"Tadaima!"
"Oh, Ranma-kun!" Kasumi called out as she walked out onto the porch, her trademark smile crossing her face. "You're back!"
Ranma paused as he glanced quickly at Yomi and Kaorin, both of whom were gazing knowingly at the elder Tendou daughter. She's worried, the former then psi-flashed her new friend as she glanced out of the corner of her eye at Ranma. She's relieved you're okay, but she's really worried the change you underwent last night might be too much for the rest of the household to take.
Gotcha, Ranma thought in return. "Yeah, I came back!" he then spoke up as he gave the matriarch of the Tendou home one of his trademark smiles. "It wasn't too much to deal with in the long run!"
"I . . .!" Kasumi began before she gazed curiously at his companions. "Um . . . "
"Oh, sorry!" Ranma blurted out before he introduced Yomi and Kaorin.
"Pleased to meet you," Kasumi then said before she lowered her voice. "Er, please don't take this as being rude, but are both of you . . .?"
"Adopted, not born," Yomi answered as Kaorin moved to radiate as much peace and friendliness as she could to the elder Tendou daughter. "A classmate of ours turned out to be Yizibajohei by birth; she gave us these powers last night when Destructo-sensei make his appearance in Tomobiki."
Kasumi blinked. "And you're not angry, Mizuhara-san?"
"Why should we, Tendou-san?" Kaorin wondered. "If Destructo-sensei seems hell-bent on the idea of making all of us into Earth-born versions of the people living on Ranma-kun's home planet, which way should we've gone? Accept it now . . .?"
"Or have it dumped on you when you might be in a bad pickle, everyone else having been 'powered up' ahead of you, thus practically ensuring that you wouldn't react to it the right way," Yomi finished for her schoolmate.
"An interesting attitude," Kasumi mused, and then she turned to stare at Ayumu. "What about you, Kasuga-san? What do you think about it?"
"Nikuman . . . "
Kasumi jolted. "Eh?!"
"Nikuman," the transplanted Osakan drearily hummed, her eyes half-closed.
Yomi and Kaorin sighed. "You have to excuse our friend," the former then said as she stared apologetically at Kasumi. "She is, put nicely . . . "
"A narcoleptic, airheaded spacecase," Kaorin finished.
Kasumi blinked. "And what power does she have?"
"In costume, she's Infinity," Ranma replied. "She can warp Reality itself around like silly-putty. Power-wise, she's number one on Yiziba, with the Conservator and the Doc being her only potential equals."
"Oh, my!"
"Can we get her inside, please?" Yomi then asked. "She won't cause too much trouble." She then added in a mutter, "I hope . . . "
Minutes later, Ranma and his new friends were seated in the sitting room, they having joined Souun, Genma, Nodoka and Cologne, with Kasumi acting as the perfect hostess (as usual). Ayumu was currently lying flat on her back, a pillow perched behind her head, she fast asleep. "So where're Nabiki and Akane?" Ranma wondered as he gazed around the room, he noting two people missing from the picture. A smirk then crossed his face as he stared at Souun. "Don't tell me they're going into their usual hysterics when it comes to something oddball happening to me."
"I'm afraid so, son," Souun admitted with a nervous laugh. "Hopefully, just before you and your friends arrived, I managed to talk Nabiki out of spreading the news of your awakening as Mustang all across the ward. I think I got to her . . . "
"She's listening in on us right now using her monitoring equipment," Yomi reported.
A shocked scream echoed from the upper floor, that followed by the thump! of something hitting the floor. "Nabiki, you might as well come down here if ya wanna listen in!" Ranma yelled upstairs. "There ain't no way you can hide from Yomi-chan here! She's got over a thousand-kilometre range with her powers! There ain't no place in all the Home Islands you can hid from her, ya know!"
Silence fell. A moment later, footsteps heralded the arrival of the middle Tendou daughter, a mixture of fright and anger etched on her face. "And what's to stop me, Saotome, from spreading news about your new friends across the planet?" she hissed.
"Nabiki!" Souun yelped out.
"It's alright, Tendou-san," Yomi called out before she stared over her shoulder at her challenger. "How about my burning your brains out with my powers?"
Nabiki awked, she taking a fearful step away from Yomi. "Or how about me using my powers to make you feel so guilty over what you've done to people over the years, you might want to kill yourself?" Kaorin added.
"Or we can ask Ayumu-chan ta disintegrate her?" Ranma then proposed.
"I have a better idea, my son," Nodoka said, the others in the room quick to see that the threats being directed at Nabiki were not making her feel easier. "Didn't you once tell me that you actually saved the life of the obayun of the local Yakuza society not so long after the aborted wedding between yourself and Akane-chan?"
"WHAT?!" Nabiki screamed. "WHEN WAS THIS?!"
"Oh, Tsuretsu Kujaku, ya mean?" Ranma mused before he stared curiosly at Nabiki. "You mean to say there was actually a time when I did something and you didn't know about it? Well, well, well! Miracles can happen, it seems!"
Nabiki gargled, she dropping to her knees in shock as that little titbit of information nearly overwhelmed her. By that time, the final member of the Tendou family had come down to join them. To Ranma's surprise, there was no sign of P-chan. That was good, he then mused. He didn't need to deal with the little porker at this time. "So tell us, Ranma," Akane spat out as she put fists to hips. "When were you going to tell us the truth about yourself?"
Ranma paused midway through raising his cup of tea to his mouth, and then he turned to stare evenly at her. "When you were mature enough to take that knowledge in and not act like the spoiled princess you've acted like since long before I came here, Akane-san," he icily explained. "Or when Wysynski-sensei decided to take up full-time residence back on Earth. Whichever happened to have come first. Since the Doc came first, it happened last night. You're just gonna have to accept it, Akane-san. And there's nothing I can do -- or am willing to do given your constant mistrust of me -- that can help you do that. That's something you got to do on your own."
Akane jolted, her eyes going wide as the formal way Ranma just addressed her hit her like a torpedo. "Ranma . . .!" she blurted out, her eyes welling up with tears, and then with a scream of pain, she ran back upstairs.
The others watched her go. "I must apologise for that," Souun then stated.
"Don't apologise, sir," Ranma soothed.
"I must," Souun firmly declared. "I totally abandoned my responsibility of being their father when my wife passed away. In doing so, I helped destroy any chance for any of my children to enjoy any sort of happiness. Deep down, I truthfully hoped that Wysynski-sensei would not have returned before you were to be wed to any of my children, Ranma-san, so we could have deferred this matter to a later date . . . "
Kasumi gazed on her father. "Father, are you saying that you, Uncle Saotome and Aunt Saotome elected to behave as 'normal' despite the fact that the chance was there that the truth of Ranma-kun's uniqueness could have come out?"
"There really was no chance of that, Kasumi," Genma declared. "After I put my son through the Neko-ken training, Wysynski-sensei appeared and crafted a series of -- well, 'spells' would be the best way to call them, though I doubt the powers he could call on to create them could be seen as 'magic' as we would call it -- to ensure that no one could discover the truth about Ranma. And, as I'm sure the Elder can attest to, such spells managed to fool everyone, even her and the Master."
"They did," Cologne said with a nod, and then she stared at Ranma. "Though I suspect your battle with Saffron not so long ago nearly pushed things."
"Actually, they did," Ranma acknowledged that with a nod. "At that time, I was defending the person I pretty much had come to acknowledge deep in my heart as my mate against someone who didn't care whether she lived or died, all because he wanted his grasp at power and I stood in his way." A shrug. "It doesn't matter, anyway. Loons like Saffron shouldn't be running around the place, terrorizing people who don't have the power to defend themselves. Until such time as humanity here on Earth as a whole can evolve in the direction the Yizibajohei did, that'll still be the case."
"And that, simply put, is what Destructo-sensei is after in the end," Kaorin said.
"Right."
"So you finally decided to admit to loving Akane, eh, Saotome?"
Ranma sighed before he stared evenly at Nabiki. "At that time, I believed I did love her, Nabiki-san. But her constant unwillingness to trust me has destroyed that, especially in the wake of what happened at Mount Phoenix. Even after I killed for her, there have been times these days that she seems to treat me as 'business as usual.' Take that explanation as you will."
Nabiki stared at him, she stunned that he had turned around and said all that to her, and then she turned to march upstairs. "You really are a heartless bastard, aren't you, Saotome?" she spat out in turn.
"Nabiki!" Souun screamed out.
Ranma waved him down with a hand and a knowing look, and then he said, "It takes one to know one, Nabiki-san. There've been times I've asked myself how many people could have come to really like you in the long term if you didn't decide to prostitute them out for your own jollies. Especially your own flesh-and-blood."
Nabiki jolted as the directness of that comment seared through all her emotional guards, and then, with a scream of pain, she ran upstairs. Ranma took a deep breath, and then he said, "My apologies, Tendou-dono . . . "
"No, son," Souun declared, a look of resignation crossing his face. "Her behaviour towards you is yet another reason this day has long been overdue for all of us. And given how many times she moved to manipulate things behind the scenes -- at your expense, of course -- just to gain money for the doojou and my family . . . "
"It's okay," Ranma mused.
"Perhaps, in the wake of this, I think the time has come for us to take our leave of you, old friend," Genma then mused. "With the house having been repaired finally -- and with our son in full possession of his memories and powers -- we will become too much of a burden on you and yours."
"You're all always welcome here, Genma," Souun asserted.
"Before we part, may I ask something?" Kasumi then wondered.
"What is it, Kasumi-chan?" Nodoka asked.
Kasumi gazed on Ranma. "If you feel this is still too personal a subject to speak of even after what you admitted earlier concerning the fight with Saffron, Ranma-kun, I'll understand if you refuse to answer. But would you mind answering . . .?"
"Which one of my 'fiancees' I might choose now?"
A blush. "H-hai."
Ranma breathed out. "Well, it's time you learned the truth, I suppose . . . "
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(Posted Wed, 20 Sep 2006 15:41)
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