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The characters of the Ranma 1/2 universe are the creation and possession of the brilliant Rumiko Takahashi. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi and her licensees (Shogakukan Inc., Kitty-Fuji TV, Viz Communications Inc.)
No copyright infringement is intended.
Ranma-chan felt a presence move up behind her. It stopped a few steps shy of her position.
It was evening now. Ranma had changed back soon after Cologne had left, but a spilled drink after dinner had ushered the return of her feminine form.
Their fathers returned shortly after lunch, which had upset Oyaji. Taunting the panda had actually helped cheer her up a little or at least forget for that while. By unspoken agreement, none of them had informed the two men of Cologne's visit. That would have started the two on planning the wedding. She was in no mood to deal with that right now.
She gazed deeply into the koi pond. Although her father had taught her from an early age how to meditate on her fights and sparing sessions, deep thinking was not something she had regularly practiced.
Akane had been extremely apologetic all afternoon. She had made sure Ranma knew she was always near by. Their fathers had even started whispering between themselves and it didn't take a Nabiki to guess what they were talking about. After dinner, Ranma had finally had enough and made it clear she wanted some time alone.
So here she stood out before the koi, trying to think.
She had completely lost it earlier, in the dojo. She hadn't meant to say all of that to Akane. She certainly didn't want to breakdown like that. She hated herself for needing to be held by Akane. Everything had just become so overwhelming. It had felt so good, being held, being told she was loved. But it didn't make any sense to her. She was a guy, a man. Men don't need that stuff. She certainly didn't deserve it. Hadn't she pushed Akane away enough?
"Ranma-kun?"
Ranma-chan took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"Kasumi?"
"I wanted to apologize for how I treated you when you first got here."
"Huh?" Ranma blinked. "What'd ya mean?"
"You know," Kasumi hesitated.
Ranma could almost hear the blush in her voice. She turned to face the older girl.
"When you first got here, I didn't know what to think. So I helped push you off on my little sister."
"It's okay, Kasumi." Ranma smiled, but still felt confused why she was doing this now.
"And when Shampoo first showed up, I told father that she was your girlfriend from China even though I was there and knew you were as confused as the rest of us."
"Well, it did look bad," Ranma admitted.
"Yes, but you were expected her 'Kiss of Death'." Kasumi looked straight into Ranma's eyes. "And there were other little things I did."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Ranma," Kasumi began, then paused. "I want you to know that I have come to love you like a little brother."
The small curvy pig-tailed girl blinked. She didn't feel very brotherly at the moment.
"I don't know what's wrong, but I want you to know that I'm here if you need someone to talk to."
"Thanks," Ranma answered softly, unsure how she should respond to that.
A soft cry broke from the house, grabbing both their attentions.
"That sounds like a baby," Kasumi stated.
Ranma paled.
The crying died down just as the two entered the living room. From the opposite side of the room, Akane lead Dr. Tofu into the room. She was cooing at a bundle of blankets held in her arms. Both of the fathers were sitting off to the side where they were playing shoji.
Ranma could feel the blood draining from her face. Slowly, she began shaking her head, trying to deny the sight before her.
"So, Tofu-sensei, here to check up on Akane and Ranma?" Mr. Tendou asked.
"Well, sort of...." The good doctor began.
"Akane, is that a baby in your arms?" Mr. Saotome asked.
= = = = = = = = = =
Nabiki opened her door and trudged out of her room. She had been trying to think of how to reunite a certain mother and child without too much trouble. She needed to do something to make up for the way she had treated Ranma since he arrived.
"Akane, is that a baby in your arms?" Nabiki heard Ranma's worthless father inquire.
'When it rains, it pours,' Nabiki thought as she approached the top of the stairs. She thought she had heard a baby crying and though she couldn't hear it now, she just knew who it had to be downstairs.
"Well, she is part of the reason I came," Tofu-sensei began.
"Yes, go on," Tendou said.
"You see, Himiko here, was left at the temple I have been staying."
"Abandoned you say?"
Nabiki was now at the top of the stairs. She could see Tofu and Akane near the hall entrance. Akane appeared to be holding the child in question.
"K-Ka-Kasumi," Tofu said.
Ranma-chan popped into view around the wall at the base of the stairs from the other side of the room.
"Um, yes," Tofu said, apparently getting a hold of himself.
Ranma stopped in what Nabiki guessed would be about the center of the room. The middle Tendou wondered just what Tofu was up to or why he'd bring Himiko here now.
"We, the temple priest, priestess, and I, have been taking care of her since."
"Go on, Dr. Tofu," Soun said from outside of Nabiki's view.
"Well, Ranma has been helping me by passing letters between your daughter, Kasumi, and myself."
"Is that true, Boy?" came Genma's gruff reply, also outside of Nabiki's view.
"Maybe." Ranma shrugged non-committally. "What's it to ya, old man?" Ranma had already lapsed into her normally slouched stance and was glaring a dare at her father.
Nabiki needed to stop this before something bad happened. She took the first step down, her mind working in overdrive to come up with something to say.
"Listen here, Boy...." Genma began.
"What does that have to do with the baby?" Kasumi asked.
Nabiki flinched. So did Ranma and Akane. Nabiki suddenly deeply regretted the decision not to tell her. She quickly took the next step.
"Yes, please tell us," the Tendou patriarch seconded.
"Well, two detectives stopped by to ask me a few more questions, regarding the other night. Little Himiko began to cry, and her story just sort of came out."
Ranma whirled to face the good doctor, her eyes narrowed and calculating.
"They wanted us to take her to child services."
"What!" Ranma and Akane both cried out. Akane clutched the little girl protectively to herself.
"Well, they would be able to care for her, and maybe even find her a nice home," Soun pointed out sagely.
"Well, from Ranma's visits, I know he has- that is I believe he has become somewhat attached to her. I was hoping maybe...." Tofu trailed off.
Both Ranma and Akane stared wide-eyed at the doctor. Nabiki rolled her eyes. He was a worse liar than Ranma. He hadn't even technically lied yet and she could tell he was avoiding looking at everyone.
'But the plan has merit,' Nabiki conceded. Taking on the girl without their parents becoming any the wiser. 'At least until we're ready to tell them.' She took the next couple of step while quickly trying to plan how best to help.
"Absolutely not!" Genma said.
Ranma spun again to face her father.
"What!" Akane called out.
"Saotome, old friend, let's think about this for a minute."
'Oh no,' ran through Nabiki's head as she skipped the next step in her hurry to get down there and stop this.
"If Ranma is as taken by the girl as Tofu-sensei says, and it looks like Akane has become quiet taken with the girl," Soun began to whisper loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.
Ranma began to glower.
"She might just be what we need to get those two together," Soun finished with a flourish.
"No! I will not allow you two to use my daughter as a pawn in your little fantasies!" Ranma yelled at the top of her lungs. Her eyes narrowed to little slivers as she gazed at her father, as if to dare him to say something.
Nabiki panicked. This wasn't the way things were supposed to go. She missed the next step in her haste. After a painful tumble, she landed rather unceremoniously at the bottom, giving her a front row seat to what she could only think of as a train wrecking in slow motion.
= = = = = = = = = =
"Your daughter?!" Genma demanded, his head swirling with possibilities.
"Yes! My daughter!" His son, turned daughter, challenged. Her eyes flashed with a dangerous flame. The Boy obviously wasn't thinking clearly.
"And just what makes you think she's your daughter?" Genma bellowed. He knew the Boy had too much honor to ever cheat on his iinazuke.
"I carried her for almost ten months! What do you think?!" the Boy yelled right back.
"What!" Genma bellowed darkly.
"You heard me, old man!"
The Boy leaned back into a defensive stance. She kept up the glare, but Genma could see the pain behind that anger. Something in the Boy's expression seemed to beg at him to stop this before it became too late.
"And just who's the father?!" Genma returned to his own horror. This could not really be happening. "That boy you let sleep with your iinazuke? Maybe that boy that plays with sticks?"
The Boy's face looked like she had been slapped.
"Well? Perhaps it was that waitperson of Ukyou's?"
"N-no." Something in his son's voice stabbed deeply in his heart.
"Well then, tell us? I'm sure everyone here would like to know just who you decided to spread your legs for!" Why couldn't he stop.
"I- I don't know." The Boy couldn't even look at him when he said that.
Genma felt his right hand fly up.
'Somebody stop me!' he yelled in his head. A mallet, a punch in the gut, he would even take a firm word from Kasumi. But no one moved.
Genma's hand went flying toward his cursed son. He closed his eyes, but that couldn't block out the sound or sting as he back handed his son as hard as he could.
"Have there been so many you can't remember?! I know I didn't raise my son to be a slut!" Genma bellowed righteously.
"I-it wasn't like that," the Boy said.
Genma opened his eyes. His son lay across the room where she landed. Her eyes watered as they meet his. He could see the pain and hurt there. His son's betrayal by his own hand. There was something more there.
"Well, what was it like then, Boy?!" Genma challenged. 'Are we the only two left in the room? Why isn't someone stopping me?!'
The boy looked away. She still hadn't gotten up from where she landed. Suddenly and horrifyingly he got it.
"Don't try to tell me someone took advantage of you!"
The Boy flinched.
"That's a woman's excuse! I know for a fact your better than that!"
Oh, there were other voices now, but he couldn't make them out.
Once, a long time ago, they were as close as father and son could be. Then, Genma ruined it all. He knew just when it all fell apart. It was the day he decided it was time to complete the Neko-ken training.
Not since that first day had he held his son. No longer did they talk about life or where snow came from. Never again had he asked about his mother. He had lost his son that day, and he never realized it until just this moment. Was he upset for that loss? Did he blame this female image for what he did? His son had become the man he never could, did he hate him for that to? Or was this all just the inevitable end between the two of them? Was he locked into the role he had taken for himself? He didn't know.
He did know what he was about to do. Even if there was some way he might have been forgiven for everything before, there would be no forgiveness in what he did next. He wanted to stop, but couldn't. Silently, he prayed that someone or something would strike him down before it was too late, but divine help had never been very close for the Saotomes. He was committed to a path and could not change what was about to happen anymore than he could take back every pain he had caused his son.
"You are no son of mine," he almost whispered; his throat felt like sandpaper. The room instantly quieted around him. "No son of mine would have allowed such a thing to pass. I hear by cast you out. You are no longer my son. You are no longer a Saotome. My son is dead to me."
With that, Genma turned and left the house. There would be no forgiveness from anyone that was there, least of all from himself. He would not stay. His only hope, was that they would find it in their hearts to care for and love Ranma as he should have all these years.