FATE
A Ranma1/2 fanfic by PansutoTarou5925
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Disclaimer to follow at end of chapter
-------------------------------------
After several hours of watching the twins, Chiyeko was ready to
scream. The blonde-haired martial artist had suffered through
several hours of pointless, plotless kid's action anime, and, although
it kept the two Hibiki twins out of trouble (and several Japanese
cities), it was really annoying her. Atasuke had actually fallen
asleep, the jerk, or he had until she picked him up and threw him in
the pool. The still wet boy had taken off his shirt, however, so she
figured she got at least something from this wasted night.
She heard the door slide open behind her and turned. "Granny!" she
said excitedly. "I didn't know you were here!"
Nodoka smiled and sat down by her granddaughter. "Ranma asked
that her father be over tonight, to see if he could help out." Nodoka
frowned; it had taken the threat of the sword to get Genma to assist
in Ranma's plan to regain her lost manhood. "But I came by as
well, to see my loveliest granddaughter," she added.
"I'm your only granddaughter," Chiyeko said, smirking.
"Hopefully that will change someday," Nodoka said. She had plans
for Ranma's wedding - big plans, and that was the other thing she
wanted to talk about tonight, if she could find Hild.
"You need to speak to the obaba about that," Chiyeko said. "I
don't think she likes dating much."
"I imagine so," Nodoka said conversationally.
"Though I did get her to go out with that Ukyo guy," Chiyeko said
thoughtfully. "So it might not be a lost cause. That date kinda
ended in disaster, though." She scratched her head nervously. "We
kinda got thrown out of a restaurant."
"Ukyo is a girl, Chiyeko," Nodoka said with a small smile. At least
Ranma's tastes hadn't changed in all these years.
Chiyeko's eyes (and those of Atasuke) widened in surprise.
"You're kidding me! I just thought he - I mean she - was really
bishounen!"
"Ukyo is definitely a girl. Your father went out with her for a while,
when he was your age," Nodoka said, deciding a little of the truth
wouldn't hurt. "Ranma probably decided to go on a date with her
for old times' sake."
"She seemed happy to go out with Ranma... wait, that waitress!
She probably... you know, likes girls." Chiyeko frowned, then had a
slightly panicked look. "Does that mean that Mom... like, is into
girls?" She developed a slight eyetwitch.
Atasuke suddenly had a nosebleed, and pinched it off, hoping that
no one had noticed. His mind continued to keep imagining
amazingly hentai images with Ranma and other women, however.
Nodoka paused for a second, uncertain of how she should phrase
this, then decided to punt. This really was something that Ranma
was going to have to deal with. "It could be. This is something that
you should bring up with your mother, though."
Chiyeko shook her head violently. "Nuh-uh! That is one thing I'm
not bringing up over breakfast!" She adopted an airheaded tone:
"'Excuse me, Mom, but are you a closet bisexual?' Mom would
turn white as a sheet, then red as Atasuke's nosebleed!"
"I hit my nose on the rocks in the pond, when you threw me out
there!" the guilty party said, protesting his innocence.
"Yeah right!" Chiyeko said, then playfully stuck out her tongue
before returning to her grandmother. "I'm not touching that with a
ten foot pole, granny."
"Probably for the best after all," Nodoka said serenely. "So this
here is Atasuke. You do resemble your father strongly, young
man."
"Thank you," Atasuke said, nodding. "I hope that someday I can
live up to his example."
"As a doctor?" Nodoka asked, curious. He'd make a good husband
for Chiyeko in that case.
"Actually, I was thinking about becoming a teacher," Atasuke said.
"That would be good as well," Nodoka said. "Hello, Genma," she
said as the retired martial artist walked in.
He slowly sat himself down and attempted to look serious and
noble, and failed utterly in the latter. "Girl, I understand that Ranma
thinks she has trained you fully in the Saotome School of Martial
Arts," he began.
"That's right. Mom says I'm better than she was at my age,"
Chiyeko said, flexing her arm. "And I've learned every technique
she's taught me."
Genma grunted thoughtfully. "You seem sure of yourself. Well,
we'll see about that."
"What do you mean?" Chiyeko asked angrily. "You don't think I'm
good? I'll show you how good I am!"
"Now, that's not what I meant!" Genma said, pleadingly.
"Then what are you saying, husband?" Nodoka said sternly. "It
certainly sounds like you are questioning her skills to me."
"I'm not questioning her skills!" Genma protested. "I'm questioning
her drive, her ambition in the art-"
"I've got plenty of ambition in the art, you fat old fool!" Chiyeko
said. Her mother rarely respected her father, and she had seen why
from an early age. "I'm just not obsessed like you or Mom! I want
to do something else with my life, too!"
"Like what?" Genma challenged, as if nothing could possibly be
more important than the martial arts.
"Like what?" Nodoka said, much more interested. "Being a
mother?" Visions of greatgrandchildren danced in her head.
"Um," Chiyeko said. She hadn't really given it that much thought -
she just knew martial arts wasn't the only thing she wanted to do in
life. "I dunno. Something." she said lamely.
"It's things like this that make me question your dedication to the
art," Genma said thunderously, jabbing a finger at her.
"Oh, stuff it, gramps," Chiyeko said, glancing to make sure that the
twins were still watching that damn anime. Sure enough, they were,
and Hideo had even fallen asleep. Good. "I'm not in the mood to
argue about it."
"So tell me how well school is going," Nodoka said, deciding to
head off the lecture that Genma was surely going to go into. "I
understand you had a bit of a fight today..."
-------------------------------------
"Honestly, Mom, sometimes gramps gets on my nerves," Chiyeko
complained after everyone had left.
"He gets on everybody's nerves from time to time, Chiyeko-chan,"
Ranma said. She seemed unduly excited, Chiyeko noted, almost like
she was a kid waiting to open Christmas presents.
"What are you so worked up about? I thought we were heading to
China next week?" Chiyeko said, her eyes narrowing.
"We are, but tomorrow's a big day, too," Ranma said.
Chiyeko searched her brain and came up empty. The blonde looked
at Ranma quizzically. "What's so big about tomorrow?"
"You'll find out... tomorrow," Ranma said, winking with her good
eye. "Now get some sleep. You'll thank me tomorrow."
"Whatever you say, obaba," Chiyeko said, rolling her eyes.
Whatever. "I'm taking a bath first, though." She headed over to the
bathroom for a nice long energizing soak before turning in for the
night, apssing Atasuke as he walked up the stairs.
-------------------------------------
Chiyeko sat in the tub, soaking in its warmth. She didn't care what
her mother said about breathing and getting in touch with your ki -
this was how she got in touch with it, like she was in touch with the
basic life force of the universe, whenever she sat in the steaming
waters of the bath. She closed her eyes and laid her head back,
relaxing in the penetrating heat of the furo.
"Mind if I join you?" a familiar voice asked. Chiyeko opened her
eyes to see Hild standing there in a towel.
'I hope I look that good when I'm that old,' Chiyeko said. Aloud,
she said, "Sure thing, Auntie. I'm just taking a soak before bed."
"I just wanted a quick bath myself," Hild said, as she took off the
towel and scrubbed down with soap.
"Say, there was something I meant to ask you about," Chiyeko
said, moving over to the other side of the tub.
"Yes," Hild said. "What is it, Chiyeko-chan?" Her aunt could be so
cutesy sometimes.
"What's with the birthmarks or whatever these are?" Chiyeko
asked, pointing to the red symbols on her forehead and cheeks.
"Sifu Morisato and her aunts have them, and you and I have them
too. Theirs are blue, though. But what are they?"
Hild continued to scrub for a few seconds, then sprayed herself off.
"What do you think they are?" she asked, as she climbed into the
tub.
"Uh," Chiyeko said, not really having much of an idea. "I kinda
thought they were some sort of magic thing." She was reluctant to
talk about Sifu's use of magic; she had been nervous enough talking
to her mother about it, and she knew after some of the stuff she had
been through that her mother might actually believe her. She hadn't
really planned on telling anyone else, though. She sat back down in
the water, sloshing some over the edge, and slouched forward in
one corner of the furo as she made room for Hild.
"Some sort of magic thing? Like gods and demons and such?" Hild
said, a wide grin nearly splitting her face as she settled down in the
tub.
"Now that you mention it... I guess it is kind of silly to think that,"
Chiyeko said.
Hild didn't say anything in response to that, instead lying back in
the tub the way Chiyeko had. After a minute of silence, Chiyeko
decided to prod her. "Well? What are they then?"
"I'll tell you some other day," Hild said, not opening her eyes.
Chiyeko splashed her. "Fine, then, be that way."
Hild laughed and got up. "Well, I'll tell you what," she said, as she
reclaimed her towel. Her eyes darted to the side as she got a clever
look to her face. "They're related to the kind of ki you use, and the
kind Sifu uses. People with marks like this don't have normal ki,
and they can do things that people with normal ki can't do." She
looked down at Chiyeko. "Does that satisfy your curiousity?" she
asked with a smile.
"So I could do stuff the obaba can't?" Chiyeko said, her face
unreadable for a second. "Stuff that she couldn't do? Like what?"
Hild shrugged as she turned around. "You'll have to find out on
your own."Chiyeko narrowed her eyes at this nonresponse, then
grabbed the bar of soap by the tub and chucked it at Hild to express
her thanks. Hild turned around and blew a kiss, one that intercepted
the flying bar of soap and blew it into a thousand pieces, then put a
hole in the tile wall. Hild left the stunned Chiyeko back in the tub.
"Crap, I never knew she was a martial artist," Chiyeko said, as she
regained control of her senses. She poked absently at the hole in the
wall her aunt had just created. "I've never seen a technique like that
before," she said idly. Her eyes widened. "Is that one of the
techniques that only we could do?"
Chiyeko tried blowing a few ki kisses at the wall unsuccessfully,
then gave it up. "I'll figure that out soon enough," she said to
herself, then sat back and relaxed in the tub again, staring at the
ceiling lights, lost in thought. Then she noticed a glint of glass in the
light fixture and frowned. "What's that?" she said.
-------------------------------------
"It's NOTHING!" Atasuke said, having lip-read Chiyeko's mouth.
"Absolutely nothing!" He saw Chiyeko stand up and examine it
closely, her expression hardening into a scowl.
"Oh, crap!" he said, looking around his room for a quick escape
route. He opened his window, turned off his computer and then
dove under the bed.
"ATASUKE!" Chiyeko's voice boomed through the house,
followed quickly by an 'Oh my!' and a "Grab a towel, young lady!"
from Ranma.
'Thank you Ranma, I have five extra seconds to live,' he thought,
as Chiyeko was delayed. However, it was only a few seconds
before his door was torn off its hinges. He heard Chiyeko open his
closet, then could see her feet walk over to the window.
"Damn, he escaped," Chiyeko said angrily. "He's going to pay for
this," she promised, then sat down on his bed.
"What are you so angry about?" his mother asked.
"He, uh..." Chiyeko paused, and Atasuke's heart was pounding as
he waited for her to rat him out. "I wanted to get on his case about
him falling asleep while watching the twins," she finished lamely.
"Right," his mother answered, with a level of sarcasm that he had
only heard from his aunt Nabiki before. "What was it, really?"
"....he had a video camera in the bathroom," Chiyeko said softly. " I
was going to pound on him for being a perv. Privately."
"Oh, dear." The disappointment in his mother's voice was like a
physical blow to him. "I will handle this, Chiyeko. You get to your
room, alright?" He heard some grumbling from Chiyeko, then
shuffling of feet as she left. As soon as she had, his mother closed
the door and walked straight over to his bed. She bent down and
picked up the blanket hiding Atasuke from view and frowned at
him. "You used to hide under your bed when you were in trouble as
a child, too, Atasuke," she said.
"I'm sorry, mom," he said, mortally embarrassed.
"I'm not the one you have to apologize to," she said, then
continued. "I raised you better than this, Atasuke. You shouldn't be
peeping on girls like this."
Atasuke wisely decided to remain silent.
"Antagonizing your fiancee isn't very helpful, young man. You will
apologize to Chiyeko, and you will make amends for your
behavior."
Atasuke nodded.
"And if I hear of any more of this kind of behavior," she continued,
"I'll... I'll take away your computer. And I'll tell Ranma and Hild
that you had were watching them in the bath."
Atasuke gulped in horror. Having to deal with an angry
grandmaster. "It won't happen again," he said feverently.
"Good." His mother left without a further word, and Atasuke laid
back on his bed and counted his blessings. Ranma wouldn't know.
"Thank god," he said, before falling into a nervous sleep.
-------------------------------------
The next day, Chiyeko had managed to finally put last night's little
adventure behind her, mentally, and concentrate on the coming day.
"So why is today so important, obaba?" she said, as she fended off
Ranma's attempts to force-feed her.
Ranma paused in her assault - the main reason Chiyeko had asked -
and then put her chopsticks down. Seeing a rare opportunity,
Chiyeko unloaded half her plate onto Ranma's, before eating what
was on her plate. Ranma glared at her, then picked her chopsticks
back up. "What today is, is the day that you will demonstrate your
mastery of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts."
Chiyeko dropped some of the food she was about to eat, then put
her chopsticks down. The rest of the table looked at them,
surprised, as Ranma had told none of them of her plans. "What do
you mean?"
"I mean that you've been an excellent student, and I feel that you
should no longer be considered a student of the art." Ranma quickly
inhaled the food on her plate, then wiped her mouth off with a
paper napkin. "You and I are going to fight today, to see if I'm
right. Not spar. Fight." She fixed Chiyeko with a look. "I'm not
holding anything back, and neither should you."
Chiyeko sat there in shock a bit longer. "So you want me to beat
you up?" Chiyeko asked.
"It won't be that simple, child," Ranma said, her face hard.
After a few moments, Chiyeko turned back to her food and
resumed eating it. "What, you're not worried?" Ranma asked,
trying to get a rise out of her.
"You're just trying to get my nervous, obaba!" Chiyeko shot back.
"I'll beat you, and then I'll gloat about it to your father!" She stuck
out her tongue.
"You're not taking this seriously!" Ranma said, smacking the table
angrily.
"Why should I take this seriously?" Chiyeko said, turning her back
on Ranma. Like her mother, her poker face was horrible, so she
didn't want her to see that she was just trying to get her goat - and
succeeding. "This is just one of your stupid kung-fu movie moods,"
she continued. "where you get all dramatic. I'll kick your ass, you
old woman, but you can't make me take it seriously."
"Fine then!" Ranma said, "follow me!"
-------------------------------------
Chiyeko looked around. It was a muddy flat stretch of ground, with
the canal to her right and a thick sloped concrete wall to her left.
"So this is where you want to fight, huh?" Chiyeko said, still
pretending to not take the fight seriously.
"The ground here is soft," Ranma said, "so it won't hurt too bad
when you get knocked out."
"So, are we going to start?" Chiyeko said, standing around as
casually as can be, but her eyes fixed on her mother like a hawk.
Ranma nodded. "Right now!"
The afterimage of Ranma lingered for a split second before Chiyeko
reached out and deflected her mother's opening attack. They were
roughly even in speed, as the two traded blows with one another
for a few seconds, then jumped back apart. "Not bad," Ranma said,
"but can you hit what you can't see?" She faded from sight, her
aura vanishing with the telltale shimmer of the Umisenken.
Chiyeko countered by cloaking herself in the Umisenken as well.
'She's nuts!' she thought. 'She told me these techniques were
sealed!' Suddenly a sharp punch connected, and she managed to
block a few more sheerly by instinct. 'Mom's got an edge,' she
thought. 'Time to neutralize it.'
She backed into the canal, where the none-too-clean water swept
by, and located her mother by the disturbances in the water after
she splashed in. The water would rob her blows of any force, so she
simply settled for a simple ki blast. The concussion of the water as
the blast hit her mother was like a slap in the face, and it had
disrupted Ranma's concentration enough to knock her out of the
Umisenken. She hopped forward in the water, grabbed her mother,
and threw her as far as she could out of the water, then followed
her.
Ranma answered her with her own Mokou Takabisha as she came
out of the water; Chiyeko dodged a second and canceled a third out
with one of her own. She then closed in on her mother, leaping into
the air, and was met in midair. An inch's reach was all that was
necessary for Ranma to come out on top, and Chiyeko crashed
down to the concrete slope. She jammed a finger in the concrete,
using the breaking point, and then ran off to buy a few seconds
time.
She jumped up to the rooftops and fired off a quick Mokou
Takabisha to try to gain some seperation as her mind worked
frantically. The two of them were too evenly matched, too well
known to one another for this match to hold any surprises. Her
mother would win, unless she did something unexpected. But what?
The kiss thing that Aunt Hild had used last night came to mind...
but she hadn't figured out how to do it yet.
Then again, gambling on it was her best bet..
Chiyeko stopped, noticing that she had run to Furinkan High.
"Finally decided to stop running, huh?" Ranma said coolly.
"I've got a few laps left in me," Chiyeko said flippantly. "I just
figured that an old lady such as yourself couldn't take it," she
continued, giving her most aggravating smirk.
"You're trying to piss me off, Chiyeko-chan, but you forget that
I'm the one who taught you that," Ranma said, smiling herself.
"Well then, come and get it," Chiyeko said, winking. Ranma darted
forward just as she was putting her fingers to her lips; she tried to
concentrate her ki there, instead of in the stomach like she did with
a normal ki-blast, and let fly. The results weren't what she was
hoping for, coming out instead as a pencil-thin blast that caught
Ranma in the shoulder and spun her around, but it was enough.
Chiyeko jumped in and savaged her with a flurry of blows, hoping
to end the fight before her mother could get her bearings.
-------------------------------------
Ranma smiled. At that moment, she knew she had succeeded with
Chiyeko, as that was no technique she had ever shown her. She
didn't care whether it was invented on the spot; or if Chiyeko had
picked it up somewhere; it meant that her daughter picked up
techniques the way she did. That didn't mean she was going to roll
over and die on her, though, and she flipped a small white
firecracker in Chiyeko's face. "Gah!" Chiyeko said, jumping away
from the small bomb. That gave Ranma her own opening; she
reached forward, grabbed her daughter's shirt, pulled her into a
kick to the face, and then twisted around and threw her on the roof
of the Furinkan gym.
She followed immediately, landing right behind Chiyeko and not
giving her the chance to get up. kicking her back down when she
tried getting up and raining Mokou Takabishas on her when she
attempted to fight back from the ground. Finally, she stood over
Chiyeko and studied her as she looked up defiantly. She smiled.
There was another level to her daughter, and she'd shock it out of
her today. "You know, I never did tell you the truth about your
father, Chiyeko" she said.
"You've promised I'd see him again. Was that a lie? Did the
Amazons just kill him?" Chiyeko said, angry at the beating she had
just taken.
"They tried," Ranma said, smiling. "You see, Chiyeko, I am your
father."
"NO!" Chiyeko yelled. "That's not true, mom, it's not possible!"
Ranma smiled. "I am the black haired boy in the family photos,
Chiyeko. Your grandfather wasn't the only one to fall in the springs
at Jusenkyo."
"But I've seen you in hot water!" Chiyeko protested, her eyes wild.
"You're lying! You lied to me now, or you were lying to me
before! How could you lie to me, mom, how could you?" She
raised her fist at Ranma, concentrated all her strength behind it.
"You bastard!"
The ki blast tore the roof off the gym, and Chiyeko came to later to
find the person she had thought was her mother lying there,
knocked out. She walked over, all the anger having been drained
out of her by that last titanic blast, and picked up the unconscious
redhead.
-------------------------------------
"Welcome back, Chiyeko, I see you won," Kasumi said, then
noticed who Chiyeko was dragging behind her. "What happened to
your mother?" Kasumi said, shocked.
"I don't know. But I beat the hell out of my father," Chiyeko said
tonelessly, and dropped Ranma by the table. She sat down and
looked at the redhead's face, her expression unreadable. "Hild is my
mother, right?" she asked, not looking at Kasumi.
"Yes. Hild is your mother. And Ranma is your father. The Amazons
locked his curse." Kasumi took a deep breath, hoping that Ranma
had done the right thing.
"Then that's why she said Urd wasn't my cousin," Chiyeko said,
realizing something. "That smartass!" Kasumi blinked, not
understanding what was going on. Chiyeko slapped Ranma several
times, until she came to groggily.
"You bastard!" Chiyeko said, angry again. "You never told me I
had a sister!"
Ranma and Kasumi looked at each other in confusion, then Ranma
quickly sat up and looked her daughter straight in the eyes. "Since
when do you have a sister?"
-------------------------------------
DISCLAIMER: Ranma ½ is the property of Rumiko Takahashi,
Shonen Sunday, Viz, and other parties; I make no claims of
ownership of any of the intellectual or other properties pertaining to
it. Oh! My Goddess belongs to Kosuke Fujishima, Studio Proteus,
Dark Horse, and other parties, and I make no claims of ownership
of any of the intellectual or other properties pertaining to it, either.
-------------------------------------
Author's Note: HE'S.... ON.... FIIIIIIIIRE!
A Ranma1/2 fanfic by PansutoTarou5925
-------------------------------------
Disclaimer to follow at end of chapter
-------------------------------------
After several hours of watching the twins, Chiyeko was ready to
scream. The blonde-haired martial artist had suffered through
several hours of pointless, plotless kid's action anime, and, although
it kept the two Hibiki twins out of trouble (and several Japanese
cities), it was really annoying her. Atasuke had actually fallen
asleep, the jerk, or he had until she picked him up and threw him in
the pool. The still wet boy had taken off his shirt, however, so she
figured she got at least something from this wasted night.
She heard the door slide open behind her and turned. "Granny!" she
said excitedly. "I didn't know you were here!"
Nodoka smiled and sat down by her granddaughter. "Ranma asked
that her father be over tonight, to see if he could help out." Nodoka
frowned; it had taken the threat of the sword to get Genma to assist
in Ranma's plan to regain her lost manhood. "But I came by as
well, to see my loveliest granddaughter," she added.
"I'm your only granddaughter," Chiyeko said, smirking.
"Hopefully that will change someday," Nodoka said. She had plans
for Ranma's wedding - big plans, and that was the other thing she
wanted to talk about tonight, if she could find Hild.
"You need to speak to the obaba about that," Chiyeko said. "I
don't think she likes dating much."
"I imagine so," Nodoka said conversationally.
"Though I did get her to go out with that Ukyo guy," Chiyeko said
thoughtfully. "So it might not be a lost cause. That date kinda
ended in disaster, though." She scratched her head nervously. "We
kinda got thrown out of a restaurant."
"Ukyo is a girl, Chiyeko," Nodoka said with a small smile. At least
Ranma's tastes hadn't changed in all these years.
Chiyeko's eyes (and those of Atasuke) widened in surprise.
"You're kidding me! I just thought he - I mean she - was really
bishounen!"
"Ukyo is definitely a girl. Your father went out with her for a while,
when he was your age," Nodoka said, deciding a little of the truth
wouldn't hurt. "Ranma probably decided to go on a date with her
for old times' sake."
"She seemed happy to go out with Ranma... wait, that waitress!
She probably... you know, likes girls." Chiyeko frowned, then had a
slightly panicked look. "Does that mean that Mom... like, is into
girls?" She developed a slight eyetwitch.
Atasuke suddenly had a nosebleed, and pinched it off, hoping that
no one had noticed. His mind continued to keep imagining
amazingly hentai images with Ranma and other women, however.
Nodoka paused for a second, uncertain of how she should phrase
this, then decided to punt. This really was something that Ranma
was going to have to deal with. "It could be. This is something that
you should bring up with your mother, though."
Chiyeko shook her head violently. "Nuh-uh! That is one thing I'm
not bringing up over breakfast!" She adopted an airheaded tone:
"'Excuse me, Mom, but are you a closet bisexual?' Mom would
turn white as a sheet, then red as Atasuke's nosebleed!"
"I hit my nose on the rocks in the pond, when you threw me out
there!" the guilty party said, protesting his innocence.
"Yeah right!" Chiyeko said, then playfully stuck out her tongue
before returning to her grandmother. "I'm not touching that with a
ten foot pole, granny."
"Probably for the best after all," Nodoka said serenely. "So this
here is Atasuke. You do resemble your father strongly, young
man."
"Thank you," Atasuke said, nodding. "I hope that someday I can
live up to his example."
"As a doctor?" Nodoka asked, curious. He'd make a good husband
for Chiyeko in that case.
"Actually, I was thinking about becoming a teacher," Atasuke said.
"That would be good as well," Nodoka said. "Hello, Genma," she
said as the retired martial artist walked in.
He slowly sat himself down and attempted to look serious and
noble, and failed utterly in the latter. "Girl, I understand that Ranma
thinks she has trained you fully in the Saotome School of Martial
Arts," he began.
"That's right. Mom says I'm better than she was at my age,"
Chiyeko said, flexing her arm. "And I've learned every technique
she's taught me."
Genma grunted thoughtfully. "You seem sure of yourself. Well,
we'll see about that."
"What do you mean?" Chiyeko asked angrily. "You don't think I'm
good? I'll show you how good I am!"
"Now, that's not what I meant!" Genma said, pleadingly.
"Then what are you saying, husband?" Nodoka said sternly. "It
certainly sounds like you are questioning her skills to me."
"I'm not questioning her skills!" Genma protested. "I'm questioning
her drive, her ambition in the art-"
"I've got plenty of ambition in the art, you fat old fool!" Chiyeko
said. Her mother rarely respected her father, and she had seen why
from an early age. "I'm just not obsessed like you or Mom! I want
to do something else with my life, too!"
"Like what?" Genma challenged, as if nothing could possibly be
more important than the martial arts.
"Like what?" Nodoka said, much more interested. "Being a
mother?" Visions of greatgrandchildren danced in her head.
"Um," Chiyeko said. She hadn't really given it that much thought -
she just knew martial arts wasn't the only thing she wanted to do in
life. "I dunno. Something." she said lamely.
"It's things like this that make me question your dedication to the
art," Genma said thunderously, jabbing a finger at her.
"Oh, stuff it, gramps," Chiyeko said, glancing to make sure that the
twins were still watching that damn anime. Sure enough, they were,
and Hideo had even fallen asleep. Good. "I'm not in the mood to
argue about it."
"So tell me how well school is going," Nodoka said, deciding to
head off the lecture that Genma was surely going to go into. "I
understand you had a bit of a fight today..."
-------------------------------------
"Honestly, Mom, sometimes gramps gets on my nerves," Chiyeko
complained after everyone had left.
"He gets on everybody's nerves from time to time, Chiyeko-chan,"
Ranma said. She seemed unduly excited, Chiyeko noted, almost like
she was a kid waiting to open Christmas presents.
"What are you so worked up about? I thought we were heading to
China next week?" Chiyeko said, her eyes narrowing.
"We are, but tomorrow's a big day, too," Ranma said.
Chiyeko searched her brain and came up empty. The blonde looked
at Ranma quizzically. "What's so big about tomorrow?"
"You'll find out... tomorrow," Ranma said, winking with her good
eye. "Now get some sleep. You'll thank me tomorrow."
"Whatever you say, obaba," Chiyeko said, rolling her eyes.
Whatever. "I'm taking a bath first, though." She headed over to the
bathroom for a nice long energizing soak before turning in for the
night, apssing Atasuke as he walked up the stairs.
-------------------------------------
Chiyeko sat in the tub, soaking in its warmth. She didn't care what
her mother said about breathing and getting in touch with your ki -
this was how she got in touch with it, like she was in touch with the
basic life force of the universe, whenever she sat in the steaming
waters of the bath. She closed her eyes and laid her head back,
relaxing in the penetrating heat of the furo.
"Mind if I join you?" a familiar voice asked. Chiyeko opened her
eyes to see Hild standing there in a towel.
'I hope I look that good when I'm that old,' Chiyeko said. Aloud,
she said, "Sure thing, Auntie. I'm just taking a soak before bed."
"I just wanted a quick bath myself," Hild said, as she took off the
towel and scrubbed down with soap.
"Say, there was something I meant to ask you about," Chiyeko
said, moving over to the other side of the tub.
"Yes," Hild said. "What is it, Chiyeko-chan?" Her aunt could be so
cutesy sometimes.
"What's with the birthmarks or whatever these are?" Chiyeko
asked, pointing to the red symbols on her forehead and cheeks.
"Sifu Morisato and her aunts have them, and you and I have them
too. Theirs are blue, though. But what are they?"
Hild continued to scrub for a few seconds, then sprayed herself off.
"What do you think they are?" she asked, as she climbed into the
tub.
"Uh," Chiyeko said, not really having much of an idea. "I kinda
thought they were some sort of magic thing." She was reluctant to
talk about Sifu's use of magic; she had been nervous enough talking
to her mother about it, and she knew after some of the stuff she had
been through that her mother might actually believe her. She hadn't
really planned on telling anyone else, though. She sat back down in
the water, sloshing some over the edge, and slouched forward in
one corner of the furo as she made room for Hild.
"Some sort of magic thing? Like gods and demons and such?" Hild
said, a wide grin nearly splitting her face as she settled down in the
tub.
"Now that you mention it... I guess it is kind of silly to think that,"
Chiyeko said.
Hild didn't say anything in response to that, instead lying back in
the tub the way Chiyeko had. After a minute of silence, Chiyeko
decided to prod her. "Well? What are they then?"
"I'll tell you some other day," Hild said, not opening her eyes.
Chiyeko splashed her. "Fine, then, be that way."
Hild laughed and got up. "Well, I'll tell you what," she said, as she
reclaimed her towel. Her eyes darted to the side as she got a clever
look to her face. "They're related to the kind of ki you use, and the
kind Sifu uses. People with marks like this don't have normal ki,
and they can do things that people with normal ki can't do." She
looked down at Chiyeko. "Does that satisfy your curiousity?" she
asked with a smile.
"So I could do stuff the obaba can't?" Chiyeko said, her face
unreadable for a second. "Stuff that she couldn't do? Like what?"
Hild shrugged as she turned around. "You'll have to find out on
your own."Chiyeko narrowed her eyes at this nonresponse, then
grabbed the bar of soap by the tub and chucked it at Hild to express
her thanks. Hild turned around and blew a kiss, one that intercepted
the flying bar of soap and blew it into a thousand pieces, then put a
hole in the tile wall. Hild left the stunned Chiyeko back in the tub.
"Crap, I never knew she was a martial artist," Chiyeko said, as she
regained control of her senses. She poked absently at the hole in the
wall her aunt had just created. "I've never seen a technique like that
before," she said idly. Her eyes widened. "Is that one of the
techniques that only we could do?"
Chiyeko tried blowing a few ki kisses at the wall unsuccessfully,
then gave it up. "I'll figure that out soon enough," she said to
herself, then sat back and relaxed in the tub again, staring at the
ceiling lights, lost in thought. Then she noticed a glint of glass in the
light fixture and frowned. "What's that?" she said.
-------------------------------------
"It's NOTHING!" Atasuke said, having lip-read Chiyeko's mouth.
"Absolutely nothing!" He saw Chiyeko stand up and examine it
closely, her expression hardening into a scowl.
"Oh, crap!" he said, looking around his room for a quick escape
route. He opened his window, turned off his computer and then
dove under the bed.
"ATASUKE!" Chiyeko's voice boomed through the house,
followed quickly by an 'Oh my!' and a "Grab a towel, young lady!"
from Ranma.
'Thank you Ranma, I have five extra seconds to live,' he thought,
as Chiyeko was delayed. However, it was only a few seconds
before his door was torn off its hinges. He heard Chiyeko open his
closet, then could see her feet walk over to the window.
"Damn, he escaped," Chiyeko said angrily. "He's going to pay for
this," she promised, then sat down on his bed.
"What are you so angry about?" his mother asked.
"He, uh..." Chiyeko paused, and Atasuke's heart was pounding as
he waited for her to rat him out. "I wanted to get on his case about
him falling asleep while watching the twins," she finished lamely.
"Right," his mother answered, with a level of sarcasm that he had
only heard from his aunt Nabiki before. "What was it, really?"
"....he had a video camera in the bathroom," Chiyeko said softly. " I
was going to pound on him for being a perv. Privately."
"Oh, dear." The disappointment in his mother's voice was like a
physical blow to him. "I will handle this, Chiyeko. You get to your
room, alright?" He heard some grumbling from Chiyeko, then
shuffling of feet as she left. As soon as she had, his mother closed
the door and walked straight over to his bed. She bent down and
picked up the blanket hiding Atasuke from view and frowned at
him. "You used to hide under your bed when you were in trouble as
a child, too, Atasuke," she said.
"I'm sorry, mom," he said, mortally embarrassed.
"I'm not the one you have to apologize to," she said, then
continued. "I raised you better than this, Atasuke. You shouldn't be
peeping on girls like this."
Atasuke wisely decided to remain silent.
"Antagonizing your fiancee isn't very helpful, young man. You will
apologize to Chiyeko, and you will make amends for your
behavior."
Atasuke nodded.
"And if I hear of any more of this kind of behavior," she continued,
"I'll... I'll take away your computer. And I'll tell Ranma and Hild
that you had were watching them in the bath."
Atasuke gulped in horror. Having to deal with an angry
grandmaster. "It won't happen again," he said feverently.
"Good." His mother left without a further word, and Atasuke laid
back on his bed and counted his blessings. Ranma wouldn't know.
"Thank god," he said, before falling into a nervous sleep.
-------------------------------------
The next day, Chiyeko had managed to finally put last night's little
adventure behind her, mentally, and concentrate on the coming day.
"So why is today so important, obaba?" she said, as she fended off
Ranma's attempts to force-feed her.
Ranma paused in her assault - the main reason Chiyeko had asked -
and then put her chopsticks down. Seeing a rare opportunity,
Chiyeko unloaded half her plate onto Ranma's, before eating what
was on her plate. Ranma glared at her, then picked her chopsticks
back up. "What today is, is the day that you will demonstrate your
mastery of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts."
Chiyeko dropped some of the food she was about to eat, then put
her chopsticks down. The rest of the table looked at them,
surprised, as Ranma had told none of them of her plans. "What do
you mean?"
"I mean that you've been an excellent student, and I feel that you
should no longer be considered a student of the art." Ranma quickly
inhaled the food on her plate, then wiped her mouth off with a
paper napkin. "You and I are going to fight today, to see if I'm
right. Not spar. Fight." She fixed Chiyeko with a look. "I'm not
holding anything back, and neither should you."
Chiyeko sat there in shock a bit longer. "So you want me to beat
you up?" Chiyeko asked.
"It won't be that simple, child," Ranma said, her face hard.
After a few moments, Chiyeko turned back to her food and
resumed eating it. "What, you're not worried?" Ranma asked,
trying to get a rise out of her.
"You're just trying to get my nervous, obaba!" Chiyeko shot back.
"I'll beat you, and then I'll gloat about it to your father!" She stuck
out her tongue.
"You're not taking this seriously!" Ranma said, smacking the table
angrily.
"Why should I take this seriously?" Chiyeko said, turning her back
on Ranma. Like her mother, her poker face was horrible, so she
didn't want her to see that she was just trying to get her goat - and
succeeding. "This is just one of your stupid kung-fu movie moods,"
she continued. "where you get all dramatic. I'll kick your ass, you
old woman, but you can't make me take it seriously."
"Fine then!" Ranma said, "follow me!"
-------------------------------------
Chiyeko looked around. It was a muddy flat stretch of ground, with
the canal to her right and a thick sloped concrete wall to her left.
"So this is where you want to fight, huh?" Chiyeko said, still
pretending to not take the fight seriously.
"The ground here is soft," Ranma said, "so it won't hurt too bad
when you get knocked out."
"So, are we going to start?" Chiyeko said, standing around as
casually as can be, but her eyes fixed on her mother like a hawk.
Ranma nodded. "Right now!"
The afterimage of Ranma lingered for a split second before Chiyeko
reached out and deflected her mother's opening attack. They were
roughly even in speed, as the two traded blows with one another
for a few seconds, then jumped back apart. "Not bad," Ranma said,
"but can you hit what you can't see?" She faded from sight, her
aura vanishing with the telltale shimmer of the Umisenken.
Chiyeko countered by cloaking herself in the Umisenken as well.
'She's nuts!' she thought. 'She told me these techniques were
sealed!' Suddenly a sharp punch connected, and she managed to
block a few more sheerly by instinct. 'Mom's got an edge,' she
thought. 'Time to neutralize it.'
She backed into the canal, where the none-too-clean water swept
by, and located her mother by the disturbances in the water after
she splashed in. The water would rob her blows of any force, so she
simply settled for a simple ki blast. The concussion of the water as
the blast hit her mother was like a slap in the face, and it had
disrupted Ranma's concentration enough to knock her out of the
Umisenken. She hopped forward in the water, grabbed her mother,
and threw her as far as she could out of the water, then followed
her.
Ranma answered her with her own Mokou Takabisha as she came
out of the water; Chiyeko dodged a second and canceled a third out
with one of her own. She then closed in on her mother, leaping into
the air, and was met in midair. An inch's reach was all that was
necessary for Ranma to come out on top, and Chiyeko crashed
down to the concrete slope. She jammed a finger in the concrete,
using the breaking point, and then ran off to buy a few seconds
time.
She jumped up to the rooftops and fired off a quick Mokou
Takabisha to try to gain some seperation as her mind worked
frantically. The two of them were too evenly matched, too well
known to one another for this match to hold any surprises. Her
mother would win, unless she did something unexpected. But what?
The kiss thing that Aunt Hild had used last night came to mind...
but she hadn't figured out how to do it yet.
Then again, gambling on it was her best bet..
Chiyeko stopped, noticing that she had run to Furinkan High.
"Finally decided to stop running, huh?" Ranma said coolly.
"I've got a few laps left in me," Chiyeko said flippantly. "I just
figured that an old lady such as yourself couldn't take it," she
continued, giving her most aggravating smirk.
"You're trying to piss me off, Chiyeko-chan, but you forget that
I'm the one who taught you that," Ranma said, smiling herself.
"Well then, come and get it," Chiyeko said, winking. Ranma darted
forward just as she was putting her fingers to her lips; she tried to
concentrate her ki there, instead of in the stomach like she did with
a normal ki-blast, and let fly. The results weren't what she was
hoping for, coming out instead as a pencil-thin blast that caught
Ranma in the shoulder and spun her around, but it was enough.
Chiyeko jumped in and savaged her with a flurry of blows, hoping
to end the fight before her mother could get her bearings.
-------------------------------------
Ranma smiled. At that moment, she knew she had succeeded with
Chiyeko, as that was no technique she had ever shown her. She
didn't care whether it was invented on the spot; or if Chiyeko had
picked it up somewhere; it meant that her daughter picked up
techniques the way she did. That didn't mean she was going to roll
over and die on her, though, and she flipped a small white
firecracker in Chiyeko's face. "Gah!" Chiyeko said, jumping away
from the small bomb. That gave Ranma her own opening; she
reached forward, grabbed her daughter's shirt, pulled her into a
kick to the face, and then twisted around and threw her on the roof
of the Furinkan gym.
She followed immediately, landing right behind Chiyeko and not
giving her the chance to get up. kicking her back down when she
tried getting up and raining Mokou Takabishas on her when she
attempted to fight back from the ground. Finally, she stood over
Chiyeko and studied her as she looked up defiantly. She smiled.
There was another level to her daughter, and she'd shock it out of
her today. "You know, I never did tell you the truth about your
father, Chiyeko" she said.
"You've promised I'd see him again. Was that a lie? Did the
Amazons just kill him?" Chiyeko said, angry at the beating she had
just taken.
"They tried," Ranma said, smiling. "You see, Chiyeko, I am your
father."
"NO!" Chiyeko yelled. "That's not true, mom, it's not possible!"
Ranma smiled. "I am the black haired boy in the family photos,
Chiyeko. Your grandfather wasn't the only one to fall in the springs
at Jusenkyo."
"But I've seen you in hot water!" Chiyeko protested, her eyes wild.
"You're lying! You lied to me now, or you were lying to me
before! How could you lie to me, mom, how could you?" She
raised her fist at Ranma, concentrated all her strength behind it.
"You bastard!"
The ki blast tore the roof off the gym, and Chiyeko came to later to
find the person she had thought was her mother lying there,
knocked out. She walked over, all the anger having been drained
out of her by that last titanic blast, and picked up the unconscious
redhead.
-------------------------------------
"Welcome back, Chiyeko, I see you won," Kasumi said, then
noticed who Chiyeko was dragging behind her. "What happened to
your mother?" Kasumi said, shocked.
"I don't know. But I beat the hell out of my father," Chiyeko said
tonelessly, and dropped Ranma by the table. She sat down and
looked at the redhead's face, her expression unreadable. "Hild is my
mother, right?" she asked, not looking at Kasumi.
"Yes. Hild is your mother. And Ranma is your father. The Amazons
locked his curse." Kasumi took a deep breath, hoping that Ranma
had done the right thing.
"Then that's why she said Urd wasn't my cousin," Chiyeko said,
realizing something. "That smartass!" Kasumi blinked, not
understanding what was going on. Chiyeko slapped Ranma several
times, until she came to groggily.
"You bastard!" Chiyeko said, angry again. "You never told me I
had a sister!"
Ranma and Kasumi looked at each other in confusion, then Ranma
quickly sat up and looked her daughter straight in the eyes. "Since
when do you have a sister?"
-------------------------------------
DISCLAIMER: Ranma ½ is the property of Rumiko Takahashi,
Shonen Sunday, Viz, and other parties; I make no claims of
ownership of any of the intellectual or other properties pertaining to
it. Oh! My Goddess belongs to Kosuke Fujishima, Studio Proteus,
Dark Horse, and other parties, and I make no claims of ownership
of any of the intellectual or other properties pertaining to it, either.
-------------------------------------
Author's Note: HE'S.... ON.... FIIIIIIIIRE!