Starting Over: Do You Want to be Friends?

Chapter 25

Written by Senshi of Valis

Ranma ½ created by Rumiko Takahashi

Card Captor Sakura created by Clamp

I don't own any of these series or the characters in each.

SeCtIoN bReAk

Ranko couldn't believe she was doing this again, especially the day after catching Firey, she should have been getting ready for the judgment but Kero said it wouldn't happen until the full moon which was a couple more days away. Now she was outback again, indside the safety of the wall in her bikini again with Nabiki sunbathing. Everyone else had gone out except for Alita who was watching something on the television.

"You need to relax." Nabiki said, "Believe me I know its hard…I was the same way at first. But this feels great."

"I guess." Ranko said but she did have to admit, it felt great. The warmth of the sun on her as she lay back on the lawn chair relaxing. It felt good and she needed that for what she was going to do later that day. Bakura was supposed to come over in the afternoon and Ranko had to do it as much as it was tearing her apart…she had to break it off.

"Hey Kitten." Bakura's voice came from behind her, "Looking good."

"What?" Ranko asked, sitting up, trying to cover herself as she looked behind her to see a smiling Bakura.

"How the hell did you get out here?" Nabiki demanded.

"Alita let me in and said you were out here." Bakura said.

"Let's go to my room." Ranko said, "I…I need to talk to you."

"Sure Kitten." Bakura said.

"Ranko…I'm not sure if that's a good idea." Nabiki said.

"It's okay, Nabiki." Ranko said, getting up. "I trust Bakura."

Ranko led the way inside with Bakura following, she could feel his eyes sweeping over her body. She should have been disgusted over it but she wasn't…she liked having him looking at her, it made her feel good in a way. She cared for him, wanted to be with him so much but she knew it was impossible.

As the finally made it into Ranko's room she locked the door behind them and went to her closet pulling out a long shirt and pulling it on over her swimsuit as Bakura sat down on the bed. Ranko walked to the vanity where the bracelet he had given her was sitting. She picked it up and walked to Bakura holding it out. She noticed that Kero wasn't in his door and was thankful that he seemed to be elsewhere.

"I want you to have this back." Ranko said, fighting hard not to break down crying. She needed to be strong for this, it was for Bakura. "I can't see you any more."

"I don't want it back Kitten…but why can't you?" Bakura asked.

"I just…can't." Ranko said, trembling.

"Ranko…why?" Bakura asked.

"Bakura…it's for your own good." Ranko said, offering the bracelet again which Bakura refused.

"Why, Ranko, please tell me why." Bakura said.

"You…you deserve so much better than me, Bakura." Ranko said, tears falling freely now. "I'm…I'm just a used piece of trash…"

"Don't you dare say that about the girl I love." Bakura said pulling Ranko into his lap.

"But…But its true, Bakura. You deserve so much better than me. I'm dirty…I…slept with my own father twice." Ranko cried as Bakura held her.

"You was raped, Ranko, that bastard hurt you." Bakura said, "He forced you, Ranko…that doesn't make you dirty or trashy…"

"I-I can't even offer you anything…he took it…you deserve someone who…" Ranko cried, burying her head in his chest.

"Ranko…I love you and all I want is your love in return but I'm willing to wait as long as it takes. I just want to be with you, to me you are everything." Bakura said, stroking Ranko's back.

"If you don't care that I'm dirty then prove it." Ranko cried, pushing away from Bakura a little and pulling off her shirt so all she had on was the bikini. "Make love to me."

"No." Bakura said.

"You see, you can't even stand the thought of that…" Ranko cried but Bakura stopped anything else with a kiss.

"Ranko," Bakura said, finally breaking the kiss, "I would love to but I don't believe that you are ready for that, I won't ruin what has grown between us for a few minutes of lust. When we do make love, it will be when we are both ready and hopefully married. I won't hurt you and if we did make love now, it would only end up hurting you."

"M-Married?" Ranko sniffed.

"Yes, Ranko…" Bakura said, "I said I loved you and I do, I want to spend my life with you. I'll willing to wait as long as it takes for you to heal but I'm not going to leave you alone. Not now, not ever."

"Y-You're serious?" Ranko asked, shocked.

"Very serious, Ranko." Bakura said with a smile, "I have never felt this way before for anyone, I was in love once a long, long time ago but…it was nothing like this. She was nothing like you, you have given me something to live for other than vengeance and hatred."

"I'm sorry, Bakura." Ranko cried as he held her tightly while gently rocking her.

sEcTiOn BrEaK

Nabiki slowly followed the two up to Ranko's room and stood outside the door with her ear pressed up against it listening. If Bakura tried to do anything she swore that she would kill him. She couldn't believe it when Ranko told Bakura that she couldn't see him anymore. Bakura had refused to take her simple explanation and Ranko broke down crying and told him why which tore at Nabiki's heart. She knew how hard it could get after what had happened to Ranko, she knew all of the feelings that the girl was feeling.

Nabiki almost tore into the room when Ranko told Bakura to make love to her, she was sure Bakura would be all too happy to take her up on it but he had actually said no. Nabiki couldn't believe what Bakura had told Ranko, of course she wasn't her little sister but Nabiki still didn't trust many guys too easily and definitely not Bakura. He…scared her. She didn't know what it was but the boy very presence sent shivers down her back at times.

What Bakura had said next completely floored Nabiki, Bakura had said he wanted to MARRY Ranko. He wanted to be with her but wanted to wait until she was feeling better, he was willing to let her heal before pushing Ranko into anything. She never believed a guy would do that.

Of course Nabiki was very happy when she heard that Ranko was going out on a date with someone she knew but she still worried about Ranko. Then when she got to know Bakura she started feeling that something was off about him. So many alarms started going off in her head every time he was around, especially when he wore that strange ring around his neck.

Ranko was okay though and Nabiki needed to let them have a little privacy so she left for her room to change and maybe go out. After all, it was summer break and she wanted to enjoy it as much of it as she could.

SeCtIoN bReAk

'I hope she'll be okay.' Ryou told Bakura.

'She will, she's strong Ryou but right now she is hurting and confused, all she needs is time to heal and some confidence.' Bakura said, 'Back in my time, bastards who did things like this were severely punished.'

'I thought most people really didn't care about stuff like that back then.' Ryou said.

'Don't believe everything that you see or hear.' Bakura said, 'Though I guess some places really didn't care.'

'She really is beautiful…isn't she?' Ryou asked as Ranko slept in their lap.

'She is but don't get any ideas, Ryou, she's mine.' Bakura said.

'I wouldn't dream of it, Bakura.' Ryou laughed, 'She cares for you very much you know.'

'I know…' Bakura said, 'And she means the world to me, how anyone could hurt someone so badly is beyond me. Do you know what scares me, Ryou?'

'What?' Ryou asked.

'If I kept on the road of vengeance, how far into the darkness would I have sunk? Would I have someday even sunk to the level of doing this to someone?' Bakura asked, 'Would I have destroyed someone's life for my own selfish desires?'

'I don't believe so, Bakura.' Ryou said, 'You were angry and with good reason but it is good that you finally let it go. It would have probably ended up destroying you. It almost did with Marik.'

'It's over with, I will never return to being the way I was Ryou.' Bakura said, 'I'm afraid of what I'd do if I did.'

sEcTiOn BrEaK

"Hi, Tofu." Kasumi said as she walked into the small clinic carrying a plate of cookies she had made especially for him. She was surprised though when the doctor didn't start acting strange like he always did when she was around and that thrilled her but also worried her. She hoped nothing was wrong.

"Hello Kasumi." Tofu said.

"Is anything wrong?" Kasumi asked.

"No, why?" Tofu asked confused.

"Well, usually you…" Kasumi tried to say more but Tofu cut her off.

"Do not worry, Kasumi Tendo." Tofu said in a different voice which scared her, "The book is complete, my powers are now at full strength and the fusion is finally complete. The imbalances which caused Tofu's strange reactions are no longer of a concern as the have now balanced out. Come the full moon, judgment shall be passed and we will be as one."

"Wh-What are you talking about?" Kasumi asked fearfully as she backed up towards the door as two large wings formed out of Tofu's back and enclosed around his body. When the moved out of the way there was an angel standing in his place.

"You're an angel?" Kasumi gasped.

"No, Kasumi, I am not." The man chuckled, "I am Yue, I share this body with your friend Tofu. When I came here I was with a different host but my presence in him was causing him to die. This shouldn't have been but something went wrong when we joined. Tofu found out about it and offered himself as my new host in order to save the boy. I agreed as I didn't want to hurt anyone so we joined. I regret though that our joining was harder that it should have been and caused imbalances that caused the little episodes because we couldn't fully fuse until now. I regret though that we both may fuse completely, with both of us becoming one entity."

"So Tofu is okay?" Kasumi asked, nervous.

"Yes, Kasumi." Tofu's voice said from Yue's body. "I'm sorry for not telling you before but as you heard…it was a little difficult. I hated it when it happened though because I…I came to care for you a great deal."

Kasumi watched as the angelic body shifted back into Tofu's body. When she seen him reappear, she threw her arms around him and kissed him. "I was so scared something happened to you."

"How do you know I was telling the truth?" Tofu asked.

"Because silly, I can see that you are still you…your aura was always very strong." Kasumi said.

"You can see auras?" Tofu asked in surprise.

"Of course silly, my mom taught me before she died." Kasumi said.

"Yue wants you to do a favor for him if you will. Don't worry though, he promises no one will get hurt."

"What is it?" Kasumi asked.

"Yue wants you to tell Ranko to have Kero and her to meet him at Furinkan High on the night of the full moon. He says to just tell her that it is a challenge from Yue but not to let her know who Yue is or how to find him." Tofu said.

"I will, but Tofu…can we talk without Yue knowing what's going on?" Kasumi asked shyly.

"Of course, he is sleeping now." Tofu said.

"Good, I always wanted to do this." Kasumi smiled as she kissed Tofu fully on the lips.

SeCtIoN bReAk

AN: Hi everyone, I hope this chapter turned out okay. Ranko is having a little bit of a hard time still but she is doing a lot better than before. The sequel she will have plenty of self confidence and maybe a little more by the end of this part. She will be able to say those three simple words to Bakura though most likely by the end of this part of the story.

I decided to have Yue kind of posses Tofu to explain his actions around Kasumi but since Tofu didn't have as much magic as his old host, it was hard for Yue to do a perfect transfer. So that left an imbalance in magical energies and other things that caused Tofu's behavior. With Ranko finally sealing the last card and the Clow Book once again complete, Yue was able to draw enough power from it to finally fix the problem but also made a mistake.

At the moment, Yue and Tofu will become one person by the end of the judgment but they may not.

Dragon Man 180: I'm glad, I think they are going to be a pairing. That's a great idea and I bet Ranko would love that. I also loved the idea about Yue but he won't be affected by it anymore I'm afraid.

Vixen2: Yep, I have a lot of spare time at the moment to write. Thanks, Sakura's dreams are visions of the future. I remembered that she saw the radio tower in her dreams several times before her judgment and I'm pretty sure she dreamed a few other things before they happened so I had her keep that ability. Bakura is trying to be better but god help anyone who hurts Ranko, especially Genma if he ever finds away out of the shadow realm. Li won't win and I'm sorry about the pairing…I never thought of a Tomoyo/Sakura one since they are close cousins in this one. But if I hadn't already of made them cousins in this story I would have loved to use your idea and seen where that went. Thanks, I try though every once in awhile, as with this chapter, I have a hard time thinking because of one thing or another and I'm not completely happy with how it turns out. I do plan to go back once I finish and fix up those few chapters and may even work on reworking the whole thing to make it better but it will still be the same story. When I do it will be posted on my web site as an enhanced edition or something.

Ebona Nite: Thanks, and they will become friends. I was going to wait until the judgment to bring Yue in but I needed a way to get Ranko where I wanted for the trial and this was the best way I could think of. When Bast and Xellos was talking about the greater Mazoku like Shabinigdo and the Lord of Nightmares. Some of the other Slayers cast will be showing up in the sequel though thanks to RubberNeck's idea.

RubberNeck: Sorry, I had a part of the chapter already worked out and it was easy to finish it so I went ahead and posted it.

Mgsaintz: Thanks, and Akane will be getting help but I'm not sure how easy it will be for her to get over it. Thanks again, I hope you liked this chapter.

Darkman v3: If I do bring in Ranma he won't be unless it's Kasumi from his universe.

Firehedgehog: Thanks and she will for sure. As for the yugi gangs' thoughts, that would probably cover it mostly.

Lov3the3vil: Yep and thank you. And your right, Bakura and Ranko will be together and Li and Sakura may very well become a pairing. Thanks again, I hope this chapter turned out pretty good.

TheWhiteMonk: Thanks, I'll try my best for when I do the judgment and in the sequel and prequel while changing/catching the cards. (I'll also try with the rest of it too.) Akane will be confronted in the next chapter by Sakura and it may happen some in the sequel too. Akane…I don't really know what to say about her. Sometimes I see myself in her though, well before my boyfriend helped me. (My mom hates him though…grumbles) She isn't exactly one of my fave characters but she's also not one of my least fave characters either.

Isumo 1489: Thanks, I didn't want to use the same way Sakura did in the cannon to catch Firey. I love it and that would be great but e-mailing it may be best depending on how long it is. As for Sakura's dream abilities, I'm thinking she might get much more near the middle of the sequel thanks to a new character who might be forced to get her help. I would love any help with Bakura's deck and strategy, thank you.

Shinigami: Something will happen next chapter, I'm not sure if it will involve a mallet or not but it will have Sakura confronting Akane, thanks.

Thanks to everyone who has read and enjoyed this. Also, thank you to everyone for your reviews and support and all of your help.

Until Next Time

Ja Ne