A Third Chance at Life

Starting Tasks and a Talking Past

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma or Inuyasha, they are the property of Rumiko Takashi and some companies I can't remember, I am making no money of this work.

Author's Notes: Sorry about the ridiculously long wait, the holidays meant I had no access to school computers, and my home computer decided it wasn't going to let me upload any chapters. I think I responded to all my reviewers through the reply button, if I didn't I'm very sorry. As always Thank you for the reviews.

"We're home." Akane called out.

"Welcome home." Kasumi said cheerily, "I just finished cooking dinner so why don't you two get washed up while I set the table."

"Dinnertime" Ranma shouted, the mention of food interrupting his mental talk, as he ran upstairs to get ready.

"Oh my, Ranma must be hungry today." Kasumi said.

"Is there ever a point when he's not?" Akane asked.

"Sure, when ever you do the cooking little sis." Nabiki teased as she walked by.

Akane jumped and growled at the same time, "Don't sneak up on me, and there is nothing wrong with my cooking." Akane snarled.

"Then why did the courts order you to cease from cooking." Nabiki said.

"It's not my fault the store sold things that were dried out demons that looked like food." Akane shouted.

"Akane it was a shop for the occult with big signs saying 'Dried out demon, makes an excellent snack, not liable for any damage demons cause', right over the damn things."

Akane sniffed angrily and walked away.

"Now Nabiki that wasn't nice." Kasumi said. 'True though'

"Where's Ranma" Nabiki asked.

"I believe he's getting washed up for dinner."

"Thanks Kasumi." Nabiki said as she started up the stairs.

'Food food food' Ranma thought happily as he walked out of the bathroom.

"Ranma I have something I need to speak to you about." Nabiki said with a grin.

'Shit shit shit' Ranma thought. "About what." Ranma asked.

"Just wondering about how your group assignment is coming along and why you turned into a girl to start it." Nabiki said sweetly.

"Well I'm more comfortable studying and doing school work as a girl, kinda like when I eat ice cream." Ranma said.

"While what you just said does sound like you were telling the truth, I know you're holding out on me. I suggest not doing that, after all we have been getting along so well lately and I'd hate to have to ruin that to get the information I need." Nabiki said

"Alright, but no selling or giving away this information." Ranma said.

"Hmm, this is the second time in two days you're demanding I not sell information. So I will concede only if what I hear is linked to the first discussion."

"Alright, basically after I found out what happened to Yuka's mom, I went to the hospital and healed her using abilities taught to me by the voice, who is really a long dead priestess named Kikyo. So when we went by Yuka's to start the assignment I turned into a girl so Yuna wouldn't recognize me. It didn't work." Ranma said.

"You have the ability to heal now, that's pretty amazing. I would suggest talking to Dr. Tofu about this." Nabiki said. "Now let's go eat I don't want to keep Kasumi waiting."

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Ranma looked around the table as he sat down, Once again The Letch, the idiots, and his mother were absent. "Is pops out getting drunk again?" Ranma asked.

"Yes, so is Father." Kasumi said a small amount of anger in here voice.

"Um, well they're loss then, this food looks fantastic." Ranma said as he surveyed the meal Kasumi laid out.

"Why thank you Ranma." Kasumi smiled and her cheeks tinged pink, "and all of you feel free to eat as much as you like, if they won't eat dinner with the rest of us, then they can fend for themselves."

"Hehe, Kasumi what's got into you." Nabiki grinned.

"It's just so frustrating, if they weren't going to be here for dinner they could have said something, at least Grandfather Happosai and Auntie Nodoka told me they would be out of town for a while. Those two have no excuse." Kasumi said.

"They shouldn't be out getting drunk every night anyway." Akane agreed.

After that dinner went by quietly everyone engaging in small talk and enjoying the delicious meal made by Kasumi.

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"Hey teach, I think the book we grabbed was a fiction one by mistake." Hiroshi said as he walked up to Hinako.

"Ah I can't believe I forgot to talk about the books yesterday." Hinako said as she walloped herself on the head "How could I have such a short attention span and, Oh my god is that Pocky." Hinako shouted as Daisuke walked past. "Gimme gimme."

"Here you can have it all." Daisuke said as he handed a tin over. "I'm really not a big fan of it."

"Um, Teach, Ms. Hinako" Hiroshi tried to get back the teachers attention as she shouted about the greatness of Pocky.

"Huh, oh, what was I talking about." Ms. Hinako asked after she set down the tin of pocky.

"About your short attention span and something about our books for the assignment." Hiroshi said.

"Oh That's right, Alright class listen up, while these books sound like fiction they are not. During the feudal era of Japan demons walked among the people of earth, to this day there are still demons in existence, but they no longer move around as freely as they once did. They hide what they are to protect themselves from human prejudice. So whatever is in the books is correct, it's just not widely accepted because most of the world doesn't believe in magic or the supernatural. Living in Nerima it shouldn't be hard for anyone here to believe in magic." Hinako said and the class all nodded in agreement. "I will give you the entire class time to work on the assignment because of my mistake, but after today most of it will have to be done outside of school."

"Ranma, Ukyo over here." Yuka called out.

"So how are we going to do this?" Sayuri asked.

"How about for the class period we each take a book and write out things that seem important or interesting and tonight we can compare and get started on the main writing, cause the class rooms gonna be too loud to discuss things." Ranma said.

"Wow, that's actually a good idea, how did you come up with it Ranma." Akane asked

Ranma pouted causing Ukyo to laugh. "Ranma's idea seems to be a good one, and unless anyone has any objections I say go with it." Ukyo said.

"I'm going to go ask Ms. Hinako a question real quick then I'll get started." Ranma said as he walked to the teacher's desk.

"Is there something I can help you with Ranma." Hinako asked.

"Is it alright if I put in information that's not in the books, into the paper." Ranma asked.

"So long as it's true, but I must ask why, it's not like you to go out of your way for an assignment." Hinako said.

"Well I have another very detailed source of information about what demons and the culture and living conditions were like back then." Ranma said.

"Then by all means go ahead, and keep up the good work." Hinako said

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"Well our paper is coming along pretty good so far." Sayuri said. "We have a lot of good detailed information, it's all relevant to the assignment, it's broken apart into sections, and the introduction is done. I think we should call it a day here and just come back at it tomorrow.

"Yeah it sounds good to me Ranma and Akane are getting to annoyed with each other so it might be best to stop while we're ahead." Yuka said.

"Alright that means I can let Konatsu have a break before the dinner rush comes in so it sounds good to me." Ukyo said.

"Whatever." Akane said as she grabbed her school bag and stormed out.

"What's she so pissed about." Ranma asked.

"I don't know, she was edgy all day. Maybe it's her time of the month." Yuka said causing Sayuri to gag on soda.

"No her period's not for another week." Ranma said with out thinking.

Crickets chirp

"Why exactly do you know when it's her period." Ukyo asked.

Ranma's face turned bright red, "Well, apparently when girls live in the same house their periods have been known to synchronize."

"Oh so that just means you know all the Tendo's cycles." Ukyo said angrily.

"The only reason I know is cause my girl form's on the same cycle." Ranma said his face going even redder the before.

"…Your girl form has a period." Yuka said in shock.

"Yes." Ranma said quietly.

"You poor dear" Yuna said as she walked into the room. "That probably scared the hell out of you the first time it happened."

"I'd a probably had a heart attack trying to figure out what was wrong if Kasumi hadn't explained it to me." Ranma said. "After going through that once made me realize one thing my father had taught me my whole life was very wrong. Because women are not weak."

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'Hey Kikyo you were pretty quiet today is something wrong?' Ranma thought as he laid on the roof of the Tendo home.

'No I'm alright just wondering about what happened back in the feudal era, if Inuyasha had managed to protect his friends, if he was able to defeat Naraku.'

'You mentioned Naraku before but you didn't go into many details and you never said anything about an Inuyasha before, do you want to talk about it.' Ranma thought to Kikyo.

'I guess I should tell you about myself, During my first life I was raised in a little village and trained as a priestess. I had more spiritual energy and control then anyone else and I was able to kill demons with a single shot of my sacred arrows. So when a guardian was needed to protect a mystical jewel called the Shikon no Tama I was the one they called upon. At the age of fourteen I became guardian to the most powerful spiritual artifact in existence, Demons and greedy humans were constantly attacking me and my village to gain possession of it. One day I heard a rumor that a rather well known half-demon named Inuyasha was coming after the stone so he could become a full demon.'

'Why did he want to become a full demon.'

' Because half-demons were treated horribly by both the demons, for they see humans as inferior, and the humans, for they see demons as monsters, anyways. Generally when a demon came after the stone I would kill them to protect the villagers because it's to dangerous to let even an injured demon escape if it's hostile. Inuyasha had made a name for himself among the people though even if he didn't know it. He was well known for jumping to a human's aid even if the human had been mean or cruel to him. He kept up a gruff angry exterior, but underneath it he was very kind hearted.

When he came to steal the jewel he didn't try to hurt anyone he just tried to grab it and run, so rather then kill him I let him go with a warning. He tried a few more times, but still he never tried to hurt anyone, so I always let him go. One day my sister was wandering in the woods picking medicinal herbs when a lesser spider demon attacked her. Inuyasha saw what was about to happen and jumped in and saved her. The next time I saw him he was sitting in a tree probably trying to steal the jewel again. I called him down to talk to me. After awhile the two of us fell in love, he was going to ask for a pure wish, a wish to become human on the shikon no tama and we would have been able to live together as normal people rather then as a priestess and half-demon who could never show weakness.

On the day we were to use the Shikon no Tama the Demon Naraku who was born from the soul of a crippled thief, and a swarm of demons tricked us. He was a shapeshifter and he attacked me from behind and mortally wounded me whilst wearing Inuyasha's form. Then in my form he attacked Inuyasha after placing the Shikon no Tama he took from me back in the village. Inuyasha in a rage since he believed he was betrayed attacked the village and set it aflame and stole the jewel from where Naraku had put it. By this point I had dragged my injured body back to the village and saw Inuyasha the one I had believed to have betrayed me attacking the village. I shot him with a sacred arrow pinning him to a tree, then as I was dying I told my sister to burn the jewel with my body… I do you mind if I finish the tale some other time i…"

'I understand if you ever want to talk about it I'll listen.' Ranma thought.

'Thank you'

Well there's the chapter, sorry it took so long, and sorry for lack of plot development, next chapter should be up soon.