Hello All! I am still alive, just insanely busy, and marginally depressed again. On top of it, I appear to have polarised people, which saddens me. I do try to be fair, and every character (apart from Nabiki) will get their due in the end. So, Onwards!

Keeper - Actually, the worst is Kodachi. Ryoga needs help and love and there is likely a tragic life story. Kodachi doesn't have that, she just appears to be insane and insanely rich.

Richard - He didn't swear it to Ryoga. However, I do believe that since Ranma made the promise to who he though was Ryoga, he would not reverse his promise, regardless of whether Ryoga knew about it or not. Him knowing that he went back on his word, even if no one else would know would likely hurt more than all the training/torture that Genma had inflicted on him, because he seems like that kind of person.

James - I glad you like it.

Kitten Arina - I get that you didn't like a chapter, but essentially accusing me of racist treatment is pointless. My aim was actually to show that Ranma did act stupidly, but because it was the best thing to do in the circumstances, as he saw it. Akane will be treated very unfavourably later as well, so it is not preferential treatment - I am trying to keep the action more or less in character, and if you read carefully, only Akane treats him unfairly - the rest are angry that his actions led to a loss of honour on their or their family's part, but are more understanding of his motives. However, you are welcome to stop reading at any point.

Chapter 11

Morning woke two boys up simultaneously, but both were in very different parts of Tokyo as it happened. The sun streaming through his windows jerked Ranma awake quite late, as he had become used to being woken up by his father throwing him into the pond. There was only sunlight this day, however, and he was in an unfamiliar room – his room at the Saotome house, he realised. The building had been thankfully restored quite quickly, so when the Tendos had essentially pressured the family out the night before following the Ryoga debacle, it was back here that they came. There were still building works going on, but a wing of the house was finally habitable.

Ranma sighed. While he had no doubt that Nabiki and Ukyo, along with Kasumi would forgive his actions in time, it was probable that unless all of them talked Akane down from a rage, he had no hope of going back to that house in the near future. As it was, he was grateful that she had not really been allowed to speak the night before, and Nabiki, the more insightful one, took charge of the whole situation.

With a sigh, he got up, and started to get ready to help his mother around the house.

The other boy who had been woken up was Ryoga. He too found himself in unfamiliar surroundings – a white room, with a tiled ceiling, and a narrow bed. Moving any part of his body hurt, letting him assume that he had perhaps been beaten up. Which made it Ranma's fault.

The various bandages covering his body were preventing him from moving at all, so he settled on the other senses, as he imagined the work his wonderful Akane had gone to in order to get him taken care of him, he allowed his other senses to reach out into his surroundings.

Almost immediately, he heard two voices, at least one of which was familiar.

Nabiki Tendo was in the next room, and she was speaking to someone.

"So, you definitely had no idea?"

A man's voice responded. "I knew about the curse – it was hard not to seeing how his ki was always part-animal, same as Ranma's is part female. But no, I had no idea Akane or any of you were not aware of the fact, or that the ki was specifially that of a pig. Given the number of shape changers in Nerima, and the fact that all of them frequently got splashed with water, I saw that there was no way for him to hide a curse, much less be a convincing pet for anyone, let alone that he had tried to be one. You say Ranma could not tell any of you?"

Nabiki sighed, and a creak told him that she sent to sit down. "No, and to be honest, once I cooled down, I realise why he thought that he couldn't. Akane wouldn't believe him, and everyone else would blame him and probably assault him, and Shampoo would have taken advantage of the situation. And he told us he didn't want to be a liar and an honourless bastard like his dad, though not in those words, so I can see why he did what he did. It's amazing he turned out as decently as he did with that thing for a father. Plus, he tried so hard to tell us, that I feel stupid for not seeing it earlier. I am angry at him, and so is everyone else, but I can see that he had no way out of a situation he thought he had created for himself. I am sure that he blamed himself the whole time, and probably kept Akane from finding out about the curse directly to keep her from murdering everyone in a rage. Maybe if he had known you knew, he would have found a way to talk about this and resolve it without straining his honour, Dr. Tofu."

The man, who Ryoga realised must have been the doctor, sighed. "It would have solved a few issues, I agree. I am deeply disappointed in myself, though like Ranma and Shampoo, I didn't expect anything bad to happen from this. I am not even sure if I had ever seen Akane with P-chan - just pictures. I am going to be of more assistance, I hope, in the future."

"I, for one, am glad you are back."

"So, what did I miss?"

The rumble of voices moved away from the patient's room, straining his ability to hear due to injury, and Ryoga had a moment to think. It seemed that Ranma had been his usual self, and now everyone knew of his curse. Though something that the doctor said bothered him, something about him knowing because of the aura. Perhaps it was worth assuming that now Soun, Genma, Tofu and the Amazons knew his curse. Maybe they had said something? But no, Tofu confirmed he hadn't and the others, except Genma, had been too honourable.

He missed the footsteps approaching him.

"So, little wronged piglet is awake, is he?"

He started, and saw Nabiki leaning over him. Her grin was predatory. "We will start with five hundred thousand yen, spread out in weekly instalments, for me not telling Akane that you are here and letting her finish the job."

Ryoga sputtered and then remembered the events of the previous day, and attempted to get up. "No! Die, Saotome!"

Dr Tofu, who had drifted in behind the middle Tendo sister, hit a pressure point and Ryoga suddenly stopped being able to speak or move anything other than his head. "No need to strain your injuries Ryoga." There was a dark gleam in his eyes too.

Nabiki just continued to grin. "That is before I charge you for peeping on my family, abusing Ranma's honour and helping destroy our home. And don't look at me like that. I know what you are thinking - Ranma didn't tell anyone – Shampoo did. She did the honourable thing, a little late perhaps, but she is the one who came clean, while you hid behind your honour like a coward, piggy. Really, I should drain you dry and let Kasumi make you into a pork bun, since that is what MY honour demands, but I feel sorry for your mother. So I'll be contacting her today instead, and telling her what you have been up to. And getting her to help you with the payments, though I will be sure to stress that as she cannot bear the brunt of them - no need to bankrupt her if there is no need. I am sure that she will be devastated. Hopefully, she will disown you, and you can go back to being a worthless snack and stop being such a blemish on her honour."

He may not have been able to speak, but tears started to fall down his face. His mother had been the one bright spot in his life - with his father afflicted by the wandering curse, Ryoga's mother had been the one working multiple jobs, teaching her son skills like camping, and trying to instil a notion of an honourable life into him. The realisation that he had failed was painful.

"Oh, and one more thing. Come near any of us again voluntarily, and you will wish you were never born, pig brain. You can have him now, Doctor. Please, come by and see us sometime, before Kasumi and I move out. It will be lovely to catch up properly."

She turned around and walked out of the room and out of the clinic.

Tofu pressed another pressure point, and Ryoga found his mouth was able to move again.

"Well, the girls did quite a number on you. You have both arms broken, a double fracture on your leg, bruised pelvis and concussion. There is also the small matter of a lot of bruising and three broken ribs. But you are a quick healer, so in a day or two, all the minor damage will be gone and I ll have you transferred to the hospital for treatment of your leg and arms."

"It is all Ranma's fault." The shout seemed void and hollow even to him.

To his surprise, Tofu looked at him in disgust. "Don't look for pity here, Hibiki-san. What you did was despicable, and if I had been aware of it, I would have put an end to it myself. Sadly, I mistakenly believed that they all knew about your curse, and didn't have an idea that you were abusing Akane under the guise of being her pet."

"I was not abusing her! I love her!"

"You have a strange way of showing it then. I am sure they will keep this under wraps, but what you have done has disgraced the Tendos. In days gone by, Akane would have been forced to marry you, regardless of her hatred for you or commit seppuku. Is that what you wanted?"

Ryoga's mind was filled with images of Akane being his wife, and his eyes glazed over, and Tofu decided to cut if off. "Of course, not only would she hate you if she married you, she would probably either try to kill you, herself, cheat on you, beat you up, run away or make your life a living hell. And now, you made it worse by not telling you yourself. She will never forgive you for that."

And just like that, his daydream was crushed. He could see the disgust in Akane's eyes as she beat him into the floor with her mallet, her hitting him for everything, her making his life unbearable.

Things suddenly didn't seem to be Ranma's fault any more.

"Not to mention the fact that you already have a girlfriend you were honest with. I am not sure if she would forgive you for continuing to spy on other girls after you two got together. Or dreaming of someone else. And that, Hibiki-san, is your fault, and your fault alone for being a fickle boy. Shout if you feel any pain. I ll come back in a few hours to administer the medicine and change your bindings. I also need to interview you about your life. I suspect that I can get the Tendos to forgive you if a psychiatric evaluation is done and you are admitted to therapy, and show remorse for your actions."

And with that, the doctor let this patient to his own devices.

It only took three days of Ranma working at an insane pace at Ucchan's for Kasumi, Nabiki and Ukyo to forgive Ranma. The boy had been silent and withdrawn the entire time, not speaking and looking incredibly pained and guilty. He took trouble to never look at anyone directly, drew in a lot of business in both forms, changed shape with no arguing, and generally took his punishment as due. It had been decided that he would work as a waiter for the majority of the week, and as a waitress on Saturdays, as well as any days that Konatsu had off. At the insistence of Kasumi it was decided that unless it was best for the business, there was no need to demean him in addition to making him suffer.

It wasn't like they didn't understand how he was feeling, making forgiving him that much easier. While their anger had been fresh, it had been easy to assume that Ranma had been acting out of selfishness. However, after he apologised to them quietly each time he saw them, not expecting their forgiveness, his pain had become obvious as well, and they all found themselves melting slowly.

He too had known what it was like to not have a choice, not have a decision, not be included. He knew all too well what abuse looked and felt like. Nabiki felt that she had trapped him herself, by encouraging his silence with threats of financial and other penalties, and by the fact that Ranma wouldn't want Akane's relationship with the pig to be public knowledge. Worst of all, he was trapped in an inescapable situation. On one hand, there was the issue of him not having known the full extent of Ryoga's abuse, believing that the only person that had been used was Akane, who seemed friendly towards Ryoga in both incarnations. There was the guilt he dealt with for having caused a person he loved pain, as well as his friend.

On top of that, if he kept quiet, he would be seen as dishonourable and selfish. But if he did speak up, he would be tainted with the same honourless brush as his father - Ryoga would have been quite vocal about it. It was not surprising that, given the situation, he had acted the way he did – the way that, while not the best, did not stain anyone's honour too greatly, at least to his own knowledge.

That was not how either father had acted – their motives were purely self serving, with no regard for the well-being of any of their children, or the consequences of their actions. In the case of Tendo-san, who was normally publicly acknowledged as a good father, the betrayal was even greater, though Nabiki privately suspected that it was due to Genma's meddling with her father's moral compass that had caused the break with his usual character. Ukyo privately agreed with her partner's opinions, though she kept the thoughts that out of their three fathers, Tendo Soun was the kindest and most loving, and this was a temporary problem that he just needed to be shocked out of.

So, on the fourth day, as Ukyo watched Ranma slowly, monotonously clean the grill, after asking Konatsu to take the morning off, she could take it no longer. Quietly, she came up to him and wrapped her arms around him.

He flinched.

"Ranma honey?"

"Ukyo-san?" He clearly decided that he no longer had the right to use her name after what had happened to her, and kept addressing her in this way after she forbade him from calling her by her family name or Mistress.

"Ranchan? I. I forgive you."

It was as if a damn broke, and Ranma spun around out of her reach. The emotion in his face scared her. Surprise and fear, as well as anger, probably at himself, were clearly distinguishable, as well as a myriad of other, more hidden emotions. "But Ukyo, I. I let you all be hurt." Tears were starting to appear around his eyes.

"And it doesn't matter any more. Yes, it was wrong, and it was stupid and horrible and even cruel to Akane, but Ranchan, you are my best friend. You said it yourself. If Ryoga had done anything more than look, you would have beaten him up yourself, honour be damned. He didn't even do that, you know. He kept turning away, so other than abusing all our trust, he didn't do anything that's criminal. You didn't know. And you did the most honourable thing you could. Kasumi forgives you already and she understands, Nabiki is more angry at herself than at you for not figuring it all out sooner." Neither mentioned Akane. "I am not saying it was right, what you did, but looking back over your life and the kind of person you are, had you made a different choice, I would have been worried about your integrity and your sanity, honey. And you are sorry for it. Everyone will calm down again soon, you'll see, once they understand just how remorseful your are." She came over to the boy and flung her arm around his shoulders again, this time in a brotherly gesture. "If you start calling me Ucchan again, I ll let you keep the tips on earn on Saturdays if you split them equally between all three of us?"

Ranma was still anxious and looked remorseful, but nodded and managed a tiny smile. Ukyo was sure that he would be turning into a girl at some point later in the day to cry in relief that one of them had forgiven him. "Sure, Ucchan. Now, customers will be coming in, so let me go and finish cleaning, will you? Or Nabiki will not forgive me since I ll be costing her money, and she really hates that. She will never forgive me if I cost her a profit."

It was no surprise as a result that when Nabiki and Ranma came in for his shift that Sunday and found Konatsu trying to console a crying Ukyo, Ranma almost jumped out of his skin apologising for whatever he did.

He was even more surprised when instead of lashing out, when Ukyo saw her friends, she launched herself at Nabiki and incoherently cried into her shirt, while also attempting to hold onto Ranma. Instead of trying to get anything out of the crying chef, the middle Tendo turned to the cross dresser, while trying to awkwardly handle and console her partner. Her voice was frosty. "Talk. Now."

Konatsu looked like his employer had been crying on him for a while, as the entire front of his kimono was soaked. "She got a call this morning from her father. He has insisted that she sell up her restaurant to pay you, Nabiki and come home and marry by the end of the month, or he would disown her again. There was more, but Mistress didn't shout it out while on the phone, and she started crying before I could any more out of her."

Both of the new comers' eyes went cold at the statement. "So, the man still hasn't learnt his lesson, has he? Konatsu, could I use your phone please? I need you and Ranma to set up shop and cook, while I sort this mess out. I ll need to adjust the plans I have in motion a bit, but this should work out fine."

AN: I ve hit 35k in words! Madness. Next up - Kodachi get an idea of what Marriage with Ranma will entail.