Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ A New Future 2 - First Blood ❯ The Return of The Hammer! ( Chapter 15 )

This was originally published by me under the name Anduril at Anime Addventures, with the only changes being a few corrections in spelling, punctuation and the occasional word choice to make things clearer. 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, 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.

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Akane almost gasped in sheer relief when the bell rang for the end of school, even as she shot out of her chair, hurriedly packed up her last class's books, and rushed for the door. The feeling that Ranma was in serious trouble had started without warning hours ago, and while it had leveled off, even diminished somewhat over time, Ranma hadn't picked up the phone at the apartment when she'd called from a payphone between classes. The remainder of the school day had been sheerest torture, but now she could finally get to Hotaru and have the other Musketeer use her Senshi communicator to check in. Usa would decide to get sick for real today, she grumbled as she raced through the halls toward Hotaru's classroom.

Then there was Hotaru coming her way, eyes widening at Akane's haste. “Akane's what's —” the fragile-seeming girl got out, before Akane grabbed her arm and turned to hustle her friend toward the school's exit.

“Something's wrong with Ranma,” Akane whispered. “We're getting somewhere private, and then you're calling in to find out what's going on.”

Hotaru glanced at Akane, a worried expression now on her face, then jerked suddenly, the reaction Akane had come to recognize as the “my communicator's vibrating” signal. “Someone's calling in right now,” Hotaru said softly, “but it's the non-emergency pattern. If it's about Ranma, there's no immediate danger.”

Akane relaxed slightly, even slowed down a little as they came to the stairwell (to Hotaru's carefully hidden relief).

A few minutes later, the pair managed to find an empty classroom, and Akane braced a chair under the doorknob as Hotaru pulled out the still-vibrating communicator, flipped it open and hit the “accept” button. “Hi, Mercury, what's going on?” she asked, and Akane was instantly by her side as the blue-haired Senshi replied.

“Is Akane with you? It's Ranma, she's been hurt.”

/oOo\

Akane stared down at the apparently sleeping redhead lying on the futon in the guest bedroom at the Hikawa Shrine, ignoring her friend by her side and Usagi kneeling on the other side clutching one of Ranma's hands. Her eyes were fixed on the blisters coating the reddened strip of skin across her lover's upper face. “All right?!” she whispered hoarsely, almost trembling with the effort to keep her voice down. “You call this all right?!”

Beside her, Mercury sighed. “I said Ranma is going to be all right, not that she is all right now,” the studious Senshi replied. “If you think this looks bad, you should have seen her a few hours ago. It seems Ranma figured out how to make the Life Dancer healing trance work, after all.” Glancing down at the Mercury Computer in her hands, she added, “It even looks like her eyes will heal completely, Ranma's eyesight should be completely unimpaired.”

Akane froze as fresh horror at what might have been flashed through her, then closed her eyes and forced herself to relax muscle by muscle. She's going to be all right, Ami said so, and she's the one with the portable infomat that can actually scan people. She knows what she's talking about. Ranma's going to be all right. She knelt down beside her lover and took the hand Usagi wasn't holding, even as she forced herself to ignore the quiet voice in the back of her mind, whispering, And what about next time?

For a time, she simply gazed at her life's face, her mind replaying the happy times together in the past and future joy to come, Ranma teaching her what she'd learned of the Life Dancers, opening a dojo and teaching the next generation, having some children of their own (Akane bearing the children, of course, the thought of Ranma having them made her just a bit queasy — maybe Ryoga would be willing to make the needed donation if Akari let him, for artificial insemination of course?).

Akane started when a weak voice broke into her rumination. “Hey, Tomboy, good ta see ya.” Her latest dream of a little dark-haired girl with slight fangs beating off a little boy that looked remarkably like Kuno vanished, and she found herself looking at her lover's smiling face — a face without a single blister and its skin a healthy pink.

“Yasuko, you're all right!” Usagi squealed as she swooped down to pull her younger sister into a hug. Akane laughed as Ranma's arms flailed about in panic for a moment, the hand Akane was holding yanking out of her grasp, before circling her lover's older sister to return the hug.

She smiled as her eyes met Ranma's over Usagi's shoulder, ignoring the tears running down her cheeks. “Welcome back, Idiot. Remember to duck next time!” she said softly, managing to limit the quaver in her voice to a hint. Beside her, Mercury and Hotaru laughed as Ranma blushed.

“Yeah, I'll do that,” the redhead promised, then broke off with a huge yawn even as her stomach growled — loudly. Usagi instantly let her go.

“Oh, you must be starving! Let me get Rei, get some dinner ...” the single-braided blonde gasped, jumping to her feet.

“Yeah, thanks, big sis. I could use some —” Ranma got out before breaking off with another giant yawn, eyes trying to droop closed.

Hotaru, Usagi and Akane glanced over at Mercury, worry on their faces, but the Senshi of Ice shook her head. “Nothing to worry about,” she assured them, then glanced down at her computer's screen. “Ranma's fine, she's just used up a lot of energy during the healing trance. A few big meals and a long night's sleep, and she should be fine.”

“Right!” Usagi said, and started for the door only to be intercepted by Hotaru.

“I'll take care of it, you stay with Ranma,” the normally passive girl ordered, and dashed out the door calling for Rei.

Mercury looked back over at Ranma. “I'd say you're going to be staying here tonight. We'll have to get some bedding from Rei while you eat and wash up — Akane ought to be happy to help you with that,” she gently teased, glancing over at the suddenly blushing brunette, than back at the redhead whose face now matched her hair.

“Uh ... yeah, sure ...” Ranma managed to get out before Hotaru bustled back into the room, followed by Rei, still in her miko robes and carrying a large bowl of soup.

/oOo\

“We're home!” Ranma called out as she and Akane stepped through their apartment door and slipped off their shoes. Nabiki looked up from the papers covering the table, an open book in front of her and a welcoming smile on her face that Akane was still getting used to even after the past few months away from Nerima. Still, the smile didn't hide the searching look the middle Tendo gave the redhead, gazing intently at her face then nodding.

“Welcome back,” Nabiki responded. “It looks like the healing trance worked as advertised?”

“Of course it did, it's me!” Ranma boasted in her old cocky manner. Nabiki chuckled, shaking her head and shooting Akane a sharp look.

“Even so, be a little more careful next time — spending hours worrying before Setsuna-san thinks to give me a late night call isn't exactly conducive to study.”

“Uh, right ... sorry,” an abashed Akane said, then looked over the papers scattered over the table and frowned at the column of figures covering the pages. “Nabiki, what are you studying? That doesn't look like any of the classes I know of.”

Nabiki quirked an eyebrow at her younger sister, but accepted the change of subject. “It isn't — I'm changing my career path from investigative reporting to finance.”

“You are? But I thought you said that would bore you to tears — that you wanted to be a hunting dog, not a sheep dog, or something,” Ranma remarked as she opened the refrigerator and pulled out the makings of a quick lunch. “Do ya want a light lunch along with me an' Akane?”

“Sure, and yes, I did,” Nabiki mused, a thoughtful expression on her face. “But Setsuna-san suggested that I might— `be of more use to my loved ones' is how she put it — if I went into finance, instead. And anything that woman suggests has to be taken seriously.”

Ranma glanced up sharply from the lunch preparations at that, then nodded slowly. “Ya got that right,” she agreed. “Puu has changed from what I remember. She was always too serious before, but now ...”

“Hey, she's spent four thousand years cleaning up after the biggest intelligence failure in the history of the world, of course she's more driven,” Akane said from the seat she'd taken across the table from her sister. “I'm just amazed she's still sane.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Ranma agreed. “Hey, Nabs, when Puu called, did she mention that Ryoga showed up at yesterday's fight?”

“No, she didn't.” Nabiki straightened in her seat. “Is it time for me to make that visit to Kuno?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Ranma agreed. “I'll be makin' my own trip back ta the madhouse pretty soon, now. Lunch'll be ready in a few minutes. If you'll get yer homework off the table, and Akane can get some plates out, we can eat.”

/oOo\

Smoothly finishing the most complicated kata she knew that the constrained space of the apartment's mini-dojo allowed, Akane came to a stop in the middle of the room, careful to keep an odd mix of eagerness, fear, happiness and frustration from disturbing her quiet calm, her ki-claws still firmly in place.

From against the wall, as out of the way of the practicing girl as the room allowed, Ranma, in full-fledged sensei-mode, nodded approvingly. “Very good, not even a bobble,” the redhead said, and Akane beamed at the praise even as she let her joy wash through her without touching her core.

“So, does that mean I'm ready?” she asked eagerly.

“Maybe ... yer certainly keeping the claws in place just fine. But that's here, not in a real fight,” Ranma cautioned.

“Well, there's only one way to test that!” Akane asserted, trying to keep her tone calm even as she pushed through a wave of frustration — a task made easier by the fear she felt leaking into the ki radiating from her lover.

“Yeah, I guess,” Ranma agreed, and Akane's calm shivered as exultation exploded through her. Ranma shivered slightly and Akane winced when she realized at least some of her pleasure must have leaked into her ki. She twitched in place, wanting to step over to comfort the smaller girl, but firmly suppressed the urge — she'd made the mistake of stepping out of the Saotome style's relaxed ready-for-anything stance before Ranma announced that her personal training was over once, and that once was more than enough.

“By the way, Tomboy, when I talked with Ryoga yesterday I got permission ta tell ya about something — a secret Ryoga's kept from ya for the past couple'a years,” Ranma added.

Akane's eyes narrowed as Ranma's trickle of fear strengthened. “Secret? What secret?” she asked cautiously.

“Oh, not much — just that Ryoga has a Jusenkyo curse of his own. He's P-chan,” Ranma tossed out lightly.

For just a moment the words were meaningless, and then Akane's emotional control shattered as her mind flashed back over the past several years — Ranma sneaking into her room at night with a tea kettle; the insults he had thrown at his rival, “bacon-breath” and “P-chan,” that had seemed so odd at the time but made perfect sense now; the way P-chan and Ryoga had never been around at the same time; the interesting presents the piglet had brought every so often.... I ... I took him to bed with me....

“Ranma, how long have you known?” she asked in a strangled voice as anger, disgust, shame, and pain at their betrayal clashed and mixed in her heart.

Ranma tensed even as she sighed. “Since before ya first found P-chan,” she admitted reluctantly, and Akane's vision flashed red.

/\

Oh, shit! Ranma thought despairingly, her ears ringing with the brunette's throat-ripping shriek. Akane's ki flushed pure red with anger, and her hands were already curling into a very familiar and unwelcome shape as red light flickered between her fingers and thumbs and the sudden berserker charged forward. The redhead had been afraid that Akane's reaction was going to be bad, but this ... !

Ranma's own control shivered under the onslaught of her shock and fear, but she held onto her own calm center with metaphorical bleeding fingers as her mind desperately flashed through response after response. She couldn't let Akane hit her, the girl would never forgive herself, but the wall was at her back and with Akane's rage-fueled speed —

Then a memory of a Hollywood movie snapped into focus, the one about Camelot, and Ranma grinned even as she whipped around to put her back to the window and an arm flashed up across her chest, the energy of her claws springing into existence in the shape of the shields the knights of the Round Table has used. Ranma desperately poured all the strength she had into the shimmering triangular shape braced in front of her even as she fought to hold the calm that made it possible, and then The Hammer smashed into the shield and she was riding the impact, twisting in mid-air to hit the window shield first, carrying through in an explosion of shattered glass, twisting again to hit the wall of the building across from their apartment building feet first, knees flexing to absorb the impact without cratering the wall, dropping toward the alley floor beneath her....

/\

Akane panted as she glared at the few shards of glass left in the window, shivering as aftershocks of her emotional storm echoed through her. What ... what did I ... just do? The thought whispered in the back of her mind, and panic rolled over her. “Ranma!” she screamed as she rushed to the window, heedless of the broken glass still clinging to the window frame as she desperately looked around. There wasn't a hole in the wall across the alley, so where was — her eyes dropped down to find Ranma on the alley floor rising from a crouch, apparently unharmed.

Relief flooded through her, and she stepped back then threw herself through the window even as the room's door slammed open. “What the hell was that?!” she heard Nabiki shout even as she dropped to the alley's concrete floor and threw herself at the redhead, knocking them both to the ground in a mutual embrace.

“Ranma I'm sorry I didn't mean to are you all right I'm sorry I was so angry don't leave me I couldn't ...” she babbled desperately, tears streaming from her eyes.

Then one of the hands embracing her rose from her back to gently stroke her hair. “Shhhhh, easy, I'm not goin' anywhere, how could I leave my Tomboy?” Ranma murmured in her ear as her shivering eased. “It's my fault — I should have told you ages ago, I'm sorry.”

/\

Xian Pu and Nabiki stared down at the couple sitting at their feet, clutching at each other as tears streamed down their cheeks, then looked up at each other. “Pig Boy?” the Amazon asked.

Nabiki grimaced. “I don't know, but I can't think of anything else that could cause this. Why would Ranma — ? Never mind, help me get them back into the apartment. Then you can get back on watch, I'll tell you later,” she continued as she dropped to a crouch beside her sister and unofficial sister-in-law and reached out to gently shake Akane's shoulder. “Come on, you two — I'm sure this is all very cathartic, but it's also very public. Why don't we get back inside and talk this out?”

Akane ignored her, but Ranma glanced up, then nodded. She dropped the hand stroking her lover's hair to slip behind Akane's knees, then with Xian Pu's and Nabiki's help rose to her feet with Akane in her arms.

A few minutes later, Ranma was sitting at the dining table with Akane in her lap, Nabiki sitting across from the pair. The middle Tendo plastered her patented smirk across her face. “So, Ranma, you finally told little sis about P-chan, did you?”

Ranma nodded. “Yeah, I did.”

“If you were going to wait this long, I wish you hadn't,” Akane murmured against Ranma's neck. “Why didn't you tell me earlier?”

Ranma sighed. “I wish I could say it was `cause I was honorbound not to. I did promise Ryoga I wouldn't tell anyone before you first found P-chan, but if I was really concerned about honor I wouldn't have been in yer room with a tea kettle.” The redhead shrugged. “I was angry, and a little hurt, and wanted ta hurt ya back even if ya didn't really know it. Then months had gone by, and I was afraid that if I told ya, you'd never talk ta me again, either `cause ya stayed angry or `cause ya hammered me so far I couldn't find my way back. I'm sorry.”

Akane chuckled. “So we're both idiots — me for not seeing the obvious, you for not telling me to begin with. Weren't we a pair?”

“Yeah, I'm sure glad we're all grown up now,” Ranma retorted, and Akane's chuckle turned into a laugh, Ranma and Nabiki joining in.

After a moment, the laughter died down and Akane asked, “So why now?”

“Now?” Ranma shivered. “Akane, I don't think ya know what it's like ta be in a real life-or-death fight. I mean, sure, ya were in the middle of the fight with Saffron, but ya weren't doin' the actual fighting, I don't think ya felt the fear and anger and hatred and exhilaration and all the rest, all mixed together — did ya?”

“I — no, not really,” Akane agreed. “Sure, I was afraid, but ... it was you. You'd always come through for me before, I was sure you'd come through again — somehow.”

Ranma's embrace tightened. “I almost didn't, it was so close ... just a few seconds slower....” she whispered before falling silent as Akane's own embrace tightened.

After a few minutes' silence, Ranma cleared her throat. “Anyway, there's nothin' like that mix of feelings, they hit like a hammer. I needed ta know if ya were really ready, could hold ta yer center, and there's no way ta fake those feelings, ta test if yer really ready. The only thing I could come up with was —”

“Pure anger,” Akane finished as she straightened with a sigh, breaking their mutual embrace. “And I failed — badly.”

“Yeah, well, now we know — and you know what that kind of anger feels like. You'll get better,” Ranma asserted confidently. “And besides, ya gave me a new idea!” She held out her arm, concentrated, and the shield again flashed into existence. “Just the thing when we're goin' up against a bunch of sword-swingin' maniacs,” Ranma boasted. “So now —”

Nabiki stood up and grabbed her book bag from beside her chair while pointing toward the bedrooms and grinning broadly. “Now, you two are going to go make up the best way possible, while I'm going to go do some research at the infomat. That way I won't have to try and study through the noise.”

She smirked at the two suddenly furiously blushing teenagers exchanging speculative looks, then strode to the apartment door. “Have fun, you two!” she tossed over her shoulder before closing the door on her way out.

In spite of the length of this chapter, my normal length has been between 1500 and 2500 words, and the most common negative criticism has been that that's too short. I gave my reasoning for the chapter length in my profile page, but the number of negative comments has me rethinking my policy. And so, I've put up a poll on my profile on the question (not that I promise to go with whatever the poll result is, mind, but it should give me added food for thought). So, if you have an opinion on the issue, bounce over to my profile page and vote!

lordamnesia: Yeah, one of the things I like about the Die Hard movies is how Bruce Willis is always beat all to hell by the end, and I've never been able to keep an interest in the Superman comics, or any of the Cosmic Powers heroes for that matter. Not that Ranma might as well be Cosmic Power level when it comes to the average human, but all things are relative.... Glad you're enjoying the story.