Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ When You Wish Upon A Sword ❯ Ranma meets Ranko ( Chapter 2 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

When You Wish Upon A Sword, Part Two

by request, a round-robin fic
so far by White Pheonix & Gregg Sharp(metroanime)

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For the first time since meeting her, Ranma's mother showed some embarrassment as they neared their own home. The mother thought of how to put it delicately. "Um, Ranma dear?"

The offspring was far too touched at the clear emotional tie between them to do much but nod, sighing deeply in a form of secure joy she had never known before.

Nodoka hemmed and hawed for a bit as she fumbled, struggling to reach her keys without losing her hold on her precious burden, fighting for the right words for this. Then she brightened considerably. "When we are inside, please don't go into the basement? I'm afraid that I left it a dreadful mess, and it wouldn't do for you to have a first impression of your mother as a slob."

There, problem dealt with. Nodoka smiled.

Ranma-chan just sighed in her mother's arms. The words registering somewhere, but most of the transformed youngster's thoughts were luxuriating in the emotional flood still not yet abating from finally having a mother again, and what little wasn't was lost in feeling grateful that being in a girl's body lifted all the restrictions pops had drilled into her about boys never letting those things show.

The words registered, but they didn't mean anything. The thought of anything being wrong about her mother was about as foreign as having her own foot for breakfast (and with Akane no longer present the odds for that had significantly lessened).

The door keys were found and the portal to their abode opened, revealing to Nodoka's growing horror a green light and plentiful mist floating up the basement steps that opened upon their entry.

The redhaired woman frowned. "Oh, bother."

Finding herself set down, albeit gently, as her mother went downstairs a whole new spectrum of feeling in Ranma-chan objected that this wasn't right. She was just getting used to the closeness and finally exploring what it meant to be around someone you *liked* when it had to end. It wasn't fair!

You really *cannot* experience the kind of emotive event Ranma-chan had been through unprepared without it effecting some change, at least temporarily. Not even aware enough of the change to struggle as yet, Ranma-chan trotted eagerly and gingerly, yet tremendously weakly downstairs after her mother, not willing to let their contact end and too immature and needy concerning things emotional to do otherwise.

What she saw when she was halfway down the steps was almost enough to make her forget about her mother.

Almost.

It was a mad scientist's lab. It was also a junkyard, a fashion boutique of the unusual and an antique store as well. There were wide areas full of marvelous equipment, racks and racks of bubbling vials and beakers, intricate plumbing and wiring, spinning dials, a few oddly placed pairs of antennas with arcing volts of electricity and a matched pair of stuffed crocodiles set precariously on top of stacks and at least one unlaced suit of armor.

Ranma's eye's widened at the sight. It practically called for a guy in a lab coat to be sewing together body parts or crying "It's alive!" while Indiana Jones used a whip to swing from the tip of that laboratory machine over to that table to snag that gold idol sitting there in plain sight amidst a field of spilled jewels and coins.

Nodoka had stepped cleanly through paths of discarded helmets, leather boxes and primitive jewelry with the skill of long experience and was now at some central table or desk piled high with papers and rummaging through them. "Ugh, I know I left it around here *somewhere*. Aha!" She came up out of the pile with a paper held proudly in hand and called back over her shoulder. "Don't worry Ranma. I'll be up in a minute." Then she finally turned enough she saw Ranma on the steps. "Oh! No, don't touch that!"

"What?" Ranma blinked innocently, taking one step away from the stuffed body of a giant, winged snake that had been lain, along with other odds and ends, well over halfway up the steps.

Unfortunately, that was one step too far. She slipped on a loose coin and in a squawk of limbs the poor down on her luck martial artist flew wide off the stairs and into a display of ancient Greek pottery. By miraculous feat still made more impressive by her present state of weakness, the girl perched gingerly on top of a centuries old bottle without breaking it. But, exhausted by the simple feat, she toppled in a faint and straight over to dive headfirst into a massive pile of ancient swords.

A last sword came cattering off the still-high stack, rattling in its sheath as it bounced off the floor, coming to rest half-drawn.

Nodoka had fetched her daughter and checked her for injuries before the last sword had clattered down, then she could only sigh at her slacked and unconscious features. "Well, I only hope that she doesn't take after me for housekeeping."

Ranma-chan moaned in her sleep.

Nodoka once again scooped up her offspring, and smiled radiantly. "Well, time to get you to bed, dear. We'll talk in the morning."

*****

The crying, the congratulations, all had finally tapered off and the weakened figure of Kimiko Tendo lay upon her bed sleeping.

Nabiki, being Nabiki, had never had this emotionally intense an experience before. The mental floodgates and barriers she'd erected over her life had been overwhelmed and she also slept.

Akane, ever having the tendency towards emotional excesses, had likewise passed out somewhere along the line. It was unlikely that she would be able to be pulled from her mother's side for some time.

Kasumi, being Kasumi, had merely covered her mother to make sure she was comfortable, then slowly managed to make Nabiki comfortable on a futon. Another futon was brought in, and Akane carefully tucked in. Knowing the sleeping habits of Akane and Nabiki from previous nightside vigils, Kasumi knew that Akane would kick her covers off soon anyway, while Nabiki would remain nearly motionless.

Opening the door to Ranma's room, Kasumi saw that neither Uncle Saotome nor Ranma were there. Of course, that peculiar fellow had said something about drawing on Ranma's strength, so maybe Ranma was still where she had last seen him.

Then Kasumi crept down the stairs, thinking of checking on Ranma though her own emotional exhaustion was rather severe at the moment. The burden of being mother to her two sisters, of being the "guardian of household wa" and maintainer of everything wasn't ready to be put aside yet. There WAS the very good possibility of laying those burdens aside, however, and in the near future.

Kasumi wasn't worried. It was Ranma, after all, and he was never down for long from even the most ridiculously dangerous attacks.

There was the outline of Ranma's form - a silhoutte of a water stain.

Kasumi saw this, put it together with the earlier comment about Ranma's life force being used to bring back the various mothers, and came to an obvious conclusion.

At which point Kasumi did something *very* unusual and fainted.

It *had* rather been an eventful day.

*****

Sasuke was always reliable.

True, he was more her brother's servant than her own, and the little rascal had the nerve to fail to exactly fulfill some of her demands, but when the little ninja agreed to do something he was generally prompt with service.

And since she had been two the little ninja had read her bedtime stories.

Sure, odd times of difficulty had arisen, the ancient family home had been riddled with conflict practically since its foundation. The out of the ordinary moments of attempting to kill the little creep for his affronts against her or attempting to defy her will had resulted in arrangements such as speaking through a long tube (ended when she tossed poison down it one time she had *truly* been upset), over radio (ended when she bought a radio-seeking missile on a whim she would never fully describe), by intercom (ended when Tatewaki had one of his traditional moments and ordered the installations removed), and lately the loyal if somewhat bumbling retainer had taken to leaving her bedtime stories read to her and recorded on tape if they were having a short spat.

But Kodachi couldn't think of any difficulty she and the ninja could be having, and having waited up almost half an hour in her nightgown (pale, embroidered with black roses but really far more mousey than any of her daytime rivals or associates would anticipate) she had found she couldn't sleep.

In truth, the crazy gymnast, as well as their whole household, had been unbalanced in the loss of their mother. A dear, sweet soul who had bound them like iron will bind to the gravity of a strong magnetic star, and whose loss had set them spinning crazily like planets without a sun to orbit.

Sasuke's bedtimes stories, however interrupted or delivered, had been the last thing like unto her mother's light and Kodachi just couldn't end the day without them.

Perhaps it was that thought that led her steps to where they ever wanted to go, yet her mind could rarely take her.

There was a wing of the mansion unlike any other. It was ringed with ancient traps set to a most lethal degree, but all those within had been disarmed by nonverbal truce since the day their mother first entered it with the stoic young man whom two children would later call father. Often Kodachi when she was little had fled to this place to cry for hours without end, clutching the empty bed sheets of her unforgotten mother.

Sometimes Tatewaki was there too.

They never talked within those halls. They never said much of anything to each other, really. But there seemed a special sort of peace that hung over that place, a shrine that neither they nor their broken and strangely twisted father could ignore, nor would any dare break.

When the lives of those who dwelt therein were endangered and emotions ran truly high, they had always avoided this place, knowing that to tred their broken, wicked feuds therein would be to extinguish the last memory any of them had to a real home, and not a battleground in which one had islands or uncertain safety and scattered hiding places.

Other families spoke of it, but the Kunos really had a shrine. It may have been a bedroom and a few short halls, but it was home to their hearts even when their bodies were locked in deadly struggle.

The softly slippered feet of a young girl led her there.

Kodachi stopped in amazement, able to tell at an instant that the doors had been laid open and the array of traps, intended to keep this MOST sacred part of Kuno soil ever apart from the tred of unhallowed feet, had been disarmed and left that way.

This was unprecedented. Usually, on those infrequent occasions when it happened of late, the family would enter one at a time, resetting the traps behind as they went along. It was so automatic and thorough that to enter one would never know if one's dear brother or lunatic father had already gone before. To leave this place open was almost heresy, like letting that special aura out where it would mix with the common air - to be lost to Kunos forever.

Kodachi was so stunned at this outrage, this malicious defilement, that she took no thought for her clothes or weapons, and strode most powerfully into her mother's former chambers.

And stopped in shock.

"Ah, mistress Kodachi." Sasuke looked up. "Would you come and help please? I'm afraid a dog attacked me on the way home, and your mother needs..." He never even finished the phrase.

Kodachi was instantly beside him, yet no attention was paid to the loyal ninja presently suturing his own wounds.

"How Sasuke? How?"

The loyal retainer blinked. Kodachi had sounded? Well? He sniffled back a tear of his own, remembering younger days of a little two year old who would trust him with anything, and love him like an uncle. "Mistress Kodachi, when master Kuno gave that sword of his to the pig-tailed-one he bade me follow after so I could tell him what she did with the last wish."

"And?" The threat of hostile noteworthy action was not present, it was merely... scary to see her so controlled actually.

The little ninja swallowed. "When the time came for her to wish I swear I heard her make mention of your name, mistress Kodachi. But instead of retribution or attack, she wished for your mother to be restored to you." He prayed she wouldn't notice the fingers crossed behind his back, but Kodachi's attention was all on the form placidly asleep beneath those covers so often clasped between chubby fingers while sobbing tears of unspeakable loss.

Sasuke bit back surprise. Kodachi was crying? He felt touched as some of the child he used to know emerged in that hardened face while it seemed rivers of tears burst slowly apart the dam that had been built to hide the glad-faced child he once knew.

"Was that it then?" She asked, still outwardly unmoving while the pertinent facts were being developed.

"Not quite, mistress." Sasuke flinched as he made another needle stitch. It really was quite important to him to get this leg sewn back up before the artery he'd been holding with his other hand bled too much. The rug in here was important. "A being of some power appeared and explained the sword did not have that ability. Then master Ranma offered his own life in exchange for your happiness." The retainer paused between stitches. "But the being did not take master Ranma's life, only his strength. I didn't see much after that, as your mother appeared in a glorious flash of light and it fell upon me as my highest responsibility to get her back to you that the pig-tailed one's wish and Ranma's sacrifice not be in vain. But a dog attacked me, and since I couldn't fight very well and still defend your mother..."

The ninja was staring at his leg. Had Kodachi used powders? He hadn't noticed her stitching him up, or applying the salves, or the gauze, or the bandages or the ointments or the creams or...

Medical science does not know of the many powers of potent chemicals to the same extent as Kodachi Kuno. Sasuke was placed in a small bed and lovingly tucked in, with a brush to the forehead one might give the dearest of friends. Then Kodachi went, saw to it that her mother had adequate bedclothing and was not in want for food or drink...

...then promptly crawled in beside her, curled up, and bawled away fourteen years of abject horror, loss, recrimination and suffering clutching her mother's side.

****

Pajamas.

That was the first thing to penetrate Ranma's foggy mind in the morning. Pajamas. She was wearing cotton, filmy things that it took some time for her groggy mind to identify until she ran across a correlation from having seen the Tendo girls so often in their sleepwear. They didn't always wear modest and frilly nightgowns (Kasumi), long Tee shirts (Nabiki), or tight leather straps with spiked dog collars (though Akane usually hid that outfit under something else and seemed mortified when he'd found out).

No, sometimes they wore plain and simple bedclothes that were a little shapeless yet looked comfortable. On Kasumi they looked less elegant than her usual, on Nabiki they inevitably had yen symbols, and Akane frequently wore hers to hide her leather underwear.

Ranma was wearing pajamas.

As her body seemed so reluctant to jumpstart itself this morning, Ranma-chan's mind wandered over the unfamiliar topic while waiting for her brain to come to some sort of decision about when to start moving. The pajamas didn't feel all that different in form to her usual Chinese
clothing style, but they were a great deal more soft and an equal amount less smooth. A tiny corner judged that they'd be easy for a rival to grab hold of, thus not a good thing to fight in.

With a catlike yawn and bleary eyes the girl sat up, letting the covers fall from her and sliding her legs over the side of the bed she'd lain on. Her mind spent some time on the fact that she'd never slept in a bed before, not since leaving home.

Home.

That thought was worth her eyes going wide. She smiled. It was like a dream come true, or more than that as the pigtailed martial artist had never dared to dream anything this good. It was worth a *wide* smile and considerably more energy flowed through her at the thought.

Getting up, she noticed she at least had the power to move today, though not too much. It felt analogous to being beaten and bruised all over while at the same time very sick and desperately hungry. (Yes, her memory provided just such a familiar example from training trips, and this felt like that. Her pops had felt they made good training). Best in all ways if she could take the next few days easy and not hurt herself, delaying her recovery even more.

But it wasn't as if her mom would take to beating on her when she was sick like Genma did to 'toughen'...

Ranma's throat tightened, and a stab of grief/pain was felt. How did SHE know her mom wouldn't be like Genma? Her mom *had* married him, after all. Wouldn't that mean they were the least bit alike? Oh, but contradicting that was the lovely tender feelings they'd shared when they'd met last night. She never could've gotten that from her father, the rogue would make some excuse to shout at him, break it all if it had ever happened in the first place. No, there *HAD* to be differences between her mom and Genma. Genma couldn't be kind without a bribe before his face.

Ranma resolved not to upset her mother, just the same.

Then she recalled the sword she wasn't supposed to lose, and where it must have fallen last night. Better recover that before her mom asked where it was. Supporting herself with a hand on her bedpost, she tested her trembling legs, then very carefully made her way downstairs, the soft teddy bear pajamas rustling too softly to be heard.

Ranma managed to move slowly out to the kitchen.

Where she was promptly seated and faced a massive amount of breakfast.

"How long do you suppose you'll remain weakened?" Nodoka asked as her son/daughter slowly made her way through eggs and toast.

"Guy's note said a week."

Nodoka looked at the note, was momentarily thoughtful, then picked up the phone.

"Hrmmm wrrfff mfffffmmm?"

"Chew and swallow, dear."

*gulp!* "Who ya callin'?"

"This fellow who did all this. 'Grey' the signature says. He may know of manners in which your strength can be recovered more quickly."

"Hai, moshi moshi, Rival Relief Office. This is Tennyson. What you want?"

Nodoka blinked. "This isn't a speakerphone..."

"Yah, well, figured I'd make it a conference call. Hmmm. Mortal plane, let's see. Hmmm," the voice said from the phone as if the whole thing were a speaker. It sounded odd as if the speaker were not quite human. "Well, ain't got all day, y'know."

"I wish to speak to Grey, a worker at your establishment." Nodoka paused. "I have questions regarding my son's wish."

"Oh, it's dat kinda thing. Hmmm. Let's see who I can get. He's off on a Labor, so... gotcha. A consultant will be with you shortly. Have a nice day."

"Hello? Hello?" Nodoka regarded the phone curiously for a moment. "How odd. But then I've rarely interacted with nonhuman intelligences directly."

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If they had been able to see the speaker, it was likely that Nodoka Saotome would have been rather alarmed. There was no telling what Ranma's reaction might have been.

Ten eyes waved on eyestalks directly above the sphere that was Tennyson's central body. That central body sported another single large eye, and directly below that was a mouth. Had Ranma attacked this creature, he would have discovered that there were a lot of nasty things that those various eyes could do besides looking at you.

However, Tennyson was the beholder god of "Live & Let Live" so perhaps it wouldn't have come to that.

One eyestalk focussed on a small device near where he floated. "Celeste, please."

The sounds of a driving rock band could be heard in the background. "Hi this is Celeste, goddess of J-pop. Sorry I can't come to the phone right now, but the life of a SysOp is fraught with interruptions. Or something like that. Leave your name and number and I'll get back to you as soon as I put the current fire out."

Tennyson's facial architecture wasn't really built to scowl, so he used a minor illusion to do so. "Voice mail. Bleah, let's try..."

******

Nodoka Saotome's hair endeavored to escape from its bun and stand on end as a glowing portal of light materialized with a hiss in the air directly before her.

A man wearing yellow and orange flowing garments ran through the door and threw his body weight against it, attempting to slam it closed as dozens of female arms snaked through the cracks. With a desperate effort he managed to seal it, whereupon the door and the arms vanished.

Panting, the man leaned against the wall and wiped the sweat from below his elaborate feathered headdress and looked at his audience, specifically at Ranma. The arrival then joined them at the table and asked.

"Ever have one of those days where you wake up on a pyramid in sort of sun god robes with a thousand naked women screaming and throwing little pickles at you?"

Both Saotomes solemnly shook their heads, unable to trust words. Then Nodoka got a thoughtful look, smiling slightly in a pleased sort of way.

The man in sun god robes rolled his eyes heavenward. "Why am I the only one to have those days?"

The man put the headdress idly aside. "Oh, well. Give it time, Ranma, you probably will. Anyway, what was the call about? Grey not give you enough info last time? He's off on assignment right now, otherwise he would've taken your call. Anything a minor godling can do? I can't stay long else I'll start to acquire love interests all over again. I only have a couple
hundred wives, but somehow they are all convinced I need more. You ought to hear Mina discourse on how all women who aren't married to me are all being somehow deprived. I think she's almost as bad as Shan. But I keep wandering off topic. How are you two today?"

Nodoka looked thoughtful but didn't say a thing. Ranma was freaking out, though far too tired to display it much. That line about 'you probably will' having taken the martial artist's worldview and shattered it. No doubt about it, he was *never* going to get free of the fiancee mess.

Nodoka noted the boy had accepted the tea with evident displeasure. "Please, take a seat. You know about my son's condition?" She was attempting to be polite as he scowled and mumbled something momentarily into the tea.

Jared sat down, eyes twinkling as with a flourish of green sparkles the liquid in his teacup transformed into something amber and pleasantly aromatic. Both Saotome noticed their own cups' contents change to the same color and a spurt of green sparkles from the spout of the kettle.
The redhaired young god took a sip and smiled. "Oh yes, not bad as far as nectar of the gods is concerned. Now which condition did you want to consult on?"

"Which one?" Ranma asked simultaneously to Nodoka staring in awe at her humble teakettle.

"Oh sure," Jared idly summoned a plate of round little spice cakes and took a bite before he started ticking off on his fingers. "Ah, ambrosia is really the only thing to go with nectar. Let's see, there's all the times he's been sold by Genma. There's the Catfist problem, the multiple engagements and fiancees (and boy I know how *that* one goes!), the Jusenkyo curse, frankly I consider him being raised by Genma to be another curse and I'm not alone in that opinion, there's the current weakness from his lifeforce being drained to almost untenable levels, then there's..."

Nodoka and Ranma both began to loose focus as the boy ran out of fingers and started over again. "He WHAT?!"

"Oh sure," Jared said. Then proceeded to relay something he'd seen in the pre-insertion briefing on this meeting. A deal Genma made involving Ranma being sold to the spirits of "The Hungry Ghost's Temple & All Night Eatery" by Genma when he found that walking out on a large bill was *not* tolerated.

"Son, I'm really sorry that I allowed Dearest to take you on that trip."

Ranma merely nodded.

Jared very politely cleaned the crumbs off his fingers and took another sip from his teacup which held anything but tea. Again he smiled. "Now as far as personal revelations go Ranma, your mom is a very interesting person. She's led a life almost as dangerous and interesting as yours was since you parted, but hers was FAR more rewarding. Among her peers she's known as 'Nippon Nodoka' and indulges in the sort of active archeology that producers held as the primary inspiration behind the movie hero Indiana Jones. There are really only two or three rivals which can frequently beat her to a prize."

Nodoka was blinking, her attention wandering between their divine house guest, the teapot, her child and her own thoughts. She commented in supreme distraction. "They were really very tame in their interpretations of the dangers we go through for that movie."

Ranma goggled.

Jared smiled, she was definitely his sort of parent. "Now, Saotome-san here has spent the last eight years as an adventurer - and while she's not used to things in Japan being as nuts as in a Mayan graveyard during an eclipse, I'm sure you can adapt." Jared nodded towards the lady
adventurer.

Some of Nodoka's professionalism surfaced. "Well, most of my work isn't nearly so exciting..." She demurred.

Ranma looked at his mother and his respect for her went up a notch. Sounded exciting.

"From Grey's notes in the dossier, he figured Ranma could handle his problems a lot better if he just had someone to talk to. Which is why he left the note. It's a pity that all your female acquaintances view you more as an object than a person, Ranma." Jared sighed, shaking his head.

"It's not like I asked for any of them," grumbled Ranma, dousing himself with hot water, then immediately regretted it as he felt even weaker. Akane hadn't even checked on him. Or noticed that she'd stepped on him. Pfeh. ~I wish that if I *had* to be engaged, it would be to someone who'd listen to me.~

Nodoka looked at her son. ~I wish Ranma had a nice girlfriend, it would certainly be manly.~

In the basement, a disturbed relic moved. ~I wish I were human.~

"Granted. Oh DARN!" Jared hung his head. "Just a moment."

Nodoka nodded then the two watched curiously as Jared pulled out a cell-phone and put in a very long number.

"Hello, Central? Jared. Now, look I just heard three *very* heartfelt wishes, saw a way each of 'em could come true in one effort, and spoke without thinking about it. Can you retro me the authority to do that? Look, I'd do it myself but you know who'd find me. You shouldn't laugh so
hard, Celeste. Well, it was worth a shot." Jared terminated the call and let out a deep breath. "Uhm, your wish has been approved."

Much blinking. "What wish?" asked Nodoka.

"Was there a storm in the forecast?" Ranma wondered what all that rumbling was.

"You, mom, wished that your son Ranma had a nice girlfriend. Ranma wished that someone would listen to him. Err. You know that faceless statue you picked up in the Antarctic?" Jared shrugged apologetically. "Well, that wasn't a statue."

"Not a statue?" ~MOM!!!?!~

"Like Ranma, someone who had been raised to be a weapon. Someone who craved another life to lead that wasn't filled with violence and hate." Jared mumbled that at least this wasn't yet another fiancee of *his.*

"YESSS!! I'm ALIVE! ALIVE!"

Jared spread his hands and grinned, as if to say "Well, what can I do?". "Uhm, that would be Ranko."

"Ranko?" Nodoka asked.

"This *might* take awhile," said Jared a little ruefully.

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end chapter two