Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ Metal Gear Ranma ❯ Prologue: Bleak Happiness ( Prologue )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Slackerchan 
The destruction of one life...
Anime/Manga: Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Suspense / Martial Arts / Drama / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 11.28.2003 | Pages: 4 | Words: 9.5K | Visits: 1.5K | Status: Completed
The destruction of one life...
Anime/Manga: Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Suspense / Martial Arts / Drama / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 11.28.2003 | Pages: 4 | Words: 9.5K | Visits: 1.5K | Status: Completed
Disclaimer: I do not own any and of the characters used in this story, however, I do own the story. All of the characters used belong to their respective owners. This piece of fan fiction is not for profit. I created this story, so therefore it belongs to me. Please note that this piece of writing does in no way depict real persons, groups, and/or entities in the manners mentioned in this story. Any relationship between said people and/or entities is strictly coincidental.
Special thanks to Amy Holt for editing and reviewing, as well as having a site to post it on.
Special thanks also goes to Jill-chan for editing and reviewing.
Special thanks also goes to the owner of “Ranchan & Co. Crossing Bridges” for providing an alternate site to post this story on.
Tactical Espionage Action
Metal Gear Ranma
by Chris Davis
Prologue: Bleak Happiness
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set ye free.”
John 8:32
They say it never rains, it pours. That was the case here. In the endless sky, where once there was limitless blue, dark clouds occupied the space, erupting in flashes of light followed by cracks of thunder, all the time a continuous blanket of water falling to the earth. Not an inch of light shone through the black ceiling, causing the street lights along the block to turn themselves on. Depending on how one would look at it, it could be said that this was an omen, and they would be right, fore the bright spot of one such person’s life was about to be snuffed out.
They were all there, except for her. He thought about it, and believed that she probably already knew. Their cold, dark stares were aimed directly at him, devoid of any compassion, yet he had done nothing to provoke them. He didn’t know how, but he did know the why, and now his life was over. All over a simple matter that had no relevance in his heart...
It had all started with the middle Tendo daughter, Nabiki. It was going to be an innocent little history project for her class, before it grew into something more. Her assignment was to dig into her families history and do a biography, so naturally, she turned to her father for information. He turned out to be knowledgable of the subject, going into such detail as the legacy of several samuari from back as far as 200 years ago. She got what she wanted and began to write.
But then, she realized something: she knew next to nothing of her sister’s fiancé’s family, despite the fact that her would be brother and father in law had 'lived' with them for nearly two years now, so she waltzed right up to her desk and began her hunt. She knew going to Mr. Saotome would result in nothing, and she would not want to bother Auntie Nodoka, of whom didn't know the identity or whereabouts of Ranma. She therefore resorted to two of her most effective means of acquiring information, her compatriots and the internet. It took hours, her most reliable contacts not even able to give her enough information to support a conclusion, but what she found was something that stopped her dead in her tracks. It was legitimate, as far as she could tell, since this site had a reasonable reputation, so what was before her eyes was irrefutable. She quickly made a backup of the catalyst and printed out a copy for herself.
The next part wasn’t going to be easy. She had to tell her father, but she didn’t know how, so she decided to tell the next best person, Kasumi, one of the, if not the only person she could trust to keep this quiet, at least until she could officially act on it. She would tell daddy, she thought. She walked down from her room into the kitchen, where the elder sister stood chopping green onions, preparing for another feast fit for a king. It was getting pretty dark outside, at which she reminded herself of the weather report that called for heavy showers in the evening she saw that morning, and those two weren’t back yet, which was good, she noted. Nabiki found her where she thought she would be. Kasumi always had a smile on her face, as if it had been tattooed onto her, and she was thought of as the person who could stop a war just by speaking in her gentle demeanor. Nabiki was almost the opposite of her, an ice cold information mercenary, as all she cared for were yen and family, and she was about to act on the latter part.
The shattering of the china that fell on the floor could be heard from all over the house, yet not a single person came to inspect the ruckus. For the first time in a long while, Kasumi was in shock. The look on her face would have caused Nabiki to run out the door if she were not already hardened by the news. There was nothing more to be said here, so she went into the living room until Kasumi ‘woke up’.
She shouldn’t have left, though. Nabiki’s departure brought her out of her confound state and she broke down on the floor. Only once before had something blind sided her loved ones, and that had occurred over ten years ago. This kind of event wasn’t supposed to happen to her family, the death of their mother having turned her father into what he was today, a extremely emotional and weak man. And now, from her lips she uttered three words, “that little bastard…” She got up and left the kitchen, the broken dishes on the floor not even on her mind. She had to tell her father.
Soun Tendo was sitting on porch, enjoying a nice game of shogi with his best friend, Genma. They had a history that spanned over twenty years of friendship, the marriage of their children promissing to solidify it, and today, like almost every day, they were enjoying one of their favorite past times, besides that of getting drunk all night telling old stories that had been heard a thousand times, each time being a little different than the previous one. The game was something did every afternoon, evening, morning, and pretty much all the time. However, that wasn’t what was strange; the person who was playing with him was a panda, and a large one at that. If you were to not live in this district of Tokyo and see this, you would say this was probably a stunt to attract attention, but for the residents of Nerima, this was a daily occurrence.
Kasumi was right on the mark. She pulled open the screen door and found her father sitting there across from Mr. Saotome, who, for reasons unknown to her, hadn’t gotten his kettle of hot water today. Soun turned to her eldest daughter, who beckoned him inside for a moment. He excused himself and followed her inside. He was lead to the entry way, where Nabiki stood. Soun began to wonder what was going on, but then, they told him what Nabiki found. They paused after they finished, looking to see if it was getting through to him. He did not react, not a muscle twitch or anything. But that wasn’t the thing that got their attention. The emotional man that he was, a habit of his that he never truely recovered from, was doing something that their daughters did not expect; he was not crying. Instead, his face was drenched in white, as if he had climbed into a sack of flour.
Soun looked at his daughters, hoping this was some kind of joke, but the looks on their face told it was the truth. He sighed, sat down, and did not say anything for several minutes. They sat down as well, waiting for his instructions on what to do. He spoke up, “I’ll distract Saotome. Nabiki, call the others and tell them to head here right away, they need to hear this. Kasumi, act like everything is normal until everyone arrives.” The girls got up and began to turn away before he stopped them. “Don’t tell Akane, she is better off not knowing until its over. Send her on an errand or something, but make sure she isn’t here when we spread the news. When Saotome’s son gets here, then we’ll do it.”
With that, the three of them went on their separate tasks. Genma didn’t know what had happened, but Soun made sure that he wouldn’t find out until it was too late. Kasumi went back to cleaning up the mess in the kitchen. Nabiki did her task as well, calling the Nekohaten, the Kuno Mansion, and Ukyou’s restaurant, drawing them toward the dojo. It wouldn’t be long before everyone was there.
Akane arrived around 7:30, steamed as usual, but not with Ranma in tail. That was good, Kasumi thought, meeting her at the door with her normal smile. “Hello Akane. Did you have a nice day?” she asked.
Akane anger dropped a few notches upon seeing Kasumi. “Hey sis, it was okay until that jerk got into another fight with poor Ryouga. Then, he had the nerve to kick P-chan into the stratosphere. Ranma will be here in about thirty minutes, judging by how far my mallet took him.” With that, Akane turned to go inside, when Kasumi stopped her.
“I made a list of things I need for dinner, Akane, but I don’t have time to go get them. Can you do it for me instead?” Kasumi asked, hoping she would take the bait. “It will only take about an hour, and I should have dinner almost ready by then.”
She did. “Let me put my stuff up and I’ll be ready to go.”
“I’ll take care of that. You just go get the ingredients, okay?” Kasumi asked, hoping Akane wouldn’t try to come inside.
Akane gave her a puzzled look, one that disappeared just as quickly as it saw the light of day. “all right, hand me the list. Could you hand me an umbrella? It looks like its going to rain.” Akane said as she looked up at the clouds, which were gathering and turning into a dark gray color. She took the list and umbrella from her eldest sister and, dropping her school bag, turned around and went out the front gate towards the market.
A sigh of relief escaped Kasumi’s lips as she watched her leave her sight. She felt sorry for her little sister, but this had to be done. She couldn’t be allowed to live a life of misery with Ranma as her husband. She closed the door, picked up the book bag, and, turning around, went back inside.
Kasumi had good reason to not let Akane inside, because not ten feet from the door everyone else sat, wondering why they had been called down there. The Chinese Amazons sat on the sofa, Cologne eyeing Kasumi’s odd behavior. Shampoo and Mousse sat beside one another, both glad to be inside before it would begin to rain, but Shampoo being sure to watch the left hand of Mousse, which was now several inches closer than it had been the last time she had looked down. Ukyou stood next to the sofa, also confused as to why everybody was here. She also had her battle spatula handy, watching the two other figure that stood across from her. The Kunos, Tatewaki and Kodachi, stood there, rather quiet considering the circumstances, but ready to fight at a moments notice, and knowing the lethality of the persons on hand, a single spark could ignite the room.
Kasumi put Akane’s bag by the door and walked back into the living room, shortly followed by Nabiki and Mr. Tendo, Mr. Saotome having been served his dinner early in the dojo, where he had been practicing several kata exercises, so as to keep him from interrupting the conversation. Ukyou was the first to speak up. “Okay, sugar, why did you bring us down here?” she asked, getting right to the point.
Nabiki walked over to the counter and grabbed several sheets of paper and began to pass them out amongst the group. “I want you to look at something I found out while doing some research for my history project. I think it speaks for itself.” She said, noting their reactions to what she was saying, Cologne’s expression in particular. The Tendo’s waited for the imminent explosion.
It didn’t take but a moment or two for the room to erupt in shouts. Several cries of disbelief could be heard, while others were one of conviction. The Amazons were still quiet, though, Cologne being the only one who understood what was going on. A combined effort of Kasumi and Soun was probably the only thing that could have worked in order to quiet the room down.
The Kunos were the first to react. Despite Kasumi’s protests to be quiet, Tatewaki triumphed in some the proof that, finally, the coward Saotome was indeed filled with the blood of savages like he had been trying to prove for so long. He was overjoyed that he could finally liberate the pigtailed girl and Akane from the clutches of Saotome. In his mind, the fiend had only held him back, while he searched for evidence to explain the power of his opponent, and now, he did. This was finally going to be Saotome’s day of reckoning.
Kodachi just stood there in shock, the paper falling from her hands. Her love, the man who had saved her from danger time and time again in her dreams was just a demon in disguise. He was unclean. She was a fool. As she reeled from the loss of her beloved, her hand struck one of the black roses within the confines of her black silk dress. One of the thorns pricked her already scarred finger and began to bleed. As it did, the poison entered her bloodstream and began to infect her. It spread quickly throughout her body, doing what it was designed to do, infecting what wasn’t in mere seconds. Most people would have been lucky to survive its power, but for her, since she had designed and tested it on herself, it only had the power of a mild tranquilizer. Her body went numb as it had done a thousand times before, and she began to fall backwards. Thanks to Tatewaki’s quick reflexes, she was saved from a nasty headache.
Cologne looked at the paper in dead shock. Her son in law would have been the best warrior of their tribe and a source of incredible fighting blood, but now he was worth nothing more than dirt in her eyes. How could she have been so ignorant as to nearly allow her granddaughter to marry such a low life? Shampoo and Mousse sat there confused, not understanding what all the ruckus was about. Cologne handed the truth bearer over to Mousse first, hoping to handle Shampoo after Mousse, since she wouldn’t be easy to control. Mousse took it and read it, and, with each passing moment, a grin grew on his face, a dark, foul grin that Shampoo began to get worried about. Mousse finished and handed it back to Cologne, who, in turn, handed it to the now scared Shampoo. She took the paper and began to read it slowly, as her kanji was still not very good. She too finished and handed back to Cologne, but she still didn’t understand.
“What this mean, grandmother?” Shampoo asked, not understanding what was going on.
Cologne gave out a sad sigh as she turned to her and began to speak in Mandarin as the others watched, wondering how she would take it. Mousse put his arm around Shampoo, a feeling of utter pride and glory washing over him, knowing that she was his now. Shampoo would have elbowed him into the wall if she were not so intently focused on what Cologne was saying. Nabiki continued to view the escapade with ever mounting interest, as she didn’t know what she was saying, but knew what was coming. The young Chinese Amazon warrior’s face grew darker as Cologne continued on, explaining what it meant. When she finished, the Matriarch paused to gauge her reaction, which was one none too happy. It was better than she had hoped, however, as Cologne had half expected her to lunge at one of the Tendo daughters, most likely the mercenary.
Cologne turned to the group and switched back to Japanese in order to announced her intentions. “Ranma Saotome, former husband-to-be of my granddaughter, Xian Pu, is hereby absolved of all rights and privileges to the village of Nyuchiehzu.”
Nabiki responded. “I thought he would be safe in China, since he is ‘good breeding material’.” she asked.
Cologne shook her head. “As in this country, we have strong beliefs concerning the origin of our ancestors. Most of our villagers, as well as Xian Pu, Mu Tzu and I come from a strong line of warriors. However, there are those in the village that have poor ancestry, thus from their birth, they become slaves.”
A loud thud caused the attention to shift to the person next to the large piece of furniture, Ukyou, who was on her knees weeping, the words on the page at her feet having stung her to the core. She would have never believed it, but coming from Nabiki, it had to be the truth. Even Cologne, one of the most stubborn of the group had decided that he was worthless. She could not marry Ranma now, the truth being known. By tomorrow, it would be all over the school, if it wasn’t all over the neighborhood already, and if she kept the engagement, she would be the laughingstock of the city. How could she do it anyway? She knew how people like him were; honor less thieves who would have no care for anyone but themselves.
She stopped weeping as a thought struck her, one that was probably the most logical explanation for the news that she had just received. It explained everything, her abandonment by the two when she was six, Ryouga’s attitude towards him, everything. Ranma’s father stole the dowry. Ranma mooched off of her at lunch and whenever he wanted to fill his stomach. Ryouga and Kuno would attack him because of what he had ‘done’. He had been living with and off of the Tendos for at least 2 years now. And so, it all came to a head. She had been used, just like all the others.
Ukyou picked herself up off the ground, and wiping away the trail of tears coming from both eyes. She had been the subject of control for over 12 years, and now, she decreed, would not be used again. She would have her revenge against the two, just like she had set out to do that lifetime ago. As she stood up, she drew one of her miniature spatulas from behind her back and, aiming, hurled it. Kasumi had barely been able to duck when it impacted into the wall above the front door. It stuck in, gravity’s pull on it seeming to have no affect.
“He must die.” She simply stated, her voice now barely above a loud whisper, but one that everyone could hear. It had been said a thousand times before, but none so chilling as this, as she was once Ranma’s best friend, Ranchan and Ucchan they called each other, and the voice was so cold that not even a blowtorch could do a thing about it.
“No,” Nabiki responded, “we let him live.”
“What do you mean?!" Ukyou contorted. "Those bastards should die like the dogs they are!”
“No,” Nabiki continued to retort, “he will suffer something worse than death.”
“What you mean?” Shampoo responded, now ready to exalt her own plans on the damned one.
The trademark ice cold smile of the Ice Queen, otherwise known as Nabiki, spread across her face. “Simple. He is honor less now, so he will simply live the rest of his life without knowing happiness. Think about it. If we killed him, we would probably all end up in prison on some account like ‘conspiracy to commit murder’. Ryouga still wouldn’t allow that, and we can just guess what would happen then.” She panned the room to gauge the reactions of everyone, which were now in agreement with her, except for Shampoo and Mousse.
“But if we did kill him, we wouldn’t get in trouble.” Mousse said confidently.
“Wrong, child.” Cologne responded. She knew what Nabiki was going to say, so she took over for her. “If we are caught, our punishment will be far worse. We are here in Japan illegally, so any crime we commit and are arrested for will cause us to get deported to a Chinese jail. We would be jeopardizing the safety of our village, not to mention ourselves.”
Nabiki hadn’t thought of that, but she continued on. “Exactly. That way, he will be in pain with the loss of his dignity, so we can elongate his trip to hell. There won’t be a place in Japan where he could feel okay, in any sense of the word.”
Kasumi spoke up. “What do we do when Ryouga or ‘P-chan’ shows up?”
Nabiki was expecting this, but didn’t have the answer everyone wanted. “Well, we’ll have to play that one by ear. Who knows how he’ll react.”
The group seemed accept this answer, however, it was only a temporary solution. Ryouga was the kind who could be easily persuaded to do whatever was wanted of him, and if he listened, they might have a chance of making him call off his ‘little crusade.’ With that, Soun decided that it was time. “Yes well, Saotome should be finishing his meal and his son should arrive shortly, so we should prepare.”
Kasumi took that opportunity to get down to business. “Okay, father and I will distract Mr. Saotome until Ranma arrives. Nabiki, take them up to our rooms. I’ll come and get you when he arrives. We’ll get rid of them all together then.”
“We are in agreement then. The forsaken one shall be forced out into the light and will know the pain of loss.” Tatewaki stated, lifting his downed sister in her trance like state up over his shoulder.
Nabiki took notice of this. “How long do you think she’ll be out?” she asked.
“If it is her usual recipe for her roses, it will most likely be a few minutes, depending on the dose.”
Tatewaki hit it almost on the nose. As he carried the limp body of his sister upstairs, she began to stir, at which point he noticed and began to hurry, not wanting his sister to come to and get the wrong impression of what was going on. Ukyou and the Amazon trio followed suit up stairs to Nabiki’s and Kasumi’s rooms. The Kunos and Kuonji were escorted to Nabiki’s room, while the Amazons were sent into Kasumi’s. Before leaving each room, she told the occupiers that they had to be quiet, as the walls and floors didn’t have a lot of insulation, and that an argument could incur attention. Both groups followed their instructions to the letter, keeping conversations low and not moving around on the much abused wood floor that had gained the wrath of Akane or any one of them at one time or another.
Ranma was actually having a good day, if you consider getting into two fights, changing sex the same amount of times, and nearly getting in detention something enjoyable, but never the less, it was good for the young Saotome. He had only gotten wet twice that day; once in the morning on the way to school thanks to the intolerable accuracy of the ladle lady and again during an ’encounter’ with Ryouga Hibiki right after classes ended for the day. He was his long time rival/friend who had a bad sense of direction, so bad that he could get lost in his own room (wherever that was).
The fight was relatively short compared to other bouts they had had, as the conveniently placed school pool caused them to take on their cursed forms. The now female Ranma had dragged the piglet out of the pool and proceeded to ‘harass’ the little one for his offensive against her. The pig was last seen flying toward Okinawa thanks to her, but she soon joined him when she came face to face with Akane’s battle mallet. It didn’t hurt much, and she traveled only a couple hundred meters before crashing into the side of a lamp pole. Lucky for her, the post was just across from a small ramen stand, steam rising from the water that cooked the food. The owner of the stand gladly handed over a cup of hot water to the young redhead, who went around a corner and disappeared from sight before being replaced by a large muscular young man who asked of him a towel to dry off with. What caught the clerks attention was not his request, but what the man before him was wearing; the same clothes the young lady who had been there mere seconds before. The man obliged, and Ranma set to work drying himself. It took a matter of moments and he was on his way, thanking the cook and returning the towel as he left.
The smell of the ramen had incited his hunger, so he felt he had to meet it’s demands. The place where he had landed wasn’t far from Ucchan’s restaurant, and since school was out by now, he went by the place for a quick bite to eat. He was surprised to find that it was not open and the door was locked, so he figured that she must not be back yet. He decided to head toward the Nekohaten, the home away from home and business of the ‘Old Ghoul’, Shampoo, and Mousse. It was closed too, the door having been locked, but he considered the string of events as a coincidence.
He looked up toward the sky, where he could see dark storm clouds beginning to cover what was left of the late afternoon sky. Sudden showers were very common in Nerima, especially ones that only lasted for a few minutes and only on a block or two, but the clouds overhead were not said showers. Thunder roared from them, sending the message that everything not under cover was about to get drenched. Ranma took this as a sign that he needed to get back to the dojo, and fast. He broke out into a sprint in the direction of home, hoping that the change would not overcome him again before the end of the night. Lightning flashed every few moments, but he continued towards his destination, nothing impeding him along the way.
He walked through the gates of the Tendo Dojo and approached the front door, the overhang of the front porch saving him from almost certain irritation, as only seconds later the downpour commenced. Ranma gave off a sigh as he took off his shoes to go inside. As he entered, he took sight of Kasumi and Mr. Tendo, standing side by side and staring at him as he entered. The air was tense, Ranma took note, but he greeted them with a smile still.
“Hi Kasumi, Mr. Tendo. How is everything?” Ranma asked.
Soun and Kasumi returned his smile with one of their own, hollow as it was though. Kasumi spoke up. “Just fine. Why don’t you go watch some television with your father while I prepare dinner?”
Ranma agreed with her suggestion and walked into the living room, where his father sat at the couch, watching some kind of B horror movie. As Ranma sat down on the opposite end of said furniture, Soun motioned toward Kasumi, who went to do what she had been assigned. She headed upstairs and disappeared from sight. Soun walked into the living room and sat down in the lounge chair opposite of the couch, awaiting the arrival of Kasumi‘s party, but not leaving a hint to the Saotomes.
He heard the creaking of the stairs and caught the eye of Nabiki, who was the first to come down. She motioned for him to come, at which Soun got up and walked over to her. Ranma turned his head and watched him approach his daughter, who bent over to her. She began to whisper something into his ear, so low that not even Ranma’s keen sense of hearing could understand. Soun straightened up and nodded to her. He then turned to the Saotomes.
“Genma, Ranma, could you come here for a second?” Soun called to them, hoping to draw them out of the living room.
Genma was reluctant, but he was able to meet his hopefully soon brother-in-law’s request. Ranma did so also, but not on the same train of thought as his father’s.
“What is it, old friend?” Genma asked, wanting to know what Soun desired. Mr. Tendo face fell, no longer able to hold up the farce. He turned around and nodded at Nabiki, who stood in front of the stairs just a few feet behind him. She, in turn, stretched her hand toward the stairs and snapped her finger. She then walked forward and joined her father.
One by one, people began to pour out into the entry as the Saotomes, particularly Ranma, watched on. Kasumi came first, followed by Cologne, Mousse and then Shampoo. Next came Ucchan and then Kuno, Kodachi following right behind her brother. They each took a position behind Nabiki and Mr. Tendo, setting up for what was about to happen.
Something was up, at least as far as Ranma and Genma could tell. Everyone except Akane and Ryouga was here, but Ranma had no clue what he had done now. The group all stared coldly at the Saotomes, Kasumi also doing so, which startled Ranma, who had never seen a frown appear on her face. Ranma tried to break the silence, which was only occupied by the sound of the rain and an occasional thunder clap. “What’s going on, Kasumi?” Ranma asked, assuming she would tell him, if anybody.
Kasumi didn’t respond but to give an even colder stare at him, at which time Nabiki spoke for her older sister, as well as everyone else. “Maybe you could tell us Ranma. Look at this.” she said cruelly, not in her usual Ice Queen voice. She handed them each a copy of a paper, identical in every way. They both began to read it.
Genealogy of Modern and Ancient Japanese Family Clans
Search: Saotome
1 result found
“…Among the many family legacies of today and yesterday, there are several worth noting for being ‘unclean’. One such clan is the Saotome clan. In the late 1600’s, the members were very notorious for their background as grave diggers, who threw away their shovels near the mid 1600's and became thieves, kidnappers, and sometimes, murders. Trained as ninjas, the children of the family became mercenaries at maturity, often committing crimes that rivaled other clans of the times. Few historians of the period acknowledge their existence, for fear of possible reprisal by the clan, however unlikely. It still is in existence today, only leaving few survivors, not nearly as popular as it once was…”
end search results
Ranma didn’t know what to say. He finished reading and looked up at the others. Their faces were still dark and icy, unrelenting enough to make Ranma get the picture. Genma, on the other hand, upon reading the sheet, didn’t speak a word, something that was once unknown to him now staring him in the face in a manner that had just dashed nearly 12 years of hard work.
Ranma tried to respond, knowing what the others were trying to tell him. “Wait a minute. You all are judging pop and I because of some history that does not apply now? That was four hundred years ago! We weren’t there!”
Soun responded to his little speech. “True. But once a Saotome, always a Saotome. You are unfit to marry my daughter, or anyone!”
Ranma was now panicked. He had never been in a situation like this before, and now he would have to pull out all the stops. He turned to Cologne, who sat on her walking stick watching him. “What about you old ghoul? Got something against me too?”
She spoke up. “Your right to my granddaughter in marriage has been revoked. You are worth no more than that of a slave to us now.” she said, never having been as unrelenting as now. Cologne wasn’t about to even touch him, so she kept at battle readiness.
Genma turned to his old friend, appealing to his long time friend. “Tendo, perhaps we could discuss this…”
Soun was now angry, beyond the recognition of the happy old man who was there throughout most of the day. “No discussions Saotome! I was a fool to go along with you all these years, and now the veil that has covered my eyes for so long has been removed. I want you out of my life, forever!” Soun shouted, lightning flashing outside to add to the effect.
Ranma was a lost cause in two groups eye’s. He looked at Ucchan, his best friend since he was 5, hoping she could understand him. What looked back at him was not his childhood friend, but the face of someone intent to kill. He still tried to get through to her though. “Ucchan, what is going-”
She cut him off. “Don’t you ever call me that, Saotome! I have been yours too for far too long, and now I realize I should have killed you both a long time ago.” Her voice was cold and lifeless, all humanity for her former fiancé now gone completely.
Ranma was nearly in tears now; only his pride, or what was left of it, kept them from emerging. He looked toward the Kunos, wondering if they were in on this too. Tatewaki’s stare was one of hatred, his long overdue anger finally reeling it’s ugly head. He even gave a pleading glance to Kodachi, who had the most unique look of the conspirators, one of sadness. What it was of Ranma probably would never know, but he knew it was not out of pity toward him or his father.
And so, for the first time in Ranma Saotome’s life, he gave up. His friends and family had turned their backs on them, and now he had nothing left to live for. One final question escaped from his lips, one that was, to him, the most important of them all. “What-what about Akane?”
“She did not need to hear about this. She will learn of it when she returns, but I guarantee you, she will agree with us when it comes time.” Soun stated, knowing that had hit home. He looked away to his watch, the time having escaped his mind. It read 8:17 which meant Akane would be back from the now closing market in about fifteen minutes, which was just enough time to make sure the thieves had been long gone. “It is time.” Kasumi walked forward and tossed the Saotomes’ bags at them, who caught them out of reflex unconsciously. Soun continued, “Leave our home forsaken ones! Do not darken our doorstop again, or there will be reprisals!”
Soun then walked toward the stunned ones and shoved them out the open door into the cold rain. The curse overcame them both very quickly, and now a giant panda and a small redheaded girl occupied the places where a large man and his son had once been out on the wet lawn inside the confines of the property. The door slammed behind them, and the once friendly faces of everyone he once had held dear disappeared from view, never to be seen again.
The two unusual figures stood up in the cold, unrelenting rain and picked up their packs that someone at least had the courtesy to take care of. If there had been no rain, one could have seen the tears form on the face of Ranma, someone who now had no life. The panda did not, his feelings unknown to the poor redhead. She didn’t know what to do.
The panda, however had other ideas. It held up a sign to the girl. ‘Come boy we better leave.’ it read, ‘I know somewhere where we can stay for a few days.’ The panda picked up the traveling bag in front of him and began to walk out the front gate, only to be stopped by Ranma’s voice.
“No. Leave me alone.” she said, walking through the front gate, all the while the storm raging on. She decided to head east, the route she had taken to school for two long years in this neighborhood. The panda stopped her though.
‘Not that way boy’ It flipped the sign over. ‘The place is in Juuban.’
“No. You've ruined my life since the day you took me away from Mom.”
‘Don’t be stupid Ranma’ (flip) ’Come with me.’
“No! This is the last time you mess with MY life, father!” She screamed at the panda, dropping her bag and preparing to lay a severe beat down on the overgrown creature. The panda took on what appeared to be a fighting stance, knowing what was about to happen. Ranma opened the bout with a dead on run and jumped into the air. The panda lost the girl in the downpour, unable to sense the girl’s movements. A split second later, the panda’s skull struck to pavement, followed by a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder. The creature was now unconscious, the blunt force trauma having easily stopped it in it’s tracks. The youth surveyed her onslaught, trying to get a feel for how long her father would be under. It would probably be long enough for me to get away, she thought. She turned around, nearly slipping in the wet street, and picked up her pack. She had had it since she was around ten, and it never left her side when she would travel. It was really the only trivial possession besides the clothes within that belong to her.
She strapped it to her back and looked down the street. The storm has reduced the visibility considerably, and only a flash of lightning and an occasional street lamp helping to guide her along the way. She started down the path, one last time. As she went on, memories spurt forth into her mind, ones of happier times, ones where only the curse impeded her. Now though, the world had turned its back against Ranma Saotome, the ‘forsaken one’. Everyone she knew had turned against her, and by tomorrow, no one in Tokyo would take pity on her. She had never known of hate that had brewed within her society, and now, she was a victim of it.
As she continued on, one person out of them all caught her attention. That person had taken care of her time after time, always concerned for her sake. She realized it; that person would probably be the last one who could help her. Now, she had to see him, she had to see the Doctor.
Dr. Tofu was just locking up his clinic for the night when the knock at the door came. It was strange, he thought, for a patient to stop by this late at night, not to mention the horrible weather outside. He walked to the door to open it, his curiosity growing stronger by the second. The lock clicked and he opened the door. It was a young girl, at least a foot shorter than him, with bright red hair, mated down by the rainfall, but she did not look up into his face; she didn’t need to, fore the good doctor knew from the get go who it was. Ranma.
“Ranma, what are you doing out right now? Come on in before you catch cold.” he said, concerned for his favorite patient.
Ranma did not reply, instead just by walking inside, dropping her pack to the floor, and standing down on the couch. Something was wrong, Ranma never acted like this. He shut the door behind him and walked into the waiting room where she had set herself down. He squinted his eyes, using this to shift his attention to something a little bit more revealing, her aura. He had to blink a few times before seeing and comprehending what it meant. Usually, Ranma emitted a blue aura, which spelled out pure confidence, but in this case, it was yellow, which he only saw on the Hibiki boy, meaning depression or sadness. Whatever it was that happened, it had affected the cursed boy to the core.
She began to shiver, which brought him out of his train of thought. He hurried to his restroom and appeared a few seconds later with a cup of hot water. The girl didn’t take the offer from him, so he poured it over her head to make sure she used it. The change was instantaneous, growing in places and shrinking in others. The male Ranma now sat a head taller than before, indicating that he was not having a problem with his curse, but he was still cold from the weather. Tofu left the room again and quickly returned with a couple of blankets and towels for him to dry off on. He wrapped the chilled boy in them and then sat down opposite of him. He knew that if he got the first word out, Ranma would not come clean on what was going on.
The silence lasted for several minutes, only the sound of rain crashing to the earth and thunder claps occupying the scene. Both figures sat there, Ranma waiting to get the reaction of his mentor, while Tofu gauged what could have happened the young boy. In the end, the doctor won the battle of wits, as Ranma spoke up, but in a voice just above a whisper.
“So, I guess you feel the same way about me as the others, eh doc?”
“What do you mean Ranma? I haven’t seen much of anyone from your school all day long. What is wrong?” Tofu asked, knowing it would now be revealed.
And so, Ranma began his sad tale of what had happened to him back at the Tendo household, how Nabiki had found some site on the internet about his lineage and how everyone abandoned him because of it. He began to cry as he finished his story, now knowing this was it, the point in which the last soul in all of Nerima, or even Tokyo, who could help him.
The story was one that Dr. Tofu would have never expected from the youth. He knew it had been rather quiet today, but he had never received a phone call from Nabiki or anyone else concerning the matter, and frankly, to him, anyone who cared about such petty differences did not have a single drop of humanity within them. But because Japanese society at large focused a lot of their anger and hatred on innocent people like the man before him, he had acted along with it. That is, until now.
Ranma broke the ice first again. “So… do you hate me?”
It took a second for Tofu to collect his answer to the question, but the answer was straight forward. “In no way do I dislike you Ranma. I would have never thought that little detail would matter so much to the ones you and I love. It is a shame even Kasumi could not see beyond that, but I do not hate you. Things like that never mattered to me, and I doubt it ever will. They have turned their backs on you, but I have not.” he finished.
At that point, Ranma truly broke down. He thanked the Kami, the doctor being the only one who had given him a chance to tell his story. He wept for an indefinite amount of time, the last few hours finally overcoming him. Tofu sat there silent across from him, knowing that this was for his own good. He would wait for him to regain his composure before continuing on. It took about twenty minutes for Ranma to stop, at which point Tofu continued.
“Though I feel this way, Ranma, I’m afraid the rest of Japan does not. It is probably not safe for you to be in Japan, and judging by the way you attract attention, I would say it could get fairly dangerous. I could even lose my clinic if they found out I let you stay here.” Tofu stated. “Don’t get the wrong impression, though. You can stay here as long as you want, we just have to hide you out for a while.”
“No, I don’t think I can do that.” Ranma admitted. “There is nothing left for me here, and I would only be a burden and a great risk to you.”
“Then, where will you go?”
“I haven’t really thought about that. I could head back to China for the cure, but I doubt I’ll get past the Amazons, Herb, and the Chinese police without getting deported. I don’t have enough money yet to go anywhere, anyway.”
“I think I can solve that little problem for you. It’s a little something that I was going to give you on your wedding day, but now, I think it is time you took it.” He went over to a filing cabinet next to his office door and opened one of the drawers. Ranma couldn’t see what Dr. Tofu had retrieved, but he soon found out. The doctor closed the cabinet and, turning around to face Ranma, held out his hand, which carried what appeared to be a wad of paper. Ranma got up and walked over to the doctor and took the offering. It was a wad of pieces of paper, but that was only half right. It turned out to be ten fifty thousand yen bills. Ranma was amazed, both by what the doctor had given him and by the shear amount of yen, having never held this much money in his life. Ranma began to refuse the doctor’s money when he stopped him.
“No, no, keep it. Thanks to your inadvertent ways, I came to learn of treatments for my patients that I could have only dreamed of a decade ago, so a lot of this money goes to you. There should be about five hundred thousand yen there, so I figure that should get you anywhere along the Pacific rim.”
Ranma didn’t know what to say. This was one of the biggest gifts he had ever been given, and now he could only imagine where he could escape to. Only one word could left his mouth, “thanks…”
The doctor smiled at him, knowing that he had finally gotten Ranma to smile for the first time that night. “No problem, and there is a lot more where that came from. It is all in a special account that I have kept secret for quite a while, and I figure that you can get some money for yourself anytime you need it. Believe me, you have earned it.”
“What about my father or Nabiki? They somehow always find a way into my stash.”
“Don’t worry about that. It is a special account that only myself and anyone I deem worthy can get into without reverting to ‘illegal means’."
Ranma was overjoyed, the memories of what had happened just a few hours previous no longer fresh in his mind. “Now I just have to decide where I want to go and how to get there.”
Dr. Tofu had a probable solution to that question too. He returned to his filing cabinet and grabbed what appeared to be a page from a newspaper off of the top of it. He walked back to Ranma and handed it to him. Circled in red on the front page, a small article read:
United States Army Launches New Immigration Program
For the next six months, the Army of the United States will be introducing a new immigration program to all persons seeking to emigrate from their home country. In the introductory program, immigrants would serve in the Army for approximately 18 months, when, upon completion of their term, will be given the right to citizenship. During their year and a half of military service, inductees will be paid a standard monthly sum of USD$1800 and will be provided with all necessities and can complete their education if 18. Foreigners who cannot speak English can learn it or any other language available where they are stationed during their tour of duty. According to an official press release by the American government, the program may become a standard law as early as January of 2003, but only if the program gains at least 7% increase of is current amount of military personnel. Anyone who leaves the program before the end of their term will be deported at the expense of the person. Going into effect on the seventh of June, American Army officials hope the six month activity will catch the attention of people around the world.
Ranma finished reading and turned back to Dr. Tofu, who continued onward. “Today is the fifth of June. I have an old friend who was planning to go the America, so I saved this article I read and showed it to him. He should be ready to sign up and leave within the next week or so, and if you want to go someplace where people will not harass you for what your ancestors from five hundred years ago did, it is your best bet. Maybe it would be good for you.”
“…It sounds like a good idea. Maybe I can get on a plane there, my first time flying and all not via a mallet or some kind of pain.”
A sudden yawn took over the cursed boy who looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was nearly eleven. Tofu cut him off before he could say a word. “I’ll set up my guest futon for you in my office. It is large enough to be a small bedroom, so you don’t have to be worried about space.”
“What about in the morning?” Ranma asked
“I’ll watch the front of the store while you stay in the back. The only opportune time to leave the clinic for you is either at night or in the middle of the day while all the students are still in school. Otherwise, things could get messy for you.”
“What if someone I know comes in?”
“You were never here. I’ll act my part to satisfy them and then make sure they leave.”
Then came the teeth clincher. “What about Kasumi?”
Tofu thought about it for a second before responding. “You know about how I react whenever I am around her, right?” Ranma nodded. “Well, I have ORSD, or over reactive sexual stimulation disorder. In other words, whenever I am extremely attracted to a woman, I turn into that insane man you have encountered many times before. But now, judging from what I heard from you, I don’t think that will be a problem anymore.”
Ranma smiled. One more question had to be asked before he could retire for the night, one that he had his sneaking suspicions on. “Hey, doc?”
“Yes?”
“After I leave, what are you going to do?”
The doctor thought about it for a moment, having thought about it earlier on, but never having put any real thought on the possibility. “I suppose my time here in Nerima has come and gone. I’ll probably pack up and leave a couple of weeks after you do.”
Ranma smiled at this, hoping for the best of luck for him. “Where will you go?”
“I honestly don’t know, but I suppose the United States is as good as any place.”
“Will you join the military?”
“Probably not. Healing is what I do, not fighting. I will probably have to apply for citizenship like everyone else, I guess. My status as a doctor will should be enough to get my foot in the door.”
They both smiled and walked toward each other, the same thing on one another’s mind. They embraced in a way that only a true friend of a loved one could, one of warmth and happiness that spelled out that everything was going to be okay. They separated, Tofu going to set up the futon while Ranma waited outside the door into the small office with his pack. The doctor finished assembling the bed and led the youth in. The doctor had been right, and it did have the feeling of a homely atmosphere.
“My bedroom is at the far end of the hall on your right. If you need anything, just ask.” Tofu said.
“I will doc. Good night.” Ranma replied. The doctor bid him good night and walked down the hall to his room and closed the door behind him.
The man walked into his room and stripped down to his tank top and boxers, laying them down next to his ever more inviting bed. He laid down in the futon, pulling the sheets over his skin, feeling the soft fabric rub against him. Oh kami, he thought, Akane... The tears overcame him again, but now they were of mixed results, some of despair, some of contentment of a purpose which he had now gained once again thanks to the good doctor.
The rain continued to beat on the roof of the building, neither quiet or ending, a single day having changed the direction of his destiny to a new path, one that was very clouded. And so, he cried himself to sleep, tomorrow’s dawn bringing not only a new day, but a new life for Ranma Saotome.
End Prologue
Special thanks to Amy Holt for editing and reviewing, as well as having a site to post it on.
Special thanks also goes to Jill-chan for editing and reviewing.
Special thanks also goes to the owner of “Ranchan & Co. Crossing Bridges” for providing an alternate site to post this story on.
Tactical Espionage Action
Metal Gear Ranma
by Chris Davis
Prologue: Bleak Happiness
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set ye free.”
John 8:32
They say it never rains, it pours. That was the case here. In the endless sky, where once there was limitless blue, dark clouds occupied the space, erupting in flashes of light followed by cracks of thunder, all the time a continuous blanket of water falling to the earth. Not an inch of light shone through the black ceiling, causing the street lights along the block to turn themselves on. Depending on how one would look at it, it could be said that this was an omen, and they would be right, fore the bright spot of one such person’s life was about to be snuffed out.
They were all there, except for her. He thought about it, and believed that she probably already knew. Their cold, dark stares were aimed directly at him, devoid of any compassion, yet he had done nothing to provoke them. He didn’t know how, but he did know the why, and now his life was over. All over a simple matter that had no relevance in his heart...
It had all started with the middle Tendo daughter, Nabiki. It was going to be an innocent little history project for her class, before it grew into something more. Her assignment was to dig into her families history and do a biography, so naturally, she turned to her father for information. He turned out to be knowledgable of the subject, going into such detail as the legacy of several samuari from back as far as 200 years ago. She got what she wanted and began to write.
But then, she realized something: she knew next to nothing of her sister’s fiancé’s family, despite the fact that her would be brother and father in law had 'lived' with them for nearly two years now, so she waltzed right up to her desk and began her hunt. She knew going to Mr. Saotome would result in nothing, and she would not want to bother Auntie Nodoka, of whom didn't know the identity or whereabouts of Ranma. She therefore resorted to two of her most effective means of acquiring information, her compatriots and the internet. It took hours, her most reliable contacts not even able to give her enough information to support a conclusion, but what she found was something that stopped her dead in her tracks. It was legitimate, as far as she could tell, since this site had a reasonable reputation, so what was before her eyes was irrefutable. She quickly made a backup of the catalyst and printed out a copy for herself.
The next part wasn’t going to be easy. She had to tell her father, but she didn’t know how, so she decided to tell the next best person, Kasumi, one of the, if not the only person she could trust to keep this quiet, at least until she could officially act on it. She would tell daddy, she thought. She walked down from her room into the kitchen, where the elder sister stood chopping green onions, preparing for another feast fit for a king. It was getting pretty dark outside, at which she reminded herself of the weather report that called for heavy showers in the evening she saw that morning, and those two weren’t back yet, which was good, she noted. Nabiki found her where she thought she would be. Kasumi always had a smile on her face, as if it had been tattooed onto her, and she was thought of as the person who could stop a war just by speaking in her gentle demeanor. Nabiki was almost the opposite of her, an ice cold information mercenary, as all she cared for were yen and family, and she was about to act on the latter part.
The shattering of the china that fell on the floor could be heard from all over the house, yet not a single person came to inspect the ruckus. For the first time in a long while, Kasumi was in shock. The look on her face would have caused Nabiki to run out the door if she were not already hardened by the news. There was nothing more to be said here, so she went into the living room until Kasumi ‘woke up’.
She shouldn’t have left, though. Nabiki’s departure brought her out of her confound state and she broke down on the floor. Only once before had something blind sided her loved ones, and that had occurred over ten years ago. This kind of event wasn’t supposed to happen to her family, the death of their mother having turned her father into what he was today, a extremely emotional and weak man. And now, from her lips she uttered three words, “that little bastard…” She got up and left the kitchen, the broken dishes on the floor not even on her mind. She had to tell her father.
Soun Tendo was sitting on porch, enjoying a nice game of shogi with his best friend, Genma. They had a history that spanned over twenty years of friendship, the marriage of their children promissing to solidify it, and today, like almost every day, they were enjoying one of their favorite past times, besides that of getting drunk all night telling old stories that had been heard a thousand times, each time being a little different than the previous one. The game was something did every afternoon, evening, morning, and pretty much all the time. However, that wasn’t what was strange; the person who was playing with him was a panda, and a large one at that. If you were to not live in this district of Tokyo and see this, you would say this was probably a stunt to attract attention, but for the residents of Nerima, this was a daily occurrence.
Kasumi was right on the mark. She pulled open the screen door and found her father sitting there across from Mr. Saotome, who, for reasons unknown to her, hadn’t gotten his kettle of hot water today. Soun turned to her eldest daughter, who beckoned him inside for a moment. He excused himself and followed her inside. He was lead to the entry way, where Nabiki stood. Soun began to wonder what was going on, but then, they told him what Nabiki found. They paused after they finished, looking to see if it was getting through to him. He did not react, not a muscle twitch or anything. But that wasn’t the thing that got their attention. The emotional man that he was, a habit of his that he never truely recovered from, was doing something that their daughters did not expect; he was not crying. Instead, his face was drenched in white, as if he had climbed into a sack of flour.
Soun looked at his daughters, hoping this was some kind of joke, but the looks on their face told it was the truth. He sighed, sat down, and did not say anything for several minutes. They sat down as well, waiting for his instructions on what to do. He spoke up, “I’ll distract Saotome. Nabiki, call the others and tell them to head here right away, they need to hear this. Kasumi, act like everything is normal until everyone arrives.” The girls got up and began to turn away before he stopped them. “Don’t tell Akane, she is better off not knowing until its over. Send her on an errand or something, but make sure she isn’t here when we spread the news. When Saotome’s son gets here, then we’ll do it.”
With that, the three of them went on their separate tasks. Genma didn’t know what had happened, but Soun made sure that he wouldn’t find out until it was too late. Kasumi went back to cleaning up the mess in the kitchen. Nabiki did her task as well, calling the Nekohaten, the Kuno Mansion, and Ukyou’s restaurant, drawing them toward the dojo. It wouldn’t be long before everyone was there.
Akane arrived around 7:30, steamed as usual, but not with Ranma in tail. That was good, Kasumi thought, meeting her at the door with her normal smile. “Hello Akane. Did you have a nice day?” she asked.
Akane anger dropped a few notches upon seeing Kasumi. “Hey sis, it was okay until that jerk got into another fight with poor Ryouga. Then, he had the nerve to kick P-chan into the stratosphere. Ranma will be here in about thirty minutes, judging by how far my mallet took him.” With that, Akane turned to go inside, when Kasumi stopped her.
“I made a list of things I need for dinner, Akane, but I don’t have time to go get them. Can you do it for me instead?” Kasumi asked, hoping she would take the bait. “It will only take about an hour, and I should have dinner almost ready by then.”
She did. “Let me put my stuff up and I’ll be ready to go.”
“I’ll take care of that. You just go get the ingredients, okay?” Kasumi asked, hoping Akane wouldn’t try to come inside.
Akane gave her a puzzled look, one that disappeared just as quickly as it saw the light of day. “all right, hand me the list. Could you hand me an umbrella? It looks like its going to rain.” Akane said as she looked up at the clouds, which were gathering and turning into a dark gray color. She took the list and umbrella from her eldest sister and, dropping her school bag, turned around and went out the front gate towards the market.
A sigh of relief escaped Kasumi’s lips as she watched her leave her sight. She felt sorry for her little sister, but this had to be done. She couldn’t be allowed to live a life of misery with Ranma as her husband. She closed the door, picked up the book bag, and, turning around, went back inside.
Kasumi had good reason to not let Akane inside, because not ten feet from the door everyone else sat, wondering why they had been called down there. The Chinese Amazons sat on the sofa, Cologne eyeing Kasumi’s odd behavior. Shampoo and Mousse sat beside one another, both glad to be inside before it would begin to rain, but Shampoo being sure to watch the left hand of Mousse, which was now several inches closer than it had been the last time she had looked down. Ukyou stood next to the sofa, also confused as to why everybody was here. She also had her battle spatula handy, watching the two other figure that stood across from her. The Kunos, Tatewaki and Kodachi, stood there, rather quiet considering the circumstances, but ready to fight at a moments notice, and knowing the lethality of the persons on hand, a single spark could ignite the room.
Kasumi put Akane’s bag by the door and walked back into the living room, shortly followed by Nabiki and Mr. Tendo, Mr. Saotome having been served his dinner early in the dojo, where he had been practicing several kata exercises, so as to keep him from interrupting the conversation. Ukyou was the first to speak up. “Okay, sugar, why did you bring us down here?” she asked, getting right to the point.
Nabiki walked over to the counter and grabbed several sheets of paper and began to pass them out amongst the group. “I want you to look at something I found out while doing some research for my history project. I think it speaks for itself.” She said, noting their reactions to what she was saying, Cologne’s expression in particular. The Tendo’s waited for the imminent explosion.
It didn’t take but a moment or two for the room to erupt in shouts. Several cries of disbelief could be heard, while others were one of conviction. The Amazons were still quiet, though, Cologne being the only one who understood what was going on. A combined effort of Kasumi and Soun was probably the only thing that could have worked in order to quiet the room down.
The Kunos were the first to react. Despite Kasumi’s protests to be quiet, Tatewaki triumphed in some the proof that, finally, the coward Saotome was indeed filled with the blood of savages like he had been trying to prove for so long. He was overjoyed that he could finally liberate the pigtailed girl and Akane from the clutches of Saotome. In his mind, the fiend had only held him back, while he searched for evidence to explain the power of his opponent, and now, he did. This was finally going to be Saotome’s day of reckoning.
Kodachi just stood there in shock, the paper falling from her hands. Her love, the man who had saved her from danger time and time again in her dreams was just a demon in disguise. He was unclean. She was a fool. As she reeled from the loss of her beloved, her hand struck one of the black roses within the confines of her black silk dress. One of the thorns pricked her already scarred finger and began to bleed. As it did, the poison entered her bloodstream and began to infect her. It spread quickly throughout her body, doing what it was designed to do, infecting what wasn’t in mere seconds. Most people would have been lucky to survive its power, but for her, since she had designed and tested it on herself, it only had the power of a mild tranquilizer. Her body went numb as it had done a thousand times before, and she began to fall backwards. Thanks to Tatewaki’s quick reflexes, she was saved from a nasty headache.
Cologne looked at the paper in dead shock. Her son in law would have been the best warrior of their tribe and a source of incredible fighting blood, but now he was worth nothing more than dirt in her eyes. How could she have been so ignorant as to nearly allow her granddaughter to marry such a low life? Shampoo and Mousse sat there confused, not understanding what all the ruckus was about. Cologne handed the truth bearer over to Mousse first, hoping to handle Shampoo after Mousse, since she wouldn’t be easy to control. Mousse took it and read it, and, with each passing moment, a grin grew on his face, a dark, foul grin that Shampoo began to get worried about. Mousse finished and handed it back to Cologne, who, in turn, handed it to the now scared Shampoo. She took the paper and began to read it slowly, as her kanji was still not very good. She too finished and handed back to Cologne, but she still didn’t understand.
“What this mean, grandmother?” Shampoo asked, not understanding what was going on.
Cologne gave out a sad sigh as she turned to her and began to speak in Mandarin as the others watched, wondering how she would take it. Mousse put his arm around Shampoo, a feeling of utter pride and glory washing over him, knowing that she was his now. Shampoo would have elbowed him into the wall if she were not so intently focused on what Cologne was saying. Nabiki continued to view the escapade with ever mounting interest, as she didn’t know what she was saying, but knew what was coming. The young Chinese Amazon warrior’s face grew darker as Cologne continued on, explaining what it meant. When she finished, the Matriarch paused to gauge her reaction, which was one none too happy. It was better than she had hoped, however, as Cologne had half expected her to lunge at one of the Tendo daughters, most likely the mercenary.
Cologne turned to the group and switched back to Japanese in order to announced her intentions. “Ranma Saotome, former husband-to-be of my granddaughter, Xian Pu, is hereby absolved of all rights and privileges to the village of Nyuchiehzu.”
Nabiki responded. “I thought he would be safe in China, since he is ‘good breeding material’.” she asked.
Cologne shook her head. “As in this country, we have strong beliefs concerning the origin of our ancestors. Most of our villagers, as well as Xian Pu, Mu Tzu and I come from a strong line of warriors. However, there are those in the village that have poor ancestry, thus from their birth, they become slaves.”
A loud thud caused the attention to shift to the person next to the large piece of furniture, Ukyou, who was on her knees weeping, the words on the page at her feet having stung her to the core. She would have never believed it, but coming from Nabiki, it had to be the truth. Even Cologne, one of the most stubborn of the group had decided that he was worthless. She could not marry Ranma now, the truth being known. By tomorrow, it would be all over the school, if it wasn’t all over the neighborhood already, and if she kept the engagement, she would be the laughingstock of the city. How could she do it anyway? She knew how people like him were; honor less thieves who would have no care for anyone but themselves.
She stopped weeping as a thought struck her, one that was probably the most logical explanation for the news that she had just received. It explained everything, her abandonment by the two when she was six, Ryouga’s attitude towards him, everything. Ranma’s father stole the dowry. Ranma mooched off of her at lunch and whenever he wanted to fill his stomach. Ryouga and Kuno would attack him because of what he had ‘done’. He had been living with and off of the Tendos for at least 2 years now. And so, it all came to a head. She had been used, just like all the others.
Ukyou picked herself up off the ground, and wiping away the trail of tears coming from both eyes. She had been the subject of control for over 12 years, and now, she decreed, would not be used again. She would have her revenge against the two, just like she had set out to do that lifetime ago. As she stood up, she drew one of her miniature spatulas from behind her back and, aiming, hurled it. Kasumi had barely been able to duck when it impacted into the wall above the front door. It stuck in, gravity’s pull on it seeming to have no affect.
“He must die.” She simply stated, her voice now barely above a loud whisper, but one that everyone could hear. It had been said a thousand times before, but none so chilling as this, as she was once Ranma’s best friend, Ranchan and Ucchan they called each other, and the voice was so cold that not even a blowtorch could do a thing about it.
“No,” Nabiki responded, “we let him live.”
“What do you mean?!" Ukyou contorted. "Those bastards should die like the dogs they are!”
“No,” Nabiki continued to retort, “he will suffer something worse than death.”
“What you mean?” Shampoo responded, now ready to exalt her own plans on the damned one.
The trademark ice cold smile of the Ice Queen, otherwise known as Nabiki, spread across her face. “Simple. He is honor less now, so he will simply live the rest of his life without knowing happiness. Think about it. If we killed him, we would probably all end up in prison on some account like ‘conspiracy to commit murder’. Ryouga still wouldn’t allow that, and we can just guess what would happen then.” She panned the room to gauge the reactions of everyone, which were now in agreement with her, except for Shampoo and Mousse.
“But if we did kill him, we wouldn’t get in trouble.” Mousse said confidently.
“Wrong, child.” Cologne responded. She knew what Nabiki was going to say, so she took over for her. “If we are caught, our punishment will be far worse. We are here in Japan illegally, so any crime we commit and are arrested for will cause us to get deported to a Chinese jail. We would be jeopardizing the safety of our village, not to mention ourselves.”
Nabiki hadn’t thought of that, but she continued on. “Exactly. That way, he will be in pain with the loss of his dignity, so we can elongate his trip to hell. There won’t be a place in Japan where he could feel okay, in any sense of the word.”
Kasumi spoke up. “What do we do when Ryouga or ‘P-chan’ shows up?”
Nabiki was expecting this, but didn’t have the answer everyone wanted. “Well, we’ll have to play that one by ear. Who knows how he’ll react.”
The group seemed accept this answer, however, it was only a temporary solution. Ryouga was the kind who could be easily persuaded to do whatever was wanted of him, and if he listened, they might have a chance of making him call off his ‘little crusade.’ With that, Soun decided that it was time. “Yes well, Saotome should be finishing his meal and his son should arrive shortly, so we should prepare.”
Kasumi took that opportunity to get down to business. “Okay, father and I will distract Mr. Saotome until Ranma arrives. Nabiki, take them up to our rooms. I’ll come and get you when he arrives. We’ll get rid of them all together then.”
“We are in agreement then. The forsaken one shall be forced out into the light and will know the pain of loss.” Tatewaki stated, lifting his downed sister in her trance like state up over his shoulder.
Nabiki took notice of this. “How long do you think she’ll be out?” she asked.
“If it is her usual recipe for her roses, it will most likely be a few minutes, depending on the dose.”
Tatewaki hit it almost on the nose. As he carried the limp body of his sister upstairs, she began to stir, at which point he noticed and began to hurry, not wanting his sister to come to and get the wrong impression of what was going on. Ukyou and the Amazon trio followed suit up stairs to Nabiki’s and Kasumi’s rooms. The Kunos and Kuonji were escorted to Nabiki’s room, while the Amazons were sent into Kasumi’s. Before leaving each room, she told the occupiers that they had to be quiet, as the walls and floors didn’t have a lot of insulation, and that an argument could incur attention. Both groups followed their instructions to the letter, keeping conversations low and not moving around on the much abused wood floor that had gained the wrath of Akane or any one of them at one time or another.
Ranma was actually having a good day, if you consider getting into two fights, changing sex the same amount of times, and nearly getting in detention something enjoyable, but never the less, it was good for the young Saotome. He had only gotten wet twice that day; once in the morning on the way to school thanks to the intolerable accuracy of the ladle lady and again during an ’encounter’ with Ryouga Hibiki right after classes ended for the day. He was his long time rival/friend who had a bad sense of direction, so bad that he could get lost in his own room (wherever that was).
The fight was relatively short compared to other bouts they had had, as the conveniently placed school pool caused them to take on their cursed forms. The now female Ranma had dragged the piglet out of the pool and proceeded to ‘harass’ the little one for his offensive against her. The pig was last seen flying toward Okinawa thanks to her, but she soon joined him when she came face to face with Akane’s battle mallet. It didn’t hurt much, and she traveled only a couple hundred meters before crashing into the side of a lamp pole. Lucky for her, the post was just across from a small ramen stand, steam rising from the water that cooked the food. The owner of the stand gladly handed over a cup of hot water to the young redhead, who went around a corner and disappeared from sight before being replaced by a large muscular young man who asked of him a towel to dry off with. What caught the clerks attention was not his request, but what the man before him was wearing; the same clothes the young lady who had been there mere seconds before. The man obliged, and Ranma set to work drying himself. It took a matter of moments and he was on his way, thanking the cook and returning the towel as he left.
The smell of the ramen had incited his hunger, so he felt he had to meet it’s demands. The place where he had landed wasn’t far from Ucchan’s restaurant, and since school was out by now, he went by the place for a quick bite to eat. He was surprised to find that it was not open and the door was locked, so he figured that she must not be back yet. He decided to head toward the Nekohaten, the home away from home and business of the ‘Old Ghoul’, Shampoo, and Mousse. It was closed too, the door having been locked, but he considered the string of events as a coincidence.
He looked up toward the sky, where he could see dark storm clouds beginning to cover what was left of the late afternoon sky. Sudden showers were very common in Nerima, especially ones that only lasted for a few minutes and only on a block or two, but the clouds overhead were not said showers. Thunder roared from them, sending the message that everything not under cover was about to get drenched. Ranma took this as a sign that he needed to get back to the dojo, and fast. He broke out into a sprint in the direction of home, hoping that the change would not overcome him again before the end of the night. Lightning flashed every few moments, but he continued towards his destination, nothing impeding him along the way.
He walked through the gates of the Tendo Dojo and approached the front door, the overhang of the front porch saving him from almost certain irritation, as only seconds later the downpour commenced. Ranma gave off a sigh as he took off his shoes to go inside. As he entered, he took sight of Kasumi and Mr. Tendo, standing side by side and staring at him as he entered. The air was tense, Ranma took note, but he greeted them with a smile still.
“Hi Kasumi, Mr. Tendo. How is everything?” Ranma asked.
Soun and Kasumi returned his smile with one of their own, hollow as it was though. Kasumi spoke up. “Just fine. Why don’t you go watch some television with your father while I prepare dinner?”
Ranma agreed with her suggestion and walked into the living room, where his father sat at the couch, watching some kind of B horror movie. As Ranma sat down on the opposite end of said furniture, Soun motioned toward Kasumi, who went to do what she had been assigned. She headed upstairs and disappeared from sight. Soun walked into the living room and sat down in the lounge chair opposite of the couch, awaiting the arrival of Kasumi‘s party, but not leaving a hint to the Saotomes.
He heard the creaking of the stairs and caught the eye of Nabiki, who was the first to come down. She motioned for him to come, at which Soun got up and walked over to her. Ranma turned his head and watched him approach his daughter, who bent over to her. She began to whisper something into his ear, so low that not even Ranma’s keen sense of hearing could understand. Soun straightened up and nodded to her. He then turned to the Saotomes.
“Genma, Ranma, could you come here for a second?” Soun called to them, hoping to draw them out of the living room.
Genma was reluctant, but he was able to meet his hopefully soon brother-in-law’s request. Ranma did so also, but not on the same train of thought as his father’s.
“What is it, old friend?” Genma asked, wanting to know what Soun desired. Mr. Tendo face fell, no longer able to hold up the farce. He turned around and nodded at Nabiki, who stood in front of the stairs just a few feet behind him. She, in turn, stretched her hand toward the stairs and snapped her finger. She then walked forward and joined her father.
One by one, people began to pour out into the entry as the Saotomes, particularly Ranma, watched on. Kasumi came first, followed by Cologne, Mousse and then Shampoo. Next came Ucchan and then Kuno, Kodachi following right behind her brother. They each took a position behind Nabiki and Mr. Tendo, setting up for what was about to happen.
Something was up, at least as far as Ranma and Genma could tell. Everyone except Akane and Ryouga was here, but Ranma had no clue what he had done now. The group all stared coldly at the Saotomes, Kasumi also doing so, which startled Ranma, who had never seen a frown appear on her face. Ranma tried to break the silence, which was only occupied by the sound of the rain and an occasional thunder clap. “What’s going on, Kasumi?” Ranma asked, assuming she would tell him, if anybody.
Kasumi didn’t respond but to give an even colder stare at him, at which time Nabiki spoke for her older sister, as well as everyone else. “Maybe you could tell us Ranma. Look at this.” she said cruelly, not in her usual Ice Queen voice. She handed them each a copy of a paper, identical in every way. They both began to read it.
Genealogy of Modern and Ancient Japanese Family Clans
Search: Saotome
1 result found
“…Among the many family legacies of today and yesterday, there are several worth noting for being ‘unclean’. One such clan is the Saotome clan. In the late 1600’s, the members were very notorious for their background as grave diggers, who threw away their shovels near the mid 1600's and became thieves, kidnappers, and sometimes, murders. Trained as ninjas, the children of the family became mercenaries at maturity, often committing crimes that rivaled other clans of the times. Few historians of the period acknowledge their existence, for fear of possible reprisal by the clan, however unlikely. It still is in existence today, only leaving few survivors, not nearly as popular as it once was…”
end search results
Ranma didn’t know what to say. He finished reading and looked up at the others. Their faces were still dark and icy, unrelenting enough to make Ranma get the picture. Genma, on the other hand, upon reading the sheet, didn’t speak a word, something that was once unknown to him now staring him in the face in a manner that had just dashed nearly 12 years of hard work.
Ranma tried to respond, knowing what the others were trying to tell him. “Wait a minute. You all are judging pop and I because of some history that does not apply now? That was four hundred years ago! We weren’t there!”
Soun responded to his little speech. “True. But once a Saotome, always a Saotome. You are unfit to marry my daughter, or anyone!”
Ranma was now panicked. He had never been in a situation like this before, and now he would have to pull out all the stops. He turned to Cologne, who sat on her walking stick watching him. “What about you old ghoul? Got something against me too?”
She spoke up. “Your right to my granddaughter in marriage has been revoked. You are worth no more than that of a slave to us now.” she said, never having been as unrelenting as now. Cologne wasn’t about to even touch him, so she kept at battle readiness.
Genma turned to his old friend, appealing to his long time friend. “Tendo, perhaps we could discuss this…”
Soun was now angry, beyond the recognition of the happy old man who was there throughout most of the day. “No discussions Saotome! I was a fool to go along with you all these years, and now the veil that has covered my eyes for so long has been removed. I want you out of my life, forever!” Soun shouted, lightning flashing outside to add to the effect.
Ranma was a lost cause in two groups eye’s. He looked at Ucchan, his best friend since he was 5, hoping she could understand him. What looked back at him was not his childhood friend, but the face of someone intent to kill. He still tried to get through to her though. “Ucchan, what is going-”
She cut him off. “Don’t you ever call me that, Saotome! I have been yours too for far too long, and now I realize I should have killed you both a long time ago.” Her voice was cold and lifeless, all humanity for her former fiancé now gone completely.
Ranma was nearly in tears now; only his pride, or what was left of it, kept them from emerging. He looked toward the Kunos, wondering if they were in on this too. Tatewaki’s stare was one of hatred, his long overdue anger finally reeling it’s ugly head. He even gave a pleading glance to Kodachi, who had the most unique look of the conspirators, one of sadness. What it was of Ranma probably would never know, but he knew it was not out of pity toward him or his father.
And so, for the first time in Ranma Saotome’s life, he gave up. His friends and family had turned their backs on them, and now he had nothing left to live for. One final question escaped from his lips, one that was, to him, the most important of them all. “What-what about Akane?”
“She did not need to hear about this. She will learn of it when she returns, but I guarantee you, she will agree with us when it comes time.” Soun stated, knowing that had hit home. He looked away to his watch, the time having escaped his mind. It read 8:17 which meant Akane would be back from the now closing market in about fifteen minutes, which was just enough time to make sure the thieves had been long gone. “It is time.” Kasumi walked forward and tossed the Saotomes’ bags at them, who caught them out of reflex unconsciously. Soun continued, “Leave our home forsaken ones! Do not darken our doorstop again, or there will be reprisals!”
Soun then walked toward the stunned ones and shoved them out the open door into the cold rain. The curse overcame them both very quickly, and now a giant panda and a small redheaded girl occupied the places where a large man and his son had once been out on the wet lawn inside the confines of the property. The door slammed behind them, and the once friendly faces of everyone he once had held dear disappeared from view, never to be seen again.
The two unusual figures stood up in the cold, unrelenting rain and picked up their packs that someone at least had the courtesy to take care of. If there had been no rain, one could have seen the tears form on the face of Ranma, someone who now had no life. The panda did not, his feelings unknown to the poor redhead. She didn’t know what to do.
The panda, however had other ideas. It held up a sign to the girl. ‘Come boy we better leave.’ it read, ‘I know somewhere where we can stay for a few days.’ The panda picked up the traveling bag in front of him and began to walk out the front gate, only to be stopped by Ranma’s voice.
“No. Leave me alone.” she said, walking through the front gate, all the while the storm raging on. She decided to head east, the route she had taken to school for two long years in this neighborhood. The panda stopped her though.
‘Not that way boy’ It flipped the sign over. ‘The place is in Juuban.’
“No. You've ruined my life since the day you took me away from Mom.”
‘Don’t be stupid Ranma’ (flip) ’Come with me.’
“No! This is the last time you mess with MY life, father!” She screamed at the panda, dropping her bag and preparing to lay a severe beat down on the overgrown creature. The panda took on what appeared to be a fighting stance, knowing what was about to happen. Ranma opened the bout with a dead on run and jumped into the air. The panda lost the girl in the downpour, unable to sense the girl’s movements. A split second later, the panda’s skull struck to pavement, followed by a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder. The creature was now unconscious, the blunt force trauma having easily stopped it in it’s tracks. The youth surveyed her onslaught, trying to get a feel for how long her father would be under. It would probably be long enough for me to get away, she thought. She turned around, nearly slipping in the wet street, and picked up her pack. She had had it since she was around ten, and it never left her side when she would travel. It was really the only trivial possession besides the clothes within that belong to her.
She strapped it to her back and looked down the street. The storm has reduced the visibility considerably, and only a flash of lightning and an occasional street lamp helping to guide her along the way. She started down the path, one last time. As she went on, memories spurt forth into her mind, ones of happier times, ones where only the curse impeded her. Now though, the world had turned its back against Ranma Saotome, the ‘forsaken one’. Everyone she knew had turned against her, and by tomorrow, no one in Tokyo would take pity on her. She had never known of hate that had brewed within her society, and now, she was a victim of it.
As she continued on, one person out of them all caught her attention. That person had taken care of her time after time, always concerned for her sake. She realized it; that person would probably be the last one who could help her. Now, she had to see him, she had to see the Doctor.
Dr. Tofu was just locking up his clinic for the night when the knock at the door came. It was strange, he thought, for a patient to stop by this late at night, not to mention the horrible weather outside. He walked to the door to open it, his curiosity growing stronger by the second. The lock clicked and he opened the door. It was a young girl, at least a foot shorter than him, with bright red hair, mated down by the rainfall, but she did not look up into his face; she didn’t need to, fore the good doctor knew from the get go who it was. Ranma.
“Ranma, what are you doing out right now? Come on in before you catch cold.” he said, concerned for his favorite patient.
Ranma did not reply, instead just by walking inside, dropping her pack to the floor, and standing down on the couch. Something was wrong, Ranma never acted like this. He shut the door behind him and walked into the waiting room where she had set herself down. He squinted his eyes, using this to shift his attention to something a little bit more revealing, her aura. He had to blink a few times before seeing and comprehending what it meant. Usually, Ranma emitted a blue aura, which spelled out pure confidence, but in this case, it was yellow, which he only saw on the Hibiki boy, meaning depression or sadness. Whatever it was that happened, it had affected the cursed boy to the core.
She began to shiver, which brought him out of his train of thought. He hurried to his restroom and appeared a few seconds later with a cup of hot water. The girl didn’t take the offer from him, so he poured it over her head to make sure she used it. The change was instantaneous, growing in places and shrinking in others. The male Ranma now sat a head taller than before, indicating that he was not having a problem with his curse, but he was still cold from the weather. Tofu left the room again and quickly returned with a couple of blankets and towels for him to dry off on. He wrapped the chilled boy in them and then sat down opposite of him. He knew that if he got the first word out, Ranma would not come clean on what was going on.
The silence lasted for several minutes, only the sound of rain crashing to the earth and thunder claps occupying the scene. Both figures sat there, Ranma waiting to get the reaction of his mentor, while Tofu gauged what could have happened the young boy. In the end, the doctor won the battle of wits, as Ranma spoke up, but in a voice just above a whisper.
“So, I guess you feel the same way about me as the others, eh doc?”
“What do you mean Ranma? I haven’t seen much of anyone from your school all day long. What is wrong?” Tofu asked, knowing it would now be revealed.
And so, Ranma began his sad tale of what had happened to him back at the Tendo household, how Nabiki had found some site on the internet about his lineage and how everyone abandoned him because of it. He began to cry as he finished his story, now knowing this was it, the point in which the last soul in all of Nerima, or even Tokyo, who could help him.
The story was one that Dr. Tofu would have never expected from the youth. He knew it had been rather quiet today, but he had never received a phone call from Nabiki or anyone else concerning the matter, and frankly, to him, anyone who cared about such petty differences did not have a single drop of humanity within them. But because Japanese society at large focused a lot of their anger and hatred on innocent people like the man before him, he had acted along with it. That is, until now.
Ranma broke the ice first again. “So… do you hate me?”
It took a second for Tofu to collect his answer to the question, but the answer was straight forward. “In no way do I dislike you Ranma. I would have never thought that little detail would matter so much to the ones you and I love. It is a shame even Kasumi could not see beyond that, but I do not hate you. Things like that never mattered to me, and I doubt it ever will. They have turned their backs on you, but I have not.” he finished.
At that point, Ranma truly broke down. He thanked the Kami, the doctor being the only one who had given him a chance to tell his story. He wept for an indefinite amount of time, the last few hours finally overcoming him. Tofu sat there silent across from him, knowing that this was for his own good. He would wait for him to regain his composure before continuing on. It took about twenty minutes for Ranma to stop, at which point Tofu continued.
“Though I feel this way, Ranma, I’m afraid the rest of Japan does not. It is probably not safe for you to be in Japan, and judging by the way you attract attention, I would say it could get fairly dangerous. I could even lose my clinic if they found out I let you stay here.” Tofu stated. “Don’t get the wrong impression, though. You can stay here as long as you want, we just have to hide you out for a while.”
“No, I don’t think I can do that.” Ranma admitted. “There is nothing left for me here, and I would only be a burden and a great risk to you.”
“Then, where will you go?”
“I haven’t really thought about that. I could head back to China for the cure, but I doubt I’ll get past the Amazons, Herb, and the Chinese police without getting deported. I don’t have enough money yet to go anywhere, anyway.”
“I think I can solve that little problem for you. It’s a little something that I was going to give you on your wedding day, but now, I think it is time you took it.” He went over to a filing cabinet next to his office door and opened one of the drawers. Ranma couldn’t see what Dr. Tofu had retrieved, but he soon found out. The doctor closed the cabinet and, turning around to face Ranma, held out his hand, which carried what appeared to be a wad of paper. Ranma got up and walked over to the doctor and took the offering. It was a wad of pieces of paper, but that was only half right. It turned out to be ten fifty thousand yen bills. Ranma was amazed, both by what the doctor had given him and by the shear amount of yen, having never held this much money in his life. Ranma began to refuse the doctor’s money when he stopped him.
“No, no, keep it. Thanks to your inadvertent ways, I came to learn of treatments for my patients that I could have only dreamed of a decade ago, so a lot of this money goes to you. There should be about five hundred thousand yen there, so I figure that should get you anywhere along the Pacific rim.”
Ranma didn’t know what to say. This was one of the biggest gifts he had ever been given, and now he could only imagine where he could escape to. Only one word could left his mouth, “thanks…”
The doctor smiled at him, knowing that he had finally gotten Ranma to smile for the first time that night. “No problem, and there is a lot more where that came from. It is all in a special account that I have kept secret for quite a while, and I figure that you can get some money for yourself anytime you need it. Believe me, you have earned it.”
“What about my father or Nabiki? They somehow always find a way into my stash.”
“Don’t worry about that. It is a special account that only myself and anyone I deem worthy can get into without reverting to ‘illegal means’."
Ranma was overjoyed, the memories of what had happened just a few hours previous no longer fresh in his mind. “Now I just have to decide where I want to go and how to get there.”
Dr. Tofu had a probable solution to that question too. He returned to his filing cabinet and grabbed what appeared to be a page from a newspaper off of the top of it. He walked back to Ranma and handed it to him. Circled in red on the front page, a small article read:
United States Army Launches New Immigration Program
For the next six months, the Army of the United States will be introducing a new immigration program to all persons seeking to emigrate from their home country. In the introductory program, immigrants would serve in the Army for approximately 18 months, when, upon completion of their term, will be given the right to citizenship. During their year and a half of military service, inductees will be paid a standard monthly sum of USD$1800 and will be provided with all necessities and can complete their education if 18. Foreigners who cannot speak English can learn it or any other language available where they are stationed during their tour of duty. According to an official press release by the American government, the program may become a standard law as early as January of 2003, but only if the program gains at least 7% increase of is current amount of military personnel. Anyone who leaves the program before the end of their term will be deported at the expense of the person. Going into effect on the seventh of June, American Army officials hope the six month activity will catch the attention of people around the world.
Ranma finished reading and turned back to Dr. Tofu, who continued onward. “Today is the fifth of June. I have an old friend who was planning to go the America, so I saved this article I read and showed it to him. He should be ready to sign up and leave within the next week or so, and if you want to go someplace where people will not harass you for what your ancestors from five hundred years ago did, it is your best bet. Maybe it would be good for you.”
“…It sounds like a good idea. Maybe I can get on a plane there, my first time flying and all not via a mallet or some kind of pain.”
A sudden yawn took over the cursed boy who looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was nearly eleven. Tofu cut him off before he could say a word. “I’ll set up my guest futon for you in my office. It is large enough to be a small bedroom, so you don’t have to be worried about space.”
“What about in the morning?” Ranma asked
“I’ll watch the front of the store while you stay in the back. The only opportune time to leave the clinic for you is either at night or in the middle of the day while all the students are still in school. Otherwise, things could get messy for you.”
“What if someone I know comes in?”
“You were never here. I’ll act my part to satisfy them and then make sure they leave.”
Then came the teeth clincher. “What about Kasumi?”
Tofu thought about it for a second before responding. “You know about how I react whenever I am around her, right?” Ranma nodded. “Well, I have ORSD, or over reactive sexual stimulation disorder. In other words, whenever I am extremely attracted to a woman, I turn into that insane man you have encountered many times before. But now, judging from what I heard from you, I don’t think that will be a problem anymore.”
Ranma smiled. One more question had to be asked before he could retire for the night, one that he had his sneaking suspicions on. “Hey, doc?”
“Yes?”
“After I leave, what are you going to do?”
The doctor thought about it for a moment, having thought about it earlier on, but never having put any real thought on the possibility. “I suppose my time here in Nerima has come and gone. I’ll probably pack up and leave a couple of weeks after you do.”
Ranma smiled at this, hoping for the best of luck for him. “Where will you go?”
“I honestly don’t know, but I suppose the United States is as good as any place.”
“Will you join the military?”
“Probably not. Healing is what I do, not fighting. I will probably have to apply for citizenship like everyone else, I guess. My status as a doctor will should be enough to get my foot in the door.”
They both smiled and walked toward each other, the same thing on one another’s mind. They embraced in a way that only a true friend of a loved one could, one of warmth and happiness that spelled out that everything was going to be okay. They separated, Tofu going to set up the futon while Ranma waited outside the door into the small office with his pack. The doctor finished assembling the bed and led the youth in. The doctor had been right, and it did have the feeling of a homely atmosphere.
“My bedroom is at the far end of the hall on your right. If you need anything, just ask.” Tofu said.
“I will doc. Good night.” Ranma replied. The doctor bid him good night and walked down the hall to his room and closed the door behind him.
The man walked into his room and stripped down to his tank top and boxers, laying them down next to his ever more inviting bed. He laid down in the futon, pulling the sheets over his skin, feeling the soft fabric rub against him. Oh kami, he thought, Akane... The tears overcame him again, but now they were of mixed results, some of despair, some of contentment of a purpose which he had now gained once again thanks to the good doctor.
The rain continued to beat on the roof of the building, neither quiet or ending, a single day having changed the direction of his destiny to a new path, one that was very clouded. And so, he cried himself to sleep, tomorrow’s dawn bringing not only a new day, but a new life for Ranma Saotome.
End Prologue