It had been too long; she knew that could only mean one of two things, if
not both. Yet in her heart, she already knew the truth. She could feel that
her body had already responded with the necessary preparations. In some ways,
it could be a happy occasion, if only those whom she confessed the secret to
would accept it as one. She knew only one person it would not be difficult to
tell, but had no idea what his reaction would be.

"Mousse..."

The young man she'd addressed put down his chopsticks, and wiped his mouth
with a napkin, capturing the grains of rice that had chosen to stick there.
"Yes?"

Hesitation rose up in her mind, as she realized she hadn't taken their
current activities into account. Breakfast obviously wasn't exactly the best
time and place to break the news. "Ah... um... so how do you like the rice
porridge?" she asked hastily instead.

"It's good, just like any other rice porridge. I actually preferred that
Chinese cafe in that other town, with the dou hua."

"Soft tofu? You like that better for breakfast?"

"Well, even though rice is cheaper, it's isn't that great when it comes to
nutritional value. I used to eat salty dou hua a lot when traveling."

"Oh." A giggle.

"Shampoo, don't laugh at me." He did his best to sound indignant, but he
couldn't help laughing as well.

Descendants
(a sequel to Here Comes Neko!)
A Ranma Nibunnoichi fan fiction
by Luna Hinomura

Chapter 1: A Cold Throne

"Xiaojie(1), did you call me?"

(1) Miss, a young lady

The adolescent teen looked up from her desk, and smiled pleasantly at her
servant girl. However, she didn't like the overly polite manner Jing always
used. She herself was only one or two years older than Jing, and always wished
they could be friends instead of mistress and servant. "Yes I did, Jing. But
first, must I remind you yet again? Please just call me Xiao(2) Lan like
everyone else does. I wanted to ask for your opinion."

(2) small; little (similar to adding -chan in Japanese)

Jing's forehead furrowed in confusion. Being only a servant girl, she had
never studied much or learned anything other than how to perform basic duties
around the household. Her only skillful task was playing games with Lan when
they were both bored. "Why does Lan Xiaojie want my opinion?"

It seemed that Jing's habit could be slightly corrected, but never fully
broken. Nevertheless, Lan was still determined to someday force her to choose a
more friendly title rather than the most polite one. "It's about the current
situation of this village," Lan explained, standing up. She began to pace
around the room, a small office. "I wanted to ask your opinion because you, as
our loyal servant, have seen and heard the many things that go on within this
building. You know the information discussed here is not always available to
other members of the village."

"I beg your pardon, Lan Xiaojie. I'm only a servant; I hear, but don't
understand these matters."

"All right, then just let me talk to myself." She circled the room
slowly, occasionally pausing to look out the windows. "I suppose you could say
I have a bad feeling about that woman that my cousin Jie has allied himself
with. We had been quite close as children, but after so many years, the strain
of visiting him just to keep our relations on good terms is too much for me. I
know it hasn't escaped your notice, that we have gradually become estranged. My
father and I are practically the only family he has, yet he refused a position
when he was offered one. It just doesn't make any sense to me! I always
thought he had incredible ambition for himself politically, if not in his
martial art..."

"Is Xiaojie disappointed in Jie?"

"No, for he is my cousin and I love him despite everything. But lately...
the situation has become unpleasant between us. We have fallen out with each
other so slowly that I did not notice how distant we have become until now. I
miss the carefree days we passed as children, when all we knew was martial arts
without the politics thrown in."

"If your mother had not passed away, she could have helped you bear this
burden." Jing was trying her best to sound helpful and sympathetic, but her
words struck a hard chord.

Lan's tone suddenly turned cold. "If my mother had not passed away, she
and my father would have handled all of it. This village would recognize him as
the rightful patriarch and my mother the matriarch. However, that is not the
case. Jing, please leave."

"Xiaojie, I apologize for speaking so unthoughtfully..." Jing murmured as
she left the room, bowing respectfully.

She sighed and sagged into a chair. Lan hated all aspects of the
political system utilized by her village. Most of all, she despised the way her
father was looked down upon, how they mistreated him. It hurt her to know that
his only way of dealing with that abuse was to just accept it. It just didn't
seem right. She did not think of men and women as equals, but felt that each
should have the same opportunities and right to life as the other.

As she rummaged through the room for some paper to write a message with,
something fell to the floor from the edge of a cabinet. It landed with a loud
crack, and she winced, hoping it wasn't broken. Lan gasped when she realized
what exactly it was she had accidentally knocked down. Her slender fingers
trembling, she picked it up and turned it over a few times, in disbelief. It
was a mirror, a gift to her from long time ago, a friend that she held very dear
in her mind and heart.

Lan stared at the mirror, amazed at her appearance. It didn't seem so,
but must have been a very long time since she last concerned herself with the
daily trivialities of beautifying herself through makeup and other such baubles.

Her dark red-violet hair was styled in its usual fashion, part of it
pulled into a single loose braid, the rest of it loose. Here and there, stray
strands were sticking out at odd angles, which she tried to smooth down. Her
bangs, cut shorter above her eyebrows but left longer near the sides of her
face, were oily and sticking a bit to her skin. She attributed that to the heat
of summer weather.

Climbing to her feet in a hurry, Lan scoured the room for writing
materials, then moved onto the adjacent one to search. She had originally
planned on sending a message to Jie concerning the upcoming annual martial arts
tournament, but now she wanted to write a letter to her old friend, Saotome
Hideo. Preparations for the tournament could wait for that, at least.

* * * * *

"Saotome Ranma, and Akane, it's nice to see you again," Lan's father
greeted his friend with genuine tones of nostalgia, saluting them in the Chinese
fashion. He gestured inwards towards his sitting room, inviting them within.

"Thanks, pal," the man named Ranma said, picking a random seat and sitting
down. The blue-haired woman sat down next to him. "This is our son, Hideo," he
continued, pulling a young boy out from hiding behind his chair. The boy
chuckled a bit and grinned mischievously. "Say hello to Mousse."

"Hajimemashite, Mousse," the boy said.

"Hajimemashite, Hideo-kun," Lan's father replied. "He's very well
behaved."

The blue-haired woman named Akane laughed, as Hideo broke free of Ranma's
hold and began wandering around the room, poking about. "Yes, when he wants to
be, I think!" The grown-ups ignored him as he amused himself with whatever he
could find. Their servant, an elderly man, followed him about and tried to
prevent mishaps before they could occur. Lan giggled.

"Whatcha doin', Lan-Lan?"

Lan jumped from surprise at the sudden voice, and nearly fell out from her
hiding place. She turned and stared, wide-eyed at her cousin. Jie had somehow
managed to sneak up on her without anyone's notice, even her own. "You won't
tell Daddy on me, will you?" she asked. "Please don't..."

"Hey, if I told Uncle, I'd get in trouble too! So don't worry."

She nodded, and turned back to watching the strangers. They were from a
strange, faraway country called Ri Ben, but for some reason they pronounced it
Nee Poun. They spoke a different language, too, one that sounded kind of funny
to her. Lan knew a little bit of it because her father had taught her some, but
she still didn't know who these people were. She wondered where they had met,
and why he knew them.

"Mom, Dad, someone's spying on us!" Hideo exclaimed suddenly.

"Hideo! Behave yourself!" Akane reprimanded.

"But Mom--"

"He's right," Ranma said.

"I quite agree," Mousse added with a grin. He stood up, walked over and
dragged both Lan and Jie out from where they'd been crouching behind a table.
The circular table was adorned with a tablecloth, which they'd been using to
prevent themselves from being seen.

Mousse feigned a exasperated sigh. "What am I ever going to do with you
two?"

Ranma and Akane laughed. "And here are the children you wrote to us
about! Introduce us, please," Akane requested.

"This is YiJie and YiLan, but people around here usually address them as
A-Jie and Xiao Lan. I suppose you could consider it the Japanese equivalent of
Jie-kun and Lan-chan." Jie fought against Mousse's grip on his shoulder.

"What are you saying, I can't even understand a word!" Jie complained.

"Daddy, what did you tell them?" Lan joined in.

"Nothing that you two need to be concerned with. Come, why don't you take
Hideo to play?"

"Okay!" both Lan and Jie chimed, grabbing Hideo and running out into the
courtyard.

* * * * *

"Xiaojie!" The frantic calling abruptly drew Lan out of her reminiscing,
and her pen scratched across the sheets of paper held beneath her hands. It
ripped through part of one page, already half-filled with Japanese writing.

"What is it, Jing?" she asked hurriedly, standing up to gather the papers
together absentmindedly into an organized mess on the desk. "What's so
important that you have to rush in here while I'm busy, and scare me half to
death?" Lan hadn't consciously meant to word her question so unpleasantly, but
it came out that way.

Jing was obviously flustered; she wrung her hands and continuously shifted
her weight from one leg to the other as she talked. "I'm-- I'm so sorry,
Xiaojie, b-but there is in an urgent message from you from the house of Chen
Fang."

Alarm rose up in her mind, and her eyes widened in recognition of the
name. The papers she'd been holding dropped from her limp hands onto the
desktop, and Lan slowly eased herself back into the chair. "Chen Fang? What
does she want? Is she here, or has she sent a messenger?"

"She... she sent--"

"Hello, Lan-Lan," a voice spoke patronizingly from behind Jing. Jing
jumped at the sound, but bowed and fairly ran out of the room, all too happy to
be out of Jie's presence. Jie forcefully closed the door behind her, all but
slamming it shut.

Lan forced herself to keep her words polite. "Cousin, if you have
something important to say, it's improper for me to receive you in this room,
and unbecoming of you to force your way in. I ask you not to do so in the
future."

"And whose fault is that?" Jie retorted, his voice smug. "Did I not
remind you, weeks ago, that you and Chen Gu'niang(3) need to discuss the details
of the upcoming tournament? It has been a long time and we have heard not one
word from you."

(3) Lady; a woman (similar to adding -sama in Japanese)

"Let me just remind you that you no longer reside in this respected
household, and therefore cannot simply come and go as you please. You willingly
gave up those privileges the day you left." Lan cleared her throat, her initial
anger with her cousin beginning to die down. "Actually, I was in the midst of
writing you an message before you interrupted me."

"Ahh," Jie murmured, crossing his arms and circling the room with a
critical eye. "So that is why you're sitting in this stuffy little office.
It's not good for much anything else. I used to hate this room..."

"And yet, you haven't even been *in* it for almost a decade," Lan snapped
back.

"Hah!" Jie had strategically circled close to the desk while pacing the
room, and snatched up the letter addressed to Saotome Hideo. "I see what the
problem is, now! You've got your head stuck in the past. Well, cousin, a word
of advice: quit digging up skeletons from times long ago, and start looking
ahead to the future! How can you hope to carry on the traditions of our village
if you can't even concern yourself with other people's problems?"

"I--"

"And you lied to me! Your own cousin!" He tore the letter in half and
threw it down, then deliberately pushed the papers off the desk, scattering them
about the floor. "How much do you really care about your village, or the duty
your birthright has given you?"

"Shut up!"

Jie's tone became even more patronizing, mocking her. "You, you just want
your boyfriend to come and watch you fight so you can blink your eyelashes at
him and smile as you pound your fists into your opponent! Oh, how romantic!"

"Jie, listen to wh--"

"No, *you* listen. For someone like you, holding such a high position,
when duty knocks on your door, you answer! Know that blood is thicker than
water, and I am your cousin; he is a nobody from another country who probably
doesn't even remember you exist! And always, always remember: our mothers were
twins, and therefore we are practically brother and sister."

"But we are not brother and sister," Lan retorted through clenched teeth.
Her cousin scoffed, but remained silent, finished with what he had to say. Jie
turned to leave, whirling around so quickly that it sent his thin, long ponytail
fluttering through the air. Lan chose not to summon Jing, preferring to let him
take his leave solitarily.

Just before exiting the room, Jie stopped, and spoke without turning
around. "Giving you the responsibility of organizing this tournament is really
just a way for the council to test your leadership abilities. In the end, all
I'm doing is trying to help you, if only you'd let me." With that, Jie
noiselessly shut the door behind him.

A growl began to grow at the back of Lan's throat, and erupted into a
loud, aggravated scream. She kicked over the chair behind her desk and began
releasing her pent-up frustration by beating the various inanimate objects
around the room. Her rampage might have continued for much longer if she hadn't
turned to kick the papers on the floor, and instead noticed the tiny, careful
characters of the letter she'd written to Hideo. Lan bent down and hunted
around for the separate pieces of the note, fitting them together. Before Jie
had come in, she'd written, 'It is my greatest hope that you and my cousin Jie
might patch up the differences between you two, for as children, we didn't know
any better. Now, we are nearly adults, and more understanding of the matters in
this world.'

She couldn't help but to cry softly.

End of Chapter 1

Author's note:
* Actually, adding A- to the beginning of someone's name is more customary in
Taiwan, and not mainland China (for example, the Taiwanese popstar A-Mei (Full
name = Zhang Hui Mei)).