A metafiction by Brian Randall
Disclaimer: Original source is Ranma 1/2, which is the property and creation of Rumiko Takahashi. Her paints, my easel, and the brush is borrowed without permission (hence this disclaimer) from Kenko and Chris Jones, as this metafic is inspired by 'Fair Warning' and 'The Tomboy Solution'.
Note: Fans of the above fics will probably not enjoy the effects of this one. Consider yourselves warned. Divergence. You'll know it when you see it.
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-0-
Akane shivered slightly, looking up at the sky. The patchwork of clouds could turn into rain later, or could clear up, and in Nerima it was usually all but impossible to determine which it would be until the weather was good and ready to choose.
Before her was the field of Furinkan's athletic field. She hadn't told anyone about Ranma's challenge to her, and no one else was expecting the match, so she was confident she wouldn't need to worry about him sulking by being defeated in front of witnesses. If Ranma a felt the need to prove the might of the dougi, he'd get exactly what he was looking for.
Another shiver, and she rubbed away the tears that wouldn't stop running from her eyes. "Why am I crying?" she asked herself hoarsely. "I didn't do anything wrong!"
"You keep tellin' yourself that," Ranma growled, seeming to just emerge from the thin air, stalking towards her until they were about five meters apart, then coming to a halt. His eyes closed, and he rubbed at his forehead. "Before we start," he said haltingly, "there's a couple a things I gotta say. You gonna listen?"
"Of course," she answered, grimacing. "But why do we need to fight?"
"Because I want Akane back!" he yelled suddenly, eyes opening and burning with an angry blue glow. "I want to tear you apart for taking her away from me! I want to make sure that you can never hurt my friends or put Akane in danger like this again!"
"I am Akane!" she protested angrily. "Who else do you think I am?"
"You can't be Akane," he said, his voice hitching as he flinched backwards. "You... You can't be!"
"I am!" she yelled back, her anger growing. "You think that just because I can finally make a difference that I'm an impostor?"
"You're possessed," he said fixedly, shaking his head and looking her in the eyes. It was her turn to flinch back. "Akane would never do what you did. And I ... don't wanna hit you. I'd rather be fighting Herb on Horrai again!" The wistful fear drained from his face, replaced with a look of grim and dogged determination. The same face Ranma had shown once to Kumon Ryu, and on occasion, Hibiki Ryouga.
But never her.
A thrill of nervous excitement surged up her spine before it was crushed beneath gnawing worry. Did this mean that in their previous matches, Ranma hadn't really gone all out?
"But I checked with Tendo and Pops," he sighed. "And I know how to destroy the dougi. So now I will."
"You're jealous!" she protested. "If it worries you that much, I'll help you train -- the two of us together will be the best martial artists ever!"
"Ya got that half right," he said, his eyes narrowing. "Ready?"
"I-" She cut off, swallowing nervously. "Ranma, if you hit me, I will never forgive you. You never even said so much as a thank you for all I've done!"
His head bowed and he jerked slightly, either a sob or a laugh -- she wasn't sure. "You have no idea how much I hope the dougi's sayin' that, and not you." Then he looked up, shrugged, and charged at her. Even without the dougi the attempt was pathetic. She was disappointed, and turned to one side, meeting his blind rush with a palm-strike. He twisted away at the last second, reversing direction as he seized her extended hand and threw himself backwards.
Her strength with the dougi was not enough to resist his, so she found herself yanked unceremoniously off the ground and flung across the Furinkan yard. Shocked, she let the dougi take control, landing easily a few meters away.
He was already there, leading in with a foot-sweep. Her dodge barely allowed her to twist away, coming to rest in a crouched position, fingertips of her right hand resting against the lawn. "Is that the best you can do?" she snarled, rushing at him with a charge of her own.
Grunting, he took a power-blow on his crossed forearms, retaliating with a snap-kick that she barely managed to evade. While she recovered from her roll he backed off, and said, "Kodachi came in later. So for a while I started thinking it might not have been you."
"I fought her," she answered, settling into a ready stance. "I didn't want to, though!"
"Then you just left her there?" he asked, his voice tight. "Mousse found Shampoo. I don't know who found Ukyou."
"Kodachi," Akane mumbled. "She said she saw me fight Ukyou."
Ranma shuddered again, looking away. "So it took them a while to find Kodachi. You... You left them there. Just beat them until they couldn't fight back, and left them there?" His question took on a panicked pleading tone, his hands trembling as his eyes finally met hers, the fire briefly gone, replaced by shimmering unshed tears.
"Why are you so upset about this?" she asked. "I know that... That I kind of hurt them -- but it'll never have to happen again! It's all over now!"
"The ends do not justify the means here," he snapped. "Did you just leave them there?"
"What does it matter, Ranma? They're all going to be okay! I can tell them I'm sorry if it means that much to you-"
He grit his teeth, interrupting her with a snarled, "Yes or no! Did you just leave them there without even doing the honorable thing? Did you think for a damned second that just because you won you didn't have to show a fallen opponent simple human decency?"
"N...no," she stuttered. "I...I forgot, and-"
"That's enough," he said, his body instantly stilling from the trembling rage that had overtaken it. His voice was low and sibilant, barely carrying across the lawn. "I can hit you now."
She was on the defensive immediately, falling back beneath his assault. The first punch was deflected, but she left herself open for a kick to the inside of her shin. The dougi covered for her lack of skill, twisting her body out of the way at the cost of the knife-hand she had planned to strike his shoulder with.
"Ranma!" Akane protested, nearly landing a lightning fast crescent-kick to his face. "I don't want to hurt you!"
"I don't want to hear you talk!" he snapped.
"Don't you dare hit me!" she yelled, ducking a roundhouse kick that would have flung her clear across the school. She countered with a rushing tackle, slamming her fiancée's body through the walls of the main building and surrounding them both with a cloud of dust and falling brick.
-1-
The impact against the school didn't hurt him as badly as he'd expected. A few loose bricks had bounced off his head when Akane lost her grip and he slid across the floor through the obscuring dust. Shaking his head to clear it, he lunged into the screen, almost slamming his knee into Akane's stomach.
She flinched back and slipped away into nothingness. Straining his senses, Ranma hesitated only a moment before stepping into the Umi-sen-ken to follow. At the edge of his perception she was sneaking away, towards the opening she'd created into the room.
"Don't run away!" he yelled, rushing towards her and dropping his cloak. Please, he thought, don't make me hurt Akane any more than I have to.
"You're scaring me!" Akane protested, dropping her own cloak.
"How scary is being put in the hospital?" he retorted, emerging from the dust to lunge with a punch to her jaw. She flipped backwards, landing unsteadily, and he flung himself after without time to think about what he was doing.
He spun as he leapt, his evasion just avoiding the side-kick that would have shattered his upper leg. He landed on one foot, still spinning, and lashed out with his other, throwing the full force of the momentum trick into the spinning strike.
The first blow struck her with more force than he'd ever hit anyone outside of Tarou's cursed form with. Akane's eyes widened and she made a pained noise as she folded around the kick, her body crumpling. Not willing to give the suit a chance to recover, he spun towards her, evading an axe kick this time, and landing twelve rapid kicks to her abdomen. The first ten were deflected from the seal on the belt of the dougi that would destroy the thing forever, instead landing in an uneven circle around it, staggering the girl backwards. "R...Ranma," she choked out, her eyes wild with fear. "You can't beat me!"
Then another kick, this one just brushing her solar plexus, not tagging her enough to hurt, but drawing her defenses upwards and digging into a pain shiatsu point. The final strike slammed into the seal and sent her rolling backwards, the dougi exploding off her body in scraps of light as she tumbled.
Pushing himself harder than he had the entire rest of the fight, he managed to reach her before she landed, catching her nude form and cradling it protectively. His eyes closed as he heaved an unsteady sigh, shuddering with revulsion over what he had done.
"R...Ranma," Akane protested weakly, shivering.
"You're back," he said resolutely, eyes opening. Akane looked up at him with a combination of surprise, fear, and anger. "I... I freed you from the dougi. Are you okay, Akane?"
Then she slapped him, yelling, "You didn't save me, Ranma! You were jealous and just took away the thing that made us equal!"
He set her carefully down on the ground and turned away, pulling off his shirt and throwing it over his shoulder. "So." The stars wobbled unsteadily overhead, the sun having set at some point during their melee. He couldn't remember them being so blurry the last time he'd looked at them. "So it was you. You... Akane. You really beat them all up and just left them there."
"And now that I tried to do something nice for you, you throw it back in my face!" Akane yelled angrily. "Ranma, it's over between us! You can never apologize for-"
He whirled, clenching his teeth together, and glaring at her behind the wavering, blurry curtain that had consumed his vision. "I can't," he seethed. "I'd need to want to, first. I thought you were... I thought..." He shook his head. "Can you walk?"
She was standing, wrapped in his shirt and sniffling. "Y...yes."
"Could you get back home?"
"W...why are you asking?"
"You said it's over between us," he replied, frowning. "I don't think we're friends. The challenge match is over. I'm doing the honorable thing and making sure you'll be okay."
"Oh," she said very quietly, bowing her head and looking away. "M...my stomach hurts. But I can..."
"Good," he said, closing his eyes, ignoring the twin points of warm wetness he could feel running down his cheeks. "I don't think I want to talk to you right now Akane. Maybe not for a long time."
He slipped back into the Umi-sen-ken, unwilling to let her say anything that could make the moment hurt him worse.
-2-
"Oh, my," Kasumi sighed, shaking her head.
Soun had gone catatonic at the mere sight of Akane returning wearing nothing more than Ranma's torn shirt and weeping. Genma fared better, listening to the story intently and not offering any contributions to the conversation himself.
Nabiki had gone over all of the information and tried to assemble Akane's explanation into a workable theory on how Ranma could be made to beat Akane up. The youngest Tendo picked up a teacup in a trembling hand, sipping at it nervously. Kasumi said it would help settle her stomach.
According to Akane, Ranma had kicked her there, hard enough to be felt through the dougi, and his toe had dug into a pain shiatsu point, crippling her reflexes. Kasumi knew enough to assure her that the damage was only temporary, if extremely painful.
"Alright," Nabiki sighed, pressing her palms against the tabletop. "Kasumi, you talked to Tofu-sensei, didn't you? Did he say anything about Ranma?"
"He'd lost a lot of blood," the elder sister contributed after a moment. "Ukyou-chan and Kodachi-chan both took transfusions from him, according to Tofu-sensei."
"So he was fighting while potentially delirious," Nabiki said, frowning. "Not that I'd expect a jock like him to really be slowed down by lessened brain activity. Still, I never would have thought he'd try and hurt Akane."
"I never really thought Akane would put other girls in the hospital."
"Well, not since Maehara Sachiko," Nabiki agreed.
"What?" Akane asked, blinking.
"You were only six or seven," Nabiki said dismissively. "Mom had just passed on, and none of us were paying attention. You lost your temper. Don't you remember what made Daddy decide to train you?"
"No." Akane furrowed her brow in thought. "Wait. I think I remember a little. Sachiko kept making fun of ... of Mom. And then ... everything went red, just like with..." She hung her head and sighed, rubbing away the tears trailing down her cheeks. "Is Ranma going to be mad for a long time?"
"Hard to tell with him." Nabiki chewed her lower lip. "He may not have been right in the head, you know. Loss of blood and all. Where is he, anyway?"
"Tofu-sensei told me that he's staying at the hospital," Kasumi noted. "He also wanted to let us know that while it was touch-and-go for a while, Kodachi was stabilized and put into a recovery room."
"Well that's-" Nabiki cut herself off with a startled blink. "Excuse me? Touch-and-go? Stabilized? Recovery room? Transfusions are bad enough -- Akane, what did you do to that girl?"
"S...she wouldn't stop laughing," Akane said weakly. "She wouldn't say she would leave Ranma alone. S...so I hit her until she ... stopped."
"Oh dear," Kasumi sighed, one hand rising to press against her cheek as her eyes closed. "Oh my. This sounds rather serious, Nabiki. What should we do?"
Raising a hand to forestall her elder sister's questioning, Nabiki pressed, "And what did you do to Ukyou?"
"I beat her," Akane murmured, her eyes distant. "But she wouldn't admit it. She just said she'd never give up on Ranma ... then something about how she was the cute fiancee. Then she..." Akane swallowed and rubbed at the cut on her face, the one Kasumi had carefully treated and bandaged. "S...so I made sure she wasn't cute anymore."
Nabiki felt nausea bubble up in the depths of her stomach, but forced herself to swallow the bile she could feel in the back of her throat. "And Shampoo?"
"S...she wouldn't stay down. I had to hit her a lot too," Akane said, somewhat numbly.
"I'm starting to think I understand why Ranma tried to hurt you, Akane," Nabiki said quietly. "We should probably let him sleep on it tonight. Which hospital is he at, Kasumi?"
"Nerima General," Kasumi offered.
"I'm taking tomorrow off from school," the middle sister decided. "I'm betting he won't be there anyway. Akane, you should take the day off, too. I'm going to the hospital to try and talk to Ranma."
"Maybe I should go with you," Akane said weakly. "I... I told him it was over between us, but-"
"I think right now you should just stay away from him until I can figure out what's going on," Nabiki said, shaking her head.
"But I-"
"Do you want him to apologize to you?"
Akane nodded minutely.
"Well, then let me talk to him. You should stay home and practice with Daddy or something."
Soun emerged from his shocked shell. "What will this bode for the union of the schools?" he wailed. "Nabiki! When you talk to Ranma, you must let him know that the engagement has been switched to you!"
"What?" Akane protested, rising to her feet.
Nabiki shoved herself backward, crawling across the floor to escape her sister before rationality wrested control away from her panic reflex. Surely Akane wouldn't send her to the hospital, like those other girls. "Calm down," she snapped, glowering at her father. "Who said anything about changing the engagement?"
"But Ranma's not going to marry Akane after a quarrel like that!" Soun protested. "Not after he's seen..." The man trailed off and sighed. "Well."
"After he's seen what?" Akane asked, glowering at him.
"After he's seen what a poor martial artist you are," Soun concluded brokenly, breaking into tears. "I'm a failure as a teacher!" he wailed.
"I'm not a bad martial artist!" Akane yelled. "I don't need to listen to you!" She stalked to her room, only pausing to shoot an angry glower back at Soun.
"I should go with you," Genma said after a moment, nodding to Nabiki. "I think I should discuss this with my son."
"I could use some backup," Nabiki agreed. "This is going to be hard enough as it is. But I want both of you clowns to know I don't want to be engaged to him, okay? I'm going to talk, and try and get him to come back to Akane. Not me. Got it?"
"Yes," Genma sighed.
"M...maybe it should be Kasumi," Soun interjected. "If Akane's got a temper, a sweet girl like Kasumi would-"
"Father!" Kasumi protested, looking mildly pained.
"Let's just stop this before it goes any further," Nabiki said, shaking her head. "We'll talk about who's engaged to whom after we see what Ranma's up to."
-3-
She woke up again to see her fiancé slumped next to her bed, eyes closed and arms crossed over his chest. He was breathing deeply, and she wondered if he was awake. Her face reddened in embarrassment, a sudden stab of pain reminding her of the wound Akane had left her with... Her face flushed again, this time in anger.
"Ucchan?" Ranma murmured, rousing, and blinking at her in surprise. "G'mornin'."
"Morning, Ranchan," Ukyou mumbled back, turning her face away so the scar wouldn't be visible to him. "Um... Were you here all night?
"No," he said quietly. "I was gone for a while... Hittin' someone. Then I stared at the stars until the sun came up. Then I came here. Shampoo's got Cologne, and Kodachi's still not wakin' up."
"What? Why are-" Ukyou swallowed, her eyes closing. "Akane put them in here, too. Ranchan, I ... need to go away. T...to train. I'm sorry I failed as b...both a w...woman and a m...martial artist-" Her voice hitched, breaking into a wracking sob.
Ranma was standing over her instantly, one hand going to her face, gentle fingers brushing away her tears while his other hand found hers. "Please," he said shakily. "I don't... I don't want you to fight Akane."
Ukyou's eyes closed. "Oh," she said quietly. "You... It wasn't a dream. So she really did win."
"Like hell she did," he snarled, the anger in his voice sending her eyes flying wide once more. The hateful glower wasn't directed at her though. "I ... beat her up last night."
"You did what?" Ukyou asked, blinking away her shock. "B...but, I thought you'd never hit her! You let her hit you all the time and never did anything back!"
"I could take the hits," he said. "I guess ... I was just pretendin' somethin' wasn't a problem. Like Cologne said. But now I can't. You shoulda... She never..." He sank to his knees at the side of her bed, both hands going to his face. "I didn't ever want this to happen," he mumbled. "I'm so sorry, Ucchan."
Her free hand reached awkwardly across her body, despite her restraints, and she managed to brush her fingertips over the back of his wrist. His hand came away from his face and clutched onto hers. "Please," he gasped, tears shining in his eyes, "I really ... just want you to promise me that you'll never fight my other friends. I can't take this again. I ... I don't want to think about what I'd have to do!"
"I made a promise," she agreed. "For you, Ranchan." Her eyes closed. "But it's not fair for you to let her get away with this."
"I ain't," he replied. "She says we're through, and I'm thinkin' that's the truth. I can't..." He shook his head. "She ain't the sweet girl I thought she was. Look, I gotta go talk to Cologne about those herbs I was mentionin' yesterday. So maybe you'll see me and her later today. I dunno. But I'll be by to visit whenever I can, and ... the doctors said you'd need someone to help you out for the first couple weeks after they let you out. I ... kinda need a place to stay now. If you ... don't mind, then until Kodachi is released, I'd like to take c...care of you, like I promised I would."
Her face flushed again, and she nodded numbly. "I guess sometimes losing is winning," she mumbled.
He winced again. "I don't want anyone thinkin' that this kinda garbage is okay," he warned.
"I don't!" she protested, eyes filling with tears. "But I'm so happy that you really do care about me!"
"Ah," he sighed, rising to his feet, still holding her hand. "Um..."
He stared for a long minute, until Ukyou realized he had no idea what to say.
"Am ... I ugly now?" she asked, letting go of him, her free hand rising to the wound across her face.
"No," he said quickly, shaking his head and brushing some of her hair from her eyes. "I don't think so. But you rest and get better. The sooner you get out of here, the sooner I can take care of you. Just... Can I ask you for a favor, Ucchan?"
"You can stay with me as long as you like," she assured him, smiling.
"Ah ... I just wanted to ask you not to try and get any kind of revenge," he said apologetically. "And I know that's a lot to ask for ... but I can't let this happen again."
"I promised, didn't I?" Ukyou asked, scowling. "I won't attack Akane."
"Yeah," he said, nodding his head once. "Sorry. I haven't slept yet. I'm going to go see if Kodachi is up before I go to talk to Cologne. I'll probably see you soon though, okay?"
"Okay," she said, smiling brightly again. "T...thank you, Ranchan. And you try and get some rest!"
"Maybe," he said with a shake of his head, glancing towards Tofu, as the doctor appeared at the doorway.
-4-
She found him just outside of Ukyou's room, wobbling unsteadily on his feet, his eyes not catching her until a moment had passed. He had just finished speaking with Tofu when the doctor entered the room and closed the door. Then Ranma turned back and blinked at her tiredly. "Nabiki?" he asked. "Why are you here?"
"I was looking for you," she replied. "I checked at the front desk and they said I should... Ah, doesn't matter. Ranma, we need to talk."
"We do?" he asked.
"Well," Nabiki considered, glancing to the manila envelope in her hands. "I need to talk to you."
"This should be good," he muttered.
"Let me buy you breakfast," she said. "We'll go to the cafeteria."
Grunting, he shook his head. "I have to see if Kodachi's okay."
"She's still not awake. I asked. Come on, it's my treat, Ranma."
He grudgingly nodded, falling into step behind her. After passing through the cafeteria line he chose a sandwich and a sports drink. Nabiki took a bottle of soda and an apple, both of which she set immediately to one side once she was seated.
Ranma ignored her and worked on his sandwich. She watched him patiently, sipping from her drink while she waited. "So," he said, after demolishing the consumable. "What do we need to talk about?"
"Are you sure that's all you're going to eat?" Nabiki asked with a smirk. "I thought my offer would cost more."
Shrugging, he explained, "I've been up since yesterday, and gave blood. Tofu said that if I eat more than this, I'm going to pass out when I try and digest it."
"Fair enough," Nabiki said, shaking her head. "On to business. This came for us by courier today," Nabiki said, inclining her head to the envelope and tapping it with a single fingernail. "My younger sister has been expelled from school. Our family is being threatened with legal action by the Kuno family lawyers for assault on Kodachi. The charges aren't finalized because they don't really have Kodachi's status down, and the police haven't collected a statement." Nabiki's eyes closed and she sighed, bowing her head. "My little sister came very close to avoiding a murder charge, according to what Tofu told me about Kodachi's operation. Attempted murder is still a very likely charge. Something like that sure changes your perspective. Now, after this I guess I'm not ... going to try and ask you to forgive her right away. I can see exactly why you're angry with her, and to tell you the truth, I am too."
Ranma rubbed at his temples. "The Kuno family is rich," he mumbled. "Can you..." He trailed off and she opened her eyes to see him looking at her questioningly.
"I'm not a lawyer," she said with a shrug. "It seems to me that we should be able to get out of it, somehow. Maybe a lack of witnesses, maybe we can say it was self-defense." She smiled sardonically. "I'd like to believe that."
"So would I, but I know better."
"Touche," she allowed, grimacing. "I want to ask you for a favor, Ranma."
"What's that?"
"I want you to convince Kodachi not to press charges."
"I dunno," he said slowly, shaking his head. "Akane messed up. I don't get ... court and stuff like that, but it'll be better for her than Kodachi gettin' better and trying for revenge with more fighting."
"This is my little sister you're talking about," Nabiki pressed. "She could go to prison, Ranma. Do you want that?"
"No," he sighed, shaking his head and taking a sip of his drink. "No," he said again. "I'll talk to Kodachi. That's all I can promise."
"That's all you can promise?" she asked, incredulous. "Ranma, you've fought dragons, Tarou, and a foreign prince for Akane, how can you back off now?"
He grimaced, glancing around to see that no one was immediately nearby. "I dunno. I guess if I could tell anyone it'd be you." He paused, offering a weak smile. "Or Tofu. Ever ... since I met Akane, she was kinda..." Trailing off with a frown, he struggled for a moment, then said, "I always ... uh ... liked Akane."
"I'd noticed," she said dryly. "You're saying you don't anymore? Don't you think you're taking this a bit hard?"
"I ain't sayin..." He shook his head and stared at the table before him. "I guess you ain't a martial artist, so you don't really follow. I'da thought that your dad would teach you about-" He cut off with another grimace. "Aw, hell. He didn't teach Akane about it, why would he teach you?"
"Teach me what?"
"Martial arts ain't just about beatin' people up. There's a code of honor, and the Anything Goes school may be Anything Goes, but even we got rules about how to treat people after you beat 'em. You don't cripple your enemies or hit 'em when they're down. You let them alone and make sure they're gonna be okay. Damn it! Herb stole my manhood from me and locked me as a woman! He was gonna leave me that way forever! But when I beat him I just..." He trailed off with a groan and rubbed at his eyes tiredly. After a moment he continued, "Anyway. If they get better and challenge you again later, well, that's part of the school. Everyone else is gonna try and improve too, just like you. Why keep other people from getting better when you could focus on your own training, you know?"
"This does sound like something that my father mentioned when I was younger," Nabiki admitted. "I wasn't terribly interested at the time."
"Looks like Akane wasn't, either. But past those basic rules, Akane did a couple things you just don't do as a martial artist. You don't attack someone who can't defend themselves, you don't tell people that the terms of the fight change in the middle of a match, and if you're good enough to beat someone without hurtin' them, you..." He swallowed and looked away.
"You don't hurt them?" Nabiki prompted.
He nodded.
"You know, for a thug, you've got a surprising collection of ethics, Ranma."
"Thug?" he asked, indignantly. "Yeah, maybe I skipped that last one a couple times, but don't compare me to your sister. I never tried to cripple anyone, not even Shinnosuke, and I was pissed enough to want to."
She flinched back, looking up at the cafeteria wall-clock and wondering where Genma had gotten. "That was pretty cold," she said after a moment. "So you're telling me that you can never forgive Akane?"
"I thought the dougi possessed her," he mumbled. "I thought it wasn't her. But she told me it was. I w...wanted to believe she couldn't do that. That she was the... That she didn't need to fight."
"Yes, well..." Nabiki trailed off with a thoughtful frown. "You know, this may seem like an off-the-wall question, but humor me, Ranma. What do you see in... Well, what did you see in Akane before this happened?"
"I remember Horrai, mostly," he said hoarsely. "When ... I was down, and Herb was laughing at me, I thought ... I saw her, telling me I needed to be strong, or she'd never accept me. I thought ... that she needed me to be strong for her." He laughed weakly. "I had this ... I guess like a picture in my head that Akane was weak, and would always be weak, but that was okay -- that's what I was there for. If she couldn't look out for herself, I was there for her. 'Cause, I ain't any good at..." He shrugged and looked away.
"So you weren't really in love with my sister as much as your ideal of her," Nabiki finally opined with a frown, folding her hands together over the envelope. "I think I actually understand that. You see this as a betrayal of what you always thought Akane was. You feel like you've somehow been cheated or deceived."
"Huh?" he asked, furrowing his brow. "When did you turn into a shrink?"
She rolled her eyes. "I have an analytical mind, Ranma, and you're an easy read. From my perspective, this is all rather simple. Except..." She tapped her fingertip against the envelope before her. "You're not the only person to take this seriously. So now I'm going to need to ask you a serious question. Do you think you'll marry my sister?"
Ranma shrugged his shoulders and closed his eyes. "If it wasn't her... If it was the dougi. If it wasn't her fault, then ... then it wouldn't be that she was just hurtin' people 'cause she could. It'd be... But that ain't it. I wish it was, but that ain't it. It's just... Aw, hell. I guess it don't matter. No. No, not now."
"Well, good," Nabiki decided with a nod. "You didn't really love my sister, just what you thought she was."
"Huh?"
"I'm saying that you had an unrealistic expectation of my sister," Nabiki said, steepling her fingers before her and leaning forward, towards Ranma. "If you did marry her, you'd be trying to live a lie, thinking you knew her and ultimately realizing you didn't."
"And you said I was cold."
"Well, yes, you called my sister a thug. Just because I try and look at the logical aspects of things first doesn't mean I don't have feelings or care about my family," Nabiki warned. "But I can be honest with myself. Akane's violent, and she has a temper. But she's not just a..." She grimaced. "Well, until she got that suit, she wasn't."
Ranma grunted, his eyes drifting momentarily shut before snapping back open. "I'm gonna talk to Kodachi. I'll ask her about the lawyer thing."
"I doubt she'd want me with you, so let me give you some advice," Nabiki offered. "In order to convince her, you're going to need a bargaining chip."
"What's that?" he asked, glancing to one side as his father emerged from the crowd of nurses and visitors milling around their table, taking a seat nearby.
"I've decided that for the sake of the Tendo family, I will allow the pledge between our houses to be dissolved," Genma rumbled unhappily, pinching the bridge of his nose between his forefinger and thumb, eyes closing. Ranma wondered briefly at when he'd learned the habit from his father. "Soun will not be pleased."
"I think it's for the best," Nabiki said dryly. "Thanks for all your help earlier, Saotome."
Genma shrugged his shoulders awkwardly and sat next to his son. "I thought it best to give you a few minutes before I interrupted," he said quietly. "Boy, I do want you to understand that this is a serious issue, and I'm questioning the wisdom of Akane being the heir to the Tendo half of the school."
"Yeah," Ranma grumbled. "Happosai's gonna flip when he finds out."
Blinking, the elder Saotome adjusted his spectacles. "This may be more severe than I had originally considered," he allowed after a moment. "Once the master hears about this, Akane's definitely not going to be an heir. Well... Nabiki, have you put thought into training?"
"How about, 'No', again?" she asked, scowling. "I don't want to marry Ranma, and if I did-"
"Then she'd need to worry about the other girls thinking that the Tendo family got away with what Akane did, and they might go for revenge," Ranma growled.
Nabiki bit her lower lip and looked away, one hand resting atop her apple and idly rolling it across the cafeteria tray.
"Pops, keep an eye on Akane." Ranma gave his father a worried glance.
"It shouldn't have gotten this bad," the man sighed. "You go talk to Kodachi, Boy. I'll ... try and hold things together at the Tendo home."
"Keep an eye out for Mousse. He's probably going to try and kill Akane, if he finds out. And before you can teach her what she did wrong, she has to admit that she's not a martial artist to Shampoo. Not after what she did."
Nabiki flinched.
"What?" he asked peevishly, turning to look at her.
"You..." She shook her head. "Nothing. Go talk to Kodachi. We'll go home. Tofu said that you could send messages to us through him if you need to."
He nodded. "I'm moving out," he said after a moment. "Akane brought most of my stuff. And some of hers. I'll give hers to Tofu."
"Where are you going?" Genma asked worriedly.
"I'm probably gonna stay with Shampoo and Cologne for a week or two. She's gettin' out today. I'll keep Mousse busy until she's able to keep him in line herself. Then Cologne will send him back to China, and Ucchan'll be released. 'Course, she won't be able to take the stairs at her place with those pins in her hip, so I'll be takin' care of her for a while. Then ... I guess we'll see if Kodachi'll even get out to be helped."
"Ranma?" Nabiki asked quietly.
"Yeah?"
"Could ... Akane ever make this up to you?"
"Only if she'd known not to do it in the first place," he said sadly. "I think she crossed a line, Nabiki. I don't think there's any going back. And if there is, it's probably gone once I'm done talking to Kodachi."
"So ... this is it, then. A year of living with you and you being engaged to my sister, and it ends like this..." Nabiki trailed off and stared at her apple. "I'm sorry," she sighed. "This kind of sucks."
Ranma shrugged and quickly downed the rest of his sports drink before stuffing the sandwich wrapper inside the bottle and crushing it into a tiny crumpled plastic sphere. He forced the cap on and hurled it the length of the cafeteria, landing it in a trash bin to scattered applause. "Yeah," he said quietly, glancing at his father. "Good luck, Pops."
"You too, Boy," Genma sighed, rubbing at his face. "I... Well. We can talk later."
"Yeah," he said, scrubbing his hands through his hair. "Damn. Okay, just tell Tofu if you gotta let me know about more people bein' pissed at Akane. Later." He didn't wait for either his father or Nabiki to reply before he turned away.
-5-
Kodachi's first vision was of a doctor who spoke to her slowly in monosyllabic words. She initially resented his simple explanations, and then as the numbness and shock began to wear, she realized that it was entirely justified.
She was currently restrained, her entire body strapped to a traction frame that immobilized all but one hand. About the same time the doctor began to explain that she'd need months of therapy to be able to take care of herself, she closed her eyes and tried to ignore the outside world.
That worked, for when she forced herself to open her eyes again, another doctor was talking to her Ranma-sama, who shot her anxious and worried looks. Good, she thought. Maybe the Tendo harlot had beaten her, and her body might be crushed, but her will would press on forever.
"Ranma-sama?" she rasped.
He was at her side in a second, ignoring the doctor. "You feelin' ... not so bad?" he asked, wincing.
"I'm numb," she replied. "And thirsty," she added after a moment, surprised when she tried to cough and only managed a harsh wheeze.
Ranma carefully held a paper cup of water to her lips, which she sipped from. After a moment to recover her breath she sighed, allowing her eyes to drift shut. He took the cup away, and she said, "I barely feel pain. Is it morphine? I think it feels rather like an opiate."
"It... Yes. It's morphine," the doctor said, surprise sounding in his voice. "Is this problematic?"
"I don't care for opiates," she said distantly. "Ranma-sama? Will you tell me what happened?"
"I don't know everything," he said, rubbing at his temples. "But from what I can tell, it was pretty bad."
"It's amazing you pulled through," the doctor noted. "If Ranma's sister hadn't given you a transfusion we might have lost you; as it is, we didn't expect you to be lucid for a week."
Her laugh succeeded where the cough failed, sending a spasm of pain through her chest to rebound against her shattered bones and then back into her heart. "Ah," she gasped, eyes closing. Her mobile hand tried to clench into a fist but couldn't; something was caught in it. She opened her eyes when she had recovered herself, looking with surprise to see that Ranma had taken her mobile hand, clasping it between both of his.
Smiling forlornly, she said, "I do not think I will be able to make it to our date, Ranma-sama."
"D...don't worry about that," he said, shaking his head. "We'll... Some other time, yeah? Let's worry about you getting better."
"Yes," she sighed. "Tell me of your sister, please. Why did she seek to save my life?"
"Oh. Right," Ranma mumbled. "Tofu-sensei, can you close the door?"
"Of course," the doctor replied, frowning as the door shut and then locked with a loud click. "I hope that this isn't going to be a shock, but I suppose if she can survive..."
"Yeah yeah yeah," Ranma grumbled, stepping backwards and taking the pitcher of water from the bedside stand. "I don't actually have a sister. I got this curse that turns me into a girl when I'm splashed with cold water." He took her hand in his, then upended the pitcher over his head.
Her heart skipped a beat as the hand clasped in hers changed dimension, and she beheld not Ranma, but the redheaded harridan she had always loathed. "N...no," she murmured, biting back an instant of panic when her restraint kept her from even shaking her head minutely. "Y...you... I thought..."
"I'm a guy," she said quickly, scowling. "It's just a curse. So you got some of my blood. The hospital just won't let you donate twice, so I used my curse to trick 'em."
"Twice?"
"Before you were found," the redhead said uneasily, looking away, "my ... my fiancée, Kuonji Ukyou needed a transfusion, too. So she got one."
"Ah," Kodachi murmured, her heart still racing. She glanced at the monitor displaying her pulse to both ... Ranma, she forced herself to admit. Ranma and Tofu could see her pulse clearly on the screen, and the doctor was starting to look concerned. She forced herself to calm, her heart rate slowing after a handful of shallow breaths. "I am glad," she said after a moment, wishing her breathing weren't quite so shallow, "that she was found. I would have waited to see that help arrived, but I thought it best..." She blinked at a sudden thought. "Tendo Akane still walks free?"
"I beat her up," Ranma mumbled, looking away. "Destroyed the suit that gave her power. She won't hurt you again, Kodachi. I promise you that on my honor as a martial artist."
"Good," she replied, managing a smile. "I may be defeated, but she has lost more than I."
Tofu snorted, then shook his head. "Truer words," he sighed. "Kuno-san, I imagine that this is news to you, since your family has not been by to visit yet, but your father has reacted to this."
"Poorly, I suspect," she mused. "Has he declared war? Banished Tendo Akane forever from Furinkan's halls?"
"Pretty much," Ranma said with a nod. "He's suin' the Tendo family, and she got expelled."
"Ah," Kodachi murmured. "Good."
"Look, is there any way I can talk you out of suing her?" Ranma pleaded.
"You defend her after all this?" she asked, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "She reduces me to this and still you-"
She was silenced when the redhead placed a fingertip on her lips. The other girl smiled sadly. "This is a shiatsu spot. It makes people listen. I wish I had time to learn..." She trailed off and sighed. "Never mind that. I don't want you to think that I'm going back to Akane. I'm not. I don't think I can, not after seeing what she did to you, Ucchan, and Shampoo. But at the same time..." She hesitated. "I can't say it ain't her fault. 'Cause it is. But she ... well, she's gonna be in enough trouble. Is ... there anything I can do -- pretty much anything at all -- to get her out of trouble with you?"
"Anything?" Kodachi asked, turning her eyes to the bespectacled doctor.
Tofu coughed and studiously looked away.
"Anything," she murmured, turning her gaze back to the redhead, who looked on the verge of tears herself. "Would you marry me?"
"I'm already engaged to Ucchan," she said apologetically. "And ... I'm supposed to be married to Shampoo, too. I dunno if I can make that kind of promise. But I can take care of you. I can ... try and help you get better-- Tofu-sensei's teaching me all about shiatsu. When I talk to Cologne, I'll ask her if she can tell me about healing herbs and stuff. Ucchan ... got scarred ... so she's gonna need something to take care of that ... and I bet the old ghoul's stuff would get you back on your feet faster, too."
"Why do you want to help me?"
Ranma blinked at the question. "Huh?"
"I haven't done anything to deserve your affection," Kodachi murmured, glancing between Tofu and Ranma suspiciously. "Is this all to save Tendo Akane the wrath I feel she so righteously deserves?"
"N...no," Ranma protested, shaking her head. "I don't want you to do what Akane did back to her. I don't ... I can't..." She deflated, rubbing at her eyes. "I can't watch my friends tear each other apart like this, Kodachi. I want to make sure that none of you have anything like this happen again. I'm trying to just make sure that everyone ends up as safe and happy as they can."
"Including Akane."
"Yeah," Ranma groaned. "I want her safe, too."
"I see."
"That don't mean I want her near you," the redhead warned quickly.
"You are as noble as I always dreamed," Kodachi murmured. "For you, Ranma-sama, I will ask my father to desist his litigation."
Ranma sighed in relief.
Swallowing nervously, Kodachi licked her lips and asked, "Will you forgive me?"
"For what?" the redhead asked, startled at the question.
"For my vicious assault against yourself," she said uneasily. "When I thought that ... you were competing against me for ... ah ... your affection." She grimaced at how poorly worded her explanation seemed after she uttered it.
"Oh," Ranma snorted. "No big deal. I can take a hit or two. And ... that's nothing compared to this. Ah ... we should probably let you rest, and I gotta talk to Cologne."
"Maybe you should get some sleep first," Tofu interjected, before Kodachi could reply. "You're pushing yourself a little too hard, Ranma. I'm concerned that your judgment may be affected by your blood loss. I know you're strong and can handle a lot of punishment, but even you have limits."
"Yeah, but-"
"Please don't leave me, Ranma-sama," Kodachi pleaded. "Hospitals are so dreary, and I'm so terribly confined!"
"Well," the redhead said uncertainly, "I'm worried about-"
"Everyone is safe right now," Tofu admonished. "You'll need your strength to take care of others. Shampoo won't even be leaving for hours."
Licking her lips, Ranma asked, "Will you wake me up before then?"
"Yes," the bespectacled man promised, sliding a chair from the corner towards Ranma. "So at least sit down and close your eyes for a while."
"O...okay," Ranma said uneasily. "I guess I'm feelin' kinda tired. Can I get some hot water?"
The doctor rolled his eyes and filled the pitcher from the tap before dousing the girl. Red hair shifted to black as he assumed his true form and expanded to properly fill the clothes he was wearing.
"Thanks, Tofu-sensei," Ranma mumbled, rubbing at his eyes as he sank to sit in the chair, scooting it closer to Kodachi.
"Think nothing of it." Tofu patted the boy's back companionably. A moment later Ranma's eyes drifted shut and he slumped forward, leaning against Kodachi's bed with his face resting just by her hand.
She idly brushed his bangs from his closed eyes and turned her gaze to the doctor. "Is he well?" she asked.
"Stubborn, but fine," he assured her. "Maybe this time the trick will work."
"Pardon?"
"Oh, don't worry about it," he said, shaking his head as he strode towards the door. "You should get some rest, too. Your body has a lot of healing to do. I need to track down an old ... associate of mine."
Kodachi tried to nod, but her restraints prevented that much, so she offered a weak smile instead. "Ah, this is not how I had hoped to sleep with you the first time, Ranma-sama," she murmured, allowing her mind to relax into the peaceful oblivion lurking at the edges of her perception.
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