From chengd@ucalgary.ca Fri Nov 27 14:39:54 1998
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 1998 14:39:21 -0700 (MST)
From: Donny Cheng 
To: chengd@ucalgary.ca
Subject: [Ranma][Fanfic]Another Time, Same Place: Chapter 5 (fwd)


Disclaimer:  All characters portrayed in this story are the property of 
Rumiko Takahashi and co.

This story takes place after volume 38 of the manga and draws ideas from 
the anime also.

C & C welcomed.

Another Time, Same Place

by

Donny Cheng

Chapter 5:  Past Remembered

	Ranma yawned and the shut the blaring alarm off.  He found himself
in a surprisingly happy mood as he got ready for school.  The training
trip and that situation with Taro had affected him more then he could ever
believe.  He was starting to think that he could survive in this new
world of his.  He glanced out the window and the bright sky mirrored his
hopes.

	His eyes wandered and rested on the house beside their own.  He 
felt the return of the dull ache that threatened to collapse his heart.
Akane was there in the yard with Ryoga and Eiko playing tag.  He wanted to
turn away, but forced his eyes to stay put.  He could do this.  He will 
get on with his life and was surprised again to find that it was true.  It
was then he turned away, the smile no longer on his face, but the deep
depression was also missing.  In their place was acceptence and that would
have to do for now, Ranma felt.  He went down to get some breakfast.

			* * * * *

	Perfume eyes briefly wandered again to the back of the boy atop
the fence with Eiko on his shoulders.  She imagined that she could see a
small throbbing bump on his head.  Of course that was just plain silly as
Eiko covered the view.  She guiltily remembered of the rock she had kicked
towards the boy's head yesterday.  It had been quite a large rock.  No,
she told herself, he deserved whatever he got.

	"Don't worry about it.  He did deserve it," Ryoko said helpully in
answer to Perfume's unspoken thought.  Perfume's face displayed the clear
internal struggle that was happening as emotions wrestled each other upon
it.  "You remember what Auntie Nabiki used to say about him, right?  He
just doesn't think before he talks most of the time."

	How could she forget, Perfume wondered.  To hear of Auntie talk of
Ranma, one would think he were a monster.  That was Auntie Nabiki's 
nature.  Unlike Mother, she didn't hold any illusions to what Ranma was
really like.  And unlike Father, she also didn't think that Ranma was a
total waste of human flesh.  That wasn't entirely true as Mother's
passions and Father's anger dimmed with age.

	 Ranma, as Auntie was fond to put it, was not the brightest star
in the sky.  She often laughed out loud when she recalled some of the
misery she put Ranma through, all for the sake of fun and a few yen.
Other times she lashed out at Ranma's stupidity whenever the subject came
to Auntie Akane.  Auntie Nabiki cared about her little sister even though
she didn't show it most of the time.  However, most of the time she would
grudgingly admit afterward that Ranma was useful in that he made her
sister happier than before he came to Nerima.  In the end,  Perfume came
to the conclusion that the fabled Ranma was just a typical insensitive
jerk that wasn't all that bad and gave the matter not another thought.

	Now that he was here in her midst, Perfume was slightly
dissappointed that she had been right.  Though not as bad as her father
once made him out to be, it was closer to the mark than her mother that
was for sure.  Her mother fell in love with that type of guy?  They were a
dime a dozen at Furinken.  Even so, she hadn't the right to treat him the
way she did since he came back.  He had no idea that of the first few
rough years of her parents' marriage.  He had no idea of the pain that her
father went through to prove his worth.  He had no idea that... Mother did
not fall in love with Father until well into their marriage.

	Indeed, he had shown signs of guilt and fear when he had thought
her parents were going to fight over him when he returned to the
Nekohanten for the first time in a long while.  That was the reason for
Perfume's guilt.  The person that made her early childhood years filled
with sadness for her parents didn't even know what he had done.  With each
passing day, that 'not so bad' trait of Ranma's made Perfume guiltier
of her actions towards the boy.  It was infuriating the way he could get
in under her skin one moment and completely astound her the next.  She
sighed as she watched Ranma's expressive face devoid of any of the sadness
he usually showed to the outside world.  To think that the one that could
have that kind of effect on him was only four years old.

			* * * * *

	Ranma glared angrily back at the crowd.  "Ugly?"

	"Ugly!  I don't see how a boy so ugly can attract the attention of
Yuu-sama," a girl yelled out from the crowd.

	"Yeah, you pervert!  You're the one that's the cause for
Yuu-sama's behaviour.  If it weren't for you, we might be able to bring
him back to our side," another girl angrily said.

	Ranma ground his teeth together.  His jaw set stubbornly in place.
Ugly?  Hah!  He caught sight of his target walking into the school yard.
"Hey, Yuu-kun!  Over here.  Let me carry those books for you."

	"Huh?" Yuu said intelligently.  Ranma-sama!  "Uh... sure,
Ranchan," adopting his mother's nickname for the pig-tailed boy.

	Yukio glared jealously at Yuu.   Grabbing the thermos of cold
water she carried for absolutely no reason at all, she splashed him.  "Oh,
I'm so sorry!  It just slipped out of my hands."

	The crowd, being Furinken students, didn't miss a beat.  "You vile
sorceress!  Unhand, Yukio-sama!" an enraged boy cried out.

	"Your presense mars the beauty that is our goddesss," another boy
quickly followed suit.

	If there was one thing of her cursed form Ranma was proud of was
her beauty.   She was convinced that the reason she was beautiful as a 
girl was solely because her real form was the definition of manly beauty.
"Heh, Yukio doesn't seem to think so, so there!  C'mon Yukio, I'll walk
you to class."

	"Ranchan, wait for me!" Yuu called out, quickly uncorking his
thermos of hot water as fast as he could.

	"That egotistical..," Meiko said, showing an increasingly not so
rare display of emotion.

	"..idiotic..," Ryoko continued through gritted teeth.

	"....pervert!" Perfume finished angrily.  And to think she 
actually thought she might try to be nice to him.

	"Ranma-kun is certainly something," Kasuga said helpfully.  It was
hard to say anything in a positive light like her mother taught him.

	"Ranma-san is certainly that," Tatewaki agreed.  He was still not
sure what to think about this new friend of there.  Even whether or not he
was a friend in the first place was in question.

			* * * * *

	Mika forced herself to remain calm throughout the school day.  She
would not look at him.  She would not give anything away.  After so many
years of denial she had finally looked at the video tape of her parents
only loss in competition play to confirm something that stuck in her mind.
Sure enough, the boy in the video tape was one Saotome Ranma.  She didn't
know how that was possible, but from the stories, these things happened
frequently when Ranma was around.  No matter, tonight would be the night
of her first tutorial session with him.  And teach Ranma a lesson, she
would.

			* * * * *

	"Then there was the time, Ranma and us took on Principal Kuno.
You remember that, Daisuke?" Hiroshi asked his long time friend.

	"Of course.  This is the former principal we are talking about
here.  This guy had a major short hair fetish.  It it weren't for us most
of the students would have been bald for the rest of the school year.
Those were the days.  Hey, where'd Ranma go?  Anyway, where was I..?"

	Ranma had smartly decided to leave the two storytellers to
themselves.  He was surprised at the size of the crowd the two men drew.
"Do they do this everyday?  Don't they have jobs?" Ranma asked nobody in
particular.

	"I think that this is their job," Mika answered as she walked to
the boy.  Unlike most of the students, Mika hated to listen to the stories
Hiroshi and Daisuke told.  Mostly because they would sometimes tell the
crowd of 'their' win over the Golden Pair.  "Where do you want to have me
tutor you?  At your home?"

	If there was one thing Ranma had learned in the past it was that
one did not let anyone see oneself with another girl at any time.  He
figured taking Mika home would not be advisable.  "Your place, if it isn't
too far," Ranma answered.

	Mika nodded.  Perfect.  "Get your books ready, the limo will be
around in a few minutes."

	Ranma had the strange notion that Mika was licking her teeth as
she looked at him.  He shrugged it off as his mind just worrying about the
fact that he was going to the home of a girl that looked like Azusa.  He
shuddered as he remembered the kleptomaniac of all things cute.
Fortunately, her daughter hadn't displayed the same qualities yet.

			* * * * *

	Meiko looked forlornly at Ranma chasing after Mika.  "I could have
tutored him in math."

	Ryoko and Perfume looked gave Meiko a look.

	"Er... well, you guys could.  Oh, never mind.  You guys are worse
than me."

	The three girls sighed.  That math test tomorrow was going to kill
them.

			* * * * *

	"Kasuga, do you suppose that Sazanin-san knows who Ranma is?"
Tatewaki asked his cousin as he watched Ranma run to catch up with the
skate-wearing Mika.

	Kasuga nodded, "Well she should by now.  Hiroshi and Daisuke
confirmed it to nearly everyone."

	"Is she still sore at Auntie Akane for defeating her parents?"
Tatewaki wondered aloud.

	Kasuga spared his friend a long glance.  Grabbing his first-aid
kit he headed off to the Sazanin estate.  He didn't have to look back to
know that Tatewaki was not far behind.

			* * * * *

	

	Mika hit Ranma across the knuckles again with her ruler for the
tenth time. She wanted to slam her head on the table. "No! How many times
do I have to tell you?  Try to simplify both sides of the equation first.
See how much easier the question is now?"

	Ranma scratched his head and just nodded.  However, what worked
with the teachers did not work with this girl.

	"You're just nodding your head and making me move along, aren't
you?" Mika sighed and picked up her eraser and started to remove the
unsightly scribbling in her neat workbook.  With the rate the were going,
the tutorial would end before she got a chance at revenge.  How
inconsiderate of the jerk!

	Mika cared too much of her reputation as the smartest girl in the
school to let this Ranma ruin it.  What would it say to the world if the
person she taught failed every test he took?  She will not let a Saotome
make a fool of the Sazanin name ever again if she could help it.

	"Ranma, is that you?  It is you!  Honey, come here.  Look who's
here," Azusa giggled showing some of the cuteness from her youth.

	Mikado nodded to Ranma as he came in to the den where the children
studied.  "I heard that you had come back.  Long time no see."

	"Yeah."  Ranma glanced warily at Mikado.  The last time he had
seen the womanizing pervert was way back during their competition.  He
looked Mikado over.  If this guy was better than him, Ranma would kill
himself.

	Mika tensed as her parents confirmed that this boy was indeed the
Ranma that had beaten them.  She eased herself off of the chair, ready to
spring at any moment.  If need be she would be there to help them take him
down.

	Mikado noticed Ranma's reaction.  "I've been retired for a few
years now, Ranma.  I don't think I could handle you, right now.  Besides I
can't fight worth a damn without a pair of skates," he added jokingly to
let Ranma know everything was alright.

	Azusa punched Mikado lightly on the shoulder.  "C'mon, say it."

	Mikado glanced sheepishly at his wife, "Alright, alright.  We
always meant to tell you twenty years ago, but we never got around to it
and the next moment we knew, you were gone.  We just wanted to tell you
how sorry we are for the way we acted to you and Akane.  We already
apologized to Akane, now we get the chance to do the same to you."

	Ranma's jaw dropped and he stared in shock at his two former
rivals.  "Mikado?  Azusa?  You guys haven't had any serious injuries to
the head in the last twenty years have you?"

	Mika would have whapped Ranma with the ruler again, but she too
was in shock.  "Father?  Mother?  Why are you apologizing to him for?
He's the one that ruined your record."

	"He's also the one that brought your father and I together," Azusa
said gently to her only child.

	Mikado nodded.  "After that tounament, I was taken to the
hospital.  There your mother came by and nursed me back to health."

	"Florence Nightingale?"  Mika had heard of this effect before.

	Azusa blushed and muttered a mumbled no.

	Mikado laughed, "Hey, it's alright, Honey.  I forgave you already.
Actually, your mother's visits extended my stay by a year.  She wasn't the
best 'nurse' in the world.  She kept trying to take my bandages apart
because she thought they were cute.  Soon, the golden pair went into
anonymity with lack of ice time.  It was then I knew how much my 'fans'
cared about me.  In my bitterness, I noticed your mother for the first
time and the rest is history."

	"You married mother and went on to win every martial arts figure
skating competion you entered in.  You retired some years after I was
born," Mika finished.  She had gone over every aspect of her parents'
illustruous career and knew it off by heart.  She blushed as her parents
both smiled warmly back at her.  It had always been her dream to follow in
her parents' footsteps.

	Ranma shuddered involuntarily at the thought of Azusa having a
child.  He looked over at Mika and had to admit that aside from being a
bit snobbish, she didn't look like anything Ranma would have guessed
Azusa's child would be like.

	"No, Ranma.  I don't act that way anymore," Azusa said in
answering Ranma's unasked question.  She had caught Ranma giving her and
her daughter funny looks.  "I found Mikado to be all the 'cuteness' I
need."

	"And I found that kissing Azusa a hundred times is more preferable
than kissing a hundred different girls."

	"Oh, Jean-Luc!"

	"Azusa-chan!"

	Ranma found himself to be sick for totally different reasons now.
Mikado and Azusa didn't seem to notice that two children were in the room
with them.

	How they ever had only one child, Mika would never know.  She
blushed and hurriedly helped a frozen Ranma out of the room.  She sighed
as she looked at Ranma.  Her parents left her with the impression that
they would be displeased if their only daughter were to harm Ranma in
anyway.

	Ranma wondered if he would ever wash that image from his mind.
"I've got to get out of here."

	Mika whacked Ranma over the head smartly with the ruler again.
"Not until, you're done with these equations.  Seeing as your friends are
here, they can help me teach you all night if we have to."

	"What?"  Friends?  Ranma looked around him and saw Nabiki's son
and Kasumi's son outside of the window looking in.

	"I should have known better than to hide myself from one such as
yourself," Tatewaki said as he came in through the open window of the
room.

	"I told you we should have just used the front door, Tatewaki."
Kasuga said, his face red with shame at their behavior.  "How did you know
it was us, Miss Sazanin?"

	Mika gave them a wry look.  "Ranma wasn't the only person I heard
retching just a moment ago.  Also, my house doesn't have roses since I
hate them so much.  The only one stupid enough to bring them in my
presense could only be Tatewaki."

	"Again you astound me with your intellect.  Truly, only one
blessed by the gods would be so divine," Tatewaki replied, non-plussed at
Mika's apparent hatred of him.

	Ranma awkwardly looked at boy and girl arguing with each other.
At least he thought they were arguing.  Neither one raised their voices in
the slightest.  Mika threw insult after insult while Tatewaki just heaped
the praises on.

	Kasuga smiled at Ranma.  "Don't mind them, Ranma.  They really
like each other.  It's just that they don't get along very well.  Tatewaki
knew that Mika didn't like the two people that defeated her parents, 
Auntie Akane and you.  Mika tends to resort to physical violence even
though she doesn't condone it in others."

	Ranma prudently said nothing.  One Kasumi had been more than
enough and there were now two of them.  Just when he thought life was
almost normal again.  He _was_ secretly glad that both Tatewaki and Kasuga
were concerned about him.  He never had 'pals' before in the strict
definition of the word.

			* * * * *

	Soun nodded at the next student in line.  "This is Hiro.  He is
our fiftieth ranked student."

	Ken nodded warily.  He had challenged the dojo after all.  The
sensei's sense of fair play would only allow Ken to meet each student one
at a time.  He was silently in awe of this venerable master.  Gathering
his concentration, he prepared for the next battle.

	Soun prayed for Ranma's quick return.  Fortunately, he had heard
rumors of this dojo destroyer.  All who faced the boy had lost miserably.
Soun's only hope was Ranma.  There was no way he was going out to face
that maniac and that weird art of his.

	"Why can't I fight him?" Akane asked again.

	"Absolutely not!  Remember, you're not the heir to the dojo
anymore.  The dojo will belong to Meiko and Ranma when the marry," Ryoga
hoped that Akane would listen for once rather than act.  There was no way
he was going to let his wife subject to the diabolical art of this cocky
teenager.  He shuddered as he thought of Akane in this 'Ken's' hands.

	Akane nodded to her husband's wishes.  If she pushed him, she knew
that he would cry about her not liking her place in the Hibiki school.
Ryoga had learned a thing or two from her father on the Tendo art of
crying.  She watched as the dojo destroyer utterly defeat Hiro.  How on
earth did Kumon come up with this fearsome art of...

			* * * * *

	Lotion watched the Nekohanten from across the street.  Every time
the door swung open, she caught a glimpse of the bustling activity inside.
There was a near-blind bus boy cleaning up the tables.  Though he was
often clumsy, she knew for a fact that the man easily surpassed her and
most amazons for that matter in skill.  In the far back, in the kitchen
was another extraordinary person.  That woman, had she still been in the
village, would have been the next matriarch of Joketsuzoku.

	"Haven't you been looking long enough?"

	Lotion whirled around to face the person that had crept up upon
her.  "Great-grandmother."

	Only three hundred years of experience stopped Cologne from
falling off of her staff.  "Ah, I take it that she had another child.
Well, what are you standing out here for.  Don't you want to meet your
sister?"

			* * * * *

	"You say a strange phenomenon has been detected?" Spice asked with
interest.

	"Yes, one of our agents swears that she saw the infamous Happosai
in the Joketsuzoku three months ago," Lime answered.

	"The reason he hadn't told us earlier was that he had thought he
was mistaken.  The master of Anything Goes has been missing for quite some
time.  Also, you see there was a boy with him.  A boy that looks like
the same Saotome Ranma that defeated your father," Mint continued.

	"Go on."  Spice's interest grew.

	"However, we received reports from Japan that Saotome Ranma and
Happosai have resurfaced," Lime finished.

	What could the two have been doing near Joketsuzoku?  Nothing must
interfere with Spice's plans.

	"You didn't tell him," Mint whispered as he poked at Lime.

	Spice's dragon lineage gave him a superior hearing to that of
normal humans.  "Tell me what," he asked softly knowing full well the two
idiots could here the silent rumbling in his voice.

	"Um... Mistress Lotion was seen in their company in China three
months ago.  She was also seen in Japan," Lime meekly added.

	"Prepare the ship.  We have a trip to make," Spice ordered
immediately.  He hadn't noticed that Lotion was gone.  He should have paid
more attention to the happenings in Joketsuzoku.

			* * * * *

The End. (maybe)

Coming up:

More Preludes and Interludes

First Knight 3

Dragonball R1/2 3

Another Time, Same Place 6

Sequel to my Ranma/Nabiki fic What Price Love? and For Love or Money

Not necessarily in that order.

Fanboy and fanfic writer. ^_^
Homepage at http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Ginza/4537

    Source: geocities.com/tokyo/ginza/4537

               ( geocities.com/tokyo/ginza)                   ( geocities.com/tokyo)