Worth: Chapter 2
By MusicIsMyLifeblood
Thank you all those that reviewed. These include Goku Gohan, CrazyInsaneAnimeFanGirl and cherryblossom 9
OK here's chapter 2. I'm slowly getting there just hold on and try to enjoy, if only for my sake!!
Disclaimer: Ok, look, there are well over 5800 stories essentially saying the same thing as far as the Disclaimer is concerned anyway. So read the others and you'll see that Ranma ½ does not belong to me and I really wouldn't want them either…other then for the money that they might rake in for me…hmm interesting thought.
The sun was shining through the clouds, after the night of rain, but the dark clouds still promised more to come. In a small apartment sit a boy and a girl at a tiny table.
The open windows allowed the fresh air to pass through in to the single bedroom apartment.
Ranma and Ukyo had talked into the wee hours of the morning discussing the events of that occurred in the time that Ranma disappeared. Until of course Ukyo said:
"It's good to see you again Ranchan, I mean for those twelve weeks you were gone Nerima was very…well for lack of a better word…boring. Now life can be as chaotic as it was before." She said this smiling at the upcoming adventures that she was sure would renew with Ranma and Akane's reappearance.
Ranma was acutely aware of one specific part of what Ukyo had just said '…twelve weeks you were gone…' He was certain that he had been gone at least a year, give or take a few weeks. He mentally shrugged and made a note as to investigate the time difference. Now wasn't the time to worry about such menial subjects.
"Yeah, I know what you mean Ucchan" he smiled at the thought. "But we have to make it right first, you know, bring life back to the warped semblance of reality that it was before" he said in a semi-serious tone.
She nodded, understanding what he meant. They would have to rescue Akane first.
"When are you going to go get her back?" she inquired trying to sound mildly interested and at the same time trying to hide the slight twinge that her heart gave when she thought about how she had lost Ranma to Akane, she was so sure that she had forgotten him, at least forgotten her total adoration for, but she guessed that some things never changed.
" Well, do you have a preference? We could go and get Ak-…her back right now and the leave for Nerima. I'm sure that the Tendos will be happy to see her again".
That he hesitated mention of Akane's name was confusing her to no end.
'Why would he do that? I mean it's only Akane.
She was still debating as to whether she should ask him or not when he got up.
"I guess we should get right to it, Ucchan, the sooner we do it, the sooner it gets done but let me first get ready".
Ukyo blinked at the strange words and then just shrugged.
'Maybe he had changed' she thought.
Moments later Ranma exited the bathroom wearing an unbuttoned, black, Chinese style shirt. The shirt was totally unremarkable and yet there seemed to be a purpose to its existence. Underneath the shirt he wore a white undershirt. Ranma moved to the door and slipped on his shoes before returning to the table and standing in the doorway.
"OK, I'm ready…erm…Ucchan this may seem like the strangest question ever put to you" he stated with some apprehension, "but would you like to watch?"
Ukyo was totally confused by this question.
'Watch? Watch what? Where was he going? And why was she suddenly not going with him?' she wondered.
She voiced her bewilderment, "What do you mean by 'watch', Ranchan, where are you going? And why am I not going with you?"
"Well because you can't " he certified.
"I have legs Ranchan", she said, as if speaking to a child and then waved her legs around to add some emphasis, "so of course I'm going with you, I'm gonna help you get Akane, remember?
"No Ucchan, you are not going and that's final, well not without my permission anyway". Ranma returned authoritatively.
"Humph! Who's gonna stop me? I can do what I want. And no big, bad Ranma is gonna stop me" she stated impudently.
"Do you want to go back to sleep then Ucchan?"
"What's that supposed to mean-" realization dawned on her "that was YOU???"
"Yep" Ranma said, his self-satisfaction was obvious.
"How? No wait, you're trying to distract me from going with you, well it won't…Yawn …it won't work…bigger yawn…" she attempted to protest but she was so sleepy all of a sudden as if a giant warm blanket had covered her and she had drunk at least a litre of warm milk.
"You are not going Ucchan, but you can watch if you want" Ranma offered her the pseudo-ultimatum while searching for his ear-phones, the voices were coming back it seemed.
Ukyo finally conceded and accepted the offer to 'watch' him, although how the hell he expected her to do that without her being there was completely beyond her.
Ranma finally stopped searching the drawers and lifted out the two small ear-phones, both fitting into his palm.
"Alright, thank you, now don't panic this may feel a bit weird but you'll be fine" while saying this Ranma reached for her hand and held it in his free hand, his other hand already placing one of the tiny electric devices into his left ear.
Ukyo suddenly felt her body lurch towards Ranma and suddenly saw her own body lying in front of her on the bed, she would have screamed in terror, had she not recalled exactly what Ranma said. So she took deep breaths eventually quelling the terror.
"Excellent, Ukyo!" She suddenly heard behind her and she spun around, there she could see Ranma, wearing a black formal jacket, black finely pressed trousers, a gold and very dark blue tie patterned with small golden lions holding miniscule quills and books, and black shoes.
"Very well indeed, are you sure this is your first time 'hosting', you did remarkably well, didn't she boys?" the unnecessarily well-dressed Ranma said. Upon his question appeared another Ranma, this time dressed in a lone pair of jogging bottoms, lifting two huge dumb-bells in a continuous rhythm, wearing a towel over his shoulders.
"Yeah, nicely done Ukyo!" he beamed at her.
As Ukyo looked at the newest Ranma she noticed his bulging muscles, seemingly, barely contained within his skin, she felt sure her brain should have been short-circuiting, two Ranmas! What the f-.
Her vociferous thought-curse was interrupted by…yep you guessed it folks, yet another Ranma.
As she examined the third clone, she noticed that he was by far the largest physically, and his clothes matched his size. He was comfortably between eight and nine feet tall and at least three feet across, with a wing span (A/N: whatever, you know what I mean hopefully) comfortably measuring about six feet.
Upon his overly excessive body he was wearing the normal-Ranma style black-pants but this time he was wearing a white T-shirt with a HUGE, pink cartoon heart.
"'Remarkably'", what a jackass. Hey M stop making her feel so uncomfortable! Although, you do have incredible control over yourself Ucchan. I don't think even Ranma managed to keep calm during his first 'hosting' session with the master.
"Making her feel uncomfortable, I'm doing no such thing!", the well dressed Ranma, known as M, cried indignantly, then his angry and embarrassed face took on a rather cunning shape, and he seemed to smirk when he said "I think H that your making her feel more then just uncomfortable, I think that she is about faint from all the shock, I mean just look at her expression, she's terrified of you, you oaf."
"Really Ucchan, is that true?" he said in a rather depressed manner "do I scare you? I never meant to I swear, I wont do it again, really" he seemed to be pleading for her forgiveness and all the time shrinking in size to the point where he was now shorter then Ukyo.
The girl being asked for absolution, suddenly got her composure and ran towards the once large figure and placed her hand on his shoulder.
"No, no its not that at all, really, its just…erm…its just the 'hosting' shocked me a bit so I'm a bit out of sorts, that's all." She lied to the deflated giant.
"R…really?" he asked in the same pleading voice. His blue eyes full of unshed tears. Ukyo almost felt her heart break at the sight of Ranma, in such torment.
At her nod the giant among giants returned to his true size and he was hugging her to him dancing in joy, singing happily "She's not scared of me, She's not scared of me, She's not scared of me" he turned to M still holding the rather dizzy, but happy Ukyo, and stuck out his tongue saying "See Mr. He-thinks-he-knows-everything-about-everything she's not scared of me, you were wrong, Nyah!"
"Put her down now H I don't think that she needs to be spun anymore, don't you think?" the muscular Ranma asked gently.
"Ok B-san" he bent down and placed Ukyo on the floor. "Oh, I know I'll get some snacks for Ucchan OK? Any favourites Ucchan?" when Ukyo shook her head, the giant called H, ran off into the distance looking for her snacks.
Behind her Ukyo the boy known as B said in an amused voice "Lovable Oaf, far too affected by what people think of him, good thing he's built up a resistance to you isn't it M?"
Ukyo turned around to find M with a smile on his face and standing next to him stood B now pumping iron using a pair of weights, which each read '500kg'.
Ukyo's eyebrows rose at the sight and then B turned to her.
"Sorry about that Ukyo, Heart is really emotional and Mind tries to spark him off as often as he can, normally he doesn't manage it, but Heart was really excited today, what with you coming to meet us and all.
"No problem, so if he-" she indicated using her thumb pointing behind her towards the now absent figure, "is Heart and he is Mind" she said pointing to the boy with the Uniform "then who are you? Braun?" she inquired amused at her dreams, for surely this was a dream. This situation was far too strange to be reality.
Mind chuckled softly, and the burly figure chuckled good-naturedly.
"No, close but no biscuit I'm afraid, I am Body" he explained dropping the weights, Ukyo noticed unconsciously that they didn't make a sound as they hit the floor.
Body stepped over the weights and extended his right hand in greeting "Welcome to Ranma, population four, well, including you anyway.
Ukyo speechlessly extended her own hand to shake Ran- er Body's.
As they lightly shook hands, Body smirked lightly. "Would you like a seat Ukyo?" he asked indicating towards the seat that materialised behind her. She slumped down on it, trying to understand her dream, and its amazingly corporeal feel; Ra-Body's hand had definitely felt real, warm, soft, and callused on the very edge of the palm.
"This is probably a silly question Ukyo, but do you have anything you would like to ask us about for example, our presence, how we came to be? Where are you? Who we are? You can pick any of these or if you have any of your own. You need only ask"
They were all sat at a totally indiscriminate square table, Body sitting to her right, and Mind sitting opposite her, she assumed the reason why there were only three seats was because, due to Heart's sheer size he would be unable to sit there. It was at that moment that Heart let his presence be known.
"Drinks, everyone! Turkish mint tea for Ucchan, water for Body, and Pure Alcohol for Mind!" he announced happily, with a cheeky grin attached to his large face.
"It had better not be this time Heart or you will be in a lot of trouble, won't he Body?" He said suppressing rather successfully a wide grin from alighting his face. He turned to Body at the question.
"He's right Heart, no more tricks, at least not while Ukyo is here anyway." Body stated in a mock serious voice winking at Ukyo, letting her know that it was really all a show, to make Heart behave himself.
"I'll be good, I promise, Body" he said in a humbled voice, massive head bent.
Ukyo decided to play a part in this little charade as well and, assured Heart that they would play a prank on Mind together when the time came, to which Body raised his hands just above the edge of the table in appreciative, silent applause.
Heart brightened at Ukyo's proclamation and stuck his tongue out at Min, who rolled his eyes in response to his childish display.
When Ukyo looked around the area where they were sitting she noticed that she was only able to see Heart's head, then she looked down and regretted it slightly as she felt the beginnings of vertigo, she immediately wrenched herself left to her initial position, the eternal black abyss that she saw stretch downwards was very discomforting.
Looking up, Ukyo realised that the three Ranmas were staring at her expectedly,
She felt a blush rise to her face.
"What?" she asked almost indignantly. She definitely did not like being stared at, even if it was the man…men she held dear.
"You had questions for us Ukyo" Body explained simply, taking a sip from his water.
She remembered to take a sip of her own mint tea, and found the taste to be very exotic, with several other spices as well as the mint. She started asking the questions she needed to know the answers to.
"Who or rather what are you?"
"Well we have already explained to you the nature of who we are Ukyo, we are Ranma's Mind, Body and Heart. Although perhaps some further elaboration is required." Mind stated sipping his drink, which he identified for Ukyo's sake as being non-alcoholic beer (A/N: OMG! Non alcoholic beer does it actually exist the answer to that Question is quite simply Yah! I tried it when I was only yeigh high he motions using his hand towards the ground at about knee level with palm pointing downwards, then realises the readers cant see that…I'm such an idiot!!).
"To answer you question," Body continued. "We'll have to return to the event at Phoenix mountain, the one involving the death of Akane. That was definitely a turning point for Ranma, especially his sanity, he actually completely lost control of his senses and his mind was in turmoil, thankfully a lady managed to ease her pain, funnily enough, we can't seem to remember her name, we would tell you of course but even we don't have the information, it was somehow taken away from us, very odd I know.
Anyway continuing on with the story, this lady convinced us that the pain we felt, was not enough that we completely lose all semblance of reality and the order of a human being. So we separated from his whole essence and we each took on a few of Ranma's thoughts, feeling and emotions. Thus we were born, the pain is great, especially when we remember specific things about her, the way she looked, moved talked, smiled, the pain is immense, but its effect varied between each of us. The grief was slightly less in Mind and myself as we had not experienced Akane throughout our existence, however what we did feel when she left, was nothing in comparison to what Heart felt". Body looked towards encouraging him to continue the story as he had experienced it himself. So he did while staring into his cup tears slowly rolling down his massive cheeks and dripping into the abyss.
"It hurt so much, it was like…a steadily growing torture, where you slowly feel the hot poker bore into your flesh not allowing your nerves to gain access to the endorphins needed to end the pain, the realisation she was gone, it wasn't fair and at the same time I deserved it, I could have told her so many times before she left but there was no way of knowing she felt the same way, and I don't think I could have handled her not feeling the same way."
At this Mind rolled his eyes in disgust, Ukyo immediately felt hate for Mind burning in her, but then she glanced at Body who momentarily raised his eyebrows in surprise but then lowered them as if he had just understood something, his lips turned up slightly in amusement and a touch of what looked like admiration, Ukyo's rage burnt out and was replaced with confusion. Of course, all Heart had seen was the disdain for his show of despair, it was immediately burnt away and replaced by fury, far more dangerous then Ukyo's own, at which point Heart thrust his hands towards Mind completely intent on strangling him, watching his eyes bulge and turn blue due to asphyxiation, yet as he neared Mind Ukyo suddenly understood what Mind had done, completely removing the effects of depression, clear in Heart by showing displeasure at Heart's show of weakness. Ukyo quickly jumped in the way of Heart's hands and Mind's body uncaring, unthinking of the effects.
There were no feelings of pain, nothing. She slowly removed her hand from in front of her desperately trying to defend herself, she almost wished she hadn't, in front of her stood a far smaller Heart, trembling in ire and depression, hands still outstretched wanting to wring mind's neck.
Still running on instinct Ukyo placed her own hands in Heart's large, trembling hands, almost reaching towards death, and she slowly, gently squeezed.
"What did you learn Heart?" She asked gently.
She saw comprehension come to his expression and gave another squeeze.
"Sorry, Ucchan, shouldn't have lost control, silly thing to do. Won't do it again. Promise…not again" he removed his hands from Ukyo's, turned around and apologised to Body before turning towards Mind and giving him an apologetic look.
"Nothing to forgive brother mine, I'm sure you would have reacted in a similar fashion if I was being overly emotional, right?
"I suppose you know you're far too clever for it to be a good thing?"
"Well, someone has to be the brains in this merry quartet of ours, someone who's qualities aren't too obvious and considering my name was already Mind I opted for the job it's yours if you want it, of course, but between you, me Ukyo and Body I'd watch your temper". He replied.
To this Heart smiled a small smile and started walking away his height merely four feet tall and slowly began to disappear, Ukyo almost followed were it not for Body's hand at her elbow, guiding her to her chair again.
"Now is not the time, he'll be fine, it has happened before, you've watched him lose control before I seem to remember, you watched us during that dream but Ranma suppressed your knowledge of it so we did it ourselves. You need answers and we have them."
Ukyo learnt many things from the pair, later to become the triplet as Heart rejoined the group.
Such as the fact that there were two others, one male and one female, this would have blown Ukyo away were it not for the fact that she knew of Ranma's curse. So she paid it no mind. They told her that the male was the one that held each of them in check, the soul, who would most commonly appear on the moments that Ranma decided to sleep.
She inquired as to each of their appearances.
"Why is Mind wearing a Uniform", to which they shrugged their shoulders, it seemed that when the partition occurred they each took the forms she saw before them.
The answer was the same in concern to Body's appearance, but she surmised that it was just Ranma's ego making him look more buff then he did anyway.
"Why is Heart so tall?"
To which Heart replied "Well, you know Ranma always forgiving people who have done him some injustice or another, he has a great heart", to which Body just buried his head in his hands, and Mind took another sip of his drink. Ukyo just blinked at the awful joke.
"OK I promise no more jokes" Heart said raising his hands in defence. "That's straight from the Heart!!" to which the three listeners picked up their chairs and chased after him.
When he could not be found they resumed their discussion.
Then Ukyo was asked whether she wanted to get on the way to rescuing Akane from where she was being held. Ukyo agreed and she felt another lurch and she was now looking at her own form lying on Ranma's bed, the boy in question facing a wall, with his eyes closed, as Ukyo glanced at the timepiece visible on the cooker, she noticed that only five minutes had passed, of course that thought was interrupted as she felt a build up of energy to her left and when she turned in that direction she saw Ranma with an outstretched arm, palm facing away from him, then he said in a quiet voice, which she almost didn't hear, "Bakusei Tenketsu Third Revision" and before her eyes she saw a circular patch of air being ripped aside and through it she could see a barren wasteland, rocks jutting out in places, the one thing she noticed when the window was first created was how very red everything appeared to be, literally everything was one shade or another of the colour red.
"This is where Akane is?" she whispered to herself
"Yes, awful isn't it?" was the unexpected reply.
This time she screamed in surprise.
"Ouch! Ucchan! Come on what do you think your doing screaming like that? Do you want the landlady to start getting peeved with me? Sheesh!
He turned and looked at her while lightly admonishing her
"How can you see me? And talk to me too?"
What did you think that I mean by 'watching me'. I wasn't gonna let you be tangible, and so, vulnerable in this place, I'm not completely stupid y'know.
"We are going to have a long talk one day in the next seven about exactly what the hell you are Ranma. You're not the same as before, nor at all, I met the others Mind Heart and Brain, they're all completely strange, you know that?"
Then Ukyo heard Mind's voice.
'Your lucky Heart can't hear you he might take offence at that, now me I know your just confused so I won't be too upset with you' she could almost hear the smirk and it irritated her, she wished he were near, she wanted to strangle with that damn tie of his, see how he would have liked that.
"Come on Ucchan, stop talking nonsense and let's get going, I wanna be back home as soon as possible". He extended his hand towards the portal, signalling for her to lead the way.
She stopped and just stared at him, mouth hanging "But how-".
'He doesn't know we exist, and if you're wondering what part he has to play in the control of his existence, not even I know, I think it's that "free will, that God has instilled upon all man" thing, of course being a Scientologist doesn't help my understanding of God and his 'wonders' sorry Ukyo.
Ukyo just shrugged and moved towards the portal, as she neared the entrance to the other world she heard the words: "Treat it like a doorway, just walk". And walk she did, from one world straight into another totally unknown existence.
After ten minutes of walking Ranma began talking:
"Her body disappeared, you know that? One minute she's being prepared to be buried and the next she's gone weird huh?"
This seemed as good a time as any. "Who is She, Ranma?"
"You know who I'm talking about Ucchan"
"Maybe I don't, let's assume for the moment that we're not talking about the same person, and lets suppose I want to know her name, Akane's name has never to my knowledge been She, so why don't you say her name. Since you found me and I told you I could bring her back to you, you haven't said Akane's name, not once, so what the hell's going on Ranma?
"Nothing's going on Ucchan. Don't worry about it."
She jumped in front of him landing in his way, but he walked straight through her and then Ukyo caught a glimpse of the problem, and with it a smirk from an overly dressed individual. She silently thanked mind for the insight
"You think you betrayed her don't you?"
"How th- I mean what the hell are you talking about Ukyo" she had caught him in the lie. Still too easy, he couldn't lie, too pure, that was definitely one problem with Ranma, even before the incident with Saffron. He had always taken the trouble to remind Akane that she was the 'uncute tomboy' now Ukyo knew what it truly meant she realised that he had never been Ukyo's, not in a single moment had his heart thought of her in a different light to that of a female-friend, but she was over him, right?
They continued to walk in silence and eventually she saw a smile cross his face not really a smile of amusement, but the hunter smiling at the location of his quarry.
Not a hundred yards, Ukyo saw what appeared to be a writhing mound of rocks and rubble but, as they got closer she noticed that the writhing rocks had seams running through some of them, she watched as Ranma tore his way towards the creatures and then systematically threw them left right and centre dashing their bodies against rocks here and spearing them on sharply jutting rocks over there.
As Ukyo approached towards one particular creature she noticed that their thick and oddly patterned hides gave them the rock like appearance.
She approached Ranma and the other figure battling their way through the hordes of demons, as that is what they were, as far as Ukyo could tell anyway. When all of the demons had been gotten rid of Ranma felt a hand on his back and turned around to the face he knew and loved with all his heart, he had finally- the thought died. Something was wrong, as he looked her face, he noticed that there was an imperfection to the features he saw, there was a slight change in eye colour, a momentary flicker in the iris' colour, more then enough for Ranma's happiness to extinguish, he didn't need this torment, not every single bloody day, for the last month the same thing would happen he would see Akane's face, he would see her and he would almost congratulate himself on a job well done. Then everything would go wrong, the damned demon just couldn't get the for right, there would always be a slight imperfection, almost unnoticeable to the average person a beauty mark, a lock of hair suddenly change colour and then revert back to the black with natural blue highlight, the idiots always made mistakes, he wasn't going to correct them, just make them suffer.
And so it was that Ukyo watched as Ranma put his hand on top of the one holding his shoulder and twisted it violently, Ukyo jerked as she saw this followed by Akane screaming, what was he doing? He had found Akane. The girl he loved, then why was he breaking her arm, what in the world was happening?
Ukyo found herself sprinting towards Ranma and Akane only to come to a halt when she heard Ranma say: "Enough games"
She wondered briefly why Ranma was speaking in tongues. Then she watched as her eyes deceived her once again.
The bowed Akane wrenched off her arm, stood up and then increased in size, she became taller and wider of shoulder, then she watched as the strange figure's arms grew back, she recognized the shape, she had seen at least thirty of them being beaten mere moments before by Ranma alone, it was another one of those Rock-demons, but that meant that they had been setting an ambush for Ranma!
Then Ranma flung the demon upwards and suddenly a blade appeared in his hands, of western origin, as this world's gravity brought the creature downwards Ranma stabbed upwards and roughly whipped his arms cutting the demon in half though his left side, oddly enough there was no blood, just a slumping of the creature's posture and then there was nothing.
"Dementus' cronies. Don't worry about it, come on, I have to talk to someone, she'll know where to find her, you'll need to come with me, get ready to host again". It wasn't asked, the command came and she followed it without hesitation, this Ranma was very different from the one she had known not a dozen weeks before what was going on?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
End of Chapter 2
Okay Thank you for bearing with me it tool me ages to do it but i hav paragraphs.
sorry to all the reviewers who had difficulty with reading my story.
remember to review
thankyou
By MusicIsMyLifeblood
Thank you all those that reviewed. These include Goku Gohan, CrazyInsaneAnimeFanGirl and cherryblossom 9
OK here's chapter 2. I'm slowly getting there just hold on and try to enjoy, if only for my sake!!
Disclaimer: Ok, look, there are well over 5800 stories essentially saying the same thing as far as the Disclaimer is concerned anyway. So read the others and you'll see that Ranma ½ does not belong to me and I really wouldn't want them either…other then for the money that they might rake in for me…hmm interesting thought.
The sun was shining through the clouds, after the night of rain, but the dark clouds still promised more to come. In a small apartment sit a boy and a girl at a tiny table.
The open windows allowed the fresh air to pass through in to the single bedroom apartment.
Ranma and Ukyo had talked into the wee hours of the morning discussing the events of that occurred in the time that Ranma disappeared. Until of course Ukyo said:
"It's good to see you again Ranchan, I mean for those twelve weeks you were gone Nerima was very…well for lack of a better word…boring. Now life can be as chaotic as it was before." She said this smiling at the upcoming adventures that she was sure would renew with Ranma and Akane's reappearance.
Ranma was acutely aware of one specific part of what Ukyo had just said '…twelve weeks you were gone…' He was certain that he had been gone at least a year, give or take a few weeks. He mentally shrugged and made a note as to investigate the time difference. Now wasn't the time to worry about such menial subjects.
"Yeah, I know what you mean Ucchan" he smiled at the thought. "But we have to make it right first, you know, bring life back to the warped semblance of reality that it was before" he said in a semi-serious tone.
She nodded, understanding what he meant. They would have to rescue Akane first.
"When are you going to go get her back?" she inquired trying to sound mildly interested and at the same time trying to hide the slight twinge that her heart gave when she thought about how she had lost Ranma to Akane, she was so sure that she had forgotten him, at least forgotten her total adoration for, but she guessed that some things never changed.
" Well, do you have a preference? We could go and get Ak-…her back right now and the leave for Nerima. I'm sure that the Tendos will be happy to see her again".
That he hesitated mention of Akane's name was confusing her to no end.
'Why would he do that? I mean it's only Akane.
She was still debating as to whether she should ask him or not when he got up.
"I guess we should get right to it, Ucchan, the sooner we do it, the sooner it gets done but let me first get ready".
Ukyo blinked at the strange words and then just shrugged.
'Maybe he had changed' she thought.
Moments later Ranma exited the bathroom wearing an unbuttoned, black, Chinese style shirt. The shirt was totally unremarkable and yet there seemed to be a purpose to its existence. Underneath the shirt he wore a white undershirt. Ranma moved to the door and slipped on his shoes before returning to the table and standing in the doorway.
"OK, I'm ready…erm…Ucchan this may seem like the strangest question ever put to you" he stated with some apprehension, "but would you like to watch?"
Ukyo was totally confused by this question.
'Watch? Watch what? Where was he going? And why was she suddenly not going with him?' she wondered.
She voiced her bewilderment, "What do you mean by 'watch', Ranchan, where are you going? And why am I not going with you?"
"Well because you can't " he certified.
"I have legs Ranchan", she said, as if speaking to a child and then waved her legs around to add some emphasis, "so of course I'm going with you, I'm gonna help you get Akane, remember?
"No Ucchan, you are not going and that's final, well not without my permission anyway". Ranma returned authoritatively.
"Humph! Who's gonna stop me? I can do what I want. And no big, bad Ranma is gonna stop me" she stated impudently.
"Do you want to go back to sleep then Ucchan?"
"What's that supposed to mean-" realization dawned on her "that was YOU???"
"Yep" Ranma said, his self-satisfaction was obvious.
"How? No wait, you're trying to distract me from going with you, well it won't…Yawn …it won't work…bigger yawn…" she attempted to protest but she was so sleepy all of a sudden as if a giant warm blanket had covered her and she had drunk at least a litre of warm milk.
"You are not going Ucchan, but you can watch if you want" Ranma offered her the pseudo-ultimatum while searching for his ear-phones, the voices were coming back it seemed.
Ukyo finally conceded and accepted the offer to 'watch' him, although how the hell he expected her to do that without her being there was completely beyond her.
Ranma finally stopped searching the drawers and lifted out the two small ear-phones, both fitting into his palm.
"Alright, thank you, now don't panic this may feel a bit weird but you'll be fine" while saying this Ranma reached for her hand and held it in his free hand, his other hand already placing one of the tiny electric devices into his left ear.
Ukyo suddenly felt her body lurch towards Ranma and suddenly saw her own body lying in front of her on the bed, she would have screamed in terror, had she not recalled exactly what Ranma said. So she took deep breaths eventually quelling the terror.
"Excellent, Ukyo!" She suddenly heard behind her and she spun around, there she could see Ranma, wearing a black formal jacket, black finely pressed trousers, a gold and very dark blue tie patterned with small golden lions holding miniscule quills and books, and black shoes.
"Very well indeed, are you sure this is your first time 'hosting', you did remarkably well, didn't she boys?" the unnecessarily well-dressed Ranma said. Upon his question appeared another Ranma, this time dressed in a lone pair of jogging bottoms, lifting two huge dumb-bells in a continuous rhythm, wearing a towel over his shoulders.
"Yeah, nicely done Ukyo!" he beamed at her.
As Ukyo looked at the newest Ranma she noticed his bulging muscles, seemingly, barely contained within his skin, she felt sure her brain should have been short-circuiting, two Ranmas! What the f-.
Her vociferous thought-curse was interrupted by…yep you guessed it folks, yet another Ranma.
As she examined the third clone, she noticed that he was by far the largest physically, and his clothes matched his size. He was comfortably between eight and nine feet tall and at least three feet across, with a wing span (A/N: whatever, you know what I mean hopefully) comfortably measuring about six feet.
Upon his overly excessive body he was wearing the normal-Ranma style black-pants but this time he was wearing a white T-shirt with a HUGE, pink cartoon heart.
"'Remarkably'", what a jackass. Hey M stop making her feel so uncomfortable! Although, you do have incredible control over yourself Ucchan. I don't think even Ranma managed to keep calm during his first 'hosting' session with the master.
"Making her feel uncomfortable, I'm doing no such thing!", the well dressed Ranma, known as M, cried indignantly, then his angry and embarrassed face took on a rather cunning shape, and he seemed to smirk when he said "I think H that your making her feel more then just uncomfortable, I think that she is about faint from all the shock, I mean just look at her expression, she's terrified of you, you oaf."
"Really Ucchan, is that true?" he said in a rather depressed manner "do I scare you? I never meant to I swear, I wont do it again, really" he seemed to be pleading for her forgiveness and all the time shrinking in size to the point where he was now shorter then Ukyo.
The girl being asked for absolution, suddenly got her composure and ran towards the once large figure and placed her hand on his shoulder.
"No, no its not that at all, really, its just…erm…its just the 'hosting' shocked me a bit so I'm a bit out of sorts, that's all." She lied to the deflated giant.
"R…really?" he asked in the same pleading voice. His blue eyes full of unshed tears. Ukyo almost felt her heart break at the sight of Ranma, in such torment.
At her nod the giant among giants returned to his true size and he was hugging her to him dancing in joy, singing happily "She's not scared of me, She's not scared of me, She's not scared of me" he turned to M still holding the rather dizzy, but happy Ukyo, and stuck out his tongue saying "See Mr. He-thinks-he-knows-everything-about-everything she's not scared of me, you were wrong, Nyah!"
"Put her down now H I don't think that she needs to be spun anymore, don't you think?" the muscular Ranma asked gently.
"Ok B-san" he bent down and placed Ukyo on the floor. "Oh, I know I'll get some snacks for Ucchan OK? Any favourites Ucchan?" when Ukyo shook her head, the giant called H, ran off into the distance looking for her snacks.
Behind her Ukyo the boy known as B said in an amused voice "Lovable Oaf, far too affected by what people think of him, good thing he's built up a resistance to you isn't it M?"
Ukyo turned around to find M with a smile on his face and standing next to him stood B now pumping iron using a pair of weights, which each read '500kg'.
Ukyo's eyebrows rose at the sight and then B turned to her.
"Sorry about that Ukyo, Heart is really emotional and Mind tries to spark him off as often as he can, normally he doesn't manage it, but Heart was really excited today, what with you coming to meet us and all.
"No problem, so if he-" she indicated using her thumb pointing behind her towards the now absent figure, "is Heart and he is Mind" she said pointing to the boy with the Uniform "then who are you? Braun?" she inquired amused at her dreams, for surely this was a dream. This situation was far too strange to be reality.
Mind chuckled softly, and the burly figure chuckled good-naturedly.
"No, close but no biscuit I'm afraid, I am Body" he explained dropping the weights, Ukyo noticed unconsciously that they didn't make a sound as they hit the floor.
Body stepped over the weights and extended his right hand in greeting "Welcome to Ranma, population four, well, including you anyway.
Ukyo speechlessly extended her own hand to shake Ran- er Body's.
As they lightly shook hands, Body smirked lightly. "Would you like a seat Ukyo?" he asked indicating towards the seat that materialised behind her. She slumped down on it, trying to understand her dream, and its amazingly corporeal feel; Ra-Body's hand had definitely felt real, warm, soft, and callused on the very edge of the palm.
"This is probably a silly question Ukyo, but do you have anything you would like to ask us about for example, our presence, how we came to be? Where are you? Who we are? You can pick any of these or if you have any of your own. You need only ask"
They were all sat at a totally indiscriminate square table, Body sitting to her right, and Mind sitting opposite her, she assumed the reason why there were only three seats was because, due to Heart's sheer size he would be unable to sit there. It was at that moment that Heart let his presence be known.
"Drinks, everyone! Turkish mint tea for Ucchan, water for Body, and Pure Alcohol for Mind!" he announced happily, with a cheeky grin attached to his large face.
"It had better not be this time Heart or you will be in a lot of trouble, won't he Body?" He said suppressing rather successfully a wide grin from alighting his face. He turned to Body at the question.
"He's right Heart, no more tricks, at least not while Ukyo is here anyway." Body stated in a mock serious voice winking at Ukyo, letting her know that it was really all a show, to make Heart behave himself.
"I'll be good, I promise, Body" he said in a humbled voice, massive head bent.
Ukyo decided to play a part in this little charade as well and, assured Heart that they would play a prank on Mind together when the time came, to which Body raised his hands just above the edge of the table in appreciative, silent applause.
Heart brightened at Ukyo's proclamation and stuck his tongue out at Min, who rolled his eyes in response to his childish display.
When Ukyo looked around the area where they were sitting she noticed that she was only able to see Heart's head, then she looked down and regretted it slightly as she felt the beginnings of vertigo, she immediately wrenched herself left to her initial position, the eternal black abyss that she saw stretch downwards was very discomforting.
Looking up, Ukyo realised that the three Ranmas were staring at her expectedly,
She felt a blush rise to her face.
"What?" she asked almost indignantly. She definitely did not like being stared at, even if it was the man…men she held dear.
"You had questions for us Ukyo" Body explained simply, taking a sip from his water.
She remembered to take a sip of her own mint tea, and found the taste to be very exotic, with several other spices as well as the mint. She started asking the questions she needed to know the answers to.
"Who or rather what are you?"
"Well we have already explained to you the nature of who we are Ukyo, we are Ranma's Mind, Body and Heart. Although perhaps some further elaboration is required." Mind stated sipping his drink, which he identified for Ukyo's sake as being non-alcoholic beer (A/N: OMG! Non alcoholic beer does it actually exist the answer to that Question is quite simply Yah! I tried it when I was only yeigh high he motions using his hand towards the ground at about knee level with palm pointing downwards, then realises the readers cant see that…I'm such an idiot!!).
"To answer you question," Body continued. "We'll have to return to the event at Phoenix mountain, the one involving the death of Akane. That was definitely a turning point for Ranma, especially his sanity, he actually completely lost control of his senses and his mind was in turmoil, thankfully a lady managed to ease her pain, funnily enough, we can't seem to remember her name, we would tell you of course but even we don't have the information, it was somehow taken away from us, very odd I know.
Anyway continuing on with the story, this lady convinced us that the pain we felt, was not enough that we completely lose all semblance of reality and the order of a human being. So we separated from his whole essence and we each took on a few of Ranma's thoughts, feeling and emotions. Thus we were born, the pain is great, especially when we remember specific things about her, the way she looked, moved talked, smiled, the pain is immense, but its effect varied between each of us. The grief was slightly less in Mind and myself as we had not experienced Akane throughout our existence, however what we did feel when she left, was nothing in comparison to what Heart felt". Body looked towards encouraging him to continue the story as he had experienced it himself. So he did while staring into his cup tears slowly rolling down his massive cheeks and dripping into the abyss.
"It hurt so much, it was like…a steadily growing torture, where you slowly feel the hot poker bore into your flesh not allowing your nerves to gain access to the endorphins needed to end the pain, the realisation she was gone, it wasn't fair and at the same time I deserved it, I could have told her so many times before she left but there was no way of knowing she felt the same way, and I don't think I could have handled her not feeling the same way."
At this Mind rolled his eyes in disgust, Ukyo immediately felt hate for Mind burning in her, but then she glanced at Body who momentarily raised his eyebrows in surprise but then lowered them as if he had just understood something, his lips turned up slightly in amusement and a touch of what looked like admiration, Ukyo's rage burnt out and was replaced with confusion. Of course, all Heart had seen was the disdain for his show of despair, it was immediately burnt away and replaced by fury, far more dangerous then Ukyo's own, at which point Heart thrust his hands towards Mind completely intent on strangling him, watching his eyes bulge and turn blue due to asphyxiation, yet as he neared Mind Ukyo suddenly understood what Mind had done, completely removing the effects of depression, clear in Heart by showing displeasure at Heart's show of weakness. Ukyo quickly jumped in the way of Heart's hands and Mind's body uncaring, unthinking of the effects.
There were no feelings of pain, nothing. She slowly removed her hand from in front of her desperately trying to defend herself, she almost wished she hadn't, in front of her stood a far smaller Heart, trembling in ire and depression, hands still outstretched wanting to wring mind's neck.
Still running on instinct Ukyo placed her own hands in Heart's large, trembling hands, almost reaching towards death, and she slowly, gently squeezed.
"What did you learn Heart?" She asked gently.
She saw comprehension come to his expression and gave another squeeze.
"Sorry, Ucchan, shouldn't have lost control, silly thing to do. Won't do it again. Promise…not again" he removed his hands from Ukyo's, turned around and apologised to Body before turning towards Mind and giving him an apologetic look.
"Nothing to forgive brother mine, I'm sure you would have reacted in a similar fashion if I was being overly emotional, right?
"I suppose you know you're far too clever for it to be a good thing?"
"Well, someone has to be the brains in this merry quartet of ours, someone who's qualities aren't too obvious and considering my name was already Mind I opted for the job it's yours if you want it, of course, but between you, me Ukyo and Body I'd watch your temper". He replied.
To this Heart smiled a small smile and started walking away his height merely four feet tall and slowly began to disappear, Ukyo almost followed were it not for Body's hand at her elbow, guiding her to her chair again.
"Now is not the time, he'll be fine, it has happened before, you've watched him lose control before I seem to remember, you watched us during that dream but Ranma suppressed your knowledge of it so we did it ourselves. You need answers and we have them."
Ukyo learnt many things from the pair, later to become the triplet as Heart rejoined the group.
Such as the fact that there were two others, one male and one female, this would have blown Ukyo away were it not for the fact that she knew of Ranma's curse. So she paid it no mind. They told her that the male was the one that held each of them in check, the soul, who would most commonly appear on the moments that Ranma decided to sleep.
She inquired as to each of their appearances.
"Why is Mind wearing a Uniform", to which they shrugged their shoulders, it seemed that when the partition occurred they each took the forms she saw before them.
The answer was the same in concern to Body's appearance, but she surmised that it was just Ranma's ego making him look more buff then he did anyway.
"Why is Heart so tall?"
To which Heart replied "Well, you know Ranma always forgiving people who have done him some injustice or another, he has a great heart", to which Body just buried his head in his hands, and Mind took another sip of his drink. Ukyo just blinked at the awful joke.
"OK I promise no more jokes" Heart said raising his hands in defence. "That's straight from the Heart!!" to which the three listeners picked up their chairs and chased after him.
When he could not be found they resumed their discussion.
Then Ukyo was asked whether she wanted to get on the way to rescuing Akane from where she was being held. Ukyo agreed and she felt another lurch and she was now looking at her own form lying on Ranma's bed, the boy in question facing a wall, with his eyes closed, as Ukyo glanced at the timepiece visible on the cooker, she noticed that only five minutes had passed, of course that thought was interrupted as she felt a build up of energy to her left and when she turned in that direction she saw Ranma with an outstretched arm, palm facing away from him, then he said in a quiet voice, which she almost didn't hear, "Bakusei Tenketsu Third Revision" and before her eyes she saw a circular patch of air being ripped aside and through it she could see a barren wasteland, rocks jutting out in places, the one thing she noticed when the window was first created was how very red everything appeared to be, literally everything was one shade or another of the colour red.
"This is where Akane is?" she whispered to herself
"Yes, awful isn't it?" was the unexpected reply.
This time she screamed in surprise.
"Ouch! Ucchan! Come on what do you think your doing screaming like that? Do you want the landlady to start getting peeved with me? Sheesh!
He turned and looked at her while lightly admonishing her
"How can you see me? And talk to me too?"
What did you think that I mean by 'watching me'. I wasn't gonna let you be tangible, and so, vulnerable in this place, I'm not completely stupid y'know.
"We are going to have a long talk one day in the next seven about exactly what the hell you are Ranma. You're not the same as before, nor at all, I met the others Mind Heart and Brain, they're all completely strange, you know that?"
Then Ukyo heard Mind's voice.
'Your lucky Heart can't hear you he might take offence at that, now me I know your just confused so I won't be too upset with you' she could almost hear the smirk and it irritated her, she wished he were near, she wanted to strangle with that damn tie of his, see how he would have liked that.
"Come on Ucchan, stop talking nonsense and let's get going, I wanna be back home as soon as possible". He extended his hand towards the portal, signalling for her to lead the way.
She stopped and just stared at him, mouth hanging "But how-".
'He doesn't know we exist, and if you're wondering what part he has to play in the control of his existence, not even I know, I think it's that "free will, that God has instilled upon all man" thing, of course being a Scientologist doesn't help my understanding of God and his 'wonders' sorry Ukyo.
Ukyo just shrugged and moved towards the portal, as she neared the entrance to the other world she heard the words: "Treat it like a doorway, just walk". And walk she did, from one world straight into another totally unknown existence.
After ten minutes of walking Ranma began talking:
"Her body disappeared, you know that? One minute she's being prepared to be buried and the next she's gone weird huh?"
This seemed as good a time as any. "Who is She, Ranma?"
"You know who I'm talking about Ucchan"
"Maybe I don't, let's assume for the moment that we're not talking about the same person, and lets suppose I want to know her name, Akane's name has never to my knowledge been She, so why don't you say her name. Since you found me and I told you I could bring her back to you, you haven't said Akane's name, not once, so what the hell's going on Ranma?
"Nothing's going on Ucchan. Don't worry about it."
She jumped in front of him landing in his way, but he walked straight through her and then Ukyo caught a glimpse of the problem, and with it a smirk from an overly dressed individual. She silently thanked mind for the insight
"You think you betrayed her don't you?"
"How th- I mean what the hell are you talking about Ukyo" she had caught him in the lie. Still too easy, he couldn't lie, too pure, that was definitely one problem with Ranma, even before the incident with Saffron. He had always taken the trouble to remind Akane that she was the 'uncute tomboy' now Ukyo knew what it truly meant she realised that he had never been Ukyo's, not in a single moment had his heart thought of her in a different light to that of a female-friend, but she was over him, right?
They continued to walk in silence and eventually she saw a smile cross his face not really a smile of amusement, but the hunter smiling at the location of his quarry.
Not a hundred yards, Ukyo saw what appeared to be a writhing mound of rocks and rubble but, as they got closer she noticed that the writhing rocks had seams running through some of them, she watched as Ranma tore his way towards the creatures and then systematically threw them left right and centre dashing their bodies against rocks here and spearing them on sharply jutting rocks over there.
As Ukyo approached towards one particular creature she noticed that their thick and oddly patterned hides gave them the rock like appearance.
She approached Ranma and the other figure battling their way through the hordes of demons, as that is what they were, as far as Ukyo could tell anyway. When all of the demons had been gotten rid of Ranma felt a hand on his back and turned around to the face he knew and loved with all his heart, he had finally- the thought died. Something was wrong, as he looked her face, he noticed that there was an imperfection to the features he saw, there was a slight change in eye colour, a momentary flicker in the iris' colour, more then enough for Ranma's happiness to extinguish, he didn't need this torment, not every single bloody day, for the last month the same thing would happen he would see Akane's face, he would see her and he would almost congratulate himself on a job well done. Then everything would go wrong, the damned demon just couldn't get the for right, there would always be a slight imperfection, almost unnoticeable to the average person a beauty mark, a lock of hair suddenly change colour and then revert back to the black with natural blue highlight, the idiots always made mistakes, he wasn't going to correct them, just make them suffer.
And so it was that Ukyo watched as Ranma put his hand on top of the one holding his shoulder and twisted it violently, Ukyo jerked as she saw this followed by Akane screaming, what was he doing? He had found Akane. The girl he loved, then why was he breaking her arm, what in the world was happening?
Ukyo found herself sprinting towards Ranma and Akane only to come to a halt when she heard Ranma say: "Enough games"
She wondered briefly why Ranma was speaking in tongues. Then she watched as her eyes deceived her once again.
The bowed Akane wrenched off her arm, stood up and then increased in size, she became taller and wider of shoulder, then she watched as the strange figure's arms grew back, she recognized the shape, she had seen at least thirty of them being beaten mere moments before by Ranma alone, it was another one of those Rock-demons, but that meant that they had been setting an ambush for Ranma!
Then Ranma flung the demon upwards and suddenly a blade appeared in his hands, of western origin, as this world's gravity brought the creature downwards Ranma stabbed upwards and roughly whipped his arms cutting the demon in half though his left side, oddly enough there was no blood, just a slumping of the creature's posture and then there was nothing.
"Dementus' cronies. Don't worry about it, come on, I have to talk to someone, she'll know where to find her, you'll need to come with me, get ready to host again". It wasn't asked, the command came and she followed it without hesitation, this Ranma was very different from the one she had known not a dozen weeks before what was going on?
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End of Chapter 2
Okay Thank you for bearing with me it tool me ages to do it but i hav paragraphs.
sorry to all the reviewers who had difficulty with reading my story.
remember to review
thankyou