Ranma ½: Life, Love, and Death
Memories part 2 Jupiter and Pluto *************** Chapter 12 ***************
Ranma hurried down the street to his interview for a new job. It was his third interview of the day and this one seemed a little bit more his style. The first job he had applied to was at a construction site building a new department store. The second was working as a waiter in a restaurant in his girl form. He wasn't too thrilled about that one but he at least had experience with it from working in the Cat-Café.
This new job, however was teaching a beginners class at a near by dojo where the only teachers were an old man in his sixties who was ready to retire and an arrogant man in his late twenties that believed that he has to good to waste his time on beginners. All he had to do was prove that he could handle basic martial arts with out keeling over with exhaustion, which was no longer a problem as he was in above average shape now. About halfway back to the shape that he was before the accident, he was in good enough shape to teach an advanced level class with ease so the beginner's class would be as easy as pie.
Reaching the dojo, he started up a long flight of stairs that reminded him of Rei's temple steps. As he bounced up the stairs, he passed people heading up as well, though at a much slower pace. One little old lady was leaning heavily on the arm of a young girl as she labored to get up the steps. Just as he was passing them, the woman tripped and went down hard on the steps. Her leg broke with an audible snapping sound and she cried out in pain, even as she started to topple down the stairs, the young girl desperately trying to stop the woman's fall.
Seeing the trouble they were in, Ranma stopped abruptly and grabbed the old woman up off the steps and braced himself on the railing. Seeing the way her leg dangled at the odd angle, Ranma turned and raced up the steps, leaving the young girl far behind as she raced after them.
Reaching the top of the stairs, he looked franticly around and spotted the old man who ran the dojo welcoming a group of students entering the large building. Running towards him as smoothly as he could as not to jar the woman's leg as much as possible, he shouted, "Mr. Fujimoto, this woman needs some help. She fell on the steps and broke her leg."
After throwing him a startled glance, Mr. Fujimoto turned and hurried over to a good-sized house next to the dojo, motioning urgently for Ranma to follow him. Ranma bounded into the house and with a quick look around, spotted a comfortable couch on the far wall. Gently placing his burden on it, Ranma took off his small back pack and looked up into the pain filled face of the woman.
"Ma'am, my name is Ranma. I can relieve the pain and straighten you leg if you wish." He said as Mr. Fujimoto dialed the number of the doctor who worked on the people at the dojo regularly.
"That would be wonderful, young man." The woman said softly in a beautiful voice.
Working quickly, Ranma lifted her skirt slightly to just above her knees and jabbed at a couple places on her leg to deaden the nerves.
"Oh my, that is wonderful, Ranma. Where ever did you learn the pressure points so well?" the woman asked and Ranma smiled up at her before going back to gently straightening her leg.
"Well, that story is part of a much larger one, but to put it simply, the matriarch of a group of Chinese amazons taught me when she was trying to force me to marry her great grand daughter just because I beat her in a fight. It was a village law." Ranma said as he gently wrapped his sash around her leg to help keep it immobile.
"Oh my, what a weird custom. Did you perhaps know about the law before you fought her?" the woman asked with a concerned look.
"No. Pops and I were traveling in China, not even knowing Chinese and our guide took us to the village during a big competition. Pops, unfortunately, started to eat the food laid out as prize for the winner, and Shampoo held me responsible and challenged me to a fight. I was very arrogant then and took her up on her challenge. I defeated her easily and then her great grandmother tried to force me to marry her right then and there. We escaped, but they followed us back to Japan." Ranma stopped talking for a moment and the woman spoke up.
"Would it have been so bad to marry her?"
"Well, yeah. Don't get me wrong, she was very beautiful and the best fighter of her generation, and she was just following her laws, but to her, I was just a prize." Ranma said and then his voice turned slightly bitter. "I had beaten her and there for I was worthy enough to marry her. It didn't matter that I had a bunch of fiancées already thanks to my worthless excuse of a father who kept selling me for food. It also didn't matter to her or to anyone else that I wasn't ready to settle down and get married. I was just a prize to be fought over between her and three other girls. There where more, but they gave up after a while."
While he had been speaking, Mr. Fujimoto had come back from the phone and him and the old woman listened quietly. When he stopped talking, Mr. Fujimoto said softly, "You have passed through the fire of troubles and tribulations and have emerged a stronger man, Ranma."
"No, Sensei, I haven't. Because of one of my fiancées, I was paralyzed and though I'm no longer paralyzed, I spent over a year unable to move my legs and because of that I was disowned. I also lost most of my strength and though I'm as strong as I was when I was about twelve, it will take some time before I will be back to full power. I didn't come out stronger, I came out broken." Ranma said bitterly.
"Maybe you're not as strong as you once were, but your troubles have matured you and while you might have been bent under your troubles, you have not been broken. If you had been, then you wouldn't be trying to build yourself back up again." Fujimoto said simply and the woman nodded in agreement.
Ranma opened his mouth to say something, but a voice from the doorway interrupted scornfully.
"You're only as strong as you were when you were twelve? How did you plan on teaching the beginner's class, by pictures?" the man in the doorway was tall and bulged with muscles. His blond hair was of medium length and just brushed his shoulders, which bunched up slightly as he crossed his arms over his chest in disdain as he looked Ranma over like he was a piece of trash. He had a copy of Martial Artist Monthly in one hand.
"You must be Ryo Nonaka, the teacher of the advanced classes." Ranma said coolly as he stood up.
"That's right kid, and don't you forget it." Ryo said arrogantly.
Ranma just snorted at the man before starting to turn away, but the magazine in Ryo's hand stopped him cold. Almost quicker than the others could follow, he rushed over and grabbed it out of the startled man's hand. What caught his attention was the article it was opened to.
A huge picture of Ranma and Ryoga filled up at least half of the page. They were fighting in the ruins of what had once been a pleasant park near the Tendo Dojo in Nerima. The pic was of them throwing their ki blasts at each other. Underneath the picture was the article and Ranma began reading it aloud as he absentmindedly dodged a couple of blows that an angry Ryo aimed at him.
" 'It's been over a year since the battles have stopped in Nerima, a welcome respite for most, but a terrible thing for a few others. It all began when Ranma Saotome, the young man in the black and red Chinese outfit, arrived in Nerima a few years ago and settled down in the Tendo Dojo. Before he came, there was a relative peace, but it changed when the then 16 year-old martial artist arrived. He quickly started fighting regularly with T. Kuno, a kendoist at Furnikan High school. He stopped the daily morning battles between Akane Tendo, one of his fiancées, and most of the male students, but he and Kuno began a morning fight of their own. Hardly a day went by without Kuno ending up in the nurse's office before school.'
" 'Then came Ryoga Hibiki, the young man in green and yellow in the picture above. Mr. Hibiki, who has the world's worst sense of direction, showed up and began fighting with Saotome whenever he could find him, blaming him for everything that has ever gone wrong in his life. Both are masters of their schools and they also have complete control over their ki's. In the above picture, you can see Saotome doing what he has called a Moko Takabisha, and Hibiki doing a Shi Shi Hokodan.'" Here Ranma had to pause to turn the page. On the next page he saw a group of smaller pictures showing Shampoo, Moose, Cologne, Kuno, Kodachi, Akane, and Ukyo with their names underneath.
" 'Then came the two Chinese fighters, Moose and Shampoo. Shampoo, following one of her tribe's laws followed Saotome from china in an attempt to marry him while Moose, who was in love with Shampoo followed to try and kill Saotome in an attempt to win Shampoo. There was also Ukyo, an okonomiyaki chef who owns a restaurant named the Ucchan. She was engaged to Saotome by his father when they were children and then left behind when they continued their training journey. I must point out the fact, though, that Saotome was never aware that he had been engaged to Ukyo and in fact thought that she was a boy.'
" 'All of them where a large part of the battles that raged across Nerima for a few years. Kuno, Ryoga, and Moose attacking Ranma for the smallest, or in some cases, imagined things. Kodachi, Shampoo, Ukyo and Akane would fight over him in which he would always be drawn in. Every time, he would be the one who ended up with the most bruises and broken bones as it seems that he always took the most hits somehow in everyone of the girls battles.'"
Ranma paused for a moment to look at a small picture of himself wrapped almost head to toe in bandages and splints. He remembered this picture. It was just after a huge all out brawl between all his fiancées and the guys who wanted them. Well, some of them. To the best of his knowledge, no one had ever tried to fight him for Ukyo or Kodachi. He had ended up with three broken or bruised ribs, a broken arm and leg, a sprained shoulder, wrist, ankle, and knee. Not to mention he had dislocated his other shoulder, both of his hips, and his other knee. He hadn't been able to move with out pain until almost when the casts were removed.
Shaking his head at the memories, he continued reading out loud as he absently jumped over a couple kicks. "'Now, just over a year after Saotome was paralyzed by his now Ex-fiancée Akane Tendo, his family is searching for him to try and put things right between them. His mother, Nodoka Saotome, was heard to say that she was very sorry for what she has done and would like to beg his forgiveness about how she had treated him at the hospital. His father Genma Saotome, has been seen only once since the accident when he showed up at the Tendo Dojo. At that time, only a few months after the young Saotome's hospitalization, he was heard to say, and I quote, 'If my worthless excuse of a son had only learned more from me during our training trip, he wouldn't be like this now.'
"'The combined outrage of the Tendo family and Mrs. Saotome, who has now filed for divorce from Mr. Saotome, has sent him into hiding where every once in a while someone would call into the hotline with a rumor on where he is now.
"'After hearing about what truly happened to R. Saotome, the head of the Tendo Family, Soun, has decided to contact Ranma, who lives in Jubaan presently with his Aunt and her family, and talk to him about joining his family once again as his son-in-law, though maybe not by Akane.'"
Ranma stopped reading there and looked at the bottom of the article to find out who had written the piece and wasn't surprised to see it was written by N T, or Nabiki Tendo in other words.
"Oh, so now, I'm good enough for them." He sneered as he tossed the magazine aside and began pacing. "After what they put me through, they want me to just come back and marry Nabiki or Kasumi?! They're out of their minds!"
Ranma was unaware that at that moment he was glowing with a bright green light that pulsed with each stomping step he made. He continued to rant for a few more minutes as the others watched. The two older people were calm, but Ryo and the girl that had been helping the old woman earlier, who had just come in, were watching with no small amount of fear. After all, how many times do you come across angry, glowing people in your life?
"Ranma," Mr. Fujimoto said quietly, gaining everyone's attention. "I know what they did hurt, but maybe they feel that they need to be forgiven. They can't force you to marry anyone anymore, but I think that they do love you in their own way."
"They don't love me except maybe Kasumi." Ranma snorted as he continued to pace. "I was always a mean for some end of theirs. For Soun, I was his and pop's retirement insurance. If I was there to run the dojo, then they could sit on their asses all day on play games and grovel at Happosai's feet whenever he showed up. For Nabiki I was just a source of easy money for her. For Akane, I was just something to take her anger out on." He said, ticking off people on his fingers.
"There is only one person who has ever loved me just for me, and she barely remembers me now." This last bit was said in a dejected whisper as the battle aura faded, flickered, and finally disappeared.
"Come over here child." The old woman said gently as she patted the couch next to her. Silently, he drifted over and sat next to her on the edge, starring down at his hands.
"I know you are hurt but holding back your forgiveness of them is just going to make you hurt even more. It will eat at you until your life is miserable and your friends' lives are just as gloomy. What you need to do is go and make your peace with them and get on with your life. Go help this girl remember you and the love that you shared, or find someone who can return your love." She said kindly and Ranma nodded.
"Thank you ma'am. But can I ask your name?" Ranma said as he gave her a weak smile.
"Certainly young man. I'm Achika Fujimoto. I run the dojo with my husband." She said with a smile on her face for the shock on his before adding, "I think that you will work out perfectly. Why don't you take a week and get everything settled and then you can start work next Saturday?"
Numbly, he nodded and within a few minutes, he found himself walking down the steps and back towards his Aunt's and Uncle's house.
Ranma had been sitting in his room all day. It was now close to midnight and the dinner that his aunt had brought to his room hours earlier was still sitting on the desk, stone cold. With a sigh, he sat up from where he was laying on the bed and began packing his backpack with a few of his things.
As soon as he was finished, he pulled some paper from the desk drawer and started writing a letter to his Aunt and Uncle.
Dear Uncle Ken and Aunt Irene,
When you find this, I'll be gone. But don't worry; I'll be back. I just have to go make my peace with the Tendos and my mother. I'll be back in a few days.
Ranma
Folding the paper, he set it on his pillow and slipped out the window. Once outside, he adjusted the pack and began the hike towards Nerima.
"I wonder what mom is like. I only met her the one time and even if she did disown me, she seems to have changed her mind. Maybe she is the mother I used to have. He had just reached the town limits when a memory popped into his head.
*************** Flashback ***************
"Ranma! Where are you? It's time to go to the palace!" A beautiful woman shouted out into the large garden that stretched almost as far as the eye could see.
"Coming mother!" a light tenor voice called back and within a moment, a tall handsome youth about fourteen ran into the view of the woman.
"Ranma, how many times have I told you that when you work in the garden to change out of your practice gi. Your father is going to have a fit when he sees the stains on it!" she exclaimed as he shuffled his feet nervously. "You know that he sees gardening as a girly thing already, you don't want to think that you are not a man." She finished softly as she wrapped an arm around his slumped shoulders and led him towards the mansion they lived in with Ranma's father, Ranro.
"I know, but I thought up this new move. You see, these leaves." he started to say but a cold voice from in front of them stopped his voiced and his feet. Standing in the doorway of the house, was Ranma's father. Ranro was a tall man that had jet black hair like his son, but that was about the extent of their likeness.
Where Ranma had deep blue eyes, Ranro had black ones that gave nothing away. They were like hard chips of obsidian that revealed nothing. Ranro was also much taller than his son, though Ranma's physic was promising that he would also be tall, but not as tall as his father. Where Ranma was slim with compact muscles, Ranro had huge bulging muscles that made him look like a body builder.
"Are you still acting like a girl, boy?" Ranro demanded as he approached the pair. "Plants are week, just like girls."
"I'm not weak and I'm not a girl." Ranma said quietly, his fists clenching.
"You are what I say you are." the man snapped, then turned towards the woman. "Get him ready, the queen is waiting for us, Hitomi." Spinning on his heel, he stalked away, leaving mother and on starring after him.
"Why is he always like this?" Ranma complained bitterly.
"It's just his way, I suppose." Hitomi said just as quietly. Silently, they continued on to Ranma's set of rooms to finish getting ready.
Twenty minutes later, Ranma stood before his father in black silk pants with a green sleeveless silk shirt tucked in. His freshly washed hair was tied back in a braided pigtail and black wrist guards were snug aground his wrists.
Ranro was dressed in his Jupiter Knight uniform, but Ranma knew that when he detransformed, he would be wearing something similar to him, except in all black. That's what he always wore, no matter what and he insisted that his son do the same thing as well. He also insisted that his wife wear a traditional kimono at all times, no matter what. Right now, she was wearing a green kimono decorated with embroidered bright green leaves around the hem. Her long black hair was in a braid that was twisted around her head in a type of crown and was decorated with small white flowers her son had picked for her for this important day.
For today, they were going to the palace to meet with the queen and for something else that only the Queen and her Knight knew about.
It took them only about ten minutes to reach the Jupiter Palace in the formal coach that Ranro insisted that his wife and son ride in while he rode a huge black stallion named Fury. They disembarked at the foot of the stair case leading up the entrance way and Ranro grabbed Ranma tightly by his upper arm and jerked him a few feet away to hiss in his ear, "Don't you dare embarrass me, boy or you will never see your precious garden again. Do you understand me?" The grip on Ranma's arm tightened painfully and he controlled the flinch that it provoked as he nodded.
"Good." Ranro shoved him away and then turned towards the stairs, motioning his family to follow him. As they mounted the stairs, Hitomi on the arm of Ranma, the guards that stood at the bottom of the stairs to guard the entrance way and the guards at the top, pitied the pair following the Knight. Having to live with a man like that must have been horrible for them.
As Ranma and his mother followed his father down the elegant halls of the Jupiter Palace, he tried to figure out what was going on. Why would they have to come with Ranro to the Palace as it was obviously Jupiter Knight business as Ranro never transformed when he went to the palace on business, as he was a trainer for the royal guards and was there everyday almost.
Suddenly, a door opened up and a tall girl about fourteen ran out, franticly attempting to pull on a pair of slippers, put her hair up in a pony tail and finish straightening her green dress which was twisted and just a bit wrinkled from her hurry to finish getting ready. She Also she had a smudge of dirt on her nose and a small green leaf sitting on her bangs.
She ran into Ranma in her hurry and almost fell to the ground as she was only hopping on one foot trying to get her last slipper on.
"Whoa, be careful." Ranma said as he let go of his mother's arm and steadied the girl.
"Thanks, I will. I'm sorry about that." She exclaimed as she looked up as him.
"It's no problem, but you have some dirt on your nose and a leaf in your hair." He said with a small smile as he reached up and plucked the offending leaf out of the chestnut hair. Suddenly, a huge hand grabbed his arm and yanked him away from the girl and threw him against the wall with bruising force.
"What did I tell you boy about embarrassing me?!" Jupiter Knight bellowed as he stood over his son, glowering at the young man. "When we get back, the garden is being sealed off for good this time." After one last glare at his son, he turned back to the startled girl and bowed.
"I'm sorry, Princess. I believe your mother is waiting for us, so if you will excuse us?" Without waiting for a reply, he turned away and strode down the hall. Hitomi bowed to her quickly and hurried over to Ranma, who had a shell shocked expression on his face as he stared at the princess.
"Come, we must hurry." She said as she gently took his arm and steered him after her husband. As she pulled him down the hall, he cast one more look over his shoulder at the princess, who was staring after them with horror and anger filled eyes.
Ranro was waiting impatiently in front of a huge set of doors that had Jupiter's Royal family's crest created out of emeralds on it, one on each door, by the time, Ranma and Hitomi got caught up to him. He cast a quick look over both of them before saying, "You're presentable I suppose," ignoring the bruise that was forming on Ranma's upper arm.
Turning away, he pounded on the door three times and it was swung open by the guards on the other side. Entering, he jerked his head at them to leave, then hurried towards the throne at the opposite side of the room, leaving his family to follow.
"My Queen, we are here as you have commanded." He said as he bowed to the regal woman sitting there watching him with eyes that burned with emerald fire.
"I didn't order you to send my guards away, Jupiter K. You take too much on yourself." She snapped angrily.
"I was only anticipating your wishes, my queen." He protested smoothly, a smirk firmly on his face.
Ignoring him for a moment, she turned towards Ranma and his mother and said, "Hitomi, my dear old friend, how are you? And this must be Ranma. My how he's grown! The last time I saw him, he was only three years old!" The queen stood up and walked past the shocked Jupiter K., who no longer wore his smirk, and embraced Hitomi like the old friend she was, then gave Ranma a hug as well, causing him to go bright red in the face.
"Your Maj.majesty," he whispered with a bow as she released him.
"Lessa, it's been such a long time, we really must have tea together again sometime." Hitomi said with a smile as she wiped away her tears.
"Oh, yes, we really must. My special tea just doesn't taste the same without you around to drink it with." Just then a small door opened near the throne and the princess slipped into the room. After sending a glare at Jupiter K., she hurried over to her mother.
"Mother, I'm sorry I'm late." She said, and the trio turned to look at her.
"That's ok. Where were you, in the garden or training?" Queen Lessa asked.
"Um, both, actually, I was training in the garden." The princess said calmly.
"That's fine. Lita, this is my dearest friend Hitomi and her son Ranma." Lessa said as she gestured to them with a smile.
"Hello, but we've met." Hitomi said with a small smile as she bowed to the princess.
"You did? But where?" Lessa asked confused.
"We ran into each other in the hall." Lita said with a small smile at Ranma, who blushed.
Before the queen could say anything, Ranro spoke up. "This all nice and all, but you called us here for a reason, right my queen?"
"Yes, I did." Lessa said coldly, the angry fire back in her eyes. "I have called you here for a couple of different reasons, the most important being that it is time to pass on the mantle of being Jupiter K. and Sailor Jupiter to our children." She added "You will pass on your transformation, Ranro." When it looked like he would protest.
"Yes my queen." He said with a scowl. He turned towards Ranma and snapped, "You heard her, boy, get over her right now!" As soon as Ranma was standing in front of him, he grabbed his hand and shoved a disk into it. As soon as the disk was in Ranma's hand, an emerald light surrounded the pair and when it was gone, it revealed the new Jupiter K. in all his glory.
"There, happy?" Ranro asked bitterly as he stepped backwards a few steps from his son.
"Yes." Lessa said calmly then turned back to her daughter. "Lita, this is your transformation wand. Just say Jupiter Power and you will transform into the first level of Sailor Jupiter."
"Ok." Lita said, moving backwards a few steps. "Jupiter Power!"
After the flashing green light and the electricity cleared, Sailor Jupiter was reveled in all her glory. A pure white body suit offset the dark green skirt, sailor collar, choker, and green ankle boots. The pink bows brought the color out in her blushing cheeks when she realized just how short the skirt was.
"My dear, congratulations, I'm sure you will make a wonderful sailor Jupiter." Hitomi said with a smile as she stepped forward and gave the girl a warm hug, which she returned.
"Thank you." Jupiter whispered.
"What other reasons have you called me, your majesty?" Ranro snapped before the three women could turn towards Jupiter K.
Turning to him she pulled herself ramrod straight and with a cool glare said in a frosty voice, "It has come to my attention over the past few months, that you have been quietly gathering allies and fighters and putting them into the guard under your command. They are only loyal to you and have been seen bringing obscene amounts of money and jewels to you. You have also been receiving secret messages, of which we managed to get a hold of one."
At this point, she stopped speaking to stare at Ranro's ashen face as his eyes darted from her, to the trio behind the queen, to the doors, the closest way out of the room. She narrowed her emerald eyes at him for a moment before she summoned a tall staff out of nowhere. At the top of the staff was what looked like a large leaf that cupped a bright green gem that sparkled in the light.
"You, Ranro, have been found guilty of treason and will be banished to the neither realm." She said, but before she could continue, he interrupted, a bad thing to do to your queen when she is talking to you about your future.
"On what charges?!"
"You have been aiding the Negaverse in their attempts to take over our kingdom. We captured your messenger and he has told us all. You are finished." She said and slammed the butt of her staff on the flagstone floor. As it connected, the gem on top flared to life and sent a beam of light at Ranro, who was starring at her, his face grim. Just before the beam connected, a black spike of energy appeared out of nowhere and, twisting around him, he disappeared.
"I'll be back, and when I do, you will all die!" his voice echoed around them even after her was gone.
Turning to the other three in the room, she sighed and said, "We will have to be prepared at all times to be assured that he can't fulfill his final threat. With you consider moving back into the palace, Hitomi? Ranma will of course have to live here to train with my daughter in their new powers."
"Of course! I would love to live here. I never wanted to move away in the first place. That was all his idea." Hitomi said with a smile at the woman in front of her.
*************** End Flashback ***************
"'She was really nice and the perfect mother. But I didn't have her for very long after that." he murmured as he starred at the road, another memory popping up.
*************** Flashback ***************
Ranma and his mother Hitomi had been living at the Royal Palaces of Jupiter for about two months when the attack happened. Ranma and Lita were in the garden in the Senshi uniforms, practicing their fighting moves.
"Lita! I want you to look at this move I just made up!" Ranma called to his training partner as she readied herself to begin a kata.
"Ok, go ahead, Ranma. I'm always interested in you new moves." She said happily as she sat down under a tree to watch as her protector began his move.
0Seeing that she was ready, he braced his legs and cupped his hands at his side. Concentrating as hard as he could, he poured his energy into the bowl his hands had formed. As a flickering blue light sparked to life, Ranma glanced up to see the wonder on her face grow as the energy became a ball of brilliant energy that seethed in an attempt to escape from the bonds that Ranma had put on the energy.
"Moko Takabisha!" he shouted as he thrust his hands forward. The ball shot forward and smashed into a nearby tree trunk, where it promptly exploded, destroying the trunk, sending the tree toppling to the ground.
"Wow!" Lita exclaimed as she ran over to her protector. "That was awesome! Can you teach me how to do that?"
"I don't know. We can at least try." He said with a faint blush as Lita jumped up and down in excitement, a couple of bits jiggling in the skin tight uniform of a sailor scout. His thoughts about the interesting bits were interrupted as an annoying laugh echoed around them.
Spinning in opposite directions to cover more ground, they searched for the person laughing, but they remain elusive, hidden in the trees. Suddenly, they heard a scream of rage coming from the palace.
"Mother." Jupiter K. whispered before taking off at a dead run as another scream ripped through the air. "Mom!" Jupiter dashed after him, both forgetting about the mocking laugher that was still some where behind them.
They ran through the halls, following the screams that were growing louder with each passing second. Finally they burst into Hitomi's room only to stop short. A yoma, which looked like a giant cat with black fur and wickedly sharp claws, was crouched over Hitomi, who was pinned to the floor, one giant paw on her chest with the fully extended claws deep into her flesh. Before they could take a step, though, the yoma clenched its claws into Hitomi and then ripped them out, taking her heart with it. Each claw was a good four or five inches in length, so they had no problem reaching that most precious organ. Then before they're horrified eyes, it brought it to its mouth and took a huge bite out of the still slowly pumping heart.
"NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Ranma screamed in rage and pain as the creature finished its meal. Tears were flowing down his cheeks and power crackled around his body as his Jupiter K. gifts expanded with his rage. "No, no, no, nonononononononononononononoNONONONONONONONONONONO!!!!!!" His chant of 'no' started out slowly and softly but it quickly gained both speed and volume, until he was screaming it as his hands dug into his hair and grabbed his skull in their tight grips.
Jupiter watched her knight with horror as the lightening that was flickering around him expanded until he was covered in a blanket of lightening that just waited to be released. Realizing that when it did get released it would got everywhere, she turned, grabbing the guard members who were in the doorway, and dashed down the hallway. And not a moment to soon, either. Suddenly that was a giant clap of thunder and a brilliant flash of white behind them as the energy released, instantly vaporizing the entire room and part of the hallway where they had just been.
After taking a moment to look at the ruble that had once been marble walls, Jupiter cautiously walked back towards where the door had once been. It would have been quicker to just go through the ruble to reach Jupiter K., who was now kneeling in the center of the blast zone, but defiantly not safer. So she slowly picked her was over to her protector and felt her heart break as she looked at what he held in his arms. His mother's body laid curled in his arms as he cradled her close, despite the blood and the open wound on her chest.
Going to her knees beside him, she gently took the cooling body and placed it on the floor, folding the hands across the wound to conceal it and closing the eyes that were sightlessly starring at the blackened and crumbling ceiling. Once that was completed, she turned to her partner only to see that had had detransformed and was curled on his side, sobs racking his body as he cried out his sorrow onto the cold and unfeeling ground. She put a hand on his shoulder and quickly found herself wrapping her arms around him as he cried onto her shoulder as he clutched her.
It was then that Sailor Jupiter realized that she was desperately in love with her Protector.
*************** End Flashback ***************
Ranma swiped at his eyes as he stepped onto the train platform. The train would take him within two miles of the Tendo Dojo and he could quickly run the last little bit. It was perfect timing as it turned out, because as soon as he had gotten his ticket, the speakers blared to life.
"Train 610 to Nerima is now arriving at track 7. Please watch your hands and legs and wait until it comes to a full stop before approaching. Thank you and have a nice day."
Getting onto the train proved to be a slight problem. The car was packed and he had to shove his way through to even step foot on it. Finally after pushing and shoving, he made it too a small corner seat that was quickly vacated as soon as the man caught site of the busty red head. A woman had accidentally dropped a bottle of water on him just before he had reached the corner. It proved to be advantages though as the perverted salesman, who wanted a peek down the top of Ranma's shirt, let her sit down.
Sighing, Ranma pulled her pack into her lap and put her head down on top of it, blocking the mans view even as she was lost once again in her memories of her past life. It didn't stay that way for long though as the crowd kept jostling her. She didn't get to do too much thinking on the trip because if she wasn't fending off the perverts who used the train as a way to feel her up, she was being bumped into as people got on and off the train.
Finally, she heard the call for Nerima and stood up. Shoving her way forward, she squeezed out of the crush and out onto the platform in a town she had never thought to see again. Looking around, she sighed as a pang of loneliness hit her. Many people that had disembarked with her were having joyous greetings with the people waiting for them, while others hurried on their way to jobs or their homes. There weren't to many teenagers there as it was only noon and they were all in school.
With another sigh, she headed off the platform and towards where she knew that she could some hot water. A restaurant run by her old friend Ukyo.
"Hello, and welcome to the Ucchan. Can I help. Ranma!" Ukyo exclaimed as she looked up from her grill. "What are you doing here?"
"I just stopped by to get some hot water. I'm on my way to talk to Mom and the Tendos and I figured it would be easier to do so without being a girl." she said as she stepped up to the counter and placed her pack on the ground.
"Sure, sugar, wait a sec while I grab so water. I just made some for tea." Ukyo said as she turned away. Within moments, Ranma had a cup of gently steaming water in her hand.
"Thanks." Two seconds later, she was a he and was handing back the cup to the owner of the restaurant.
"So you're going to talk to the Tendos and your mom? Why?" she asked as she placed the cup on the counter and looked her ex-fiancée over, noting that he wasn't wearing his braces on his legs. "And why aren't you wearing your bracers?"
"I just found out in a magazine that they wanted to try and make things right between us and that they want me to marry Kasumi or Nabiki. I won't put up with it so I have to confront them. And the reason I'm not wearing them is because I don't need to anymore. Sailor Moon fixed them when I got injured in an attack." He said and dug into his food.
She stood there for a moment staring at him before she abruptly shook her head in wonderment. 'Only you, Ranchan. Only you.' She thought and placed some tea next to his elbow.
"Thanks Ukyo." He said and drained his cup. While his speed hadn't been effect at all since he had left, his manners had improved. Laying enough money on the counter, he stood up and shouldered his heavy pack. "I'll see you later." He said and headed for the door.
"You're always welcome here, Ranma. Remember that!" she called after him, which gained everyone in the restaurant and a group of boys that were coming in. Everyone turned and froze at the sight of the changed but still recognizable martial artist. There was a moment of pure silence then the boys at the door all shouted in one voice, "Saotome! You're back!"
"No I'm not." Ranma said calmly and was ignored like usual when he was in Nerima.
"Finally you can put a stop to Kuno, when he graduated and went to a privet collage we thought it would get better but the next year he transferred into the public collage to be near Akane and he is driving her and everyone else crazy."
"The fights started again!"
"I keep getting beat up! I need you to either train me or beat them up for me."
"When are you going to marry one of the girls so that the rest of us can get one!"
This last bit was what broke the horses back, so to speak, for Ranma. He had been getting angrier and angrier as the four boys, who he couldn't even remember their names anymore as they were never very good friends, kept talking and making demands of him.
"Shut up." He said coldly. Normally they would have never obeyed it but Ranma was now surrounded by his bright green ki, much different than his previous blue color. And this time there were little lightening bolts that flickered around him. "Ranma Saotome is dead." He said calmly and headed for the door, which the boys were standing in front of.
Seeing the flickering battle aura coming their way, the boys dived away and out of the doorway, leaving it clear for Ranma to leave by. In the doorway he turned back to the people in the restaurant that were staring at him in shock.
"I am not back. I have no fiancées, so if you want to ask one out, ask one out. If Kuno is driving you crazy, do something about it. Stop participating in the attacks so that she'll only have to deal with Kuno, and if you want to be trained in the martial arts, and it must be by me for what ever reason you have in your minds, I'll be teaching a beginners class in Jubaan starting in about a week." That being said, he turned and walked out the door, the aura and electricity disappearing before he had even crossed the threshold.
Once he was gone, the patrons of Ucchan's looked blankly at each other for a moment before there was a mass rush to either pay their bills and leave before a powerful martial artist showed up looking for Ranma, or to get to a phone to see if they could find the dojo where Ranma was teaching to sign up for classes.
Ukyo just shook her head and rang up another bill.
"I don't believe this. I'm not even here for thirty minutes and already trouble is following me around!" Ranma complained to himself as he noticed a certain crazy gymnast following him from rooftop to rooftop. Sighing, he stopped onto of Dr. Tofu's clinic and turned fully to face Kodachi.
"Beloved! You are worthy of my perfect love once again!" she sang as she landed on the roof and launched herself at him.
'No matter what I say, she's not going to listen to me. There has to be some way to get through to her!' he thought as he dodged her. 'Wait, I got it!'
"My, fairest rose, in all my life there has been none that allowed this humble person to grace them with my love. I must admit that at first I found myself daunted by the mere though of being allowed in your presence, but one I was no longer allowed, my heart broke and I realized how foolish I had been." He said with a deep bow to the stunned woman. His face still adverted by the bow, he allowed himself to smile quickly before he wiped his face of it and plastered a heartbroken expression in its place.
"But, I am no longer what I once was. Though I may now tread this earth once again, I must forbid myself your royal presence as I am but a shadow of my former might. But I humbly beg your indulgence in this matter my lady. I would love to court you, but first I must regain my prowess and strength once again. Can you find it in your heart to allow me the time that I need to make myself worthy of you?"
Kodachi started at him for a moment a shell shocked expression on his face before a beautiful smile crossed her face. A smile that was barely tainted with her madness and Ranma felt a brief pang of remorse for building her hopes up.
"My lord, I shall grant you your wish and will wait with baited breath for the day that you return for me." She said as she fluttered her long eyelashes at him.
"Nay, my lady. While I am humbled that you would wait for this insignificant person, I must protest. Once such as you must be pursued after by all that will cherish you. I beg of you to go out and meet others that are interested in you. That will allow you to find he who is most worthy. One who will cherish and love you till your dieing day if I find that I am not worthy or it takes me much to long." Ranma protested and she blushed in pleasure at the seeming complement.
"Oh, my love, I will do as you say! How cruel it would be to deny all the men in the world my beauty, charm, and grace! HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!!!!" she laughed madly then bestowed on him a hungry look. "You will bring yourself to my home when you have finished making yourself worthy of me. Until then, I will leave you with a token of my affection." So saying, she produces a bouquet of her trademarked black roses and handed then to him. "Until later, darling!"
Ranma held his breath as she bounded away from him across the rooftops, then threw the roses away from him. They landed at the edge of the roof and just lay there, a fine powder disturbed by the landing floated up and settled on the rooftop area surrounding the bouquet.
Taking a deep breath of clean air, Ranma sighed and turned away from the destructive flowers and once again began the trip back to the Tendo Dojo.
Kasumi was outside hanging clean laundrey on the line when a familare shadow appeared on the ground in front of her. Unable to believe her eyes, she slowly looked up and gasped as she caught sight of the pigtailed martial artist that she had visited in the hospital.
"Ranma." she whispered before she gave an unKasumi like squeal of joy and launched herself at him. "Ranma! You're back!" she exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him like she was never going to let go.
"Kasumi, it's good to see you again, too!" Ranma said with a laugh as he twirled her around a few times before placing her back on her feet.
"Ranma!" four more voices called from the porch of the house. Releasing Kasumi, he turned to see the other two Tendo sisters, their father and his mother standing together on the porch. As he watched, Akane ran down from the porch and across the yard towards him, her arms open as if to grab him in a hug.
Quickly sidestepping, he dodged around the incoming girl and watched her run right into the wall surrounding the home before she could stop. Turning away from the dazed girl laying on the ground, he saw that the other three were now standing only a few feet away from him.
"Waaahhhhhh! Now at last the schools will be joined!!!" Soun wailed as he made to grab him in a hug. Once again, Ranma sidestepped, but this time, he hit the sleepers point on Soun's neck. As he dropped to the ground asleep, Ranma turned back to the last two remaining women in front of him.
"Son, I." Nodoka started to say, but Ranma cut her off.
"I am not your son, your son is dead." He said calmly and watched as her face closed until it was just a polite mask. Her hands clutched her wrapped katana as she said, "Please come inside, we have much to discuss."
"Not as much as you seem to think." Ranma said just as calmly. Turning, he saw that Kasumi had Akane on her feet and was directing her to the house, so he bent down and scooped up Soun and carted him back towards the house.
As soon as the head of the Tendos had been layed on the couch, a wet rag on his forehead, and Akane had an ice pack sitting on her head while she sat at the table, Kasumi disappeared into the kitchen to make some tea for everyone. Until she got back, everyone stayed silent at the table, Ranma looking down at the table top and the woman staring at him.
Finally, when she came back and passed out the hot drinks, Ranma cleared his throat and looked up at the eyes that were watching him. "I can here today because I saw the article that Nabiki put in the magazine." He said calmly and took a long sip of his tea. "This is very good, Kasumi. It's one of the things I've missed since I got out of the hospital. I was lucky that you would bring me some every once in a while."
"Why, thank you Ranma, I enjoyed visiting you there. I miss visiting with you." She said with a sunny smile.
"You can come and visit me at my aunt's house it you would like until I can get an apartment of my own." Ranma said with an answering smile.
"Son.Ranma. That is one of the things that we wanted to talk to you about. You can move back here and then you wouldn't have to go visiting." Nodoka said.
"Mrs. Saotome, it is impossible for me to move back into this home."
Nodoka seemed slightly started to hear her formal name out of her son, but pushed it aside to continue. "We still want to join the schools. Obviously you wouldn't want to marry Akane after your accident so you will marry either Kasumi or Nabiki." She said firmly as she loosened the wrappings on her katana.
"I don't think you understand." He said coolly. "To join the schools you would need your son to marry Kasumi or Nabiki, but you don't have a son, haven't for a year now. Ranma Saotome died in the hospital a year ago. My name is Ranma Sankono." It was a spur of the moment decision to take the last name he had once when he had lived on Jupiter. It was the only other name in all of his memory that he had by right of birth.
The women looked at him blankly for a moment as he went back to sipping his tea. Finally Akane burst out. "Ranma no baka! Can't you see that we want you back!!"
Calmly he set his cup on the table, and then turned cool eyes on her. "You want me back, Akane? Why? You have never loved me, or wanted me here in the first place, remember? So why do you want me back? Mr. Tendo wants me back so that he can have an easy retirement, not that he does any work anyway. Nabiki wants me back to probably make more money off of me and my curse. Mrs. Saotome probably wants me back for a couple of different possible reasons. She could be sorry about what she had done and wanted her little puppet back, she could want me back to uphold her honor, she could want me back so that she isn't alone as she gets older. Anything is possible. Kasumi is the only one that I can think of that could want me back for just me." He said with a small smile at the oldest Tendo daughter. But the smile disappeared as he turned his cold gaze back to the youngest.
"You probably only want me back to pamper to your self. You probably feel guilty about what you did to me. You almost ruined my life for something I was not responsible for just because of your violent temper and your unreasonable jealousy." He paused for a moment to let that sink in. She was sitting there with her mouth hanging open in shock.
"You, Akane, only want me back so that you feel special again. I paid attention to you without wanting to jump you. I defended you and protected you against things that you couldn't fight against. I even put up with your abuse without turning and running away. But I was never anything to you. I was an object that you could beat up on and ridicule to your hearts content. It wasn't until after I was out of the picture that you realized that without me around, you didn't get as much attention from all the boys. I have heard things in the time since I was gone. Kuno still challenges you at the collage you go to, but there is no hoard of boys trying to beat you to win you. There are no challengers for the dojo that once they saw you, had to have you. There are no students period without me. No one coming up that wants to learn from you after the first four dojo destroyers came, challenged you, beat you and then took pity on you and let you keep the sign."
During the course of his speech, Akane went from being shocked and pale faced to being furiouse and red faced. She was angy that her whole frame was vibrating with it. Her head was down as she went through these emotions, but everyone who knew her got out of the way as fast as they could. It was a rage like this that had led her to breaking Nabiki's arms when she was 12 and her sister was 13 and better in the art than she was. The damage to the nerves in Nabiki's shoulders forbade her to ever practice the art again.
With a wordless scream of pure rage, she attacked Ranma, only to find herself on the ground writhing in pain a moment later, her right arm broken in three places.
"Akane!!" Kasumi and Nodoka exclaimed as they rushed towards the girl. "Ranma, how could you do that to a girl?! A girl that loves you nonetheless!" Nodoka said angrily.
"Akane doesn't love me, Mrs. Saotome." He said quietly, a strange tone in his voice as he stared blankly out the open sliding do that lead to the backyard. "Only one person has ever truly loved me. People in love don't regularly try and main their love interest. They also don't attack them for trying to be nice or for accidentally saying something wrong." He now had everyone's attention, including Akane, who was clutching her arm, and Soun, who had just woken up.
"I found my soul mate in my last life. She was beautiful. A fighter on par with the best when we grew up. I was her protector, her knight, and she was my princess. We fought together and died together. It wasn't until the last battle that I really told her my feelings, but of course by then it was much too late, but it was unspoken between up for a long time before that we loved each other."
*************** Flashback ***************
The battle was just beginning and already half of the scouts and their knight were dead. Sailor Jupiter was fighting back to back with Jupiter K in an isolated area, far away from the others. Seven monsters surrounded them and Jupiter K. knew that it was the end.
'These monsters are just shrugging off my attacks!!' he thought furiously as he fired off another moko Takabisha. As the attack smashed into the rock yoma, a huge clawed hand came out of no where and grabbed him by the throat. He was jerked up off the ground and suddenly he was lying on the ground, his throat torn open.
"NO!" Jupiter yelled as she turned at the loud gurgle he gave as he tried to breath through the blood. Then the yomas descended on them. In her moment of distraction, two yomas, a cat and a dog, each grabbed her by an arm and yanked. For a moment it was like tug of war before suddenly her right arm got ripped completely off.
She screamed as the dog yoma, who was still holding on to her attached arm dragged her off her feet and then tossed her into the middle of three other yomas, all equipped with long claws and sharp teeth.
Ranma watched, tears running down his face as she was ripped apart. 'My love.' he cried as the light dimmed in her beautiful emerald eyes. When it went out, he left out a bubbling screaming of pain as he squeezed his eyes shout.
The yomas stopped for a moment at his scream, but then continued to tear her apart. When there wasn't that much left, they left the dead sailor scout and joined in the rest as they slowly ate the knight alive.
'I will find you again!' he thought deservedly as he died of blood loss and shock.
*************** End Flashback ***************
Ranma sighed and then smiled slightly.
"But now she's back. I've found her again, and I'm going to stay with her, forever this time."
"Whaaaaaaaa! Now the schools will never be joined because Ranma's found his soul mate! Whaaaaaaa!" Soun burst out looking both happy that Ranma had found his soul mate and sad because he wouldn't be marrying one of his girls.
"I think it's about time for me to get back." Ranma said as he stood up.
"Wait, Ranma. I have a question for you." Kasumi said as she stood up also and reached for his shoulder.
"Yeah?"
"Why aren't you wearing your bracers?"
Upon hearing her question, everything went still in the room as everyone turned to stare at him, or more specifically his legs.
"Oh, Sailor Moon healed my legs when I was caught in a monster attack." He said calmly and Nodoka gasped.
"You were caught in a monster attack? But that usually only happens in Juuban!"
"Yeah, so? That's were I'm living."
"You live there? Where?" she said in a stunned voice.
Slowly, he told her the address, unsure of what was going through her mind.
"That is Near the Cherry Hill Temple, correct?"
A slow nod.
"Well, that is about five minutes from my house. I live there." She said calmly and took a sip of her tea. "This is very good, Kasumi. You must give me the address of where you buy your blend!"
Ranma had frozen when his mother dropped her little bombshell, and now toppled over to land on his face in a graceful faceplant. Recovering, he said slowly, "You live there?"
"Yes, Ranma, I do. If you're heading back, you can ride with me. The car is coming to pick me up in an hour."
"The car?"
"Yes. I told my driver to pick me up around four."
'Why me?' he thought before nodding. "Ok. I'm in no rush at the moment."
INCOMPLETE
Ok, as you can see, this is STILL NOT DONE! My asshole of a sister, who just happens to be 8 months pregnant, decided to erase all my work in a folder. Luckily it was just this story. All the previous chapters were on the internet so they weren't hard to replace, but this once was nearly done! I had to start over again from where I left off the last time I posted this! I had been almost done with Pluto's first memory when it happened and I can't remember exactly what I wrote in the first place! So here is a much rushed finished part of this chapter. Jupiter is completely finished now, I just need to do Pluto now. Add the fact I'm not feeling good and I still have to go to work tomorrow, I'm not sure when I'll get the rest up. But it will be up. SOON. Hopefully.
Ja ne,
A very pissed off Shinigami-chan
Memories part 2 Jupiter and Pluto *************** Chapter 12 ***************
Ranma hurried down the street to his interview for a new job. It was his third interview of the day and this one seemed a little bit more his style. The first job he had applied to was at a construction site building a new department store. The second was working as a waiter in a restaurant in his girl form. He wasn't too thrilled about that one but he at least had experience with it from working in the Cat-Café.
This new job, however was teaching a beginners class at a near by dojo where the only teachers were an old man in his sixties who was ready to retire and an arrogant man in his late twenties that believed that he has to good to waste his time on beginners. All he had to do was prove that he could handle basic martial arts with out keeling over with exhaustion, which was no longer a problem as he was in above average shape now. About halfway back to the shape that he was before the accident, he was in good enough shape to teach an advanced level class with ease so the beginner's class would be as easy as pie.
Reaching the dojo, he started up a long flight of stairs that reminded him of Rei's temple steps. As he bounced up the stairs, he passed people heading up as well, though at a much slower pace. One little old lady was leaning heavily on the arm of a young girl as she labored to get up the steps. Just as he was passing them, the woman tripped and went down hard on the steps. Her leg broke with an audible snapping sound and she cried out in pain, even as she started to topple down the stairs, the young girl desperately trying to stop the woman's fall.
Seeing the trouble they were in, Ranma stopped abruptly and grabbed the old woman up off the steps and braced himself on the railing. Seeing the way her leg dangled at the odd angle, Ranma turned and raced up the steps, leaving the young girl far behind as she raced after them.
Reaching the top of the stairs, he looked franticly around and spotted the old man who ran the dojo welcoming a group of students entering the large building. Running towards him as smoothly as he could as not to jar the woman's leg as much as possible, he shouted, "Mr. Fujimoto, this woman needs some help. She fell on the steps and broke her leg."
After throwing him a startled glance, Mr. Fujimoto turned and hurried over to a good-sized house next to the dojo, motioning urgently for Ranma to follow him. Ranma bounded into the house and with a quick look around, spotted a comfortable couch on the far wall. Gently placing his burden on it, Ranma took off his small back pack and looked up into the pain filled face of the woman.
"Ma'am, my name is Ranma. I can relieve the pain and straighten you leg if you wish." He said as Mr. Fujimoto dialed the number of the doctor who worked on the people at the dojo regularly.
"That would be wonderful, young man." The woman said softly in a beautiful voice.
Working quickly, Ranma lifted her skirt slightly to just above her knees and jabbed at a couple places on her leg to deaden the nerves.
"Oh my, that is wonderful, Ranma. Where ever did you learn the pressure points so well?" the woman asked and Ranma smiled up at her before going back to gently straightening her leg.
"Well, that story is part of a much larger one, but to put it simply, the matriarch of a group of Chinese amazons taught me when she was trying to force me to marry her great grand daughter just because I beat her in a fight. It was a village law." Ranma said as he gently wrapped his sash around her leg to help keep it immobile.
"Oh my, what a weird custom. Did you perhaps know about the law before you fought her?" the woman asked with a concerned look.
"No. Pops and I were traveling in China, not even knowing Chinese and our guide took us to the village during a big competition. Pops, unfortunately, started to eat the food laid out as prize for the winner, and Shampoo held me responsible and challenged me to a fight. I was very arrogant then and took her up on her challenge. I defeated her easily and then her great grandmother tried to force me to marry her right then and there. We escaped, but they followed us back to Japan." Ranma stopped talking for a moment and the woman spoke up.
"Would it have been so bad to marry her?"
"Well, yeah. Don't get me wrong, she was very beautiful and the best fighter of her generation, and she was just following her laws, but to her, I was just a prize." Ranma said and then his voice turned slightly bitter. "I had beaten her and there for I was worthy enough to marry her. It didn't matter that I had a bunch of fiancées already thanks to my worthless excuse of a father who kept selling me for food. It also didn't matter to her or to anyone else that I wasn't ready to settle down and get married. I was just a prize to be fought over between her and three other girls. There where more, but they gave up after a while."
While he had been speaking, Mr. Fujimoto had come back from the phone and him and the old woman listened quietly. When he stopped talking, Mr. Fujimoto said softly, "You have passed through the fire of troubles and tribulations and have emerged a stronger man, Ranma."
"No, Sensei, I haven't. Because of one of my fiancées, I was paralyzed and though I'm no longer paralyzed, I spent over a year unable to move my legs and because of that I was disowned. I also lost most of my strength and though I'm as strong as I was when I was about twelve, it will take some time before I will be back to full power. I didn't come out stronger, I came out broken." Ranma said bitterly.
"Maybe you're not as strong as you once were, but your troubles have matured you and while you might have been bent under your troubles, you have not been broken. If you had been, then you wouldn't be trying to build yourself back up again." Fujimoto said simply and the woman nodded in agreement.
Ranma opened his mouth to say something, but a voice from the doorway interrupted scornfully.
"You're only as strong as you were when you were twelve? How did you plan on teaching the beginner's class, by pictures?" the man in the doorway was tall and bulged with muscles. His blond hair was of medium length and just brushed his shoulders, which bunched up slightly as he crossed his arms over his chest in disdain as he looked Ranma over like he was a piece of trash. He had a copy of Martial Artist Monthly in one hand.
"You must be Ryo Nonaka, the teacher of the advanced classes." Ranma said coolly as he stood up.
"That's right kid, and don't you forget it." Ryo said arrogantly.
Ranma just snorted at the man before starting to turn away, but the magazine in Ryo's hand stopped him cold. Almost quicker than the others could follow, he rushed over and grabbed it out of the startled man's hand. What caught his attention was the article it was opened to.
A huge picture of Ranma and Ryoga filled up at least half of the page. They were fighting in the ruins of what had once been a pleasant park near the Tendo Dojo in Nerima. The pic was of them throwing their ki blasts at each other. Underneath the picture was the article and Ranma began reading it aloud as he absentmindedly dodged a couple of blows that an angry Ryo aimed at him.
" 'It's been over a year since the battles have stopped in Nerima, a welcome respite for most, but a terrible thing for a few others. It all began when Ranma Saotome, the young man in the black and red Chinese outfit, arrived in Nerima a few years ago and settled down in the Tendo Dojo. Before he came, there was a relative peace, but it changed when the then 16 year-old martial artist arrived. He quickly started fighting regularly with T. Kuno, a kendoist at Furnikan High school. He stopped the daily morning battles between Akane Tendo, one of his fiancées, and most of the male students, but he and Kuno began a morning fight of their own. Hardly a day went by without Kuno ending up in the nurse's office before school.'
" 'Then came Ryoga Hibiki, the young man in green and yellow in the picture above. Mr. Hibiki, who has the world's worst sense of direction, showed up and began fighting with Saotome whenever he could find him, blaming him for everything that has ever gone wrong in his life. Both are masters of their schools and they also have complete control over their ki's. In the above picture, you can see Saotome doing what he has called a Moko Takabisha, and Hibiki doing a Shi Shi Hokodan.'" Here Ranma had to pause to turn the page. On the next page he saw a group of smaller pictures showing Shampoo, Moose, Cologne, Kuno, Kodachi, Akane, and Ukyo with their names underneath.
" 'Then came the two Chinese fighters, Moose and Shampoo. Shampoo, following one of her tribe's laws followed Saotome from china in an attempt to marry him while Moose, who was in love with Shampoo followed to try and kill Saotome in an attempt to win Shampoo. There was also Ukyo, an okonomiyaki chef who owns a restaurant named the Ucchan. She was engaged to Saotome by his father when they were children and then left behind when they continued their training journey. I must point out the fact, though, that Saotome was never aware that he had been engaged to Ukyo and in fact thought that she was a boy.'
" 'All of them where a large part of the battles that raged across Nerima for a few years. Kuno, Ryoga, and Moose attacking Ranma for the smallest, or in some cases, imagined things. Kodachi, Shampoo, Ukyo and Akane would fight over him in which he would always be drawn in. Every time, he would be the one who ended up with the most bruises and broken bones as it seems that he always took the most hits somehow in everyone of the girls battles.'"
Ranma paused for a moment to look at a small picture of himself wrapped almost head to toe in bandages and splints. He remembered this picture. It was just after a huge all out brawl between all his fiancées and the guys who wanted them. Well, some of them. To the best of his knowledge, no one had ever tried to fight him for Ukyo or Kodachi. He had ended up with three broken or bruised ribs, a broken arm and leg, a sprained shoulder, wrist, ankle, and knee. Not to mention he had dislocated his other shoulder, both of his hips, and his other knee. He hadn't been able to move with out pain until almost when the casts were removed.
Shaking his head at the memories, he continued reading out loud as he absently jumped over a couple kicks. "'Now, just over a year after Saotome was paralyzed by his now Ex-fiancée Akane Tendo, his family is searching for him to try and put things right between them. His mother, Nodoka Saotome, was heard to say that she was very sorry for what she has done and would like to beg his forgiveness about how she had treated him at the hospital. His father Genma Saotome, has been seen only once since the accident when he showed up at the Tendo Dojo. At that time, only a few months after the young Saotome's hospitalization, he was heard to say, and I quote, 'If my worthless excuse of a son had only learned more from me during our training trip, he wouldn't be like this now.'
"'The combined outrage of the Tendo family and Mrs. Saotome, who has now filed for divorce from Mr. Saotome, has sent him into hiding where every once in a while someone would call into the hotline with a rumor on where he is now.
"'After hearing about what truly happened to R. Saotome, the head of the Tendo Family, Soun, has decided to contact Ranma, who lives in Jubaan presently with his Aunt and her family, and talk to him about joining his family once again as his son-in-law, though maybe not by Akane.'"
Ranma stopped reading there and looked at the bottom of the article to find out who had written the piece and wasn't surprised to see it was written by N T, or Nabiki Tendo in other words.
"Oh, so now, I'm good enough for them." He sneered as he tossed the magazine aside and began pacing. "After what they put me through, they want me to just come back and marry Nabiki or Kasumi?! They're out of their minds!"
Ranma was unaware that at that moment he was glowing with a bright green light that pulsed with each stomping step he made. He continued to rant for a few more minutes as the others watched. The two older people were calm, but Ryo and the girl that had been helping the old woman earlier, who had just come in, were watching with no small amount of fear. After all, how many times do you come across angry, glowing people in your life?
"Ranma," Mr. Fujimoto said quietly, gaining everyone's attention. "I know what they did hurt, but maybe they feel that they need to be forgiven. They can't force you to marry anyone anymore, but I think that they do love you in their own way."
"They don't love me except maybe Kasumi." Ranma snorted as he continued to pace. "I was always a mean for some end of theirs. For Soun, I was his and pop's retirement insurance. If I was there to run the dojo, then they could sit on their asses all day on play games and grovel at Happosai's feet whenever he showed up. For Nabiki I was just a source of easy money for her. For Akane, I was just something to take her anger out on." He said, ticking off people on his fingers.
"There is only one person who has ever loved me just for me, and she barely remembers me now." This last bit was said in a dejected whisper as the battle aura faded, flickered, and finally disappeared.
"Come over here child." The old woman said gently as she patted the couch next to her. Silently, he drifted over and sat next to her on the edge, starring down at his hands.
"I know you are hurt but holding back your forgiveness of them is just going to make you hurt even more. It will eat at you until your life is miserable and your friends' lives are just as gloomy. What you need to do is go and make your peace with them and get on with your life. Go help this girl remember you and the love that you shared, or find someone who can return your love." She said kindly and Ranma nodded.
"Thank you ma'am. But can I ask your name?" Ranma said as he gave her a weak smile.
"Certainly young man. I'm Achika Fujimoto. I run the dojo with my husband." She said with a smile on her face for the shock on his before adding, "I think that you will work out perfectly. Why don't you take a week and get everything settled and then you can start work next Saturday?"
Numbly, he nodded and within a few minutes, he found himself walking down the steps and back towards his Aunt's and Uncle's house.
Ranma had been sitting in his room all day. It was now close to midnight and the dinner that his aunt had brought to his room hours earlier was still sitting on the desk, stone cold. With a sigh, he sat up from where he was laying on the bed and began packing his backpack with a few of his things.
As soon as he was finished, he pulled some paper from the desk drawer and started writing a letter to his Aunt and Uncle.
Dear Uncle Ken and Aunt Irene,
When you find this, I'll be gone. But don't worry; I'll be back. I just have to go make my peace with the Tendos and my mother. I'll be back in a few days.
Ranma
Folding the paper, he set it on his pillow and slipped out the window. Once outside, he adjusted the pack and began the hike towards Nerima.
"I wonder what mom is like. I only met her the one time and even if she did disown me, she seems to have changed her mind. Maybe she is the mother I used to have. He had just reached the town limits when a memory popped into his head.
*************** Flashback ***************
"Ranma! Where are you? It's time to go to the palace!" A beautiful woman shouted out into the large garden that stretched almost as far as the eye could see.
"Coming mother!" a light tenor voice called back and within a moment, a tall handsome youth about fourteen ran into the view of the woman.
"Ranma, how many times have I told you that when you work in the garden to change out of your practice gi. Your father is going to have a fit when he sees the stains on it!" she exclaimed as he shuffled his feet nervously. "You know that he sees gardening as a girly thing already, you don't want to think that you are not a man." She finished softly as she wrapped an arm around his slumped shoulders and led him towards the mansion they lived in with Ranma's father, Ranro.
"I know, but I thought up this new move. You see, these leaves." he started to say but a cold voice from in front of them stopped his voiced and his feet. Standing in the doorway of the house, was Ranma's father. Ranro was a tall man that had jet black hair like his son, but that was about the extent of their likeness.
Where Ranma had deep blue eyes, Ranro had black ones that gave nothing away. They were like hard chips of obsidian that revealed nothing. Ranro was also much taller than his son, though Ranma's physic was promising that he would also be tall, but not as tall as his father. Where Ranma was slim with compact muscles, Ranro had huge bulging muscles that made him look like a body builder.
"Are you still acting like a girl, boy?" Ranro demanded as he approached the pair. "Plants are week, just like girls."
"I'm not weak and I'm not a girl." Ranma said quietly, his fists clenching.
"You are what I say you are." the man snapped, then turned towards the woman. "Get him ready, the queen is waiting for us, Hitomi." Spinning on his heel, he stalked away, leaving mother and on starring after him.
"Why is he always like this?" Ranma complained bitterly.
"It's just his way, I suppose." Hitomi said just as quietly. Silently, they continued on to Ranma's set of rooms to finish getting ready.
Twenty minutes later, Ranma stood before his father in black silk pants with a green sleeveless silk shirt tucked in. His freshly washed hair was tied back in a braided pigtail and black wrist guards were snug aground his wrists.
Ranro was dressed in his Jupiter Knight uniform, but Ranma knew that when he detransformed, he would be wearing something similar to him, except in all black. That's what he always wore, no matter what and he insisted that his son do the same thing as well. He also insisted that his wife wear a traditional kimono at all times, no matter what. Right now, she was wearing a green kimono decorated with embroidered bright green leaves around the hem. Her long black hair was in a braid that was twisted around her head in a type of crown and was decorated with small white flowers her son had picked for her for this important day.
For today, they were going to the palace to meet with the queen and for something else that only the Queen and her Knight knew about.
It took them only about ten minutes to reach the Jupiter Palace in the formal coach that Ranro insisted that his wife and son ride in while he rode a huge black stallion named Fury. They disembarked at the foot of the stair case leading up the entrance way and Ranro grabbed Ranma tightly by his upper arm and jerked him a few feet away to hiss in his ear, "Don't you dare embarrass me, boy or you will never see your precious garden again. Do you understand me?" The grip on Ranma's arm tightened painfully and he controlled the flinch that it provoked as he nodded.
"Good." Ranro shoved him away and then turned towards the stairs, motioning his family to follow him. As they mounted the stairs, Hitomi on the arm of Ranma, the guards that stood at the bottom of the stairs to guard the entrance way and the guards at the top, pitied the pair following the Knight. Having to live with a man like that must have been horrible for them.
As Ranma and his mother followed his father down the elegant halls of the Jupiter Palace, he tried to figure out what was going on. Why would they have to come with Ranro to the Palace as it was obviously Jupiter Knight business as Ranro never transformed when he went to the palace on business, as he was a trainer for the royal guards and was there everyday almost.
Suddenly, a door opened up and a tall girl about fourteen ran out, franticly attempting to pull on a pair of slippers, put her hair up in a pony tail and finish straightening her green dress which was twisted and just a bit wrinkled from her hurry to finish getting ready. She Also she had a smudge of dirt on her nose and a small green leaf sitting on her bangs.
She ran into Ranma in her hurry and almost fell to the ground as she was only hopping on one foot trying to get her last slipper on.
"Whoa, be careful." Ranma said as he let go of his mother's arm and steadied the girl.
"Thanks, I will. I'm sorry about that." She exclaimed as she looked up as him.
"It's no problem, but you have some dirt on your nose and a leaf in your hair." He said with a small smile as he reached up and plucked the offending leaf out of the chestnut hair. Suddenly, a huge hand grabbed his arm and yanked him away from the girl and threw him against the wall with bruising force.
"What did I tell you boy about embarrassing me?!" Jupiter Knight bellowed as he stood over his son, glowering at the young man. "When we get back, the garden is being sealed off for good this time." After one last glare at his son, he turned back to the startled girl and bowed.
"I'm sorry, Princess. I believe your mother is waiting for us, so if you will excuse us?" Without waiting for a reply, he turned away and strode down the hall. Hitomi bowed to her quickly and hurried over to Ranma, who had a shell shocked expression on his face as he stared at the princess.
"Come, we must hurry." She said as she gently took his arm and steered him after her husband. As she pulled him down the hall, he cast one more look over his shoulder at the princess, who was staring after them with horror and anger filled eyes.
Ranro was waiting impatiently in front of a huge set of doors that had Jupiter's Royal family's crest created out of emeralds on it, one on each door, by the time, Ranma and Hitomi got caught up to him. He cast a quick look over both of them before saying, "You're presentable I suppose," ignoring the bruise that was forming on Ranma's upper arm.
Turning away, he pounded on the door three times and it was swung open by the guards on the other side. Entering, he jerked his head at them to leave, then hurried towards the throne at the opposite side of the room, leaving his family to follow.
"My Queen, we are here as you have commanded." He said as he bowed to the regal woman sitting there watching him with eyes that burned with emerald fire.
"I didn't order you to send my guards away, Jupiter K. You take too much on yourself." She snapped angrily.
"I was only anticipating your wishes, my queen." He protested smoothly, a smirk firmly on his face.
Ignoring him for a moment, she turned towards Ranma and his mother and said, "Hitomi, my dear old friend, how are you? And this must be Ranma. My how he's grown! The last time I saw him, he was only three years old!" The queen stood up and walked past the shocked Jupiter K., who no longer wore his smirk, and embraced Hitomi like the old friend she was, then gave Ranma a hug as well, causing him to go bright red in the face.
"Your Maj.majesty," he whispered with a bow as she released him.
"Lessa, it's been such a long time, we really must have tea together again sometime." Hitomi said with a smile as she wiped away her tears.
"Oh, yes, we really must. My special tea just doesn't taste the same without you around to drink it with." Just then a small door opened near the throne and the princess slipped into the room. After sending a glare at Jupiter K., she hurried over to her mother.
"Mother, I'm sorry I'm late." She said, and the trio turned to look at her.
"That's ok. Where were you, in the garden or training?" Queen Lessa asked.
"Um, both, actually, I was training in the garden." The princess said calmly.
"That's fine. Lita, this is my dearest friend Hitomi and her son Ranma." Lessa said as she gestured to them with a smile.
"Hello, but we've met." Hitomi said with a small smile as she bowed to the princess.
"You did? But where?" Lessa asked confused.
"We ran into each other in the hall." Lita said with a small smile at Ranma, who blushed.
Before the queen could say anything, Ranro spoke up. "This all nice and all, but you called us here for a reason, right my queen?"
"Yes, I did." Lessa said coldly, the angry fire back in her eyes. "I have called you here for a couple of different reasons, the most important being that it is time to pass on the mantle of being Jupiter K. and Sailor Jupiter to our children." She added "You will pass on your transformation, Ranro." When it looked like he would protest.
"Yes my queen." He said with a scowl. He turned towards Ranma and snapped, "You heard her, boy, get over her right now!" As soon as Ranma was standing in front of him, he grabbed his hand and shoved a disk into it. As soon as the disk was in Ranma's hand, an emerald light surrounded the pair and when it was gone, it revealed the new Jupiter K. in all his glory.
"There, happy?" Ranro asked bitterly as he stepped backwards a few steps from his son.
"Yes." Lessa said calmly then turned back to her daughter. "Lita, this is your transformation wand. Just say Jupiter Power and you will transform into the first level of Sailor Jupiter."
"Ok." Lita said, moving backwards a few steps. "Jupiter Power!"
After the flashing green light and the electricity cleared, Sailor Jupiter was reveled in all her glory. A pure white body suit offset the dark green skirt, sailor collar, choker, and green ankle boots. The pink bows brought the color out in her blushing cheeks when she realized just how short the skirt was.
"My dear, congratulations, I'm sure you will make a wonderful sailor Jupiter." Hitomi said with a smile as she stepped forward and gave the girl a warm hug, which she returned.
"Thank you." Jupiter whispered.
"What other reasons have you called me, your majesty?" Ranro snapped before the three women could turn towards Jupiter K.
Turning to him she pulled herself ramrod straight and with a cool glare said in a frosty voice, "It has come to my attention over the past few months, that you have been quietly gathering allies and fighters and putting them into the guard under your command. They are only loyal to you and have been seen bringing obscene amounts of money and jewels to you. You have also been receiving secret messages, of which we managed to get a hold of one."
At this point, she stopped speaking to stare at Ranro's ashen face as his eyes darted from her, to the trio behind the queen, to the doors, the closest way out of the room. She narrowed her emerald eyes at him for a moment before she summoned a tall staff out of nowhere. At the top of the staff was what looked like a large leaf that cupped a bright green gem that sparkled in the light.
"You, Ranro, have been found guilty of treason and will be banished to the neither realm." She said, but before she could continue, he interrupted, a bad thing to do to your queen when she is talking to you about your future.
"On what charges?!"
"You have been aiding the Negaverse in their attempts to take over our kingdom. We captured your messenger and he has told us all. You are finished." She said and slammed the butt of her staff on the flagstone floor. As it connected, the gem on top flared to life and sent a beam of light at Ranro, who was starring at her, his face grim. Just before the beam connected, a black spike of energy appeared out of nowhere and, twisting around him, he disappeared.
"I'll be back, and when I do, you will all die!" his voice echoed around them even after her was gone.
Turning to the other three in the room, she sighed and said, "We will have to be prepared at all times to be assured that he can't fulfill his final threat. With you consider moving back into the palace, Hitomi? Ranma will of course have to live here to train with my daughter in their new powers."
"Of course! I would love to live here. I never wanted to move away in the first place. That was all his idea." Hitomi said with a smile at the woman in front of her.
*************** End Flashback ***************
"'She was really nice and the perfect mother. But I didn't have her for very long after that." he murmured as he starred at the road, another memory popping up.
*************** Flashback ***************
Ranma and his mother Hitomi had been living at the Royal Palaces of Jupiter for about two months when the attack happened. Ranma and Lita were in the garden in the Senshi uniforms, practicing their fighting moves.
"Lita! I want you to look at this move I just made up!" Ranma called to his training partner as she readied herself to begin a kata.
"Ok, go ahead, Ranma. I'm always interested in you new moves." She said happily as she sat down under a tree to watch as her protector began his move.
0Seeing that she was ready, he braced his legs and cupped his hands at his side. Concentrating as hard as he could, he poured his energy into the bowl his hands had formed. As a flickering blue light sparked to life, Ranma glanced up to see the wonder on her face grow as the energy became a ball of brilliant energy that seethed in an attempt to escape from the bonds that Ranma had put on the energy.
"Moko Takabisha!" he shouted as he thrust his hands forward. The ball shot forward and smashed into a nearby tree trunk, where it promptly exploded, destroying the trunk, sending the tree toppling to the ground.
"Wow!" Lita exclaimed as she ran over to her protector. "That was awesome! Can you teach me how to do that?"
"I don't know. We can at least try." He said with a faint blush as Lita jumped up and down in excitement, a couple of bits jiggling in the skin tight uniform of a sailor scout. His thoughts about the interesting bits were interrupted as an annoying laugh echoed around them.
Spinning in opposite directions to cover more ground, they searched for the person laughing, but they remain elusive, hidden in the trees. Suddenly, they heard a scream of rage coming from the palace.
"Mother." Jupiter K. whispered before taking off at a dead run as another scream ripped through the air. "Mom!" Jupiter dashed after him, both forgetting about the mocking laugher that was still some where behind them.
They ran through the halls, following the screams that were growing louder with each passing second. Finally they burst into Hitomi's room only to stop short. A yoma, which looked like a giant cat with black fur and wickedly sharp claws, was crouched over Hitomi, who was pinned to the floor, one giant paw on her chest with the fully extended claws deep into her flesh. Before they could take a step, though, the yoma clenched its claws into Hitomi and then ripped them out, taking her heart with it. Each claw was a good four or five inches in length, so they had no problem reaching that most precious organ. Then before they're horrified eyes, it brought it to its mouth and took a huge bite out of the still slowly pumping heart.
"NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Ranma screamed in rage and pain as the creature finished its meal. Tears were flowing down his cheeks and power crackled around his body as his Jupiter K. gifts expanded with his rage. "No, no, no, nonononononononononononononoNONONONONONONONONONONO!!!!!!" His chant of 'no' started out slowly and softly but it quickly gained both speed and volume, until he was screaming it as his hands dug into his hair and grabbed his skull in their tight grips.
Jupiter watched her knight with horror as the lightening that was flickering around him expanded until he was covered in a blanket of lightening that just waited to be released. Realizing that when it did get released it would got everywhere, she turned, grabbing the guard members who were in the doorway, and dashed down the hallway. And not a moment to soon, either. Suddenly that was a giant clap of thunder and a brilliant flash of white behind them as the energy released, instantly vaporizing the entire room and part of the hallway where they had just been.
After taking a moment to look at the ruble that had once been marble walls, Jupiter cautiously walked back towards where the door had once been. It would have been quicker to just go through the ruble to reach Jupiter K., who was now kneeling in the center of the blast zone, but defiantly not safer. So she slowly picked her was over to her protector and felt her heart break as she looked at what he held in his arms. His mother's body laid curled in his arms as he cradled her close, despite the blood and the open wound on her chest.
Going to her knees beside him, she gently took the cooling body and placed it on the floor, folding the hands across the wound to conceal it and closing the eyes that were sightlessly starring at the blackened and crumbling ceiling. Once that was completed, she turned to her partner only to see that had had detransformed and was curled on his side, sobs racking his body as he cried out his sorrow onto the cold and unfeeling ground. She put a hand on his shoulder and quickly found herself wrapping her arms around him as he cried onto her shoulder as he clutched her.
It was then that Sailor Jupiter realized that she was desperately in love with her Protector.
*************** End Flashback ***************
Ranma swiped at his eyes as he stepped onto the train platform. The train would take him within two miles of the Tendo Dojo and he could quickly run the last little bit. It was perfect timing as it turned out, because as soon as he had gotten his ticket, the speakers blared to life.
"Train 610 to Nerima is now arriving at track 7. Please watch your hands and legs and wait until it comes to a full stop before approaching. Thank you and have a nice day."
Getting onto the train proved to be a slight problem. The car was packed and he had to shove his way through to even step foot on it. Finally after pushing and shoving, he made it too a small corner seat that was quickly vacated as soon as the man caught site of the busty red head. A woman had accidentally dropped a bottle of water on him just before he had reached the corner. It proved to be advantages though as the perverted salesman, who wanted a peek down the top of Ranma's shirt, let her sit down.
Sighing, Ranma pulled her pack into her lap and put her head down on top of it, blocking the mans view even as she was lost once again in her memories of her past life. It didn't stay that way for long though as the crowd kept jostling her. She didn't get to do too much thinking on the trip because if she wasn't fending off the perverts who used the train as a way to feel her up, she was being bumped into as people got on and off the train.
Finally, she heard the call for Nerima and stood up. Shoving her way forward, she squeezed out of the crush and out onto the platform in a town she had never thought to see again. Looking around, she sighed as a pang of loneliness hit her. Many people that had disembarked with her were having joyous greetings with the people waiting for them, while others hurried on their way to jobs or their homes. There weren't to many teenagers there as it was only noon and they were all in school.
With another sigh, she headed off the platform and towards where she knew that she could some hot water. A restaurant run by her old friend Ukyo.
"Hello, and welcome to the Ucchan. Can I help. Ranma!" Ukyo exclaimed as she looked up from her grill. "What are you doing here?"
"I just stopped by to get some hot water. I'm on my way to talk to Mom and the Tendos and I figured it would be easier to do so without being a girl." she said as she stepped up to the counter and placed her pack on the ground.
"Sure, sugar, wait a sec while I grab so water. I just made some for tea." Ukyo said as she turned away. Within moments, Ranma had a cup of gently steaming water in her hand.
"Thanks." Two seconds later, she was a he and was handing back the cup to the owner of the restaurant.
"So you're going to talk to the Tendos and your mom? Why?" she asked as she placed the cup on the counter and looked her ex-fiancée over, noting that he wasn't wearing his braces on his legs. "And why aren't you wearing your bracers?"
"I just found out in a magazine that they wanted to try and make things right between us and that they want me to marry Kasumi or Nabiki. I won't put up with it so I have to confront them. And the reason I'm not wearing them is because I don't need to anymore. Sailor Moon fixed them when I got injured in an attack." He said and dug into his food.
She stood there for a moment staring at him before she abruptly shook her head in wonderment. 'Only you, Ranchan. Only you.' She thought and placed some tea next to his elbow.
"Thanks Ukyo." He said and drained his cup. While his speed hadn't been effect at all since he had left, his manners had improved. Laying enough money on the counter, he stood up and shouldered his heavy pack. "I'll see you later." He said and headed for the door.
"You're always welcome here, Ranma. Remember that!" she called after him, which gained everyone in the restaurant and a group of boys that were coming in. Everyone turned and froze at the sight of the changed but still recognizable martial artist. There was a moment of pure silence then the boys at the door all shouted in one voice, "Saotome! You're back!"
"No I'm not." Ranma said calmly and was ignored like usual when he was in Nerima.
"Finally you can put a stop to Kuno, when he graduated and went to a privet collage we thought it would get better but the next year he transferred into the public collage to be near Akane and he is driving her and everyone else crazy."
"The fights started again!"
"I keep getting beat up! I need you to either train me or beat them up for me."
"When are you going to marry one of the girls so that the rest of us can get one!"
This last bit was what broke the horses back, so to speak, for Ranma. He had been getting angrier and angrier as the four boys, who he couldn't even remember their names anymore as they were never very good friends, kept talking and making demands of him.
"Shut up." He said coldly. Normally they would have never obeyed it but Ranma was now surrounded by his bright green ki, much different than his previous blue color. And this time there were little lightening bolts that flickered around him. "Ranma Saotome is dead." He said calmly and headed for the door, which the boys were standing in front of.
Seeing the flickering battle aura coming their way, the boys dived away and out of the doorway, leaving it clear for Ranma to leave by. In the doorway he turned back to the people in the restaurant that were staring at him in shock.
"I am not back. I have no fiancées, so if you want to ask one out, ask one out. If Kuno is driving you crazy, do something about it. Stop participating in the attacks so that she'll only have to deal with Kuno, and if you want to be trained in the martial arts, and it must be by me for what ever reason you have in your minds, I'll be teaching a beginners class in Jubaan starting in about a week." That being said, he turned and walked out the door, the aura and electricity disappearing before he had even crossed the threshold.
Once he was gone, the patrons of Ucchan's looked blankly at each other for a moment before there was a mass rush to either pay their bills and leave before a powerful martial artist showed up looking for Ranma, or to get to a phone to see if they could find the dojo where Ranma was teaching to sign up for classes.
Ukyo just shook her head and rang up another bill.
"I don't believe this. I'm not even here for thirty minutes and already trouble is following me around!" Ranma complained to himself as he noticed a certain crazy gymnast following him from rooftop to rooftop. Sighing, he stopped onto of Dr. Tofu's clinic and turned fully to face Kodachi.
"Beloved! You are worthy of my perfect love once again!" she sang as she landed on the roof and launched herself at him.
'No matter what I say, she's not going to listen to me. There has to be some way to get through to her!' he thought as he dodged her. 'Wait, I got it!'
"My, fairest rose, in all my life there has been none that allowed this humble person to grace them with my love. I must admit that at first I found myself daunted by the mere though of being allowed in your presence, but one I was no longer allowed, my heart broke and I realized how foolish I had been." He said with a deep bow to the stunned woman. His face still adverted by the bow, he allowed himself to smile quickly before he wiped his face of it and plastered a heartbroken expression in its place.
"But, I am no longer what I once was. Though I may now tread this earth once again, I must forbid myself your royal presence as I am but a shadow of my former might. But I humbly beg your indulgence in this matter my lady. I would love to court you, but first I must regain my prowess and strength once again. Can you find it in your heart to allow me the time that I need to make myself worthy of you?"
Kodachi started at him for a moment a shell shocked expression on his face before a beautiful smile crossed her face. A smile that was barely tainted with her madness and Ranma felt a brief pang of remorse for building her hopes up.
"My lord, I shall grant you your wish and will wait with baited breath for the day that you return for me." She said as she fluttered her long eyelashes at him.
"Nay, my lady. While I am humbled that you would wait for this insignificant person, I must protest. Once such as you must be pursued after by all that will cherish you. I beg of you to go out and meet others that are interested in you. That will allow you to find he who is most worthy. One who will cherish and love you till your dieing day if I find that I am not worthy or it takes me much to long." Ranma protested and she blushed in pleasure at the seeming complement.
"Oh, my love, I will do as you say! How cruel it would be to deny all the men in the world my beauty, charm, and grace! HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!!!!" she laughed madly then bestowed on him a hungry look. "You will bring yourself to my home when you have finished making yourself worthy of me. Until then, I will leave you with a token of my affection." So saying, she produces a bouquet of her trademarked black roses and handed then to him. "Until later, darling!"
Ranma held his breath as she bounded away from him across the rooftops, then threw the roses away from him. They landed at the edge of the roof and just lay there, a fine powder disturbed by the landing floated up and settled on the rooftop area surrounding the bouquet.
Taking a deep breath of clean air, Ranma sighed and turned away from the destructive flowers and once again began the trip back to the Tendo Dojo.
Kasumi was outside hanging clean laundrey on the line when a familare shadow appeared on the ground in front of her. Unable to believe her eyes, she slowly looked up and gasped as she caught sight of the pigtailed martial artist that she had visited in the hospital.
"Ranma." she whispered before she gave an unKasumi like squeal of joy and launched herself at him. "Ranma! You're back!" she exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him like she was never going to let go.
"Kasumi, it's good to see you again, too!" Ranma said with a laugh as he twirled her around a few times before placing her back on her feet.
"Ranma!" four more voices called from the porch of the house. Releasing Kasumi, he turned to see the other two Tendo sisters, their father and his mother standing together on the porch. As he watched, Akane ran down from the porch and across the yard towards him, her arms open as if to grab him in a hug.
Quickly sidestepping, he dodged around the incoming girl and watched her run right into the wall surrounding the home before she could stop. Turning away from the dazed girl laying on the ground, he saw that the other three were now standing only a few feet away from him.
"Waaahhhhhh! Now at last the schools will be joined!!!" Soun wailed as he made to grab him in a hug. Once again, Ranma sidestepped, but this time, he hit the sleepers point on Soun's neck. As he dropped to the ground asleep, Ranma turned back to the last two remaining women in front of him.
"Son, I." Nodoka started to say, but Ranma cut her off.
"I am not your son, your son is dead." He said calmly and watched as her face closed until it was just a polite mask. Her hands clutched her wrapped katana as she said, "Please come inside, we have much to discuss."
"Not as much as you seem to think." Ranma said just as calmly. Turning, he saw that Kasumi had Akane on her feet and was directing her to the house, so he bent down and scooped up Soun and carted him back towards the house.
As soon as the head of the Tendos had been layed on the couch, a wet rag on his forehead, and Akane had an ice pack sitting on her head while she sat at the table, Kasumi disappeared into the kitchen to make some tea for everyone. Until she got back, everyone stayed silent at the table, Ranma looking down at the table top and the woman staring at him.
Finally, when she came back and passed out the hot drinks, Ranma cleared his throat and looked up at the eyes that were watching him. "I can here today because I saw the article that Nabiki put in the magazine." He said calmly and took a long sip of his tea. "This is very good, Kasumi. It's one of the things I've missed since I got out of the hospital. I was lucky that you would bring me some every once in a while."
"Why, thank you Ranma, I enjoyed visiting you there. I miss visiting with you." She said with a sunny smile.
"You can come and visit me at my aunt's house it you would like until I can get an apartment of my own." Ranma said with an answering smile.
"Son.Ranma. That is one of the things that we wanted to talk to you about. You can move back here and then you wouldn't have to go visiting." Nodoka said.
"Mrs. Saotome, it is impossible for me to move back into this home."
Nodoka seemed slightly started to hear her formal name out of her son, but pushed it aside to continue. "We still want to join the schools. Obviously you wouldn't want to marry Akane after your accident so you will marry either Kasumi or Nabiki." She said firmly as she loosened the wrappings on her katana.
"I don't think you understand." He said coolly. "To join the schools you would need your son to marry Kasumi or Nabiki, but you don't have a son, haven't for a year now. Ranma Saotome died in the hospital a year ago. My name is Ranma Sankono." It was a spur of the moment decision to take the last name he had once when he had lived on Jupiter. It was the only other name in all of his memory that he had by right of birth.
The women looked at him blankly for a moment as he went back to sipping his tea. Finally Akane burst out. "Ranma no baka! Can't you see that we want you back!!"
Calmly he set his cup on the table, and then turned cool eyes on her. "You want me back, Akane? Why? You have never loved me, or wanted me here in the first place, remember? So why do you want me back? Mr. Tendo wants me back so that he can have an easy retirement, not that he does any work anyway. Nabiki wants me back to probably make more money off of me and my curse. Mrs. Saotome probably wants me back for a couple of different possible reasons. She could be sorry about what she had done and wanted her little puppet back, she could want me back to uphold her honor, she could want me back so that she isn't alone as she gets older. Anything is possible. Kasumi is the only one that I can think of that could want me back for just me." He said with a small smile at the oldest Tendo daughter. But the smile disappeared as he turned his cold gaze back to the youngest.
"You probably only want me back to pamper to your self. You probably feel guilty about what you did to me. You almost ruined my life for something I was not responsible for just because of your violent temper and your unreasonable jealousy." He paused for a moment to let that sink in. She was sitting there with her mouth hanging open in shock.
"You, Akane, only want me back so that you feel special again. I paid attention to you without wanting to jump you. I defended you and protected you against things that you couldn't fight against. I even put up with your abuse without turning and running away. But I was never anything to you. I was an object that you could beat up on and ridicule to your hearts content. It wasn't until after I was out of the picture that you realized that without me around, you didn't get as much attention from all the boys. I have heard things in the time since I was gone. Kuno still challenges you at the collage you go to, but there is no hoard of boys trying to beat you to win you. There are no challengers for the dojo that once they saw you, had to have you. There are no students period without me. No one coming up that wants to learn from you after the first four dojo destroyers came, challenged you, beat you and then took pity on you and let you keep the sign."
During the course of his speech, Akane went from being shocked and pale faced to being furiouse and red faced. She was angy that her whole frame was vibrating with it. Her head was down as she went through these emotions, but everyone who knew her got out of the way as fast as they could. It was a rage like this that had led her to breaking Nabiki's arms when she was 12 and her sister was 13 and better in the art than she was. The damage to the nerves in Nabiki's shoulders forbade her to ever practice the art again.
With a wordless scream of pure rage, she attacked Ranma, only to find herself on the ground writhing in pain a moment later, her right arm broken in three places.
"Akane!!" Kasumi and Nodoka exclaimed as they rushed towards the girl. "Ranma, how could you do that to a girl?! A girl that loves you nonetheless!" Nodoka said angrily.
"Akane doesn't love me, Mrs. Saotome." He said quietly, a strange tone in his voice as he stared blankly out the open sliding do that lead to the backyard. "Only one person has ever truly loved me. People in love don't regularly try and main their love interest. They also don't attack them for trying to be nice or for accidentally saying something wrong." He now had everyone's attention, including Akane, who was clutching her arm, and Soun, who had just woken up.
"I found my soul mate in my last life. She was beautiful. A fighter on par with the best when we grew up. I was her protector, her knight, and she was my princess. We fought together and died together. It wasn't until the last battle that I really told her my feelings, but of course by then it was much too late, but it was unspoken between up for a long time before that we loved each other."
*************** Flashback ***************
The battle was just beginning and already half of the scouts and their knight were dead. Sailor Jupiter was fighting back to back with Jupiter K in an isolated area, far away from the others. Seven monsters surrounded them and Jupiter K. knew that it was the end.
'These monsters are just shrugging off my attacks!!' he thought furiously as he fired off another moko Takabisha. As the attack smashed into the rock yoma, a huge clawed hand came out of no where and grabbed him by the throat. He was jerked up off the ground and suddenly he was lying on the ground, his throat torn open.
"NO!" Jupiter yelled as she turned at the loud gurgle he gave as he tried to breath through the blood. Then the yomas descended on them. In her moment of distraction, two yomas, a cat and a dog, each grabbed her by an arm and yanked. For a moment it was like tug of war before suddenly her right arm got ripped completely off.
She screamed as the dog yoma, who was still holding on to her attached arm dragged her off her feet and then tossed her into the middle of three other yomas, all equipped with long claws and sharp teeth.
Ranma watched, tears running down his face as she was ripped apart. 'My love.' he cried as the light dimmed in her beautiful emerald eyes. When it went out, he left out a bubbling screaming of pain as he squeezed his eyes shout.
The yomas stopped for a moment at his scream, but then continued to tear her apart. When there wasn't that much left, they left the dead sailor scout and joined in the rest as they slowly ate the knight alive.
'I will find you again!' he thought deservedly as he died of blood loss and shock.
*************** End Flashback ***************
Ranma sighed and then smiled slightly.
"But now she's back. I've found her again, and I'm going to stay with her, forever this time."
"Whaaaaaaaa! Now the schools will never be joined because Ranma's found his soul mate! Whaaaaaaa!" Soun burst out looking both happy that Ranma had found his soul mate and sad because he wouldn't be marrying one of his girls.
"I think it's about time for me to get back." Ranma said as he stood up.
"Wait, Ranma. I have a question for you." Kasumi said as she stood up also and reached for his shoulder.
"Yeah?"
"Why aren't you wearing your bracers?"
Upon hearing her question, everything went still in the room as everyone turned to stare at him, or more specifically his legs.
"Oh, Sailor Moon healed my legs when I was caught in a monster attack." He said calmly and Nodoka gasped.
"You were caught in a monster attack? But that usually only happens in Juuban!"
"Yeah, so? That's were I'm living."
"You live there? Where?" she said in a stunned voice.
Slowly, he told her the address, unsure of what was going through her mind.
"That is Near the Cherry Hill Temple, correct?"
A slow nod.
"Well, that is about five minutes from my house. I live there." She said calmly and took a sip of her tea. "This is very good, Kasumi. You must give me the address of where you buy your blend!"
Ranma had frozen when his mother dropped her little bombshell, and now toppled over to land on his face in a graceful faceplant. Recovering, he said slowly, "You live there?"
"Yes, Ranma, I do. If you're heading back, you can ride with me. The car is coming to pick me up in an hour."
"The car?"
"Yes. I told my driver to pick me up around four."
'Why me?' he thought before nodding. "Ok. I'm in no rush at the moment."
INCOMPLETE
Ok, as you can see, this is STILL NOT DONE! My asshole of a sister, who just happens to be 8 months pregnant, decided to erase all my work in a folder. Luckily it was just this story. All the previous chapters were on the internet so they weren't hard to replace, but this once was nearly done! I had to start over again from where I left off the last time I posted this! I had been almost done with Pluto's first memory when it happened and I can't remember exactly what I wrote in the first place! So here is a much rushed finished part of this chapter. Jupiter is completely finished now, I just need to do Pluto now. Add the fact I'm not feeling good and I still have to go to work tomorrow, I'm not sure when I'll get the rest up. But it will be up. SOON. Hopefully.
Ja ne,
A very pissed off Shinigami-chan
