Chapter50 What Little Girls Are Made Of
Nodoka opened the door to her house to see Ranma and Akane standing on the doorstep. "Come on in, dear ones," she said as she led her son and daughter-in-law into the family room.
"So, how'd it go with Pop?" Ranma asked.
Nodoka said, softly, "We need to talk about that, dear."
Ranma looked ill as he asked, "He's not dead, is he?"
"In a way he is, Ranma. I gave the man who once was your father a choice. I told him that I would be his second if he desired seppuku, or Ukyo could kill him to achieve her vengeance. Or I gave him a third choice," Nodoka began. She hesitated and then continued, "Shampoo had given me some magic mushrooms and taught me a memory erasing technique. I gave him a chance at a new life as my daughter. That is the one he accepted."
"YOU DID WHAT?" Ranma asked in surprise. He rose from his seat only to be stopped by a gesture from his wife.
"Hush, Ranma," Akane said. Then she turned to Nodoka, and asked, "Your daughter? How can that be possible?"
"The mushrooms are magic and return the person who eats them to a younger state. The one I selected reverted her to about five years old, and then I modified her memories, as well as the fact that she was once a boy. I think I may have gone a little overboard, though," Nodoka replied.
"So I have a little sister," Ranma said half in shock. Then he shook himself, and said, "How could you do that to him? Can you change him back?"
"Genma agreed to it, Ranma. Eventually his memories will return, but if we are successful in teaching the girl better, then the resultant person will be a more responsible man or woman, depending on what she decides to do. Believe me, that's the choice I hoped that she would make. I didn't want to have Genma's blood on my hands. I still love him after all, even with all of the horrible things that he did to you," Nodoka replied. She hesitated for a second.
Ranma noticed the hesitation and asked, "There's more that you haven't told us, isn't there?"
Nodoka hid her face in her hands and said, muffled, "Yes. There's something else." She lifted her face up and replied, "Somehow her curse is locked. She can handle hot water again but she doesn't change."
Ranma exclaimed, "What! How could that happen?"
"I don't know. All I know is that when I gave her a bath last night after we came home, she wanted to get into the furo with me. I couldn't think of a good reason to keep her out and when she did get in, she just didn't change, and the warmth of the water didn't bother her," Nodoka replied warily, not sure exactly how Ranma was going to take this.
Ranma stared at his mother in shock, and then to her surprise began to chuckle. After several long moments, he wiped some tears from his eyes and asked, "So what are we going to call her?"
"I thought we would call her Genko," Nodoka replied, her face relaxing at the reaction of her son.
"Mysterious Flower, huh?" Akane mused, "That's not a bad description of her, is it? So where is my new baby sister-in-law?"
"Asleep in her bedroom, I hope. At least that's where she was when I came down to answer the door," Nodoka answered, "Shall we go see her?"
"This is going to be hard to get used to," Ranma muttered, under his breath, "My head hurts. And Soun is gonna have a hard time getting used to this too. Damn, he'll flood the house when he finds out."
Genko woke up from her nap suddenly, and bolted upright in her bed. As she gazed around the room, she looked confused. She had been so sleepy after the large lunch her mother had prepared for her, that she really hadn't paid that much attention to the room before she had collapsed quickly on the futon, as her mother tucked her in. Now that she was awake, though, she realized that she didn't recognize the room she was in. She started to panic, but just before a full fledge heart pounding scare arose, the door opened and her mother walked in, followed by medium-height young man, with black hair, wearing a friendly face. She immediately liked the look of the young man. Almost on his heels, a very attractive young woman followed him in, a kindly expression on her face, with an impish look in her eyes.
The young man stared at her and then his face blanched. He turned to flee the room, only to be held by the young woman. "I can't face this," the man said, confusing Genko.
"Ranma," the young woman said sharply.
"What's wrong with him?" Genko asked shyly.
"He's just a bit overcome with emotion," her mother said, "You've changed some since he's seen you last."
The girl snickered in reaction to that comment, confusing Genko even more.
Nodoka glanced at the young man, who turned and looked at Genko, a panicked look in his eyes. Then her mother asked, "Did you sleep well, dear?"
"Yes, mommy," she replied, shyly, then she looked at the young man and lisped, in a happy tone, "I 'member you a little, you're my brother Ranma."
The young man walked over and crouched down next to her so that they were at the same height, and said, "Hi, little sis. Yep, I'm your brother Ranma and that's my wife Akane." 'I can do this,' he thought.
To his surprise, the little girl hugged him and said, in a loud whisper, "She's very pretty. I like her. She looks very friendly."
Akane blushed and said, "Why thank you, sis. You're very cute, too. How much do you remember about us?"
The little girl frowned in concentration, and then replied, lisping slightly, "I 'member big brother a little bit I think. An' I think I 'member you a little bit, 'kane least I think so, I see you in a yellow gi sometimes breaking concrete blocks."
Akane smiled, transforming her face, and replied, "Uh huh, I do that sometimes. Our family has a dojo and I practice breaking blocks in there."
"Our family practices the school of Anything Goes Martial Arts, sis," Ranma said slowly, "I'm the master of the Saotome school, and Akane's father is the master of the Tendo school. The three of us teach several students."
"I wanna learn too, I wanna be a student," the little girl begged.
Ranma smiled, and said, "That's up to Mom, I suppose."
"We'll see." Nodoka said, with a smile, "I need to teach you many things also. For now, why don't you get dressed and join us in the kitchen. Then you can ask us questions while I fix dinner."
Genko's stomach growled agreement, as the little girl blushed in embarrassment.
"Sounds like you said the magic word, Mom," Akane teased. They left the room long enough for Genko to throw a dress on and join them. Then the four of them walked downstairs to the kitchen.
Ranma opened the door to the family room and found that once again Soun was staring at the shogi board, his eyes lost in thought. Ranma asked Akane softly, "Go find your sisters and bring them in here. We need to tell them about Pop."
Akane nodded her head, her eyes showing her concern at how her father was going to take the news that they were about to tell.
"Hello, Dad. Ready for your regular beating at shogi?" Ranma asked as he entered the room.
Soun jumped in surprise and then looked at Ranma. He smiled and replied, "Sure. We can play while we talk. Did you have a good visit with your mother?"
Ranma hesitated for a second and then forced a smile. "Yeah, it was nice. I'm glad she's back," he replied.
As they began to set up the game pieces, Kasumi and Nabiki followed Akane into the family room.
"What's so important that Akane had to pull me away from the Financial News?" Nabiki groused as she flopped to the floor.
"Uh, well, you see," Ranma stammered.
"Oh honestly, Ranma, just spit it out. Is my sister pregnant or something?" Nabiki demanded.
Akane blushed and Ranma shook his head violently. "No! She's not," he said.
"Well, why not? Aren't you two trying?" Kasumi asked, her eyes dancing.
"SIS!" Akane yelled.
Ranma just buried his head in his hands and hoped that they didn't realize he was laughing. Finally, he raised his head and said, a bit loudly, "No, we just wanted to talk about what happened to Pop. One of the things we didn't tell you before, when I took the mastery of the school away from him was that Mom cursed him with some of the water from the spring of drowned girl. That's the real reason he ran off, well, that and Mom told him to get out of Nerima."
"He also couldn't change back with hot water since he was too sensitive to it," Akane added, "And because of that, he kept trying to get revenge on both Ranma and Ukyo. Mom finally tracked him down this last time because of the things he had done and was planning on making an end to all of that."
Soun stared at him in horror and asked, in a shocked voice, "Is he dead?"
Ranma replied, "Well, sort of."
"Okay, Ranma," Nabiki drawled, "How can he sort of be dead? Isn't that an all or nothing kind of thing?"
"Well, Mom gave him a choice. He could commit seppeku with Mom as his second, let Ukyo kill him, or well, take a potion that wouldturnhimintoalittlegirl," Ranma replied, running the last of the sentence real fast.
"Huh?" Nabiki asked.
"What Ranma's trying to say is that he has a little sister now. Nodoka also did something to her to make her forget who she was. She doesn't remember too much about any of us," Akane added.
"Mom says that the memories are suppressed, not removed, so eventually they will come back. She hopes that by then Genko, as Mom is calling her, will be able to handle what happened," Ranma continued.
The other three stared at them in shock, and then Soun began to laugh a deep, rich laugh, one that the girls hadn't heard in years. "How appropriate," Soun gasped, "Your mother has a rather wicked sense of humor, Ranma."
Ranma looked at Soun and said, "This wasn't the reaction I expected from you, Dad. I expected you to be very upset."
"Ranma, I miss the man your father used to be," Soun replied, "I'm not upset with what your mother did to the person that he turned into. He needs to learn a lot of lessons differently."
Ranma looked at Soun with a puzzled expression on his face.
"Daddy, what did you mean by that?" Akane asked.
"Genma was a very good person before we started training with Happosai. The things that the Master originally taught us were useful, but once we were far enough along in our studies, he tried to teach us his perverted ways," Soun said with a shudder, "The peeping at the public baths was one thing. I could sort of understand that."
"Daddy!" Kasumi exclaimed, a shocked expression on her face.
"Remember, I was very young, Kasumi," Soun explained, "But the stealing of underwear and worse that he wanted us to do was the final straw for us both. But by then, Happosai had managed to corrupt your father." He paused for a few moments and then continued, "I had always hoped that I had been untouched by what I was exposed to, but even now I'm not completely sure that I was immune."
"What do you mean by that?" Nabiki asked.
"I'd rather not say. It's really not a suitable topic for a father to discuss with his daughters," Soun said with dignity.
Ranma chuckled and asked, "It wouldn't have anything to do with how you feel around Hinako, would it? If it does, than I doubt it's caused by any training that you might have gotten from the old pervert. If she didn't cause you to, um, respond, then I would think something was seriously wrong with you."
"Ranma," Akane growled warningly, as her sisters blushed.
"Hey, I'm married, not blind," Ranma retorted, "You have to admit that she is an attractive woman. But you're the one that I want, so there."
Akane looked thoughtful and then she smiled. "Come on, Ranma, it's getting late. Why don't we go to bed?" she asked.
"Why? I'm not tired yet," Ranma replied, "Why don't we go work out in the dojo for a while."
"Who said anything about sleeping?" Akane asked saucily, with a wicked look to her eyes.
Ranma's eyes got bright and he stood up. The two of them walked out of the family room, leaving a bemused family behind.
Nabiki muttered, "I'm definitely going to soundproof my room."
Akane stared nervously at the front of the classroom, sure that all of her friends were ready to tease her about the relationship that her homeroom teacher was having with her father. Blushing slightly, she thought to herself, 'I'm surprised that they already haven't started calling me a teacher's pet because of how close Ranma, Hinako and I got during the course of her cure. For crying out loud, we saw her topless for a month.'
Ranma watched his wife, worried about how she was handling the situation. After he had reluctantly spoken with Soun, he knew that the older man was at least being wise about rushing into things with the attractive teacher, but still, the idea that they were seriously dating was causing Akane to really stress out. And then for Hinako to ask them to come by after school and talk had nearly caused Akane to run off in embarrassment.
Ukyo was shifting uncomfortably in her chair, unsure exactly what was making her squirm. For some reason, many of the girls that she thought had been her friends were no longer looking her in the eye when they talked to her and in fact, fled as soon as possible, using the thinnest of excuses as a reason to leave. 'It doesn't make any sense. When they found out that Ryoga and I had married, all of them were happy for us. Most of the girls even dragged their boyfriends to the restaurant after school and made sure that they saw how happy the two of us were, they thought it was so romantic,' she thought.
Ukyo joined Ranma and Akane at lunch, her face pale. Akane noticed her expression and asked, "What's wrong, Ukyo?"
"I was, uh, in one of the stalls, in the restroom and overheard some girls talking," Ukyo finally answered, her voice shaky.
Ranma stopped eating when he heard the pain in her voice. "Who were they, and what were they talking about that got you so upset?" he growled.
"I didn't recognize all of the voices, but one of the girls was Yuka," Ukyo said, reluctantly. She hesitated for a long while and then said very softly, "Apparently the news that we're having a baby has gotten around, and they weren't saying very nice things about us. That the only reason that Ryoga married me is because I trapped him by getting pregnant. I guess it hadn't really been common knowledge that Ryoga was sleeping at the restaurant for some reason."
"What did Yuka say?" Akane asked, her eyes blazing.
"She's the one that told them that Ryoga lived at the restaurant, though she did say that he had his own room," Ukyo replied, "And she said that we had been engaged for several months, so she wasn't surprised at us getting married. She agreed that it was a little suspicious that we ran off and didn't have a ceremony. And somehow, they found out that my father disowned me. Of course, they didn't know the reason why it happened, so they were making up all kind of stories. Most of them though were saying he must have disowned me because I dishonored the family by getting pregnant out of wedlock."
"Ouch," Akane said, "That's pretty cruel. I can see why that would upset you."
"Yeah, and a lot of the girls that I thought were my friends seem to not want to have anything to do with me anymore. And some of the boys were leaving me some pretty nasty notes, wanting me to meet them for a 'date' since apparently I was so easy," Ukyo whispered.
Ranma began to glower and he asked, "Who were they and in how many pieces do you want them left in?"
"Hey, sugar, that's sweet of you to offer, but I don't need an overprotective brother," Ukyo replied, her face lighting up for the first time.
"That's what big brothers are for," Ranma protested.
"Yeah, but I'm a couple of months older than you, so how can you be my big brother," Ukyo replied.
Ranma grinned wryly and said, "It's a state of mind thing, Ucchan. I'll always feel like your big brother. Deal with it."
"And you're family. Family always sticks together. If you need any help, you know who you can turn to," Akane interjected.
Ukyo smiled shyly and whispered, "That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. I'm glad the two of you feel that way."
Akane reached over and hugged Ukyo. Ranma scrambled over and joined them in the hug. Akane said softly, "Well, that's the way we feel about you, Ucchan."
Ukyo's eyes got real big. She said, "I think that's the first time you've called me that, sugar. I guess Ranchan is rubbing off on you."
"You better now?" Ranma asked.
"I think so," Ukyo replied, looking a lot happier than when she first sat down.
'I think I need to see Yuka and talk to her,' Akane thought, 'and find out who started all these rumors.' She looked up and saw Yuka talking to Sayuri and some of the other girls in her class. She pulled out of the joint hug and stood up.
Ranma said, "You need to eat something, Ucchan. It'll make you feel a bit better." At that moment, Ranma's stomach growled a little.
Ukyo giggled and said, "Sounds like I'm not the only one that needs to be fed." She stood back up and pulled out her portable grill from wherever she hid it and began fixing several okonomiyakis for the two of them.
As Akane stormed up to her friends, Yuka paled. She could tell that Akane was upset over something, and after looking over Akane's shoulder to see Ukyo being comforted by Ranma, she was afraid that she might know what it was.
"Yuka, Sayuri, I'd like to talk to you," Akane said sweetly.
Yuka gulped and said, "Sure, Akane. What did you want to talk about?"
"We've been friends for a long time, ever since we started school together all those years ago," Akane began, "So it hurts to see you involved in the gossiping about my sister Ukyo."
"Sister? What do you mean by sister?" Yuka asked.
Akane blushed and replied, "Well, actually sister-in-law. When that bastard Kuonji disowned her, Mom took Ukyo into her clan. So even though Ryoga and Ukyo are married, she's still part of the Saotome clan. And even if she wasn't, she's still my friend."
"But why did her father disown her? Was it because she was pregnant?" Sayuri asked softly.
"No, it was worse than that. When Ukyo was six, her father arranged for Genma Saotome to take her with him and also arranged a marriage with Ranma. Well, the short answer is that Genma ran off with Ukyo's dowry so they swore to get revenged on both Ranma and Genma," Akane replied, "But when she tracked Ranma down, she found out that he was innocent of doing anything wrong so she didn't want to hurt him. And then she found out she wasn't even the only fiancée that Genma had arranged so that really caused problems."
"I didn't realize that she was supposed to be one of the fiancées. All I knew is that one of the girls from your family was supposed to marry Ranma, and you were the lucky one that got him," Yuka said.
"Well, anyway, we sort of tricked her father, by making him think Ranma was a girl. When he found out that Ranma really was a guy, and that Ukyo knew about it, he disowned her," Akane said.
"That's rough," Sayuri replied.
Akane grimaced and said, "Yeah it is. Ukyo is a good person, but she's had a hard life. It's not easy running a restaurant at her age, and going to school to boot. And then, to be married at such a young age, and to top it off, become pregnant. She doesn't need the people that she thought were her friends to spread ugly rumors about her."
"Why did she get married so quickly then?" Yuka persisted.
Akane glared at her friend and replied, "They were engaged for a long time, Yuka. Does it really matter if they anticipated the wedding date by a little bit and slept together? Isn't it more important that they are married and very happy with each other?"
"N-no, I guess not," Yuka said hesitantly. Then she asked, "Why do you feel so strongly about this though?"
"Several reasons. First, she's family and I don't want to see either of them hurt. And I know how hard it must have been to wait," Akane replied, blushing slightly. She hesitated and asked, "How would you treat me if I was the expectant newlywed?"
Yuka gasped and asked, "You're not pregnant are you?"
"No!" she exclaimed, her face flaming. "But I could easily have been. Ranma and I were sharing a bed long before we ever got married. Not that we ever did anything that we shouldn't have. We wanted to wait until we were married before we did that," she said, once she got her composure back. She giggled for a second, and then added, "Though we did move the wedding up a bunch. It started getting harder and harder to not go too far."
Yuka looked shamefaced and said, "I guess I have been treating her badly. If it had been you, I wouldn't have spread rumors about you, I would have just been helping you pick out clothing and been supportive."
Sayuri said sadly, "She's right. We shouldn't have listened to any of those bitches spreading tales."
"They're probably just jealous that she's got such a cute husband," Akane said with a smile.
"Do you think she'll still want to be friends with us?" Yuka asked, still shamefaced.
"Why don't you go ask her? Or better yet, take her out for ice cream or shopping. She could use some time away from the restaurant," Akane said.
Akane reluctantly opened the door to the classroom to find her teacher gathering up all of her belongings. Ranma pushed her into the room. Hinako looked up with a welcome smile and said, "Thanks for coming back by, Akane. I thought we could talk a bit about how you're feeling."
"What do you mean, Miss Ninomayi?" Akane asked.
Hinako looked a bit sad as she asked, "What happened to Hinako?"
"Why don't we go find some ice cream, my treat," Ranma suggested.
Hinako's eyes lit up and she said, "That's a yummy idea, Ranma. You know I'd never turn down free ice cream. That hasn't changed even now that I'm always an adult. We can talk things out there."
The three of them left the classroom and made their way silently to the local ice cream parlor, after Ranma had stopped by the rest room for some cold water. The three girls entered the ice cream shoppe and proceeded to order their desserts.
Hinako shook her head as they sat down. "Ranma, you're shameless. Two extra scoops of ice cream, I mean really, how could you do that to that poor man." She giggled for a second, especially as Ranma began to blush furiously. "But I can tell I need to have you show me how to flirt," she continued.
The three women sat there in companionable silence as they began to eat their desserts. Hinako had realized early on in their relationship that Ranma wouldn't talk much while she was eating. She turned to Akane and asked, "Akane, dear, I could see that you were very nervous this morning. Are you worried about the fact that your father and I are dating?"
Akane blushed, and replied, "Well, a little bit. When it was just a couple of dates, it didn't worry me much. But it looks like that the two of you might be getting serious, so yeah, I guess I am unsure of things."
"I care for your father a great deal, Akane, and I want to make him happy. I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that things won't change between us, but I feel like you are my friends, more than just students," Hinako said, "Because of what we shared the last month, and everything that you two did for me, I have come to love the two of you. But I won't treat you any differently in class because of that."
Ranma said softly, "And he has been happy. Happier than I think I've ever seen him, Hinako. You've been good for him."
'Ranma's right!' Akane thought in shock, 'Daddy hasn't broke down crying since they started seeing each other. Even last night when we told him about Genma, he didn't cry.'
"Akane, Ranma, I don't know where your father and I are going in this relationship. It's still very new to us both," Hinako said.
"Just help him be happy, that's all I ask," Akane said, with a quick grin, "I don't want him to be lonely anymore. I just hadn't realized until now that he was." She reached over and hugged Hinako and said, "Be good to him, please."
Ranma stopped at Nabiki's room and looked in. He saw Nabiki wearing her exercise outfit, a set of short shorts and a crop top, doing leg lifts on the floor. "Do you have a minute, Sis? I kinda need to talk to you," he asked.
Nabiki said, "Sure, come on in. I can exercise while you talk. I've never had a problem with multi-tasking."
Ranma walked in with a puzzled look on his face, and asked, "Multi-whozit?"
Nabiki laughed, and replied, "Multi-tasking. It's just a fancy word for doing more than one thing at the same time."
Ranma's face cleared up. He hesitated for a moment and then asked, "Nabiki, there have been a bunch of horrible rumors being spread about Ukyo, and I was…"
Nabiki's face closed down and her eyes went cold. "And you wanted to know if I was responsible for them," she said icily.
Ranma looked surprised for a second and then replied, "Of course not. You wouldn't do anything that hurtful to anyone in the family. I just wanted you to find out who was telling all the tales out of school and see if we can get them stopped, is all."
Nabiki had the decency to look ashamed of herself and replied, "Sorry, Ranma. I guess if jumping to conclusions was an Olympic sport, I would have just got the gold."
"Nah, just the bronze," Ranma shot back, his eyes dancing with glee.
Nabiki snorted in amusement and replied, "Bronze, huh. I wouldn't settle for anything that low and you know it, little brother." Then she sobered up and said, half in question, "Ukyo is really taking it bad, I take it."
"Yeah, it really hurt her feelings. And a lot of the kids that she thought were her friends aren't acting too friendly toward her anymore. And you should hear what some of the boys are saying about her," Ranma said.
"Sure, I'll look into it for you," Nabiki replied, "I'll even give you the family discount."
Ranma chuckled and replied, "That's awfully nice of you, sis."
"What? You don't think I can be nice," Nabiki replied, sardonically, "I'm hurt."
Ranma grinned back at her and said, "Sure you can, sis."
"Seriously, you're right. She's not just family, she's a friend. I'll see what I can find out, and try to put a stop to it," Nabiki replied.
"You're the best, Nabiki," Ranma said. He walked over and kissed her forehead briefly, and then added, "Mousse is a lucky guy. I'm glad you two found each other." He turned and walked out of the room, leaving Nabiki shaking her head.
Author's Notes: Thanks for reading this story. As you can see, there's still chapters coming, albeit slowly. The real world sometimes gets in the way of writing, unfortunately. As always, comments and suggestions are welcomed and encouraged. Specific comments are below:
Lord Strife: I kind of wanted Soun and Hinako to have a mature relationship, after all, he really shouldn't be driven by his hormones at his age, right? VBG Just having Genma grow up away from the influence of Happosai would be an improvement in his moral fiber.
SilverBullet23: There are other people that Ranma can work with. Taro will be around for example, and there are still other opponents/challenges that he will face. I just don't like Happosai, that's why he never sticks around long in my stories.
Sean Malloy-1: Well here's the next chapter, they will be coming out slowly. And Kasumi getting pregnant is certainly a possibility.
Jerry Unipeg: Thanks. That's where I was heading with both of those arcs.
A: That's a good idea. The Hibikis do need to show up sometime. As to Genma, I was basically trying to paint him as a coward, and a thief, with a major vindictive streak in him. I didn't intend for him to come across as completely evil, though. I think that's pretty close to canon.
Taxzombie: Thanks. I liked the way that scene came together. That's how I envisioned it from the beginning when I came up with that arc. Genko will have some phantom memories popping up periodically. I'm not sure how far I'll take this story, but it still has a lot of potential life in it, so there will be more.
Law-kun: I hadn't seen this done before so it looked like a 'unique' punishment for Genma. Though I had originally thought about Ranma and Akane raising her, but decided against it for a couple of reasons.
Dennisud: Thanks. I have some more ideas for this story, though I have to admit Second Time Around is easier to write. I also have a couple of other ideas for different stories that I need to start writing down as well. Kodachi will probably get cured, I actually kind of like her and if I remember the canon, she actually stopped chasing Ranma more or less, except for the black wedding dress at the wedding. It's kind of ironic that of the three, she was the sanest at the wedding.