Ranma 1/2

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Finished this finally, hope you enjoy it because I enjoyed writing it, next chapter is going to be an interesting. I have some things planned that are going to throw a twist into the story that may or may not work like I want it to. We'll have to see. Hope you all enjoy reading. Oh, and I own only the characters that I created, namely Hitomi, Kitsu, The Evil Man in Shadows(TM), and The Android Clone of the Evil Man in Shadows(TM)(All Rights Reserved)

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Remembrance

Chapter 4

He enjoyed the feeling of being able to lounge in bed and feel the sun shine like the warm nucleus of the earth on his face. Life was sustained by the giant ball of gas, helium and hydrogen molecules were all it contained. A giant sustained explosion that burned with enough heat to travel across space and warm the faces of millions of people across a small sized planet. This was not the most romantic way to think about the object, which would be thinking of actions you did while the sun was out, such as lay around on the sediment that held back the salt saturated water that engulfed seventy percent of the earth. Laying by the ocean with the sun in your face and just taking it easy with friends or loved ones, now that was the romantic way of thinking of the sun. Even having a picnic was a romantic way of thinking about the sun, but as long as you liked the feeling it did not matter how you thought of the big ball of fire. The fact that remained was that it would be too cold for the earth to sustain life without it. That alone was what made him feel good as rays of warmth cut through the folding blinds covering the window.

He would gladly just recline there the whole weekend if he had the chance but he supposed that he would have to get out of bed eventually. Still, he could just be lazy there until his partner next to him woke. After all that had happened the last few days he was more than deserving of a brake, at least that is what he convinced himself of. As he thought of this the person next to him shifted slightly so her head was lying on top of his left arm, both arms were presently folded behind his head. With a slight grin Ranma looked over at her and gently unfolded his left hand and placed it across her, causing her to unconsciously move closer to him. Even as cold as he had learned to be in his previous job, enough to leak through subconsciously to his normal attitude sometimes, he could still not resist a woman.

The woman sighed again and cracked open one eye, "Oh, hi Ranma, here I was having a nice dream and you go and wake me up."

"Well I should let you go back to sleep then," Ranma responded, he could here the small laugh ring in his voice, just a single joyful chuckle.

Nabiki sat up and stretched, letting her covers fall away from her chest, "That was the most joyful I've heard you since you came back. What's wrong?"

"Well how about your blanket and the fact that it's not covering you," Ranma said with his eyes covered.

The woman sighed with a resigned look, "Honestly Ranma, your in the same bed as me while I'm naked and you still have not gotten used to seeing me naked."

Ranma blinked behind his hand before he let it drop, "Yeah, that was pretty dumb, huh?"

Nabiki just sighed and shook her head, "Yeah, but that's par for the course here," Nabiki looked down at the blankets so her hair covered her eyes from the side view Ranma had of her, "for both of us sometimes."

The man noticed moisture fall in a neat round drop on the blankets right were he could imagine here eyes were, "I get this feeling that you're thinking about your sister, your younger sister."

"I miss her," Nabiki said softly as she brought her now clasped hands to her chest and started sobbing, "I'm so angry when I see her that I can't forgive her but then I miss her and I just can't sort my feeling out."

Ranma sighed, "I see."

With that Ranma got out of bed and sat at the edge, dressed only in an old pair of sweats that were lying around. He had to wonder how it was that Nabiki of all people had been the one to be left with all of his belongings. It was kind of strange but at the same time he was glad that she had held on to them. Looking down at his knees, Ranma took at deep breath and let it out slowly, he wanted to say something to Nabiki but there was just nothing that came to his mind.

"I already know I'm not smart," Ranma said softly, "Unless I'm fighting, in which case I prove to be a genius, everything I do is failure. I can't help you sole your problem, Nabiki. I haven't been here to see what went wrong, but I hate to see you cry at the same time. So this is the dilemma."

The woman looked at his, though she could not force a smile on her face if she wanted to she nodded, "Ranma, I don't expect you to solve my problems. That would be unfair, I just wish... I wish that I was as strong as you."

He looked over at her suddenly with something close to surprise in his eyes, "Like me? I'm not as strong as you think, sure physically I'm unmatched but you have more inner strength than I do, it's just that nobody showed you how to use it. You tap into it unconsciously for making deals," Ranma stood and started towards the shower room, "But since you have not been trained to use it you just accept that you are weak compared to me, so you let you defeat yourself. I'm going to take a shower."

Nabiki looked at him, shocked more than a little at what he had just told her, then hesitating at first then quickly she ran over to him and grabbed him,

"Ranma, if that is the case then you will teach me how to use it when I need it, if not for my sake then for the sake of my family!"

Ranma let out a lopsided grin, "If that's what you want."

"You bet your ass that's what I want," Nabiki all but yelled at him, "Now let's get started."

"You seem to have the wrong idea about this," Ranma said, "It's not something you can just do suddenly. We'll start training later tonight, for now let's just enjoy this day off."

This ended the conversation abruptly, at least for the time being, Ranma stood from his position at the edge of the bed and started walking towards the shower room. Once there he took a quick hot shower to relax his muscles and remove the dirt and sweat that had dried from the previous night. A lot had happened yesterday and he did not want to think about it right now, it was the weekend and he was free to do whatever he wanted. Of course doing what he wanted may very well be an illusion, he had others to think of and doing his own thing right now may be a little selfish. Of course he never thought there was anything wrong with thinking about you sometimes, now was not one of those times however.

Getting out of the shower and slipping on a white shirt and some loose jeans, Ranma walked downstairs slowly to find Akemi running out of the kitchen with a scream. Raising an eyebrow, the martial artist looked in the direction she had came from to find what looked to be a small white kitten perched on the counter licking its paws calmly. The man looked back at the girl with a grin and chuckled slightly.

"Scared of a kitten," He said as he walked up to it, "You should be ashamed of yourself."

Akemi grit her teeth and yelled back, "Shut up! That beast is evil, look at the thing, nothing that cute could be innocent."

Ranma blinked and stared at the cat thoughtfully, "There's something familiar about this cat."

Just as he was about to pick the animal up though he heard a gasp from behind him and turned to see Nabiki standing there with an angry look on her face. The angry look was not aimed at him however, it seemed to be aimed at the cat that sat in front of him with a total look of innocence on its face.

"I really don't understand what the fuss is over a stray cat," Ranma muttered. Just then Hitomi came in with a pot of boiling water and innocently stood next to Ranma and the cant, "Hey Akemi, is this how you wanted the water?"

The girl with multi-colored hair looked at the younger girl and sighed, "I said hot, not boiling, oh well, we'll just have to wait for it to cool off a little."

"Sorry," Hitomi set the pot down next to the cat on the counter and Ranma could have sworn he saw the animal give it a nervous glance for a second.

This was eventually written off as his imagination and he just shrugged and started out of the kitchen, "Oh well, I'm going to practice out back for a while."

With that he started out of the room but stopped as something occurred to him and he went back to move the boiling water. Hitomi was barely tall enough to reach the counter as it was and so she had not put it in the safest position.

Unfortunately when he grabbed it, he did not expect it to be as slick as it was and he watched as if in slow motion as the kettle fell on top of the cat that panicked and tried to get out of the way as fast as it could. It failed by just a hair, enough to keep from getting a serious burn but not enough to avoid getting wet. The reaction to the woman that took the cant's place was that of shock, anger, and horror.

Ranma folded his arms and looked curiously at the woman, "So, what are you doing here?"

The woman looked up in shock and blinked at him, "I..."

"She was probably spying on you," Akemi said from behind him, "I would not be surprised if she was from our syndicate, some kind of new agent."

Nabiki suddenly put on a mask of ice, "No, her name is Shampoo and she is not welcome."

The woman with purple hair looked at the Tendo sister with surprise, "I no I not so good in past," The woman said as she averted her gaze to the floor, "Not come here to make trouble, just want see Ranma. Is why not come as human."

Akemi looked at her then to Ranma who seemed to sigh in frustration, "She has an ability like you?"

"You mean changing her form with water," Ranma nodded, "Yes, it seems so."

"She's naked."

Ranma blinked and looked back at the stone faced Nabiki, "Huh?" He then looked back at the woman in front of him and felt quiet nervous suddenly, "Uh, well let me go get some clothes then."

Running up the stairs to grab something, anything, to cover the girl up, he left the three other females living in the house in an uncomfortable position of staring at a naked girl that was not at all welcome in the house. With a history like hers it was not exactly a surprise that she was treated as such, only two people in the house knew of her past and those two were the ones doing most of the seething. One of those people was upstairs frantically looking for some clothes and cursing and the other was just hiding her emotions behind a mask of ice. The woman that sat on the counter in the kitchen at least had the decency to look embarrassed and cover herself with her hands. Still, after the hell she had put her whole family through, Nabiki would not let her get away from her sins so easily. Walking up to the woman with a stern face she aimed a glare that could have killed the woman with purple hair had she noticed it at all.

"Shampoo, tell me the truth," Nabiki demanded, "And believe me, I know when you're lying, why are you here."

The purple haired girl was silent for a while, and Nabiki was about to drop the hammer on her when she finally spoke up, "Shampoo no longer Amazon, she is outcast for not bringing husband back. Shampoo not blame anyone but self though, is own fault, was hoping that... I could find some place to live. Come back to Japan to find everything changed and Shampoo get lost."

Ranma had come back downstairs with a long shirt he found laying around, white and buttoning down the front. He draped the shirt over the girl and she gingerly buttoned it up so she would be somewhat decent. She nodded her head once in the direction of the martial artist before she turned back to Nabiki.

"When Shampoo wondered by house, felt Ranma's aura and decided to come in window and look," The girl suddenly turned and leapt at Ranma so sudden he was unprepared and tumbled backwards with the girl on top of him, she started yelling at him with tears in her eyes, "Just wanted to see Ranma again! Is all

Shampoo intended, please believe! No can take more rejection, no can take hate from others, please no hate!"

Ranma looked helpless as she lay on top of him, "Shampoo..."

Nabiki looked at his position and sighed, "Ranma, you realize you're encouraging her, she will never get over you this way."

"I know, Biki-chan," Ranma looked down at the girl who was crying in his chest, "I want to help her but there is no guarantee that she will not see it as wanting a relationship."

Hitomi had been silently watching the whole ideal from the back and felt a little out of place now, still she felt for the woman. She did not totally understand what the story meant but it was obviously sad.

"Mom, we could let her stay just until she gets back on her feet," The little girl said as she spoke quietly, "She seems so sad."

Nabiki let her icy façade melt just a little, "Yeah, I guess you're right,

Shampoo could stay with us just for a little while, as if I don't have too many guests already. Damn it, I should start charging rent."

"See Shampoo, you can stay until you find a place for yourself," Ranma said, "I know that you are angry and sad but maybe you can heal here for a while."

The girl looked up at him and nodded, "Thank you, Ranma."

"Hey, don't thank me, thank my mistress," Ranma said with a wry grin.

"Don't talk about me like that!" Nabiki let her mask slip instantly, then she regained it with embarrassment, "I mean, um, yeah, I'm the one that owns the house."

Shampoo nodded and then stood and bowed low at the waist in Nabiki's direction, "Thank you very much for letting me live here until I get my own home."

"Why do I have the feeling I'll regret this," Nabiki muttered before she sighed, "stand up Shampoo, I will allow you to live in this house, but only until you get your own place."

"Thank you," The purple haired girl said.

Akemi shook her head, "Well, I guess you are an old friend, or old enemy, either way, don't try to start trouble or you'll have to deal with me."

"You is Ranma's sister?"

Ranma made a sour face before he burst out in a fit of laughter, Akemi ground her teeth together and clenched her fists at her side, "I am not his sister, I am my own person, and don't give me no crap about being related to that man. I'm only protecting him because he's going to need to survive to deal with me."

Shampoo crossed her hands in front of her chest before she nodded sagely, "Ah, see family resemblance, definitely sister... or cousin."

Even Nabiki had to smirk at this one, the ex-Amazon could be quiet the trouble maker but she was always entertaining. She always seemed to lighten the mood even when those around her were at their worst she could be cheerful. Part of it was because her Amazon pride would not let her show weakness in front of an enemy and part of it was because she hated seeing her friends hurt. At least that is what Nabiki had deduced it down to, of course all of that could be going totally out on a limb. Suddenly she remembered something.

"Hey Ranma, do you still have that disk?"

The man looked surprised and nodded as he reached for his back pocket, "Here, tell me you're not going to look at that on you day off."

She nodded, "Our day off is ruined now anyways, might as well see what's on this baby."

Without waiting for any chance to object, the woman ran up the stairs to her at home office room. She did not make heavy use of the room but it was obvious to all who entered that she was not the cleanest single mother ever. Papers littered the floor and desk and there was just enough room for the computer to be on the desk. It looked like someone had gone through the room looking for something important. All of it was from the woman in front of them working though.

Ranma watched from behind Nabiki as she sat down and inserted the disk and prayed as the machine clicked away at the digital media. Then after what seemed like forever the screen came up and he saw what he had been waiting so long to see. After all of this time, his memories were documented from his teenager years to the point until he disappeared. After that it seemed to be blank, it took about two or three hours to read all of it, and some of it was amazingly detailed, it was almost as if he had written it himself. Of course there was no almost about it, the last entry proved that this was exactly what happened.

This is probably the last time I will be able to write here, tomorrow I disappear from my life and everyone I knew. I wish it had not come to this but it is my only way out, I came to realize, without hurting those around me. They may miss me but they will go on and nobody will get hurt. Should this find its way into their hands, then I never meant any of the harm that I caused to anyone. Please believe that this is the only way to go on. I'm sorry. Sincerely,

Ranma Saotome.

The martial artist seemed unnerved as he read the words that had been written upon the screen. The words were in his handwriting, every single word and page he had written about his life had been scanned and saved to a floppy disk. Every emotion and move he had ever thought to be important was here, every person or event. All of those things that he had forgotten were suddenly seeping into his brain from some locked away recess in a warehouse of the mind that had been almost gone. He started to shake and then slowly a low growl started from his throat, then it turned into an inhuman scream as his head flooded with the millions of images and emotions that he had forgotten over the years. He was holding his head and eyes bulging as if they were about to spring from his very skull, he screamed to the heavens.

Others looked on in concern but at the same time they were unsure of how safe it would have been to get too close to him. Then his aura flared around him in a dark blue miasma of fury and will, this only served to prove to the others that he was not to be approached. Eventually, after what seemed to be a longer time than it most likely actually was, the screaming and the aura stopped and the man fell limply to the floor. Nabiki gasped and ran to him as he lay on the floor.

His breathing was deep and his eyes were closed, he was unconscious but no other harm had come to him.

Akemi and Shampoo came up to look and make sure for themselves that nothing was seriously wrong. It was apparent that the sudden insurgence of memories had caused this state, that was evident on the surface. What was hard to see was what the man was going through inside his head. Swirling visions of confusion, pain, and anger assaulted his head, the feeling was new to him and the pain was nothing he could fight. The screaming had died down, leaving him breathing deeply and having trouble staying conscious. His eyes were heavy and blurry, a woman with brown hair smoothed his hair back from his face, and he felt her warm hand against his clammy head and smiled.

"Does it hurt?" She asked the question softly.

He would have let out a chuckle but his head hurt too much to allow that, "Just a little headache, I'm mostly tired."

She smiled slightly at him, "Yes, I can imagine, go ahead and sleep."

"I think I would have even without your permission," Ranma answered back weakly.

Nabiki felt tears in her eyes as she saw Ranma pass out finally, she did not know why but it felt as if he was leaving her again. She wanted to wake him up again but she knew that it would do no good, her only hope was that he was the same person she had met before. She knew that there was a chance that the old memories would bring back pictures of the woman that he had loved before he went away. If he remembered that, there was a chance that he might try to go back to her and that would be painful for Ranma and Nabiki both. Akane did not love Ranma anymore, she was married to Ryouga and they were happy with children.

There was no room for the martial artist with the braided ponytail in that equation. Akemi and Shampoo wisely decided to give the two of them some room, after helping to lift the unconscious man onto the couch, and left the room where the couple was.

Elsewhere, in an ominously dark room with an ominously solid and huge desk and an equally ominous chair sat an ominous man. The man was lit from behind by a huge window overlooking a city that was not quite as ominous as his room. It also did not save on the budget like is office should this ever become an animated series... which it will not, however it had the same cheap effect. Many people were afraid of him with good reason but they would also, and he could prove this with tapes from hidden cameras, comment on how his office was actually pretty cliché. He was fine with that really, he did not like light anyways and that was the real reason his office was like this. The man could really give two shits about what people thought about his office, he liked it like this. He was not trying to keep his identity a secret, he just wanted to be comfortable and people treated it as if it was some sort of evil lair. Bah!

The door let out a bang suddenly as someone knocked on it and it echoed through the almost empty room, free of any frivolous furniture, and he pushed a button on his desk to let the man on the other side in. There stood a person that made him feel like he was looking into a magic mirror that transported him back in time to when he was about fifty years younger. Of course this was not the case, it was just an android representation of him. The old man turned his back on the fake man to look out the window.

"What was his response?"

The android sighed and shook his head, "He is stubborn."

With a chuckle the old man spoke again, "Yes he is, I had a feeling he would keep his current path. I will send Kitsu to deal with him. The boy has wanted another go at that man for a while. If he is defeated, I want you to take the agents life. Do not bother with anyone else, the others are of no concern. Also, capture that woman of his and bring her here, I have another experiment I wish to try out and from what our surveillance can tell she is a perfect candidate."

The man bowed, "I really wish it did not have to be this way."

Turning suddenly the old man slammed his hand on the desk, "If we all got what we wished for then this world would be perfect, wouldn't it! Now go get Kitsu and do your damn job!"

With the yelling done the fake man bowed silently and left the room, the old man was alone once again, "Damn I hate that man, he's too soft, but he had better do as I say or he will do more than just kill the Saotome man."

To say that Nabiki awoke in an uncomfortable position would have been the understatement of a lifetime. It was not that she awoke unpleasantly, in fact it was quiet gentle with a big warm hand brushing some of her hair from her face and cupping her small face in its overgrown mass. The reason for her being uncomfortable was that she was twisted so her face was in the opposite direction of the rest of her body. Her legs were twisted at an angle so her right leg was under her left curled up under her body for support. They did not so much point down the length of the couch as much as away. Nabiki's neck was bent so that her right cheek lay on the chest of the man who was stretched out quite comfortably on his back with his feet pointed down the couch.

The woman looked up with startled wide eyes and blinked a few times as if she was not sure where she was. Ranma chuckled and helped her get off the ground after he took a sitting position on the couch. She thanked him and tried to turn her neck back to its normal position but winced as she did. Ranma sighed and took a hold of the woman's neck and gently started rubbing with his thumbs in a circular motion. He could feel the muscles become less tense as he focused a little of his warm, calming, energy into them. She moaned and closed her eyes as he continued to massage her neck.

"How you doing, beautiful?" Ranma asked as she leaned back into him.

Nabiki was lost in her own world as she heard the man speak to her so it took her a second to respond to his inquiry, "I was a little worried."

Ranma nodded silently behind her, "I see, and why was this?"

"Well, I saw you in so much pain and I thought… I don't know what I thought but I was concerned," even to Nabiki that sounded lame but she continued with a question of her own, "Do you still feel the same about me?"

"So that's what this is about," Ranma paused in his massage just enough to wrap his arms around her waist and pull her close to him, "I don't think you have to worry about me going back to Akane."

Nabiki felt herself melt into his warm body as she was pulled close, "I was just afraid that when you're memories came back…"

Ranma let a low rumbling chuckle come from his throat, "I'll let you in on a little secret that only me and Akane knew. We grew apart from each other towards the end. After the thing with Saffron it just got too weird for either of us to make it work. We agreed to see others but we still had to keep it a secret from the family, it would have worked fine to except for my part did not go as smooth as hers. She started seeing Ryouga back then and I…"

Ranma paused and sighed tiredly, not as if he wanted to go to sleep as if he was remembering something he really did not want to. Nabiki blinked and looked up at him the best she could from her position. Ranma did not want to continue obviously, and had this been some other situation she would have been fine with letting it go but she wanted to know what happened next, for her own sanity.

"You what?"

Ranma tightened his grip on her slightly, "I fell in love with you, but I could not let it be known because everyone would have flipped. Everything we, me and Akane, had worked to build into our version of normal would have been totally destroyed. And if we started going out back then you would have been in danger every day."

"That's true, I can't really argue with your reasoning," Nabiki concluded as she looked forward again, still thinking of the one question that remained, "But why did you run away?"

Ranma sighed, "That's a little harder to explain, the short truth is that I just could not bear being next to the person I loved and not being able to tell them. So I ran away because I couldn't show you my love, Nabiki."

He felt Nabiki jump in his arms as he made that last confession and let a smile creep onto his face. It was a rare occasion that he of all people was able to surprise the woman that presently occupied his arms. He was glad that she was interested in someone like him, sure he was good at martial arts but it mattered little if the girl he loved thought of him as a halfwit.

"But why would you just run away without thinking of the others? I mean it was pretty selfish of you to just leave one day."

"I know, but I had to leave and at the time I thought it was best to spare you the pain of seeing me go," Ranma sighed again, "But had I thought about it a little more I would have realized that you would have been hurt even more by me not saying goodbye. I knew you would think that you did something wrong, we already talked about this. What I didn't think was that you would feel the same way about me, you were always so sharp, you still are, I figured you would despise some idiot like me."

He could not see her face from the angle he was but he could imagine by her sudden tensing that she was struggling with her anger, "So you proved beyond and doubt that you were an idiot and ran away from your problems. You make it so easy to be angry with you Ranma. But at the same time, I can't say I really blame you too much, your life was full of unfair decisions."

"I don't feel good about it," Ranma said, "I felt like crap for the first year. That's why I went to the company, it was my own punishment, something I would be ashamed of for the rest of my life. I had to suffer for my weakness."

Nabiki shifted in his arms until she was sitting sideways on his lap and looking into his face. It looked as if the woman was about to break into tears as she gazed into his face. To his surprise she leaned forward and put her face in his chest.

From this position, her voice muffled by his own mass, she spoke, "We all suffered from your decision then. I never want anyone to suffer like that again, please don't leave again."

Ranma nodded, "If that's what you want then I won't."

The woman smiled and looked up at him, "Good, I know you're a man of your word. Now can you teach me how to use my will like you were saying you were going to."

The man chuckled, "I may regret this but okay, we had better go to a better place than this. Do you have a place you find relaxing?"

The woman thought about this a second before she answered, "Well there is this place in the park that has always made me feel at ease. It's out of the way of everyone too."

Ranma nodded, "Well we should probably start there then. Should we bring Hitomi with us?"

Nabiki nodded, "I don't see how it could really hurt, and this isn't going to be anything embarrassing after all."

He shook his head, "No, all we're going to do is find your center and teach you to use it."

"Okay," Nabiki jumped up and called out loudly, "Hitomi!"

A tired voice came from upstairs and descended with the movement of the girl in question, "Yeah?"

"We're going to the park, get dressed," Nabiki said.

The girl smiled big at that, "Okay, can the woman with the weird hair come too?"

This caused Nabiki to blink, "Uh, sure, and her name is Akemi, Hitomi."

"What makes you think I want to come to the park with you," Akemi grumbled sleepily from the top of the stairs, "I was having a nap and you interrupt it for some time in some stupid park? Bah!"

Ranma grinned and shook his head, yeah, just like someone he used to know, "You sure? I mean I'd hate for you to miss the fun just because of you're stubbornness."

"I'm not stubborn," Akemi growled, "Fine, I'll come with you, but I'm not going to have fun."

Ranma snorted at that and laughed, "No skin off my back."

Nabiki leaned close and whispered in his ear, "I guess you know how to deal with someone who's stubborn."

"Why not," He countered, "I mean I have myself as such a good example."

"No arguing with that," Nabiki agreed, "Alright, lets get ready to go."