Chains of the Past
A Ranma ½ Tenchi Muyo Crossover
Chapter Nine
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"Kasumi?"
The mentioned girl turned towards the source of the noise and saw her younger sister standing there. "Nabiki? Nabiki!"
The two sisters quickly embraced. "Kasumi, what are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here? What about you? Is Ranma with you?"
"Right here." Kasumi saw the pig-tailed boy and gave him a hug as well. "Good to see ya Kasumi."
Mousse came towards the group. "Well this is unexpected."
Kasumi saw Mousse and looked a bit confused. "Mousse? What are you doing here?"
"I do believe explanations are in order," Nabiki stated. "Let's go find a place to sit and talk."
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Kasumi looked shocked. "Oh my! He wouldn't."
"He would, and he will if given the opportunity," Nabiki replied. "Genma is not someone who should be taken lightly. That's why we ran away." Nabiki smiled. "It was the best decision I've ever made."
The way her sister was smiling and the fact that her and Ranma have been holding hands made her swell with joy. "I'm glad that you feel like that sister. I see these last four months have been very kind for you. So should I be expecting any nieces or nephews any time soon?"
Ranma face faulted and Nabiki's eyes bugged out. When he saw their reaction, Mousse started to laugh hard. Nabiki gave her sister a hood stare. "You're mean. You pulled a Nodoka on purpose."
Kasumi sat there laughing for about a minute until she was finally able to calm herself down. "Auntie Nodoka was right. This was the best place to go for the weekend."
Nabiki raised an eyebrow. "She told you to come here?"
Kasumi nodded. "This weekend is a long one for the college, so Auntie suggested I come here to relax. She made up the reservations and everything. Wasn't that nice of her?"
Ranma and Nabiki looked at each other and then back to Kasumi. "Mom knew we would be here. She and Katsuhito set this up."
Nabiki chuckled. "I admit that was clever of them. Though I am worried."
"I'm guessing you're worried about Shampoo using Kasumi's trail to lead to us," Mousse stated. "It is possible."
Ranma sighed. "Great. Instead of a probable two weeks we got two days." Ranma stood up. "It's too late to head out now. We leave here first thing tomorrow morning and go back to the shrine. I don't want to cause this inn any damage due to the fight."
Nabiki raised an eyebrow. "Don't you mean any extra damage?"
Ranma chuckled nervously. "Yeah, that's what I meant."
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Nabiki led Kasumi towards the common area where the rest of the group was relaxing for the night. "Everyone, I like to introduce someone to you." Everyone faced them. "This is my older sister Kasumi."
Kasumi gave a quick bow. "Hello everyone. It's nice to meet you."
Sasami ran up to Kasumi. "Hi, my name's Sasami! How are you?"
Kasumi giggled. "I'm fine, thank you. And how are you?"
"Sasami." Ayeka walked up to her sister. "I'm sorry about my sister's behavior. She gets very excited when she meets new people. I'm her older sister Ayeka. Pleased to meet you Tendo-san."
"Think nothing of it. I wouldn't want her to be any other way. Children should be full of life and joy. And please, call me Kasumi."
"I can definitely see the family resemblance. Ryoko." Ryoko held out her hand.
Kasumi took her hand and shook it. "Pleased to meet you."
Tenchi walked up to the group. "I'm Tenchi. This is my father Noboyuki, and this is my grandfather Katsuhito."
"It's an honor to meet you." She turned towards Katsuhito. "I would like to thank you for taking care of my sister and Ranma."
Katsuhito raised a hand. "Think nothing of it child." Katsuhito looked around. "Where is Ranma and Mousse?"
"They're scouting around," Nabiki replied. "Ranma's making sure no one is observing the inn."
Katsuhito nodded. "I thought that you would be concerned about someone following Kasumi here. I'm also thinking that you wish to return to the shrine tomorrow?" Nabiki nodded. "Then I guess getting our things in order is on the agenda for this evening."
Nabiki glanced around the room. "Where's Mihoshi?"
"She's resting," Tenchi replied. "Today really wore her down. She fell asleep as soon as she lied down on the mat."
"What happened?" Kasumi asked.
"Oh, what a story we have to tell you sis," Nabiki replied with a smirk.
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Sasami looked at the reflection in the water which was showing Tsunami, per usual. The thing that worried Sasami was that Tsunami was not looking like herself. She was more… subdued. 'Why won't you tell me what's wrong?' What made things even worse was that Tsunami reacted strangely when Ranma fired off those energy attacks of his. She seems very surprised. When Sasami asked what was wrong, Tsunami didn't answer again. Sasami didn't like the cold shoulder treatment she was getting, but what could she do?
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Ryoko looked up at the stars. She saw Kasumi walking out towards the car placing the last of her bags in the trunk. "Kasumi," She called out while she floated down.
Kasumi looked up towards Ryoko. "Oh, hello Ryoko. Can't sleep?"
Ryoko looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "I could be asking the same of you."
Kasumi smiled. "I'm used to being up this late. It's a habit I formed."
Ryoko nodded. "I see. You know Ranma pretty well, don't you?"
Kasumi slightly shook her head. "Not really. He spent two years at my home, but during that time I learned only a little about him."
Ryoko looked slightly confused. "Only a little?"
Kasumi made sure her bags were snug and wouldn't get thrown around during the drive back. "I'm sure you know this already, but during that time he was engaged to my little sister Akane. Sure he experienced much, but we actually learned very little about him as a person. Anyone could say he was good at the arts and could changes genders with a splash of water, but I couldn't tell you his favorite color or what his hobbies were."
"Oh." This was a bit surprising to Ryoko. Certainly two years was enough time to learn simple things like that.
"Though I'm not entirely sure he has any hobbies. His father was pretty strict when it came to him doing anything outside of the arts."
Ryoko raised an eyebrow. "How bad was it?"
"Anything that wasn't related to training was looked down upon. Everything he did was made into training one way or another, including something simple like eating." Kasumi paused a moment. "His father would steal his food off his plate while they were eating. If he couldn't defend his plate, he couldn't eat."
"Damn. That's rough." Ryoko looked at Kasumi for a few moments. "I have something to ask you. Do you know anything about Ranma's… suicide attempt?"
Kasumi gave he a wide-eyed look. "You…you know about it?"
Ryoko nodded. "Mr. Ducky told us yesterday, though he couldn't tell us much else." Ryoko put on an annoyed look. "It seems every memory he has about Ranma has him remembering more about his darling Shampoo than Ranma. Hell, he only remembers it because he was happy about him dying so that he could go after Shampoo without competition. Why, is it supposed to be a secret or something?"
"He doesn't like people knowing about it. The only reason I know is because Nabiki told me." Kasumi grew a bit worried. "Why are you interested about it? Don't tell me you're"
Ryoko shook her head. "Not a chance. I've done some things I'm not proud of, everyone has, but I would never go that far. I just wanna know what would drive a man that far to do something like that."
Kasumi closed the trunk to the van. "If you want to know, I suggest asking him yourself. It would be better that way, and you run a lesser chance of upsetting him about acquiring that knowledge."
"You better tell the old priest that."
"Oh, why's that?"
Ryoko crossed her arms. "He's not happy with not knowing much about Ranma. He was even more interested about Ranma's past than I was. I'll tell ya, he's got something up his sleeve."
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He could see her off I the distance in the woods looking up to the clear blue sky, her face slightly reflecting the sun. She was smiling that same smile she wore when she accepted his proposal.
Then the sky grew dark and cloudy and the wind picked up speed. She became frightened and worried. He tried to move, but he couldn't. Something was stopping him, and no matter how much he struggled, he couldn't budge an inch.
He had no choice but to watch as she became more and more frightened. Despair was clear on her face. He tried to yell, but no sound left his lips. He noticed movement in the bushes behind her. Suddenly, three shadows jumped out at her. The outlines of the shadows clearly showed three recognizable humans. He watched in horror as the three forms struck at her. Her body crumpled onto the ground and a pool of blood formed from where she laid. With all of his will power, he cried out in anguish.
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"NABIKI!"
Ranma sat up on his mat breathing heavily having just come out of his dream. He has had many nightmares during his life, but that one was by far his worst one. He could clearly remember the helplessness he felt as he sat there watching Shampoo, Ukyo, and Genma take the life of the woman he loved. It felt worse than being in the pit.
Ranma looked down at his hands. 'Never again. Never again will I feel that helpless. I don't care what it takes.'
Having plenty of experience with nightmares, he knew he wasn't going to get back to sleep for a little bit. Thinking back to the fight earlier that day, he recalled what he tried to recreate during the scouting he and Mousse did. Calling up a ball of chi in his hand, he tried to shape it into a sword just like Ryoko, but found again that he couldn't. There was some piece of the technique he was missing, but he couldn't quite grasp it.
Deciding that he was too tired to think straight at the moment, he walked outside to breath in the crisp night air. Upon walking outside, he heard Ryo-ohki growl. That little furball made him confused. He always got a bit scarred when seeing her, but is she didn't growl or do anything c-c--… feline type, he would calm down. One she started to purr or anything like that, he went back to being scared of her. Right now she was growling, so he got scared and went back inside hiding under his blanket. Amazingly enough, sleep came soon afterwards.
A/N: I don't even have to say what's coming next, it should be obvious. If it isn't, go get the Tenchi Muyo! Series and watch it. You're missing out big time if you haven't seen it.
And remember, Thou shall not Kill. Go get someone else to do it. You leave less evidence that way.
