Author: Furiousmonkey
Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma
PS: I live in Ireland, so I use English spelling, not American, so don't beat me for that!
Ranma- Love at last!
Chapter 11- Ukyo
A/N. Hi everyone!
IMPORTANT: READ THE AUTHORS NOTE VERY CAREFULLY AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE.
AARGHH! This chapter was hard! The first part was done quickly. But then the talk with Ukyo took soooo long. I suppose I did get distracted a lot in the holidays. So sorry for taking so long. And I don't know if the talk with Ukyo turned out okay. Please give feedback. Please, please, please, review!
Thank you so much to every one who reads and/or reviews this story. I'm doing this thanks to your support
On with the show!
Tendo Dojo Hall: Afternoon
Even though her ankle was injured, Akane made it home relatively quickly. She was worried that something might happen to Ranma. And since she promised not to follow she figured that her house would be the best place to wait. Kicking off her shoe's in the porch she called out,
" Kasumi! Father! I'm home!"
She heard a soft, gentle voice respond from somewhere in the house,
" Hello Akane! Hope school was okay!"
Akane dropped her bag at the foot of the stairs and hobbled through the living room and into the kitchen. Kasumi was busy cooking a pot of what looked like some type of soup. It smelt delicious.
Smiling Akane said,
" School was fine! I hurt my ankle, but otherwise it was fine."
Kasumi looked worried,
" Ohh Akane! You should be more careful! It's not bad, is it?"
Akane shook her head and replied,
" No, just a light sprain. I'm not allowed run until Saturday though."
Kasumi smiled,
" Oh good. Do you still want to help with Ranma's room?"
Akane nodded and worriedly asked,
" Can I? I have one or two things I want to do with it."
Kasumi nodded,
" Of course you can help Akane, tonight we're only going to be planning anyway. Well, we might start pulling out the wooden floorboards."
" Thanks Kasumi!"
And with that, Akane turned, gingerly walked out of the kitchen and went off to do her homework.
Nerima streets: Outside Ucchans
The weather reflected the mood perfectly. It was gloomily oppressive. The dark gray clouds hung low in the sky and looked like they could burst into storm at any moment. The sunshine of the morning was completely gone. Not even a single ray of light pierced the clouds as Ranma slowly walked along the busy Neriman street. He came to a stop outside his friend's Okonomiyaki shop.
He stood with his hands in his pockets for some time, simply staring at the name over the door….Ucchan's.
Slowly taking his hands out of his pockets he took a step forward and ignoring the closed sign, pushed the door open.
The shop wasn't bright as usual. The lights were turned off and the place looked very oppressive. A worried looking Konatsu in a brightly coloured, flower pattern kimono raised his head at Ranma's entrance.
Dropping the rag he had been cleaning the counter with, Konatsu gracefully walked towards Ranma and bowed low.
" Ukyo-Sama is upstairs in her room. She told me to send you up."
Ranma gave a small nervous smile and said,
" Thanks Konatsu."
Pushing his way past the genius ninja, he headed for the stairs. Ascending them rapidly he came to a halt outside Ukyo's bedroom. He hesitantly knocked on the door. The answer from inside came instantly.
" Come in Ran-Chan."
Carefully opening the door, Ranma stepped inside her room. It was the same as he always remembered it. A simple room with wooden floorboards, a simple Spartan style bed. A solid oak locker stood beside the bed. On it an old, scuffed deck of cards lay. Recipe books and what appeared to be a diary were thrown carelessly around on the bed.
Ukyo however, was in a kneeling position in the middle of the room. Dressed in a full kimono, which was very unusual for her, she knelt in front of what seemed to be a scroll of parchment of some sort.
Ranma hesitantly began edging towards Ukyo, whose eyes remained firmly on the paper the entire time. Coming to a halt in front of her and after a long pause, he sat down.
Only then did his childhood friend glance up at him. And even then, she only met eyes with him for a moment before she dropped them to the parchment again. Ranma tried to make out what was on the paper, but the top was curled and blocked out most of the writing.
Ranma began shifting uncomfortably, the silence was killing him.
Finally, the achingly long silence was broken as Ukyo spoke up,
" Ranma…..
Tendo Dojo
Akane left out a huge sigh as she made it to the top of the stairs. The heavy bag on her back and her injured ankle had made the usually simple trip up the stairs a long and painful one. Smiling at her achievement she headed off for her room.
Passing Ranma's future room she noticed that the door was ajar. Doubling back she took a glance inside. Nabiki was sitting cross-legged on one of the futons. In front of her was an open book. She was reading it intently.
Dropping her bag at the door Akane took a few steps into the room and asked,
" What are you doing Nabiki?"
Nabiki's head jerked up at the sound of her name. Seeing her sister she made a beckoning gesture with her hands and said,
" Ohh, it's you! Come here and I'll show you some of the plans for Ranma's room."
Akane quickly knelt down opposite her sister; she shifted around for a while before she found a position that didn't hurt her ankle. Finally comfortable she took a look at the book Nabiki was looking at. But before she could see anything, Nabiki took the book, closed it and hid it behind her. She then produced another book with carpet patterns, which she opened and began flicking through. Finally coming to rest on a page she slammed the book on the floor and turned it around for her Akane to see.
On the open page was a picture of a royal, ultramarine blue coloured carpet. It was a nice shade, but Akane was a little skeptical.
" It's nice Nabiki, but isn't blue a little dark? I mean Ranma isn't really like that!"
Nabiki ginned and pulled out some colour coders for paint. She pulled out one particular one and held it in front of Akane's face. She carefully took it out of her sister's hand and examined it. "Sunshine Yellow", it was nice, not too yellow, not too white and most importantly, it was bright.
Akane smiled and said,
" I see now! The blue will go well with the bright walls!"
Nabiki took the coder off her sister and replied,
" Exactly! Blue carpet, yellow walls and we'll get curtains to mach them. Do you want to pick them out?"
Akane nodded,
" Yes! I'd love to! Can I pick out some other stuff too?"
Nabiki smiled at her sister's enthusiasm.
" Of course you can Akane! After all, you'll be using it too someday!"
Akane's smile disappeared as she blushed and growled,
" Shut up Nabiki!"
Nabiki laughed loudly at her sister's flustering,
" C'mon Akane! You're just too easy!"
Nabiki laughed some more before finally calming down. Akane growled the entire time,
" Okay Akane! No need to get angry! We'll need that power when we start tearing up the floorboards tonight. I mean, it'll never do to have a wooden floor in a married couple's bedroom!"
Akane growled even louder. Nabiki began roaring in laughter as Akane hissed through clenched teeth,
" If you want me to rip up floorboards tonight, then shut up!"
With that Akane raised her fist and brought it down on the ground, hard! Wooden splinters flew in all directions as one of the boards gave away. A cloud of dust burst forth and obscured the hole that Akane's fist had made. Nabiki was practically rolling on the floor with laughter.
Akane made a threatening gesture in Nabiki's direction before turning around to the hole. She began carefully picking up the splinters and gathering them. She reached into the hole to pick out any pieces that might have fallen in. But as she reached in her hand hit something strange. It felt like a metal container. Like a biscuit tin or something of the like. She retracted her hand and mumbled to herself,
" What the hell?"
Ucchan's: Ukyo's room
" Ranma… I'm sorry for attacking you, I really am!"
Ukyo bowed low. Ranma looked on and skeptically raised an eyebrow. Lowly, he said,
" As long as it never happens again!"
Ukyo lifted herself back into a kneeling position. She was still not making eye contact with Ranma.
Her left arm slowly stretched out and gingerly picked up the scroll in front of her. Looking at it she began to slowly talk again.
" Ranma… This is from my dad. So you probably have an idea of what about."
Ranma instantly knew, but decided to remain silent. Ukyo continued,
" I really should have your father here too… but he'd just mess it up, so you'll have to deal with it on your own."
Ranma still remained silent. Feeling that in this case, he'd better not open his mouth. Ukyo paused.
Unsurely, Ukyo reached forward and took one of Ranma's hands and held it in both of hers. She lifted her head and for the first time that afternoon, made eye contact with a very confused and agitated looking Ranma.
Despite himself and what he was feeling, Ranma allowed Ukyo to cling to his hand. He felt that pulling it back would do more harm than leaving it there.
Ukyo gently began rubbing Ranma's hand with her thumbs. Ranma jerked slightly, but quickly calmed. Ukyo began to softly speak.
" Ranma, for ten years and ten months I've hunted you. The reason behind it being completely different in the first ten years than the last ten months."
Pausing for a moment, Ukyo inhaled deeply before continuing,
" Back when you first left ten years ago, I was devastated. I had lost my best friend and my fathers business. I had nothing. All the girls my age teased me… and my father… well, he didn't take too kindly too the whole thing. Started drinking… became obnoxious and grumpy. It only got worse when my mother left. I haven't heard from her in seven years."
Ranma was beginning to feel very uncomfortable and very out of place. Ukyo was sharing her innermost secrets with him. He had never had to handle anything like this before.
Ukyo, already emotional, became even more so as she continued,
" I was a failure in my fathers eyes since the day I was born. As you could have guessed from my name he'd always wanted a son. So when his wife only gave birth to me you could predict his reaction and treatment of me.
In all fairness, he did teach me the art of Okonomiyaki making. But it was my grandfather who taught me martial arts. My father never approved. He and gramps often had fights over it. My father always said I was unworthy to learn our martial arts because I was a girl, but my grandfather taught me anyway.
He died four years ago. Now that he was dead there was no one to shield me from my fathers abuse. He shouted, gave out and generally did his best to say I was useless for not getting you as a husband."
Ranma was at this stage feeling very bad. He always thought his upbringing was hard. Hers was a hundred times worse. Her Dad was without a doubt worse than his.
" I had had enough! I left home. Vowing to hunt you down for real and make you pay for making my life a misery…
Ranma saw the pain in her eyes and began,
" Ukyo…."
But, Ukyo continuing her story instantly cut him off,
" When I finally found you… I hunted you and tried to beat you up and make you pay…. But…. You were always so nice to me! Even though I was out for blood you were so… so friendly. It reminded me so much of the time when you and I used to play together. The only happy time in my life, up till then anyway. I guess I clung to the hope that you could marry me and fix my life."
Barely audibly, Ukyo whispered,
" And I still hope that will happen!"
Ukyo sniffed and rubbed one of her eyes with her sleeve. Ranma hated seeing her cry and tried to console her,
" Ukyo, I'm sorry… please don't cry!"
Ukyo sniffed again and tried to smile,
" Ranma, it's not your fault. You were too young to know anything that was going on. And so was I. It's our fathers faults."
Ranma relaxed a bit, as Ukyo was calming down,
" I'll give pop a good thrashing when I get home!"
Ukyo gave a small laugh and weakly smiled,
" I might join in if I feel up to it."
Ranma smiled as well. Slowly Ukyo removed her hands from his and picked up the scroll. Her eyes darted from side to side as she scanned it. Speaking over the scroll she said,
" It says that my father will remove my name from the family clan scroll unless our family joins with that of the Saotome's through marriage or I force you to commit seppuku. And it specifically states that I cannot be adopted into your clan through this. "
Ranma gulped audibly, Ukyo laughed a little
" Don't worry Ran-Chan! I won't force you to commit seppuku. But we really need to talk about this. With all your family, Tendo's and all. And my father must be present."
Ranma raised an eyebrow and asked,
" When?"
Ukyo looked down at the scroll again,
" He says it must be resolved by the end of the next month."
Ranma quickly stood up and said,
" Good that will give us about a month and a half to find a solution to this."
Ranma wanted to leave straight away. He couldn't take it anymore. The rage against his father was growing. That man was in for a surprise when he went for his morning spar against him tomorrow.
Turning around Ranma headed towards the door, but stopped when he heard Ukyo talk again,
" Don't you want to marry me and end all this trouble."
Not turning Ranma said,
" Ukyo… not now. We'll talk about the whole thing another time. I need time to think."
He strode towards the door but froze once again as he heard Ukyo say in a distressed tone of voice,
" I love you Ranma!"
Ranma's heart started beating wildly. He was beginning to panic. Ukyo had told him that she loved him many times before. But never had she said it in this serious, needy tone of voice. His friend was scaring Ranma lowered his head and placed his left hand onto the doorframe. Barely looking over his shoulder he simply said,
" I know."
And with that he left.
AN:
During the holidays I came upon a brain-flash of great ideas for the story. NONE HAVE BEEN DONE BEFORE. To my knowledge anyway. I wrote them down and they are ready to go.
My timeline doesn't actually run this story for a good while. It will be at least ten chapters until it starts running.
The thing is, that this story will take many characters to china and invariably to Jusenkyo. I Have no intention of curing any characters. They're curses are too big a part of the story to have them cured. Especially Ranma's curse. But please,
1: Should Akane get a curse? Yes/No
2: If yes then which one?
Note: Under no circumstance will I have her get the male curse. I don't like the idea. And if she did fall into it then Ranma, Mousse, Ryoga and Genma would know which spring to jump into to get cured. SO NO MAN CURSE.
PLEASE DO NOT WRITE THIS IN YOUR REVIEW. THIS IS A POLL SO WHAT THE MOST PEOPLE WANT, WILL HAPPEN. PLEASE E-MAIL YOUR ANSWERS DIRECTLY TO ME
Thanks so much!
Slán!