Thyself
Known
By
Zorknot
Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and
its characters all belong to Takahashi Rumiko and her cohorts. The voices in my
head made me do it.
What Has Come Before: Ranma had a semi-lucid dream that caused the
trigger of his curse to change. Now he’s a girl when he feels girlie. He also changes his personalities to deal with
whatever situation hits him. After having a major argument with Akane, injuring
Happosai, almost raping Shampoo while in the Nekoken, and attempting to seduce
Dr. Tofu, all in the space of some four hours, Ranma’s extremely unstable. Tofu
has a solution, but can Ranma be convinced to pierce his ears and wear a pair
of pretty earrings? It’s not exactly going well for anyone else either. Nabiki
for one is getting eerie déjà vu from the whole mess...
~~~~~[BEGIN]~~~~~
“But before
help comes, slowly, imperceptibly at first, the entire consciousness of Phaedrus begins to come apart... to dissolve and fade away.
Then gradually he no longer wonders what will happen next. He knows what will
happen next, and tears flow for his family and for himself and for this world.”
-Robert M. Pirsig Zen and the
Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
~~~~~*~~~~~
Nabiki left her home wearing her blue
school uniform and carrying her satchel. The satchel contained her laptop, her
graphing calculator, and an abacus as well as the requisite notebooks, pencils
and papers. Whenever possible she liked to use her abacus because it kept her
mind sharp, and it kept her more valuable equipment from being seen by people
who would be inclined to steal it.
This was not of course her only
deterrent. Her computer had been stolen a grand total of twice. The first time
was by a senior who had later found his little prank had caused him to be
re-registered at Furinkan as a Freshman girl named Aima Horu. (Only in Nerima, where
one’s appearance did not necessarily indicate one’s sex was this possible.) He
had to change two of his classes and he was effectively barred from sports for
a year before he was able to fix the problem. Also back then the uniform rule
was more strictly enforced...
Nabiki could have bought four laptops
from the money she got from the betting pools that year.
The other time the laptop was stolen by a
girl in Nabiki’s own class who had wanted revenge for losing a fair bet.
Akane made lunch the next day.
Nabiki made the switch.
When the girl came back to school again
after a week of recuperating she gave the laptop back to Nabiki without saying
a word. No one had stolen anything from Nabiki since.
She took her time walking away from the
place she had lived her entire life. She was feeling introspective and she
wasn’t at all worried about being late. Sooner than she would like, she would
have to move away. Away from the problems of Furinkan.
Away from the complex life of Ranma Saotome. Away from
the warm blanket of her mother’s influence that hung around the house even so many
years since her death. It was so comforting one minute, but then so stifling
the next.
Her mother was dead. On days like today
she wished she wasn’t. On days like today she wished it was someone else’s job
to make sense of everything, because right now, Nabiki had no idea what was
going on.
Nabiki sighed as she approached the Tomo
residence, the second house along the road. No,
she thought, that isn’t true. I know
exactly what’s going on. At least part of it.
Four or five minutes ago, hurricane Akane and typhoon Ranma
had left for school, leaving Nabiki and the others to contemplate the
aftermath. Nabiki’s thoughts at that moment had been first that it was rather
silly for Ranma to go to school, but then she thought back, and remembered how
strange Happosai had acted, the mind control, him telling her she was “scary
enough as it is” and how it didn’t seem like a joke. Then she remembered Ranma
and how cold the redhead’s expression was. How it reminded her of a different
face. One she saw in the bathroom one horrible night. Directly in front of her
and above the sink....
She had left the house and now she was
here, walking to the Tomos’ garage. When she got
there, Nabiki knocked on the aluminum slats of the garage door. She smiled
slightly at the irony. Ranma and Akane were martial artists. Even Akane could,
if she so chose, try out for the Olympics and no doubt place in almost any
event... except of course swimming. Nabiki, on the other hand, was not an
athlete. And yet even though Ranma and Akane ran as fast as they could to get
to school on time every morning, Nabiki always got there before them.
The garage door opened, revealing a
highly modified neon green Model G Honda moped. Next to it was a more
traditional red and black Yamaha motorcycle. The motorcycle belonged to
Nabiki’s friend and compatriot, Hoko Tomo. The moped...was Nabiki’s. Both bikes
sat next to a slightly discolored space in the floor where the Tomo car was
kept when it wasn’t being used.
To Nabiki’s mild surprise the person who
had opened up the garage door was not Hoko, but her mother.
“Good morning, Nabiki-chan,” Tomo-san
greeted with a slight bow of her head as she released her finger from the
button on the right wall that opened the door.
“Good morning, Tomo-san.” Nabiki bowed
deeper to show respect, however she could never bring herself to take her eyes
off anyone...something she retained from her childhood long ago, when she still
practiced the Art. Her friends and associates sometimes remarked that this was
unsettling. “Is there anything wrong?”
“Nothing to worry about...
Just...Hoko-chan has a fever this morning so she can’t go to school. I called
Tofu’s office but the message said he was closed for the day. I hope he opens
again soon... I just don’t trust those hospital doctors.” Hoko’s mother was
wearing a flowery house dress and slippers. Even though the days were
pleasantly warm now, the mornings could still be chilly. A slight draft
whispered through Tomo-san’s dress and made her grab
her bare and suddenly goose pimpled arms.
She was an attractive woman in a motherly
sort of way. Right now, however Nabiki felt like she could count all the years
on the middle-aged woman’s face. “Well, tell her I hope she gets better soon.”
Nabiki walked to her moped and lifted the helmet off the back. Nabiki looked
back at Hoko’s mother staring outside and rubbing her arms. “It’s probably just
the temperature change. I know a few people, they always get sick around this time.”
Tomo-san turned her head back toward
Nabiki as if surprised, “Yes. Yes, you’re probably right. People get sick all
the time. It’s nothing to worry about.” Tomo-san smiled weakly, and turned back
away.
Nabiki nodded hesitantly and put her
helmet on. She got her keys out of her book bag and sat on the bike. She kicked
the kickstand back. She paused for a moment. “I’ll check by Dr. Tofu’s after
school today if you want...”
Tomo-san gave a small nod
Nabiki put the
keys in and revved the engine. She rolled out of the garage and looked back
once more at Hoko’s mom. She lifted a hand for goodbye and Tomo-san absently
followed suit. Then Nabiki sped away as the garage door started to whir slowly
closed.
Nabiki always had
a knack for reading people. It was glaringly obvious to her that Tomo-san was,
in fact, extremely worried. A part of her wanted to make Hoko’s mom feel
better, but what could she say? It was just a cold? It didn’t mean anything?
There were enough life-threatening diseases out there that started out as colds
that there was no way she could be sure that was true. And Nabiki couldn’t tell
Hoko’s mom that...Even if part of her wanted to see her cry, wanted to see the
terror and sorrow in her eyes. Even if part of her wanted Hoko to get sick and
die so she wouldn’t have to worry about her anymore...
No, the overriding feeling was that it
was none of her business. Best to distance herself from it.
Think about something else.
So Nabiki just
let the cool morning wind refresh her as she sped down the road. Every now and
then her uniform skirt would flip up, revealing the short shorts Nabiki wore
underneath. Nabiki smiled. Somehow she had managed to keep her obsession secret
far longer than she had thought possible. Nabiki loved secrets and the bike was
a big one.
There was more to it than that though.
Nabiki increased her speed as she reached
a busy street. Soon she was generating a lot of wind and dodging vehicles and
pedestrians like Pac-man on speed. Many colorful expletives were uttered at
her, but if Nabiki heard them at all, they were distorted by a massive Doppler
effect.
On a bike the world spun differently.
Navigating through the obstructions presented Nabiki with a fresh onslaught of
problems that had nothing to do with normal life...and everything to do with
it. Sometimes when it looked like she was going to take a heavy loss in the
betting pool or in the stocks she imagined herself on the street riding...and
suddenly she would know exactly what to do.
Nabiki accelerated. The Model G was the
cheapest bike she could find. As her business extended outside Furinkan High to
other parts of
*
When he saw the neon green blur, Kawagami
Hiro revved up the engine of his police motorcycle, spat out a wad of gum and
put his silver sunglasses on with his left hand. There was no way she was going
to escape him this time. She was fast, but she had to slow down sooner or
later. He would catch this crazy bitch once and for all. He kicked back his
kick stand and sped out on to the street, becoming a loud blue and white blur
of movement. Hiro flicked on his lights almost as an after thought as he
pursued his prey.
*
Nabiki saw the cop in her shaking mirror
and smiled. The man was pathetic. He had been trying to catch her for two weeks
now, but it was always the same story. She would lose him, and she would still
arrive at her destination with time to spare. In front of her, two large trucks
loomed, side by side, stopped at the red light. Without giving the situation a
second thought, she passed on their right, merged into the leftward moving
traffic, u-turned into the rightward moving traffic and turned left onto her
original street. She knew Number 542,
safety freak that he was, would stop at the light until the traffic died down.
She sped through the relatively stationary vehicles a little more leisurely
now, only going about 90 kilometers per hour or so. She loved this. In fact,
there was only one thing Nabiki loved more…
*
Hiro cursed at the scooter as it sped
away. The four dollar signs on the license plate seemed to be laughing at him.
Fortunately the light turned green only a second or two after the girl
completed her little stunt. Hiro smiled. No, she wasn’t going to slip by this
time.
*
Of course the modifications weren’t the
only reason Nabiki could go so fast. She was also a damned good driver. Hoko
had introduced Nabiki to the motorbike world and her friend was amazed at how
easily Nabiki took to it. Nabiki didn’t have any explanation except that her
hand eye coordination was still pretty good from her training. The coordination
exercises had begun almost immediately after she was born, and that sort of
thing doesn’t go away. She didn’t mention this to Hoko though. The last thing
she needed was everyone thinking she knew martial arts. She had enough trouble
explaining the dojo. The cars in front of Nabiki stopped. She drove onto the
side walk and dodged past a few people before hitting the road again. She was a
little worried about Ranma…
*
Hiro stared at what the girl did. How
could anyone be so disrespectful of other people? How could she risk so many
lives? How could she show such disregard for the Law?! How could she be so
amazing….? Hiro shook his head free of that last thought. The girl, whoever she
was, was an accident waiting to happen. She had to be brought down. Hiro didn’t
deny that he would take great pleasure in THAT. He followed as best he could
without endangering any innocents…
*
Ranma had reminded Nabiki so much of herself
this morning. What she saw in his eyes… it made her remember that terrible time
after mother died and before she found her second love. She was obsessed with
money and even at the fragile age of ten, she was planning the family budget
and making small time business transactions. Nabiki was a genius by most
standards, and she often took pride in that, but as a genius she found few
friends and so had to harden herself against the world.
Nabiki saw that 542 was
gaining on her. She slowed down just enough and made a sharp left turn into a
long alley way.
As dumpsters and fire escapes whizzed
past her, Nabiki thought of how fast her so-called childhood had passed her by.
Nabiki smiled, melancholy at the few happy moments,
when Daddy wasn’t so bad, or when one of her schemes paid off better than
expected. She was just starting then, though and most of her attempts to make
money were massive failures.
Akane grew increasingly intolerable. She
seemed to lord it over Nabiki that she was a martial artist and that Nabiki was
not, even though she knew that Nabiki had quit along with Kasumi after Mom
died.
Nabiki grimaced. She knew a lot of
people. Associates she dealt with during business transactions... Many of them
would tell her the short version of their life story in a vain attempt to gain
sympathy. What struck Nabiki about the majority of these stories was how the
transition from childhood to adulthood could be so smooth. Nabiki saw the dead
end of the alley approaching her and she prepared for it as she thought about
how her childhood ended. She knew the precise moment when it did...
...It was the moment when she took the
gun.
Nabiki sped toward the dead end, but
instead of slowing down, she increased her speed, and just a meter before she
reached it, she veered right. Her front wheel went up a broken piece of
furniture a homeless man was using as a lean-to, and farther up onto the side
of the alley way. Nabiki was fully
horizontal to the ground for a moment. Then, just before the front wheel
reached the face of the building that marked the dead end, Nabiki ollied the neon green Model G away from the wall and turned the wheel to a precise angle, hitting
the face of the building at just the right vector so that the bike would roll
down instead of crashing. She sped down the building for a split second before
she hit the street again with a bone rattling jolt, followed soon after by a
jarring thud as the back end of the bike hit the ground.
All this took maybe a second, and she had
lost only a little speed.
*
Hiro, having followed the girl into the
alley was extremely surprised when she passed him from the opposite direction
at such a speed. He didn’t know what he saw when the crazy girl had reached the
dead end. He knew what he THOUGHT he saw, but THAT was impossible. Stunned and
frustrated, he couldn’t help feeling a little embarrassed that his own turn
around wasn’t nearly as graceful. In his surprise he tried to do a U-turn. He
ended up falling over and skidding along the pavement a meter or so. He was
pretty sure his clothes were ruined and his left side was at least severely
bruised.
“Itte.” He murmured managing to capture feelings of
anger, defeat, and outright pain in the two syllables.
Suddenly he smiled. He had gotten a good
look at the driver finally. That wasn’t just any ugly blue dress she was
wearing... That was a Furinkan High uniform.
Now if this were any normal speeder, Hiro
would radio headquarters and tell them where she was headed so that she could
be arrested, but this wasn’t just a one time thing. She had managed to
practically disappear again and again. She out maneuvered him so fast that he
couldn’t even give her position over the mic. Hiro
was the fastest biker on the force. His reputation was on the line.
This was personal.
Hiro picked himself and his motorcycle up
and checked himself. No major injuries, though he’d feel like hell tomorrow. It
was amazing really that he hadn’t suffered more. He revved the bike’s engine
again, it sounded good. His favorite sunglasses had fallen off and now lay
cracked on the ground. Hiro sighed, and put his second pair on, these were just
as over sized as the others but were only darkly tinted as opposed to silvered.
That girl would PAY! He drove out of the alley, and
down the road at a normal, sane person’s pace. He stopped at a public phone. He
put his card in and dialed.
“Hey, Ryu, ya there? Listen I’ve
got a favor to ask... Oh nothin’ much, I just want
you to organize a few things when I give a signal...” After Hiro finished
explaining what he wanted he drove to Furinkan high
school, purposely taking his time. He found a nice shady area where he could
see all the traffic in and out and waited.
~~~~~*~~~~~
Nabiki liked
school well enough, but the actual getting taught part of it could get tedious
at times. She generally kept to the back of the class so she could plan out her
business transactions without the teacher knowing.
First period was history, a class Nabiki
could ace fairly easily as long as she didn’t pay any attention to the teacher
and read the book. If she paid any attention to the teacher, the whole thing
got muddied up because the fool kept getting the names and dates wrong. Today
though, after parking her bike and meeting some associates before the bell, she
had sat down in History and couldn’t bring herself to work on her ledger.
“Now what we’re
going to talk about today is very important to remember class,” Omo-sensei began, “Today we’re going to talk about World
War Two.”
“Now who can tell
me what day ‘Pac-man’ was dropped on
A girl in the
front raised her hand. She always raised her hand.
“Yes, Juri, what’s the answer.”
“My name is Arisu, sensei”
“Ah, so it is. So
what date was ‘Riddle ploy’ dropped on
“You mean ‘Little
boy?’”
“Yes, what was
the date of that great tragedy in
“Um,
“No, that’s
incorrect. Anybody?”
The other
students knew by now not to try to answer.
Sometimes Arisu
would leave the classroom crying.
“I’m saddened by
this generation’s lack of national pride. This is an important time. The
Germans devastated two of our cities with their nuclear families! Trillions
died!”
Nabiki watched
all this from the back room as if it was an absurd dream. It was sad, Oma-sensei actually knew more about history than almost
anyone, but while he could write it down just fine, if he had to speak,
everything went out the window. Once someone suggested he could try singing.
That had worked, but he had such an awful voice he had to stop. It sounded
about as bad as Akane’s cooking tasted.
Nuclear
families...Nabiki had been in one once. It was hard to imagine now. She could
still remember Mom. She could still remember being a kid. But she couldn’t
remember how the politics of it had worked. What had Akane done when she wasn’t
the only martial artist? What had Kasumi done when Mom was the one that cooked?
What had Daddy done when Mom was still there? As Nabiki tried to put it
together in her mind Oma-sensei equivocated to the
class until the bell for second period sounded, breaking Nabiki’s reverie.
Second period was
first semester Calculus . Normally Nabiki was more
active in this class. She knew Calculus already, but she found a certain joy in
solving problems and getting them right. But today she could barely pay
attention.
“Nabiki?” Anguru-sensei jolted
Nabiki out of her woolgathering.
“Sorry, sensei,
what was the question again?”
“When you take
the derivative of a tangent line, what do you get.”
Nabiki frowned.
This was a pretty simple question. “A slope, a constant rate
of change.”
“Right so what do
you need to draw the line?”
“A point. Specifically, the point where
the tangent line touches the graph of the function.”
“Thank you. You
may go back to your dreams of world domination now.”
The other five
people in the room chuckled.
Furinkan High was not all that big on
academia.
What WAS the
point? Why was Nabiki feeling so off today? It was Ranma of course. He was the
function. And the point....that look in his
eyes...that look of deadness...That’s what was pulling Nabiki along this
tangent. She didn’t want to remember the day she had seen that look before. She
didn’t want to, but she knew...she had to.
Nabiki got up from her chair. The teacher
nearly dropped her chalk in surprise. Without even excusing herself, Nabiki
left the room. She stopped by her locker to retrieve her shoes and after a
moments hesitation, she but her satchel in as well. She should be back before
school was out.
She left Furinkan and its betting pools
and social circles. She found her bike, put her helmet on, and took off. She
needed the bike right now. The sense of freedom. The speed. Most of all though, she needed
the privacy.
*
Hiro had thought he would have to wait
until school was out. He had been just about ready to go buy something to eat
for lunch when the green demon chick came tearing out of the school grounds
like a bat out of hell. “Hey hey, playin’
hooky on top of it all... this gets better’n better.”
He smiled and picked up the mic from it’s cradle. “Anyone out there wanna make a quick buck?” That was the signal. Hiro
would probably catch hell for using police frequencies for something like that
but it would be worth it if he could catch this girl and find out what the hell
her problem was. He wondered idly what her name was...He frowned, not that it
fucking mattered. He gunned the engine violently and took off after the Model
G.
*
Nabiki sped along the road. She had to
start at the beginning. The memory was too raw to just go right into it. She
thought about the end of her childhood, the gun.
At fifteen, Nabiki was starting to get
into more dangerous deals, and she was spending more and more time in
the...shadier parts of
“Quick, take this! I’ll pay you back
later!” and he threw something at Nabiki, which she caught.
It was a gun.
The man had owed Nabiki money and was
meeting her to pay her back. Apparently he also owed the Yakuza money. Through
some freakish stroke of luck he had escaped them by taking the leader’s gun.
Nabiki never found out more than that. She had decided she wanted no more
dealings with the man.
The reasoning behind keeping the gun
seemed so clear to her at the time. She felt that Akane was right, she wasn’t a
martial artist, and so she needed some form of protection.
She hadn’t realized until the day that
Akane threatened her.
It was really stupid. Akane wanted to go
see a movie with her friends only she didn’t have any money. She asked Nabiki
for some but Nabiki said, rightly, that they didn’t have enough. This was
before the massive windfall Nabiki experienced when Kuno issued his
challenge... and funds were EXTREMELY tight. She had already had to fire
Ichiro, and she was very close to pawning some of the security equipment she
had invested in over the years. Then Akane said, half jokingly, that she could
just take the money from Nabiki by force if she wanted to.
Nabiki loved her sisters and father, but
even with them, she was cold as ice when money or something equally serious was
concerned. And the mere idea that Akane, could THINK that she could do such a
thing…it awakened something dark in Nabiki…and she pulled out her gun.
Nabiki grew aware of a sound. A rhythmic “whump”ing sound that seemed
to be following her, getting closer. It reminded her of the sound of her
heart that day, when she held the gun pointed at Akane’s forehead and she saw
the fear in her sister’s eyes...
Nabiki realized with a shake of her head that
the sound was not from her memory but was above her. She looked up. “A helicopter?” The
craft was almost right on top of her, big as a house. In Nabiki’s shock, she
failed to see the car in front of her… until it was too late.
Nabiki tried to swerve and do a wheelie
at the same time, but her body knew before she did that this maneuver wouldn’t
work. She launched herself on to the side walk and watched her bike speed up
the low frame of a car and spin into the air. She noted its trajectory as
coldly as she had noted the sweat rolling down Akane’s temple. It was headed
spinning toward a woman and her baby.
A darkness she had lived
with for two years now wanted the bike to make contact, to cause DAMAGE, to
DESTROY. It was the same darkness that made Nabiki cock
the pistol… that made her finger grow tighter against the cool trigger of the
loaded gun.
She had wanted Akane to die then. She
CRAVED it. She NEEDED to see blood seep from a wound that would never heal. But
she loved her sister. She didn’t want to see her hurt. She didn’t want to see
anybody hurt. No. NO! “NOOOOOOOOOO!”
Nabiki felt some burning thing tear from
her just before the concrete slammed into her shoulder.
*
Hiro came onto the scene just in time to
catch the accident. He saw the girl jump from the bike. He saw the bike
spinning toward the lady with the baby. It was going to hit them. It couldn’t
have been more than five centimeters away from the woman’s face and then…the
girl screamed “No!” and...for just the slightest of
moments, Hiro could swear the girl flashed a bright green before hitting the
ground jarringly. Hiro was distracted but when he heard the sound of scrap
metal hitting the pavement he looked back. Some how the bike had been blown to
bits, none of the pieces falling near the woman and baby, who looked completely
unharmed.
Hiro was not new to Nerima. He’d heard
stories from the other cops about the martial artists in the area, but he
hadn’t paid much attention. He figured that their warnings didn’t pertain to
his area of influence. What good were martial arts when you had to rely on a
machine? Now he wondered…
*
Nabiki felt completely drained, and she
seemed to be bathing in pain. When her eyes were open all she could see was
colored dots, so she closed them. She remembered... If Kasumi had not been
there Akane would be dead. Just at the moment when the pressure on the trigger
would have sent a bullet flying through Akane’s precious head… Kasumi had said
something completely disarming.
“I
really wish you two would stop fighting so much,” she said.
In Nabiki’s warped state of mind she
almost shot Kasumi instead. Didn’t she understand the seriousness of the
situation? She was about to murder her sister! This wasn’t just a childish
spat!
Then Nabiki went over what she had just
thought.
It WAS just a childish spat, and Nabiki
was about to murder her sister because SHE didn’t understand the seriousness of
the situation!
The tears started coming then, tears she
hadn’t realized she had been holding. Tears for her mother, but mostly tears
for herself, for losing her innocence, for almost losing so much more.
An hour or so later, Nabiki was in the
bathroom. Her reflection hovered over the sink. Once again she felt the need to
destroy, to obliterate. But this time the barrel of the gun was in her mouth.
The look that she saw in her eyes, the eyes of her reflection, made her feel
the need even more. It was like a feedback loop of depression and hate. Nabiki
was maybe five seconds away from pulling the trigger when she heard Kasumi’s
steps as she entered the open doorway. It was almost funny...she had stopped
putting pressure on the trigger because of a vague thought that Kasumi would
disapprove of the action. The gun was still in her mouth, though, until Kasumi
spoke.
She had hesitated for a second, and then,
in a voice that seemed full of compassion and understanding…asked if Nabiki
wanted some tea.
It was out of the blue…completely
unexpected. But suddenly instead of having the inevitability of the barrel of a
9mm, Nabiki was given a choice between a bullet in the brain and tea.
Nabiki chose tea.
No one ever mentioned it. Daddy probably
never even knew about it, and for the most part the whole incident was
forgotten, but it was a wake up call for Nabiki. She sold the gun, ended almost
all of her black market dealings, and vowed to rely solely on her camera from
then on. Nabiki hadn’t yet completely enmeshed herself into the criminal
element or she would not have been able to get out at all. As it was it was close. Way too close...
Back home, Akane never threatened Nabiki
with violence again, and Nabiki never again mistook Kasumi’s overly positive
attitude for air headedness, but other than that things fell into the same
pattern they had before. Nabiki never forgot the look in her eyes that night
though. She still had nightmares from time to time, and those dark feelings, that wish for death...it never completely left
her. It was there, waiting for a moment of weakness. But Nabiki fought it. She
fought it for two years, and while it remained, she had grown stronger.
Nabiki’s last thought before losing
consciousness from fatigue and a rising awareness of pain… was about driving
the Model G. There was only one thing she loved more…her family. And it seemed
Ranma had somehow managed to weasel himself into that group.
Damn him. Nabiki smiled... and passed
out.
~~~~~*~~~~~
Sitting on the outside porch in his gi,
watching the morning sun glint off the koi pond, Genma wondered about his wife.
He missed her
right now. The years of their time together held many quiet moments like this
one, except she was by Genma’s side or maybe in the kitchen cooking,
or maybe asleep a few meters away. Now…now she was separated from him by half
an entire city and all because of a question.
Was Ranma a man
among men?
Had Genma been
thinking, he would have asked just what Nodoka had meant by that before signing
the contract. Genma hadn’t been thinking though. Thinking was never Genma’s
strong point. Even if he had been doing an awful lot of it
recently.
He knew exactly
what “man among men” meant now.
It was odd, but
Genma couldn’t remember why it was he had agreed to the contract. The story he
would tell was that he needed to get Ranma away from his mother’s coddling, but
that wasn’t it really. As nice as Nodoka was, she could be very stern, and if
anything Ranma would have been better off if she was around.
In fact, Genma
didn’t remember much of his marriage with Nodoka at all. Just
little things, like the taste of her cooking, and that when he was with her, he
was happy.
He needed her.
It was time for this charade to end.
Genma stood up and walked into the family
room through the engawa entrance. He picked up the receiver to the black
telephone and punched the numbers that he had punched at payphones all around
Nerima since he had started living with the Tendos.
“Hello? Who, may I ask, is calling?” The
woman on the other end asked.
“It’s me.” Genma answered.
“Why Mr. Panda! How good of you to call!”
Genma smiled in
spite of himself. Nodoka could always make him laugh.
~~~~~*~~~~~
“What the hell is
that?” Ranma asked. Tofu was wielding some sort of weird gun-like thing and
approaching her menacingly.
“It’s for your
own good, Ranma,” Tofu smiled. The expression was somewhat strained, though. If
Ranma didn’t get her ears pierced she would never leave. Tofu liked Ranma fine,
but he wasn’t sure even he could stand Ranma LIVING with him. It was a lucky
thing that he happened to have some ear piercing equipment handy. Now if Ranma
would just sit still…
“Like hell it is!
You get that thing outta my face before I rearrange
yours!”
“Please don’t
make this difficult, Ranma. This will do a much better job of piercing your
ears than anything else. The equipment is sterile, and there’s only a little
pain…” Tofu stepped closer to Ranma. The ear piercing gun poised about half a
meter from her ear. His ear. He had changed sexes
again.
“I, Ranma Saotome
of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts…accept your challenge.” This is great! Ranma thought. I’m a man again AND I get to fight Tofu!. Ranma knew Tofu was good…it was time to find out HOW
good.
Tofu noted
Ranma’s change with clinical curiosity. It meant several things. Ranma felt
most like a man when he was fighting, for one. This was understandable. What
was interesting was that Ranma did not change until the moment before he
accepted Tofu’s “challenge.” His feeling
of manhood was NOT related to fighting in and of itself…it was something
else…something deeper. Something perhaps to do with the pride he had of himself
and his school, but that wasn’t quite it either… Tofu, lost in thought, almost
forgot to block Ranma’s kick.
Ranma quickly
reassessed Tofu’s abilities. It looked like he was barely paying attention! He
followed up with some high speed punches and kicks, but Tofu blocked or dodged
them all while wearing a placid, thoughtful expression on his face. How could
he BE this good? At this rate, Ranma would have to move the fight outside or
risk damaging the clinic. There was still one thing he could try though…
When was Ranma a
girl? Tofu tried to remember when it was
Ranma had changed… He was upset about Akane…He said he ran away…Then he started
crying. It was when he started crying. Yes…but why? It couldn’t just be crying
that caused him to change. WHY was he crying? Akane didn’t love him. Hmmm… maybe
that’s it. After Tofu blocked Ranma’s Chestnut Fist, Tofu decided to
experiment…”You know, it’s tough, but just because Akane doesn’t love you, it’s
not the end of the world.”
Ranma collected
his jaw from the floor after having one of his strongest attacks so easily
blocked. “You leave Akane outta this!” Ranma forgot
for a moment where he was and let his anger guide him. He threw the fastest
Amaguriken he had ever managed while male. One punch made it through Tofu’s defenses.
But that was it.
“Ooof!” Okay, it wasn’t Akane that
made Ranma change. And Ranma was extremely talented. Tofu had been training all
his life for twenty six years and Ranma was only 17. Nine years of extra
experience and still the kid managed to get a good hit in. Tofu decided he
wouldn’t hold back QUITE so much. The arm of his free hand seemed to become a
solid funnel with indistinct edges as he performed his own high speed maneuver,
hitting Ranma’s chest with his two fingers with just enough force to bruise.
Then, simultaneously he lightly front kicked him back onto the examination
table.
“Ow.” Ranma said.
So what was it
that made Ranma change? Maybe feeling weak? That he
was somehow afraid of Akane and that made him change? It was a long shot but
Tofu was willing to try it. “Ranma, you seem to be overreacting a bit. It’s
just a small hole in your ears…There’s nothing to be scared about.”
“I ain’t scared!” Ranma yelled back...then he relaxed. This
was Tofu, and Ranma was not going to pull an Akane and pretend he could beat
him in a fair fight. It would take some massive training first. Tofu was just
trying to help. Maybe if he shared a little emotional stuff Tofu would show him
a few moves “Well…maybe I am scared a little. Not about the pain. It just seems
like everyone’s tryin’ ta turn me inta some stinkin’ girl…”
Ranma had
remained male through the confession. Tofu didn’t understand. What could
possibly be the trigger? Maybe it was just some sort of strange form of
suggestion? Maybe Ranma turned female when he THOUGHT she was female? Tofu was
grasping at straws now, but it was important to find out now, and not be
surprised later. “I…um…just hit a pressure point that will
make you unable to turn male again…after you change.”
The color went
out of Ranma’s face. This had to be one of Tofu’s jokes right? That weird sense of humor of his? He made an attempt at a
smile “Heh that was good, doc…almost got me there…”
“Um…it’s not a
joke” Tofu grimaced. Technically it wasn’t a joke. It just wasn’t the truth
either.
“ARGHH! Why can’t you people realize that I don’t WANT my
decisions made for me?”
Tofu felt real
bad, he just thanked the gods that he HADN’T hit any such pressure point. Ranma
hadn’t changed form. He had to end the ruse…
“Well I had
enough of it you hear?! ENOUGH!” Ranma got back into a fighting stance. Tofu
had betrayed him. And while he might not
stand a chance in a fair fight, she was no longer interested in fighting fair.
“I’m going to KILL YOU!”
Before Tofu knew
it, he was looking at the floor of his bedroom from a unique perspective. He
had just enough time to notice that the insulation could use some refurbishing,
when his head was pulled back through the floor and he was thrown into the
wall, “into” being a highly accurate preposition. It seemed that 9 years of
extra experience or no, the only reason why Ranma was unable to beat Tofu
before was that he had been held in check by the same thing that made him feel
like a man…his sense of self worth, honor, and morality. “Calm down Ranma, I
didn’t hit any pressure points. I just had to see what would make you change.”
“You mean you
were just playing with me??? TOFU NO BAKA!” Ranma hit
Tofu over the head with a mallet she got from…somewhere. Ranma stared at it for
a while until it winked out of existence. Where did it come from? Where did it
go?
“Where did YOU
come from, Cotton-eyed Joe?” Tofu asked the coat rack in a bit of a daze from
the repeated blows to the head. His glasses had left his head somewhere between
the wall and the ceiling.
There was a
knocking from the door “Oh my! I wonder who that could be!” Ranma wondered out
loud as she walked to the door.
“K-K-Kasumi! When did you get here?”
“Oh Tofu, you’re
so silly!” Ranma said, then opened the door.
A woman looking
about thirtyish and carrying a baby greeted her. “You
must be Ranma?”
Ranma nodded her
head slowly. She WAS Ranma…not big sister Kasumi.
“I’ve heard a lot
about you…Is Dr. Tofu in?”
Ranma glanced
over at the good doctor doing the cha cha with the
coat rack. “Well, yes and no… You can talk to him if you want, but he’s a
little disoriented right now. May I ask what your name is?”
“Yamashita
Niburi, please go easy on me. Kasumi-chan isn’t here is she?”
“No, it’s nothing
like that. Tofu-sensei and I had a minor altercation, and I’m afraid I went a
little too far. Who’s the little one? He’s very cute!”
“You don’t sound
like the Ranma I’ve heard about. He’s supposed to be very crude and, so sorry,
masculine.” Oddly, Yamashita seemed to hold the baby tighter, but gave no other
indication that she had heard Ranma’s comment.
“Oh, that’s just
my father’s influence. I’m getting better. I still revert to the old me from
time to time though. No matter what anyone says, I’m really a woman.” Ranma
ignored the woman’s stunned expression; she was used to it after all. She
realized Mrs. Yamashita was still standing outside “Come inside, I’m sure
Tofu-sensei won’t mind!”
Yamashita
entered, taking her shoes off at the genkan. She
wondered what her friend would think about what Ranma had said. That was a
thought for a different time though. “Nabiki-chan will be here shortly, she had
an accident. You might be a help actually.”
“Nabiki-neechan
had an accident? That doesn’t sound like her much at all.”
“So sorry, but I
don’t think you know her as well as you think, Ranma-chan.”
*
Hiro watched as
the door to the Tofu clinic opened, admitting the woman and her baby. He wasn’t
quite sure why he was here. Tendo Nabiki, that was the lunatic’s name, was put
on a stretcher and carried into an ambulance. The woman who almost got hit by
the motor scooter, a Mrs. Yamashita, far from making any complaints, had
actually insisted that Nabiki be taken here for reasons she didn’t care to
discuss. The paramedics agreed, it was close by after all and Nabiki’s injuries
weren’t that serious. They were mainly dispatched as a precaution anyway.
He looked at his watch. Some twenty
minutes had passed since the actual accident. Most of that was spent waiting
for the ambulance and driving behind it as, even with its emergency lights
flashing, it’s bulk wouldn’t allow it to drive at even half Nabiki’s previous
speed, and because it wasn’t an emergency and it was getting close to lunch
time, it was actually amazing it didn’t take longer. It would have been quicker
to walk!
Still, Hiro hadn’t actually realized that
he was following the ambulance until it had stopped. It was only when the
paramedics brought Nabiki out in the stretcher that he could say what it was he
hoped to accomplish by being here. He wanted to know what the hell he had seen,
and…he still had to give Nabiki a proper arrest. Smiling, he popped a stick of
cinnamon gum into his mouth and followed Nabiki’s stretcher into the Tofu
clinic.
*
When Ranma saw
Nabiki she knew that Yamashita-san was right. She didn’t know Nabiki that well
at all. From the look of her dislocated shoulder and broken arm, she had taken
a fall at a pretty high velocity. And when Ranma checked her aura…she could
only see a faint sparkling here and there. “She’s almost completely drained of
ki!”
Yamashita-san nodded. “I brought her over
here as soon as I could. “
This kind of ki depletion didn’t happen
unless you used an awful lot of it. It also meant that, despite appearances,
Nabiki could very well die. Tofu needed to wake up SOON. Ranma hurried over to
him. “Tofu-sensei you need to snap out of it okay? Nabiki-neechan is here and
she needs your help.”
Tofu brought
himself out of his stupor and noted his current situation. He didn’t have his
glasses on but he could see well enough as long as he didn’t need to read or
apply any exact pressure points. Two paramedics were waiting for him patiently
around a girl in a stretcher…Nabiki. Ranma was there still, so she hadn’t run
off. He saw Mrs. Yamashita and bowed. “Good morning Yamashita-san how are you
today?”
“Okay.”
“Good to hear.
And how is Mr. Yamashita?” Tofu asked with a smile indicating the baby.
“As good as he
can be considering he’s more than thirty years younger than he ought to be.”
Yamashita-san replied tersely. “So sorry, but Nabiki-chan needs your attention
more than I do at the moment.”
Tofu then saw Nabiki. Her ki was almost
completely gone! Tofu hadn’t seen a case this severe in years! He’d have to
look in a manual and perform a few precise pressure points…damn. Tofu addressed
the two paramedics that came in with Nabiki. “Either of you know anything about
ki deprivation?”
“Hmm… is that like when you can’t get
into your car?” The one on the left asked earnestly.
“Nah…I think its
when one of the notes on a piano is missing.”
“Never mind,” Tofu said wearily, “You two
might as well go.” Tofu saw a police officer come in after they left. “What are
you doing here?”
“I’m here to arrest her, sir,” Hiro said
around the wad of gum in his mouth “I’ll just wait until she wakes up if that’s
okay.”
“Fine. Whatever. Ranma?”
“Yes,
Tofu-sensei?”
“Go to my library and find a book titled
‘Deforestation of the Japanese Wilderness’ Also, see if you can find my
glasses. Hurry.”
Ranma did as Tofu asked. She knew the
seriousness of Nabiki’s situation. Luckily all of Tofu’s books were ordered by
title and Ranma was able to find the book after only a minute or so of
searching. He pulled it out of the shelf and ran back to where Nabiki lay,
stopping briefly to pick Tofu’s glasses off the floor. “Here ya go, doc. How is she lookin’?”
Tofu did a quick double take at Ranma’s
change back to male form and then quickly put his slightly bent glasses on and
opened the book. “She has a chance now...”
“Doc, how’s that book gonna
help?”
“Ah... ki...it means ‘tree’ as well as
spiritual energy. Deforestation, ki deprivation...it’s a sort of pun...Okay
here it is!” Tofu looked over Nabiki
again and grimaced. “She’s fading fast... I hope there’s still time.” He picked
up Nabiki’s limp arms and crossed the wrists over a specific spot on her fore
head. It was probably aggravating the broken right arm but it was necessary.
“Doc... her third eye’s a little
higher...”
“Yes, you’re right...” Tofu moved
Nabiki’s wrists a half centimeter higher. “Ranma...could you hold her wrists
like this? Don’t let them move from position. Also...you seem to see the aura
clearer...you’re going to have to be my eyes. She’s very faint.”
“Uh...sure,” and
Ranma did as Tofu asked.
Tofu gently grasped Nabiki’s ankles and,
turning the girl’s lower body so that her knees bent to one side, he pressed
them to her rear. Luckily the girl was surprisingly flexible, most likely from
Yoga Tofu surmised. It would explain how she would be able to release so much
ki without showing much skill in the Art. Holding Nabiki’s ankles in position
with his right hand he placed his left a little below the navel then he paused.
“Ranma...can you see the center of the prostatic
plexus?”
“Huh?”
“Her water chakra... can you see it?”
Normally Tofu could find its exact location without difficulty, but the aura
was so weak...
“Um yeah. It’s ...it’s
just a little lower than where you’re at.” Ranma
watched the doctor move his hand slowly downward until the palm was right at
the spot. “Yeah that’s it right there. You tryin ta make her pee herself or something?” Ranma asked confused
and quite a bit worried.
“Let me know if her breathing becomes
irregular.”
“Right...sure thing...”Ranma swallowed.
Tofu focused and sent a measure of ki
through his arm out of his hand and into Nabiki’s water chakra. He allowed
himself a grimace as the girl did, in fact, wet herself. It would have happened
anyway. Hopefully though the small amount of ki he gave Nabiki would jumpstart
her and he’d feel her ki flowing back toward him. The arms and legs served to
loop the ki flow back and keep as little of the energy from escaping as
possible... Tofu stopped. It wasn’t working.
“Uh...Doc?”
“What is it Ranma?”
“You told me to tell ya
if her breath got irregular?”
“Yes?”
“Well, she kinda
stopped breathing. Is that bad?”
Tofu’s eyes went
wide. “Ranma...do you know CPR?”
Ranma shook his head.
“I
need to find some way to get her ki back but she’s not going to make it
unless...” Tofu was hit by the look on the martial artist’s face. He was pale,
his eyes wide and moist with threatening tears.
Ranma was afraid.
*
Ranma wasn’t the
only one. Hiro watched everything with amusement until the pigtailed guy said
the Tendo girl wasn’t breathing. He was shocked at first. The girl just had a
few broken bones...why would she stop breathing? The doctor had kept going on
about trees and spiritual energy, and he supposed it had something to do with
that blast she let out...must of over-exerted her or
something...served her right...but he really didn’t understand what was going
on.
Not
breathing...needing CPR...THAT he understood all too well. Watching your father
die of a heart attack at the age of five, while the paramedics took their sweet
time getting to him, and not knowing what to do, feeling so damned
USELESS...That did a lot to change a man. Hiro never made it to med school, but
he sure as hell knew CPR now and he wasn’t about to let someone else die. Not
on his watch.
Not thinking a
second longer, he rushed to the doctor’s side. “I know CPR. Leave her to me.”
The doctor nodded and Hiro checked the Tendo girl’s pulse...it wasn’t there. He
shook her once just to be sure, but there was no response. He felt along the
ribcage and used his fingers to find the right place to press. Taking a breath,
he took off his sunglasses, put them in his breast pocket, swallowed his gum,
and started resuscitating.
*
Tofu gritted his
teeth as he tried once again to jumpstart Nabiki’s ki production. This wasn’t
good. If the CPR didn’t make Nabiki start breathing again her ki wouldn’t be
able to regenerate itself...
“Doc, what do we
do now?” Ranma asked over Nabiki’s head.
“I don’t know
Ranma. This is the most serious case I’ve seen...the only other way that Nabiki
can be revived is through a full ki transfusion and that’s impossible...”
“What do you mean
it’s impossible?”
“The only
documented case of a ki transfusion ever working was between two identical
twins. The ki has to be very similar or else the body rejects it. The technique
I use only uses a little ki and even that would fail completely if the ki’s paths weren’t blocked. To attempt a full
transfusion...not only would it probably fail, there’s a good chance the donor
would die... as well as anyone else in the room.”
Ranma looked down
for a moment before he brightened... “Doc...a part of
me is just like Nabiki ain’t it? What if I change
over to her, then the transfusion thingie should work
right?”
Tofu frowned “ Hmm...maybe...but you don’t have
Nabiki’s personality, you only have your interpretation
of Nabiki’s personality...and we’ve already determined there’s quite a lot that
we don’t know about her.”
“We gotta try right?” Ranma countered. Ranma concentrated for a
moment, sweat pouring down his brow. He frowned. “DAMMIT! I can’t change into
her! Its gotta be on
accident or something!” And then his eyes met Tofu’s. “Doc...you
ever think that maybe life is just a little TOO convenient?”
Tofu just gave
Ranma a look of incomprehension as the pigtailed boy ran to the counter by the
other patient bed. Ranma picked up the earrings. The Saiserefu Noon. The artifact of
Thyself Known.
Ranma touched the end of the hook of on
of the earrings with his forefinger, drawing blood. “Aw crap. This is really gonna hurt.” Closing his eyes, he pulled out the lobe of
his right ear and stabbed it with an earring.
It did hurt. And
after the initial pain came a pins and needles sensation that spread throughout
Ranma’s body. He felt another pain in his left earlobe and another wave of pins
and needles and, feeling with his left hand, he confirmed that the other
earring had gone in quite on its own. Like a rush of wind, voices started a
ruckus in his head. He recognized some...his father, Ukyo, Ryoga, Akane, others
he didn’t understand, others he knew all too well. It was almost too much. He
would have passed out from the mere effort of making sense of it all, but he
had a purpose. He focused. “I need to be Nabiki....Tendo Nabiki. I...Tendo
Nabiki...I...need to....I...Nabiki...I...am...I am Tendo Nabiki!”
Tendo Nabiki was
very confused.
~~~~~*~~~~~
“I thought you said all the phones were
tapped?” Nodoka said on the other end.
“They are,
No-chan, but I think Nabiki already knows you know about me… I wish I could
tell you where Ranma is…”
“NO! There’s
still a chance. We can’t lose hope!”
“Nodoka…It’s been
more than a decade! And Ra-Ranko…she’s hurting. And
she’s changing No-chan, and I don’t like what she’s changing into. She needs a
mother. Not an aunt.”
“Genma…if I…adopt
her, then she’s going to know I know about you. Do you realize how that will
make her feel?”
“Betrayed, used…I
know it will be hard, but I’ve gone through it before. It has to be better than
this. Besides maybe this is just the push he…she needs.”
“You know we
can’t talk like that, Genma, it might break the contract!”
Genma was silent
for a long time before responding. “I’m…beginning to think we should just
forget about the contract.”
Genma couldn’t
even hear Nodoka breathe in the pause before she spoke. “Genma…I understand how
you feel, and I haven’t seen what you’ve seen, so I’ll forgive you just this
once, but you even MENTION that possibility again…I love you Genny-kun…please… don’t make me hate you.”
“No-chan I…I love
you too. Please consider it… Ran…ko
can’t take more of this. I can’t take much more of this.”
“Genma…” There
were tears in Nodoka’s voice. In twenty-two years of marriage that was the
first time Genma had ever said that he loved her. “I’ll come…tomorrow. I’ll
stay for the weekend. You have to be the one to tell her though.”
“Alright. I hope…we can be a family again soon.”
“I hope so too,
Genma. Until then,”
“Until then.” Genma hung up. He hated this. He hated doing
this to his child. But it was something that had to be done. Just like the
Nekoken, just like Jusenkyo. By the end of this weekend, Ranma would have to
make a choice. Boy or girl, honor or love...
Death or life.
~~~~~[END]~~~~~
AN: The next chapter was originally going to be part of this one,
but I generally like to keep my chapters close to twenty pages long and was
going way past that limit. Anyway if it seems a little incomplete that’s why.
Nabiki driving a motorcycle may be a little OOC but I just
couldn’t get the idea out of my head. It sprang from wondering why you never
see any scenes in the anime of Nabiki walking to school and why she is so
insistent on not walking with Ranma and Akane in the second episode. And of
course Nabiki does have a “helmet” hairstyle...
Thanks go to Nemesis Zero, Aondehafka, Bickham
Jourdan and Figment for their helpful comments.
Any mistakes are mine alone.
Feedback greatly appreciated.
Zorukonotsu@yahoo.com