A Ranma1/2 fanfic by PansutoTarou5925
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Disclaimer to follow at end of chapter
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Day broke over the Tendo household like a cinderblock the next
morning, as a lead-gray sky shrouded Tokyo from the morning sun.
The dim light was just as well; most of the adults in the house were
going to have hangovers from hell.
Of course, not everyone was an adult, and Chiyeko was somewhat
less likely to sleep in than her father was at her age; besides, she
had fallen asleep on the floor and not on her bed. So she was just
finishing up her morning exercises when Atasuke joined her. "light
spar?" he asked.
"Sure," Chiyeko said, doing a few extra stretches. "Whenever
you're ready."
Steeling himself, because he knew she was better by a fair margin,
Atasuke prepared himself, not at all taken in by Chiyeko's
nonchalant attitude and total lack of anything resembling a stance.
Neither Ranma nor the old master, whom Atasuke still remembered
from when he was a child, had ever really looked like they were
ready for a fight until they were well in one. He, sadly, was not that
good.
Yet.
Feeling ready, he stepped forward and fired off a quick jab.
Chiyeko swayed aside, flexible as a reed, and allowed it to pass. He
followed up, three more punches, three more effortless dodges by
the blonde martial artist. She flowed around his follow up kick, and
when he jumped in to try to shorten the range even more, she
grabbed him and twisted, redirecting him off to the side of the koi
pond.
"...You've improved," Atasuke said. Not fair; not only was she
better, but she seemed to learn faster, too, even though they trained
with Ranma just as much.
Chiyeko winked. In truth, she had simply decided to embrace her
weird chi - pishogue, whatever - instead of trying to focus it
through the lens of confidence the way her father had always taught
her and she had always done. Instead, she felt a kinship and a link
to her mother that had always been there, but that she had never
noticed; it made her strength flow more naturally, easier. And it was
translating to a bit more fluidity and grace in her movements.
She twisted again, then back, at each movement parrying one of
Atasuke's blows. "You too," she said, then began dodging again,
not letting him even touch her. "You probably would be doing
better if you had slept in your bed, instead of on the floor with
Akane's fist in your face."
Atasuke reddened. "That was an accident! I wouldn't grab HER!"
he protested, and overextended his next punch. Chiyeko grabbed it,
pulled him forward, then knocked his leg out from under him with a
low kick and fired a glancing blow off the top of his head with her
heel on the return stroke. "Ow!" he said, then flipped to his feet.
"Bang! You're out!" Chiyeko said. It was true - if she had meant to
hit him square, he'd be out cold. "Try again after breakfast?" she
asked.
"Sure thing," Atasuke said. "Uh... can you cook?"
Chiyeko sweated. "Like what kind of cooking are we talking
about?" she asked.
"Er, nothing major... just breakfast." Atasuke let out the breath he
had been subconsciously holding in. His aunts still got upset about
their cooking. Nabiki, thankfully, only tried in direst emergencies.
Chiyeko put one finger on her lips cutely, which brought an
involuntary shudder from Atasuke. It was just wrong to see
Chiyeko look like such a... a... blonde, even though she was one.
"Well, I can cook breakfast, but it won't be much."
"Will it be... edible?" Atasuke asked, and half-cringed, expecting a
violent response.
"Well, yeah, just kind of boring. Why? My father's the good cook.
Come to think of it, I've never seen aunt - I mean mom - cook
anything before," Chiyeko said thoughfully. Then, after thinking
about it a bit more, she added, under her breath, "and perhaps
there's a good reason for that, too."
"What was that?" Atasuke asked.
"Nevermind."
The two teenage martial artists entered the house and looked over
the remains of the party. Nabiki had staggered home at some point
late that night, but Akane was still over, and Hild was upstairs with
Ranma, which brought a blush to Chiyeko's face when she thought
about it.
Only Kasumi had managed to drag herself out of bed among the
adults. "Auntie Kasumi!" Chiyeko exclaimed upon seeing her. She
didn't look like she normally did; even at the earliest hours of the
morning Kasumi usually was perfectly clean and practically
sparkling, but today she looked like hell. Her hair was wildly
standing in every direction, and she had bags under her bloodshot
eyes.
"Please don't yell," Kasumi said softly, cradling her head.
"This happened last time Hild was over, too," Atasuke whispered,
and walked over to his mother. "C'mon, Mom, you can go back to
bed - Chiyeko said she'd handle breakfast today."
"Hnnn," Kasumi mumbled by way of assent. "Hope she took after
Ranma... Hild was hell on my kitchen, don't need another Akane..."
She let her son guide her back to her room as Chiyeko started
rifling through drawers and the fridge.
"Hmm, eggs... red vinegar... pepper... and ketchup!" (1) Chiyeko
said. "That and some toast will be a good breakfast." She started
heating up a pan and hummed to herself. While someday she hoped
to learn how to make a real Japanese breakfast, with warm miso
soup and the works, the quick breakfasts she learned to make on
the road were hot, easy, and filling.
Absorbed in her task, she completely missed Ranma and Hild
walking out to the dojo.
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Hild lounged against the wall of the dojo while Ranma sat and
meditated, composing her thoughts. The daimakochou was
perfectly willing to let Ranma think it over all day - a day, a month,
a year, even an entire mortal lifetime was small potatos to someone
like Hild. Besides, there were few mortals quite like Ranma,
especially nowadays. She had never understood why some of the
goddesses had liked to chase tragic heros before she met Ranma,
but she had to admit it was rather fun.
And Chiyeko had salved a lot of the pain that Urd had caused her
over the eons.
So the Daimakochou Hild sat and awaited the judgement of a mere
mortal.
She studied Ranma as the martial artist sat there, breathing steadily
while sitting in seiza. She knew Ranma better than anyone - even
Ranma him/herself. Hild had read Ranma's files many times. She
had been there when he came back with Happousai's body and a
gaping hole where her left eye had been.
She knew what was under that left eyepatch. It had been her gift,
after all. A smirk crept across her face when she considered the day
Ranma took that eyepatch off. It wouldn't be so far off now - she
only had to wait mere days, until they were in China again.
Reminiscing about the past, she almost missed Ranma open her
visible eye. The two looked at each other for a few seconds.
"So you really are a demon," Ranma said calmly. "And is my
daughter a demon too?"
Hild hesitated a bit. "Chiyeko is the same as she has always been. Is
she any less your daughter?"
Ranma closed her eyes. "That wasn't an answer."
"Yes," Hild said, "Chiyeko is a demoness." What came next were
the hardest words she ever said, after Urd, but she had said them
about Urd as well: "But if you leave and she wants to go with you...
I'll let her be a mortal," she ground out, giving Ranma a glare that
said if the cursed martial artist did that, she'd make damn sure she
stayed cursed.
Ranma grunted, having not opened her good eye and completely
missing the glare. The image of Urd popped up in her mind for a
few seconds and passed away. Urd was with Sifu... which meant...
"Urd is a goddess, isn't she?"
"-Yes." Hild said, with great bitterness.
"I won't keep Chiyeko from her mother," Ranma said, even though
her heart went cold at the thought. Chiyeko had thought of her as
her mother for years, and her female body had the hormones which
had her half convinced her daughter was right in her delusion. She
knew how much it would hurt Hild so see the girl walk away, and
wasn't going to cause anybody that kind of pain. She opened her
right eye again. "You don't have to worry about that. I'm still hurt
you never told me-"
"You wouldn't have wanted to have anything to do with me," Hild
said irritably. "Say with a straight face that you wouldn't have been
terrified of me!"
"I wouldn't have," Ranma shot back, just as annoyed. "I killed a
god before! Why would I worry about some demon?"
"Some demon!" Hild said, now insulted. "Some demon? Do you
know who I am?"
"Yeah, you're Hild," Ranma snapped. "Friend, girlfriend, mother,
and demon."
"I am the Daimakochou Hild," she intoned, "ruler of Nifelheim and
all the demons." She looked down her nose at him. "Saffron was a
snotling immortal king with delusions of grandeur. He wasn't a real
god. Although," she said, and scratched her ear idly, "I think you
could probably beat one of the minor gods in a fight... maybe you
could take Hercules, Ryoga sort of reminds me of him."
"So you're saying you're some kind of queen of hell?" Ranma said,
a large sweatdrop forming at the back of her head.
"More or less," Hild allowed.
"So," Ranma said, and paused, obviously struggling with
something. "That means..." Ranma started to say, quietly, as if she
wasn't quite sure of what she was saying. Hild leaned forward,
trying to catch the next few words. "That means Chiyeko is some
sort of princess?"
Hild's lean turned into a faceplant.
"Will she have to wear some sort of goofy outfit?" Ranma
wondered aloud. "It might interfere with the art, and besides, I
don't want any daughter of mine looking like some of those magical
girls-"
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Hild screeched, having
recovered from her surprise. She had grabbed the shorter woman
by the collar and was shaking her back and forth. "I'm the leader of
hell and that's all you can come up with? You should be shaking in
your boots, not thinking about such silly things!"
"Ranma Saotome isn't afraid of anything," Ranma answered
fearlessly, and stared down Hild with her good eye. Then she
amended it a bit: "Nothing but the safety of my daughter,
anyways."
A vein throbbed on Hild's forehead. "How dare you not be
frightened!" she said, and tossed Ranma back. "Besides, you left
out cats. You're terrified of cats."
Ranma shuddered. "I don't even like to think of them!"
Hild shook her head. "Here I was thinking I was protecting you and
you're too stupid to be scared!"
"Hey!" Ranma said, irritated. "Who's the stupid one here? You're
the big bad leader of all the demons n' stuff! Shouldn't you have
known I wouldn't be scared?"
"Don't try to shift the blame here, mortal," Hild said, growing
seriously annoyed. All sorts of embarassing ways to annoy Ranma
danced through her head.
"You were the one trying to shift blame, Hild," Ranma said
seriously, pushing her temper aside. "You didn't tell me the truth
about yourself. That hurt."
Boiled back down to the essentials of what had created a rift
between them, Hild couldn't really twist it into being anything other
than her fault. "I did it with the best of intentions," Hild said,
defending herself.
"And we all know where that path goes," Ranma said with a
smile. "Right to your front door!" She laughed at her joke, until
Hild blasted Ranma with a thunderbolt, at any rate.
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The sound of thunder woke up Akane, who reflexively punted the
table into the yard, screaming:"DIE, KUNO!" as she did so. Then
she looked around in confusion, seeing no Kuno around, and got up
to drag herself to the bathroom.
"Odd weather we're having," Atasuke said, as he looked outside.
Not seeing any signs of further lightning, he went back to
lecherously staring at Chiyeko's backside in the kitchen with a
perverted grin on his face.
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"Anyways," a slightly smoking Ranma said, as she stood back up
and brushed herself off, "I accept your apology. Friends?"
Hild looked at the hand. That thunderbolt had been quite cathartic.
"Friends." She shook Ranma's hand, then snuck a quick kiss.
"Let's go check on the kids," Ranma said with a blush.
"Let's not," Hild purred, causing Ranma's face to redden almost as
much as her hair. "Seriously, though, I have to ask you something."
"What?" Ranma asked.
"It's simple. Chiyeko is... not fully human," Hild said. "She needs to
learn what I can teach her about my half of her heritage, just like
she learned the Saotome School of Anything-Goes from you." Hild
smiled. "Just think of it as a short training trip."
"You want to take her to hell?" Ranma said flatly, her expression
clearly showing what she thought of that.
"Oh, you say that like it's a bad thing," Hild said, pouting, then
laughing. "She's my daughter, nothing in Nifelheim is going to
bother her. Besides, I only want to take her to my house and show
her how to do a few things." Still seeing that Ranma was
unconvinced of the wisdom of this course, she continued: "It'll help
her when she fights the Amazons, that's for sure. And she needs to
learn it all someday."
"When's this 'someday' she learns the rest?" Ranma asked, less
coolly, but still not ecstatic about the idea.
"Oh, anytime," Hild said with a shrug. "Now, a few decades from
now... it's not like we're in any rush."
"A few... decades from now?" Ranma asked, blinking.
"Ranma, Ranma," Hild said, and patted the redhead on the face. "I
told you: I'm the Daimakochou. I remember when the height of
mortal technology was a sharp rock." She looked at Ranma,
noticed that Ranma was still processing that thought and smirked.
"I do believe I broke him!"
With an amused giggle to herself, the Queen of Demons walked out
of the dojo and back to the other member of her family hereabouts.
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With the finely attuned senses of a martial artist pervert, Atasuke
sensed the approach of Hild and scurried out of sight before she
caught him at the kitchen's door. Hild, for her part, simply zeroed
in on Chiyeko. "Chiyeko-chaaaan!" she said happily as she glomped
onto the girl with a bone-squeezing hug.
"Gah! Leggo!" Chiyeko said, hurriedly dropping the pan of eggs
she'd been cooking. "Mo-om!"
That only made Hild squeeze harder. "You called me mother! Ohh!
Urd's never done that." Hild gave one final, last squeeze, then
released her.
Chiyeko stared at Hild in disbelief. "Urd has never called you
mother?"
"No," Hild said sadly, shaking her head.
"Isn't Urd older than most countries?" Chiyeko said, still
disbelieving. "And she's never called you mother?"
"No, she hasn't," Hild said. "She doesn't know the sacrifices I've
made for her," she added, "she simply takes her dear mother for
granted."
"That just isn't right," Chiyeko said, putting her fists on her hips.
"I'm gonna clobber her, sister or not."
"Now, now, don't go hitting your sister," Hild said, then thought of
all the times she'd annoyed Urd or had her underlings do it for her.
An evil smile spread across her face. "We should handle it
appropriately." She frowned. "What's that burning smell?"
Chiyeko turned around in a hurry, flipped the pan off the burner,
and turned off the stove. "Food's ready," Chiyeko said
unneccesarily. "ATASUKE!" she shouted. "Wake your parents!"
"Hmm," Hild said, and sat up on the counter, "aren't you being a
bit harsh on the boy?" Her eyes gleamed with a certain malicious
glee.
"Well, he's a pervert," Chiyeko said. "A nice boy, but a pervert. I
gotta show him who's boss. Eggs?" she asked, giving her mother a
plate.
"Just a little bit," Hild answered. "You know, I really don't need to
eat."
"Really?" Chiyeko said.
"You don't really need to eat, either," Hild added.
Chiyeko blinked. "Are you serious? Then all the times my — my
father fed me that food-"
"Were totally unneccessary," Hild said. "But Ranma didn't know
that, so don't blame him." She ate the eggs quickly and then set the
plate aside. "You'll be taking a little side trip with me before we
meet up with everyone else in China. There's a few things you have
to know."
"You want to take me on a trip? Without dad?" Chiyeko asked
excitedly. Excited - and a bit scared; she had rarely been far from
her father in her entire life.
"Yes," Hild said, "I need you to-"
"Breakfast is ready?" a disheveled looking Akane asked.
"Hung over?" Hild asked.
"Drop dead," Akane replied, then turned to Chiyeko. "I'll help you
carry those out." The two brought the food out to the table. Ranma
had apparently snapped out of it, and she was sitting across from
Tofu and Kasumi. Hild and Chiyeko sat down next to her.
"So," Ranma said, as they dug into the food, "this is the big day at
last."
"Yes," Tofu said. "Akari had called yesterday and said she'd be
driving Ryoga over herself, so he won't be late. Hinako will be here
after noon."
"Taro we'll be meeting in Shanghai," Ranma said.
"I'll catch up there," Hild said. She turned to the others. "Ranma
and I agreed she should learn about the other side of her family, so
I'm taking her on a little side trip."
"Oh, shouldn't Ranma go with you?" Kasumi asked. "Or has she
already met your family?"
Hild though of Urd momentarily. "Oh, Ranma's met the family,"
she said conversationally. "It's just the family house, that sort of
thing. I'm sure Ranma will see it someday." She smiled, inwardly
adding that Ranma would see it sooner if she lost the upcoming
fight with the Amazons...
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"So here we are," Ranma said, with a backpack on her back.
"Just like old days," Ryoga said, smiling. "Can I say that I've seen
hell because of you?" he asked playfully.
"Not yet," Ranma said thoughtlessly, still somewhat concerned
about Chiyeko's little trip.
"Huh?" Ryoga said. "Hey, there's Ukyo."
Sure enough, Ukyo and Konatsu were walking into the yard. With
Hinako already there (and talking to fellow-educator Akane), that
accounted for everyone who'd be leaving together.
Everyone - both those who were going and those who weren't -
stood in a rough circle. They had done this before, or seen it before,
a long time ago - Ranma Saotome at the center of a group of
powerful martial artists, about to set off on some insane quest.
Things were a bit different now - everyone was older, wiser,
already packed, and most of all disinclined to start killing one
another - but still similar.
"Well, everyone's here. Except Shinnosuke."
"Probably forgot his ticket," Akane said, and sighed.
"Your father is missing too," Ryoga pointed out.
"Don't remind me - he backed out at the last minute," Ranma said
with a sigh. She turned around to Akane: "Are you sure you
wouldn't like to come along?" she asked teasingly.
Akane reddened a bit. :"This fight's a bit out of my league, Ranma,
and you know it. You don't need to rub my face in it."
"Jeez, I'm sorry," Ranma said, annoyed.
"Best of luck though," Akane said.
Off to the side, the younger generation shared its last words of the
evening. "Chiyeko..." Atasuke said.
"Atasuke," Chiyeko said with a smile.
Atasuke smiled back, though not for the same reason. Konatsu had
come up with a plan for him to stow away, but he'd need an excuse
for being knocked out first. That meant he got to do something
perverted. "You could die in the next two weeks," he said with
great concerned. "We could hide in the dojo for a minute, and make
sure you don't die a virgin."
The smile vanished from Chiyeko's face, and she smashed him with
a mallet. "Hentai!" she said, and kicked him aside. Kasumi shook
her head in dismay and moved over to drag her son's unconscious
form up to his room.
"Well," Ranma said after she returned, "it's time to go." Picking up
their gear, they all started to head towards the train station.
Nobody noticed Atasuke sneak out of his room and into a nearby
side street, nor did they care much when Konatsu suddenly
remembered a bag he had forgotten to bring from the Ucchan's.
They were more concerned about making their train.
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"Bye!" Hild and Chiyeko said, and waved as the train departed. The
two then walked out of the station.
"So we're not taking a different train?" Chiyeko asked. That had
been their cover with the others.
"Of course not, silly," Hild said. "What kind of train would run
where I'm taking you? Let's go in that alley; I can bring you home
from anywhere."
Steeling herself, Chiyeko followed Hild. A few seconds later there
was a tremendous, sudden storm, lightning flashing into the sky,
and a dreadful fear fell over the better part of Tokyo. Moments
after that, peace and tranquility had returned to Nerima.
The Saotomes had left as suddenly as they had arrived.
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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.
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Author's Note: While what Chiyeko is cooking at (1) sounds like
hell, it actually tastes quite good, despite sounding like Felony
Cooking in the Second Degree.