"Woof woof!" Shirokuro greeted her young master in excitement, while Ryoga still stared dumbfounded at the green dinosaur and the two strangers.
Especially at the green dinosaur.
Yoshi noticed how the boy was looking at him and waved at him. "Yoshi!"
Ryoga then looked at Mario and Kensuke. "Who the heck are you guys?"
Kensuke smiled when he saw the young human who could only be his son. He could see the black-spotted bandana... yes, this had to be Ryoga.
"Ry... Ryoga?" he asked. "Is that really you?"
"Um, yes, I'm Ryoga Hibiki!" he nodded. "But... I have absolutely no idea who you could be. Are you... are you old friends of my parents?"
"Um, no... not really. My name is Ken... Kensuke, and these are my friends Mario and Yoshi."
"Ah... okay, and why are you here?"
Kensuke looked at Mario helplessly. How was he going to tell his son the truth?
Mario cleared his throat. He wasn't exactly the best with words, but he could always give it a try. "Well, my boy... did your parents ever tell you where you came from?"
Ryoga facefaulted. "This isn't going to be the talk about the 'birds and the bees', right?"
Mario sweatdropped. "Um, no, that-a wasn't exactly what I had in mind..."
"Ryoga!" Kensuke said. "Can you... can you remember anything from when you were a baby?"
"A baby? Well, let's see..." The eternally lost boy scratched his head. "Nope, can't say I can. But wait... you aren't some sort of long lost friend of the family, are you?"
"Not... exactly," Kensuke replied. "I must say I have never met your... parents before. But, Ryoga... Did your parents ever tell you about how they found you?"
"Found me?" Ryoga laughed. "My parents have the tendency to get lost, as much as I do. If they found anything, it must have been mere luck. And by the way, as far as I know, you don't just find a baby. There are other ways of getting a child, if you can follow me!"
"Nooo, that's not what I meant..." Kensuke sighed in desperation. "Ryoga, you were adopted!"
Ryoga stared at the blonde man for a while, then he started laughing.
"It's the truth!" Kensuke insisted.
"Aw, come on!" Ryoga snorted. "You don't really expect me to believe that, do you? I believe my parents would have told me by now if something like that..."
Suddenly, the door behind them opened up yet again. Shirokuro barked joyfully when she recognized the other persons that came in.
The middle-aged woman smiled when she entered and saw Ryoga. "Oh, Ryoga! Are you finally home for once? What a coincidence!"
"Now that's a surprise," her husband grinned when he entered the house behind her. "That all of us manage to get home at the exact same time for once. This truly must a a very special occasion and..."
Mr. Hibiki blinked. "Um, Ryoga... are those your friends?"
"Mom? Dad?" Ryoga really was overwhelmed now. He rarely got the chance to see his parents, as they were getting lost at least as much as he does.
"Ah, so you must-a be Mr. and Mrs. Hibiki!" Mario said and shook the surprised parents' hands. "It's-a pleasure to meet you!"
"Oh, the pleasure is all ours," Mrs. Hibiki smiled a bit uncertainly. "Honey, did you ever meet...?"
"We haven't met before, ma'am," Kensuke said. "But believe me when I tell you that we have a 'mutual friend', so to speak. By the way, my name is Kensuke Koopa."
"And who could that be?" Mr. Hibiki asked with a frown.
Kensuke smiled when he looked at a certain bandana-clad boy. "Ryoga, of course!"
"Heeeyyy, wait a minute!" Ryoga raised his hands defensively. "I told you I never met you guys before! Mom, Dad, you got to believe me. Those guys have already told a bunch of crazy stuff... they told me I would be just adopted..."
"Oh!" Mrs. Hibiki suddenly gasped. "Oh... Oh my..." Her legs suddenly felt weak. "I think I should sit down for a while..."
Her husband. "After all those years... and we never had the chance to tell you, boy..."
"What? What?" Ryoga looked back and froth between his parents. "You can't be serious... you really wanna tell me that I was... adopted?"
"We wanted to tell you, Ryoga," Mrs. Hibiki sighed. "But you know how it is... we got lost so often, it was a wonder that we could take care of you at all."
"We have to thank Shirokuro for this," Mr. Hibiki smiled. "Even back when she was a pup, she was able to care for you and the house, while we were away... she even made sure that you didn't get lost yourself... at least not until you got older."
"This can't be happening..." Ryoga groaned as he sat down on a chair. "And I never knew..."
"Let me guess, you found him on a doorstep, right?" Kensuke asked with a smile. "And he was lying within a basket that was shaped like a turtle shell..."
"Why, yes!" Mrs. Hibiki said in surprise. "But why..."
Her eyes suddenly grew sad. "Of course... I see now, so you must be..."
"I'm afraid I am," Kensuke sighed and looked at his son.
"What... do you mean?" Ryoga murmured.
Kensuke spread his arms. "Ryoga... you are my son! I am... your father!"
"But... but how... I mean, why... this is so sudden!"
"I know, I know," Kensuke sighed. "But, you know... your mother and I, we never stopped thinking about you ever since we had to give you away."
"You... you're not here to take him away from us, are you?" Mrs. Hibiki asked in a worried tone of voice.
"Of course not!" Kensuke protested. "Besides, Ryoga is old enough to make his own decisions. But on the other hand, he is also old enough to finally learn the full truth, wouldn't you think?"
"Yes, you are right," Mr. Hibiki sighed.
"So, if I am actually your son... why did you abandon me like that?"
"There were certain... circumstances that forced us to do what we never wanted to do. You should have seen your mother when she had to give you and your sister away..."
"Whoa, whoa, my what?? Don't tell me that on top of everything, I have a..."
"A twin sister," Kensuke nodded. "Her name is Kodachi."
"Koda... chi...? Ha... Hahahahahahah!" By now, Ryoga was laughing out loud. "Oh, that really is priceless! Bwahahahah! I almost believed you, but having Kodachi as a sister..."
"Ryoga, what's gotten into you?" his adoptive mother protested. "Stop being so rude to our guest. He is your true father, after all."
"Oh, sure he is..." Ryoga snickered. "So, whatever did he do so you would play along, Mom?"
"Ryoga, this isn't a joke!" Kensuke said. "I don't know how you got to know her before we came, but whatever you may have heard about her, whatever she did... she is your sister. And I am your father!"
"Oh, yeah? Then tell me, whatever made you bring Kodachi and me to completely different parents? Heehee... imagine, Kodachi not being the principal's daughter? Everyone knows that insanity runs in that family..."
Now Kensuke was worried for both of his children, but before he could take care of Kodachi, he had to make his son believe him. "Ryoga... the day we had to give you away, I gave you a very special item... a yellow bandana with black spots."
Ryoga stopped laughing. His hands reached for the bandana that was tied around his head. "Wha...? You mean this...?"
"It was already tied around your head when we found you in that strange turtle crib, Ryoga," Mr. Hibiki said.
"But... but I... I don't understand!" Ryoga winced. "I always had the feeling that this bandana... it was a special gift from my parents. One that would always lead me back home..."
"It is, Ryoga!" Kensuke said. "I told you these exact words the moment I gave you away. Ryoga... I had to give it to you. I knew all about your curse..."
"You know about Jusenkyo?" Ryoga wondered.
Kensuke and Mario exchanged confused glances. "Jusenky-what?" Mario asked.
"I'm talking about your bad sense of direction," Kensuke explained.
"Oh, THAT curse... but wait, I thought that trait was because of Mom and Dad..."
Kensuke looked at the elder Hibiki pair. "Mr. Hibiki... did you and your wife always had a bad sense of direction?"
"No..." Mrs. Hibiki whispered. "No, only after... after Ryoga entered our life. We always thought..."
Her husband clutched his head. "We thought this... this was the price we had to pay, the price for such a precious gift as the small child we found on our doorstep. We decided to accept it, because nothing made us more happy than being a mother and father."
"And... every time we managed to come home... and see Ryoga's face again," Mrs. Hibiki sobbed. "It made it worthwhile..."
"I see..." Kensuke murmured. "So the curse that had been put on Ryoga did spread after all..."
"Who did it?" Ryoga stood up and made his hands into fists. "Who cursed me and my parents? Even if they are my adoptive parents, I'll make anyone who made them suffer like that pay!"
He knew that his bad sense of direction was a curse. There wasn't a day on the road that wasn't fraught with misery, as he never knew when he was able to come back home or to see his parents again..."
"It-a was a wizard named Kamek..." Mario said. "He's-a from the same world we are coming from..."
"Okay, then show me the... What? Did you just say 'world'?"
"I guess it's time you learn everything about your past," Kensuke sighed. "See, I'm not really from Japan... we're not even residents of Earth..."
"You are Aliens?" Mrs. Hibiki asked in awe.
Ryoga looked at Yoshi. "Is that the reason why there is a green dinosaur in our living room right now?"
Kensuke nodded. "The world we are from is known as the 'Mushroom Kingdom'... although there are several other kingdoms on it as well. And actually, there are very few human residents in that kingdom... Mario here is one of them."
"And so are you, obviously," Ryoga assumed.
But his true father shook his head. "No, Ryoga, I'm not! And neither is your mother. See... the form you see me in right now is just a disguise... a camouflage so we would avoid causing a commotion. And Kensuke isn't really my actual name... my true name is Kenny. Kenny Koopa, member of the Koopa race."
"What's a 'Koopa'?" Ryoga asked nervously.
He reached for the red belt that was being tied around his belly. "It's the same race you and your sister originally belonged to... Now don't be alarmed, you will be pretty shocked by what happens now..."
He unfastened the belt's clasp, and in a flash of light, his stature changed. His height decreased dramatically, while a thick, yellow shell appeared around his body. His clothes draped themselves around his now smaller body, while all of his hair vanished.
Ryoga and his parents stared at the bipedal, taking turtle that was standing on front of him.
"This is what we really are, Ryoga!" Kenny said. "We are Koopas. Magic allowed us to take on the forms of humans... but if we remove the magic..." He gestured at the belt he was still holding. "We take on our original form."
Ryoga blinked. "I'm adopted... my parents are not my real parents... Kodachi is my sister... and my real parents are a pair of talking TURTLES?"
For a while, he wasn't able to say anything else.
Mario snapped his fingers in front of Ryoga's face. No reaction.
"I think-a you broke his brain."
"I already thought he wouldn't take it too well..." Kenny sighed. "Oh well, it was worth a try..."
"Why?" Mrs. Hibiki asked. "Why didn't you come earlier? Why today of all days? And why not if not to take him back with you?"
"I'm sorry," Kenny said and bowed his head apologetically. "But you see... the one who made the decision to leave our cursed children in the care of foster families was the kingdom's chancellor, Sir Toadsworth... and back then, there was no one else there who could have objected. The princess was still a young baby."
"But-a now the princess has learned about what had happened all those-a years ago," Mario explained. "And I can tell you, she wasn't amused at all."
Kenny grinned. "She was so angry at Toadsworth that we were afraid she would throw him across the palace garden... Well, and thanks to Her Highness, we are now allowed to be reunited with our children once again. Well, I guess it's only fair that they get to know where they came from... but if they prefer to stay here on Earth, that's fine with us. As long as we can see them again..."
"Kodachi is cursed as well?" Ryoga suddenly asked.
Kenny nodded. "Yes, didn't I tell you?"
"No... but she isn't lost all the time, so why...?"
"She hasn't quite the same curse as you, Ryoga," Kenny explained. "Kamek cursed her to become as demented and delusional as imaginable."
Ryoga groaned. "Don't tell me... that's the reason why all of her family are that way?"
"Well, either that or they already have been like that before..."
"Is there a way to break the curse?" Ryoga asked.
Kenny blinked. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me! That Kamek guy cursed us, so there has to be a way to undo what he did, right?"
"Well... we can't say for sure, but if there is someone who can answer that question, it's-a Kamek," Mario assumed.
"Okay, it's settled!" Ryoga said with determination. "Show me the way to your kingdom, I'm coming with ya!"
"Wh-what?" Mrs. Hibiki asked in surprise. "Ryoga, you..."
"Listen, Mom, as far as I am concerned, you and Dad are my parents. You are all I ever knew in my life... I might just accept Kenny and his wife as a second set of parents, so problem with that. And I still want to live here in Nerima, but..." He gritted his teeth. "Someone put a curse on me, my parents and my sister, and I'm going to make him undo whatever he did... and if he doesn't, he'll be sorry!"
Kenny felt relieved. He knew Ryoga would probably never settle down in the Mushroom Kingdom, but at least he was willing to give him and Kimmy a chance.
Now if he could only talk him out of going after Kamek...
"Listen, Ryoga," Mario suddenly said. "Me and my brother Luigi, we are used to fighting evil Koopas like-a Kamek. Also, we are pretty familiar with the guy who owns the castle Kamek is living in... so why don't you leave that to us while you stay home like a good boy?"
"I'm not as helpless as you think!" Ryoga snapped. "To your information, I'm a strong martial artist and there aren't many people that have managed to beat me yet... Well, except for Ranma..." he muttered. "Curse you, Ranma..."
"Oh..." The heroic plumber was taken aback. "Well, in that case..."
"It's still dangerous," Kenny insisted. "Ryoga, Kamek knows about you and your curse. He also knows how to use a man's weakness against him. That's why he always threatened me whenever he wanted to force your mother into doing something. And that's the reason why he cursed our children when he actually hated me and Kimmy..."
"Kimmy?" Ryoga smirked. "That's Mom's name, huh? Okay, I promise I won't be too reckless... but I'm telling you, I will go there and take care of Kamek."
"I already thought so..." Kenny sighed. "You are as headstrong as your mother... very well, but before you go, we still have to meet your sister... and there's something else you need to know."
"What is that?"
"You understood that this magic belt was all that allowed me to have a human form, right?"
"Yes, but why...?"
"Ryoga, back when you were brought to Earth, we had to turn you and Kodachi into humans as well. You didn't believe that a pair of Koopas could give birth to a human, did you?"
"B-but that would make me a..." He gulped. "A t-turtle as well..."
"Not just a turtle, Ryoga! A Koopa! And the only thing that keeps you from turning back is..."
Ryoga reached up and felt the bandana around his head. "Lemme guess..." he murmured. "This thing, right?"
Kenny nodded. "Yes, that thing!"
Ryoga took a deep breath. "Okay... I guess now is a time as good as any to do it... after all, I will have to take it off sometimes, right?"
"That's-a the spirit!" Mario cheered.
Ryoga gulped nervously and slowly, reached up to untie the black-spotted bandana...
"AAAAAAAAAHHH!" A shrill scream echoed throughout the Kuno manor. "What happened to my face? MY BEAUTIFUL FACE?"
"Well, we tried to tell you," Peach sighed. "It is the rose who locked you in your human form, and only by sniffing it every morning could you prevent that you turned back into a Koopa..."
"I'm hideous..." the black-shelled, pony-tailed Koopa girl sniffed as she looked into the mirror. A yellow, scaly turtle face was looking back at her.
"I'm not a Kuno..." she sobbed. "Th-this can't be... I'M NOT A KUNOOOOO!!!"
Next to the princess, a middle-aged Koopa woman with a black shell and retractable spikes was standing. She was sniffling as well... but in her case, they were tears of joy.
"My girl... you turned out so beautiful..."
Toad grinned from where Sasuke was helpfully putting a wet cloth on his hurt mushroom head. "Just like her mother..."
Sasuke groaned. "This won't end well, I already know it... Oh, Miss Kodachi, whatever will your father and brother say...?"
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(Posted Tue, 31 Jul 2007 19:00)
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