Note: This is a remake of my original story Nerima in the Dark
Enjoy!
CHAPTER 6
Ryoga was mesmerized as he watches both combatants face off against each other. Nodoka, with her bokken, parries each one of Kurumi's bo staff with such efficiency that it seems that the swordswoman has an energy barrier surrounding her from all sides. None of the younger girl's lightning fast strikes don't even seems to come close in penetrating Nodoka's defense.
He must admit that when he was taken as a pet by the Saotomes three days ago, he had already suspected both Nodoka and Kurumi to have some skills. He never realized how an understatement that is when he first saw them sparring in the backyard of the Saotome home. If his observations are correct, he estimate Nodoka's skill with the sword to be at least master level, while Kurumi's weapon and hand to hand skill to be about 2nd Dan, which isn't so bad considering her age.
He knows that he should have left the Saotomes long ago but circumstances beyond his control prevent him from doing so. In other words, he keeps getting lost trying to find his way out of the house. The one time he actually found his way in his entire stay here was two nights ago when he went to find the bathroom so he could change back into a man. After three hours of getting lost inside the house as a pig, he finally found the bathroom, only to see Mrs. Saotome walking out of the furo totally nude. Of coarse, being him, he passed out due to loss of blood, from the nose. Even though it was an accident, he hated himself for being a peeping tom to such a sweet lady like Nodoka, even if she does have a body most women her age would literally kill for. From then on, he decided he would find his way out of the house BEFORE turning himself back into a man.
He was interrupted from his musing when he saw Kurumi finally managed to penetrate Nodoka's defense. The young girl's grin was evident seeing the other end of her staff merely a few inches from the woman's face. The only thing that keeping it there was the butt of bokken's hilt.
Nodoka smiled and said, "Very good, Kurumi. I was expecting you to make a faint on that last strike."
"Thanks, mom!" Kurumi said with a smirk. That is until she saw her mother's smile turned into that oh-so-familiar grin that she hates. "Uh-oh."
Ryoga had to do a double take to make sure of what he was seeing. He knew that grin anywhere. It was the same grin Ranma always sprout whenever he and Ryoga gets into the heat of their sparring, just before he gets his butt kicked by the pigtailed martial artist. 'Whoa! She really IS Ranma's mom!' the piglet thought.
Suddenly, Kurumi found herself in the defensive. She was hard press as her mother's strikes comes incredible close to her. She can't even jump away as she desperately tries to block each sword strikes that are all too fast to dodge.
With one last underhand strike, Kurumi's bo staff went flying into the air and the little girl fell undignified on her butt. "Aw, mom!" Kurumi pouted cutely as she got up while touching her sore behind.
Nodoka went to see if her daughter is all right first before saying in a calm and sweet tone, "You did good today, Kurumi. I wasn't expecting you to penetrate my shield defense so soon. We will begin learning it tomorrow so get plenty of rest tonight."
Kurumi grinned at the praise. It took her a week but she finally penetrated her mother's Shield by the Sword technique. She was told that unless she managed to penetrate it at least once, then her mother would not teach it to her. Her mother said it was one of the more advanced technique of her family's art and it took the older woman a month to penetrate it.
"Okay, mom." She said happily before skipping towards the little black piglet watching from the porch of the house. She picked him up and hugged her tightly to her chest as she squealed happily, "Look, P-chan! I finally did it! We must tell all my friends and celebrate!"
"Not before you take a bath, young lady." Nodoka said good naturedly.
"Okay, mom. Just wait for me here, P-chan. I'll be right back." She then went off into the house after putting P-chan on the porch once more.
Nodoka kept her smile for Kurumi until she was inside the house, at which her smile disappeared to be replaced by sad sigh as she sat on the porch besides the piglet as she stare longingly at the sky.
Ryoga, seeing this, frowned and went to cuddle his snout on the older woman's hand.
"Oh, you really are a smart little thing, are you, P-chan." Nodoka said as she gently picked him up and placed him on her lap. "Don't worry about me, P-chan. I was just thinking of how Ranma would have handled this training if he was alive. Did you know he was already doing katas with his father at the age of two? He was so energetic, just like his sister is now. And I'm pretty sure he would have grown up to be a man among men."
'Yeah, right!' Ryoga snorted internally, thinking about his rival.
"Anyway, I better make some snacks for Kurumi and her friends." She said as she stood up to go into the kitchen, leaving P-chan on the porch.
'Good, she's gone. Now's my chance to escape!' Ryoga thought as he prepares himself to jump over the wall of the Saotome home. Keeping his eyes on the said wall, he bent his tiny pig legs and run. As soon as he was almost at the wall, he jumped with all his worth.
'At last! I'm free! I'm free! I'm . . . in the living room? Agh!' And that is how he ended up inside the Saotome living room, again, although this was the first time he ended up on top of the book shelves. 'Darn it! My life is hell!' he shouted in his mind. He was just about to turn around to jump off the shelves when a framed piece of paper caught his eye. He was a bit close so all he saw was the black handprints at the corner of the paper. Moving back a bit, he started to read, and was shocked.
For a moment, he had an urge to laugh maniacally. But then he remembered his mortality defends solely on his rival's existence. And thinking about Ranma's current condition, he summed it up to two simple words.
'Oh my!'
He doesn't know how long he had stared at that contract but the next thing he knew, he was being drag outside by a hyperactive Kurumi, who barely managed to say, "I'll be going now, mom. Thanks for the lunch!" before leaving.
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"Where the hell is that girl?" This had been Ranma's mantra as she searched all over the palace. "I can't believe she skipped her studies again! That girl will be the death of me!" She wanted to scream in frustration once more, but she did that already this morning and got a soar throat for it.
Having already checked most of the usual places, Ranma sprinted towards the last place where she knew the princess likes to hide out whenever the princess likes to skip her responsibilities.
Reaching the almost hidden gazebo at the western edge of the palace gardens, she saw a young girl with long blond hair tied in two buns and hanging in two long ponytails, just standing there looking at the bright blue Earth in the sky with a sad serene look on her face.
She was just about to call on her despite the fact that Ranma doesn't really know her name when all of a sudden menacing dark shadows sprouted everywhere surrounding the still girl.
"NO! LOOK OUT, PRINCESS!" Ranma shouted as she desperately tried to run towards the blond girl who doesn't even seems to notice the danger she's in. She just kept staring at the Earth with sadness evident in her bright blue eyes.
But she was too late. Ranma arrived just as the shadows were able to converge on the princess and swallowed the still girl in a sphere of darkness. She tried desperately to attack the dark sphere but to no avail. Her strikes didn't even dent it. Striking it once more, the sphere retaliated by giving off a shockwave so powerful that it flung her halfway across the palace gardens.
Suddenly, she found herself inside a capsule of some kind being observed at the outside by a dark skin woman with long dark green hair wearing a fuku. She knew what being in the capsule means. "No! You can't do this to me! Let me out! I have to get back to my princess! Let me out!" She tried banging on the capsule with all her might to no avail. The capsule was made to last for a long, long, long time for the sole purpose of putting any person inside it into cryogenic hibernation.
The woman shook her head and said sadly, "It's too late now. Everyone else is gone. The queen had sent them forward."
"H-how. . ."
"You have a new mission now, Royal Adviser. And I wish you luck." With that, the inside of the capsule begun to emit a cold mist, thus starting the cryogenic process.
Seconds later, everything went dark.
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Ranma gasped as he sat up upon waking up from that dreaded dream, sweat pouring all over from his body. He turned sideways and plopped his feet to the side of the bed. Then he put his forehead on his hands and started a breathing exercise to calm his nerves.
"I should have expected this." He told himself loudly before continuing, "Odd though. It's been a while since I had that kind of dream."
"Is master alright? Is there anything Naomi can do to help master?" came Naomi's voice from the corner of the room.
Ranma turned to see Naomi getting off of the coach she was sleeping at a minute ago and watch her silently as she walk towards his side in all fours. She was in her child form so he wasn't totally creeping out by her. In fact, he found her quite cute. So when she finally reached his side, he pat her on the head, gave her a smile, and said, "Don't worry about me, Naomi. It's just a dream."
Naomi nodded with a smile and started to purr like a cat as she settled herself on her master's lap. First, he was a bit freaked out by the purring but he eventually settled comfortably down and started stroking her head. It was actually kinda therapeutic.
During the several minutes of comfortable silence, Ranma tried to think back on the dream he had. Ever since the Neko Ken training, he sometimes have these weird dreams that eventually turns into nightmares at the end. And all of them involves a palace made of crystal, the Earth in the sky, a blond princess, the death of the said princess in the hands of the dark shadows, and being cryogenically frozen. Each time he wakes up from these dreams, he would always feel the lingering emotions of loss and regret, particularly towards that blond girl who's name he doesn't even seem to remember whenever he wakes up. All he knew is that she was his princess and Ranma had failed her duty to protect her.
They just felt so real. The loss of losing someone so special like his princess was so strong that the emotions would usually linger for at least a few days. And he can't do a damn thing about it.
'Well,' he thought. 'at least it could get my mind off the Tendo agreement for a few days.' Just then, the same thought triggered his mind to his latest dilemma. 'Damn! I just had to jinx it, don't I.'
Taking a deep breath, he tried to review the honor dilemma in his head once more. He knew he couldn't just ignore the agreement since it wouldn't be just his honor that would have a stain but the Tendos as well. He's really not ready for married life as of yet, and by the looks of things before he left that night, neither was Soun's daughters. But the old man seems quite adamant about uniting the schools.
There was also about Soun Tendo that felt wrong to him, like feeling he shouldn't wxist at all. His daughters seem capable enough. Kasumi was quite nice and exerts a powerful white aura, she could be quite a powerful priestess if she ever chose that path.
The middle Tendo girl, Nabiki, seem capable and calculating. And she does have a slight affinity to mystism since the wards he felt surrounding the house was linked to her. That was why he was sure they would be able to handle whatever cursed object in their possession. And besides, cursed objects were the last thing on his mind at the time.
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Akane irritably sat down at her desk in the classroom when Sayuri and Yuka approached her.
Yuka gave her a wave before saying, "Geez, Akane, you could have taken it a bit easy on the Hentai Horde. I mean, I don't think some of them would be waking up until lunch time."
"Yeah, Akane. And I'm quite sure Kuno-sempai's bokken was supposed to go in there."
Akane merely growled in response. Her friends sighed and tried to console their friend as much as they could.
"Well, at least the Hentai Horde and Kuno won't be bothering you for at least the rest of the day." Yuka said.
"The Hentai Horde at least. We all know how fast Kuno-sempai gets up from abuse." Sayuri added.
Growling one last time, she then turned to her friends and sighed in defeat before saying, "Sorry guys. It's just . . . I really, really hate my dad right now."
"How come?" both girls asked in unison.
She was about to answer when the teacher finally came through the door. "I'll tell you guys at lunch, okay."
Both girls merely nodded and went to their respective seats.
For both girls, waiting for lunch took forever. By the time the lunch bell sounded, Sayuri and Yuka had already been dragging Akane up to their lunch spot at the roof for some privacy.
"Okay, Akane, you've kept us in suspense long enough. Now spill." Yuka prodded as soon as they were alone.
Sighing once more she then said, "My dad got this idea in his head to get me and my sisters engage to this guy that . . ."
"ENGAGE!" Both Yuka and Sayuri blurted in surprise, cutting off Akane's rant effectively.
"Wow! Really?"
"What's his name?"
"Is he cute?"
"How old is he?"
"Was it love at first sight?"
"How far have you gone with him?"
"How good is he in bed?"
The questions keep getting more and more sexually each time. Akane had expected this kind of reaction from her boy-hungry friends, and she wasn't disappointed. She sigh once before saying, "Guys, would you quit it."
"Okay, so tell us when did this happen?" Yuka asked excitedly.
Giving off another sigh of defeat, she said to her over eager friends, "Two days ago. Nabiki told me his name was Saotome. He's the son of my father's old training partner."
"And?" Sayuri asked impatiently.
"And that he said he'll be back in a few days to settle it."
"What else?"
"Well, Kasumi said he himself seems reluctant to go through with it. But you know my father, once he gets something on his head, he won't be easy to dissuade him."
"That's it? There's got to be more." Yuka said.
"There's nothing more unless you can come up with five thousand yen to buy it off Nabiki."
Both Yuka and Sayuri deflated at this. They know perfectly well that getting information from the Ice Queen of Furinkan would cost them a fortune. And they had just blown off their allowance on a few magazines.
"Anyway, Akane, are you planning on going out tonight?" Yuka asked suddenly.
"Yes. I really need to let out some steam."
"Good, because I want to test the range of the tracking device after adding more power to it." Sayuri said.
"Yes, and I also wanted to test the new additional software to the GPS program I made." Yuka added.
"That's fine with me. Maybe I could just stroll around tonight without getting into trouble."
"Yeah, and maybe you could get lucky and see that boy again." Yuka teased.
"Good luck with that!" Sayuri added cheerfully.
Akane just groaned once more.
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"This is not possible!" Said Ukyo in disbelief as she stares at the engraving at the tombstone in front of her.
She just couldn't believe that the bane of her existence is dead, both of them.
Genma and Ranma Saotome are now dead. The condition her father had set for her are met and now she could finally go back to her clan as a girl that she really is, not as a boy she was forced to pretend to be.
But why does she feel so empty inside? Is it because she wasn't the one who was able to kill them or is it something else? She knelt down near the tombstone and traced her fingers softly on the name written on it.
HERE LIES SAOTOME RANMA
SON AND MARTIAL ARTIST
MAN AMONG MEN
BORN: JULY 7, 1980
DIED: AUGUST 20, 1992
"Ran-chan." She wanted to spat out the name but instead her voice sounded so soft in her mouth that it surprised even herself. That didn't sound like someone who held a grudge against someone for ten years. It sounded more like an old friend reminiscing the good old times.
She tried to bring out all her anger out in the open but none seems to be coming fort. But none seems to be coming. After a few minutes trying, she finally gave up, sighed, and started walking away.
She had barely made five steps when she stopped suddenly and said, "You can come out now, Konatsu."
Moments later, Konatsu, in his black ninja garb, dropped from a nearby tree along the tiny cemented road so silently that barely a sound was heard.
Ukyo merely gave him a comprehensive look before walking right pass him. Konatsu followed shortly a few steps behind. Both walked in silence for several minutes until Konatsu broke it and said, "Are you alright, Ukyo-sama?"
For a minute, there was no answer. Several seconds later, Ukyo said in a very subdued voice, "Do you think I wasted all that time searching for them?"
"No, Ukyo-sama." He answered immediately.
"How could you say that? I wasted five years looking for people that were already dead. If I found out about them sooner, I could have returned to my family with my honor in tact. I could have been the girl I always wanted to be, not a son my dad always wanted." She snapped at him, giving the feminine looking ninja a glare.
Konatsu calmly walked towards the distraught girl. He took her hand on his own and said in a soft voice, "Because, Ukyo-sama, if you hadn't wasted all those years traveling all over Japan searching for them, then you wouldn't have found me."
The girl thought about it for a moment, remembering the time she first met the feminine ninja. She wouldn't exactly call it saving him from hell but having those almost demonic-looking step-relatives of him, it came close. She shuddered at the memory of fighting Konatsu ordered by his step mother. If he wasn't having second thoughts during the battle, she knew she would have lost badly. When they say that she had to kill Konatsu because he failed to uphold his duty, she almost killed his relatives on sight. She would have too if she wasn't so heavily wounded from her earlier fight with Konatsu. So instead, since she owns him, she decided to make him her waitress at her restaurant. The rest after that, as she say, is history.
"I guess. Thanks, sugar."
"What would you do now, Ukyo-sama?"
"Help the professor with his own quest, I guess. After that, who knows? Maybe after that I can finally live a normal life." She said before walking towards the exit of the cemetery.
Konatsu merely nodded in reply as he started to follow his mistress.
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A/N: this chapter is a bit shorter than the rest. Consider it a filler for things to come. Anyway, Thanks to all those that reviewed.
EvilP: No, Ranma is still pretty much human
xtor49: thanks
sadfru: hope this chapter answered ur question
borg rabbit: I don't really know which one it is
JumperPrime: i'll work on my grammars better from now thanks
Jonakhensu: don't worry, it won't take long now before everyone meets up again