Yep, I know I don't own any of this, do I look rich to you?

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Recovering Hearts

A Ranma½ / Robotech crossover.

By Queberjeque

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Author's Note: While this is a Robotech crossover, there might be a few ideas and names that I am going to use from the Macross series, rather than from the Robotech series.

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Chapter 3

'A New Life'

September, 2002

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Nabiki Tendo was not a happy camper. Instead of running her own business and being her own boss, she was fetching coffee and making copies for someone else. The reasons behind this tragedy were complicated, but it all boiled down to the inefficiencies of bureaucracy.

Upon arriving on South Ataria Island, Nabiki had originally planned to use her start-up capital and open and manage a dojo run by the best martial artist she knew, namely one Ranma Saotome. Instead, she ran into a great deal of red tape. Her business license was still waiting for approval, her building permits were probably wallowing in some in-box and her father still had not sent over a license for Ranma to teach Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu.

About the only thing that had gone right was the purchase of a piece of prime real estate in a perfect location. But even that silver-lining had a cloud, since now she was paying taxes on land she wasn't using. She knew that it was a good thing she had the land though, a large influx of consultants, scientists and manufacturers from around the world started only a month or so after they arrived. After that started, property prices started climbing as available land was snatched up and construction started on office buildings, factories and research centers. Sure she could sell the land for a considerable profit, but then they would be out in the cold when her paperwork was finally approved, with potentially no properties available by then. It was far better to pay the money than to risk the future.

All of these were perfectly good reasons for her to have a headache, but surprisingly she was calm and composed. Sure things were not perfect, but that's life. After all, at least they were safe from the Chinese here. Plus life was starting to fall back into a rhythm, she had convinced Ranma to start taking classes in order to finish his final year of high school. At first he had resisted, but eventually she was able to explain that an education was necessary to make a dojo run properly, otherwise he could go out of business and be left with nothing.

Nabiki was also moving forward with her plans for her own life. She had enrolled in an online college program and was steadily working her way through the coursework. It wasn't Tokyo University, but it was better than nothing and she was grateful that she had the money to pay for it.

The proceeds from selling off the Joketsuzoku treasures had given them a very solid little nest egg. She had sent half of it to Kasumi to help her cover household expenses. But even with just the half she kept, Ranma and her were able to get their educations and still have enough left over to build their dojo and maintain an emergency fund as well. If the paperwork ever came through for the dojo, that is.

"I'll go back over to the city planning offices again tomorrow. I don't care if it irritates them to see me yet again; they have had eight months to get to our paperwork. So what if we aren't a UN research team or a military contractor, they need to get off their butts and take care of the little people too. "

Glancing over to the clock on the wall, she was pleased to notice that she would soon be on her way home.

Home. The word had changed so much in the past several months. It used to be a place of tranquility and chaos, of harmony and fighting, in short the ever changing Tendo Dojo.

That all changed when the rules of the fiancée battle were changed by the damn Chinese barbarians. After Akane's death, her home became a place of sorrow and anger, of grief and rage. Kasumi did all she could to hold the family together, but the atmosphere of the dojo had changed forever.

Once Ranma and she set off on their journey of vengeance, 'home' had become even more nebulous of a concept, a place where someday she hoped to rejoin her remaining sister and rebuild her life. While she was sleeping in a tent, or under a bush, or in any number of other hiding places; that was the dream she held onto of home.

Now she had a new home. Sure it was a rather bare, two room apartment she shared with Ranma, but for now it was home.

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Walking home Nabiki glanced around at all the new construction going up around the burgeoning city. Most of the new buildings were for government, scientific or military support, but there were also a growing number of civilian businesses as well. As she passed one construction site, she studied it and decided that it would probably be a restaurant, judging by the layout.

Nabiki decided to take the long way home and stop to see if Ranma was finished yet as well. As she approached his current place of employment, she stopped and tried to catch sight of him amongst the dozen or so construction workers. Finally she spotted Ranma carrying what looked like bags of cement over to a machine that was pouring the foundation of what would eventually be a hotel.

A couple of weeks after they arrived on the island, Nabiki received notification that in order to stay they had to have jobs. Her position as an administrative assistant to the vice president of research at Hughes Sensor Systems International was a lucky break. Ranma had a harder time finding employment though. Nobody wanted to hire a kid without a high school diploma, prior work experience or any kind of job training other than as a waitress. Even the two restaurants in town wouldn't hire him, because they didn't have openings for another waitress. Finally Nabiki was able to get him a job as an untrained, part-time construction worker. Ranma spent most of his afternoons carrying heavy loads up and down the various construction sites. His employers liked him because he worked hard and was always on time. He enjoyed the workout and learning how various machines were operated. Ranma didn't know how to drive a car, but after a few friendly demonstrations and warnings from his boss about the damage a mistake could cause, Ranma was now able to drive a few of the smaller construction machines such as the cement truck, forklift and his favorite, the smaller bulldozer. That only happened when his boss needed another driver though, most of the time he was carrying loads and helping the trained experts.

A whistle blowing shook Nabiki out of her memories and she watched as most of the workers set down their tools, parked their machines and got ready to leave. Ranma, she noticed, finished carrying two more loads of cement before hopping the fence to land next to her.

"Hi Nabs, how was work?" Ranma asked with a grin. Ever since he started working, Ranma had gained even more self confidence and self worth. After so many years watching his father steal, sleep, avoid work like the plague and freeload off of others, Ranma felt real pride in his employment.

Rolling her eyes, Nabiki tried to poke Ranma in the shoulder. "I've told you not to call me that, you uncouth barbarian."

Dodging her attack with a twist that looked effortless, Ranma laughed and hopped up on the fence next to them. "Ready for your warm-up, student? Follow me home and if you can catch me, I'll go easy on you tonight."

Even before he finished talking, Nabiki jumped up on the fence, catching her balance after only a second of wobbling, then taking off in pursuit of the pigtailed menace.

While trying to explain to Ranma why he had to get a job, Nabiki decided it was time to make some improvements to the martial arts genius. After all, she was going to be living with him for the foreseeable future and not only that, she was planning to go into business with him. Having a lazy and uneducated father or brother-in-law was one thing, but business was business. So Nabiki came up with a plan to deal with the problem and it worked perfectly.

Sitting Ranma down, she had him list all of the ways he was disappointed by his parents' behavior, especially his father's. With a few comments from her to point out some of the glaring faults that Ranma didn't recognize, they came up with a long list of complaints. Nabiki then pointed out all of the ways in which Genma had trained Ranma to follow in his own footsteps. The disrespect he had drilled into his son of education or working for a living. Using prepared examples, Nabiki proceeded to explain to Ranma all of the ways that Genma had handicapped him, in order to prevent Ranma from making his own life away from the fat, balding patriarch.

It took an entire weekend for Nabiki to finish proving to Ranma that a 'true martial artist' needed to have a strong work ethic, at least a high school education and the teaching ability to make his students 'enjoy' learning in order to manage a successful dojo. A talented but uneducated martial artist would fail to run the business and his dojo would close, leaving him with nothing but debts. Ranma eventually even understood that dojos run by masters with college degrees were the most successful and sought after. That those dojos taught the most students and had the best reputations.

Since that long weekend, Ranma had completely changed his look on life. Nabiki had enrolled him as a senior at the local high school and every morning and afternoon Ranma was hard at work trying to catch up with where a student his age should be. The irregularities of his formal education over the years had left some very pronounced gaps in his knowledge, that with help from his teachers and Nabiki, he was finally closing.

After school, Ranma would then head over to wherever the current construction site was and help out for four hours, then it would be time to go home for the next part of his daily schedule. On weekdays Ranma would spend an hour training Nabiki in Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu. Since she had given up her training not long after her mother's death, Ranma had to pretty much train her from the beginning. Fortunately for her, she kept herself in fairly good shape and was very flexible.

By setting herself as Ranma's first student, Nabiki was killing multiple birds with one stone. If the Joketsuzoku warriors ever caught up with them, she intended to be able to defend herself. She was also helping Ranma learn how to teach. Whenever he would do something that she considered idiotic or dangerous, they would sit down together and discuss the issue. Ranma would explain the reasoning behind that aspect of training, and then Nabiki would point out the flaws and dangers to normal students. Working together they would come up with a safer method of training that satisfied both of them.

After the evening's training, Ranma and Nabiki both spent several hours studying. Ranma would finish his homework for the next day and do additional reading on subjects picked out by Nabiki and his teachers. Nabiki would take care of her own studying at the same time.

While searching for jobs, Nabiki had discovered the grand opening of the local branch of an international, higher education training company. They mostly specialized in providing training for professionals looking to learn additional skills or for companies training their employees for new projects, but they also offered a number of college degree programs for people too busy to attend regular universities. Sure it wasn't Tokyo University, but it was still a degree, something Nabiki had always planned on achieving. She quickly enrolled in Business Administration and studied every evening. Once every couple of weeks she would attend a lecture and series of tests, but most of the course work was done at home.

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While they grew comfortable with their new jobs and study habits, their lives settled into comforting routines. Each day and every week was the same, no crazed martial artists were challenging Ranma, and no princes were showing up to kidnap anybody. It was peaceful and relaxing.

The only break in this calm schedule was the unexpected and shocking three days in the middle of May when the UN Army declared an emergency and evacuated everyone into specially prepared bunkers. Even deep underground Nabiki was able to hear faint explosions. It was the first time she had heard those sounds since the Sino Alliance was forced to stop bombing Japan back in 1997, when the US, Canadian and NATO troops were able to destroy the navy blockading them.

After the third day, the civilians were allowed to leave their shelters and emerged to find much of the city destroyed. With everyone pitching into the reconstruction efforts, including the newly arrived UN Marine forces that were there to bolster the Army, the city was soon repaired and operating normally. Nabiki and Ranma were able to fall back into their familiar routines once again.

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On most weekends Ranma insisted that they leave the city and go to the beach. There they would spend most of the time training, followed by a bit of relaxation. Ranma would set a series of goals for Nabiki to accomplish, first demonstrating, then explaining and finally watching to make sure that she understood and wasn't going to hurt herself. After he was confident that she would be fine without him watching her, Ranma would work on his own training.

Ever since the battle with the Joketsuzoku, Ranma had been worried about his ki. The fury that powered his attack on Kho Lon had loosened his grip on his control. During their desperate retreat back to Japan, they were repeatedly attacked by Joketsuzoku fighters all intent on eviscerating them both. Ranma would never mention it to Nabiki, but he was certain that some of the attackers that he stopped would never be getting up again.

He was a murderer now, like Kho Lon. Sure, the lives were taken in defense of Nabiki and himself, but that didn't change the fact that he had killed. After the fight with Saffron, when he was desperate to save Akane, he was aware that Saffron was going to be reborn. Mentally he was able to gloss over the fact that he had killed the leader of the Phoenix people, telling himself that it was no worse than any other healable injury.

Now he could no longer consider himself an innocent, it was time for him to grow up and take control of his own life. Maybe if he had forced the issue earlier, instead of listening to his father and worrying about a family honor that was already tattered and torn by Genma's past actions, Akane would still be alive and he wouldn't have so much blood on his hands.

He had been filled with so much rage and hatred after Akane's death that he was afraid that it had been detrimental to his mental health. After all, he had spent the last several years watching Ryoga descend ever deeper into a blind berserker mode in his fights, allowing his anger to fuel his attacks, ignoring any innocents around him. Ranma didn't want this to happen to him, but he no longer had someone to ask about it. So every weekend Ranma meditated and worked on advanced katas without using any special techniques. He wanted to be sure that his aura was untainted before once again using his ki as an offensive weapon. The meditation techniques that he used had yet to help him find any problems, but he felt they were very worthwhile since he had never before felt so in tune with his own being.

His father had taught him long ago how to control his breathing and heartbeat. His own training and studying of his internal energies allowed him to subconsciously direct his ki into a damaged section of his body to speed up the healing process, or to provide extra strength or durability when hitting or being hit. His ability to improvise or learn new techniques was better than anyone else he knew. After simply seeing the ki attack Ryoga had learned with help from a scroll, Ranma was able to develop his own attack. He had quickly learned or copied every Joketsuzoku technique they had taught or used upon him. Most of those he never used, but the knowledge was always useful. Never showing your true potential to rivals or enemies was a cornerstone of the Saotome school of Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu.

Now however he felt like he had passed a plateau in his training. He could see and consciously direct the flow of his internal energies much easier than ever before, plus he could sometimes see the natural energies of the people, plants and animals around him. He couldn't touch or use the energy, but he could see it flowing through them when he was concentrating on it. It took a concerted effort to be able to see these amazing energy pathways though, at least for now, since Ranma was well aware that every skill learned eventually got easier with practice. Ranma knew that he didn't have the time necessary to fully explore where this could lead, but soon he would finish his last month of school. That was when he planned to take some time off and really explore the possibilities. Once again it would soon be time to practice and hopefully expand his repertoire of ki techniques.

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That's the new chapter, I hope you liked it! Finally we are going to start to really delve into the Robotech side of this story. It's been over half a year since they arrived on the island and already their lives have changed. If you have any questions comments or concerns, please post a review and tell me your opinion.

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Thanks to my beta Demonlord87 for fixing my grammar in a few places, any mistakes still in there are mine. I'm still looking for another beta reader with strong Robotech/Macross knowledge, especially since from here on in the story will be primarily in that universe.

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Till next time,

Queberjeque