oo o o o o o o o o o o o o oo
Disclaimer to follow at end of chapter
oo o o o o o o o o o o o o oo
oo o o o o o o o o o o o o oo
Ranma and his friends were a relatively well-travelled bunch,
whether they intended to be or not. In the train compartment they
shared, there were no less than three people who had spent large
portions of their lives roaming around Japan or Asia in general with
varying degrees of purpose. And yet, as it stood, this was the
longest journey any of them had taken by organized, modern
mechanical means. All their previous trips were primarily on foot.
As it turned out, the martial artists really hated trains.
Hinako had retreated into a shell of teenage angst and loud music,
with her earphones tuning out all outside noise as she buried herself
in a fashion magazine. The mix of teenager attitude and middle
aged maturity was weird, but most of the people in the
compartment had dealt with her when she had much more extreme
contrasts in her personality.
Ryoga was asleep in the corner. In all honesty, they were uncertain
if it were possible for him to get lost on a train and somehow
wander off, but no one was willing to test that, least of all Ryoga,
who had loudly announced his intention not to leave his seat for any
reason. Then a passing beverage cart lost a bottle of water when the
train hit a jolt, and they had to hide P-chan under the seat.
The other three had been talking amongst themselves for a while,
and talking about the one subject they all had in common: gender
confusion. Eventually, though, Konatsu had complained that he
wanted to practice and that the train compartment was too
confining, so he took one of his bags and left, leaving Ranma to
stare at him in confusion.
"Ok," Ranma said, after he left, "he's even crazier than I am. Even I
wouldn't practice on top of this thing - we're doing better than a
hundred miles an hour!"
"But Ranma," Ukyo said, with an innocent look, "it's called a
'train'."
Ranma groaned with pain. "That was bad. That was horribly bad."
Ukyo laughed. "I know, but what can I say?"
Hinako eyed the two for a second, then turned up the volume to
drown them out. They ignored her.
"Besides," Ukyo said, "you're preoccupied about something. I can
tell. What happened between you and Hild?"
"Is it that obvious?" Ranma said with a slight smile. "It's nothing
major... we're adults, we'll work it out. We have Chiyeko to think
about anyways - even if she is almost an adult." Or was that true?
Ranma wasn't sure - Hild lived for just about forever, so maybe
Chiyeko would still be considered a kid in a few centuries. It had
made her wonder if Hild looked at Ranma like a child, and that was
why she thought Ranma couldn't handle the truth. She gritted her
teeth in annoyance. Didn't Hild know her better?
"Ranma? Ranma?" Ukyo said, waving a hand in front of her face.
"I'm sorry," Ranma said, giving another half-smile. "Just zoned out
a bit."
"You are out of it, sugar," Ukyo said with a concerned look. "Just
talk to me about it. After all, what are best friends for?"
"I guess..." Ranma said uncertainly. "I dunno if I should talk about
it, though. Not that I don't trust you, but it's about Hild." Should
she tell Ukyo? Could Ukyo handle it?
Damnit, that was what Hild had wrestled with, and look what had
happened with that.
"I won't judge, Ranma. Just get it off your chest."
"I know what I want off my chest," Ranma said with a pointed look
at her shirt. "And not much longer until they're off, too." The both
shared a laugh. "Lemme think about it a bit. We still have a while
before Konatsu comes back, right? I gotta get myself settled first."
"Whatever, Ranchan," Uyko said. She had a sly look to her. "You
know... Konatsu might not be training."
"Oh, really?" Ranma asked. "What else could he be doing?"
"He might be reading ecchi manga," Ukyo said with a straight face.
"He does that from time to time."
"What?" Ranma said, surprised. "Konatsu? That's more of a
Atasuke type of thing... I can't picture Konatsu with that sort of
stuff."
"Atasuke?" Ukyo said, "But he's such a quiet, well behaved boy!"
"Konatsu is, too... crossdressing tendencies notwithstanding. There
are many upstanding crossdressers in Nerima, after all," Ranma said
with a straight face.
"Indeed," Ukyo said, just as straightfaced. "I guess you have to
look out for the quiet ones."
"Makes you wonder what Happousai was like... on second thought,
I don't want to think about Happousai, period." The two shared
another laugh.
oo o o o o o o o o o o o o oo
"You have excellent taste in shoujo-ai," Atasuke said to Konatsu as
he climbed out of the bag.
"Thank you," Konatsu said. "I try hiding it from Ukyo-dono, but I
felt that a little reading material was in order for this trip.
Atasuke adjusted his glasses and looked at Konatsu seriously. "Do
you have issue three?"
"Sadly, no," Konatsu said. He then regarded the young Ono
curiously. "I did not think you were-"
"-a pervert?" Atasuke said with a smile. "Well, I have a few secrets,
I guess." He pulled up the small bag he had brought to tide him
over. "For instance..." he said, then pulled out another manga.
"Hmm..." Konatsu said, eyeing the manga. "I suppose Ukyo won't
question how long I happen to be 'training'," the crossdressing
ninja said, and took the offered manga from Atasuke, as the
perverted martial artist rifled through Konatsu's stash.
"I appreciate you helping me out here," Atasuke said quite
sincerely.
"I know what it's like wanting to protect the one you love,"
Konatsu said.
"Yeah, but you helped me pay for this compartment as well,"
Atasuke said, "and I know Ukyo barely pays you."
"Don't worry about it, kid," Konatsu said, and ruffled Atasuke's
hair. "Now don't interrupt me; I only have an hour or so before
someone will get suspicious, and I need to find out what Miho and
Kikuko get up to next."
oo o o o o o o o o o o o o oo
Ranma took a deep breath and faced Ukyo. "It's a secret that Hild
kept from me. A big secret, and one that involves Chiyeko." Ukyo
watched Ranma patiently, knowing that Ranma had to talk through
this at her own pace. "You know how crazy it was, when Hild first
came into Nerima, didn't you?"
"I'll say," Ukyo said. "I was right in the center of it, after all." Their
eyes unfocused as they remembering back to that fateful day in
Nerima.
Ranma started talking again, distantly, as "I could tell that things
were going to be bad, and that Hild and Chiyeko would be at the
center of it. I told Hild my secrets - but she didn't tell me hers -"
oo o o o o o o o o o o o o oo
It was generally a bad-omened day from the start. Ranma and
Genma had come out of the house and found the fish in the koi
pond dead, and the hot water heater was broken again. The sky
was an unfriendly, oppressive gray; a low and heavy sort of sky
that promised rain.
If it weren't for the threat of rain, Ranma would have been in, if
not a good mood, a content one. Ever since the rather disastrous
outcome of the wedding, things had settled into a sort of peaceful
detente in Nerima, with the chief annoyances in his life sufficiently
embarrassed - or sufficiently injured - that they had given Ranma
and Akane a bit of room for their relationship to grow in together.
He looked shyly at Akane as they walked to school. He wasn't
stupid - today was entirely too ominous to even think about asking
- but he had set aside enough money to take Akane on a date for
once, whenever he screwed up the courage to ask.
Ask without being pestered by Nabiki, at any rate - the middle
Tendo daughter was still likely to meddle.
"Akane?" he asked. "Can I ask you something?"
She looked up at him and smiled. "Yes, Ranma?" she replied, as
she paced him on the sidewalk.
"Do you know of any way to, you know, distract Nabiki for a night
or something?"
"You mean, get her out of your hair," Akane said, smirking.
"If possible," Ranma said with a matching smirk.
"I'm sure it can be done... might require Kuno's help though."
They both made a face at that. Well, some things couldn't be
helped.
School had passed relatively uneventfully, save for a growing
feeling of disquiet that came over Ranma. Surely it was just the
storm, though; it hadn't rained - yet - but the skies had gotten
darker and darker, and the wind had picked up in a serious way
towards the end of the day. Even the other students seemed uneasy.
Finally, during the last period of the day, the long-threatened
storm unleashed its fury in torrential rains and a dazzling flurry of
lightning strikes. Students screamed and jumped away from the
windows as the sky strobed with hundreds of lightning strikes
flashed through sheets of rain and roaring wind. The power
immediately died, and teachers had to shout to restore any sort of
semblance of calm.
Hinako-sensei, still in her child form, was hiding under her desk,
leaving it to Ranma to restore quiet to the class. "Geez!" he
yelled. "It's just a stupid storm! Kuno calls down thunder, I make
tornados - don't get all bent out of shape because of some stupid
clouds." Ranma pointed to the windows. "I should be the only one
getting upset. The rain'll turn me into a girl again. What'll happen
to you - you gonna melt or something?"
Some of the boys looked at each other. "Open the window!"
Daisuke yelled, and they surged for the window, visions of
redheads on their minds.
"Hey! You jerks!" Ranma said, and jumped in front of them,
shoving them away from the window. It degenerated into a
pointless scrum, with the numbers too great for Ranma to get them
far from the window, but the other students were far too weak
compared to Ranma to actually open the window with him
defending it.
"We just want some fresh air!" one of the students complained as
Ranma put a hand on his face and shoved him away roughly.
Then the storm abruptly stopped, as if someone had thrown a
switch, and the clouds began breaking up almost immediately.
Sunlight began poking through the clouds for the first time that
day.
The students grumbled, having been denied a chance to see
Ranma-chan.
Ranma, for his part, threw the windows open and looked out.
"What a weird storm," he said, and then shrugged and turned
away.
oo o o o o o o o o o o o o oo
Just a bit later the two were walking down the street towards the
Tendo home. "What do you suppose was with that big storm
earlier, Ranma?" Akane asked.
"I dunno. Probably just a storm," Ranma said, instinctively knowing
it wasn't true. There had been a sense of danger and forboding -
almost an evil aura - present in that storm. He was sure of it.
He was pretty certain Akane was sure about it, too, judging by the
dodgy looks she was giving him.
The feeling of doom began to return when he saw Kasumi standing
out in front of the Tendo house, obviously waiting for them. There
was a somewhat forced smile on her face.
"Welcome back, Akane," Kasumi said, and then, a bit more forced,
"Welcome home, Ranma." There was a touch of sadness in her
voice that made that feeling of danger congeal into a solid lump in
his stomach. Something was up. Something very big was up.
Then Ranma entered the courtyard, and saw a deeply-tanned,
blonde haired girl he had sadly figured he'd never see again
standing there with a calm smile on her face, and a little baby in her
hands that stared up at Ranma with cool blue eyes. His heart froze.
He was so screwed.
oo o o o o o o o o o o o o oo
Ranma Saotome had sat down at the dinner table of the Tendo
home many times in the past year. He could honestly say that this
was, without any question, the most awkward and tense silence
ever to descend upon the table.
Across from him, Mr. Tendo sat with barely suppressed anger. He
and Akane had screamed and ranted before, until Kasumi chided
them and pointed out that they were frightening the baby. Both of
them had quieted down at that, although Akane was still trying to
melt him with her eyes and Soun was chain-smoking away, the
little puffs of smoke coming rapidly as he struggled to rein in his
anger. Nabiki had been smirking, and was now babbling and
making faces to entertain the little baby, mostly in a successful
effort to piss off her father and sister. The infant gurgled and
smiled happily, watching Nabiki's antics.
Chiyeko Saotome. He was a father.
There wasn't any doubt of that in Ranma's mind. He snuck a quick
glance at her. The eyes were a dead giveaway - two copies in
miniature of Ranma's own blue eyes. Chiyeko beamed and made
happy noises, childishly delighted to see another face.
"I don't know what to say," Soun said, after he managed to get his
temper fully under control. He was right - there wasn't much to
say. The engagements were scuttled; he had responsibilities now.
"Yeah," Ranma said, looking at the table, then killed the emotions
he was feeling and faced Soun across the table. "It's hard,"
Ranma said. Very hard, since he and Akane had grown so much
closer lately, "but there's only one thing-"
"The engagement will go forward," Genma said, smacking the
table with his fist. "It's a matter of honor!"
You could have heard a pin drop in that room as everyone gave
Genma a look of sheer stupefaction - all except Hild, who gave
him such a cold look of lethal intent that any man with more brains
than Genma would have killed himself on the spot if it would save
them from that gaze. As it was, Genma simply stuttered and
fumbled away everything else he meant to say.
"Right," Ranma said, "now that reality's set in..." Ranma turned
towards Soun, took a deep breath, and bowed. "Tendo-san, you
have been a gracious host and everything... and I wish it could be
otherwise, but I cannot go through with the pledge." He looked up,
more seriously: "Perhaps it can be fulfilled in the next generation,
though." Soun thought about it for a few seconds, and then
nodded, stood up, and left.
At that, Akane burst into tears and ran from the room. Ranma
himself sighed heavily and sank back.
"I always suspected something like this would happen," Nabiki
said, having completely ignored the preceding drama.
"Something like what, Nabiki?" Kasumi asked.
"You know. Ranma. The fiancee mess. I figured it would blow up
in everyone's faces. Cute kid, Saotome."
Ranma gave a slight smile. "Thanks," he said.
Still ignoring everyone in favor of the baby, she continued: "I had
planned to make your life a living hell if you ever left my sister -
but I really can't blame you for this one." She got up and sighed,
then looked Ranma straight in the eyes. "Look, hire me to take
your wedding photos and I'll call everything square. Deal?"
"Deal," Ranma said, laughing.
"Boy-" Genma said, snapping out of it. Ranma punched him
absently.
"I dunno what I want to do now," Ranma said, "but I do know
what I've got to do now. C'mon, Hild, we've got to go to my house
- my mother will want to see her grandchild."
He waved goodbye to the Tendos and left the house. Oh, sure, he'd
be back for his stuff, but he was really leaving for good, now. The
fiancee hell he'd been stuck in for so long was over, ended in an
hour. The constant chase had made his life hell for a whole year;
so why did he feel so bad now?
oo o o o o o o o o o o o o oo
"Then you ran into me on the way back," Ukyo said, still lost in her
thoughts. "It took a while for me to believe you weren't playing
some sort of sick joke on me."
"Took some time to convince you not to kill me, either," Ranma
said, smiling.
"Yeah, well..." Ukyo said, trailing off. She shrugged. "I was hurt.
I'd had this dream of living with you, working with you for the rest
of my life. You were my best friend, and you'd never be more." She
looked out the window. "You can understand why I was upset."
"I can," Ranma said, slightly huffy. "We aren't kids anymore. Even
Ryoga isn't as thoughtless anymore." Said pig took exception to
that comment and chomped on Ranma's ankle.
"Tell that to Cologne," Ukyo said. "She went absolutely postal."
"Yeah," Ranma said, "but I got the feeling she would..."
oo o o o o o o o o o o o o oo
"Damn," Ranma said, after Ukyo had left. His best friend was in
tears, and had run off after a brief fight. He'd more or less
forgotten about the other fiancees while at the Tendo's; Akane
herself had been enough to seriously discomfit him. But it would be
a bad move to forget about the others; they wouldn't forget him.
Nor would they forgive him. And neither Kodachi nor the Amazons
were too big on restraint when it came to potential rivals. Ranma
figured Hild was almost certainly out of her league, there, and
Chiyeko...
...he certainly couldn't let the BABY be put in danger.
"Hild, I need to tell you about something," Ranma said suddenly.
"There are other people after me; and they're dangerous. After we
meet my mother, I'll help you lay low. I don't want you to get hurt
- let me deal with them."
"Enemies?" Hild said, smirking.
"No, worse," Ranma said, "former friends."
"I'm a big girl, you know," Hild said. "I can take care of myself."
In fact, Hild knew she could protect the two of them better than
Ranma could, but this wasn't the time or place to demonstrate it.
First, Ranma might run off, and second, it would probably derail
some really good fights.
Ranma held her hand and looked her seriously in the eye. "I want
you to promise that you won't try to fight them. I don't want to see
anyone get hurt."
"I can protect myself, Ranma," Hild said, her eyes flashing
dangerously.
"Maybe," Ranma said, "but I gotta protect you... and Chiyeko.
This mess is my responsiblity; I can't have you get hurt in it.
That's why I want the promise." He took a deep breath.
"Promise?"
Hild sighed. "As long as Chiyeko isn't hurt, or I'm not hurt, no, I
won't interfere."
"Promise?" Ranma said, with a smile.
"OK, I promise. Does that make you feel better, manly man?"
Hild said, goading him.
Ranma bristled a bit, but chose to ignore it. "I've gotta warn you
about my mother," he said, "she's a bit weird."
"Weird?" Hild said. 'I never had a mother,' she thought inwardly.
'Perhaps that's why I did such a bad job with Urd...'
"Yeah," Ranma said. "She has... particular notions. I dunno how
to put it. You'll see when you meet her." He looked pointedly at
Chiyeko. "Or maybe the baby will distract her completely."
oo o o o o o o o o o o o o oo
"And did little Chiyeko-chan ever distract her!" Ranma said,
laughing. That was a rare happy memory from that dark set of days;
her mother was so distracted by Chiyeko's presence that the fact
that all Genma's arranged marriages had gone down in flames
wasn't even remarked on by Nodoka. Her manly son had given her
a granddaughter, and all was right with the world.
"I believe that," Ukyo said, laughing as well. "When Chiyeko was a
baby, you couldn't keep your mother away from her. You'd swear
she was her baby or something."
"Except when the diaper needed to be changed," Ranma said,
wrinkling her nose.
Ukyo laughed some more. "Well, most people prefer being
grandparents to parents, I guess. All of the fun without much of the
responsibility." She looked out the window wistfully for a while.
Ranma watched her and the smile faded from her face.
"Ukyo, you know, you should live your life while you still can-"
"Relax, Ranma, I'm a big girl," she said, cutting her best friend off.
"We were talking about your problem with Hild, right?"
"Problem?" Ranma said, blustering. "It's not a problem, I'm just
venting a little..."
"You were angry about Hild keeping a secret," Ukyo said flatly.
"I'd say that's a problem for any couple."
Ranma's face turned as red as her hair. "Well, if she didn't keep it a
secret, damnit -" She cut off and paled, realizing for the first time
exactly why she was so angry at Hild's revelation. Her friends had
done a lot worse than hide what they really were, and had still been
forgiven almost instantly, without lingering ill-feeling on her part.:
Ryoga's constant interference in his love life and Shampoo's first
edition run of kill-girl-Ranma.
"If she didn't keep the secret, what?" Ukyo said.
"If she didn't keep it a secret, I wouldn't be stuck as a girl!" Ranma
shouted, angry. Then she formed a fist. "And if I didn't have such a
fucking big mouth, I wouldn't be stuck either. 'Promise me you
won't try to interfere, Hild.' Goddamnit!" Ranma punched the seat
she was on, putting a hole in the Japan Rail seat and startling
everyone else in the room. She glowed bright green for a few
seconds until she got herself under control.
Ranma looked up to see everyone staring at her with wide eyes, as
Hinako took her headphones off and Ryoga woke up from his nap
and stared with piggish stupefaction. "I'm... I'm sorry," Ranma
apologized. "I need to walk a bit, and deal with my temper." She
walked out of the room shakily.
Hinako and Ryoga looked at Ukyo expectantly, who shrugged
helplessly. She had no idea why Ranma suddenly thought Hild
could have fought off the Amazons... but if so, the blonde haired
woman was far more powerful than she had ever expected.
oo o o o o o o o o o o o o oo
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.
oo o o o o o o o o o o o o oo
Author's Note: I know I told people on the forum it was going to
be a big chapter, but it was mushrooming beyond what I expected,
so I've chopped it into two parts. Next time you'll get to see Hell,
Hild, and Chiyeko again. For those of you who hate flashbacks, you
get to see hell twice.