by
imortis
Ranma blinked looking at the room he woke up in and frowned slightly looking around. He sighed walking to the long desk in the room passing the people already there and stood before man there "where am I?" He blinked at him boredly "get back to your spot in the line." he said as bored as he looked. Ranma looked around and blinked stopping on a door off to the side "I know, I'll ask who evers in there." he said cheerfully walking past the people.
"No you can't go there!" the man behind the desk shouted in panic. "Why not?" Ranma asked pushing the monsterous door open "Because thats the Bosses Office!" Ranma blinked looking into the room and almost gulped looking at the huge horned man that was peering over the desk at him "ah, Saotome Ranma, we were expecting you." he said in a shockingly friendly voice.
Ranma did gulp as the doors shut firmly behind him "we don't get this request often you know, not many people are known to impress him." he said cheerfully looking through a few papers "it seems Kami of Earth requested that the Legendary Martial Arts Master who happens to live in this plane, see you. He agreed and asked for you to be directed his way." he turned to the side and the wall closest to him opened to revealed a road traveling off into the distance, a golden cloud substance spreading for all the eye could see "stay on the road or you'll be stuck son, follow the road to its end and you'll find the home of King Kai."
Ranma blinked at him for a minute then nodded waving good bye as he walked out onto the road "thanks." he said cheerfully and started running.
After a few hours he scowled not seeing anything in any direction and
started running harder.
Bulma looked grimly at the door she was before then looked at the woman behind he and for some reason felt safer telling Chichi then getting her angry. She knocked firmly and stood there strait backed, hoping the shaken widow behind her didn't get angry again, last time she tore Kame House apart, literally, she tore it to peices. Chichi blinked and smiled at Bulma as she opened the door "Bulma! Welcome! Whos your friend?" she asked.
Akane looked up at her still holding her sleeping daughter close "its me Chichi, Akane." she said softly. She beamed in pleasure "I've been wanting to meet you for so long!" she said coming out. She gasped in pleasure looking at the spikey red hair sticking up from the girls head "oh shes adorible!" she said happily leaning close.
Ranko opened her eyes and started crying again burying her face in her mothers chest. Chichi blinked in worry "oh, I didn't upset her did I?" she asked worried. Akane shook her head "no, she's been crying for a while now." she said looking at the ground. She looked even more worried "what happened? Where are the guys? Wheres Gohan!?" she added panicing. Ranko sniffled "the bad man took him!" she wailed loudly.
Akane kissed her head soothingly. "Someone showed up at the party Chichi, your not going to like this." Bulma said softly as they all moved into the house. Bulma smiled softly waving to Chichis father the Ox King "hello, is Goku hurt?" he asked concerned. They shook their heads "he was pretty beat up but he walked away from it." Bulma said softly. "We found out that Goku had a Twin Brother named Raditz, and that they're from a planet called Vegeta."
They blinked at her for a minute "my Husband is an alien?" Chichi asked. They nodded "Goku and Ranma denied him when he demanded Goku come with him. He got angry and desided he was going to take Gohan instead." bulma said. Chichi freaked silently. Akane sighed "Goku and Ranma tried to stop him, he flattened Goku easily, just hit him once and he was stunned for a half hour. Ranma got in one good hit before he got him, Ranma upset him so he beat him up badly. He took Gohan with him to his space ship, Ranma followed being the first to recover." she looked away. "Goku left a half hour later....."
Bulma touched her arm in simpathy "he was too strong for them, even with Piccolo who had come to help..... Ranma was forced to hold him still long enough for the two of them, Goku and Piccolo, to blast him." They looked shocked "Ranma? How is he?" the Ox King asked softly.
Akanes lip trimbled "Ranma was killed." she said faulteringly holding her daughter close, both of them crying softly. Chichi looked horrified and quickly moved around the table and hugged them both comfortingly "this must be hard." she said softly stroking Rankos head as she held Akanes shoulders. She sniffed "thats not the end though." she said softly.
She looked at her giving Ranko to her. She cradled the girl to her when she rapped her arms around her neck "Goku joined Piccolo and has taken Gohan for training. Two more of these monsters are going to show up in a year, Goku said that he's going to train Gohan because this wouldn't have happened if Gohan could have done something, as it was he was too scared to even run from him, my Ranmas dead because Gohan put up nothing in defence of himself, he didn't even run away, he just waited for his Uncle Ranma to come and die for him!" she gripped her fists fighting the crying fit that threatened.
She looked at Chichis shocked face "Ranma told Goku before it started that you were going to end up getting someone killed by forcing Gohan to devote all of his time to studying, he said that because Gohan was the son of the greatest fighter in the world that he was a target for everyone looking to settle a grudge. Ranma said that either Gohan would be killed, or someone trying to save him, funny how he got a chance to prove himself right!" she said starting to pace the room.
Bulma gulped "you need to calm down Akane, Ranko needs you to be strong." she said a little fearfully seeing rage and sorrow flickering across her face. Akane stopped and looked at her daughter in Chichis arms and took a minute to calm herself down. "Where is my Son?" Chichi asked coming over. Both of them shook their heads "Goku said he wasn't bringing him home until after they had delt with these guys that are coming in a year." Bulma said. Chichi blew up "what?!?! How dare he?!?!?" she shouted angrily. Ranko burst out wailing and she calmed down in seconds.
Akane got in her face glaring "your Husband lost one of his best friends
and student because of your insisting his Son, a boy with the blood of
generations of warriors in his veins, not learn to use the gift he has,
he said that he lost his friend today because of your behavior and wasn't
going to bring his Son home until you understand that he has no choice
but to train Gohan." She stood back crossing her arms "Gohan is smart,
very smart, and I understand your wanting to see he learns everything he
can, but your endangering him and the people around him by refusing to
see the other side of his nature. I know, I've heard the story Kami told
Ranma. About how Goku was of a race of warriors. Trying to deny Gohan his
right as a Saiyjin is the same as denying him air, he's part Human, and
the rest like Goku and Ranma, they have to fight, they have no choice.
I understand this because I grew up learning to fight, what excuse do you
have?"
Goku looked from Piccolo to Kami who were glaring at each other "come on Kami, we need to borrow your time room, we're training to fight some really bad guys." he said pleadingly. Kami looked at him "what assurances do I have that Piccolo will behave?" he asked. Goku blinked "he wants to train so he can be ready to fight these guys with us Kami, I don't think he's going to do anything to interfere with our training." he said reasonably. Piccolo snorted looking away crossing his arms "what does he think I am, a dog?!" he grumped making Gohan look at him.
They had been following Piccolos ideas on training for the last three months and he was starting to get to like being strong, they had set him loose in the middle of a strange forest before taking off to train together, after three weeks they came back and started training with him, he went to bed aching every night.
Goku held out his hand "its ok Kami, nothings going to happen." he said soothingly. He frowned deeply looking at Piccolo peircingly before sighing "alright Goku, what do you need with the time room?" he asked. Goku smiled "I want to find out more about Saiyjins so we can figure out what we're going to be going up against." He nodded "good idea, this way."
Gohan looked up at the two men who were still standing like statues in the middle of the room and sighed standing up, it had been seven hours now and he was bored. He walked out of the room and Kami looked at him curiously "are they finished?" he asked. Gohan shook his head "no, I was just bored. I thought I would train a little while waiting."
He nodded "ah, mind if I help?" he asked. He beamed "boy, will you?!" he asked pleased. He nodded leading him from the room "be ready Child, your Father trained with me as well and he found it to be hard, don't start unless your ready to feel some pain." Gohan blinked then clinched his fists "I'm ready!" he declaired firmly. Kami nodded in aproval moving out into the middle of the courtyard that made up his citadel "here goes Child."
Goku and piccolo walked out of the room looking grim to blink at Gohan rapidly trying to dodge all the blasts Kami was throwing at him "you must learn speed to properly fight Child, the pain you feel is teaching you." he said firmly sending five more balls of ki flying at him.
Gohan yelped dodging three before the last two hit him. Kami chuckled softly lowering his arm seeing that he was too worn out to continue "I didn't know you could teach Kami." Piccolo said quietly. He nodded losing the smile "indeed. I did the same for Goku, its to teach speed, as well as toughen him with every blast he takes. So far he'd done a good job, better then you even Goku." he said in aproval.
Goku nodded "we have to go now Kami, thanks for letting us come." he
said grateful. He nodded "and did you find out what you were looking for?"
he asked. Goku nodded "Saiyjins are very powerful, a lot more powerful
then us." he said grimly. He nodded just as grim "I wish you luck then,
be careful."
Ranma was really starting to hate running. He would fly if he could, but for some reason he couldn't, something kept pushing him down. He glared pushing hard as he flew into the air and grinned keeping it up for a mile of road before he was brought down again. He gasped crouching down and panted softly to himself as he looked at the endless stretch of road. He blinked jumping as he heard something behind him and looked dumbly at the street sweeper trundling its way towards him.
He scratched his head as it passed him and grinned "hey! Mind if I hitch a ride?" he called to the driver. He smiled "nope! Hop on back!" he said cheerfully. Ranma waved in thanks jumping on and sighed falling asleep in seconds. The driver smiled starting to hum as they continued down the road and yelped when they hit a bump. He sighed "gets me every time! Are you alright back there?" he called then blinked not seeing him anywhere. He scratched at the back of his head big sweating.
Ranma blinked snapping awake looking at the bubbles coming from his mouth, making him realize that he must be in water. He jumped up and burst from the lake he had been at the bottom of and blinked glancing around after reaching land. He blinked and big sweated at the little cloud things that were running around and playing on the play ground equipment that littered the area.
He blinked looking to his left when something cast a shadow over him and blinked up at the huge, blue skinned, thing with the stupid looking horn sticking out of the top of his head "welcome!" he said cheerfully, leering at him evilly. Ranma scratched his head blanking his speech as he looked at the letters on the front of his shirt and just knew that the name of this place stood for hell. He looked around, before looking up "ok, how do I get out of here?"
He blinked moving to the side as another thing, this one was red with horns in the proper place, not only that, but he was wearing glasses and a stupid hair do that totally killed the look he was going for. He sneered "theres only one way out of here, but we won't tell you!" he cackled. Ranma blinked at him "why?" The blue one grinned coming forward "you have to beat us at our game before we'll tell you where to go." he said looking smug. Ranma blinked "whats your game?"
They laughed darting towards each other standing as strait as they could "you must first best us in our chosen sport before we will let you leave!" they entoned rather melodramatically. Ranma scratched at the back of his head "so.... whos first?" They blinked at him for a second before the red one grinned standing strait "its my turn to go first!" he declaired. The blue one frowned "alright." he grumped unable to contest his right. Ranma nodded looking at them "so whats first?"
He grinned superiorly down at him "you have to catch me..." he broke off when Ranma jumped him grinning. "Not yet!" he shouted in annoyance. He grinned walking to the long road off to the side of the building "on your marks, get set, go!" he cheered before flashing off down the road. Ranma blinked then jumped after him "no fair, I wasn't ready!" he called. Ranma looked about after a half hour of watching him always keep ahead before boosting his speed a few notches and blasted off after him. The ogre laughed sneeringly looking back and jumped seeing Ranma gaining on him and threw on the speed flashing off.
The blue ogre looked up and sighed in annoyance looking over the paperwork before him and blinked then blinked again in shock seeing Ranma was neck in neck with his friend "gee, he may beat him!" he said then grinned happily "then it will be my turn!"
Ranma blinked looking to the side at the tree sitting on the top of the hill they were about to crest "whats that?" he asked. The ogre blinked looking "thats the bosses fruit tree of power. See, it doubles the strength of who ever eats one perminently!" he said obliviously. Ranma looked interested and stopped, letting him dart past "I am kind of hungry." he called after him as he circled the tree.
The ogre eeped turning around and gave chase "no! Only the boss eats those!" he cried circling the tree with him twelve times before blinking when Ranma jumped up rapping his arms and legs around him "gotcha!" He blinked at him for a minute before the blue ogre appeared. "Stupid, you let him trick you!" he shouted at him. Ranma nodded cheerfully when he looked at him "I caught you."
After much grumbling Mez went to the office to continue doing the paperwork as Goz got ready for his test "alright, see this circle?" he asked pointing at a large circle he had drawn on the ground in the clear part of the park. Ranma nodded. "You have to push me out of this ring." Ranma blinked at him for a minute before big sweating "thats it?"
Ranma sighed as he started out on snake way again, he couldn't believe those idiots, not only did the 'way out' bring him back to the begining of the road, it also put him in the top drawer of that huge guys desk. If it wasn't for these fruit he had snagged, it would be a wasted time. He smirked slightly quickly eating one and jumped as he put on a huge burst of speed and his weariness went away.
He shouted jumping into the air and flashed off down the road grinning,
he could fly now! He smirked after an hour of flying when he passed by
the street sweeper that had taken him three months to get to. He shook
his head continuing on.
Goku looked up from his meditative position to look at gohan, he was slowly starting to do basic exercises after a week of this. Piccolo looked like he was at home here, he had to admit that it was getting easier for him too. He stood up easily and walked over to Piccolo "want to spar?" Piccolo looked up at him and nodded jumping to his feet "this is a good idea." he said raising his hands. Goku nodded and darted forward attacking.
Gohan stopped what he was doing and blinked at the two of them, he couldn't see any difference in their fighting, they were as fast as ever. He sighed standing up and started performing that basic kata Ranma had taught his Father, and he had taught him, Ranma has said it was to tone the body as well as strengthen it. He looked up and shouted scrambling away as the two older men shot at him.
He continued dodging as they continued to attack, landing painful blows,
but also missing a few as well surprisingly. Goku grinned at his Son, five
hours ago he couldn't move more then to walk slowly, and now he was dartiing
and dodging with the best of them. He grinned in pride looking at the monitor
on the wall, the gravity was set at ten times earth normal.
All of them looked up and blinked at the person in the door way making both Father and Son gulp in fear. Chichi looked at the two of them, they looked tired and worn out, but they also looked more alive then she could remember them being since Ranma had left. She cleared her throat "you've been in here for two months now, come out and rest, you need to eat something proper."
That said she turned about and left. All three of them blinked looking at each other, before Goku turned the field off. Gohan laughed softly and darted out of the room faster then they could see, making them jump. Goku looked at Piccolo and grinned. Piccolo smiled slightly before following.
Goku looked in the door hesatently seeing Chichi at the stove and looked at Bulma for some idea on what to do. She smiled softly as she led him and Piccolo into the room "go get cleaned up before sitting down at the table." Chichi said firmly frowning at them.
Both of them looked at the ceiling as they sat in the huge bath tub, Gohan sitting between then on the side of the tub "isn't this fun?!" he exclaimed happily. Goku smiled at him "remember that your to wear that special gi when you go out. After your Mother is happy we're going to start training harder, the things you can't learn in the proffessors special room." He nodded happily "are you having fun Mr Piccolo?" he asked looking at him.
He nodded "this is a better way to train." he agreed. All of them blinked when Chichi came into the room and put towels down for them "hurry up, dinners ready. I brought your homework with me Gohan, I want it all done before you continue training with your Father." she said firmly. He nodded disapointed as she left. Goku rubbed his head "at least she's letting you train Son." he said soothingly, before dunking him under.
Gohan laughed coming back up and sighed jumping out "I miss my tail Dad." he said pouting as he dried himself off. Goku looked sad "you'll get it back sooner or later Son, mine grew back three times, although, without it your better off, no one can grab it and do what that man did to Uncle Ranma." Gohan shivered looking down "he was going to hurt her." he said softly. He nodded grimly looking down "you'll remember that when ever your around Little Ranko, when someone pulls on our tails it hurts a lot, but it hurts them a lot more then us." he said rapping a towel around his middle as he got out.
All of them blinked when a small naked form with a tail sailed past them "I got the bath next!!" Ranko cheered then stopped dead in her tracks looking shocked at Gohan. He looked away embarressed seeing that she wasn't even bothering to cover herself "Ranko! Either get into the tub or cover yourself, men get embarressed easy." Akane said appearing with Chichi who was wearing a towel herself. The men hurriedly moved out of their way as they tried to get to the tub "Its Gohan Mommy!" Ranko said exstatic. She nodded picking her up by her tail and tossed her into the tub.
She giggled surfacing. "How can you pick her up like that without hurting her?" Gohan asked curious. Akane smiled "grabbing it doesn't hurt much, its squeezing it that hurts, its easy to pick her up by it." Ranko nodded grinning "its fun! If I want to I can swing from a tree by it!" she said beaming. Akane chuckled at her "your not a monkey dear, of course, its not as bad as some of the things Goku did with his tail, acording to Bulma."
They looked at Goku and he blushed a little looking away "she said he used to catch fish with it." she said teasingly. He shrugged "for some reason they thought it was food, and I caught a lot of good fish using that technique!" he said in defence. Ranko giggled "can I go fishing Mommy?!" she asked bouncing in her lap now that they were in the tub.
Akane scrubbed at her head with the soap then blinked at the guys still in the door "excuse us, we are women and we are bathing." she said scoldingly. Goku nodded grabbing both of them and shut the door. Chichi laughed "I was kind of hoping Goku would surprise me in the bathroom like we used to do." she sighed. Akane arched an eye brow "want me to go get him?"
She blinked thinking about it then shook it off "no thankyou, Goku has
that look in his eyes, he's focused on the battle coming, I doubt I could
get his attention." she said sighing. Akane smirked at her "that just means
your doing it wrong, let me help you out and he'll be thinking of nothing
but you."
Goku and the others looked up as ranko bounced into the room happily and jumped into the seat next to Gohan "Mommy says your tail will grow back if we shock you." she said innocently. Goku blinked then nodded "I was hit by lightning and mine grew back." he said. Gohan blinked at that for a few minutes then shook his head "I don't know Dad, I don't want anyone getting me like that guy did Uncle." he said softly. All of them froze when the metal cup in Akanes hand crumpled "like he got Uncle?" she asked softly. Gohan nodded looking at her so didn't see Goku and Piccolo trying to warn him off "Uncle turned into a girl and he was so shocked that they were able to beat him. He didn't want to hurt her too much. But when she went to grab his tail, he grabbed hers, even after Dad pulled her away from him she was too weak to do anything and he.... tried to hurt her after beating up Dad and Uncle Piccolo."
Akane lowered the glass looking at the table "he did huh. Did he..... hurt her?" she asked softly. Goku shook his head quickly "we stopped him!" he said hurriedly. Piccolo nodded "Ranma was so freaked out he bolted for a minute. Lucky for us he did, Raditz totally forgot about her until she had him pinned for us."
Akane nodded closing her eyes "Ranma always had more courage then intelegence I'm not surprised he ran, the feelings he got in that body always scared him, and I'm surprised he came back at all." she murmured. Ranko looked at the sober faces around the table and pouted "Mommy, you said Daddy was coming back so why are you sad?" she demanded firmly.
All of them looked at the stern little girl and Akane laughed softly "no reason Honey, I just miss Daddy, he.... gave Mommy something she can't get without him and she's starting to get frustrated." she said making them spit up the drinks they had all taken at that time for some reason. Akane snorted smirking at the looks they gave her. "Where have you been Gohan? I missed you." Ranko asked pouting, not even noticing the looks they were giving her Mother.
He blinked "I've been training with dad and uncle piccolo." he said smiling. She beamed excited "can I play with him Mommy?! Daddy said I couldn't play with him because he didn't fight." she said bouncing in her seat. She smiled "after he's done with his homework Honey."
She pouted at her mother for a few minutes before looking at goku "wanna see what Daddy taught me?!" she asked excited instently. He smiled and nodded seeing that his bowl was empty. She cheered bouncing out of her chair and out the door in an instent. He chuckled standing up "she's enthusianstic." he said smiling. Akane smirked "and hyper active." she chuckled.
Goku blinked as he stepped outside seeing Ranko performing the kata the Turtle Hermit taught him for fine tuning the Kame Hame Ha Wave. He blinked almost dumbly as the girl promptly blew up a tree that was off to the side. She beamed turning to Goku for aproval. He nodded smiling "thats great Ranko! How long have you been practicing it?" he asked pleased. She twirled about blissfully "Daddy trained me in the katas and showed it to me a week before.... he went away. I've been practicing hard! But since Daddy is gone I thought I would show you since he said you showed him."
He nodded nealing down and petted her affectionately "thats fantastic Ranko-chan, would you like to train with Gohan and us? Since your Dad is gone for now I guess its my job if your Mom agrees." he said looking to Akane leaning against the door frame smirking at him. She nodded wordlessly "oh I agree, all I can teach her is finger moves and pressure points."
She grinned "Ranko Honey, show Uncle Goku that special point we learned last week." she said grinning. Goku blinked then promptly fell over when her little hand flickered forward and touched the spot. She beamed looking down at the unmoving, and blinking man "what was that?" Piccolo asked. Ranko beamed "mild paralization, it will wear off in ten minutes if I don't reverse it." she resighted happily.
"Do that dear." akane said proudly. Goku sat up rubbing his neck "does Ranma know these?" he asked. She blinked and shook her head "not many, just the one he used on me and two others, he probably didn't use them because he doubted the points would work on him, I'll have to talk to him about it."
She smiled boosting Ranko to her shoulder "come on honey, its our turn in the heavy room." she said sweetly heading for the building Bulmas Father had built for them. "Your subjecting a little girl to that?" Piccolo asked. Akane smirked "come now, she's a Saiyjin, as well as Ranmas Daughter, Ranma fought off a pit full of starving cats rapped in fish when he was six, he has to be amazing to have survived that with his sanity. Besides, Ranma told me about the generated gravity device Bulma's Father had built when he read of it, and your doing the same to Gohan." she smirked walking in the door. Goku shook his head "Ranma has his hands full there."
Done, done and done! another chapter ready!
Next chapter! ranma finally makes it to kais world and the nerima bunch find akane! how is she to explain ;wince; ranmas death?!
Ja Ne!
imortis
