Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Beautiful Girl ❯ Dawn to Dusk ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter 2

Dawn to Dusk

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Part 1: Guilt trip

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Dr. Cid Tofu sighed miserably as he rubbed his temples. It was only eight-thirty and his head was already pounding. This was a sure sign that it was going to be one of those days when everything goes wrong. He didn't know that he was actually half right. He looked up when he heard the door to his clinic open.

"Hello, can I help you?" The doctor asked as he looked up, there stood Kasumi. Now normaly, he would've lost control of himself instantly, probably pulling some weird song-and-dance with his false skeleton (litteraly). But the look on Kasumi's face stopped him, for some reason he found that he could actually function normaly around her.

"Hello Dr. Tofu," her voice was like a mothers', but it was only a facade. Dr.Tofu could easily see that there was something terribly wrong.

"Kasumi...what's wrong?" he instantly skipped the pleasantries, if something was bothering Kasumi, then he wanted to know what.

"I...I...its...its Ranma." she managed before her eyes began to tear.

Dr.Tofu felt his blood run cold, he knew that many terrible things happened to the young martial artist, but Ranma always took it in stride. However, Dr.Tofu could see a little bit of Ranma that the martial artist would've preffered no-one see. He saw a kind of sadness, a longing. Ranma wanted to be free of the complications of his life. Tofu always tried to help lighten the burden, but it always seemed that whenever Ranma had started on the road to having a normal life, something or someone else would pop up and screw everything up for him, and Dr.Tofu always feared that one day, Ranma would snap, and judging by the way Kasumi was acting, that day had come and gone.

"What's wrong with him? Is he hurt?" He was more urgent now, if something happened to Ranma, Dr.Tofu wanted to be there so he could help in any way that he could.

"He's...she's unconcious right now."

"She?," Dr.Tofu was beginning to piece everything together, but he needed more information.

"Yes, You remember when R-Ranma left a yuh-year ago?"

Dr.Tofu nodded.

"Wuh-well he came back last night. He called all of his fiancee's together and told them that he had come a descision."

Dr.Tofu listened to Kasumi account the events of the previous night and a feeling of dread slowly washing over him.

Somwhere, Sometime

A red-headed girl stood in the middle of a sea of darkness. She could hear someone or something slowly walking towards her.

"Who's there?" she whispered. The foot steps stopped, then she heard a familiar voice speak.

"You know who." then the owner of the voice stepped into view. It was a male, clad in a red Chinese shirt with black pants and shoes. He also had black hair that was done up in a braid and he had bluish grey eyes.

"Who are you?" She whispered, though she had a haunting feeling that she should already know.

"I'm you. Well, I was anyway."

"You're me? B-but I'm a...I'm a...a girl!" She protested. The boy smirked,

"Well, your half right. I was you, but not anymore." He laughed merrily before continuing, "I just got the humour behind the nickname that my friends gave me." the red-head felt dizzy,

"W-what nickname?"

"Ranma half." He concluded.

"Ranma half?" She echoed, she was still very confused.

"Yes, Ranma one-half. You see, when I was still part of you, or you part of me or..." now he looked confused, "Whatever. The point is that I would change into a girl when splashed with cold water, and hot water reversed it. So my friends began calling me 'Ranma half'."

Suddenly,realization hit her harder than Ryoga.

"Wait a minute, you said 'I was part of you'. What does that mean."

The boy shrugged nonchallantly,

"I'm not anymore. I destroyed myself along with all of my concieous memories."

"Then how, I mean...Why am I still..."

"Alive? 'Cause I sacrificed myself to make you."

Now the girl had about a million questions for this 'Ranma'. Why did he do it? How did he do it? Was it reversable? But the most prominent one was the one that was voiced.

"Then who am I?"

Ranma rubbed his chin and looked up, his expression was a thoughtful one.

"Well there's no easy way to answer that. If you're wonderin' if your still me, than the answer to that is a flat-out no. However, you still got some of me in ya, like my fighting style and some of my memories, even if you can't remember 'em," He shrugged, "You're pretty much just me, with all the bad parts cut out. But, that doesn't make you me, I'm only a little bit of the personality pie. The rest of it is you. So if you're wonderin' who you are, don't ask me. Ask yourself."

The red-head thought that she was going to fall over, what he said did make sense but she was still confused. Her train of thought was suddenly interupted by the beeping of a watch.

"Oops, I gotta go," He said as he looked down at the digital timepiece that had just materialized on his wrist. He looked back up before he spoke,

"I'll always be a part of you, as sappy as that sounds it is still the truth." He turned to walk away when he paused and seemed to remember something.

"Could you do me a favor? Tell Akane I'm sorry." then he began to sing a song as he walked away. But the red-head only caught the first few words of the tune before she found herself once again, alone in the sea of nothingness.

"Yaa paa paa, Yaa paa paa, feel like such a shrew..."

Tendo Dojo, at about nine o'clock AM

Ryoga looked sadly at the pictures that decorated the wall. One showed himself pointing at the camera man, this one was really just a postcard that he had sent to challenge Ranma to a duel, one of many postcards actually. Ryoga didn't know which shocked him more-the fact that Ranma had kept all of the postcards, or the fact that he had framed them! The one beside it was Ranma in the middle of a kata, despite the stillness of the photo, he still portrayed all of his strength and grace. His eyes finally came to rest on the third and final picture. There sat Ranko, she had a small flute pressed against her lips and her face seemed to be at peace. Ranma always said that he didn't like the picture, that he only kept it up to annoy his old man, and it wasn't until recently that Ryoga understood the real reason why Ranma kept it. It was a reminder, a reminder to Ranma that this girl was still free to live her life how she saw fit, too bad it took such a drastic situation for anyone to realize it.

"Why?" He demanded of himself, "Why were you so bull-headed?" His gaze went to the bed where Ranko's prone form lay. Her face was calm and serene, totaly oblivious to the sadness that her male counterpart had caused.

"But I guess we deserve it, me especially. I kept piling all of my troubles on Ranma. I called him a coward though it was MY God awful sense of direction that made ME miss the fight and start that stupid expedition to find Ranma."

"Well there's a startling observation, care to make anymore? Like maybe the grass is green, or the sky is blue?" Ryoga whirled around, leaning against the door-frame was Nabiki. She had her usual battle gaunlets on and her face had a thin layer of perspiration coating it. She was coping with Ranma's descision in the same way that Ranma would cope with any new and confusing twists in life-by performing katas until he-or in Nabiki's case-she understood it and new how to conquer it. "What's that suppose to mean?" He snapped back.

"You know what it means! Everyone else could see that Ranma was not to blame for your troubles! So why did you keep on heaping them on him?"

For once, Ryoga was at a loss for words. Nabiki took several deep breaths, then continued in a more controlled tone.

"I know I'm not one to be chuckin' any rocks, I mean I did more than my share of damage to poor Ranma and his ego, but not once did I ever threaten his life or his happiness. I was taking advantage of a situation, that's it." She peered at Ryoga, as if seeing him for the first time, then continued.

"Do you remember what you said when you met Ranma that day at Furinken High?"

Ryoga nodded, he never forgot that day. It wasn't a memory he was proud of, but it was one that he held onto because, it was one of the only ones that he had left of Ranma.

"Yeah, I told him that I was going to kill him, that I'd destroy his happiness" he looked back at the peaceful form of Ranko,

"But I never thought that I would succeed."

Nabiki nodded mostly to herself before continuing.

"Do you remember the look on his face when you said that?"

Ryoga shook his head. He'd been too busy trying to kill Ranma to notice.

"Well I do, it was a look of betrayel and hurt. He honsetly thought that you were his friend. You may be too late to be Ranma's friend, but its not too late for Ranko. And maybe, just maybe, you two might end up as more."

Nabiki then turned and walked away, she had other people to talk to. She hated doing this, but she knew that it was for the best. If they felt guilty enough about slowly killing Ranma, then hopefully they wouldn't repeat that mistake twice.

Living Room, later on that morning

Soun and Genma were both studying the shogi board when Nabiki walked downstairs, she shook her head in disgust. They were dealing with Ranma's descision in the worst possible way-denial.

"Oh this is just horrible Saotome," Soun wailed. Nabiki raised an eyebrow, was it possible that they were capable of thinking of anyone else except themselves?

"Yes Tendo, my only son." Genma looked on the verge of tears, while Soun was putting Niagra Falls to shame.

"Now Ranma will never be able to-"

"STAR...SHATTER...STORM!" Nabiki snatched at the air in front of her and pulled her fist back. Knives of yellow light streamed out from beneath her fingers as she forced her ki into a more stable form. Then she hurled the comet-like blast at her father. The beam slowly seperated into several smaller comets of light, mere seconds before they slammed into her confused father. There was a violent explosion and Soun was blasted head over heels into the kitchen.

"Wha-Na-Nabiki? Why...how...huh?"

Soun wasn't sure which confused him more; the fact that his daughter could use a ki technique that made his 'demon head' look like a cap gun, or the fact that she had turned it on him! He looked at his daughter, then he felt fear creeping into his chest. Nabiki looked angry, no not angry, furious. He had seen her upset, mad, and even angry once or twice. But he had never seen her this enraged before, she looked as if she was trying to keep a lid on her normaly controlled emotions.

"RANMA JUST SACRIFICED ALL HE KNEW FOR US AND ALL YOU CAN THINK ABOUT IS YOUR OWN HAPPINESS!?!" She screamed at him.

Soun gulped, now he had done it-he had made one of the most powerful martial artists in Nerima angry at him-not a healthy choice.

"Now dear, I was just thinking of your future." He tried to explain, but this just served to make her even more angry.

"Oh really!? Is that a fact? What happened to the man I knew last night? The man who had shown sorrow for what he had done?" Soun looked ashamed, he had indeed shown the correct emotions for once so what had happened to him?

"I'm...I"m sorry Nabiki. I just, I just hoped that I would live to see grandchildren. I guess I was being a little selfish."

Nabiki then glared at Genma,

"And you...don't even let me get started on you." Then she stormed back upstairs. There was one more person to talk to.

Akane's room, nine-thirty that morning.

Nabiki knocked on the door, after a few seconds she heard Akane finally ask her to come in. Nabiki entered, most of

her anger had been used up. She was glad too, this next part would be very hard.

"So it's my turn eh?" as Akane spoke she also looked up from the floor. Her eyes were red and slightly swollen, making obvious that she had been crying.

"Yeah, we all get to go a round on the guilt train." the middle Tendo daughter confirmed,

"But don't worry, I aint gonna blow you up like I did daddy. He was just being an idiot and needed a wake-up call, desperately. I just want to talk."

Akane gave her a dejected smile.

"It's okay, I guess I need a guilt trip. I've been trying to figure out what would drive him to do something so radical, but I can't figure it out for the life of me. Be it that I don't want to know, or that I can't figure it out is anyone's guess. But right now, I could use someone with a little insight."

Nabiki nodded then joined her sister on the bed.

"Well, do you remember what you did when Ranma first arrived?"

Akane nodded, it was an experience that she wasn't likely to forget.

"Yeah, I stopped you from squeezing her breasts, then we went to the dojo and sparred."

Nabiki nodded in agreement.

"Yes, but as I asked Ryoga, did you see the look on her face?"

Akane nodded,

"Yes, it was one of hope. I guess, that he must've been hoping that he had found a friend, someone who he could actually open up to without the threat of an attack hanging over his head."

Nabik again nodded,

"But when you found out that he was a boy..."

"I was so angry. I felt as if he had somehow betrayed me. So I began calling him names."

"Like?"

Akane swallowed, this hurt, but she was going to answer truthfully.

"I called him a pervert, lech, peeping tom, baka, jerk, jakass, and many others,"

Suddenly it dawned on her what her older sister was saying,

"Oh kami-sama, he was trying to open up to me, and I just threw it back in his face."

Nabiki gave her a sympathetic look.

"Yes, the first proverbial straw on the proverbial camel's back."

With that, Nabiki gave her sister a hug, then walked silently away.

Later on that morning

Dr.Cid Tofu nodded, He had assumed as much from what Kasumi had told him, Ranma-er Ranko wasn't in the least bit of physical danger.

"Well, how is he Doctor?" Kasumi asked, he noted the fear in her voice, obviously worried for Ranko Tofu didn't need to remind himself that she always treated Ranma as a member of the family, so it was natural that she would fear for her little sister.

"She'll be fine, there's nothing wrong with her physicaly. In fact, I can't even honestly say that she is unconcious. It's more of a very, very, very deep sleep. But like any sleep, she will come out of it, sooner or later." Kasumi heaved a sigh of relief.

"However,"

"However?" She echoed, the fear returning.

"However, judging by her chaotic aura, it's almost a given that she'll have some degree of amnesia."

"That may be a good thing." commented Nabiki as she walked around the corner.

"Nabiki, how is my favorite patient?" Dr.Tofu managed a grin, ever since the middle Tendo sister began to re-study the art, he had seen a lot more of either her or her umm....victims. He was usualy setting bones, and/or removing pieces of structures from their person (glass, wood, cement, pieces of iron, ect).

"Just fine Doc, but as I said, this could be a good thing."

Dr. Tofu thought for a moment, but couldn't figure out her line of reasoning.

"What do you mean?" Kasumi was the polite one as always.

"Well simple. We could simply re-make Ranma's room into Ranko's. If we did that, then we would have a lot less explaining to do."

"But what about the school?" Kasumi was thinking ahead, but this time it was Tofu who answered.

"Well easy, just simply call his, er her friends and get them to spread the word about what happened. Though this isn't guaranteed to work, it's the best that I can come up with."

Kasumi nodded, as did Nabiki. Then an evil look crossed the elder Tendo daughter's face, she leapt up and got into a pose.

"It's Kasumi's,"

Nabiki instantly caught on,

"And Nabiki's,"

Dr.Tofu had to keep from laughing as he joined his two companions.

"And Cid's..."

"Operation Ranko!"

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Part 2: Sleeping Beauty

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Later on that night...

Kasumi, Tatewaki and Dr.Tofu sighed happily as they looked around the newly furnished room. In a span of two days, they had succesfully transformed the room from a barren storage room, to a beautifully, but tastefully decorated, teenage-girl's room. First, they had moved all of Ranma's stuff out and had stored it in the attic. Then they had moved Ranko into Akane's room, finally they set to work. Nabiki went out and bought three cans of blue paint ('better safe then sorry' she claimed,). Then the three had set to methodically painting the entire room. When it had finished drying, they then brought in an old bed from Dr.Tofu's ('Hey, she needs it more than I. Besides, I don't really like the little frills on the frame, they're not manly.' He said the last bit with a laugh, which got a forced chuckle from Akane-though he didn't notice,) and they put the bed into Ranko's room. Next, Akane returned from a different shopping trip, she came bearing different amounts of clothes, including dresses, blousses, shorts, t-shirts, make-up kits and so-on. She also produced (while grinning broadly,) a large, cross-eyed, stuffed panda. This earned a groan from Kuno who sighed and asked,

"Will you never let me live that down?"

"Of course not, Kuno-baby!" Nabiki said in her best 'loving girlfriend' voice.

Akane just began laughing, Dr.Tofu joined followed up closely by Nabiki. Finally Kuno joined, because it's hard not to laugh, even if you're the butt of the joke.

Soon afterwords, Ryoga appeared with his arms full of pictures.

"Nabiki helped me take these." He explained, then layed them out on the bed for inspection. Each still-shot portrayed a different member of the 'Nerima wrecking crew' as they had been unofficially dubbed, in a different battle stance. The pictures even included non-members, like Kasumi or Soun and Genma laying into each other in a no-holds-barred shogi match.

(In other words, all forms of cheating are allowed) Akane translated for Dr.Tofu who nodded with than a little confusion.

The group okay'd the photo's and begin to place them around the room at strategic points.

"You forgot one." A deep bass voice rumbled from doorframe, the group of re-decoraters turned around and saw a rather determined looking Genma Saotome standing there, a framed picture in his hand.

"We did?" Tofu looked once again, confused.

"You did," Genma confirmed, "Probably, one of the-no- THE most important one." Then he held up the picture in question. Inside the frame, was a woman in her thirties, though she looked at the most-twenty-five. She had chestnutt colored hair and eyes to match. She also had a beautiful smile on her face, a motherly smile.

"Who is she?" Nabiki inquired, though she had a pretty good idea already.

"Nodoka. His...her mother." He handed the picture to Akane, then silently walked out of the room.

"Who is this unusually thoughtfull stranger," Akane whispered to no-one imparticular,"And where did he put the real Genma Saotome?"

Now, as they looked around the room, it seemed that everything looked right, except for one thing. It was missing Ranko. As if on cue, Ryoga entered, carrying the sleeping angel in his arms. He quietly crossed the room, as he walked Akane quickly rushed over to the bed and pulled the sheets down. Ryoga placed the petite red-head on the bed, then pulled the covers back up. Once again, he felt his glass heart beginning to crack. He looked into her face, she lay there, a look on her face, though it was neutral to some, it spoke volumes to him.

"You did this to me." her face declared, "You and your over-inflated ego did this to me." He quickly stood, then rushed out of the room, he didn't want his friends to see him like this.

Dr.Tofu watched as the lost boy leave the room, his eyes tearing.

"He's still taking this pretty hard."

Akane shook her head,

"He grew up seeing only a selfish, pig-headed, chauvinistic, greedy, uncaring jerk. He saw Ranma through a fogged mirror, but now that the glass is clean, he realizes that he had Ranma all wrong. I'm not saying that Ranma was perfect, he could be a baka alright, but he was our baka."

Nabiki rubbed her eyes,

"Well whatever, I keep thinking that we've missed something, but it's probably just me being tired. After all, I am wiped."

The rest of the group was inclined to agree, besides, tommorow was Tuesday, (they had Monday off).

"I guess we'd all better get to bed. It's after eleven anyways..." Someone said, no-one knew who though, because they were so tired that they couldn't remember saying it.

"Well, goodnight." Dr.Tofu said, then excused himself.

"Yeah, me too." Nabiki said then followed the older man out, along with Kasumi and Tatewaki.

"Yeah goodnight Ranko, you beautiful girl." Akane whispered, she peered around to make sure no-one was watching, she was alone. Then she snuck over, and planted a kiss on Ranko's forehead.

"I may not be your fiancee, but I can still be your sister." Akane whispered, then quietly walked out, shutting the door behind her.

The next Morning,

Akane let out a moan at the sound of the alarm clock. She momentarily considered letting it take a flight across the room, but settled for bringing her fist down on top of it like a sledgehammer, it didn't break though. Kasumi claimed it was 'Akane proof'. She was still grumbling fifteen minutes later as she came out of the shower, still tired, and wet. She pulled on her school uniform, put on the small amount of make-up she usually wore, did her hair, then hopped down the stairs.

"Morning everyone." She said, not even bothering to suppress a yawn.

There were a chorus's of 'Good morning's and a [good morning] sign from Genma-panda. Akane made a mental note to figure when the elder Saotome transformed in the night, cause she was pretty sure that he hadn't been a panda earlier. She plopped down at the table and dug into her miso soup.

"Good morning." A quiet voice whispered, everyone stopped, and looked towards the staircase. There stood a red-haired female who was clad in blue pajama's that had cats emblazoned all over it.

"Umm, I feel awfully silly saying this but...do you know who I am?"

END OF PART 2