Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ A New Future 1 - Things Change ❯ Enter Akane ( Chapter 5 )

This is an alternate history (both the world in general and the Senshi in particular) continuation for both Sailor Moon and Ranma 1/2, set in a world with no space exploration, personal computers, cell phones, or anything else requiring a transistor. It is labeled hentai for the opening scene only (no lemons), and X for that scene and possible graphic violence later.

This was originally published by me under the name Anduril at Anime Addventures, with the only changes being a few corrections in spelling and punctuation. If you like the beginning of my story but think I've gone off the rails, or have your own ideas for a great branch-off, or think I'm taking too long to update and want to continue the story yourself, come to Anime Addventures and join in the fun!

I claim no ownership rights to any of the works of Rumiko Takahashi or Naoko Takeuchi, or anything in the GURPS Ogre and GURPS Tales of the Solar Patrol settings published by Steve Jackson Games. Everything else is mine.

 

Akane sat at her desk in a haze, staring unseeing at the teacher at the front of the class and carefully ignoring the empty desk where Ranma should be sitting (or sleeping), while her mind replayed yet again the failed wedding a week earlier. For a brief moment she'd had a vision of a happy future stretching out in front of them, only to have it all collapse in the usual Nerima chaos, and she was so tired! Tired of the usual rivals (she refused to think of them as fiancées), tired of the other so-called suitors, both `hers' and her `rivals', tired of getting kidnapped, tired of other fiancées coming out of the woodwork, just ... tired. Everything was so perfect just after the fight with Saffron, and then ... the wedding ... it was like nothing in China ever happened.

Akane was so caught up in her own thoughts that she didn't hear the teacher ask her a question, then choose not to make a issue of it when she didn't respond, or notice the concerned looks Yuka and Sayuri were sending her way. She barely noticed the flash of light that lit up the room through the windows. But she did, vaguely, and sat and listened disinterestedly as students rushed to the windows to see what was happening.

 

“What was that!?”

“I don't know, but I don't see anything out there that could light up like that.”

“With everything that's happened around here, who knows what might do that?”

“Hey, is that Ranma out there in the corner of the yard next to that smoking pile of ... something?”

“Certainly a redhead, but at that distance I'm not sure.”

“Well, if it is, she isn't wearing any clothes.”

“She isn't moving, either. What do you think happened?”

 

Wait, Ranma, female, naked ... not moving? A trickle of concern penetrating the fog Akane had been moving through since the wedding, she got up and shoved through the crowd to the window and stared out at the distant figure for a long moment. That couldbe Ranma ... maybe. Who else could it be? And he could be in real trouble! Quickly, she opened the window and hopped to the windowsill, then dropped to the ground and ran toward the still, redheaded figure.

As Akane approached the now recognizable body, Ranma-chan suddenly sat up with a jerk and a throat-ripping scream like Akane had never heard from the aqua-transexual before. Ranma sat gasping for a few seconds, then suddenly thrust herself backward a few feet and, falling on her side, curled into a ball. Arriving to find her fiancé wracked by heart-rending sobs, Akane simply stared at the scene, trying to understand what was happening. What ... what's happened to Ranma? Is that smoking pile an animal of some sort? No, the shape is wrong — and that hand ... that's Happosai! But why isn't the hand burned like the rest? It's wet ... and so's the back of Ranma's thighs ...

Suddenly she knew, and the last of the fog blew away from her mind with a throat-ripping shriek of her own as the world went red and tunnel-visioned while her ever-trusty hammer formed in her hands.

 

“Akane. Akane! AKANE!”

Faintly, Akane heard the shouts and felt someone grab onto her arm, interrupting the rhythm of her swing. Slowly, as the red faded and the world broadened she found an older brown-haired girl with a page boy haircut hanging on her arm. “Nabiki?” she asked somewhat groggily, “what are you doing here?”

“Stupid question, little sis, I think half the school's out here,” Nabiki replied, looking around at the crowd carefully keeping its distance, then down at the contents of the crater Akane's hammering had created. “I really hope whoever that was, was already dead when you started pounding.”

Akane growled and lifted her hammer as her vision started going red again. “I don't care, if he was alive that perverted old man deserved every bit of what I gave him!”

Her older sister quirked an eyebrow. “Happosai, was it? Well, the police might care.” Then, giving Akane a little shake, admonished, “Enough of that. Wherever that perverted dwarf is now, he's way beyond feeling anything you might do. Besides, you're scaring Ranma.”

“What!?” Akane turned to find the naked, busty redhead backed away and plastered against the school grounds wall. Instantly, her hammer vanished and she started to walk toward her fiancé, only to freeze as Ranma flinched. “Ranma? I'm sorry I scared you. It's just ... what that bastard did to you ...”

“I'm not afraid a' nothin',” Ranma asserted reflexively, then quietly added, “You ... you aren't blamin' me for anything?”

“Of course not,” Akane replied, and suddenly her arms were full with a shaking redhead, hard enough that she lost her balance and found herself sitting on the grass with Ranma in her lap clutching at her.

“They're dead, they're all dead!” Ranma wailed. “And they tried so hard and I failed them ... and ... and my friends ...” She started to sob again.

Okay, I have no idea what that's about, but sort it out later, Akane thought. “Shhhh, easy, Ranma, I'm sure it wasn't your fault,” she murmured as she gently rocked the shaking bundle in her lap.

 

Nabiki watched as her younger sister got Ranma settled down and shivered — she'd never imagined Ranma, of all people, in such a state, much less seen it. Then, she looked around. No teachers taking charge, of course, she thought with a growl, then called out, “Kana, over here, now!”

On hearing the summons, one of the group of girls standing nearby quickly ran over. “What's up, boss?”

“Since none of our oh-so-brave teachers has come out to see what's going on, I want you to get back to the school and call the police, let them know there's been a death at the school, then head over to the nurse's office and get a blanket.”

As Kana nodded and took off for the school at a run, Nabiki motioned the rest of the group of her subordinates over and quickly instructed them to help make sure the curious mob of students stayed back, `to preserve the scene for the police'.

Then, the teenaged fixer saw almost the last person she wanted to see, and moved to intercept a boyishly dressed girl with a large spatula strapped to her back stalking determinedly toward Akane and her fiancé. “Hold up there, Ukyo, you really don't want to disturb them right now.”

Ukyo glared at Nabiki and tried to move around her, only to be cut off again. “And why shouldn't I want to comfort my fiancé?” she demanded.

“Because right now, doing so could be very bad for your health,” Nabiki retorted. “After the way you helped blow up the wedding last week, you aren't one of Ranma's favorite people, and I wouldn't bet on his self control at the moment.”

For a second the young chef wavered, then her face hardened and she started to move around Nabiki again. “You're wrong, Ranma didn't want to marry that violent maniac anyway, he's happy I helped break it up!”

“Really? And that's why he hasn't been by to see you since, right?” Nabiki asked, then smirked as Ukyo paused. “Besides, there's also Akane. You aren't likely to end up like Happosai, since he was already dead,” — I hope — “but a brawl between you two right now is the last thing Ranma needs.”

Ukyo looked over at the charred and cratered remains Nabiki motioned to and paled. “That's Happosai?”

“Yup, and good riddance.” Then Nabiki grimaced as the crowd parted to let through a tall, handsome boy in traditional samurai garb and carrying a bokken. “Besides, I need your help to stop tall, handsome, and delusional, there.”

Ukyo looked over and stiffened, glanced at Akane and Ranma, then nodded in determination and some relief. “Tatewaki Kuno,” she growled and moved to intercept the upperclassman with Nabiki by her side. “Hold it right there, sugar!”

Kuno struck a noble pose (in his own mind) and gestured with his bokken at Akane and Ranma. “Do not seek to bar me from the side of my glorious loves in their hour of need!” he intoned.

Yeah, right,” Ukyo scoffed, coming to a stop in front of him and unsheathing her battle spatula. “If their `hour of need' included the need for a punching bag, you'd be just what the doctor ordered. But considering how Happosai ended up that might not be a good idea — I could care less about Akane, but I don't want Ranma ending up in jail.”

“Unnatural creature ...” Nabiki heard Kuno start to respond as she moved past the pair and focused on her little sister and her redheaded bundle.

As she came up to the two, she heard Akane softly humming a lullaby as she rocked her smaller fiancé curled up in her lap. “I have a blanket coming. How is he doing?” Nabiki asked softly.

Akane looked up. “He's asleep. Nabiki, did you hear what he said about them all being dead, and how he failed them? Do you have any idea who `they' are?”

“Not a clue,” Nabiki said, then grimaced as the argument between Ukyo and Kuno turned into a shouting match. “I hope Kana gets here with that blanket in a hurry, we need to get Ranma out of here before the police arrive.”

“We can't take him home, not like this,” Akane stated. “Dad will start crying over how the schools will never be joined, and Uncle Saotome will start yelling about his `unworthy son', and I don't know if Ranma will kill them or break down again.”

“You're right,” Nabiki agreed, thinking furiously. “But if you don't take him home, then where?”

“The Cat Café,” the two sisters heard a familiar female voice say from the top of the wall above their heads, then Xian Pu and Mu Tse jumped down and landed beside them. Xian Pu nodded toward the quarreling chef and would-be samurai. “Mu Tse, help Ukyo keep that delusional idiot away.” Mu Tse nodded and moved toward the pair.

Nabiki stared. “Shampoo, your Japanese has certainly improved in the last week.” Then, glancing at Mu Tse, “And Mousse seems to be moving around very well, considering he isn't wearing his glasses.”

Xian Pu nodded. “Yes, play time is over.” She looked over the scene carefully, then froze as her eyes fell on the ruby pendant still hanging around Ranma's neck. She walked over to examine Happosai's no longer recognizable corpse and removed the twin of Ranma's pendant, then, ignoring Akane's glare, she walked over and knelt to remove the identical pendant from around Ranma's neck. Xian Pu sat back, shaking and gripping the pendants so tightly that blood started to drip from one of her hands.

Nabiki knelt down next to Xian Pu. “Okay, what are these?” she asked.

“Body control pendants stolen from the Amazons centuries ago,” Xian Pu managed to choke out. “With these, the strength of an individual's will matters nothing, so long as the orders are based purely on physical actions and muscle memory.”

“I assume one of them is the control pendant,” Nabiki mused. “So if, say, the wearer of the control pendant orders the wearer of the other to remove his clothes, lie down and not move ...”

“The other will obey without hesitation,” Xian Pu finished, slowly regaining control of herself.

“But somehow Ranma overrode the pendant, and it killed Happosai,” Nabiki continued over Akane's growl.

“Yes,” Xian Pu agreed, “but I don't know how, or what the effort might have done to Ranma. But if anyone would know, it's great-grandmother. She needs to see Ranma, to see what any possible backlash might have done to him.”

By now, it was all Akane could do to keep her hold on the smaller readheaded girl from becoming a death grip, from disturbing Ranma by shouting her anger into Xian Pu's face. “Forget it, Shampoo,” she managed to grind out in a low tone. “After how hard you've tried to lure Ranma away, there's no way I'm just delivering him to you and that scheming bitch!”

Xian Pu gazed at the pair for a few moments, then sighed. “Ranma is not my fiancé and never has been — that honor belongs to Mu Tse, and now we can finally stop pretending otherwise.” She chuckled slightly at the stunned expressions on the two girls' faces, then knelt before Akane and the sleeping Ranma and pressed her forehead to the ground. “Akane, we Amazons have ever sought only Ranma's good. If in the process we have injured or offended you, for Ranma's sake please forgive and trust us just this once. Please bring Ranma to the Cat Café.”

The two girls stared at the prostrate Amazon in front of them, then at each other. I don't know how many more of these shocks I can take in one day, Nabiki thought to herself half-whimsically, then her head whipped around at the sound of wood slamming against metal, to find the expected fight finally starting between Kuno on one side and Ukyo and Mu Tse on the other. Get with it, girl, you don't have time to daydream. She closed her eyes and thought furiously, then nodded and looked back at her younger sister. “Do it, Akane, right now, forget the blanket, while I stay here and handle the police,” Nabiki ordered. “We need answers, Ranma may need care a doctor can't give, and the best place to get both is Cologne. Who else knows as much about magic?” she continued when Akane began to protest. “And whatever else, she wants Ranma healthy and sane.”

For a moment Akane seemed to swell and Nabiki braced herself for an explosive rant. But then, Akane suddenly deflated and nodded reluctant agreement. “You're right, Nabiki, as much as I hate it.” Then, looking down at the sigh of relief from Xian Pu, added to the now rising purple-haired warrior, “But Ranma's been hurt enough, at the least hint you're hurting him more or trying to influence him ...”

Xian Pu carefully refrained from commenting on their comparative fighting skills, simply nodding in agreement, then glanced at the fight where Kuno was very much coming off the worse. “Understood, let's go while the fight's distracting people.”

Akane nodded and stood, and the pair headed toward the school gates, while Nabiki motioned those of her subordinates not involved in crowd control to approach for their orders.