Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction / Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ A Fistful Of Omake ❯ Omake-shan ( Chapter 51 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

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WARNING: This would have worked better as a Sailor Moon Xover, but i'm trying to wean myself off of those.

RANMA 2.1

This is an omake. It is only an omake.

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Genma had good intentions.

If his five year old son learned the Unbeatable Catfist - then Ranma would have far fewer problems on the road training. If Ranma mastered a martial art that was Unbeatable, hey, maybe they wouldn't have to spend ten years on the road and could actually sleep indoors more often.

Genma also had less than good intentions, and if "good intentions pave the road to hell" then intentions based on greed and pride made for an express lane.

Genma picked his screaming, tightly bound, son up in his arms and began swinging. When he had enough momentum he let go, so that Ranma could make a nice little arc going up over the bars, past the water, and into the lion den. "Go son! Make me proud by learning the Catfist!"

Four hungry lions + one helpless screaming kid = exactly the sort of mess you might expect. For the faint of heart in the audience, it is not detailed herein.

"Uh oh," said Genma, realizing that maybe he shouldn't have made those substitutions.

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Six months later:

Genma disguised his disgust as he left his son at the gate, the cripple. How could he have had such a worthless son? It went beyond the lack of legs and arm, the missing eye, the scarred face. It was the spirit of the boy. He had fought back to regain use of his remaining arm after the spinal injuries but that had mainly taken everything of fight that the boy had. How was he going to live off the work of his son if the boy couldn't take over Tendo's dojo when he was sixteen?

Fortunately, Genma had an idea. He couldn't go home, but he could cut ties with the boy here at this shrine. Now all he had to do was make a call, and the boy trying to crawl away in the dirt outside the temple would be someone else's problem. Genma snuck down to a pay booth, dialed the number, and waited.

"Hello. Rival Relief Office. Please state the nature of your emergency."

Genma frowned. Didn't sound like a very pious temple. "I found this crippled boy in the woods and left him by your gate. Is he worth any money..." Genma winced. He hadn't actually meant to fall back on *that* old habit.

"No, Genma Saotome, not in the coin of any earthly realm. However, he will be cared for."

Genma scowled and hung up the phone. Pausing as he turned away, he tried to remember if he had given his name to the voice on the other line.

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Ranma grew up another seven years in the hills near Tokyo. What he could exercise he did, and that included his mind.

He met a friend not long after settling into life in the temple, with the mysterious old man running it taking care of him much of the time - and teaching Ranma how to take care of himself the rest of that time. There had come two children playing about the temple, a young girl who seemed to radiate innocence and never once flinched at his scars.

One day the girl vanished and the boy couldn't seem to remember her. Ranma did. The boy forgetting what had seemed to be his soulmate was strange and something that would puzzle Ranma for years to come.

The boy had a younger sister, who got over her initial reaction to Ranma's scars and injuries and eventually got to mostly accept him. There was always something though, but Ranma was getting used to it. Only that girl from long ago and Keiichi - who still showed up once a week or so until the Morisato family moved.

Seven years. He'd never had a friend that long.

Sitting in his wheelchair, watching the sunset, Ranma tried not to cry. His dog, trained to do many tasks for him, merely went into a half drowse and seemed to daydream of bacon and chicken scraps.

"I'm looking for Saotome Ranma."

Ranma's good eye tracked to the boy at the gate and adjusted himself slightly, then turned the chair to get a better look. "That's me. Can I help you?"

The hiss of breath, the stare that was broken off, the shudder. He still didn't like them but he'd gotten used to them.

"What... what happened to you?" The twelve year old boy in the school uniform asked.

Ranma shrugged, used to this question now. "My father threw me to the lions and abandoned me. If this is about money he stole from you, I'm afraid I don't have great resources to draw on."

"Then I guess I'll leave, if you can answer a question for me," said the boy. "Do you remember a girl named Ukyo?"

Ranma shifted again slightly. "Yeah. Sort of. I remember a *boy* named Okonomiyaki Ucchan. Ah, those were the days. My best friend back then. It nearly broke my heart to leave my old buddy behind but my father told me it was for the best."

The boy had reacted to this by turning halfway from Ranma and shuddering some more. "I see. Your 'buddy'. No doubt your father told you about the 'friendship' of this 'boy'. Do you know where your father is, by any chance?"

"Afraid not," said Ranma. "Have you seen Ucchan? Is he okay?"

"Yeah, sort of," said the boy, adjusting the large spatula he had slung across his back again as if uncomfortable.

"Do me a favor, would you? Don't tell him you found me," said Ranma. "I'd rather my old buddy, if he remembers me at all, remembers me as I was."

"Uhm, yeah, I'll, ah, I'll do that," the boy turned the rest of the way away and briskly walked off.

Ranma let out a deep breath and watched the boy go. In a way it would have been nice to see Ucchan again, but sometimes it was best to just let the past go.

At his signal, his dog merely pulled on the harness to help move his master.

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A five year old boy had been crippled. He had grown to twelve in the temple. Now at thirteen, he faced another crisis.

"So where are you going?" Ranma asked the priest.

"My time here is done. I must move on," said the withered old man. "Ranma Saotome. I leave King in your care."

The German Shepherd wagged his tail once as if to agree with the sentiment.

"But where are you going?" Ranma repeated.

"Away, my boy, and that is all that I can say," the old man said with a wink. "As for you, my boy. Keep in mind that is always darkest before the dawn."

"Either that or it goes completely black," pointed out Ranma.

"Be that as it may, Ranma, you have King to assist you. You are not alone. This temple, however, will see other owners in another three years." The nameless priest tapped his cane against the flagstones briefly. "Yes, it'll have to do. Keep in mind that King won't be with you forever either. Dogs that live longer than fifteen years are rare. King's only six now, but we'll see if another will be needed before his time is done."

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At fourteen, he left the temple with King. Maintaining it had been too difficult with just himself.

Looking back at it one last time, Ranma wondered if he could possibly return. Ah well, at least he was able to do well with stocks and investments now. He wouldn't starve, and a small apartment would be a lot easier to deal with.

It was just leaving the site of so many memories.

"Ah well, let's go, King." Ranma said to his faithful sidekick, who merely whuffed in response.

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Age sixteen, and someone had returned to the temple between the last time he'd checked it and now. "Keichi?! Wow, and with a girl. I'm happy for you, man."

"Ranma, I'd like you to meet Belldandy."

"We've met," said Ranma, recognizing the girl from many years previously. "Hello, Bell."

"You've met?!" Keichi seemed startled. Alarmed too.

King grinned at the three.

"I'll order pizza," said Ranma. "We've got to talk this over. It's been a few too many years."

Keichi went to discuss things with Belldandy while Ranma moved his wheelchair to where the phone was. He knew a decent pizza place, they knew he didn't like bonito and mayonnaise on his pizza for one thing.

"Hello. This is the Goddess Relief Office. We will be visiting you for a consultation."

Ranma blinked. "Sorry. I must have misremembered the phone number. Hello? Hello?"

"Hello," said a sultry voice behind him.

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Keichi tried not to stare. Belldandy was... fretting. King seemed to find something amusing about the whole thing.

"Like I said, my name is Dll. My nickname is 'Driver.' I'm on my training license, but I'm sure I can help you." The silvery-green haired girl smiled over at Ranma.

Ranma blinked again. "Okay, so you're a goddess on a training license. Belldandy is a goddess first class. Keiichi wished that Bell would stay with him forever. Keichi, you da man. I envy you. No offense, but I'm not going that route. If I could assume for a moment this is for real, then there is a wish I would make."

"Those cyborg comics we read when we were younger," said Keichi. He was quite happy for his old friend. He'd felt a pang of guilt on seeing Ranma because he'd forgotten entirely about the crippled friend.

"As long as King doesn't get left behind, and it doesn't cause legal problems from records showing me as crippled," agreed Ranma. "Yeah. I'd wish I were like the superpowered cyborg heroes of the manga."

Keichi had expected a windstorm, but Driver wasn't elemental in that manner. Instead she was surrounded by what seemed to be glowing Norse script which rotated in circles around her. "Your wish has been approved."

"Very impressive but I don't..." Ranma fell backwards.

King immediately ran over to his master, only to collapse himself a moment later.

Driver shook her head. "Well, that'll fix part of it. The 'hero' bit will have to be done by him alone."

"He looks the same," said Keichi.

"Technorganic virus," explained Driver. "His body will produce replacement limbs when done."

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Seventeen year old Ranma stood on the roof, feeling the morning sun's rays beginning to warm his body and supply energy.

*Ah. Feels good it does.*

Ranma glanced at King. *You're armored up. Reason?*

*Skuld say this big day. King listen to goddess. Ranma should too.*

"A big day?" Ranma considered that. "Doesn't mean another monster attack or anything like that, does it?" Those could get tiring after awhile. Him and his big mouth, he'd had to specify cyborg 'hero'.

*Not sure,* sent King. *For a goddess of future, not much of future she see.*

"Perhaps," said Ranma, leaping from the fifth floor of his apartment complex to the roof access. "I don't think that... oh no. Not him."

A pudgy man leapt from his place of concealment to a telephone pole to the roof nearby. "Ranma! Thank goodness I found you! You've been lost for so long!"

"Can it. You abandoned me, remember? You left your crippled son to go off and have your happy life elsewhere. So anyway. Nice to see you. Goodbye, don't let the door hit your backside on the way out." Ranma opened the door and let King (now looking considerably less robotic and more doggish) inside before shutting it in his father's face. Fingers bent the metal of the doorframe, just a little. "Yeesh. Nerve of some people."

The door rattled behind Ranma as someone tried to follow him.

"You know, King? I really would have preferred a Monster-Of-The-Week."

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Ranma went to class, leaving King to watch the apartment.

Classes were mainly boring, but occasionally there were good teachers who were knowledgable in their subject. Who had an enthusiasm and fire for what they taught. THOSE precious few could throw out tidbits that Ranma hadn't run across.

True to Driver's fulfillment of the wish, everyone remembered Ranma as the guy with one leg which terminated below the knee and the other which terminated mid-thigh, whose left arm ended a few inches below the shoulder. When he'd returned to school with his limbs restored and not the clumsy plastic prostheses he'd worn periodically, he'd found everyone remembering him as having been taken away by mysterious black vehicles belonging to super-secret government agencies.

They even allowed King to attend classes with him. (And after King scored so well on some of the tests, the few objectors quieted down.)

Settling into physics class, he could remember applying the "lesson of the day" against monsters-of-the-week. If nothing else he could always try them out on his motorcycle. Heh. Reminded him, he needed to have Keichi look it over.

The door shattering open kind of ruined the mood.

"RANMA! How dare you abandon family honor and your poor suffering father?!"

Ranma got up, slowly and carefully. Slowly he began walking down, aware of the teacher and his fellow students gawking.

"Ranma, you must put aside these foolish delusions of yours!" Genma stood proudly in the doorway, sure of his rights as a father.

"You abandoned me when I was crippled, old man. By your own hand! First you tossed me in that cage where I was mangled. Then you abandoned me at that temple. Now you want to sweep the past aside and let all be forgiven?" Ranma cracked his knuckles.

"Of course! I mean, errr. That reminds me, how did you get those fixed?" Genma asked, wondering if his hair could be restored by the same method.

"An agency so secret that hardly anyone under the Emperor himself has heard of it," Ranma assured his father. Which was true, as the Goddess Relief Office hardly advertised on the radio.

Of course what he said, meant, and what everyone heard were entirely different things.

Genma blanched at that momentarily, as with his past anyone with governmental ties was someone to be avoided. He rallied though, hoping it was a bluff and the boy had just found some form of magic or something. "Will you disrespect your father, your ancestors, your honor?!"

"Will YOU stop disrupting class?" Ranma demanded.

"Oh no, go ahead, Mister Saotome," the Professor said, sitting back on his stool and waving his student on. "I believe I can work this into a lecture. Go ahead and thrash the brute."

Genma blinked as his son took a martial arts stance. "Hah! Your stance is all wrong, a simple legsweep -"

Ranma leapt above the legsweep, which Genma was ready for. Now his followup would crush his son's resistance and he would have proven that father knew best. By the time the boy woke up he'd already be at the Tendo house and engaged!

Ranma seemed to hover in midair briefly, staying out of range of the attack for a moment longer than should have been possible. When he came down it was further away as well. "Very well. Behold my true identity as a gift to take with you to Hell."

Genma blinked. When had it gotten THAT serious?

KASSSHHHHHHAAAAAN!

Abruptly where Ranma had stood was the armored warrior that had been on television fighting legions of darkness and monsters from beyond.

"EEEK!" Genma normally wasn't inclined to do such things, but he was panicking now. He had seen this being with the blades protruding from his elbows slice huge monsters up! He had seen this same figure make tetrawatt laser cannon out of duct tape, flashlights, and an old Ford Pinto!

Genma turned and ran. There was no way he was facing HIM!

Not MacGuyver!

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okay, this was sent out to my prereaders for St Patrick's Day, now Mediaminer for 4/1/2003
slowed down on my writing by school and trying to juggle threads over at the Anime Addventure, but am working on some other ideas as well...

take care