Darkness.
That was all that existed for Ranma.
Cold and pain were all he felt…
GRRRrrrrrrwwWWLL!
…and he was more than a little hungry. Well, he would be hungry, if he were in a more aware state.
…let’s skip ahead a bit, shall we?
Light.
Ranma grimaced and wearily raised his tired arm to shade his eyes, his eyes flicking from side to side as he took in his surroundings.
‘…that’s a damn big strawberry…’
The pig-tailed martial artist grunted with the effort of sitting up, blinking in mild surprise as a large envelope slid off his chest to his lap. Ignoring the envelope for the time being, he continued checking his surroundings. Besides the gigantic strawberry, there was a highway to one side and a wooded are to the other, but that was it. Oh, and the bloodstained yet gleaming bastard sword at his side. “Hey, where did you come from?” The young warrior frowned. “And where the heck did I come from?” He wracked his mind, trying to remember something, anything, that would help him out, but all he could recall were vague details of his youth, training in temples, dojos, monasteries and the wilderness with a fat man in a dirty gi. To his eternal relief, he still remembered his martial training with perfect clarity, even if his Sensei’s eluded him.
With nothing else to do, he tore open the envelope and tipped the contents into his lap; a key ring with keys, a business card-like slip of cardboard, and a letter…
Dear Ranma,
No doubt you are confused and disoriented by both your lack of memories, and by the unfamiliar surroundings. For this, I am sorry. Your conflict with an associate of mine pushed you over the edge, and the resulting battle endangered not only yourself, but the entire district of Nerima. It is my hope that you will be able to deal with the memories rationally as they slowly return, and rest assured, they will return. In the meantime, I have arranged for a place for you to stay and enrolled you in the local high school. Yes, I expect you to go to high school, and to do your best; there will be no mid-class or late night fights, so there will be no excuse for sleeping through lessons and half-hearted study habits.
Good luck, and I hope in time you will come to forgive my children; for all of their age and wisdom, sometimes, they are all too human in their ways.
Yours sincerely,
K.
P.S. Give the card to the Taxi Driver; he’ll take you home.
P.P.S. Take care of that sword. Someday soon its owner will come to claim it, but weather you give it to them or not is entirely up to you.
Ranma read through the letter several times, but it didn’t surrender anything more than a few answers and a lot more questions. Questions like: ‘What Taxi Driver?’
*HONK-HONK!*
“WAAAGGGH!”
“Hey kid, are you getting in or what?!”
The raven-haired teen glared at the skinny blonde jerk in the orange Taxi. “Yeah, yeah, I’m coming!” He gathered his meager belongings and subtly shifted the sword into hammerspace. “Urgh!” He reflexively clutched a hand to his chest. ‘Kami-Sama…feels like I was stabbed!’ After a moment the pain heated up the flesh around it, then faded away. ‘…What the hell was that?’
“The meter’s running, boy!”
After hauling himself to his feet, Ranma staggered over and all but threw himself into the waiting vehicle before handing the driver the card. “Don’t call me ‘boy’, and here’s where I’m headed.”
The blonde glanced at the card before flicking it back. “It’ll take about half an hour to get there. Try getting some sleep, squirt; you look like you need it.”
He was out like a light before they’d gone a hundred meters.
“Hey! Hey Kid, wake up!”
“…mrghbrgle…”
A soft sigh of annoyance, then sudden motion.
*WHUMP!*
“…snnzzggghhddd…”
“…oh for Kami-Sama’s sake…LOOK OUT, A CAT!”
A blur of color later, and a certain pig-tailed aquatranssexual was perched on the roof of the cab, his hands locked in warding signs. “GETITAWAYGETITAWAYGETIT…huh?” The nervous teen glanced around before glaring at the chuckling blonde. “Hey, what’s the big idea?!” The blonde just shook his head in amusement and slid back into the drivers seat. As the car started up, Ranma hopped off the roof, and the Taxi pulled away quickly. “Jerk.”
Turning to the house he’d been dumped in front of, Ranma couldn’t help blinking in surprise. The house was rather large; three stories, and in a vaguely traditional Japanese style. Glancing around, it didn’t take a genius to see that it stood out amongst the other houses on the street. Well, except for that one next door with the furniture and the arguing couple out the front…
“Damn it Jake, what on Earth were you thinking!?”
The man’s reply couldn’t be heard from that far away, but it was plain to see that the woman (wife?) wasn’t impressed. “Then call them back! We can’t get all of our furniture inside without their equipment and help!”
Deciding to make a good first impression, his first ever good first impression, he stuffed the envelope into the…his mailbox and strolled over to meet his new neighbors. “Excuse me, is there anything I can do to help?”
The woman, presumably the wife, paused in her very vocal chewing-out of her husband (to her husband’s immense relief) and turned to the new arrival. “Oh! Hello, are you our new neighbor?”
“Hai…I mean, yes Ma’am. I’m Ranma Saotome.” He bowed deeply.
Helen blinked at the bow before hurriedly bowing back. “Pleased to meet you Saotome-san. My name is Helen Morgendorffer, this is my husband, Jake, and our daughters Daria and Quinn.” She pointed out her husband and two daughters that Ranma had seen until now; a glasses-wearing brunette reading a book and a redhead filing her nails, both watching the scene with interest.
Jake bowed clumsily, though enthusiastically, before jumping forward and grabbing Ranma’s hand, shaking it fiercely. “Hey there Ranma-my-man, pleased to meet you!”
Ranma blanched slightly before smiling a little nervously. “Thank you, Morgendorffer-san.”
The older man slapped him on his faintly aching back, drawing a slight wince. “Now there’ll be none of that! You can just call me Jake!”
“Um…ok, Jake-san.”
The Morgendorffer Matriarch cut in. “Jake, shouldn’t you be calling the moving company?”
“No need Morgendorffer-san, I’m sure Jake-san and I can handle the furniture.”
Helen looked torn between wanting to chastise him and wanting to avoid alienating him. “That’s very kind of you Ranma-san, but some of it is very heavy, and maybe it would be best if…”
Her oldest daughter interrupted. “…you started with the fridge. Get the big stuff out of the way first, before starting with the boxes.”
“Daria!”
Ranma didn’t hear Helen’s outburst as he nodded in thought. “Makes sense.” He walked over to the heavy double-doored fridge and knelt down, getting a solid grip on the lower half.
“Ranma, please…”
Ignoring her, Ranma lifted the bulky appliance up off the ground with no visible effort. Shifting his grip, He turned so he was side-on to the house and started walking to the door. “Morgendorffer-san, could you show me to the kitchen?” After a couple of seconds with no reply, he paused. “Morgendorffer-san?” He turned his head as much as he was able, and with a bit of effort he was able to finds his new neighbors staring at him slack-jawed and bug-eyed. He shifted uncomfortably. “Um… Morgendorffer-san? Morgendorffer-san?”
Daria and Quinn sat with their mother on the couch, their previous activities forgotten as they watched the lithe Asian teen lug around large pieces of furniture with ease. Quinn frowned. “Like, how is he doing all that?”
Her mother shrugged dazedly. “I have no idea, honey.”
Daria spoke up, all traces of her usual sarcasm gone. “He doesn’t have the build of a weight lifter, so it can’t be just muscle.” She smirked shakily. “Maybe we should have listened to you when you told us to eat all our greens as kids.”
Helen glanced at her first-born and laughed softly. “You must be surprised, if that’s the best you can come up with.” She turned back to watch her husband strain to hold up his end of a sofa. “Well, your father seems to be taking it in stride. I just hope he doesn’t throw out his back trying to keep up.”
“I’ll second that motion.” Daria’s expression turned faintly calculating. “You know, we could always offer to shout him a pizza as thanks for all his help. Of course, he’d have to stay around while it was delivered, and we could fill the time with a little idle chit-chat, learn about our new neighborhood, find out where he stashes his super-serum and irradiated arachnids and so on…”
“Hmm. I hope you know that you get that kind of thinking from my side of the family.”
An hour or so later…
“Honestly Morgendorffer-san, I was happy to help; ya didn’t need to buy me dinner.”
“Ranma-san, for the last time, it’s the least we can do to repay you for all your help.” Helen’s eyes shifted down to the three pizza boxes stacked in front of the young man. “Are you sure you can eat all of that?”
Ranma nodded sheepishly. “Yeah, I eat a lot.” He frowned. “At least, I think I eat a lot.”
The Morgendorffers blinked and stared at their guest curiously. Jake spoke up first. “What do you mean by that, Sport?”
The martial artist slid down in his seat slightly. “I can’t really remember…well, anything. I mean, I know my name and other stuff like that, but I can’t remember friends and family, places, or even how I got here.”
Daria adjusted her glasses. “What do you remember?”
After a moment of thought, he answered. “I remember darkness and cold, then waking up near a huge strawberry with a sword, and an envelope with some keys and a letter.”
Daria arched an eyebrow. “A sword?”
Quinn looked strangely eager. “Keys? Like for a car?”
Jake stroked his chin in contemplation. “…a huge strawberry, huh?”
Helen frowned. “Ranma-san, may I see that letter?”
“Sure. Excuse me for a moment…” He hopped out of his seat and made his way to the front door.
Daria turned to her mother. “So what do you think of Ranma’s story, besides the fact that it looks like he can’t conceal his emotions to save his own ass?”
“You can say that again. I’d hate for him to be my key witness in a trial.”
“I’d love it if he plays poker with real money.”
The lawyer of the family fought back a grin with admirable success. “Daria!”
Quinn frowned and huffed. “He hasn’t been paying attention to me at all.”
“Suddenly, I like him a lot more than I did a minute ago.”
Helen groaned. “Daria…”
Ranma popped back into the room and handed the former flower child the letter. “Here you go Morgendorffer-san.”
The older woman unfolded the letter while Daria moved to read over her shoulder. “Dear Ranma…”
*BAMF!*
The two Morgendorffer women gave little shrieks of surprise as the letter evaporated into golden sparkles that quickly faded away. “W-what was that!?”
Quinn and Jake stared at their Mother/Wife and Sister/Daughter, before the whole Morgendorffer family turned to their pig-tailed guest.
Ranma chuckled weakly as he scratched the back of his neck, just under his pigtail. “Um, sorry 'bout this.”
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(Posted Wed, 04 May 2005 17:52)
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