-Five years later-
Ranma stumbled to the front gate and looked at the familiar but distant past. He slowly lifted his arm up and looked at the plaque that read Tendo Training Hall of Anything Goes Marital Arts. Then he followed his slipping finger down the list of owners and he stopped when he saw the last 3 names.
Ranma Saotome
Akane Tendo
Ryoga Hibiki
When had Ryoga become a master of Anything Goes? Groaning from pain he ignored all possibilities of what this could mean and pushed the gate open and walked inside. He found a spot where he could climb up the wall safely so he could get onto the roof. Once up there he walked over to the place over Akane's bedroom where he always used to sit and plopped down and let his body rest and relax for the first time in 5 years.
Looking up from her book Akane stared up at her ceiling. "No Akane, we stopped doing that remember?" She talked to herself in third person. Ranma was not on the roof and he would never return to the Tendo Training Hall. She went back to her book but she heard the noise on the roof again, "Ok maybe its just a bird." For a third time she heard the movement and someone yelp out in pain.
Getting out of bed she headed towards her open window, but she paused. What was she doing, maybe she was just hearing things. As far as she knew Ranma was dead, after he and everyone else left they had never heard from anyone of them again besides Ryoga.
She thought about the day that Ryoga had returned all battered and bruised and told them of the Amazon's capturing them and was keeping them prisoner even Shampoo and Cologne were being called traitors. When she had asked Ryoga about Ranma and Mr. Saotome all he had said was they had gotten split up and after he heard about the beheading of Mousse he wasn't sure what happened to them or what awaited them.
'Ranma's dead, there's no way,' she thought to herself then she heard the shuffling on the roof again. Eh, what would it hurt just to check? Unless it was Ryoga again, but he had only done that a few times. He would climb up there and look at the sky and she would think it was Ranma returned but to her great disappointment it wasn't. One night she had even yelled at him for it and he hadn't done it again.
Without another thought she climbed out on the little piece of roof outside her window and walked over to the ledge of the higher roof and grasped it as she then pulled herself up.
She was faced with a heap of a person with ripped and blood stained clothing in the fetal position. She wanted to run over to him but she knew she would fall if she moved to fast on this roof. She walked over to him and bent over and poked at him.
"OW!" he shouted then quickly realized someone had already found him. He opened his eyes and sat up gently as he turned his head to look at her. "Akane," he said with a smile on his face.
"Ranma I thought you were dead!" she said holding back the tears.
"Me die? Heh," he tried to laugh to but it hurt to much and he felt the stinging in his chest. He remembered there was still metal nails down there. Thinking about them he almost passed out, but Akane was behind him now.
"Ranma can you get off the roof?" Akane asked worried as she suddenly saw his eyes heading towards the back of his head again. "Ranma," she shouted to wake him up, "Come on." She tried to help him to her room but she was too weak and he kept passing out. "UGH!" she screamed out loud as she put him back down and head towards the edge of the roof and jumped back down on the lower roof and climb back into her bedroom. She really didn't want to do this but she had no other choice, Ranma couldn't stay on the roof all night.
She walked out into the hallway and downstairs then out to the dojo. Without even knocking she burst through the door. Causing Ryoga to freak out and stop doing whatever he was doing. She assumed that he was meditating because she didn't see a towel around him this time.
"Akane what in the world are you doing? It's like midnight almost," he said as he stood up from the ground and looked at her in the eye. Over the years he had become more agitated by the way Akane had acted and it slowly turned him off. He rubbed his face and then his eyes wiping away any sleepies from them. If anyone found out that he fell asleep while he was suppose to be meditating then for sure Mr. Tendo would take his training school from him.
"I need your help with something," Akane said wondering what Ryoga would do if he found out Ranma was back. Would he try to get revenge? No, that was the old Ryoga, the new Sensei Ryoga was almost completely different then he used to be. He was very mature and grown up now, and Akane hated it because she knew that she still hadn't matured yet.
"Well...," Ryoga said waiting for her to ask. Of course he would still do anything for her, he was still secretly in love with her, she knew that too. Sometimes she would use it to her advantage to get him to do things that she didn't wanna do alone.
"Ranma's on the roof!" she said as she pointed out the dojo door and up to the huddled figure on the roof above her bedroom.
"So?" Ryoga said he was glad Ranma was alive and back but he didn't get what Akane what him to do about it. Kick him out? No why would she ever want Ranma kicked out? The only thing that kept him and Akane from being an item was the fact that she still thought about Ranma constantly.
"He's hurt and I tried to help him into the house but I'm not strong enough and he just keeps passing out ," she said angerly stomping her foot on the wood floor.
"Fine fine fine, I'm going," he said as he walked out of the gym and jumped up onto the roof and picked Ranma up before taking him into the house via Akane's bedroom window. Never in a million years would he think that he would be the one owning the Tendo Training School and Ranma being the one coming home 5 years later in the worst shape a man a man could ever be in. He looked around and saw Akane's bed and then he felt the weight or the light weight of Ranma's body in his arms. He placed the beaten man down on the bed and soon Akane joined them in the room.
Once Ryoga and Akane got a good look of Ranma's condition they both were disgusted, how had he made it back to Japan? Akane turned around and Ryoga told her to go and get lots of towels, a bucket of warm water, a robe, and lots of aspirin. As soon as Akane left the room Ryoga did his best to take the ragged bloody clothes off the other man without hurting him, too much. As he removed his shirt he saw that there was something weird about Ranma's chest but he couldn't really place it because of the caked on blood.
By the time Akane had returned he had Ranma completely naked but Ryoga knew that Akane would be helping him so he covered up the manly parts with a small blanket. When Akane saw what blanket he had used she almost freaked out on him, it was her baby blanket! But she didn't say anything because she knew the most important thing was to get Ranma in better shape.
Akane took a clothe and dropped it into the bucket of water not even realizing that the water was far from warm, it was very cold. She took the wet clothe out of the water and then walked over to Ranma's chest and squeezed all the water out onto his chest. As Ranma shivered Akane and Ryoga both shot looks at each other. Ryoga dared to stick his hand into the water next to him...and poof...he turned into a pig.
"Oh crap," Akane said as she looked at the scowl on P-chan's face, after 3 more years of him living in her house she had found out Ryoga's little secret. Quickly Akane got up and grabbed the bucket and refilled it with warm water this time and checked it before she returned to the room and dumped a cup full on Ryoga and closed her eyes until he assured her that he was dressed. When Akane opened her eyes Ryoga was just looking down at Ranma.
"What is it?" She asked as she walked over closer and looked at Ranma.
"The water was cold," Ryoga said as he looked at Akane and she looked back at him not connecting the dots. "Akane he didn't turn into a girl!"
Akane almost burst into tears as she looked down at Ranma, he had did it, he actually had gotten that nasty curse off of him. The one thing he had always wanted ever since she had known the kid. "Yay!" she said a little victory scream as she looked back at Ryoga who had a sad smile on his face. Akane knew that look, Ryoga was happy for Ranma but he was sad for himself because he probably would never have the chance to break his own curse. Akane gave him a sad but hopeful look and then they started back to work of cleaning Ranma off.
As they cleared his chest of dirt and blood they cringed at what they saw. He had staples in the shape of his rib cage all over. "Now how and the hell are we suppose to get those out?" Ryoga said looking at the work ahead of him.
"Um...staple remover?" Akane suggested as she walked over to her desk and pulled out the little teeth like pullers.
"What no way!" Ryoga shouted at her as he looked at the little metal that looked like an alligators mouth. "He's already sore I can't just shove those sharp teeth into his skin!"
"Oh good point," Akane said looking back in her desk drawer for something else. "HERE!" she said taking out a piece of plastic that looked like a chisel. "It's plastic so it should be soft enough," she handed it over to Ryoga.
He studied it for a second before looking up at Akane but she was already out of the room getting a bowl to put the pulled staples in. He shrugged and placed the tool under the first staple and popped it out with a little squirm from Ranma. Akane then appeared and Ryoga dropped the pulled piece of metal into the bowl and headed for the next one. "Akane what exactly is this thing?"
"I used it in clay sculpting while the clay is still wet you use that make lines," she said as he pulled another and put it in her bowl. She set the bowl down on the bed and got the wet clothe and started to get the dirt off his feet and legs.
"So theres probably still clay on this and I'm putting it into open wounds? Good job Akane," he said a little mad but he made sure then to clean it with a clean wet towel.
"Whatever," she said as she finished cleaning his feet and saw the huge blisters and sores all over them. "How did this kid walk?"
"They probably tortured him by constantly hitting his feet with a wooden board. They did that to me but luckily when the main punisher went away the person hitting my feet stopped because she was so tired," Ryoga explained as he finished up pulling the staples out and then forcing lots aspirin down Ranma's throat.
"Gross," was all Akane could muster while holding back the urge to throw up.
A/n: Thank you for everyone thats reviewed so far and the like 200 hits ive already had! If only every person that read this reviewed! That would for sure make my day! Actually that would make my life, and my writing career! Anyways I will probably post the next chapter by tomrrow if i have more reviews...if not it might be a few days. You know motivation or watever. Again thanks to my reviewers! and please do it again!