“I must say it does explain a lot.”
Ranma turned around, finding himself now face-to-face with an older version of himself, the area around them little more than a barrier of fog. “The other me, I take it?”
Nodding, the older Ranma bowed. “Just call me ‘Ran’ here. It’ll save you a bit of a headache. And don’t worry too much about an energy drain, there’s a lot less interference when you’re asleep than when you’re awake.”
“Okay ... Ran. What’s going on?”
“I thought you’d like to be a bit better prepared to meet ... them,” he growled out the last bit, showing how little he thought of his grandparents. “I already don’t like them, and I just know they’re going to try and claim Ranko as their own.”
“Like Hell they will,” growled out Ranma.
Ran nodded. “The feelings are there, but you’ll need to learn how to negotiate, how to handle people, and sad to say, you don’t have those skills.”
“But you do?”
“Of course,” said Ran. “After high school, Nabiki all but blackmailed me to going to college to get a degree; most respectable dojos have them. And to be honest, if I tried to teach people like Pops taught me ... well, let’s just say we would have been homeless before Ranko ever came along.” He turned to look off to the side. “Everything was a lot better then.”
Ranma tried not to notice the pained look in his counterpart’s face. “So me and Akane...”
“Not a chance,” said Ran. “She ... she never could trust me fully, and that trust she did have dwindled slowly. I tried to be a good husband, tried to be what she needed me to be, but ... but she just couldn’t or wouldn’t change. Eventually, she became the monster Ranko began to fear. Maybe if P-chan hadn’t got that shot in he did...
“Anyway,” said Ran, changing the subject, “I need to feed you my entire college experiences and such so you’ll be able to keep Elder Asshole #1 and #2 from running you over when it comes to Ranko. Worst case, ask Nabiki to be there for negotiation. She was always good at that.”
Ranma nodded. “Do you think I’ll be able to protect her?” he asked, a bit of uncertainty in his voice.
Ran placed his hand on his younger self’s shoulder. “We will try and do with everything we have open to us.”
“And Akane?”
Ran sighed. “Maybe you can succeed where I failed, I can’t tell you that. Maybe your Akane won’t turn into the monster mine did. But one thing that I can tell you, you can’t let her treat you like that anymore. For Ranko’s sake, you’ll need to put your foot down about her behavior.”
Ranma nodded. He could admit here—within the safety of his own heart and mind—that he did still care for Akane, he knew his counterpart also still cared for her.
But he was right; Ranko didn’t need that pain in her life. She had already lost her original father, even if she didn’t know it. He wasn’t about to let her lose her Daddy again.
“And be careful of the other girls trying to use Ranko,” said Ran, his form beginning to glow as he prepared to give Ranma the needed memories of college instruction and experience on how to deal with people. “They’ll use whatever it takes to try and prove their the best one for you.”
Ranma sadly nodded, already remembering what had happened with Shampoo. “I will; I can’t let anything harm my little orchid.”
Ran nodded as he began to fade into a bluish mist, which began to cover Ranma. “Protect our daughter, no matter what.”
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(Posted Sun, 22 Oct 2006 01:38)
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