Chapter 5: Revenge of the toddlers.
Ranma only stayed still for a few seconds. Just long enough to demonstrate hs ability to dodge on the spot. Then he leapt off, laughing as he went. Flipping end over end he managed to dodge
Ranma and Ryoga went round and round the garden with increasing speed. Ranma kept up his happy taunting while Ryoga just fumed and followed. Still Ranma was managing to dodge every blow Ryoga swung, admittedly he was also having to use every misdirection technique he knew but there was little argument over his dominance. As far as he was concerned this was just two old friends replaying old times. Of course Ryoga was having no fun at all. Firmly convinced that Ranma had merely returned to torment him he was unable to work out why he couldn't swat the bug.
"Hey Ryoga what ya been up to all these years?" Ranma asked with a friendly smile.
"As if you don't know you bastard," Ryoga shouted back, "You've been watching me ever since you ran out on our man to man fight, haven't you! Laughing at all the things that have gone wrong. Telling people lies and turning them against me. It's because of you I've seen HELL!" he finished, shouting and throwing at the same time.
The umbrella opened and span towards Ranma. He leapt aside, twisting his body through a near impossible angle to avoid the sharp edges. "Hey man watch out you might've hurt someone with that!" Ranma cried, ducking under the return. Ryoga just growled all the louder. After the brolly came the bandannas, and after that he took to swinging his own belt around. The scenery suffered something fierce, as did the panda's rear when a stray bandanna impaled it where the sun never shone.
This in turn led to the odd sight of a bouncing Ranma being chased by a furious Ryoga who in turn was being chased by a furious, hopping panda. Ranma quickly caught on and took to chasing the panda. Every time he caught up he would kick the panda in the rear end, making him howl. Eventually the Panda had enough of running and turned to confront his tormentor. Ranma dodged, Genma hit Ryoga instead and then the two of them went at it hard. Ranma in turn found a nice seat in the (somewhat worse for the wear) tree.
Then a toddler came running out into the garden, giggling with joy, and completely oblivious to the brawling combatants. Ranma saw the child and hurled himself from the tree to her rescue. He stopped Genma with a hefty left hook, and firmly planted his right foot in Ryoga's gut. In return he got a punch in the face and a knee in the nuts. The toddler in question stopped, looked up at the oddly contorted trio, smiled and ducked under the arch formed by Ranma and Ryoga, then continued to the pond and its shell-shocked fish.
Ranma saw what was happening, jumped back and grabbed the girl before she fell in. Behind him the other two finished their attacks and knocked each other flat. Tofu came running out of the building seconds later. When he saw the still crosseyed Ranma hlding his daughter he let out a big sigh of relief. "Thank you Saotome-san" he said, taking the happily burbling child from her perch. Of course by that point the kid had Ranma's pigtail firmly clenched in its hands and Ranma came along for the ride.
"Papa what's ths?" she asked, yanking the pig-tail again. Ranma le out a strangled 'urk' and Tofu fnally realised what she had hold of.
"Now now Tomo-chan, put the nice man's hair down and say sorry" he chided.
"No" she replied smiling.
"Tomo!"
"No!" she said with a bigger smile
"Tomo"
"NO!" she said finally letting go.
Tofu turned to Ranma, "Just think in two years this could be you" he said.
"Bully!" Ranma said, nursing his bruised scalp.
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When Ranma came inside he found Tofu chasing the girl around as she was again shouting her new favourite word.
"No" she screamed giggling and ducking under the table.
"No" she screamed crawling behind the sofa.
"No" she shouted pushing her way between Soun's legs, hitting him somewhere painful on the way.
"No" she shouted bouncing on Genma's belly and winding him.
"No she said almost running into Nabiki but stopping at the last moment. Her auntie took the opportunity and went in for the dreaded raspberry belly torture.
As Nabiki sat back up she caught Ranma looking at her with a smile on his face. She brushed her hair back behind her ear and gave him a big smile back.
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Dinner was served a little later at the enlarged family table. Ranma found himself sitting between his wife and Tofu, who in turn had his daughter restrained on his lap. Opposite sat Akane and Ryoga, whose faces were a study of opposites. Akane, for some reason blaming him for her recent problems, had a thundercloud for a face and Ryoga, sat next to divinity herself was all smiles and goofiness. Soun was pulling faces at both children when he thought nobody was watching and Genma-panda was acting as a furry chew toy for baby Kimiko.
"So what exactly is lover boy doing here?" Ranma asked, nodding at the oblivious Ryoga. The table went noticeably silent.
"I smell a rat" said Nabiki quietly, "now who's going to volunteer to spill the beans, or do I have to ask again."
Soun looked at Genma, Genma looked at Soun then they both blurted out unintelligible rubbish. Nabiki held up a hand and the both of them shut up. Akane naturally chose this point to explode.
"Ranma, How dare you make my sister threaten my dad and yours!" she shouted. The couple looked at each other and shrugged.
"You care to tell me exactly how you figure that onichan?" Nabiki asked, amused.
"It's always his fault. He's the pervert that seduced my sister, stole my wedding, drove all those girls off men so they became perverts like him and-" As she paused to take a breath Nabiki held up her hand again.
"I think we get the idea," Nabiki said "But back to the matter at hand. Errm Genma your go, what's the plot?" Akane was left feeling ignored and rather silly. Genma was for his own part, sweating under Nabiki's silent scrutiny. Finally he buckled.
"It was a joke really, nothing serious a prank. Isn't that right Soun ol buddy" he blurted out.
"Yes a prank," Soun agreed "we never even really were going to follow through on it were we Genma?"
"No of course not!" Genma agreed. "So no harm done eh?"
"Yes no harm done," Soun agreed "all forgotten eh?"
"Not quite" Nabiki interrupted speaking very slowly. "Now let me guess. Even after all this time the two of you hatched some stunningly stupid plan to split me and my husband apart and supplant me with my younger sister?"
"He IS my fiancé" Aknae argued. Ranma and Nabiki looked at her with such venom that even she got the message to shut her overactive mouth.
"Now let me fill in some of the details; Ryoga here is a fighter of some skill, right?" the duo nodded, "and he has a beef against Ranma. So he's here to challenge Ranma right?" again they nodded. "At some time during the fight one or the other of you was going to distract him with something… probably Akane in some sort of skimpy outfit" now the pair were looking genuinely scared. Ranma on the other hand was looking increasingly angry. "So Ryoga wins" Ranma scoffed "and you force him to divorce me and then set him up with Akane?" the duo finally caught on that answering really wasn't helping and started shaking their heads frantically. Ranma was growling and Akane looking smug.
"Two problems, one from what saw of this Ryoga he couldn't beat Ranma if my husband was tied to a post blindfolded and second you would need something a lot more distracting than my tomboyish sister to put him of hs game" Nabiki said, wiping Akane's smile right off her face. "Now Ranma, yu have something to say."
"I. Am. Going. To. Hurt. You. Both." Ranma said, slowly standing. The duo looked at each other, and RAN, fast. The door was left flapping in the wind behind them. Ranma slowly rounded on the other pair across the table. "Ryoga-" he started but was interrupted.
"Is too stupid to know any of this." Nabiki said "Unlike you onichan. You should have got the lesson by now. I am VERY disappointed."
"Not good enough" said Ranma in a cold voice. Then to Akane he said "You have just used up your very last chance. After this you end it or I will. You will not like my way." He turned and bowed to the Ono's "Thank you for a wonderful meal, and the pleasure of your family's company." He put his hand out to Nabiki and she smiled and stood up. With baby Kimiko they went to the door and dressed to leave.
"I'm not having a good day" he said quietly.
"I'll make it up to you later" she whispered into his ear breathily.
As they walked down the steps there was an incoherent cry of rage from within. Akane had run up to her room crying tears of shame, fear and hurt. This had finally broken Ryoga out of his stupor, just in time to see her in tears. He had added up the evidence in front of his eyes and decided that Ranma was to blame and decided to take his vengance.
So he came hurtling out of the door screaming a battle cry, "Ranma for hurting Akane I will destroy your happiness." Nearly any other cry an he might have got of easy. Instead Ranma only heard a threat to his family. Hence Ryoga never had a chance to finish his first swing. Instead he found a roundhouse kick ushng his head to the left and a straight arm palm strike hitting him in the sternum. Ryoga flew backwards landing spread across the steps with a hefty thud. He arched his suddenly painful back then for a moment he lay still. By the time Ranma and his family had cleared the compound Ryoga had finally tried to catch a breath only to find himself coughing up blood instead.
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That evening, with the baby put to bed, Ranma walked into his wife's comforting embrace and finally calmed down.
"Anata," he said "ate everything you've seen today are you sure about this amiy thing" he finished wearily.
"Did you see Kasumi's kid?" she asked in reply. He nodded. "Did you see her eating?" she asked. Again he nodded. "Did you see her sweet little smile?" she asked. This time he smiled as he nodded.
"I won't lie to you" she said "being a parent still scares the hell out of me. There are just too many people who have got it wrong for me ever to believe this is going to be easy. But I have never felt as good as I did that first time I saw you walk into the room with OUR baby. Ranma nothing has ever come easy to us, we have fought and strived for every single thing we have ever had, and being parents is going to be one of the toughest. But it is going to be worth every moment and if you doubt it all you have to do is look into our daughter's eyes and I swear all will become clear."
Ranma was silent for a moment and then nodded. "I was being stupid wasn't I." This time it was Nabiki's turn to nod.
"Yeah but that's the way I like you hero," she said. "And talking of you, care to explain why you are trying to come to bed with your boxers on?"
"You're wearing a nightie" he retorted. She responded by pulling the straps off her shoulders one by one and then, looking him in the eyes she let the whole thing drop. She beckoned him and he went to her, naked.
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Elsewhere lying in a hospital bed a man woke up in agony. His whole body seemed to ache with a fierce fire. He knew the source of his pain, the cause of the hate that burned in his breast.
Saotome Ranma, the man who had wrecked his life for a second time.
Silently and with clenched fist he swore an oath to the furies.
He WOULD have his revenge.
Saotome Ranma would pay!