A different time. By Jwleonard
Nabiki hated Ranma. It wasn't something that she could rationalize. Ever since the funeral of her sister, Nabiki had resented the way that Ranma just ran away to train.
Nabiki was a career woman, after having been passed up as a fiancé by Ranma, she devoted her life to her goals. Being a successful business woman.
However, she had received a call not two days ago saying that Genma had returned and something had happened to Ranma.
As much as Nabiki resented him, he was still family. So she dropped everything, or at least put everything on hold, and came back home. Something she had avoided since that day.
Nabiki didn't think that anything was wrong when she pulled up to the gates of her old family home. She would have sold the property a long time ago, but her sister and Ranma had inherited the property with their marriage and Ranma had decided to let Soun stay there for the sake of family.
Nodoka had moved in after the funeral and Ranma ran off with his father to 'train'.
Nabiki was a little surprised when a young teenaged girl opened the door and welcomed her like a stranger to her old home.
"You must be Nabiki. Grandmother said that you were coming."
"Grandmother?"
"Come with me please." The girl said before turning on her heel and retreating into the house.
"Now hold on, just who are you." Nabiki followed, but was not amused by this stranger in her father's old house.
"Nabiki, leave her alone and come here." Soun's voice held something in it that had been missing since his wife died so many years ago, authority.
"Go see to your Grandfather while we speak with Nabiki, dear." Nodoka's voice was firm, and the girl bowed gracefully out before going towards the backyard.
"Nabiki, something terrible has happened to Ranma. Something unbelievable, but true." Soun began.
"You know how ever since your sister and her children were killed, Ranma has been…"
"Irresponsible?" Nabiki interjected.
Both Nodoka and Soun gave her pained, hard looks that quickly softened into resignation.
"I'll admit that my son has been dealing with the loss of his family in a way that many would have said was unwise." Nodoka said wearily.
"He didn't even attend their funeral! He just left after they were killed, he disappeared until after the funeral and so did all those fluzzies that were responsible for putting my sister in the ground!"
"Nabiki, there are things that you don't know about those days that you are unaware of, things that we feel you should know now."
"You damn well better and while you're at it, tell me about that girl who answered the door and why she called you her grandmother! She's Ranma's isn't she? I knew he was a bastard but to cheat on Slap" Nabiki's face stung from where Nodoka had struck her.
"I will not tolerate you to judge my son before you have all the facts young lady. My son did run away after the murder of his wife and children, and he did run to those responsible, but not as a grateful lover, but as an avenging angel."
"All Ranma knew was that his family was dead and the fiancés were responsible. To hear him tell it after he came to me, he found the bodies after being chased around the area by one of the crazier fiancés, the one with a thing for chemicals. She was merely a diversion so the others could ambush their competition."
When Ranma caught up with them, he found them congratulating each other before breaking out into a fight over who would then have him, now that your sister was out of the way. Ranma fell upon them in a rage, using everything thing he had ever learned to quickly kill them with no mercy.
That is why Ranma and his other fiancés disappeared before the funeral, he killed them in a blind rage for killing his family. Something the police would not understand, if they ever learned the truth, Ranma would be arrested for murder. He would not survive the courts or jail."
"Why were we not told this to begin with?" Nabiki demanded.
"Because Ranma asked us not to tell anybody unless he died."
"You mean…Ranma got himself killed in China?"
"It is more complicated than that, but yes, in essence, the man that married your sister is no longer among us."
"You know how much I don't like beating around the bush, is he or is he not dead?" The growl in Nabiki's voice matched her expression.
"No, he is not dead…but he is no longer Ranma either."
"What are you trying to say?"
"While in China, Ranma and Genma came across a training ground that was cursed. They left that place cursed as well. They then encountered a village of Amazons who did something to Ranma after he had offended them. They did something to the curse and something to his mind, destroying the man he was and creating a new person with no memories."
"Curse? You're joking."
"You've seen Ranma fight before, you know his style. Let us go outside and watch my granddaughter as she exercises." Nodoka stood and walked towards the back yard. Nabiki followed.
The sight that greeted her was the young girl that had opened the door for her fighting Old man Genma in Ranma's style. Lot's of kicks and high speed punches in mid air and beyond. The girl had changed out of the kimono and was now wearing a gi. The girl's skill was well beyond her years
"I don't understand." Nabiki said weakly as she realized that the girl was doing things that only Ranma had done.
"The curse changed his body, but he was able to change back when he wanted, but the Amazons in China made it so he couldn't change back and then they erased him, leaving her. They killed my son to create this girl. They left her with her skills, but all her memories and everything that made Ranma Ranma is gone."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"We're too old to care for another child, even if she is sixteen. We cannot bear what she represents to us. She has come to stand for the death of my child, and though I try to see the good in this and the good my husband did in returning my child to me no matter what his condition, I cannot bear to remain near this child."
"We are asking you to care for her as your own child. It was something that Ranma and your sister had worked into their wills that if something happened to them that you would care for their children as you would your own. Genma has convinced her that she is Ranma and your sister's daughter. We have done nothing to change that story."
"What is her name?"
"Ranma; the wild orchid."
"She has no memories whatsoever?"
"None."
"What are you going to do if I don't take her."
"Nabiki, me and my husband would like to mourn the loss of our son. With her here, it is like salt in the wound. We have to arrange a funeral without a body and create a person where there was none before, things that we need your help with. Please care for her as you did Ranma's children. She is still very impressionable, give her something other than fighting to live for. I'm afraid that is all we can offer her." Nodoka's voice was soft enough so that only Nabiki could hear her.
It was at this point that Genma fell into the kio pond. The panda that emerged from the water confirmed everything for Nabiki.
"It's all true." Nabiki breathed. "I'll do it. Ranma can move in with me and I'll take care of her and the funeral, just plan it and I'll take care of the rest."