Almost blinded by the tears still trickling down her face and uncaring of where she went, Ranma walked out of the apartment building’s doors, then stiffened slightly in surprise at a sweet, bell-like voice from her right.
“Ranma?”
The redhead whirled and dropped into her style’s deceptive ready-for-anything stance, then staggered back as she took in the three people waiting for her — the bizarre black, white and gray auras from earlier were back. The two large men weren’t a problem, obviously not fighters for all their bulk and the baseball bats they carried, and their auras the dim translucence of before, though with no real signs of the black Ranma had seen earlier, but the young woman standing between them was another matter entirely — her aura was almost pure white with occasional traces of gray, and it somehow shone like the noonday sun without blinding Ranma.
Ranma for a long moment stared at the woman. She was slightly taller than the redhead, with brown hair, a sweet face, and three strange diamond tattoos on her forehead and cheeks. A sense of peace seemed to radiate from her, and Ranma felt the sea of pain she was wading through recede somewhat. Finally, she found her voice. “W-What are you?” she asked in a shaky voice.
The two men bristled, but the woman simply smiled. “I am Belldandy, Goddess of the Present, and I am here to help you,” she said in the same gentle voice Ranma had heard before.
Ranma turned her gaze from Belldandy’s brilliance to the man to her right and concentrated, again somehow forcing the strange nimbus to fade out of sight. Turning back to Belldandy, she gave a soft sigh of relief to find the goddess’s aura also hidden. “Are ... are you here to kill me?” Ranma asked.
Belldandy frowned slightly in confusion. “Kill you? Why would I do that?”
“But ... but I’m a demon now, and you said ...”
Belldandy’s confused expression vanished and she smiled again. “Oh, we don’t do that anymore — at least, not often. The Doublet System keeps Asgard and Niflheim from going to war, and while the Earth Demons usually follow Hild’s lead not all of them are evil.”
Ranma dropped her eyes to stare at the sidewalk. The details didn’t make much sense — Asgard? Niflheim? And what’s a Doublet System? — but the general outline was clear enough. “Please ...” she whispered so softly the two men could barely hear her. “Please, I can’t live like this ...”
Belldandy stepped forward and pulled the smaller redhead into a gentle hug, and Ranma broke down completely, clutching at Belldandy and sobbing into her shoulder. After a few minutes, Belldandy swept Ranma up in her arms and walked over to a nearby bench, sitting down with Ranma in her lap and the two men taking up places at each end of the bench, watching the other men along the street alertly.
Finally, Ranma’s wracking sobs dropped off to sniffles and hiccups. Belldandy produced a handkerchief from nowhere and gently wiped Ranma’s tear tracks away, then just as gently placed a hand under Ranma’s chin to lift her gaze, and Ranma stared into the sympathetic eyes set in a stern face. “And would you abandon your duty to Akane so easily?” Belldandy asked, and Ranma stiffened.
“My duty to Akane?” Ranma repeated, and Belldandy nodded.
“Yes — you asked her to bear your child, as a requirement for becoming your wife. She has kept faith, now it is your turn to do the same.”
Ranma simply stared at the goddess for a long moment. “Akane’s pregnant.”
Belldandy nodded. “Yes, she is. And she may well want you by her side, the two of you raising your child. Don’t you think you owe it to her to at least ask what she wants?”
Then, she gently added, “And then there’s your duty to your fellow succubae. You swore to be a refuge and a support for your enslaved sisters, and you cannot pass that burden off onto another — Alanya’s spell on the pool ended with your transformation, and even if it hadn’t it is a special miracle that the magic lasted as long as it did. The spell was becoming worn, threadbare, and would have failed within years, a decade at most — that is why the transformation took as long as it did and hurt so much. There will be no renewing Alanya’s work, no other Champion to replace Alanya, now or in the future.”
Ranma sighed, snuggling slightly deeper into Belldandy’s lap, her head once again resting on the goddess’s shoulder as Belldandy gently rocked her. Just like Kasumi, there are two of them! she thought in contented amazement. Then her thoughts turned to what Belldandy had said and she finally nodded slightly, her hair brushing Belldandy’s cheek. “You’re right,” she reluctantly admitted. “Before Akane, nobody ever really gave me a choice ‘bout anything important; I can’t treat the Tomboy the same way. But I dunno what I can do about the other succubae — I don’t know where the Bitch Queen lives, how powerful she is, how many people she has around her, I don’t know nothin’. And ...” her voice lowered, turned grim. “And I’ve never tried ta hunt someone down intendin’ ta kill ‘em — some Champion I’m gonna be.”
Belldandy smiled as she softly stroked Ranma’s hair. “Don’t worry about that now. Get things settled with Akane, learn what you can do, see how things work out with the Joketsuzoku. You’re effectively immortal now, if someone doesn’t kill you — you have time.”
The two fell silent for a time, and finally Ranma sighed and straightened up to look Belldandy in the eye, Belldandy’s arms dropping to Ranma’s waist, keeping her steady in her lap. “Belldandy, one question,” Ranma said. “From what ya just told me, ya were watchin’ the whole time — from before I got splashed, to when Mr. Moto picked me up, ta when I almost killed him. If you’re a goddess, why did ya allow it to happen? Why didn’t ya stop me?”
Belldandy’s smile turned sad, though her gaze remained steady. “You didn’t need our help to learn the true consequences of this night’s ceremony — you could simply have asked Ku Lon at any time, she would have told you.” Ranma’s eyes fell, and Belldandy continued, “You might as well ask why we didn’t stop you from falling into the Spring of Drowned Girl, or stop your father from throwing you into a pit full of starving cats, or prevent the seppuku pledge for that matter. Your life is your own, Ranma, we aren’t going to live it for you, even if we could. But that means allowing you to suffer the consequences of your evil acts — or even just the stupid ones.”
Ranma gave a reluctant chuckle. “Well, ya got me there. I was so sure that I’d go through with it no matter what, I didn’t bother ta ask.”
“No, you didn’t,” Belldandy agreed. “And truthfully, even if Ku Lon had given you all the facts, don’t you think you’d have still risked it? After all, three hundred years of no effect ...”
Ranma reluctantly nodded. “Yeah, you’re probably right,” she said. “I’m just glad you’re here now. Come ta think of it, if ya can’t interfere why are ya here now?”
“Normally, I wouldn’t be,” the goddess admitted. “Whatever happened to you from here on out would still be a natural consequence. Usually, Asgard is restricted to granting wishes to the deserving, and Niflheim is restricted to making deals with those willing to do so. But sometimes, the other side cheats.” Ranma snorted, and Belldandy chuckled lightly. “I know, I know, that’s somewhat like saying that sometimes fish breathe water. I suppose I should have said that sometimes they cheat and succeed, we watch them very closely.”
Sobering, she softly said, “And one of those times was four hundred years ago, when one of Hild’s demons gave the succubus you call the Bitch Queen the knowledge she needed to locate and murder all the succubae that weren’t her slaves. Since what resulted from that act came about through a violation of the treaty, we are allowed our own intervention seeking to counteract it, and we have long sought a way to benefit all those that have been enslaved, and others as well. And this is our intervention.”
“This?!” Ranma asked incredulously. “A shoulder ta cry on? That’s all?”
“Well, that and some advice,” Belldandy conceded, smiling. “Two suggestions. First, Akane is not exactly a sharing person. Even if she still wishes to build a life with you, she is going to have a hard time accepting your new needs. Be understanding, but don’t let her resume using you as a punching bag.
“Second, Nabiki and Ku Lon are not nice people, or even good people in some ways, but both are honorable in their own way and both now consider you family, if for very different reasons. As odd as it may sound, you can trust them to have your best interests at heart. However, both will want to be in charge, and it would be easy to simply let them make all the decisions. Don’t.”
Ranma nodded thoughtfully. “Good advice, I’ll remember it.” Then, gazing into the deep blue eyes brimming with all the love she’d looked for and never seen in her own mother’s eyes, on impulse Ranma leaned forward and gently kissed Belldandy on the lips. After a few minutes, she pulled back and smiled shakily. “Hey, whatever happens, thanks.”
Belldandy smiled back. “You’re welcome,” she said in the serene tone that reminded Ranma so much of Kasumi.
The two simply stared at each other for a long moment, then turned when the burly man to their right stiffened. “Woah!” he said, “now that’s a serious ride.” The two girls followed his gaze, and Ranma gaped at the sight of a limo driving down the street toward them, a motorcycle with a sidecar behind it.
The limo came to a stop in front of them, the front passenger door opened, and out stepped a gorgeous tall, white-haired, tanned, skimpily dressed woman with ... three triangle tattoos on her cheeks and forehead. “Well, little sis, it looks like things went fairly well,” she said, an eyebrow climbing and a faint smirk on her lips.
As she spoke, the back doors opened and Kasumi and Nabiki climbed out, Nabiki bringing up her ever-present camera. “Hey, Ranma, looking good!” she said with a wry smile as a frozen Ranma blushed and Kasumi gave her younger sister a slight disapproving frown. “Now, sister —” Kasumi started, only to break off as Akane, eyes swollen and cheeks rough and reddened, climbed out of the back seat.
“R-Ranma?” she whispered shakily, eyes darting between the redhead and the brown-haired woman whose lap she was sitting in. Her eyes clung to the three tattoos for a moment, as Urd’s words from earlier — I and my sisters will see to her wellbeing — echoed in her mind. She smiled weakly. “Well, y-y-you seem to be d-doing well enough,” she managed to get out in a poor imitation of a light tone, and Ranma seemed to practically levitate from Belldandy’s lap onto her own two feet.
“No! It’s not what ya think!” Ranma almost shouted, arms waving. “I mean Belldandy’s been a big help, but ... but —”
“Yes, I’m sure she has!” Akane growled, stalking toward the redhead. “Well, Baka, let me tell you ...” Walking up to the nearly-panicked girl, she threw her arms around her and Ranma squawked as the strength of the hug drove the breath from her body. After a few moments, Ranma hesitantly wrapped her arms around her shaking wife to return the hug as best she could with her upper arms pinned to her body. At the feel of the hug, Akane’s shaking eased off, and finally she pulled back to look Ranma in the eyes. Pasting on a shaky smile and ignoring the two slow tears running down her cheeks, the black-haired girl managed to whisper with only a bit of a tremor, “I don’t care what she did to help you, let’s go home — let’s go to bed.”
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(Posted Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:15)
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