do you have in this music room of yours?" Shin asked after a moment of silence as a grin spread across his face. An answering grin appeared on Duo's as he lead them towards a door three down from the end of the hallway.

Opening the door, he led them into a spacious room there were two couches and a table in one corner of the room. Across from them was a huge entertainment system. There was a large screen TV with a DVD player underneath, and beside it in another compartment was a huge stereo system with kick-ass speakers on either side of the case. On the bookshelves that covered one entire wall where thousands of CDs and tons of movies. There were lamps placed all over the room and a large space in the center of the room if you wanted to dance or something. Everything was also in shades of black and purple.

"This is my music an entertainment room. It's not as good as the one I used to have when I was in training, but it makes do." Duo said happily as he looked around.

Shin and Hotaru were slightly surprised but the loved it on sight. Shin wandered over to the music selection while Hotaru went over to a small lamp to look at it up close.

"Oh my god, you have Stabbing Westward!" Shin exclaimed and Hotaru asked who they were. "Just about my favorite oldies group. They have this one song called Sleep on their Wither Blister Burn + Peel. It's my favorite song! Can I put it on? I haven't heard it since my copy broke about two years ago."

"Sure, and it's not oldies, the album only came out six years ago. Older, I know, but not oldies." Duo protested as Shin danced over the stereo and popped it into the CD player, hit number nine and pushed play. As the song started, Shin and Duo shared a smile while Hotaru listened to her first taste of music a la Maxwell style.

Downstairs, the others looked up as loud music started to come through the ceiling. "Oh no, it was to much to hope for that he wouldn't get another copy of this after his broke." Tai groaned as he recognized the song.

"We have the same problem with Duo. We tried to get him to stop blasting this CD but, then he just blasts one of the other CDs that he has." Quatre said tiredly.

"It's has to be really loud this time for us to hear it from the fifth floor." Trowa said quietly and the other Gundam pilots nodded as the rest stared at them, shocked.

"Like father, like son, I guess." Heero said quietly and the others could do nothing but nodded in agreement.