On with the show.
Changes
Chapter 16: A Change of Heart
"Wh... what!? But... But I'm not a gi... I'm a .... NO! I ... sorry.. I don't... I don't think I could... do that... yet." Ranma replied. She was flabergasted at the question Luc had sent at her. Didn't she tell him that she thought of herself as a guy? ... Did she think of herself as a guy? She couldn't be sure...
Luc had pulled her aside to a corner of the library, after she had finally convinced Nina and the others that she would tell them about her fiancee's another day, and asked her. "Ranma.... I was wonderin' if there was some chance I could convince you to go out to a movie with me tonight?
"Allright. I wasn't sure and you sorta seem to waver." Luc said happily as if her turn down didn't affect him in the slightest.
"I... Uh..."
"I still can't seem to picture you as a guy, Ranma." He said.
"Luc... can you do me a favor..." Ranma asked her tone suddenly changing.
"Huh? Yeah... wait, whats'a favor?" He asked in a slang dialect that oddly resembled Ranma's from back in Nerima.
"Can... can you call me Ranko again?" She asked.
He looked at her and cocked his head to the right. Then he grinned. "Sure, Ranko. Sure."
"Tell the others too." She said as he turned to leave. He turned around and smiled again. He reached for the door, opened it, and walked out.
Ranma slouched down into a convieniently placed easy chair and sighed, placed her face deep into her palms and closed her eyes.
"Damnit all." She thought.
--
"It's incredible. I have no clue as to what it is but it's power is over 300,000. And I asume it can get stronger." Claust said.
"Hmph. If it means no harm to us perhaps it is best if we leave it alone." Dyne replied.
Claust hesitated and stuttered but finally managed to get out, "Leave it alone? Sir? Are we... ever going to stop... leaving things alone? Sir?"
"We'll stop when I say, Claust." Dyne replied as he crushed his fingers into a fist. As he did so a creepy poping sound echoed from his knuckles.
Claust grinded his teeth. He new that his boss had been biding his time for something. But what? There had to be SOME reason as to why he just would not authorize ANYTHING! The city had all but forgotten their terror at the Black V in not but maybe a month! If HE were leader they would know true terror!
But perhaps the boss was right. He definantly didn't want to tango with whatever the being was that was heading toward the west coast. It was dangerous. He figured that Dyne had hidden some of his power but he didn't think it would compare to this being.
"Claust, I have a job for you." Dyne suddenly said.
"Yessss?" Dyne replied eagerly.
"I want you to watch Luc. That girl has changed her form. She has blue hair, quite awkward actually. But Luc seems to have grown quite fond of her. He daydreams and responds slowly as of late." Dyne said.
"Yes sir." Claust pouted.
"Claust. Don't worry. I do have a plan in mind. I plan on taking every penny from the Federal Bank on the corner of Lafyette and Algus street." Claust said plainly.
"REALLY! YES!!!!!" He cried before immediatly calming himself.... "Excuse me sir... very sorry."
Dyne glared and with a growl replied. "Your dissmissed."
"Thank you sir."
Dyne was left alone inside the computer room. It was a room that housed all the mechanics and defences that were placed on the hidout. It was kind of ironic actually. The best alarm systems in the world, marketed all over the world, sold by the government, were used to keep police away from a thieves hideaway.
But Dyne had more important matters to think on. Luc liked the girl. Possibly loved her. And if he decided to leave the Black V... well... Dyne would possibly permit it. The only person he seemed completly devilish too was Claust. To everyone else he was a father/leader/half-devil. Everyone save Luc. He had taken Luc in when his parents had died as a favor. Before he had become this evil being at the top of a lead group of terrorist/theives Dyne had owed Luc's father Dyses a favor. Luc had been with the Black V since the age of eight but had never been forced to participate in any violence. He would most likely ask to leave the Black V.
Also, while the girl, now with blue hair, didn't seduce his mind quite as much with the memory of Valentine, she still would NEVER die by his hand. And if she married Luc, then there was a good chance he would simply step down from the Black V, retire as Luc's Ex-gaurdian, and name a new leader. Most definantly not Claust. He would kill Claust and name someone who would destroy the group. Perhaps he was growing soft in his old age. No... scratch that. He WAS going soft in his old age. But he had a few robberies and terrorisms left to commit.
"Who to NAME though?" He thought.
There were two options. The first was Target. Nick-named for his skill with throwing darts, this idiot, named Lenny Fink, had a high enough energy that no one would think it odd that he named him successor. He was two people below claust in power rankings.
The next was Dacota. Another nickname that no one had any idea of its origination. His real name was Zackary Seinen. While weaker than Target, he had good brains for strategy and a horrible speech impediment that would drive the followers crazy.
At first he was going to choose Target. But then he remembered an incident about a year past. Target had raped a woman.
Dyne would not punish him for it as he usually granted his followers freedom as they please but after that he forcibly told them it should be forbidden. Defiling a bank or killing people was one thing. Defiling someone's person and then letting them live with the action for the rest of their lives was a different matter. He had personally found the girl and, while she was scared to death of him, he had managed to apologize for it but swore to god he would kill her if she told a soul.
He heard she moved to England somewhere.
So he chose Dacota. Not that he nessesarily planned on stepping down but if it came to that... that was his plan. "It's been long enough. I've defiled your name enough with my campaign Valentine. And it will end with the aging of the son of my best friend." He thought.
Ranko sat at the tallest point in the city. It was the top of an abandoned clocktower. A pole stuck out from the top of the roof about an extra twenty feet. It had a ball on the end of metal that made for an amazingly uncomfortable chair.
She sat on this ball and thought. And thought and thought and thought. And she finally, after passing through phases of hesitation, sarcasm, denial, anger, hatred, and finally acceptence, she decided.
"Could it be thatI...like him? How in the...? That's not IM-possible! ...But... I... do... RANKO NO BAKA!" She cried. The echo reverberated across several nearby buildings and Ranko was glad so few people understood Japanesse.
She thought of Akane. She used to always think of Akane. She had loved Akane. She could always think of Akane. No matter how angry she was she was always sigh and accept him again sooner or later.
She was everything Ranko had wanted in a woman. She would always try to do things for her. And whether Ranma admited it or not, she had had extreamly strong feelings for Akane.
She had day dreams of her. She would go to Akane and ask her out on a date. And she would hit him in the head with a mallet.
"Wait... when did that... huh?" Ranko thought. She continued the daydream. She saw countless beatings of herself by Akane and her uncontrollable temper.
"I HATE YOU RANMA SAOTOME! WHY DON"T YOU JUST GO AND BE A GIRL FOR ALL I CARE!" She cried in a metso forte voice.
"Huh?" Ranma thought.
"OR SHOULD I SAY RANKO!? RANKO AYUMI!? YOU LIKE THAT MORE DON'T YOU! YOU NEVER HAD ME TO BEGIN WITH!" She cried her voice raising to a loud forte.
"But... but thats not how..." Ranma thought. If she had paid attention, she would have been certian a tear fell down her cheek.
"RANMA! I will NEVER love you!" She cried finally as the top of her lungs in a fortissimo.
The silence in her mind spanned for hours in the real world, but the hours seemed like days. This was her daydream, or at least she thought it was. But this... couldn't be real. In day dreams people were supposed to dream what they wished for... this... this was a daymare! And Ranma succumbed to it.
As night fell Ranma muttered under her breath.
"I hate you..."
Her blue eyes shone with neon light and and the eye of the dragon symbol on her forehead glowed as well. She rose into the air.The wings she had kept hidden since the previous night sprung forth from her back like cannons and the blue balls appeared on the tips of her fingers. She floated further into the sky and was enveloped by a ball of ki that surrounded her entire form making her body invisible from the outside.
She let loose one final cry. "I HATE YOU!" Louder than any Akane's had been in her head.
The pent up ball of energy erupted like an explosion and covered every building and sat for almost twenty seconds. It held there as she let her ki flow into every object, animate or inanimate alike. Cars halted. Stoplights temporarily stopped timing their changes. Peoples minds were completly inoporative for the entire time.
And just as suddenly, the light popped, and the entire city was instantly drenched with water.
The citizens had no memory of the occurance. All they new was that somehow they had become damp.
And also they knew that a girl had fallen from the top of a twentyseven story building and landed, unconcious and unharmed on the sidewalk corner of Fourth street and John's avenue.
"Well, she now officially will NOT return to Nerima." The Archbishop said.
"Why isn't this working archbishop?" The messenger replied.
"It... it... It should BE working. The only thing I can think of is that there must be something ELSE that must be done. I don't forget many things but three thousand years is a LONG time to remember the requirements!"
The messenger narrowed his eyes.
"So then what ARE you doing?" He asked.
"I... I'm trying to push Ranko away from Akane even further to make him happy in the long run at least. If she hates Akane as well, then she is free to whomever she wants." the archbishop confessed proudly.
The messenger glared.
"You have two days Archbishop. If it isn't complete by then you go to hell. I'd advise you stop trying to help Ranko personally and start concentrating on getting your "Blessing" to work." The accent he used with the word blessing was out right anger.
"I... I will." He said saddly. His pride, gone, and his ambitions, shot down.
"Good." came the reply. "Why was there such an enourmous explosion? All you did was force Ranko to hate someone. Not like you inflicted pain on her."
"Pain? Ranma defines pain! He is under the impression, now and forever, that the first love of his life hates him!" The archbishop shouted.
The bishop then continued much more calmly. "It's a little bigger than that, messenger. What that was, was Ranma's last fight. That was Ranma's male halfs last struggle. Ranko is now basically washed clean of Ranma with that explosion."
"And with that the Blessing SHOULD work correct?" The messenger replied.
The bishop nodded. "But it's not."
"Hmm.."
--
"Two days? I thought I had more time! How did the months dwindle so quickly? She's only had the blessing for two and a half months! It... it shouldn't BE like this!" The archbishop thought once he was alone.
"I'm certain the requirements are fullfilled. What is different? What is holding back the Blessing from giving her the choice?" He thought.
He trudged back and fourth, his feet swishing throught the grass quickly, and he pondered what the possible causes for The Blessing's ineffectiveness were. "WHY!?"
--
"What happened?!" Dyne asked in a voice that commanded immediate answer.
"Happened, sir?" A nearby subordinate croaked.
"Yes... something happened. I know it. The entire town froze for some time and then was instantly soaked. I want to know HOW it happened!"
This conversation was echoed by anyone who cared enough to try and figured out why an entire town was suddenly drenched with a thin layer of water including Cheif Don Inlow of the Bryworth Police Department.
Police officials had no understanding of it but because it affected no one in any way that would be more than mere pestilance it never became a large issue. In the next days paper a story had appeared on the third page titled "One second waterfall."
It did have comments, however, from a few people living quite a ways out of town. "It was an enourmous dome of light, covered the entire town!" A few Scientists examined the wetness and noticed that it had a circumfrence. That it was a circle of dampness that ended abruptly on the outskirts of the town.
"One tree was dripping water droplets off every leaf while a tree right next to it was bone dry!" Was one of there comments.
Ranko, however, was uncoincious. "AGAIN! Why is she out of it THIS time?" Aaron cried angrily.
"She apparently fell off the clock tower. But evidence shows that she was unconcious BEFORE this happened." The doctor replied casually.
"We had an idea that she was involved somehow with the sudden wetness of everything in the town. No one understands why it happened but everything was suddenly wet. This girl's genetic makeup is composed of 99.3 percent water. The adverage is 98.7. A long way of that .6 percent. It's very odd."
"Is she allright?" Luc asked. Luc had a funny feeling her unconciousness had something to do with the way she had acted the day before.
"She is fine. No harm done at all that I can see. She'll wake up in about--"
"My head hurts..." Ranko inturpted as she opened her eyes drearily.
"Uh... now I guess." The doctor finished. He, of course, had asumed she would wake in about four hours.
"Ranko's head ached with a familliar pain. Something in her mind though. Something made her sad. She had no clue as to what it was. But it was uncanny. She thought of Akane and she realized that she began to grind her teeth and clench her fists. Akane... that girl that ruined her time in Nerima. The girl who asked to be her friend and then shot down her hopes when she first arrived. And then kept doing it! REPEATEDLY!
Her mind grew to have more and more angry thoughts until she finally realized the doctor was waving his hand across her face. He stood back about three paces, leaning toward her. He was afraid of the sickly green light that surrounded her form.
The aura dissapeared instantly.
"Heh... ss, sorry doc." Ranko said quickly.
The doctor was a tall man wearing clothing fit more for a lawyer or phycologist than a doctor. He had a black suit and red tie with black pants. His hair was a very dark shade of brown and his eyes were as brown as his hair. He walked with an upright gait about him that seemed odd for a man of his position. Ranko asumed he had another job, or at least important hobbie, besides being a doctor.
"Your name is, Ranko correct?" He asked.
"Yeah. Thats me." Ranko replied.
"Well, I supposed you don't know me but I have been your doctor twice now and I should be charging you over eleven hundred dollars." He said calmly.
Ranko gulped loudly.
The doctor walked over toward the window and stared out it.
"It's not often I get a case like you Ranko. Actually, I've never gotten a case like you. I'm more than just a private doctor as you may have guessed. I'm also somewhat of a scientist. My name is doctor John C. Laving. I'm going to offer you an exchange since you obviously do not have the money to pay for your sessions.
Ranko Ayumi. You are very proficcient in the use of ki, explaining why I wasn't very afraid of your, ahem... spectical earlier. I know a lot about ki but I've never met someone who can actually use it. I was wondering if you'd let me... study you." He said plainly.
Ranma suddenly felt a cold draft.
"Study me? Like what? I ain't undressin for ya pal'!" She said angrily.
"No no... nothing like that. It won't require anything like that. I... well I suppose you'd find out anyway. I'm trying to develop a weapon that invokes the use of ki. A sort of, ki gun for the United states army and also for my own personal indevor. Also, i'm simply facinated in how you could fall twenty seven stories, unconcious and wake up almost perfectly fine the next day. Or how you could escape the Black V completely unscathed." He said plainly.
"Well.... if I get outta the bill... What do you need me to do?" She asked.
"Oh not much. Just come in to this office every Saturday at about three. And if you can make it, any time aftor your school is over." He replied casually as he sat down in a recliner.
"Ok... Can I go now?" Ranko asked plainly.
"Uh... if you feel allright I suppose. Oh and you might want to thank Mrs. Falk the next time you see her. She's a good deed doer of this town and she found you and dragged you to my office and procceded to call your friends here."
For the first time since waking Ranko noticed that three of the five of them sat there, having patiently listened without saying a word. Aaron was asleep. Luc appeared to be dozing off and Jess was reading a magazine.
"Nice of you to say hello." Ranko said getting out of the bed and picking up the clothes that had been washed and folded and now lay beside it.
"Oh. Yeah we saw you wake up. Once we knew you were fine we just sorta lost interest." Luc replied. He smirked in a smooth sort of way at her that she thought he considered a grin.
Her cheeks flushed with anger for not instantly lashing out and hitting him but she couldn't do that either. So it ended up just coming out as a blush, thought very weak.
She flipped her hair out of her eyes and walked to the bathroom to change into her normal clothing, which was now a sleeveless red shirt with dark blue shorts that, to her, were FAR to short for her to be wearing. But somehow she knew that she didn't care as much now as she would have just the day before. She also noticed that she had put on the feminin underclothing without even so much as a grunt.
"Have I lost everything? I should be angry! I should be fighting! But... I'm not..." She thought to herself. "Something, or someone, MUST have done SOMETHING to me. There... I just... I can't give up this easily!"
But somehow she knew that the male that had always been her inner core... was gone.
And she felt no remorse, either.
--
Somewhere hundreds of miles away a voice formally known as a spirit of Jusenkyo screamed extreamly loud. "
The word screamed was heard in cities miles away from Jusenkyo. It was a simple one word scream. And the one word was this.
"WWWWHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!?????"
--
Ranko lay on her bed in her apartment. She knew she could have it forever. She also knew she couldn't legally stay here forever. She had to get a house or a foster parent for the next few years or something.
She had recieved a call early the previous morning. The government of California had become aware of a fugitive's presence in California. Alleged girl supposedly was a stow-a-way on an America to England trade ship. Girl, supposedly, made her way to California by hitchiking.
It's not like they would arrest her of course. It was a simple matter of going to the government and asking for citizenship to the United States now that she had decided to become a permanent resident. She could become a citizen in two -ish- years.
But she couldn't do anything until she was eighteen. The age American's became adults, fully capable of voting, until she could do that.
Her next birthday was in slightly over a month. Darn. So she needed someone to cover for her as a fake or even real, foster parent for a month or so. She did not want to go to an orphange. Even for a month. She liked living on her own in Bryworth and intended to keep it that way. Also.... being able to work legally would be nice. While the man who paid her for construction was nice, he was running out of reasons to give to his crew. She recieved her pay in cash. They recieved theirs in checks. And while some would only be mildly curious, others would persist. The department had many employee's.
While Ranko became engrossed in thoughts of anyone who could possibly do what she wanted done she did not notice her assailiant. He crept up on her slowly from above, flying low, and burning low.
The guide had said Ranma had gotten blonde hair, but Saffron knew Ranma's aura. While it was extreamly different, there was no doubting Ranma. That aura he could, and did, read from almost one hundred miles away and this was definantly him.
Ranko hardly knew what hit her. Suddenly, she was being held off the ground by her neck. And she glared into the eyes of the god she had killed.
"Heh so... we meet again. Ranma Saotome. My nephew." He chuckled.
And without even thinking Ranko's reply surprised her more than anything in her entire life. Without thinking at all she replied. "Thats niece bastard." And instantly broke his grip and jumped away.
The explosion of a nearby semi truck, fortunantly passangerless, signalled the beginning of the second battle between Ranma and Saffron.
The battle between the Dragon and the Pheonix.
End Chapter.
Did... Did I spell Orphange right? It looks right but I couldn't find the word in my Webster's. Heh... heh heh... Wow. This sure was a change to the flow of the fic. Two chapters left my friends. And thats all for this fic. Sayonara to the Blessing after that.