Notes - This story has been revised from what was originally posted some months ago. The original version was a total mess that didn't make much sense if one looked at it too closely. Over the next few weeks this story is going to be edited and rewritten into a far better story. Feel free to send me comments on this or any of my stories, I always like to hear from people.
Due to the size of this there is a good chance that I will probably miss a mistake here and there. Let me know if any major one's are found. Check out my site to find out which chapters are edited and ready to be sent out.
Site - http http://shi_hanna.tripod.com
*********
Strange Days
Chapter 11
By: Cory D. Rose
ertle2@msn.com
(C)2003
*********
Before Akane had revealed her true feelings to him, Ranma had known that he loved her, in a way. He loved his father because over the years the only thing the man had ever shown him was a kind of abusive love, both verbal and physical. He had endured it for almost 13 years now and he had only recently begun to question his beliefs. Over the years he had unconsciously equated love and caring with pain and abuse.
Some of his memories from his past life had been quite surprising to him and his odd view on love was one of them. Akane had been treating him friendly one minute and hurting him the next, just like pops so he had thought that was how things were supposed to go. Now he had a couple years of home life under his belt and he had begun to realize that he was wrong about so many things.
He understood that the reintroduction of over 40 years of good memories into his mind was a major reason for his change, but he still had a certain way of seeing things that was all him. His thoughts were running along this line as he made his way through the woods on the outskirts of Tokyo. He had decided to head over to where he had fought Ryoga and his Breaking Point that one time.
Along the way he had taken his time and slowly sifted through more of his new memories. He had not wanted to, he was a man and he wanted to stay one, but there was knowledge there that he wanted and to do that he had incorporate them into his mind completely, even if some of that stuff gave him the willies.
Ranma looked over at the base of a large tree and found the final plant he needed for his potion. It was a weed actually and he knelt down to carefully pull it out of the ground and shook the dirt off the small deformed root. It had a good root and was just what he was looking for. He broke it off and placed in the small satchel he was using to carry the rest of his ingredients.
It was at times like this that he considered trying to learn Mouse's Hidden Weapons technique, but shrugged it off for a project he could take care of later. To Ranma's surprise he had found all he needed far easier than he had thought and finished collecting everything he needed almost half a day sooner than expected, he headed back to camp to get things started.
When he had set his camp up he had taken the time to get the fire started so that he had the coals nice and hot by the time he returned, though he had expected to be cooking dinner instead of getting his potion underway. Using a stick, he knocked the wood into a small bed of coals and pulled a large metal pan out of his pack and filled it with water.
He also set up a second larger pan and prepared a light stew for dinner. From there he ground all the roots and flowers into a thick dust and dumped them into the water to boil. Over the next two hours he kept adding water and focusing his Ki into the concoction until it turned into a thick syrup. It gave off a faint glow in the setting sun and proved that he hadn't made any mistakes.
After that he ate supper and spent a couple hours practicing his new technique, 'Ascension of the Dragon God'. Cologne hated the move because it allowed him to reach all new levels of power and she had witnessed several fighters a kill themselves and their families trying to learn just the basics of the technique. On the plus side, it was a move she was afraid of and one she didn't know how to use against him. He now understood why his pop had waited so long to show it to him though.
It was very dangerous and almost impossible for a less skilled fighter to learn. Amy had explained to him why those others were dead and what they had done wrong. Her knowledge of techniques like this one was a pleasant surprise, but she had told him that she specialized in the super strong techniques and used them more than some of the others.
Ranma shook himself out of his thoughts and mentally prepared himself to go through what she had explained to him. Standing beside the fire he ran through the mental kata Amy had taught him to control his Ki and allowed his aura to flare up in a certain way. Intense concentration was needed to control the technique, but he had to do this in stages, mastering each one before moving on to the next.
She had broken it down into twelve stages of control and he was up to the seven and hoped to have reached the 8th by the time he returned to Nerima in the morning. He spent the rest of the afternoon and good portion of the night practicing and using his aura to light up the clearing, the sight of his aura blazing like a giant bon-fire had filled him with pride.
Amy had also told him something that shocked him to the core of his beliefs. It seems it was possible to use large amounts of Ki to generate weapons like out of the movies. Light Sabers or other kinds of energy weapons, and the thing that had caused the most shock was that since they were made of pure energy it was impossible to disarm him or destroy the weapon since it was made of energy it could be used for as long as he had energy to create it.
To bad, after hours of trying, he still hadn't discovered how to make them. Ranma had crawled into his sleeping bag totally exhausted a little after midnight with the intention to sleep in, after all the panda wasn't around to bother him.
Early the next morning, around 6am, Ranma picked up his stuff and cursed to himself about the force of habit the panda had pounded into him. He doused the fire and made sure the place was back to the way it was before he showed up, before heading out. He had spent the night reliving his previous life as well, it had been an education to say the least.
As a girl he now had all the nasty truth of what that involved, the monthly cycle and what it meant, the maintenance, he even remembered what it felt like to...blush...sleep with a man. Sure he had recalled this before, but it had been like watching a movie, the feelings weren't there. This had filled in the blanks, Ranma shuddered and wondered if he had done the right thing, he was 'man' after all.
The trek back to Nerima was slow and he spent his time considering his options. If he did restore everyone's memories of the events all those months ago, it was going to cause more problems than he wanted to deal with, but his honor wouldn't let him just leave it be until the problem was fixed. He sighed and considered plans, who to cure first and if there was anyone that should be left without their memories.
He finally stopped and looked up at the door way to the Tendo dojo, it looked as it always did, but there was a change in the atmosphere that was almost tangible. Shrugging he pushed open the gate and headed in side, calling out that he was home.
Kasumi stepped out of the kitchen. "Good morning Ranma."
"Hi Kasumi, where is everybody?"
"Akane went over to a friend's house, Nibiki is in her room, and your father and mine are out in the dojo working on something."
"Thanks Kasumi, oh, have you seen Ryoga or P-chan lately?"
"No I haven't."
"That's okay, can I have a couple glasses of strong tea, I have to make a deal with Nabiki."
A few minutes later Ranma had a small tray resting on his hand as he knocked on Nabiki's door. It opened and he walked inside and closed the door, Nabiki turned away and sat back down in front her computer giving him a strange look. It was a mixture of irritation and curiosity. "What do you want Ranma-kun?"
"Well I don't know how to put this..."
"Just spit it out, time is money after all." Nabiki smirked.
Ranma shrugged, Nabiki had always been a little rude to him and he was used to it. "When I was recovering from my injuries at Doc. Tofu's clinic I received a serious concussion. This knocked some memories loose that I almost wish hadn't been."
"Oh, and what was knocked loose?"
"A few months ago you and most everyone in the family were subjected to Cologne's memory erasing technique, the same one that Shampoo used on Akane."
"Excuse me?" Nabiki frowned.
"Someone removed your memories of what happened a few months ago, and if they hadn't been it would have solved a number of problems, including my a portion of my fiancé problem."
"And why should I believe you?"
"If you let me free up your memories with a couple pressure points I can return your memory."
"So Cologne did this to us?"
"No, our fathers did."
"What?! You don't expect me to believe that do you?"
"Something happened that he didn't like and this was the easiest way to fix the damage. He did it to me first, while I was asleep more than likely, and then both our fathers hit every one in the house."
"My father wouldn't to anything like this to us, he loves us..."
"I know he does, but he is also willing to do everything in his power to bring the schools together. Then there is my pop always there to derail him from forming a conscious thought and easily distracts him from considering that me and Akane don't get along."
"Ranma your father isn't smart enough to do anything like that."
"This is the same man who came up with the Umisen-Ken and Yamasen-ken techniques?"
"Um...so what, he is a fool and a moron."
"True, but he is also trying to freeload off this house and retire early so that he can get what he thinks he deserves."
"Huh, and just how do you know that?"
Ranma smiled, a not very pleasant one at that. "He talks in his sleep occasionally."
"Alright, I will allow you to restore my memories, but if you are lying to me..."
"I'm not." Ranma sat the tray on the bed and handed Nibiki a cup. "There is a small amount of a potion in there that will strengthen your chi and allow me to free up the blocked areas in your mind much more easily, I will also hit a few pressure points to speed up the process. The potion could take months to work if left on its own and even then it wouldn't free up everything."
Nabiki looked at the tea and at Ranma distrustfully, but reminded herself that this was someone that couldn't lie to save his own skin. She drank the tea down and coughed as it hit her taste buds, she had never tasted anything so sweet before. "What the hell did you use in this stuff, pure sugar?"
"A variant of sugar cane actually, native to Japan only and kind of rare. Stand up and tell me when your skin is tingling, it shouldn't be..."
"It just started, and I feel real funny."
Ranma's hands blurred as he hit multiple points around Nabiki's arms, neck, back, and head. She stands there with a confused look on her face and Ranma wonders if he may have missed a point or two. Nabiki starts to shake her head when nothing happens, but then her eyes widen as several weeks worth of memories rush through her mind.
With a sigh she shuddered and falls to her knees, tears leaking out of her eyes. Ranma knelt down and held her while she cried softly, he knew why, but she had to remember it for herself. Her own father had done this to her, all for the sake of the school.
"Why didn't you tell me about this right away..."
"Would you have really believed me Nabiki?"
Sob! "No, I guess not."
"It'll be alright once I restore Akane and Kasumi, of the two I think Akane is going to be the biggest problem. Kasumi shouldn't be all that upset, she is usually a very forgiving person.
"Do Kasumi first, but I think you are wrong about her, she is very traditional and will stay by daddy till the end if she doesn't know what he did. I don't how she will react, she is always bottling up her emotions and placing the family first."
"The second cup of tea is for her..."
"She should enjoy it a lot more than I would."
"Huh?"
"She has sweet tooth and keeps chocolates in her room for it."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about her little addiction. Amy is always giving her chocolates and candies as an incentive to train her with, works to, I think Kasumi could actually defeat Akane by now."
"What are you talking about Saotome? Kasumi is a total pacifist..."
"Really? Have you ever watched or helped Kasumi with the housework around here? She practices when she is cleaning you know, she is such a back round character that everybody just assumes she is harmless. Amy picked up on it immediately and has been sparing with her a few times a week just to help her improve and get her edge back."
"..."
After a few minutes Ranma figured he had actually managed to catch the 'Ice Queen' off guard and put her in shock. He helped Nibiki to her feet and guided her to the bed and let her lay down, then picked up the tray with the one cup of tea left and headed down stairs. Luckily he had prepared for this little play for several days now and was ready for anything that might have cropped up while doing this or he would have missed the attack.
There was white blur from off to the side and he unconsciously hopped off the last few stairs and flipped over his fathers attack without spilling one drop of tea, he pivoted and sat it on the table in front of Kasumi with a smirk. Spinning around he took in the old man and saw that he was holding a shampoo bottle with the number 110 on it.
"Your not getting me again old man."
"You will fulfill the promise between the schools, I will not to tolerate your womanizing any longer boy."
"Ranma, can I have your tea?" Kasumi called out innocently, her acute senses picking up the smell of sugar at 200 yards or less.
"Go ahead Kasumi. I have to deal with this." Ranma called out calmly.
"Take this!" Genma yelled out as he blurred from sight.
Ranma's aura burst forth and caught his father by surprise with its sheer size and power, he flowed into his new technique and overwhelmed his father's pathetic defense to blasted him out into the pond with a large Ki blast that ripped the patio doors off and sent the old man into a large belly flop into the koi pond, a charred panda floated to the surface.
Then Ranma stood straight and glared at the panda his father had become, turning around Ranma looked at the glazed eyes of Kasumi and noticed that the cup was empty, there was a little smile just curving the corners of her mouth. Faster than Kasumi could blink, Ranma hit all the points and allowed the poor girl to have her memories back.
She blinked several times and glanced up at Ranma, tears running down her cheeks. "I don't understand."
"A few months ago Akane revealed to everyone that she had always known about Ryoga being P-Chan and chose him for her boyfriend over me. Our fathers want the schools united above all else so they used Cologne's Memory technique on all of us to make things the way they wanted them to be."
"I see." Kasumi said quietly. "Ryoga is P-Chan?"
Ranma face faulted, he shook his head, she couldn't be that dense could she? "Will you help me cure Akane?"
"How?" Kasumi asked, her voice a little hollow.
"There was a potion in that tea that allows the pressure points I hit to work a little easier because it enhances the flow of Chi through out the body. If you can get her to drink the tea, I can hit the points and free up her memories once it takes effect.
Since she also chose Ryoga as her boyfriend I have to respect her choice and help bring them together, and I can't just let her go on with her ignorant of what was done to her, knowing that she was used like this just for the sake of the school."
"Did you ever care for her Ranma?"
"Yes I did, but she used her mallet on me to many times for me to consider her as a fiancé's anymore, she hurt me to much for me to completely forgive her. She does not trust me and will hit me for even imagined slights now a days, just look how many times I have been sent to Tofu's clinic by her danmed hammer. Things have calmed down of late because of Amy, I think, she seems to be able to keep Akane's temper at bay somehow..."
"I'm sorry Ranma."
"For what?"
"For things not working out, I had hopped they would."
"Don't worry about it, it was over months ago when me and Akane agreed to be just friends, even after those two baka's tampered with your memories."
Soun staggered into the room and went into his demon head attack, smoke blowing out his nose. "SON HOW COULD YOU DO SUCH A THING TO YOUR OWN FATHER! WE THOUGHT YOU WERE BEING SECRETIVE! THE SCHOOLS WILL NEVER BE UNITED NOW! YOU WILL MARRY AKANE THIS INSTANT..."
"Leave him along father, haven't you done enough damage as it is!" Kasumi snapped at him.
"Yeah daddy, how could you even think of erasing our memories like that, do we mean that little to you?!" Nabiki yelled from the stairs.
"Huh?" Soun said in shock. "Whaaaa! My baby girls yelled at me!!" He collapsed to the floor, tears flowing out in a river.
Ranma rolled his eyes and shook his head, how any man could allow himself to fall so far was beyond him. Even as a girl, he seemed to be more of a man than his so called father in law. Kasumi smiled tiredly and went back into the kitchen to get to work on dinner.
He was little curious about Kasumi's reaction to what her father had done, but she seemed to just accept it, as always. Sigh. Ranma shrugged and followed her, when he entered the kitchen she asked him for the recipe for his potion. He figured that she could put it to better uses than he could. He also decided to start showing her some stuff too, after all Akane was avoiding him and Amy and this was a side of Kasumi that he liked.
As he was coming out of the kitchen Amy entered the house and he noticed that her clothing was ripped, her hair was a mess, she was covered in cuts and bruises, and had a giant grin on her face. She slipped her shoes off, they were charred and smoking a little. Amy waved at him tiredly when she noticed him, but continued on to the furo. Ranma almost followed her out of worry, but realized just before he went in that it would be a bad idea. He went and told Kasumi and took over dinner while she helped Amy to bandage her cuts.
A few minutes later Amy came out in a t-shirt and a pair of Ranma's pants, she went into the kitchen to help. "I borrowed your pants Ranma, mine are all in the wash or destroyed."
"That's okay, so what happened to you?"
"I got into a fight with some lady that called herself Black Razor, her shadow army, and the Outer Sailor Scouts. I haven't had that much fun in ages. Fighting all three of them at once was an unexpected surprise. I had hoped the Outers would help me fight this Black Razor though. Instead they decided that we both needed to be destroyed and started lobbing attacks at both of us."
"Oh My! Are you going to be alright Amy? That sounds like it was a very bad fight." Kasumi said as she tasted her fried rice.
"I should be fine with a little rest, the Outers are a lot stronger than the Inner Scouts."
"Who won?" Ranma asked, a little depressed that he had missed it.
"I'm not to sure, something odd happened to Black Razor during the fight and she was taken out. What replaced her was worse than that Taro guy you were telling me about and twice as ugly, this thing blasted the Outers and I unleashed one of my more powerful attacks on it, unfortunately it was able to survive with minimal damage.
Me and the Outers eventually took a few minutes to hit it with our attacks to destroy it, then went back to trying to kill each other. Though we did manage to cause massive amounts of damage to the whole area, the crater was quite impressive too."
"What about the Outers, why did they attack you?"
"I tried to help them out and they attacked me, even after I tried to explain myself my actions to them. They never listen to anyone and jump to the worst possible conclusions about all everyone they come in contact with that might be a possible ally.
Most of this damage is from being caught in the explosive blast by one or both of them and the monster. Man this is to much, I don't know why this is happening to me either, I usually have better luck."
"That's horrible!" Kasumi said.
"Tell me about it Kasumi, I don't know what I did to make all the Sailor Scouts hate me this much but it is getting on my nerves. By the way Kasumi-chan, have you learned those new moves I taught you last week?"
Kasumi blushed and nodded slightly.
Amy grinned, "Excellent, we will be continuing the lessons soon, after Ranma cures Akane and Ryoga of what was done to them."
"You know about that?"
"I gave him some advice on what he needed to."
"Oh." Kasumi said and smiled at Amy.
Amy stretched and stood up, failing to notice the slight blush on Ranma's face. "I'm going to catch a few hours sleep, save me something for supper would you, and I'll eat it when I get up."
"Of course Amy."
"Thanks Kasumi."
A little while later Akane came home and saw Ranma at the table talking with her sister and her good mood went out the door. She scowled, growled, and pulled out her mallet. This was going to be one of those days, Ranma thought just before Akane's scream of "PERVERT!" rang through out the house. He knew in that instant that it was just the beginning of the pain to come...
"Akane, calm down, Ranma needs to talk to you about something very important." Kasumi said, a frown forming on her face as she looked at Akane and in the back round her cringing father.
"Sheesh, yeah right Kasumi..." Akane growled.
"Would you like some sweet tea, I just got it today..." Several minutes later Akane's scream of rage is heard, the sound of breaking wood, and Ranma flying off into the sunset. Then an older man with long hair is also sent flying, this is then followed by an unconscious and smoking panda.
"Oh My!!"
"Snarl!" Akane snarls and stomps upstairs to wait for Ryoga to find his way back to her.
Ranma on the other hand is just regaining his senses when he spies his landing spot, a very familiar window. He groans and wonders for the millionth time what he did to piss off all the Kami, just as he slams into Ukyo's bathroom window, into her furo, and between a pair of shapely legs.
He is out cold so is spared the fact that he has his head buried right between Ukyo's legs or the return flight back to the Tendo pond. Ukyo's blush is so bright that she lights up the dimly lit bathroom and wonders if she may have reacted a little harshly, after all he was her fiancé.
"Do you think he may have finally forgiven me?" Ukyo wondered, blushing even more red.
On the other hand, Ranma slams into the koi pond with a giant splash and floats to the surface. Amy and Kasumi rush outside to pull him out before he drowns, they lay him out on the porch to let the water leak out naturally. Amy grinned at the worried Kasumi and motioned to the battered Ranma. "I glad things are looking up, Ranma was getting over due for a little chaos."
"Chaos?"
"Sure, it's been a little to quiet around her lately."
The next morning Genma and Soun are at breakfast, but they are covered in bandages and sitting as far from Akane as they can. She had burst into a black and red aura of rage the instant she saw them and nearly pummeled them again. She continued to glow all through breakfast and went out to the dojo when she was done, the sounds of 'practicing' filled the house.
Only Kasumi noticed that Ranma and Ami hadn't come down for breakfast, but she decided not to say anything with the mood Akane was in. For once she felt like breaking something too.
*********
To Be Continued...
Due to the size of this there is a good chance that I will probably miss a mistake here and there. Let me know if any major one's are found. Check out my site to find out which chapters are edited and ready to be sent out.
Site - http http://shi_hanna.tripod.com
*********
Strange Days
Chapter 11
By: Cory D. Rose
ertle2@msn.com
(C)2003
*********
Before Akane had revealed her true feelings to him, Ranma had known that he loved her, in a way. He loved his father because over the years the only thing the man had ever shown him was a kind of abusive love, both verbal and physical. He had endured it for almost 13 years now and he had only recently begun to question his beliefs. Over the years he had unconsciously equated love and caring with pain and abuse.
Some of his memories from his past life had been quite surprising to him and his odd view on love was one of them. Akane had been treating him friendly one minute and hurting him the next, just like pops so he had thought that was how things were supposed to go. Now he had a couple years of home life under his belt and he had begun to realize that he was wrong about so many things.
He understood that the reintroduction of over 40 years of good memories into his mind was a major reason for his change, but he still had a certain way of seeing things that was all him. His thoughts were running along this line as he made his way through the woods on the outskirts of Tokyo. He had decided to head over to where he had fought Ryoga and his Breaking Point that one time.
Along the way he had taken his time and slowly sifted through more of his new memories. He had not wanted to, he was a man and he wanted to stay one, but there was knowledge there that he wanted and to do that he had incorporate them into his mind completely, even if some of that stuff gave him the willies.
Ranma looked over at the base of a large tree and found the final plant he needed for his potion. It was a weed actually and he knelt down to carefully pull it out of the ground and shook the dirt off the small deformed root. It had a good root and was just what he was looking for. He broke it off and placed in the small satchel he was using to carry the rest of his ingredients.
It was at times like this that he considered trying to learn Mouse's Hidden Weapons technique, but shrugged it off for a project he could take care of later. To Ranma's surprise he had found all he needed far easier than he had thought and finished collecting everything he needed almost half a day sooner than expected, he headed back to camp to get things started.
When he had set his camp up he had taken the time to get the fire started so that he had the coals nice and hot by the time he returned, though he had expected to be cooking dinner instead of getting his potion underway. Using a stick, he knocked the wood into a small bed of coals and pulled a large metal pan out of his pack and filled it with water.
He also set up a second larger pan and prepared a light stew for dinner. From there he ground all the roots and flowers into a thick dust and dumped them into the water to boil. Over the next two hours he kept adding water and focusing his Ki into the concoction until it turned into a thick syrup. It gave off a faint glow in the setting sun and proved that he hadn't made any mistakes.
After that he ate supper and spent a couple hours practicing his new technique, 'Ascension of the Dragon God'. Cologne hated the move because it allowed him to reach all new levels of power and she had witnessed several fighters a kill themselves and their families trying to learn just the basics of the technique. On the plus side, it was a move she was afraid of and one she didn't know how to use against him. He now understood why his pop had waited so long to show it to him though.
It was very dangerous and almost impossible for a less skilled fighter to learn. Amy had explained to him why those others were dead and what they had done wrong. Her knowledge of techniques like this one was a pleasant surprise, but she had told him that she specialized in the super strong techniques and used them more than some of the others.
Ranma shook himself out of his thoughts and mentally prepared himself to go through what she had explained to him. Standing beside the fire he ran through the mental kata Amy had taught him to control his Ki and allowed his aura to flare up in a certain way. Intense concentration was needed to control the technique, but he had to do this in stages, mastering each one before moving on to the next.
She had broken it down into twelve stages of control and he was up to the seven and hoped to have reached the 8th by the time he returned to Nerima in the morning. He spent the rest of the afternoon and good portion of the night practicing and using his aura to light up the clearing, the sight of his aura blazing like a giant bon-fire had filled him with pride.
Amy had also told him something that shocked him to the core of his beliefs. It seems it was possible to use large amounts of Ki to generate weapons like out of the movies. Light Sabers or other kinds of energy weapons, and the thing that had caused the most shock was that since they were made of pure energy it was impossible to disarm him or destroy the weapon since it was made of energy it could be used for as long as he had energy to create it.
To bad, after hours of trying, he still hadn't discovered how to make them. Ranma had crawled into his sleeping bag totally exhausted a little after midnight with the intention to sleep in, after all the panda wasn't around to bother him.
Early the next morning, around 6am, Ranma picked up his stuff and cursed to himself about the force of habit the panda had pounded into him. He doused the fire and made sure the place was back to the way it was before he showed up, before heading out. He had spent the night reliving his previous life as well, it had been an education to say the least.
As a girl he now had all the nasty truth of what that involved, the monthly cycle and what it meant, the maintenance, he even remembered what it felt like to...blush...sleep with a man. Sure he had recalled this before, but it had been like watching a movie, the feelings weren't there. This had filled in the blanks, Ranma shuddered and wondered if he had done the right thing, he was 'man' after all.
The trek back to Nerima was slow and he spent his time considering his options. If he did restore everyone's memories of the events all those months ago, it was going to cause more problems than he wanted to deal with, but his honor wouldn't let him just leave it be until the problem was fixed. He sighed and considered plans, who to cure first and if there was anyone that should be left without their memories.
He finally stopped and looked up at the door way to the Tendo dojo, it looked as it always did, but there was a change in the atmosphere that was almost tangible. Shrugging he pushed open the gate and headed in side, calling out that he was home.
Kasumi stepped out of the kitchen. "Good morning Ranma."
"Hi Kasumi, where is everybody?"
"Akane went over to a friend's house, Nibiki is in her room, and your father and mine are out in the dojo working on something."
"Thanks Kasumi, oh, have you seen Ryoga or P-chan lately?"
"No I haven't."
"That's okay, can I have a couple glasses of strong tea, I have to make a deal with Nabiki."
A few minutes later Ranma had a small tray resting on his hand as he knocked on Nabiki's door. It opened and he walked inside and closed the door, Nabiki turned away and sat back down in front her computer giving him a strange look. It was a mixture of irritation and curiosity. "What do you want Ranma-kun?"
"Well I don't know how to put this..."
"Just spit it out, time is money after all." Nabiki smirked.
Ranma shrugged, Nabiki had always been a little rude to him and he was used to it. "When I was recovering from my injuries at Doc. Tofu's clinic I received a serious concussion. This knocked some memories loose that I almost wish hadn't been."
"Oh, and what was knocked loose?"
"A few months ago you and most everyone in the family were subjected to Cologne's memory erasing technique, the same one that Shampoo used on Akane."
"Excuse me?" Nabiki frowned.
"Someone removed your memories of what happened a few months ago, and if they hadn't been it would have solved a number of problems, including my a portion of my fiancé problem."
"And why should I believe you?"
"If you let me free up your memories with a couple pressure points I can return your memory."
"So Cologne did this to us?"
"No, our fathers did."
"What?! You don't expect me to believe that do you?"
"Something happened that he didn't like and this was the easiest way to fix the damage. He did it to me first, while I was asleep more than likely, and then both our fathers hit every one in the house."
"My father wouldn't to anything like this to us, he loves us..."
"I know he does, but he is also willing to do everything in his power to bring the schools together. Then there is my pop always there to derail him from forming a conscious thought and easily distracts him from considering that me and Akane don't get along."
"Ranma your father isn't smart enough to do anything like that."
"This is the same man who came up with the Umisen-Ken and Yamasen-ken techniques?"
"Um...so what, he is a fool and a moron."
"True, but he is also trying to freeload off this house and retire early so that he can get what he thinks he deserves."
"Huh, and just how do you know that?"
Ranma smiled, a not very pleasant one at that. "He talks in his sleep occasionally."
"Alright, I will allow you to restore my memories, but if you are lying to me..."
"I'm not." Ranma sat the tray on the bed and handed Nibiki a cup. "There is a small amount of a potion in there that will strengthen your chi and allow me to free up the blocked areas in your mind much more easily, I will also hit a few pressure points to speed up the process. The potion could take months to work if left on its own and even then it wouldn't free up everything."
Nabiki looked at the tea and at Ranma distrustfully, but reminded herself that this was someone that couldn't lie to save his own skin. She drank the tea down and coughed as it hit her taste buds, she had never tasted anything so sweet before. "What the hell did you use in this stuff, pure sugar?"
"A variant of sugar cane actually, native to Japan only and kind of rare. Stand up and tell me when your skin is tingling, it shouldn't be..."
"It just started, and I feel real funny."
Ranma's hands blurred as he hit multiple points around Nabiki's arms, neck, back, and head. She stands there with a confused look on her face and Ranma wonders if he may have missed a point or two. Nabiki starts to shake her head when nothing happens, but then her eyes widen as several weeks worth of memories rush through her mind.
With a sigh she shuddered and falls to her knees, tears leaking out of her eyes. Ranma knelt down and held her while she cried softly, he knew why, but she had to remember it for herself. Her own father had done this to her, all for the sake of the school.
"Why didn't you tell me about this right away..."
"Would you have really believed me Nabiki?"
Sob! "No, I guess not."
"It'll be alright once I restore Akane and Kasumi, of the two I think Akane is going to be the biggest problem. Kasumi shouldn't be all that upset, she is usually a very forgiving person.
"Do Kasumi first, but I think you are wrong about her, she is very traditional and will stay by daddy till the end if she doesn't know what he did. I don't how she will react, she is always bottling up her emotions and placing the family first."
"The second cup of tea is for her..."
"She should enjoy it a lot more than I would."
"Huh?"
"She has sweet tooth and keeps chocolates in her room for it."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about her little addiction. Amy is always giving her chocolates and candies as an incentive to train her with, works to, I think Kasumi could actually defeat Akane by now."
"What are you talking about Saotome? Kasumi is a total pacifist..."
"Really? Have you ever watched or helped Kasumi with the housework around here? She practices when she is cleaning you know, she is such a back round character that everybody just assumes she is harmless. Amy picked up on it immediately and has been sparing with her a few times a week just to help her improve and get her edge back."
"..."
After a few minutes Ranma figured he had actually managed to catch the 'Ice Queen' off guard and put her in shock. He helped Nibiki to her feet and guided her to the bed and let her lay down, then picked up the tray with the one cup of tea left and headed down stairs. Luckily he had prepared for this little play for several days now and was ready for anything that might have cropped up while doing this or he would have missed the attack.
There was white blur from off to the side and he unconsciously hopped off the last few stairs and flipped over his fathers attack without spilling one drop of tea, he pivoted and sat it on the table in front of Kasumi with a smirk. Spinning around he took in the old man and saw that he was holding a shampoo bottle with the number 110 on it.
"Your not getting me again old man."
"You will fulfill the promise between the schools, I will not to tolerate your womanizing any longer boy."
"Ranma, can I have your tea?" Kasumi called out innocently, her acute senses picking up the smell of sugar at 200 yards or less.
"Go ahead Kasumi. I have to deal with this." Ranma called out calmly.
"Take this!" Genma yelled out as he blurred from sight.
Ranma's aura burst forth and caught his father by surprise with its sheer size and power, he flowed into his new technique and overwhelmed his father's pathetic defense to blasted him out into the pond with a large Ki blast that ripped the patio doors off and sent the old man into a large belly flop into the koi pond, a charred panda floated to the surface.
Then Ranma stood straight and glared at the panda his father had become, turning around Ranma looked at the glazed eyes of Kasumi and noticed that the cup was empty, there was a little smile just curving the corners of her mouth. Faster than Kasumi could blink, Ranma hit all the points and allowed the poor girl to have her memories back.
She blinked several times and glanced up at Ranma, tears running down her cheeks. "I don't understand."
"A few months ago Akane revealed to everyone that she had always known about Ryoga being P-Chan and chose him for her boyfriend over me. Our fathers want the schools united above all else so they used Cologne's Memory technique on all of us to make things the way they wanted them to be."
"I see." Kasumi said quietly. "Ryoga is P-Chan?"
Ranma face faulted, he shook his head, she couldn't be that dense could she? "Will you help me cure Akane?"
"How?" Kasumi asked, her voice a little hollow.
"There was a potion in that tea that allows the pressure points I hit to work a little easier because it enhances the flow of Chi through out the body. If you can get her to drink the tea, I can hit the points and free up her memories once it takes effect.
Since she also chose Ryoga as her boyfriend I have to respect her choice and help bring them together, and I can't just let her go on with her ignorant of what was done to her, knowing that she was used like this just for the sake of the school."
"Did you ever care for her Ranma?"
"Yes I did, but she used her mallet on me to many times for me to consider her as a fiancé's anymore, she hurt me to much for me to completely forgive her. She does not trust me and will hit me for even imagined slights now a days, just look how many times I have been sent to Tofu's clinic by her danmed hammer. Things have calmed down of late because of Amy, I think, she seems to be able to keep Akane's temper at bay somehow..."
"I'm sorry Ranma."
"For what?"
"For things not working out, I had hopped they would."
"Don't worry about it, it was over months ago when me and Akane agreed to be just friends, even after those two baka's tampered with your memories."
Soun staggered into the room and went into his demon head attack, smoke blowing out his nose. "SON HOW COULD YOU DO SUCH A THING TO YOUR OWN FATHER! WE THOUGHT YOU WERE BEING SECRETIVE! THE SCHOOLS WILL NEVER BE UNITED NOW! YOU WILL MARRY AKANE THIS INSTANT..."
"Leave him along father, haven't you done enough damage as it is!" Kasumi snapped at him.
"Yeah daddy, how could you even think of erasing our memories like that, do we mean that little to you?!" Nabiki yelled from the stairs.
"Huh?" Soun said in shock. "Whaaaa! My baby girls yelled at me!!" He collapsed to the floor, tears flowing out in a river.
Ranma rolled his eyes and shook his head, how any man could allow himself to fall so far was beyond him. Even as a girl, he seemed to be more of a man than his so called father in law. Kasumi smiled tiredly and went back into the kitchen to get to work on dinner.
He was little curious about Kasumi's reaction to what her father had done, but she seemed to just accept it, as always. Sigh. Ranma shrugged and followed her, when he entered the kitchen she asked him for the recipe for his potion. He figured that she could put it to better uses than he could. He also decided to start showing her some stuff too, after all Akane was avoiding him and Amy and this was a side of Kasumi that he liked.
As he was coming out of the kitchen Amy entered the house and he noticed that her clothing was ripped, her hair was a mess, she was covered in cuts and bruises, and had a giant grin on her face. She slipped her shoes off, they were charred and smoking a little. Amy waved at him tiredly when she noticed him, but continued on to the furo. Ranma almost followed her out of worry, but realized just before he went in that it would be a bad idea. He went and told Kasumi and took over dinner while she helped Amy to bandage her cuts.
A few minutes later Amy came out in a t-shirt and a pair of Ranma's pants, she went into the kitchen to help. "I borrowed your pants Ranma, mine are all in the wash or destroyed."
"That's okay, so what happened to you?"
"I got into a fight with some lady that called herself Black Razor, her shadow army, and the Outer Sailor Scouts. I haven't had that much fun in ages. Fighting all three of them at once was an unexpected surprise. I had hoped the Outers would help me fight this Black Razor though. Instead they decided that we both needed to be destroyed and started lobbing attacks at both of us."
"Oh My! Are you going to be alright Amy? That sounds like it was a very bad fight." Kasumi said as she tasted her fried rice.
"I should be fine with a little rest, the Outers are a lot stronger than the Inner Scouts."
"Who won?" Ranma asked, a little depressed that he had missed it.
"I'm not to sure, something odd happened to Black Razor during the fight and she was taken out. What replaced her was worse than that Taro guy you were telling me about and twice as ugly, this thing blasted the Outers and I unleashed one of my more powerful attacks on it, unfortunately it was able to survive with minimal damage.
Me and the Outers eventually took a few minutes to hit it with our attacks to destroy it, then went back to trying to kill each other. Though we did manage to cause massive amounts of damage to the whole area, the crater was quite impressive too."
"What about the Outers, why did they attack you?"
"I tried to help them out and they attacked me, even after I tried to explain myself my actions to them. They never listen to anyone and jump to the worst possible conclusions about all everyone they come in contact with that might be a possible ally.
Most of this damage is from being caught in the explosive blast by one or both of them and the monster. Man this is to much, I don't know why this is happening to me either, I usually have better luck."
"That's horrible!" Kasumi said.
"Tell me about it Kasumi, I don't know what I did to make all the Sailor Scouts hate me this much but it is getting on my nerves. By the way Kasumi-chan, have you learned those new moves I taught you last week?"
Kasumi blushed and nodded slightly.
Amy grinned, "Excellent, we will be continuing the lessons soon, after Ranma cures Akane and Ryoga of what was done to them."
"You know about that?"
"I gave him some advice on what he needed to."
"Oh." Kasumi said and smiled at Amy.
Amy stretched and stood up, failing to notice the slight blush on Ranma's face. "I'm going to catch a few hours sleep, save me something for supper would you, and I'll eat it when I get up."
"Of course Amy."
"Thanks Kasumi."
A little while later Akane came home and saw Ranma at the table talking with her sister and her good mood went out the door. She scowled, growled, and pulled out her mallet. This was going to be one of those days, Ranma thought just before Akane's scream of "PERVERT!" rang through out the house. He knew in that instant that it was just the beginning of the pain to come...
"Akane, calm down, Ranma needs to talk to you about something very important." Kasumi said, a frown forming on her face as she looked at Akane and in the back round her cringing father.
"Sheesh, yeah right Kasumi..." Akane growled.
"Would you like some sweet tea, I just got it today..." Several minutes later Akane's scream of rage is heard, the sound of breaking wood, and Ranma flying off into the sunset. Then an older man with long hair is also sent flying, this is then followed by an unconscious and smoking panda.
"Oh My!!"
"Snarl!" Akane snarls and stomps upstairs to wait for Ryoga to find his way back to her.
Ranma on the other hand is just regaining his senses when he spies his landing spot, a very familiar window. He groans and wonders for the millionth time what he did to piss off all the Kami, just as he slams into Ukyo's bathroom window, into her furo, and between a pair of shapely legs.
He is out cold so is spared the fact that he has his head buried right between Ukyo's legs or the return flight back to the Tendo pond. Ukyo's blush is so bright that she lights up the dimly lit bathroom and wonders if she may have reacted a little harshly, after all he was her fiancé.
"Do you think he may have finally forgiven me?" Ukyo wondered, blushing even more red.
On the other hand, Ranma slams into the koi pond with a giant splash and floats to the surface. Amy and Kasumi rush outside to pull him out before he drowns, they lay him out on the porch to let the water leak out naturally. Amy grinned at the worried Kasumi and motioned to the battered Ranma. "I glad things are looking up, Ranma was getting over due for a little chaos."
"Chaos?"
"Sure, it's been a little to quiet around her lately."
The next morning Genma and Soun are at breakfast, but they are covered in bandages and sitting as far from Akane as they can. She had burst into a black and red aura of rage the instant she saw them and nearly pummeled them again. She continued to glow all through breakfast and went out to the dojo when she was done, the sounds of 'practicing' filled the house.
Only Kasumi noticed that Ranma and Ami hadn't come down for breakfast, but she decided not to say anything with the mood Akane was in. For once she felt like breaking something too.
*********
To Be Continued...