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Uncles!
Chapter 02
by Cory D. Rose
Sept 2001
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Ranma trudged up the stairs to the Hikawa Shrine, today was the day he was going to have a little talk with Rei or Sailor Mars. He liked the idea that she was a Scout and could protect herself, but she had kept it secret even after he revealed to her his most hated secret. She probably has a good reason he thought to himself, but it still erked him a little bit. He couldn't even go to his mother for advice, she seemed to get stuck in this 'manly' fantasy every time he even metioned a girl's name. Even worse, she wanted him to bring girls home for dinner some times, she didn't seem to care who they were, so long as they were female and cute.
He was so glad he had gotten permision to live on his own, he loved his mom, but she was almost as controling as his father. At least this way he could make his own mistakes, his own promises, and be able to live with them since he made them himself. So here he was fulfulling one of his promises, he hoped it went okay and nothing happened, but with the way his was at time it was a little hard to say what would happen. The temple was a good sized place and could have housed a large family easily, but so far he only knew of Rei and her Grandfather, who he hadn't met yet. Luckily it was early on Sunday, it would give him all day to teach her the special techniques he had learned to control his Ki for fighting.
A black blur was all he noticed before he was tackled from the side and sent to the ground. "Your alive!" Squealed a very female voice.
Ranma stopped himself from kicking the girl off him long enough to see that it was Hotaru and that she was crying, she was trying to hug the life out of him. Oh god, she was crying and he didn't know how to make her stop. Then he realized that it was tears of happiness, not the kind he was used to. He smiled down at her and hugged her back. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to visit Rei, we had some...uh...homework to help each other with." Hotaru lied.
Ranma picked it up, but ignored it, he would find out later why she was lieing to him. "That's cool, I was just stopping by to repay Rei for the help she gave me the other day."
"What did she do?"
"She and Usagi helped me to the hospital after Akane used her mallet on me again."
"Akane, she's one of your fiance'es right?"
"Yep, though I'm trying to put an end to that crap now that it has gotten so out of control."
"How?"
Ranma stood up and they walked over to a nearby bench under a cherry tree and sat down. "This last attack by Akane was the end of my patience, she nearly killed me. She put me in the hospital and I was able to put my feelings for her in perspective, and I decided that I needed to get away from the crazyness and move on with my life, on my terms. I moved out and with the help of my mom got set up in an apartment not to far from here."
"Is all the stuff on those cards and the stories true? I thought they had to be making some of it up, then all those super powerful martial arts attacks were a little hard to believe, then I saw you and Ryoga fight." Hotaru turned a super kawaii look on Ranma and he edged away in fear. "H-how did you two learn to do all that stuff, throwing magic blasts around, punching through stone and jumping so high. Could you teach me?"
"Um...hehehe...it's not m-magic though.." Ranma couldn't resist the Look. "Sure, b-but only if your new parents agree."
Hotaru squeeled and tackled a blushing Ranma, much to his embaressment he saw Rei hidding off to the side of the Shrine giggling uncontrolably. Ranma sighed and struggled back to his feet, picked up Hotaru and sat her back down on the bench, and mock glared at her. "I'll teach ya, but no more sneak tackling if you know whats good for you."
"Hai!" Hotaru giggled.
"She's got you wrapped around her finger already, Ranma?" Rei called out as she walked up, looking innocent, Ranma blushed again.
"Um..."
Giggle. "Are you here to show me those Ki exsersizes you promised?"
Ranma sighed in relief and nodded his head. "That and I wanted to talk to you about something."
"What was that?"
"I'll explain later, but for now lets work on those techniques, we can start whenever your ready."
"Can I learn too?" Hotaru asked, her eyes big and sparkling.
"Sure, I planned to include you in this too Hotaru. Where would you like to practice Rei?"
"We can practice in the back yard or one of the larger rooms if you want to do it inside."
"Outside, nature makes it easier to do for some reason. Hotaru do you know how to meditate?"
"No, I've never had to do it before."
"Well let me get Rei started then I'll teach you how."
It was about noon when they finished and Rei fell over gasping for air and had her clothing stuck to her from all the sweat she was dripping in, she had to admit Ranma knew his stuff, but he didn't have to tell her she didn't know how to breath right. Then he had proven it to her by showing her how it was done a certain way and why, so instead of learning a new technique, she had spent all morning sitting in one place and...breathing! At least Hotaru had been taught the same lesson, though Ranma had noticed the girl's fragile health and started to make up plans to get her back in shape, once her foster parents agreed though.
Even worse was that Ranma had invited her to lunch with him and Hotaru, but she had chores to do and had to turn him down. She rose up slowly and waved goodbye to them as they headed down the stairs. She heaved a giant sigh of resignation as she trudged into the Shrine, it was about time she gave her grandfather a peice of her mind, sometimes she just couldn't get a break. There was something about Ranma that she really liked, even his curse didn't bother her all that much. Hotaru had mentioned to her, before Ranma showed up, that the transformation had surprised her only because she hadn't know that Ranma and Ranko from the stories were the same person. Now that she thought about it, if Ranma was indeed the one who was Ranko in those stories she had read, he was a very weird boy. Ranko was protrayed as the second sexiest character of the Wrecking Crew just below Shampoo, she was always flirting with the guys in one form or another. She had even seen pictures of her throwing herself at Ryoga and Kuno on several occations.
**********
She sat on her throne, dressed in a white dress made of the purest silks so thin that every portion of her body was visible to the naked eye. She had long white hair, pale skin, and even white eyes that glowed softly. She was known as Kakome, and had been on a quest for centuries now. To find the Artifact of Chronos, one of the most powerful items in exsistance. So powerful that she could destroy entire dimensions with it, but because of this it was also one of the best kept secrets in all the universe.
She had searched countless worlds for even the slightest clue to it's wherabouts, everything she had learned had led to this pointless backwater world that had thrown down several of the more powerful dark powers in recent years. Queen Beryl, Doom Tree, Death Phantom, Pharaoh 90, even the corrupted Sailor Scout, Sailor Galaxia had fallen before this world. It was an impressive feet that had earned her respect, but she was not going to allow this stop her from gaining the Artifact. She was close this time, it was if she could feel it just waiting for her in some way.
The only problem was the Sailor Scouts, they would stand in her way if she wasn't quick enough. Already they had killed one of her smaller fighters, but even that fight had brought her a large amount of information on them and their allies. There had been two there that had surprised her, the boy/girl fighter and the large male who actually fought her drone to a stand still. Only it's unlimited power had allowed it to live as long as it had and would have crushed the both fighters had the Scouts not interfered.
Kakome had been both irritated and pleased when they showed up to stop her drone's random acts of destruction. It had allowed her to get a lock on one of them and learn their identity. She looked at the air in front of her and consentrated. A large sphere of white energy formed in front of her and showed a real time vision of Hotaru waking with Ranma, Kakome smirked as she saw the boy/girl yell out as a wave of water rolled over her. The change was fasinating to watch, seeing a very handsome boy shift to a very pretty girl stired her long dead scientific instincts. The entire reason she had started this search was to satisfy her curriosity, but after several years it had turned to obsession, even she realized that. It had led her down paths that were paved in blood, but she didn't care anymore. The Artifact was all she cared about, with it she could reverse all the damage she had been forced to create in her quest to find it.
It was time, she realized, to set in motion a plan to deal with the Scouts so that she could have free reign to search this useless mud ball. She had studied Hotaru exstencively over the last couple of days and relized that this weak little girl was truely the fabled Scout of Destruction, one of the few beings she knew of that could destroy her completely. That was something she needed to deal with, her young age meant nothing to her, the girl was dangerous when she was transformed. She thought back through her past searches and figured she might be able to turn this potental danger to her advantage, all it would take was a reawakening. The only problem was that the potential change would make her even more dangerous than the Scout of Destruction, just more predictible and controlable.
There was one thing she was glad of though, there was this split between the Inner Scouts and the Outer Scouts that the boy/girl was agravating for some reason. She had witnessed the first fight betwen the Outers and that one, those skills had been very imprssive, though the fact that she won had been a surprise. The Outers were very strong, they should have taken her down easilly. Those who used Ki in there fighting were not all that common, but she had encountered a good number of them. Ki was not as versatile as magic, it was good for blowing things up and impoving skills, but beyond that she had found it pretty easy to defeat and kill them. Yes, she decided, let's set this in motion.
**********
Several blocks away from the Shrine, Hotaru was trying to stifle her giggles as an irritated Ranma wrung what water she could out of her soaked clothing. They had been walking along silently when this truck drove through a nearby puddle of water and nailed Ranma. "Are you alright Ranma?"
"Yeah, this is just the nature of the curse, it makes me a water magnet and sees to it that I get splashed at the worst possible time. This would be easier to live with, if I had some kind of control over the stupid thing though."
"I think it is kind of neat."
"Don't tell anyone else, but so do I, it's like having a secret identity sometimes. It can come in handy when I'm fighting too, I'm much faster as a girl than as a guy." Ranma whispered to his cousin.
They chose a nearby Yati to get dinner, it was then that Ranma remembered that he had wanted to talk to Rei about her life as Sailor Mars. She shrugged it off, it could wait a few days and she needed to get around to meeting Hotaru's foster parents. She was hoping to make a good impression, but she knew that with the way her life went, her father had probably sold her to them at one point, it would have been just like the idiot. Ranma got a cup of hot water to go and they walked off, she used the water to transform just as soon as they were out of sight of the vender.
"Let's head on over to your house Hotaru, I want to meet your foster parents."
"Sure, they've been expecting someone to show up for a couple of days now, though they didn't believe me when I told them it was Ranma Saotome."
"This being famous stuff is a pain, it ruins my edge against opponentes."
"Not that much."
"Well, more than I like, will Ryoga be there?"
"I haven't seen him since the battle at the mall yesterday."
"He has got to learn to read a map one of these days, I can not figure out how he can actually get lost in a closet some times."
"That reminds me Ranma, what happened after you ran off yesterday?"
"Me and Ryoga faught that thing until Sailor Moon showed up with some of the other Scouts and helped us beat it. Then me an Ryoga got into another fight and Sailor Moon decided to calm us down by hitting us with some kind of magic attack designed to heal or something. It had an odd effect on Ryoga, we found this out a few minutes later, his curse was cured. Mine wan't though, Mercury didn't know why, just that our curses had messed up the healing ray of Moons. So far I haven't felt any different than before and my life is still messed up as far as I can tell, so I don't think anything was done to me."
'Not according to Mercury's computer.' Thought Hotaru.
"Then...these other Scouts showed up when I went to look for you after the fight, Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto, they were out for blood and nearly killed me too." Ranma said and shuddered, he couldn't believe he had lost that fight.
"W-what!?" Hotaru gasped.
"These other Scouts showed up and tried to kill me, blasted be through the mall wall from the second floor, I landed on a car, only my aura saved me from being killed and even then I was hurt bad."
"They were trying to kill you?"
"Yeah, the green haired bimbo kept yelling about how I messed up crystals and that I was destroying her lovers future, or something like that. Luckily Sailor Moon showed up and stopped them or I wouldn't be here right now, that girl has some serious power. She even healed me again when the green haird one nearly killed me, I've never seen anything like it before."
"Sailor Moon healed you a second time?"
"Yeah, though she got dressed up in this white dress and started to glow to do it. I don't remember anything beyond that until this morning when I woke up in bed. I figure the Scouts carried me home and left me there, I hope they got out of the area safely."
"Ranma..." Hotaru started, unsure how to put this.
"What?"
"Um...I know a little about the Scouts, Pluto is the guardian of the Time Gate, this magical door that allows it's users to control asspects of time. Uranus and Neptune are known as the Outer Scouts and more soldiers than fighters, they will usually do what they deam best and worry about themselves later. The goal is always their top priority and they can, and have, gone after the enemy with a single mindedness that is almost frightning. According to some of the stories I have heard, Sailor Moon had to beat them in a fight just to get them to work with her and her Inner Scouts, and even then they only do so sporadicly." Hotaru said quietly, slightly out of beath.
"Spor...what?"
Hortaru giggled. "Not very often."
"Ahhh..." Ranam said, this cute look of cofusion on his face. "So what your saying is that they won't give up, even when Moon told them to?"
"It depends on how they feel about the situation, they will go against Moon's word if they need to. They have worked alone for years and don't like to work with the others."
"I see, that will make dealing with them very hard."
"What are you going to do?"
"I don't know, they need to be made to see reason. I do know this, I will not roll over and die. I will fight them to my last breath and take even leathal measures if need be."
"Y-you wouldn't?!"
"Only as a last resort Hotaru and even then I would think twice about it, but if it needs to be done..." Ranma said, remembering the battle with Saffron.
Hotaru paled and prayed her parents never found out about Ranma's little curse. This attack and the one a week or so ago now made more sense to her. Haruka and Michiru and Setsuna had come back from each of those fights beaten and worried more than they ever had before. Setsuna had even lost her Time Staff and the Artifact that was attached to it, now she had only spotty contorl over the gate at best. Ever since then she had been consumed with a rage she hadn't ever seen from Pluto before. Then last night she had come home to find Haruka and Michiru crying on the couch, Setsuna had been pale and shivering, never before had the Princess threatened them. Though in Hotaru's opinion it was about time Usagi started to show a little back bone against her adoptive parents. She loved them both, but their additudes were usually a little extream in the long run. They had this habit of causing more trouble than they fixed, now they had set this problem in motion.
She looked up at her newest uncle and wonered again just how much of his life was true and how much was made up. A few days ago she would have been satified if he was a normal geek that just played a roll as a Ranma Saotome, but now she had seen him fight, she had seen him transform with water befor her eyes. She had witnessed him and Ryoga demolish the mall food court with moves she had only heard of in movies. He was as handsome as his posters too, she hoped he wouldn't be to upset with her, he was her idle. Her walls were covere in pictures of him, Ryoga, Ranko, and the others.
For the first time in years she was actually feeling happy and the problems of her life didn't bother her as much. She sighed happily and wrapped herself around his arm, leaning against him. She didn't see Ranma start and begin sweating nervously, slightly paniced when others on the street began whispering when they recongized them. Several people began heading in their direction with a weird look of anger and concern on their faces, but Ranma warned them off with his eyes. Like Rei, he was going to have little talk with Hotaru about why she was treated differently, she still hadn't told him why those guys were attacking her.
Hotaru's house was a little bigger than what he had been expecting, it was three stories high and sat on the top of a small hill. There was this beautiful landscaping around the place that would have taken day to explore and appeaciate. He felt more comfortable about Hotaru's chances already, she seemed to have been given a very good start on a new life. Just like he was trying to do. "This place is huge Hotaru."
"I know, it belongs to Michiru's parents, they almost never use the house anymore and have effectively given it to Michiru while she and Haruka are staying in Japan. They've been using it for as long as I can remember." Hotaru shrugged and smiled up at Ranma.
"This is neat, I've never been a place this big before." Ranma said. Then thought, at least not as a guest, stupid old man.
"I'm sure you'll like it." Hotaru said.
It took them several minutes to walk from the gate to the front door of the house, as he got closer and closer to the house, Ranma started to feel his danger sense go off, but for the life of him he couldn't tell why. Hotaru broke away from him and ran into the house without a second thought, her innocence visible to anyone who wanted to see it. Ranma took a few seconds to prepare himself in case he was walking into a dangerous situation, his danger sense would not go off for no reason. When he reached the door he found it wide open and stuck his head inside to look around, he spotted Hotaru talking excitedly with a couple sitting at a dining room table.
They looked up as he entered and he was able to get a decent look at them. The first was of medium hight and head shoulder length green hair, she was dressed in a simple sundress that complemented her figure in the amazing ways. Sitting beside her was a man...no...a woman who looked very much like a man, she had short blonde hair and was wearing a simple pair of jeans and a loose white dress shirt. The top three or four buttons on the shirt were undone and it was only because her bra was showing that he could tell that this was a girl dressed in men's clothing. Ranma waved at them as he stepped inside and shut the door behind him.
"Holy crap, it really is him Michiru." said the blond.
"I don't believe it." Michiru gasped.
Ranma grinned sheepishly as Hotaru ran over and hugged him. She led him back to the table and motioned for him to sit down. "These are Haruka and Michiru, they're the ones that want to adopt me."
"Oh?" Ranma asked, his eyebrow raised.
"Can I get you anything to eat?" Hotaru asked politely.
"Just some tea, please." Ranma said with a grin and watched Hotaru run off to take care of it.
Haruka was about to say something when she noticed that Michiru was doing something that she had not seen in the last couple of years. Her lovers eyes were glued to Ranma's body, taking in every last detail. Only Haruka noticed little details like the light flush that the skin of her girlfriend's face, her quickened breathing, or her stunned expression. This was so common nowadays that Ranma barely even noticed the when the girls started checking him out. "T-tell me about yourself, what exactly are your family's plans for Hotaru?" Haruka asked.
He shrugged. "Right now I don't really have any plans for Hotaru, I just stoped by to visit her and see what kind of home life she had."
"So you're not going to take her away from us?"
"Nope, my mom and I looked into Hotaru's background a little bit and have found that she is better off here than she would be anywhere else."
Haruka slumped in relief and let out a long sigh, she looked over at Michiru and nearly fell out of her chair. The green haired girl was unconsciously licking her lips as she gazed lovingly at Ranma's well muscled chest and arms, her hands were shaking as if resisting the urge to reach across the table and touch him. Luckily Hotaru chose that exact instant to come back into the room and set a tea set on the table with a loud slam. Michiru nearly jumped out of her clothes in shock and turned bright red as she buried her face in her hands, embarrassment written in her very posture. She quickly got up and excused herself as she quickly walked out of the room.
"May I ask you a personal question?" Ranma asked.
"Go ahead." Haruka asked, she figured this would come up sooner or later.
"How long has Ryoga been hanging around here?"
"Well Michiru and I...huh?" Haruka said and lost her train of thought.
"Ryoga, the idiot attacked me at the mall the other day and started yelling about how he was also related to Hotaru and I was just curious to know how long he has been here?"
Haruka's eyes narrowed in suppressed fury as she unconsciously rubbed the side of her face and her eyes glanced to the side where Ranma had noticed a large window that displayed the backyard in all its glory. This peeked his curiosity and he reached out with his Ki and touched the other woman to find that the entire right side of her face was bruised and that her jaw looked to have been cracked in several places at one time. "Ryoga stumbled upon us about three weeks ago when we were at the park and asked us for directions to our house while holding a map of Baltimore. After chatting with him for several minutes we ended up inviting him back to the house to have dinner with us as we went over the paperwork he had on him to prove that he was a long lost member of Hotaru's family."
"Did he do anything else?"
"Not that I can say." Haruka said quietly.
"What about you Hotaru, has Ryoga done anything out of the ordinary since he showed up here?"
Tthe little girl shrugged and let off a long drawn out sigh. "Ryoga is a lot of fun to be around, but he is a little overprotective and has gone so far as to attack some of my friends by jumping to some weird conclusion."
"That sounds exactly like Ryoga, though normally he would not lay hand on a girl even if one had threatened him. Normally he would giggle a little and fall over in a dead faint if one even talked to him. I'm not sure what he did, but there is still the tell tale signs around here that he did something he shouldn't have and that is so out of character for Ryoga that I'm wondering exactly what happened to him over last couple of weeks." Ranma said as he sipped his tea.
"What makes you think something happened to him?" Haruka asked.
"When we fought at the mall he was holding his own against me a lot better than he usually does. Both his speed in his strength were nearly double or even triple of what it was when we last fought each other. I don't think he could have improved that much in such a short amount time without help."
Both Hotaru and Haruka shrugged. "We have no idea."
Ranma shrugged as he stood up and stretched, he was still having a bad feeling about this situation, but could tell that what ever had set his danger sense off had lessened quite a bit since he entered the house. Haruka and Michiru seemed like a perfectly good couple except for the fact that they were both female, but he figured he would not hold that against them since Hotaru seemed to be in such good hands. It was also due to the fact that since he spent half his time as a girl he had learned to better appreciate just what might go on in a relationship such as their's. Michiru finally came back into the room carrying a huge platter of food, she smiled and everyone and motioned for them to sit down and eat as much as they wanted.
This was perfectly fine for Ranma, he never turned down a free meal and it went against everything he believed in to do so. For the first time in a long time Ranma actually managed to eat a meal without resorting to the Saotome culinary techniques of speed, defense, and precision attacks upon neighboring meals. If any of the Tendo's had seen such a display of control from Ranma, they wouldn't fainted on the spot from shock alone. By the time everyone was finished with dinner he was satisfied that Hotaru's adoptive parents could do the job far better than his idiot father ever could.
"So, are you two positive that you want to adopt Hotaru into your family?" Ranma asked.
Both Haruka and Michiru nodded enthusiastically and hugged Hotaru, each of them grinning madly and Hotaru blushing in embarrassment. Ranma just chuckled and finished off the last of the food, which took about thirty seconds because he decided to show off a little bit of his speed. Both Haruka and Michiru gasped in awe as Ranma's chopsticks blurred from sight and the food on table simply vanished before their eyes. They suddenly recalled some of the stories that Hotaru had told them over the last few months, stories that they had thought she was just making up in her enthusiasm, but it seems she was telling the truth after all.
"If you guys don't mind, my mother would like to meet you guys and Hotaru at some point the next few weeks?"
"We don't mind in the least." Michiru said as she was smiling happily.
"Exactly, we would love to meet some more of your family Ranma." Haruka said.
"Cool, I'll call her when I get back to my apartment and let her know that she can stop by anytime if that is okay with you?" Ranma said.
"Actually anytime in the afternoons during weekdays would be the best time to catch us here, perhaps between 6 PM and 9 PM at night would be best." Michiru said as she thought about the question carefully.
"Do you know how you are related to Hotaru, Ranma." Haruka asked.
"To tell you the truth I'm not exactly sure if I'm her cousin or her uncle, I think it is a little bit of both. Do you know how Ryoga is related to her?"
"Ryoga said he was the distant uncle of mine." Hotaru said as her face scrunched up and thought.
Ranma nodded sagely and popped a couple of roles into his mouth before any of the girls could say otherwise. "That's more information than what I got out of Ryoga, that guy never could forgive and forget even the smallest of mistakes." Ranma shrugged. "Well Hotaru, what would you like to do from here. The only thing left to do now is to let Mom finalize the paperwork to get everything set in motion."
"We look forward to it Ranma. Hotaru, why don't you take him up to your room and show off all those posters you have wallpapering the walls." Haruka teased.
Glomp!! "Uncle Ranma, come upstairs and see my room!" As she performed and industrial strength Amazon Glomp.
"You don't need a practice for that one anymore." Ranma muttered under his breath as Hotaru dragged him upstairs into her room excitedly.
Michiru and Haruka just giggled as he was forcibley kidnapped by and overly energetic girl. "Well there's something you don't see every day." Michiru said.
"True." Haruka said, her eyes folling the two as they disappeard up stairs. "Did you feel it?"
"Yes, that boy has some serious power..."
"And here I thought you were going to say something about his rippling muscles. I haven't seen you like that in a long time cute stuff."
Michiru blushed. "I thought we were talking about the odd power coming from that...boy?"
"Did it feel familiar to you ?"
"Not really, but I wasn't looking at his energy."
"I noticed that too, you were licking you lips and drooling."
"I was not!" Michiru exclaimed in a huff, crossing her arms.
Haruka just laughed.
**********
The first thing he noticed was the picture of himself, topless, fighting his father, it was in poster form and tacted to the ceiling right above her bed. he blushed a little bit as he realized it was the very picture of him that Nabiki had sold to every available female in a three-mile wide radius of the school. They had bothered him for weeks after that, trying to get him to autograph various items from books to clothing to the posters themselves to various items of underwear that they liked to shove in his face and squeal excitedly about. They had of course done this when Akane was with him and it had set her off at a moment's notice, those had been some of the worst weeks he could remember since he spent most of it in the doctor's office covered in bandages.
Ranma looked over the rest of the room and noticed several smaller posters tacked to the wall, most of them featured him going through various of his fighting techniques, but there are were also pictures of Ryoga, Kuno, Mousse, Shampoo, Akane, and his female form. it occurred to him that, other than a small picture they had taken of the group on the last day of their vacation on Toma's Island, he had never seen so many pictures of the entire group all in one place. It actually managed to send a shiver of fear down his spine.
"What's wrong, are you alright?" Hotaru asked nervously.
"Oh, I'm fine, this is just a little hard for me to grasp yet and it is a constant reminder that Nabiki owes me some large amounts of money."
"What you mean?"
"Remember how I told you that I had no idea about any of this stuff?"
Hotaru nodded.
"That basically means that Nabiki is making a fortune off of me and my curse without getting any of that money to me or those she's using, like Ryoga or Shampoo."
"You mean you actually had no idea about any of this stuff?" Hotaru says gesturing at all the posters, books, bed sheets, and numerous toys shaped to look like them that she had scattered all over the entire room.
Ranma shook his head sadly and shrugged. "Me and mom are doing something about it now that I know of it, but it's only been a few days so it'll be awhile yet before anything major happens."
"I hope everything works out for you." Hotaru said sadly as she realized that all of this stuff dedicated to her idle could soon vanish completely.
"Actually, I don't mind this stuff all that much it's just that I was never asked and I'll bet that none of the others have been asked either. Though eventually, if Nabiki is allowed to continue, there's a very good chance of for having a doll made up of you as well." Ranma said with a smirk.
"What?!" Hotaru gasped.
Ranma walked over to her dresser and picked up a very good representation of Taru in his cursed form. "Nabiki seems to have been able to get stuff made up of everyone that I've never come in contact with, friends, enemies, and combinations of the two. That means that since your a part of my family there is a good chance that she will eventually get around to having one of these made up of you as well."
"Oh my!" Hotaru said as she paled and staggered over to her bed and sat down with a heavy thump.
Ranma chuckled.
There was a light knock at the door to Hotaru was room as Haruka and Michiru came in and smiled. "Ranma, would you like to stay tonight?"
"Naw, I'd better be getting back to my apartment, I've got some classes at the dojo that I have to get ready to start teaching within a few days, I still got a bunch of work to do while I get everything set up."
"Teaching? Have you finally begun to hold classes at the Tendo Dojo now?" Haruka asked as she recalled some of Ranma's history.
Ranma shook his head no. "I'm currently taking a bit of a break from the mess in Nerima. I'm hoping to get away from it permanently if it all possible, but even I'm not that optimistic. Eventually most of the old crew will find me and will start again, I just hope that this time I'm better equipped to deal with the problems than what it was two years ago when he started."
"If not at the Tendo's, where you teaching at?" Haruka asked.
"It's a place called the 'Ascension of the Dragon God' dojo, it set up just a few blocks from Juban High School."
"I don't recognize that one." Haruka said to herself.
"That reminds me, would you to be willing to allow me to teach Hotaru how to better protect herself into gator in better shape so that she is not as weak as this?"
"What did you have in mind?" Michiru asked.
"I was considering some of the softer forms of martial arts and a bit of weapon work since she cannot rely on physical strength during a fight." Ranma said, recalling some of the light exercising they had done over at the temple earlier that day.
"I don't mind so long as she isn't forced to do something that would aggravate her health even more than it already is. She is already in better shape than when she was when we first took her in, but she could always use a bit more training." Haruka said as she seriously considered the question. It wasn't as if they hadn't a started Hotaru on self-defense lessons already, it was just that she wasn't back to her full growth yet. Even then, less than nine months ago Hotaru had been nothing more than a small baby going through its second childhood. So they really hadn't had time to show her much of anything yet, now they seem to have been presented with an opportunity to have her trained under one of the best martial artists in the world. How can they pass that up, hell, how could she herself pass up an actual opportunity like this since he was teaching classes in an actual dojo anyways?
Ranma grinned and looked at Hotaru. "There is your permission kid, I want you to meet me at the temple on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays in the afternoon after school for a couple hours training and on Sundays at 8 AM for a full day's training in endurance and conditioning. That way you and Rei can help each other out as you work together and learn each of the techniques that I will show you." Ranma chuckled evilly, making all the girl's cringe. Ranma said good aftenoon to all of them and headed on home after that. They had invited him to supper as well, but had decided he needed to get back over to Rei's and have that talk with her.
Hotaru sighed happily as she shut the front door, she turned around and ground to a halt. Haruka and Michiro were standing outside of her room. They were staring inside as if there was a monster in there preparing to attack, she came up beside them and looked inside curriously. "What's wrong?"
"Hotaru, see that picture you have of Ranko on your wall." Haruka said.
"Sure, so you want to hang it up somewhere else?" Hotaru asked carefully.
"No, that is the girl that destroyed Pluto's staff and beat us up the other day."
"What?! Ranko?" Hotaru yelled.
"Michiru we need to tell Pluto about this, I never even considered the possibility that it was Ranko that we fought." Haruka said.
"If it is her, then we know where to find her too." Michiru said.
**********
Note - Okay, this is the long awaited arrival at Hotaru's house and I have had several e-mails suggesting that this would be a powder keg set to go off. I decided to make all the fights with the Outers with Ranma in his girl form, this way no one has any idea that they are the same person. Ranma has no way of knowing that the Outers are the one's wanting to adopt Hotaru, only that they are lesbians. In his view lesbians are better than letting his father get someone else to train, it is to horrible to think about.
Uncles!
Chapter 02
by Cory D. Rose
Sept 2001
**********
Ranma trudged up the stairs to the Hikawa Shrine, today was the day he was going to have a little talk with Rei or Sailor Mars. He liked the idea that she was a Scout and could protect herself, but she had kept it secret even after he revealed to her his most hated secret. She probably has a good reason he thought to himself, but it still erked him a little bit. He couldn't even go to his mother for advice, she seemed to get stuck in this 'manly' fantasy every time he even metioned a girl's name. Even worse, she wanted him to bring girls home for dinner some times, she didn't seem to care who they were, so long as they were female and cute.
He was so glad he had gotten permision to live on his own, he loved his mom, but she was almost as controling as his father. At least this way he could make his own mistakes, his own promises, and be able to live with them since he made them himself. So here he was fulfulling one of his promises, he hoped it went okay and nothing happened, but with the way his was at time it was a little hard to say what would happen. The temple was a good sized place and could have housed a large family easily, but so far he only knew of Rei and her Grandfather, who he hadn't met yet. Luckily it was early on Sunday, it would give him all day to teach her the special techniques he had learned to control his Ki for fighting.
A black blur was all he noticed before he was tackled from the side and sent to the ground. "Your alive!" Squealed a very female voice.
Ranma stopped himself from kicking the girl off him long enough to see that it was Hotaru and that she was crying, she was trying to hug the life out of him. Oh god, she was crying and he didn't know how to make her stop. Then he realized that it was tears of happiness, not the kind he was used to. He smiled down at her and hugged her back. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to visit Rei, we had some...uh...homework to help each other with." Hotaru lied.
Ranma picked it up, but ignored it, he would find out later why she was lieing to him. "That's cool, I was just stopping by to repay Rei for the help she gave me the other day."
"What did she do?"
"She and Usagi helped me to the hospital after Akane used her mallet on me again."
"Akane, she's one of your fiance'es right?"
"Yep, though I'm trying to put an end to that crap now that it has gotten so out of control."
"How?"
Ranma stood up and they walked over to a nearby bench under a cherry tree and sat down. "This last attack by Akane was the end of my patience, she nearly killed me. She put me in the hospital and I was able to put my feelings for her in perspective, and I decided that I needed to get away from the crazyness and move on with my life, on my terms. I moved out and with the help of my mom got set up in an apartment not to far from here."
"Is all the stuff on those cards and the stories true? I thought they had to be making some of it up, then all those super powerful martial arts attacks were a little hard to believe, then I saw you and Ryoga fight." Hotaru turned a super kawaii look on Ranma and he edged away in fear. "H-how did you two learn to do all that stuff, throwing magic blasts around, punching through stone and jumping so high. Could you teach me?"
"Um...hehehe...it's not m-magic though.." Ranma couldn't resist the Look. "Sure, b-but only if your new parents agree."
Hotaru squeeled and tackled a blushing Ranma, much to his embaressment he saw Rei hidding off to the side of the Shrine giggling uncontrolably. Ranma sighed and struggled back to his feet, picked up Hotaru and sat her back down on the bench, and mock glared at her. "I'll teach ya, but no more sneak tackling if you know whats good for you."
"Hai!" Hotaru giggled.
"She's got you wrapped around her finger already, Ranma?" Rei called out as she walked up, looking innocent, Ranma blushed again.
"Um..."
Giggle. "Are you here to show me those Ki exsersizes you promised?"
Ranma sighed in relief and nodded his head. "That and I wanted to talk to you about something."
"What was that?"
"I'll explain later, but for now lets work on those techniques, we can start whenever your ready."
"Can I learn too?" Hotaru asked, her eyes big and sparkling.
"Sure, I planned to include you in this too Hotaru. Where would you like to practice Rei?"
"We can practice in the back yard or one of the larger rooms if you want to do it inside."
"Outside, nature makes it easier to do for some reason. Hotaru do you know how to meditate?"
"No, I've never had to do it before."
"Well let me get Rei started then I'll teach you how."
It was about noon when they finished and Rei fell over gasping for air and had her clothing stuck to her from all the sweat she was dripping in, she had to admit Ranma knew his stuff, but he didn't have to tell her she didn't know how to breath right. Then he had proven it to her by showing her how it was done a certain way and why, so instead of learning a new technique, she had spent all morning sitting in one place and...breathing! At least Hotaru had been taught the same lesson, though Ranma had noticed the girl's fragile health and started to make up plans to get her back in shape, once her foster parents agreed though.
Even worse was that Ranma had invited her to lunch with him and Hotaru, but she had chores to do and had to turn him down. She rose up slowly and waved goodbye to them as they headed down the stairs. She heaved a giant sigh of resignation as she trudged into the Shrine, it was about time she gave her grandfather a peice of her mind, sometimes she just couldn't get a break. There was something about Ranma that she really liked, even his curse didn't bother her all that much. Hotaru had mentioned to her, before Ranma showed up, that the transformation had surprised her only because she hadn't know that Ranma and Ranko from the stories were the same person. Now that she thought about it, if Ranma was indeed the one who was Ranko in those stories she had read, he was a very weird boy. Ranko was protrayed as the second sexiest character of the Wrecking Crew just below Shampoo, she was always flirting with the guys in one form or another. She had even seen pictures of her throwing herself at Ryoga and Kuno on several occations.
**********
She sat on her throne, dressed in a white dress made of the purest silks so thin that every portion of her body was visible to the naked eye. She had long white hair, pale skin, and even white eyes that glowed softly. She was known as Kakome, and had been on a quest for centuries now. To find the Artifact of Chronos, one of the most powerful items in exsistance. So powerful that she could destroy entire dimensions with it, but because of this it was also one of the best kept secrets in all the universe.
She had searched countless worlds for even the slightest clue to it's wherabouts, everything she had learned had led to this pointless backwater world that had thrown down several of the more powerful dark powers in recent years. Queen Beryl, Doom Tree, Death Phantom, Pharaoh 90, even the corrupted Sailor Scout, Sailor Galaxia had fallen before this world. It was an impressive feet that had earned her respect, but she was not going to allow this stop her from gaining the Artifact. She was close this time, it was if she could feel it just waiting for her in some way.
The only problem was the Sailor Scouts, they would stand in her way if she wasn't quick enough. Already they had killed one of her smaller fighters, but even that fight had brought her a large amount of information on them and their allies. There had been two there that had surprised her, the boy/girl fighter and the large male who actually fought her drone to a stand still. Only it's unlimited power had allowed it to live as long as it had and would have crushed the both fighters had the Scouts not interfered.
Kakome had been both irritated and pleased when they showed up to stop her drone's random acts of destruction. It had allowed her to get a lock on one of them and learn their identity. She looked at the air in front of her and consentrated. A large sphere of white energy formed in front of her and showed a real time vision of Hotaru waking with Ranma, Kakome smirked as she saw the boy/girl yell out as a wave of water rolled over her. The change was fasinating to watch, seeing a very handsome boy shift to a very pretty girl stired her long dead scientific instincts. The entire reason she had started this search was to satisfy her curriosity, but after several years it had turned to obsession, even she realized that. It had led her down paths that were paved in blood, but she didn't care anymore. The Artifact was all she cared about, with it she could reverse all the damage she had been forced to create in her quest to find it.
It was time, she realized, to set in motion a plan to deal with the Scouts so that she could have free reign to search this useless mud ball. She had studied Hotaru exstencively over the last couple of days and relized that this weak little girl was truely the fabled Scout of Destruction, one of the few beings she knew of that could destroy her completely. That was something she needed to deal with, her young age meant nothing to her, the girl was dangerous when she was transformed. She thought back through her past searches and figured she might be able to turn this potental danger to her advantage, all it would take was a reawakening. The only problem was that the potential change would make her even more dangerous than the Scout of Destruction, just more predictible and controlable.
There was one thing she was glad of though, there was this split between the Inner Scouts and the Outer Scouts that the boy/girl was agravating for some reason. She had witnessed the first fight betwen the Outers and that one, those skills had been very imprssive, though the fact that she won had been a surprise. The Outers were very strong, they should have taken her down easilly. Those who used Ki in there fighting were not all that common, but she had encountered a good number of them. Ki was not as versatile as magic, it was good for blowing things up and impoving skills, but beyond that she had found it pretty easy to defeat and kill them. Yes, she decided, let's set this in motion.
**********
Several blocks away from the Shrine, Hotaru was trying to stifle her giggles as an irritated Ranma wrung what water she could out of her soaked clothing. They had been walking along silently when this truck drove through a nearby puddle of water and nailed Ranma. "Are you alright Ranma?"
"Yeah, this is just the nature of the curse, it makes me a water magnet and sees to it that I get splashed at the worst possible time. This would be easier to live with, if I had some kind of control over the stupid thing though."
"I think it is kind of neat."
"Don't tell anyone else, but so do I, it's like having a secret identity sometimes. It can come in handy when I'm fighting too, I'm much faster as a girl than as a guy." Ranma whispered to his cousin.
They chose a nearby Yati to get dinner, it was then that Ranma remembered that he had wanted to talk to Rei about her life as Sailor Mars. She shrugged it off, it could wait a few days and she needed to get around to meeting Hotaru's foster parents. She was hoping to make a good impression, but she knew that with the way her life went, her father had probably sold her to them at one point, it would have been just like the idiot. Ranma got a cup of hot water to go and they walked off, she used the water to transform just as soon as they were out of sight of the vender.
"Let's head on over to your house Hotaru, I want to meet your foster parents."
"Sure, they've been expecting someone to show up for a couple of days now, though they didn't believe me when I told them it was Ranma Saotome."
"This being famous stuff is a pain, it ruins my edge against opponentes."
"Not that much."
"Well, more than I like, will Ryoga be there?"
"I haven't seen him since the battle at the mall yesterday."
"He has got to learn to read a map one of these days, I can not figure out how he can actually get lost in a closet some times."
"That reminds me Ranma, what happened after you ran off yesterday?"
"Me and Ryoga faught that thing until Sailor Moon showed up with some of the other Scouts and helped us beat it. Then me an Ryoga got into another fight and Sailor Moon decided to calm us down by hitting us with some kind of magic attack designed to heal or something. It had an odd effect on Ryoga, we found this out a few minutes later, his curse was cured. Mine wan't though, Mercury didn't know why, just that our curses had messed up the healing ray of Moons. So far I haven't felt any different than before and my life is still messed up as far as I can tell, so I don't think anything was done to me."
'Not according to Mercury's computer.' Thought Hotaru.
"Then...these other Scouts showed up when I went to look for you after the fight, Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto, they were out for blood and nearly killed me too." Ranma said and shuddered, he couldn't believe he had lost that fight.
"W-what!?" Hotaru gasped.
"These other Scouts showed up and tried to kill me, blasted be through the mall wall from the second floor, I landed on a car, only my aura saved me from being killed and even then I was hurt bad."
"They were trying to kill you?"
"Yeah, the green haired bimbo kept yelling about how I messed up crystals and that I was destroying her lovers future, or something like that. Luckily Sailor Moon showed up and stopped them or I wouldn't be here right now, that girl has some serious power. She even healed me again when the green haird one nearly killed me, I've never seen anything like it before."
"Sailor Moon healed you a second time?"
"Yeah, though she got dressed up in this white dress and started to glow to do it. I don't remember anything beyond that until this morning when I woke up in bed. I figure the Scouts carried me home and left me there, I hope they got out of the area safely."
"Ranma..." Hotaru started, unsure how to put this.
"What?"
"Um...I know a little about the Scouts, Pluto is the guardian of the Time Gate, this magical door that allows it's users to control asspects of time. Uranus and Neptune are known as the Outer Scouts and more soldiers than fighters, they will usually do what they deam best and worry about themselves later. The goal is always their top priority and they can, and have, gone after the enemy with a single mindedness that is almost frightning. According to some of the stories I have heard, Sailor Moon had to beat them in a fight just to get them to work with her and her Inner Scouts, and even then they only do so sporadicly." Hotaru said quietly, slightly out of beath.
"Spor...what?"
Hortaru giggled. "Not very often."
"Ahhh..." Ranam said, this cute look of cofusion on his face. "So what your saying is that they won't give up, even when Moon told them to?"
"It depends on how they feel about the situation, they will go against Moon's word if they need to. They have worked alone for years and don't like to work with the others."
"I see, that will make dealing with them very hard."
"What are you going to do?"
"I don't know, they need to be made to see reason. I do know this, I will not roll over and die. I will fight them to my last breath and take even leathal measures if need be."
"Y-you wouldn't?!"
"Only as a last resort Hotaru and even then I would think twice about it, but if it needs to be done..." Ranma said, remembering the battle with Saffron.
Hotaru paled and prayed her parents never found out about Ranma's little curse. This attack and the one a week or so ago now made more sense to her. Haruka and Michiru and Setsuna had come back from each of those fights beaten and worried more than they ever had before. Setsuna had even lost her Time Staff and the Artifact that was attached to it, now she had only spotty contorl over the gate at best. Ever since then she had been consumed with a rage she hadn't ever seen from Pluto before. Then last night she had come home to find Haruka and Michiru crying on the couch, Setsuna had been pale and shivering, never before had the Princess threatened them. Though in Hotaru's opinion it was about time Usagi started to show a little back bone against her adoptive parents. She loved them both, but their additudes were usually a little extream in the long run. They had this habit of causing more trouble than they fixed, now they had set this problem in motion.
She looked up at her newest uncle and wonered again just how much of his life was true and how much was made up. A few days ago she would have been satified if he was a normal geek that just played a roll as a Ranma Saotome, but now she had seen him fight, she had seen him transform with water befor her eyes. She had witnessed him and Ryoga demolish the mall food court with moves she had only heard of in movies. He was as handsome as his posters too, she hoped he wouldn't be to upset with her, he was her idle. Her walls were covere in pictures of him, Ryoga, Ranko, and the others.
For the first time in years she was actually feeling happy and the problems of her life didn't bother her as much. She sighed happily and wrapped herself around his arm, leaning against him. She didn't see Ranma start and begin sweating nervously, slightly paniced when others on the street began whispering when they recongized them. Several people began heading in their direction with a weird look of anger and concern on their faces, but Ranma warned them off with his eyes. Like Rei, he was going to have little talk with Hotaru about why she was treated differently, she still hadn't told him why those guys were attacking her.
Hotaru's house was a little bigger than what he had been expecting, it was three stories high and sat on the top of a small hill. There was this beautiful landscaping around the place that would have taken day to explore and appeaciate. He felt more comfortable about Hotaru's chances already, she seemed to have been given a very good start on a new life. Just like he was trying to do. "This place is huge Hotaru."
"I know, it belongs to Michiru's parents, they almost never use the house anymore and have effectively given it to Michiru while she and Haruka are staying in Japan. They've been using it for as long as I can remember." Hotaru shrugged and smiled up at Ranma.
"This is neat, I've never been a place this big before." Ranma said. Then thought, at least not as a guest, stupid old man.
"I'm sure you'll like it." Hotaru said.
It took them several minutes to walk from the gate to the front door of the house, as he got closer and closer to the house, Ranma started to feel his danger sense go off, but for the life of him he couldn't tell why. Hotaru broke away from him and ran into the house without a second thought, her innocence visible to anyone who wanted to see it. Ranma took a few seconds to prepare himself in case he was walking into a dangerous situation, his danger sense would not go off for no reason. When he reached the door he found it wide open and stuck his head inside to look around, he spotted Hotaru talking excitedly with a couple sitting at a dining room table.
They looked up as he entered and he was able to get a decent look at them. The first was of medium hight and head shoulder length green hair, she was dressed in a simple sundress that complemented her figure in the amazing ways. Sitting beside her was a man...no...a woman who looked very much like a man, she had short blonde hair and was wearing a simple pair of jeans and a loose white dress shirt. The top three or four buttons on the shirt were undone and it was only because her bra was showing that he could tell that this was a girl dressed in men's clothing. Ranma waved at them as he stepped inside and shut the door behind him.
"Holy crap, it really is him Michiru." said the blond.
"I don't believe it." Michiru gasped.
Ranma grinned sheepishly as Hotaru ran over and hugged him. She led him back to the table and motioned for him to sit down. "These are Haruka and Michiru, they're the ones that want to adopt me."
"Oh?" Ranma asked, his eyebrow raised.
"Can I get you anything to eat?" Hotaru asked politely.
"Just some tea, please." Ranma said with a grin and watched Hotaru run off to take care of it.
Haruka was about to say something when she noticed that Michiru was doing something that she had not seen in the last couple of years. Her lovers eyes were glued to Ranma's body, taking in every last detail. Only Haruka noticed little details like the light flush that the skin of her girlfriend's face, her quickened breathing, or her stunned expression. This was so common nowadays that Ranma barely even noticed the when the girls started checking him out. "T-tell me about yourself, what exactly are your family's plans for Hotaru?" Haruka asked.
He shrugged. "Right now I don't really have any plans for Hotaru, I just stoped by to visit her and see what kind of home life she had."
"So you're not going to take her away from us?"
"Nope, my mom and I looked into Hotaru's background a little bit and have found that she is better off here than she would be anywhere else."
Haruka slumped in relief and let out a long sigh, she looked over at Michiru and nearly fell out of her chair. The green haired girl was unconsciously licking her lips as she gazed lovingly at Ranma's well muscled chest and arms, her hands were shaking as if resisting the urge to reach across the table and touch him. Luckily Hotaru chose that exact instant to come back into the room and set a tea set on the table with a loud slam. Michiru nearly jumped out of her clothes in shock and turned bright red as she buried her face in her hands, embarrassment written in her very posture. She quickly got up and excused herself as she quickly walked out of the room.
"May I ask you a personal question?" Ranma asked.
"Go ahead." Haruka asked, she figured this would come up sooner or later.
"How long has Ryoga been hanging around here?"
"Well Michiru and I...huh?" Haruka said and lost her train of thought.
"Ryoga, the idiot attacked me at the mall the other day and started yelling about how he was also related to Hotaru and I was just curious to know how long he has been here?"
Haruka's eyes narrowed in suppressed fury as she unconsciously rubbed the side of her face and her eyes glanced to the side where Ranma had noticed a large window that displayed the backyard in all its glory. This peeked his curiosity and he reached out with his Ki and touched the other woman to find that the entire right side of her face was bruised and that her jaw looked to have been cracked in several places at one time. "Ryoga stumbled upon us about three weeks ago when we were at the park and asked us for directions to our house while holding a map of Baltimore. After chatting with him for several minutes we ended up inviting him back to the house to have dinner with us as we went over the paperwork he had on him to prove that he was a long lost member of Hotaru's family."
"Did he do anything else?"
"Not that I can say." Haruka said quietly.
"What about you Hotaru, has Ryoga done anything out of the ordinary since he showed up here?"
Tthe little girl shrugged and let off a long drawn out sigh. "Ryoga is a lot of fun to be around, but he is a little overprotective and has gone so far as to attack some of my friends by jumping to some weird conclusion."
"That sounds exactly like Ryoga, though normally he would not lay hand on a girl even if one had threatened him. Normally he would giggle a little and fall over in a dead faint if one even talked to him. I'm not sure what he did, but there is still the tell tale signs around here that he did something he shouldn't have and that is so out of character for Ryoga that I'm wondering exactly what happened to him over last couple of weeks." Ranma said as he sipped his tea.
"What makes you think something happened to him?" Haruka asked.
"When we fought at the mall he was holding his own against me a lot better than he usually does. Both his speed in his strength were nearly double or even triple of what it was when we last fought each other. I don't think he could have improved that much in such a short amount time without help."
Both Hotaru and Haruka shrugged. "We have no idea."
Ranma shrugged as he stood up and stretched, he was still having a bad feeling about this situation, but could tell that what ever had set his danger sense off had lessened quite a bit since he entered the house. Haruka and Michiru seemed like a perfectly good couple except for the fact that they were both female, but he figured he would not hold that against them since Hotaru seemed to be in such good hands. It was also due to the fact that since he spent half his time as a girl he had learned to better appreciate just what might go on in a relationship such as their's. Michiru finally came back into the room carrying a huge platter of food, she smiled and everyone and motioned for them to sit down and eat as much as they wanted.
This was perfectly fine for Ranma, he never turned down a free meal and it went against everything he believed in to do so. For the first time in a long time Ranma actually managed to eat a meal without resorting to the Saotome culinary techniques of speed, defense, and precision attacks upon neighboring meals. If any of the Tendo's had seen such a display of control from Ranma, they wouldn't fainted on the spot from shock alone. By the time everyone was finished with dinner he was satisfied that Hotaru's adoptive parents could do the job far better than his idiot father ever could.
"So, are you two positive that you want to adopt Hotaru into your family?" Ranma asked.
Both Haruka and Michiru nodded enthusiastically and hugged Hotaru, each of them grinning madly and Hotaru blushing in embarrassment. Ranma just chuckled and finished off the last of the food, which took about thirty seconds because he decided to show off a little bit of his speed. Both Haruka and Michiru gasped in awe as Ranma's chopsticks blurred from sight and the food on table simply vanished before their eyes. They suddenly recalled some of the stories that Hotaru had told them over the last few months, stories that they had thought she was just making up in her enthusiasm, but it seems she was telling the truth after all.
"If you guys don't mind, my mother would like to meet you guys and Hotaru at some point the next few weeks?"
"We don't mind in the least." Michiru said as she was smiling happily.
"Exactly, we would love to meet some more of your family Ranma." Haruka said.
"Cool, I'll call her when I get back to my apartment and let her know that she can stop by anytime if that is okay with you?" Ranma said.
"Actually anytime in the afternoons during weekdays would be the best time to catch us here, perhaps between 6 PM and 9 PM at night would be best." Michiru said as she thought about the question carefully.
"Do you know how you are related to Hotaru, Ranma." Haruka asked.
"To tell you the truth I'm not exactly sure if I'm her cousin or her uncle, I think it is a little bit of both. Do you know how Ryoga is related to her?"
"Ryoga said he was the distant uncle of mine." Hotaru said as her face scrunched up and thought.
Ranma nodded sagely and popped a couple of roles into his mouth before any of the girls could say otherwise. "That's more information than what I got out of Ryoga, that guy never could forgive and forget even the smallest of mistakes." Ranma shrugged. "Well Hotaru, what would you like to do from here. The only thing left to do now is to let Mom finalize the paperwork to get everything set in motion."
"We look forward to it Ranma. Hotaru, why don't you take him up to your room and show off all those posters you have wallpapering the walls." Haruka teased.
Glomp!! "Uncle Ranma, come upstairs and see my room!" As she performed and industrial strength Amazon Glomp.
"You don't need a practice for that one anymore." Ranma muttered under his breath as Hotaru dragged him upstairs into her room excitedly.
Michiru and Haruka just giggled as he was forcibley kidnapped by and overly energetic girl. "Well there's something you don't see every day." Michiru said.
"True." Haruka said, her eyes folling the two as they disappeard up stairs. "Did you feel it?"
"Yes, that boy has some serious power..."
"And here I thought you were going to say something about his rippling muscles. I haven't seen you like that in a long time cute stuff."
Michiru blushed. "I thought we were talking about the odd power coming from that...boy?"
"Did it feel familiar to you ?"
"Not really, but I wasn't looking at his energy."
"I noticed that too, you were licking you lips and drooling."
"I was not!" Michiru exclaimed in a huff, crossing her arms.
Haruka just laughed.
**********
The first thing he noticed was the picture of himself, topless, fighting his father, it was in poster form and tacted to the ceiling right above her bed. he blushed a little bit as he realized it was the very picture of him that Nabiki had sold to every available female in a three-mile wide radius of the school. They had bothered him for weeks after that, trying to get him to autograph various items from books to clothing to the posters themselves to various items of underwear that they liked to shove in his face and squeal excitedly about. They had of course done this when Akane was with him and it had set her off at a moment's notice, those had been some of the worst weeks he could remember since he spent most of it in the doctor's office covered in bandages.
Ranma looked over the rest of the room and noticed several smaller posters tacked to the wall, most of them featured him going through various of his fighting techniques, but there are were also pictures of Ryoga, Kuno, Mousse, Shampoo, Akane, and his female form. it occurred to him that, other than a small picture they had taken of the group on the last day of their vacation on Toma's Island, he had never seen so many pictures of the entire group all in one place. It actually managed to send a shiver of fear down his spine.
"What's wrong, are you alright?" Hotaru asked nervously.
"Oh, I'm fine, this is just a little hard for me to grasp yet and it is a constant reminder that Nabiki owes me some large amounts of money."
"What you mean?"
"Remember how I told you that I had no idea about any of this stuff?"
Hotaru nodded.
"That basically means that Nabiki is making a fortune off of me and my curse without getting any of that money to me or those she's using, like Ryoga or Shampoo."
"You mean you actually had no idea about any of this stuff?" Hotaru says gesturing at all the posters, books, bed sheets, and numerous toys shaped to look like them that she had scattered all over the entire room.
Ranma shook his head sadly and shrugged. "Me and mom are doing something about it now that I know of it, but it's only been a few days so it'll be awhile yet before anything major happens."
"I hope everything works out for you." Hotaru said sadly as she realized that all of this stuff dedicated to her idle could soon vanish completely.
"Actually, I don't mind this stuff all that much it's just that I was never asked and I'll bet that none of the others have been asked either. Though eventually, if Nabiki is allowed to continue, there's a very good chance of for having a doll made up of you as well." Ranma said with a smirk.
"What?!" Hotaru gasped.
Ranma walked over to her dresser and picked up a very good representation of Taru in his cursed form. "Nabiki seems to have been able to get stuff made up of everyone that I've never come in contact with, friends, enemies, and combinations of the two. That means that since your a part of my family there is a good chance that she will eventually get around to having one of these made up of you as well."
"Oh my!" Hotaru said as she paled and staggered over to her bed and sat down with a heavy thump.
Ranma chuckled.
There was a light knock at the door to Hotaru was room as Haruka and Michiru came in and smiled. "Ranma, would you like to stay tonight?"
"Naw, I'd better be getting back to my apartment, I've got some classes at the dojo that I have to get ready to start teaching within a few days, I still got a bunch of work to do while I get everything set up."
"Teaching? Have you finally begun to hold classes at the Tendo Dojo now?" Haruka asked as she recalled some of Ranma's history.
Ranma shook his head no. "I'm currently taking a bit of a break from the mess in Nerima. I'm hoping to get away from it permanently if it all possible, but even I'm not that optimistic. Eventually most of the old crew will find me and will start again, I just hope that this time I'm better equipped to deal with the problems than what it was two years ago when he started."
"If not at the Tendo's, where you teaching at?" Haruka asked.
"It's a place called the 'Ascension of the Dragon God' dojo, it set up just a few blocks from Juban High School."
"I don't recognize that one." Haruka said to herself.
"That reminds me, would you to be willing to allow me to teach Hotaru how to better protect herself into gator in better shape so that she is not as weak as this?"
"What did you have in mind?" Michiru asked.
"I was considering some of the softer forms of martial arts and a bit of weapon work since she cannot rely on physical strength during a fight." Ranma said, recalling some of the light exercising they had done over at the temple earlier that day.
"I don't mind so long as she isn't forced to do something that would aggravate her health even more than it already is. She is already in better shape than when she was when we first took her in, but she could always use a bit more training." Haruka said as she seriously considered the question. It wasn't as if they hadn't a started Hotaru on self-defense lessons already, it was just that she wasn't back to her full growth yet. Even then, less than nine months ago Hotaru had been nothing more than a small baby going through its second childhood. So they really hadn't had time to show her much of anything yet, now they seem to have been presented with an opportunity to have her trained under one of the best martial artists in the world. How can they pass that up, hell, how could she herself pass up an actual opportunity like this since he was teaching classes in an actual dojo anyways?
Ranma grinned and looked at Hotaru. "There is your permission kid, I want you to meet me at the temple on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays in the afternoon after school for a couple hours training and on Sundays at 8 AM for a full day's training in endurance and conditioning. That way you and Rei can help each other out as you work together and learn each of the techniques that I will show you." Ranma chuckled evilly, making all the girl's cringe. Ranma said good aftenoon to all of them and headed on home after that. They had invited him to supper as well, but had decided he needed to get back over to Rei's and have that talk with her.
Hotaru sighed happily as she shut the front door, she turned around and ground to a halt. Haruka and Michiro were standing outside of her room. They were staring inside as if there was a monster in there preparing to attack, she came up beside them and looked inside curriously. "What's wrong?"
"Hotaru, see that picture you have of Ranko on your wall." Haruka said.
"Sure, so you want to hang it up somewhere else?" Hotaru asked carefully.
"No, that is the girl that destroyed Pluto's staff and beat us up the other day."
"What?! Ranko?" Hotaru yelled.
"Michiru we need to tell Pluto about this, I never even considered the possibility that it was Ranko that we fought." Haruka said.
"If it is her, then we know where to find her too." Michiru said.
**********
Note - Okay, this is the long awaited arrival at Hotaru's house and I have had several e-mails suggesting that this would be a powder keg set to go off. I decided to make all the fights with the Outers with Ranma in his girl form, this way no one has any idea that they are the same person. Ranma has no way of knowing that the Outers are the one's wanting to adopt Hotaru, only that they are lesbians. In his view lesbians are better than letting his father get someone else to train, it is to horrible to think about.