Losing Innocence, Finding Self
Chapter 1: Freezing Point
Once again, the sensation of flying through the air at speeds that should have been impossible for a normal human to reach. But he wasn't exactly a normal human. Twisting himself around and flaring his aura slightly to bleed off momentum and absorb as much of the impact as possible, he braced himself for impact.
WHAM! CRACK!
And the sidewalk had yet another martial artist shaped impact crater. Specifically, an impact crater shaped like one Ranma Saotome. Said martial artist simply lay there for several minutes, breathing in and out slowly. The landing hadn't really done any damage- they never did. Not even the vicious uppercut, compliments of a certain gorilla-like tomboy, had hurt him. No, the physical abuse didn't bother him...it was the sentiment behind all the beatings that pained him time and again.
Shutting his eyes to block out the sun, and ignoring the citizenry walking around him, who, in turn, ignored him (they had grown used to martial artists periodically crash landing all around them), Ranma considered the people whose lives seemed so caught up with his own.
First, his father, Genma Saotome- probably the greatest source of all the chaos in his life. It was his fault Ranma had so many fiances chasing after him, his fault that they were both Jusenkyo cursed, that Ranma now turned into a girl and his father turned into a panda. It was because of his idiotic father that he had been seperated from his mother for over ten years, being subjected to insane and often nearly lethal "training" in the name of the Art.
His mother...Nodoka Saotome. He had been away from her for so long, and even after he had returned from the training trip, he dared not try to contact her. What if he wasn't manly enough? Once she found out about his curse, would she force him to commit seppuku? Would his own mother be willing to sentence him to death because he was not a "man among men"? But that was in the past. Nodoka had finally been reunited with her son, and she couldn't have been more proud of him. Ranma was her son, and she loved him. Even if she was just a bit...excitable at the prospect of getting grandchildren.
Thinking of his mother brought a small smile to Ranma's face. That smile slowly faded away as he thought about the next person whose life he had impacted when he arrived in Nerima.
Soun Tendo could have, at one time, been a strong man, and a powerful martial artist. Now he was little more than a bundle of nerves, constantly switching between crying his eyes out and going into his Demon Head technique when angered. He, along with Ranma's idiot father Genma, had constantly pushed Ranma into doing what they wanted. What was best for them. It didn't matter what he wanted, or how much they ended up hurting him. They just wanted to get him hitched to Akane, Soun's youngest daughter, as soon as possible so that they could live off him while he worked and sweated to maintain the dojo.
Akane...because of an agreement made between Genma and Soun before either of them were even fathers, Ranma and Akane were engaged to be married. Once, Ranma had cared deeply for Akane, maybe even loved her. But that had been beaten out of him. She never trusted him, she always jumped to conclusions and beat him, she always took everyone else's side over his. She had a kind heart, underneath all the violence and anger, but it seemed that she would never favor Ranma with that kindness. Maybe in another time, another place altogether, they could have been together- but not now, not here...it just wasn't meant to be. That had been made painfully clear to him at the failed wedding attempt.
Thinking of the failed wedding brought a grimace of pain to Ranma's face. That had hurt him, hurt him more deeply than any of Akane's malletings or careless words. Hurt him more than all of his rivals attempting to beat him into a bloody pulp. All his so called friends, fiances and rivals had crashed what could have been a truly joyous event. Because of them, he missed out his chance at a cure to his curse. Because of them, he and Akane had been violently pushed apart again after they had just begun to become close. Everyone had blamed him for the disaster, even Akane...
...Well, not everyone. His mother had even told him that none of it was his fault. Kasumi had been there to give him soothing words when he needed them the most.
Kasumi...she was the kindest, purest soul Ranma had ever met. The eldest Tendo daughter, she was completely devoid of jealously, blame, spite, of anger and of hate. She was always there for him, comforting him when he needed it the most. It saddened him to think of how she was often little more than a servant around the home, a housewife since she was a little girl. She deserved so much more than that. Kasumi deserved to find someone to care for HER, to take her away from all the housework and responsibility that had burdened her for years. She deserved to be happy. And Ranma vowed that he would do his best to help her find that happiness.
The biggest surprise came when Nabiki had actually apologized to him after the failed wedding. The middle Tendo daughter, she had been forced to keep their ancestral home afloat after their mother died and left Soun a broken shell of a man. As a result of her attempts at financial stability for her family, she had become known as the Ice Queen of Furinkan High School. Blackmailing, running betting pools, selling information- because of the things she had to do in order to make money, she had to keep tight control over her emotions. Eventually, people saw her as a cold hearted mercenary and avoided her at all costs, which made life lonely for Nabiki. But it wasn't true. She wasn't cold hearted, she simply couldn't afford the luxury of showing emotion. And Ranma respected her for everything she had done. She, like Kasumi, had given up much of her life to keep her family together. Three weeks ago, Ranma and Nabiki had a long talk with one another, and finally came to a full understanding. Now, Nabiki, like Kasumi, was one of Ranma's closest friends (in secret of course- she couldn't afford to ruin her reputation, after all). She was even trying her hardest to help Ranma find a way out of all of his problems, and he appreciated that with all his heart.
His expression, which had slowly drifted back to that small, warm smile as he thought of his newest friends, began to wane once more. Friends...he thought of his best friend since childhood, Ukyo.
Ranma and Ukyo, or Ucchan as he liked to call her, had been best friends when they were little. Little did he know, however, that his father and Ukyo's father had agreed to have them engaged. As Ukyo's Dowry, her father had given Genma his yattai. Shortly after, Genma had taken off with Ranma and the yattai- and without Ukyo. Years later, Ranma had finally been reunited with his best friend, only to find out that Ukyo was a girl, she was engaged to him, and she was trying to kill him out of revenge. Fortunately, he had avoided death at the hands of his best friend. Unfortunately, said best friend became his newest fiance.
Ranma sighed softly to himself, thinking of Ucchan. The friendship between them had become strained lately- at first because she constantly tried to manipulate that friendship to get Ranma to marry her, and now because of her part in the disastrous failed wedding.
Speaking of manipulation...
Centering his thoughts on a certain perky Chinese Amazon, Ranma shifted his body to make himself a bit more comfortable in the impact crater that had resulted from his less than stellar landing.
Shortly after receiving their curses at the cursed training grounds of Jusenkyo, Genma dragged his irate son to a nearby Amazon Village. There, the old fool had made yet another mistake, which he immediately left to his son to handle. He had eaten the feast that was meant to be the prize for the winner of the tournament that was currently underway. When the tournament champion, Shampoo, had confronted Genma about it, he left it to Ranma to defeat her in combat to get himself out of trouble. Ranma had easily taken down Shampoo, who was exhausted after the tournament- unfortunately, that wasn't a good thing. She had given Ranma, who had been in his cursed female form at the time, the Kiss of Death, which was a promise to hunt her down and kill her according to Amazon Law. After finally escaping Shampoo by swimming from China to Japan, Genma and Ranma thought that they were finally safe. They were wrong. Soon after, Shampoo and her great grandmother, Cologne, the Amazon Matriarch at over three hundred years old, showed up in Nerima to hunt down Ranma. Shampoo then found out that Ranma was really a guy, and had accordingly given him the Kiss of Marriage, making them officially married in accordance with Amazon Law. This did not sit well with Ranma, who did not particularly enjoy the idea of becoming a second class citizen in a society run by warrior females, and especially Genma, who saw it as a threat to his early retirement.
Ranma laughed softly to himself, reminescing about all the tricks Shampoo and especially her Cologne had pulled to get him to return to China with them. They sure made life interesting. Cologne had even taught him a few techniques, even if they usually were for a price. He had even come to see her as somewhat of an adopted grandmother- although he'd be damned if he would marry Shampoo, or any of the other fiance's. Shampoo was a nice girl, a bit too forward but fun to be around. It was hard to be depressed around her. But she was constantly trying to force Ranma to do as she wanted, and that irked him to no end. Ukyo was his best friend, he could always talk to her about things...but she had used that friendship to try and coerce him into marriage one too many times. Akane didn't trust him, always lost her temper, and constantly beat him with little or no provocation. The agreement between their fathers did not specify which Tendo daughter he had to marry, but he was only friends with Nabiki and Kasumi. And besides, Ranma still hoped to cure Tofu of his...ailment, and get him together with Kasumi.
That brought him to the fourth self proclaimed fiance, Kodachi. Ranma couldn't stop himself from shivering when he thought about that insane laughter of hers. The girl was obviously not quite right in the head, and he could understand why, considering the family she came from. Hopefully one day someone would be able to help her. Ranma believed that she only needed someone to care for her, and she would snap out of it. But that someone would not be him, and he would continue to avoid her as best he could. He didn't appreciate all the paralysis powder, poisons, and other strange chemicals Kodachi employed in her dellusional quest to claim her "Ranma-sama".
Sighing softly, Ranma opened his eyes and slowly stood up. It was time to return to the Tendo Dojo, to the chaos of his life. Thinking of all his current problems, Ranma didn't notice as his face lost all expression, his gaze turned frigid, and the temperature around him dropped several degrees.
"Where is that jerk! Probably out with one of those floozies. Grrr...when he gets back, I'm going to make him regret being such a pervert!" Said a certain angry tomby, gripping the stairwell so hard her knuckes turned white.
"Calm down sis, it's YOUR fault for punting him across town, remember?" Nabiki calmly stated, shifting her focus from the television.
"It's not MY fault he's always doing perverted stuff!" Akane huffed, releasing her deathgrip on the stairwell, "I just make sure he gets what he deserves!".
Rolling her eyes, Nabiki just returned to watching the news, silently wishing for Ranma to catch a break for once.
A few moments later, Kasumi walked in the room, smiling sweetly as usual. "Nabiki, have you seen Ranma around? Dinner is almost ready, and I wouldn't want him to miss a meal. He needs his strength, after all." Left unsaid was that he needed all the strength he could get just to survive another malleting.
Twisting around on the sofa to face her older sister, Nabiki spared a glance at Akane before answering "Not since Akane sent him flying over the horizon." Hinting at a smile, and with some affection in her voice, she added "You know Ranma...he would never miss a meal."
"Yeah, that jerk's always hungry. I'll bet he's getting food from that Chinese hussy!" Akane growled out.
Kasumi ignored her youngest sister, giggling slightly and addressing Nabiki once again "Well when Ranma gets back, please tell him to wash up and get ready for dinner quickly, or his father might eat his share"
"Will do sis," Nabiki told her older sister's retreating form.
'Oh please let Ranma be alright' Kasumi thought to herself, worrying about her pigtailed friend.
'It is time to tell him...I hope he can forgive me for keeping the truth from him for all these years. He must know...before it is too late.'
"Finally made it back," Ranma mumbled to himself, slowly making his way to the front door of the Tendo home. Sniffing the air, he smiled broadly and began walking faster. 'Kasumi's making dinner! Her cooking always cheers me up almost as much as her kind words do,' he thought brightly, 'and it smells like she's making my favorite! Maybe today is turning out to be better than I thought after all.'
Unfortunately, he couldn't have been more wrong. Life seems to have a knack for crashing down on him whenever things start to go well.
Hmm...yeah...Sorry 'bout this, but its very likely I'll have a bunch of characters OOC and such. But eh, its my story, my choice. If you don't like it, then I'm sorry, I've either changed someone intentionally to fit in with my story, or on accident because...er...I'm a failure.
