Nihao, fanfiction readers, and welcome! Please, this is my first attempt
at a Ranma ½ fic, so read and review! I must warn you, however, that I've
only seen the second season of this delightful anime, therefore a lot of
what's in this story could very easily be WRONG.
Oh, and the main title will make sense later, I promise... It'll probably get a tad more dramatic in the next chapters, if I get to use all of the material that's lodged in my deflated head...
Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½. All of these characters belong to Ms. Rumiko Takahashi. She's so cool... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
F O R G I V E
M E
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F O R G E T
M E
Chapter 1: Ita est ingenium mulierum... Women are like that
The sun was setting beyond the horizon, splashing the entire park in a fabulously ethereal evening orange. The place seemed desolate and cold, the creaking set of swings moving ever so slightly in the summer breeze, dead leaves rustling across the patches of grass. Long, surreal shadows grew from the metal slide and the few bare trees that numbered the inside of the park gate.
Ryoga sat on the lip of the cement fountain in the center of the park, numbly stewing in his own worth, not even bothering to notice he was still cold and damp from earlier. It had been several hours since the incident, and he was still wondering if he had made the best decision. He could have kept his mouth shut about the whole thing, kept his pride, his manhood, and his only friend...
His dark brown eyes were still misty and glittering with the residue of crying for hours on end. It was the worst - - simply the worst. Nothing could have made his day any more horrifying.
He decided to take a moment to compose himself before grabbing up his survival pack and umbrella and leaving. In all truths, he was forced to take several minutes of composure; therefore he sat there, miserable and tired, on the fountain edge for much longer than he had hoped. His forehead felt bare and uncomfortable and itched beneath his charcoal bangs.
Though, despite his discomfort, he really didn't want that darn bandana back...
Damn his truthfulness. Damn his huge, passionate heart and his beautiful, pure soul. Only the martyrs ended up dead along the way... just like him.
~ Don't think 'cause I understand, I care. Don't think 'cause I'm talking, We're friends. -Sneaker Pimps, "Six Underground" ~
Pubescent, teenage sobs echoed through the large dojo, splashing and bouncing off every rice-paper wall, making sure that there was not a soul in the place that could not hear it. Every inch of the otherwise quiet dojo was blanketed in long, dreary depression that made even the usually cheerful Kasumi and her younger, influential sister, Nabiki, want to cry.
It hurt them to see their sister so sad...
"There has to be something we can do about this..." Nabiki said flatly, though her proper older sister could tell she was concerned as ever. She fumbled with her cup of hot tea miserably, with her head resting upon the low table.
Kasumi sighed, her long fingers cupping her cheek as she stared into the small pond outside. She watched a tall boy with a lengthy, black braid and a red-and-gray ensemble leap around the pond with amazing agility, followed by a growling panda. Somehow, this did not seem very fascinating to her.
"Yes, you're absolutely right, Nabiki. What do you think would cheer her up?" Kasumi inquired in her usual, disconnected tone, turning to her stumped sister.
A boy's adolescent scream and a splash issued from outside, and both girls turned their attention to the yonder pond, where a young redhead was pulling herself ungracefully out of the water, soaking wet. The girl screamed at the panda, "Whadja do that for?!"
Nabiki lowered her eyelids, unimpressed, "Certainly not Ranma, that's for sure..."
Kasumi nodded agreeably.
The panda held up a sign that read: "What do you THINK I did that for?"
"Very funny," she sneered, before grabbing a towel out of nowhere to dry her hair, and stomping over to the dojo. She hopped inside, grumbling, and took a seat next to Nabiki at the low-table. She was dressed in the same ensemble as the boy.
"You're out of it today, Ranma," Nabiki said mockingly, "That's the fourth time you've gone -soaring- into that pond in the last half-hour."
"I wonder, do you have a cold?" the longhaired Kasumi questioned cheerfully.
The vivacious redhead snatched a cup of chipped ice from the gracious Kasumi (who didn't seem bothered at all by her rudeness) and began her daily rant. It went on for several minutes, and by the time she had almost finished, Kasumi and Nabiki were both entangled in watching the large panda roll around with a car tire.
"It's all that stupid Akane's fault! If she'd stop -whinin'- like a baby, maybe I could get some training in!"
The two entranced girls immediately snatched their eyes from the panda to look at each other, their eyes holding a conversation that the young Ranma obviously did not catch. - Someone gave a heavy knock outside Akane's door. A young girl's muffled, cracked voice screamed to her visitor, "Go away!"
Ranma gave a disheartened grumble as he scrubbed the remnants of Nabiki's kettle of boiling tea out of his charcoal-gray hair. He knocked again, and commented in a bossy tone before he had the chance to be chewed out again, "Akane, come outta there and talk to me already!"
"There's nothing to talk about!" she screamed, and fell silent except for her hiccupping sobs and muffled coughs. "Just leave me alone, Ranma..."
The young boy's shoulders dropped heavily, and he stared at the door, thoroughly disgruntled. "I can break this door down and -make- you talk to me. I've destroyed cement pillars, ya think a wooden door's gonna stop me?"
The sniffling stopped for a thoughtful moment.
The door creaked open, slowly...
Ranma's navy-blue eyes widened. He desperately wanted to back away, but his conscience wouldn't let him. Not now...
"What is it, Ranma?"
Before him, stood fifteen-year-old Akane, heir to the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. Her soft, brown eyes were glassy and red around the edges, as was her glowing nose, and her short, blue hair was all tousled and unkempt. There were large, dark splotches on her baby-blue dress... she looked -miserable-.
"A... Akane..." he managed to stutter. Too many questions buzzed and whirred inside his inflated head to be sorted out and categorized into functional questions. So he stood there, and stuttered...
She sighed grimly, and slammed the door in his face.
The stupefied young man was snapped from his trance, and clenched both fists tightly around the towel draping down his chest. "W-Wait, Akane! Don't be like that! I just-!"
"Nice job, Romeo," Nabiki smirked, startling him so bad that he yelped when her long fingers came down on his bare shoulder.
"N-Nabiki! Don't scare me like that!" he scolded in an octave higher than usual.
"I hate to say it, dear Ranma, but you really suck at this whole 'caring' business..." she lectured in an almost sympathetic voice, before patting him once on the shoulder and leaving down the hallway again.
"Oh, like you can do any better!" he screeched in defeated retaliation, his cheeks burning red. His soon-to-be sister-in-law blew him off with a wave of her hand before turning the corner.
Ranma grumbled curses under his breath sharp enough to peel paint.
"She's really a nice girl. That's just her way of saying 'keep up the good work'..." another light female voice spoke up behind him. The tortured Ranma nearly flattened his face on the ceiling with his next spectacular leap into the air from sudden heart failure. He rounded on the smiling Kasumi, eyes dilated, clutching his heart.
"O-Oh..." his voice quivered, and his eye giving a massive twitch, "I-Is that so...?"
He decided then that Kasumi was just too permanently out-of-it to yell at... - The three desperate teenagers sat at the low table, eyeing each other as though trying to read everyone's minds. In all truths, that's exactly what they were doing. They had absolutely no clue as to who or what had put Akane in such a terrible mood, or how they were going to get her out of her current state.
The black-haired Ranma sighed, and toppled backwards onto the floor, staring at the ceiling in contemplation. His otherwise inflated noggin suddenly felt devoid of any knowledge as to how to cheer up his fiancé.
Kasumi turned to Ranma, who had disappeared from the table, and asked in a quiet, concerned tone of voice, "Has she been like this all day, Ranma?"
"Nah, she was fine during school," Ranma said, thoroughly disenchanted, "Goin' home, she kinda strayed off the path, said she had someone to meet..."
Ranma furrowed his brow in an attempt to connect the two events. After a few moments of collective silence, he was left with not even a clue.
"Maybe she was attacked on the way home...?" Nabiki guessed, though already knowing she would be completely wrong. Akane never cried about getting attacked. She was rather used to it by now... used to winning, anyway.
"Nah. That's too obvious," he commented, suddenly feeling like some great novel detective. "Akane doesn't seem like the kind of person who would cry over anything that insignificant..."
"Did she say who she was going to meet?" Kasumi asked, too anxious for her sister to even sip at her tea. Her long fingernails drummed against the tiny, porcelain cup.
Ranma shook his head, stumped and rather disappointed in himself. "I didn't really think to ask who it was-"
"-Of course," Nabiki sighed spitefully. "You never ask her about anything, Ranma, it's like you don't even care. You're her fiancé, so you should at least learn to act like it!"
Being the first time he had ever heard Nabiki truly scold him, Ranma decided not to take her words too personally, like he did every thing else.
He sighed melodramatically, looking up into his fluffy bangs with crossed eyes, "She can look after herself. I'm her fiancé, not her babysitter."
"Be it babysitter or fiancé," Kasumi chimed in wisely, "you really should take a closer look at her. She's not just the tomboy you know... she's also a growing girl, and I know from experience that this can be a most confusing time for her. I think that your loving support would be all she needs to get through this tough time."
Ranma shifted his weight to look around the table to Kasumi, with one eyebrow raised. She was smiling, her long brunette hair flowing down one shoulder. She had always been helpful with housework and such, but this seemed to be the first time she had ever been insightful for his benefit...
Ranma believed himself to be opening up to the girls in ways he never thought was possible. He was seeing new sides to both of them, and rather liking it...
"Hey, here's an idea..." Nabiki began sarcastically, "how 'bout someone go and -ask- her? I'm sure it would mean a lot more to her if we did..."
"I ain't goin'..." Ranma huffed, and closed his eyes.
Nabiki growled, rounding on the tired Ranma with glaring eyes, "Didn't we just have this talk? You don't listen very well, do you, Ranma?"
"I listen perfectly well!" he snarled back at her, "I already tried checking up on her, and she told me to go away!"
"You really -are- a little clueless, aren't you, Ranma?" Kasumi chuckled, as though to compliment the arguing boy. "She's just playing hard-to-get with you."
Ranma blinked stupidly at Kasumi, trying to find the motive behind her last comment. His face was flushed red.
"H-Hard-to-get?" he asked, his voice cracking wearily.
"She's not just going to give herself up to you..." Nabiki sneered, once again planting her chin onto the tabletop. "You've got to earn her trust."
"H... How would I go about doing that?"
"Ranma, you-!" Nabiki held back an insatiable craving to punch her destined brother-in-law in the face. "What have we been -talking- about for the last five minutes?"
Ranma grumbled loudly, sitting up. He rested his elbows on the table, planting his face in his hands. "Are you absolutely -sure- that just talking to her is going to work? It sounds too simple to be true..."
A hard hand came down on his shoulder blade, throwing him forward several times and leaving his back stinging.
"You'll be fine, Ranma!" Nabiki beamed at him, patting him warmly on the back, "All you have to do is be the shoulder she can cry on! You'll make it, no problem!"
Ranma scrambled to his feet and away from the abusive Nabiki, rubbing his damaged back. "Fine! I'll go, just leave me alone!"
With that, he scurried out through the doorway, down the hall to Akane's room, without a second glance.
"We're rooting for you, Ranma!" Kasumi cried happily.
He disappeared down the hallway. A comfortable silence passed through the two smiling sisters as they watched their soon-to-be brother-in-law disappear around the corner.
"He's dead, isn't he?" Nabiki asked proudly.
"Yes, I'm afraid so..." Kasumi responded worrisomely, taking a sip at her tea.
Oh, and the main title will make sense later, I promise... It'll probably get a tad more dramatic in the next chapters, if I get to use all of the material that's lodged in my deflated head...
Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½. All of these characters belong to Ms. Rumiko Takahashi. She's so cool... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
F O R G I V E
M E
-
F O R G E T
M E
Chapter 1: Ita est ingenium mulierum... Women are like that
The sun was setting beyond the horizon, splashing the entire park in a fabulously ethereal evening orange. The place seemed desolate and cold, the creaking set of swings moving ever so slightly in the summer breeze, dead leaves rustling across the patches of grass. Long, surreal shadows grew from the metal slide and the few bare trees that numbered the inside of the park gate.
Ryoga sat on the lip of the cement fountain in the center of the park, numbly stewing in his own worth, not even bothering to notice he was still cold and damp from earlier. It had been several hours since the incident, and he was still wondering if he had made the best decision. He could have kept his mouth shut about the whole thing, kept his pride, his manhood, and his only friend...
His dark brown eyes were still misty and glittering with the residue of crying for hours on end. It was the worst - - simply the worst. Nothing could have made his day any more horrifying.
He decided to take a moment to compose himself before grabbing up his survival pack and umbrella and leaving. In all truths, he was forced to take several minutes of composure; therefore he sat there, miserable and tired, on the fountain edge for much longer than he had hoped. His forehead felt bare and uncomfortable and itched beneath his charcoal bangs.
Though, despite his discomfort, he really didn't want that darn bandana back...
Damn his truthfulness. Damn his huge, passionate heart and his beautiful, pure soul. Only the martyrs ended up dead along the way... just like him.
~ Don't think 'cause I understand, I care. Don't think 'cause I'm talking, We're friends. -Sneaker Pimps, "Six Underground" ~
Pubescent, teenage sobs echoed through the large dojo, splashing and bouncing off every rice-paper wall, making sure that there was not a soul in the place that could not hear it. Every inch of the otherwise quiet dojo was blanketed in long, dreary depression that made even the usually cheerful Kasumi and her younger, influential sister, Nabiki, want to cry.
It hurt them to see their sister so sad...
"There has to be something we can do about this..." Nabiki said flatly, though her proper older sister could tell she was concerned as ever. She fumbled with her cup of hot tea miserably, with her head resting upon the low table.
Kasumi sighed, her long fingers cupping her cheek as she stared into the small pond outside. She watched a tall boy with a lengthy, black braid and a red-and-gray ensemble leap around the pond with amazing agility, followed by a growling panda. Somehow, this did not seem very fascinating to her.
"Yes, you're absolutely right, Nabiki. What do you think would cheer her up?" Kasumi inquired in her usual, disconnected tone, turning to her stumped sister.
A boy's adolescent scream and a splash issued from outside, and both girls turned their attention to the yonder pond, where a young redhead was pulling herself ungracefully out of the water, soaking wet. The girl screamed at the panda, "Whadja do that for?!"
Nabiki lowered her eyelids, unimpressed, "Certainly not Ranma, that's for sure..."
Kasumi nodded agreeably.
The panda held up a sign that read: "What do you THINK I did that for?"
"Very funny," she sneered, before grabbing a towel out of nowhere to dry her hair, and stomping over to the dojo. She hopped inside, grumbling, and took a seat next to Nabiki at the low-table. She was dressed in the same ensemble as the boy.
"You're out of it today, Ranma," Nabiki said mockingly, "That's the fourth time you've gone -soaring- into that pond in the last half-hour."
"I wonder, do you have a cold?" the longhaired Kasumi questioned cheerfully.
The vivacious redhead snatched a cup of chipped ice from the gracious Kasumi (who didn't seem bothered at all by her rudeness) and began her daily rant. It went on for several minutes, and by the time she had almost finished, Kasumi and Nabiki were both entangled in watching the large panda roll around with a car tire.
"It's all that stupid Akane's fault! If she'd stop -whinin'- like a baby, maybe I could get some training in!"
The two entranced girls immediately snatched their eyes from the panda to look at each other, their eyes holding a conversation that the young Ranma obviously did not catch. - Someone gave a heavy knock outside Akane's door. A young girl's muffled, cracked voice screamed to her visitor, "Go away!"
Ranma gave a disheartened grumble as he scrubbed the remnants of Nabiki's kettle of boiling tea out of his charcoal-gray hair. He knocked again, and commented in a bossy tone before he had the chance to be chewed out again, "Akane, come outta there and talk to me already!"
"There's nothing to talk about!" she screamed, and fell silent except for her hiccupping sobs and muffled coughs. "Just leave me alone, Ranma..."
The young boy's shoulders dropped heavily, and he stared at the door, thoroughly disgruntled. "I can break this door down and -make- you talk to me. I've destroyed cement pillars, ya think a wooden door's gonna stop me?"
The sniffling stopped for a thoughtful moment.
The door creaked open, slowly...
Ranma's navy-blue eyes widened. He desperately wanted to back away, but his conscience wouldn't let him. Not now...
"What is it, Ranma?"
Before him, stood fifteen-year-old Akane, heir to the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. Her soft, brown eyes were glassy and red around the edges, as was her glowing nose, and her short, blue hair was all tousled and unkempt. There were large, dark splotches on her baby-blue dress... she looked -miserable-.
"A... Akane..." he managed to stutter. Too many questions buzzed and whirred inside his inflated head to be sorted out and categorized into functional questions. So he stood there, and stuttered...
She sighed grimly, and slammed the door in his face.
The stupefied young man was snapped from his trance, and clenched both fists tightly around the towel draping down his chest. "W-Wait, Akane! Don't be like that! I just-!"
"Nice job, Romeo," Nabiki smirked, startling him so bad that he yelped when her long fingers came down on his bare shoulder.
"N-Nabiki! Don't scare me like that!" he scolded in an octave higher than usual.
"I hate to say it, dear Ranma, but you really suck at this whole 'caring' business..." she lectured in an almost sympathetic voice, before patting him once on the shoulder and leaving down the hallway again.
"Oh, like you can do any better!" he screeched in defeated retaliation, his cheeks burning red. His soon-to-be sister-in-law blew him off with a wave of her hand before turning the corner.
Ranma grumbled curses under his breath sharp enough to peel paint.
"She's really a nice girl. That's just her way of saying 'keep up the good work'..." another light female voice spoke up behind him. The tortured Ranma nearly flattened his face on the ceiling with his next spectacular leap into the air from sudden heart failure. He rounded on the smiling Kasumi, eyes dilated, clutching his heart.
"O-Oh..." his voice quivered, and his eye giving a massive twitch, "I-Is that so...?"
He decided then that Kasumi was just too permanently out-of-it to yell at... - The three desperate teenagers sat at the low table, eyeing each other as though trying to read everyone's minds. In all truths, that's exactly what they were doing. They had absolutely no clue as to who or what had put Akane in such a terrible mood, or how they were going to get her out of her current state.
The black-haired Ranma sighed, and toppled backwards onto the floor, staring at the ceiling in contemplation. His otherwise inflated noggin suddenly felt devoid of any knowledge as to how to cheer up his fiancé.
Kasumi turned to Ranma, who had disappeared from the table, and asked in a quiet, concerned tone of voice, "Has she been like this all day, Ranma?"
"Nah, she was fine during school," Ranma said, thoroughly disenchanted, "Goin' home, she kinda strayed off the path, said she had someone to meet..."
Ranma furrowed his brow in an attempt to connect the two events. After a few moments of collective silence, he was left with not even a clue.
"Maybe she was attacked on the way home...?" Nabiki guessed, though already knowing she would be completely wrong. Akane never cried about getting attacked. She was rather used to it by now... used to winning, anyway.
"Nah. That's too obvious," he commented, suddenly feeling like some great novel detective. "Akane doesn't seem like the kind of person who would cry over anything that insignificant..."
"Did she say who she was going to meet?" Kasumi asked, too anxious for her sister to even sip at her tea. Her long fingernails drummed against the tiny, porcelain cup.
Ranma shook his head, stumped and rather disappointed in himself. "I didn't really think to ask who it was-"
"-Of course," Nabiki sighed spitefully. "You never ask her about anything, Ranma, it's like you don't even care. You're her fiancé, so you should at least learn to act like it!"
Being the first time he had ever heard Nabiki truly scold him, Ranma decided not to take her words too personally, like he did every thing else.
He sighed melodramatically, looking up into his fluffy bangs with crossed eyes, "She can look after herself. I'm her fiancé, not her babysitter."
"Be it babysitter or fiancé," Kasumi chimed in wisely, "you really should take a closer look at her. She's not just the tomboy you know... she's also a growing girl, and I know from experience that this can be a most confusing time for her. I think that your loving support would be all she needs to get through this tough time."
Ranma shifted his weight to look around the table to Kasumi, with one eyebrow raised. She was smiling, her long brunette hair flowing down one shoulder. She had always been helpful with housework and such, but this seemed to be the first time she had ever been insightful for his benefit...
Ranma believed himself to be opening up to the girls in ways he never thought was possible. He was seeing new sides to both of them, and rather liking it...
"Hey, here's an idea..." Nabiki began sarcastically, "how 'bout someone go and -ask- her? I'm sure it would mean a lot more to her if we did..."
"I ain't goin'..." Ranma huffed, and closed his eyes.
Nabiki growled, rounding on the tired Ranma with glaring eyes, "Didn't we just have this talk? You don't listen very well, do you, Ranma?"
"I listen perfectly well!" he snarled back at her, "I already tried checking up on her, and she told me to go away!"
"You really -are- a little clueless, aren't you, Ranma?" Kasumi chuckled, as though to compliment the arguing boy. "She's just playing hard-to-get with you."
Ranma blinked stupidly at Kasumi, trying to find the motive behind her last comment. His face was flushed red.
"H-Hard-to-get?" he asked, his voice cracking wearily.
"She's not just going to give herself up to you..." Nabiki sneered, once again planting her chin onto the tabletop. "You've got to earn her trust."
"H... How would I go about doing that?"
"Ranma, you-!" Nabiki held back an insatiable craving to punch her destined brother-in-law in the face. "What have we been -talking- about for the last five minutes?"
Ranma grumbled loudly, sitting up. He rested his elbows on the table, planting his face in his hands. "Are you absolutely -sure- that just talking to her is going to work? It sounds too simple to be true..."
A hard hand came down on his shoulder blade, throwing him forward several times and leaving his back stinging.
"You'll be fine, Ranma!" Nabiki beamed at him, patting him warmly on the back, "All you have to do is be the shoulder she can cry on! You'll make it, no problem!"
Ranma scrambled to his feet and away from the abusive Nabiki, rubbing his damaged back. "Fine! I'll go, just leave me alone!"
With that, he scurried out through the doorway, down the hall to Akane's room, without a second glance.
"We're rooting for you, Ranma!" Kasumi cried happily.
He disappeared down the hallway. A comfortable silence passed through the two smiling sisters as they watched their soon-to-be brother-in-law disappear around the corner.
"He's dead, isn't he?" Nabiki asked proudly.
"Yes, I'm afraid so..." Kasumi responded worrisomely, taking a sip at her tea.
