So I've had this one planned for a while whilst Changeling was being written. Yes the name is an Axiom Verge reference.
If you've not read Changeling, I'd recommend at least reading through to the end of Chapter 8 before reading this as that'll give context to why Ranko makes the wish she does.
I'm going to be pretty blunt here - this story is going to get pretty bleak. And I mean more bleak than Changeling could get. It's to the point where some parts actually made me cry to write. It's going to contain some pretty dark themes of isolation and loneliness.
I plan on the fluffiest third act ever but the journey there? Let's just say it won't be pleasant for our girl.
Also, the Berry in this is an old character from a magical girl roleplay I ran once. I figured I'd dust her off.
In the end, be careful what you wish for, it might just happen.
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Saotome Ranko, newly named, newly made up with her best friend, dozes, arms around Akane, Akane's arms around her after their discussion, their confessions, their making up. Half-awake, but not asleep, she ponders the night's words.
Ranko can't stop thinking about Akane's anguish over her mother's death. She sees it clearly; how the death of Tendou Kimiko all but ruined their family. It turned Soun into a manchild. It turned Kasumi into a housewife and Nabiki into a mercenary with no feeling, and it turned Akane into an angry, awful mess.
"I wish it were her mother that was here, not me." Is her first thought on realising this. It's not the first time she's wished not exist, in favour of someone else. For the past three weeks she's wished she could bring Ranma back and make everyone happy. She knows it probably isn't right, but the wish is still there.
She could do something useful with her life, rather than hanging around like a corpse that forgot to die.
"You could, you know?" The voice is bubbly, bright, and Ranko finds herself sitting at a table. Which is very strange, because she was just in bed. She looks around, and the room is bright and cheerful, though the details are fuzzy. Akane's not near her anymore, and she's now dressed in the 'China' overall outfit she really loves, rather than her pyjamas.
Sitting across from her is a tiny girl, barely two thirds her height, with curly bright pink hair tied up in two long tails. She's wearing a chef's jacket with many badges down one side, and a ruffled, short skirt with an apron pinned over it. Her legs have knee-length white socks and she's wearing pink mary-janes. A halo of pink fuzz hovers over her head, and behind her stretch wings that appear to be made of cotton candy, drifting slowly in a non-existent wind.
Ranko stares and the pinkette smiles at her warmly, the pink eyes set into her cute face suddenly ancient. "You can call me Berry." She says. "I'm a goddess of magical girls, and desserts."
Ranko starts. Then she remembers the words she'd said at first. "You said… I could. I could do what?"
"Do something useful with your life." Berry beams. "Like live!"
"…Did you read my mind?"
The pink-haired angel shrugs. "Hazard of being a goddess. But I did hear your wish to bring your friend's mother back. It's a stupid wish."
"Why?"
"Wishes have prices. Living is both its own price and its own reward."
Ranko blinks at the strange magical girl, who waves a hand. A small… thing that looks like a plushie wearing a two-toned waistcoat floats over with a cake it sets in front of Ranko and the girl urges her to eat.
"Like I said, I'm a goddess of desserts. And magical girls. But I'm not here to hire you; I'm just doing someone a favour. Well, more like community service. There was an incident involving a moon and, you know how the bureaucracy is." The pinkette rubs the back of her head. "You know how many neutron-star density fruitcakes it takes to blow up a moon?"
"Ah.. N-no…"
"Turns out one. At sufficient velocity." Berry giggles to herself embarrassedly.
"Wh-what?"
"Yeah, don't test your powers in an unfamiliar universe."
"What." Ranko eats the dessert, and to her lack of surprise it's delicious. Given that the girl in front of her claims to be a goddess of desserts it's fairly obvious it would be. She looks up as the pinkette continues talking.
"Anyway, as currently I'm doing community service as a wish-fulfilment goddess, I could bring your friend's mother back, amend everything that happened after that by fixing that one thing. Or you could go back to sleep with my blessing and live your life, make up with everyone and go and become a doctor. There's dancing and kissing and snuggling in that future." The tiny goddess leans back in her chair, looking troubled. "I don't want to grant this wish, to be honest."
Ranko stares. "Why don't you? Why are you trying to convince me otherwise?"
The goddess frowns. "Because the price is way, way too high. Things like this, they always come with a price. Trust me. I wish it weren't so, but the power has to come from somewhere for a wish like this. Filling a hole left in the world? Altering history, even a tiny bit? That kind of power extracts a heavy price from whoever makes the wish."
Ranko swallows. Makes a decision. "I'll pay any price. I want my friends happy. It doesn't matter what the price is, if they're happy they deserve it."
Berry smiles softly. "You're a sweet girl, but hear the price first before agreeing. The price… is you."
"What do you mean?" Ranko asks.
"I mean that… the price is your existence. Everything in this world that is you. Ranma and Ranko Saotome won't ever have existed. In that hole in the world, Kimiko Tendou will not have died, leaving her family broken. And maybe it does help her family. But it's too high a price." Berry looks at Ranko, her bright pink eyes once again ancient. "You can trust me on how much that sucks."
"I'll do it. I'd die for them." Ranko says firmly. And, she realises, she would. It's not just how little she cares for her own existence; it's also how much she loves all of them.
"I never said you'd die." The pinkette says sadly. "You will still be there. Alive. But alone. You won't be a part of a family, no one will know you. You won't exist anywhere officially. It'll be like you just," She snaps her fingers and a cloud of pink smoke appears as if from nowhere, another Berry sitting in a chair that wasn't there before. The two speak at once. "Appeared from thin air fully formed. Just your own memories."
Ranko swallows as she sees the whole price. The horror, tenfold her current horror. Then her heart hardens in resolve. "I'm already dead. Just a corpse walking around." Berry's face falls at that and she shakes her head.
"You're going to do this because you don't feel like you're worth anything. But what's it going to accomplish?"
"Will they be happier?" Ranko asks, sharply for her. Berry winces.
"…They… won't be as damaged, so… yeah. They will be… better I suppose." The words are dragged out, as if the pinkette doesn't want to say them. "You've got to remember though, child, it's not a be-all-end-all fix. People are flawed. Their core beings won't change a great deal."
"I'm doing this." Ranko says, stubbornly. "I want them to be happy, and if me being gone rather than a jibakurei will not make them happy, perhaps I can do something good with my existence."
Berry sighs and a few tears leak from her eyes. "Please don't make me do this, Ranko." She says, wiping her eyes. "You're too kind a girl to realise what this is going to do to you."
"Do it."
Berry rummages in her pocket and pulls out a tiny pink phone, pressing a button and putting it to her ear.
"I'm not doing this." She says, bottom lip trembling. "I'm not. You can't make me." She pauses as a voice comes through indistinctly to Ranko. "No. I know. I know I signed the waiver. I know I agreed, but this is too much. You're making me incubator this poor girl."
Berry's hand goes over her eyes. "No. No I know if she says 'I wish' that I'm forced. But if this were Madoka she'd be a witch in a day. I can tell these things. Yes I know you don't know what I'm on about." She holds the phone away from her head and winces. "Alright. Fine. But I'm doing it my way, and if you interfere…" Something dark grows in the space inside the cotton-candy halo. "I'll do something unpleasant to your entire bureaucracy." She winces. "No, I'm not sorry. But you will be since you've made me incubator a girl who deserves better."
Berry cuts the phone call off by folding the phone back up and putting it back in her pocket. Ranko stares, nonplussed while Berry gathers her thoughts. Finally, the pinkette speaks.
"Ranko. I'm going to tell you this now. If I fulfil this wish, you will be alone. You hear me? Alone. I don't think you quite understand the magnitude of it. But right now, you could walk away and you could go back to your bed, back to Akane and you can live your life. I'm giving you an out of making this wish, and forcing me to destroy you."
Ranko shakes her head. "If there's a chance, I don't matter. I wish…"
Berry holds up her hand. "If you do this; there is no going back."
Ranko bulls on. "I wish for you to bring Tendou Kimiko back so she never died. I know the price, and I accept the price."
Berry looks sorrowful as something takes a hold of her power. "…So be it." She claps her hands, and a ball of energy erupts from Ranko, coalescing in her hands. Ranko sees it – everyone's knowledge, the very existence of herself barring her own memories and physical self, wrapped up.
Berry smiles softly at her, gently, like her mother does. There's a deep sadness in it, though, a disappointment. "I will take this from you too, but I suspect that's a blessing." She grips a thread on Ranko's spirit and pulls. A black-haired boy made of thread slams into the energy. "No more transforming. Least I can do when you're being an idiot and so selfless."
Berry also pulls a few threads from the mass of energy, setting them as if on bobbins of thread. She tucks them way. "These are for later." She says, "In case the wish needs more power."
The goddess' eyes blaze, and the halo above her head expands into concentric rainbow circles, a gaping void in the centre that the mass of energy flies into the centre, hovering there.
Ranko opens her mouth and then Berry reaches up, grasps around the mass of energy. She squeezes.
And.
Everything.
Goes.
White.