Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Beautiful Girl ❯ The angel awakens ( Chapter 3 )

Ranko's Return

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Part 1: The angel Awakes

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Kasumi was humming pleasantly as she carefully prepared breakfast, she wasn't really happy though she was more nervous.

"I wonder when she'll wake-"

"Good morning." Kasumi froze. She knew that voice, it could only belong to one person. A beautiful red-haired angel that had been asleep for the past three days.

"Umm, I feel awfully silly saying this but...do you know who I am?" the eldest Tendo sister swallowed.

"Showtime." she thought to herself, then she put on her 'loving mother' face, complete with disarming smile, then walked out of the kitchen.

"Excuse me Nabiki but could you-" she stopped then turned her eyes towards the red-haired girl standing at the bottom of the staircase.

Ranko had an interesting case of bed-head which didn't make her look homely, but rather...cute. As well as her still half-closed eyes and wrinkled cat pajamas.

"Good morning Ranko, sleep well?" out of the corner of her eye, she saw Akane and Nabiki give her a 'what the hell are you doing?' look. She ignored it.

"Ranko?, My name is Ranko?" Ranko gave her a confused look that was mixed with innocence this made her look even more kawaii-if that was possible.

"Why yes Ranko...oh yeah. You have amnesia." Kasumi gave her a sympathetic smile.

"Y-yeah. I guess I do, though I do remember some things..." Her voice trailed off as she spoke. The room was quiet for a moment, before Akane voiced the question hanging on everyone's lips.

"I wonder why she is acting like that?" the Red-head thought to herself, she shrugged to herself.

"Like what?" there was more silence before Ranko responded.

"I remember knocking Oyaji into the spring of drowned panda, then fighting with a purple haired amazon. I also remember fighting against an older student who used a bokken, as well as fighting a horde of love struck boys. I also remember talking to a guy in a yellow and brown bandana, though I can't remember his name." she looked first at Soun then Nabiki.

"Nor do I recall either of your names, however." she finally looked at her ex-fiance.

"However, I do remember Akane and the way that she treated me..," her eyes began to tear and Akane braced herself for the worst.

"S-she treated me l-like...like a little sister." she gave Akane a tender smile, the kind that, until this day, only Kasumi had managed. Akane felt her chest tighten.

"Ranma, somehow I know that Ranma had a hand in that." once again, the room was quiet, then Ranko continued.

"I also remember you," she turned to Kasumi, then spoke words

But this time, Nabiki shattered the silence.

"Well I should get to school." She announced then quickly stood up.

"I should get ready to go too." Ranko said, her face brightening. Nabiki gave a firm shake of her head.

"No. You've been through a lot Ranko. I think that you should go see Dr. Tofu, and rest up for a day before you do anything." Ranko frowned at this.

"I guess your right...umm"

"Nabiki. Nabiki Tendo." the girl in question filled in the blanks.

"Yes, thankyou Nabiki-chan." Ranko once again gave Nabiki an angelic smile, before following Akane's urges to follow her upstairs.

Only when Ranko and Akane were out of earshot did Nabiki dare to voice her plan.

"Okay, I've got to get to school. I need to inform the school of what has happened." with that, the martial artist raced out of the dojo.

Meanwhile, in Akane's room...

Akane was patiently waiting for Ranko. The red-head had gone back to her room, saying that she needed to get changed so that she at least looked presentable. Akane waited for a moment, then decided to change out of her school uniform, and into a more casual outfit. She swapped her green and white outfit for some cut-off denim shorts and a blue tank top. She was humming to herself when there was a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" she called out, though she could almost guess who.

"It's Ranko, Akane-chan, may I come in?"

"Sure, come on in." Akane turned to face the door, just as Ranko walked in. All Akane could do is stare. She had seen Ranma dress up in girl form before however, he had always refused to wear dresses, and especially not make up. But it appeared Ranko didn't have a problem with either. The red-head was clad in a green sun dress and blouse, both complimented her form quite nicely.

"Well...what do you think?" she asked in a quiet voice, Akane was speechless. Ranko was gorgeous, no doubt about it, anyone could see that-regardless of their sex or sexual orientation.

"You look fantastic." Akane said after she had recovered from her initial shock.

"Thanks, you look pretty cute yourself." Ranko blushed, but Akane just smiled.

"Thanks. Now let's go see Dr.Tofu."

A little later at Furinken High...

"And that's it." Nabiki explained to Tatewaki, then she took a quick gulp from her bottle of water. She was still sweating profusely from going three rounds against the kendoist. Kuno was also breathing fairly hard, it was rare, Ranma and Akane excluded, that anyone could hold their own against him. But then again, fighting against Ranma didn't count, seeing that he would usualy get K.O'd in a matter of seconds, so that didn't really count.

"So let me get this straight." Kuno said, trying to understand the situation.

"Ranko has amnesia, and doesn't remember me being sane, or much of anything for that matter." Nabiki nodded.

"That's about the extent of it."

"Great...just peachy." he stared at the wall for a moment.

"So...what do you want me to do about it?" Nabiki gave her boyfriend a sly grin.

"Well...I was hoping that you would get, and keep your coconut of a father under control. I will try and explain this whole situation to the student body. Then we just cross our fingers and hope for the best." Kuno nodded.

"I shall try my best." Nabiki gave her boyfriend a grateful smile.

"Thanks, the last thing we need is for the self proclaimed 'big kahuna' to give that already timid girl a heart attack." Kuno was about to respond, when his coconut case of a father appeared, weilding a surf board and clad, to the dismay of the student populace, in nothing but bermuda shorts.

"HEY, BRUDDA'S AND KEIKE'S! WE GUNNA RIDE HUMUNGA DUNGA!" Kuno gripped his bokken. He had seen his old man do some pretty dumb stunts in the past, but this was the worst! Not only were they not even near the equator, there wasn't an area worthy of surfing for miles! Kuno took a deep breath before turning to his idiot father.

"BANZAI!!!!!!!" his weapon came down between his old man's eyes. Godai's shades cracked, then shattered as a large toothy grin spread across his despicable mug. Then the idiot princepal, nodded off. Nabiki peered the princepal for a moment.

"Is he...dead?" Kuno shook his head.

"I doubt it, the odds of us getting that lucky are fairly slim." The two heaved a sigh, then dragged the bermuda clad buffoon back into the school.

Meanwhile, at Dr.Tofu's office...

Dr.Tofu stepped out from the examination room, and a red-faced Ranko followed him. Seeing the look on Akane's face, the Doctor was pretty sure what she was thinking.

"You needn't worry Akane, Ranko is perfect health-aside from her unfortunate case of amnesia." Akane took a quick look at the still red-faced Ranko, then looked back at the physician.

"Umm, Tofu-san, may I have a word with you." Dr.Tofu nodded, turning to Ranko, he quickly excused himself, then followed Akane into his office.

"So, how is Ranko's mental state?" Akane wasn't bothering to hide the worry in her voice. Dr.Tofu sighed, then gave her a saddened look.

"I wish I could say that she will be fine, but the truth is...I'm worried about her. She's under a lot of stress, she's confused, saddened by the loss of her past, but above all, scared." Akane shut her eyes, then quietly nodded.

"She could really use you right now, as well she needs, parental guidance. She won't come right out and say it, but longs to know what her father is like."

"I know, but I'm afraid. Afraid that she might find what she is looking for, because to be rejected by those you long for can be worse than not finding them at all."

Dr.Tofu paused, there was one other thing he needed to tell her, but wasn't sure how to word it. "Umm, Akane...about your sister." he began, yanking Akane out from her own thoughts.

"huh? Oh, who? Nabiki?" she'd lost count at how many times the middle Tendo daughter had come back, covered in bruises, mud, scrapes and with a ripped uniform. And every time, she'd be had a full blown grin on her face.

"Umm, no. I was talking about K-K-Kasumi." the physician's glasses fogged slightly.

"Yeah? What about her?" Dr.Tofu quickly recovered both his posture and dignity, before he started waltzing with Betty.

"Uh, yeah. Sorry, as I was saying. Since Ranko hasn't known any mother, aside from, K-Kasumi, she see's her as her mother."

Akane began to frown as she realized what he was implying.

"So what if Ranko's real mother shows up? How will we explain that her son is now her daughter?" Akane's face lost most of its coloration,

"Oh no."

Now it was Dr.Tofu's turn to frown.

"What is it Akane? Is there something wrong?" Akane gave him a grim nod.

"Uh...yes. Yes there is. Uncle Saotome made an agreement with Auntie Nodoka that stated if he didn't make Ranma into a 'man amongst men', that they'd both committ seppuku."

Dr.Tofu looked incredulous.

"You're joking!" she sadly shook her head.

"I'm afraid I'm not. What am I going to do? I've already lost Ranma once, I don't want to lost Ranko as well."

Dr.Tofu began pacing the room, his face etched with determination. He stopped momentarily as he stared at one of his degrees as he contemplated. Suddenly, his face lit up.

"I think I have an idea."

Later that afternoon, at the Tendo Dojo...

Kasumi was humming a melody as she prepared Ranko's lunch. She placed the last item on the tray then picked it up. She wanted to give the girl a bit of a pleasant surprise, Kami-sama knows she could use one. She stepped out and started heading towards the dojo, where Ranko said she'd be. Kasumi paused when she heard the music. It was definately American, but wasn't the usual kind of strange, high-energy songs that Ranma listened to, but the music was soft and flowing. Then she heard the sound of footfalls across the floor of the dojo. She quietly set the tray of food down and peaked in, and her breath was taken away. There was Ranko, dressed in one of Chinese skirts that Kasumi had purchased. In the corner was a CD player and the music emenated softly from it. But Ranko, Ranko was her true center of attention. She had always assumed that Ranma had no other skills other than fighting, and that was true to a point. But this, this was definately not something she was expecting to see.

Ranko's bare feet propelled her across the dojo, slowly spinning and and weaving to the tune. Then Ranko's own voice began to mingle with the American artists.

"Far away, long ago, glowing dim as an ember. Things my heart used to know, things it yearns to remember." the Red-head then faced the dojo wall and appeared to speak to someone that only she could sing.

"And a song, someone sings...once upon a December."

Kasumi gazed at Ranko for the longest time, she seemed to be in her own world, totaly at peace with herself. With a small smile, the eldest daughter picked the tray back up and moving as silently as possible, walked back into the house.

"Thankyou...Mother." a voice whispered once the eldest Tendo daughter was out of earshot.

Meanwhile...In Juuban

A woman in her mid-thirties, with a katana slung over her shoulder, walks down the street, turns the corner and heads towards a certain dojo in Nerima...

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Part 2: Angel's Descension

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"Hey!" Ranko whirled around and to face the speaker. It was the black-haired, blue-eyed boy.

"RANMA!" she ran forward and hugged him. He momentarily swung his arms in circles as he fought to regain his balance. Then he began laughing hystericaly. Ranko blinked and looked at him in confusion.

"Ranma? Are you okay?" he wrestled with to bring his laughter.

"Y-y-yeah *chuckle*, it just seems that I can't seem to get away from the glompings."

"Glomp?" he nodded, then noted her confused expression.

"Yeah, when someone attaches themself to another person in a very tight half-hug, half grope, it's called a glomp." Ranko realized what he was implying.

"You got glomped a lot?"

"Yup, and it usally got me in trouble. So I STRONGLY suggest that you don't go around glomping people." Ranko nodded in understanding.

"Well, shall we begin?" she inquired of her ghostly counterpart, Ranma grinned and nodded, and the two took up fighting stances.
"Don't expect me to go easy on you, just because you're a girl."

Ranko shot him a glare, then switched her stance to an aggressive one, Ranma changed to defensive.

"FIGHT!" they said in unison.

Ranma launched into two quick jabs to her ribs, they never connected. Ranko weaved back and forth before countering with a rising kick combo. Ranma blocked the first two kicks, then rolled under the flying kick before countering with a haymaker to her back. Ranko shifted her body slightly, and his arm shot over her shoulder, which she quickly grabbed and threw him into a basic Judo throw. Ranm ducked and rolled then did a quick hand-spring to his feet.

"You're doing quite well Ranko, let's take it up to the next level." Ranko smirked,

"Fine by me." as if by some strange mutual agreement, both of the combatants raised their hands, their palms pointing inwards.

A blue energy blast began flowing inwards, slowly swirling and gathering into a ball between Ranma's hands. He focused all of his courage and confidance into the ki blast.

"MOKOU TAKAHABISHA!!!!!" he launched the attack at Ranko.

Ranko on the other hand, had been slowly spinning on the spot, her arms outstretched and her hands cupped. As she spun, a glowing ring of white and purple energy sparkled into existence, as she spun faster, the larger the ring got. Then another ring appeared, spinning on a different axis, but this one was shining with the colours of red and blue, then another appeared with yellow and green. By now, Ranko was a human blur, then she came to an abrupt stop, her hands were both in fists and the rings of energy converging on one point in front of her.

"RAINBOW DANCE!" she lashed out and smashed the rings with her fists. Her attack lunged forward and met Ranma's. The attacks began to struggle, the glowing blasts of ki mixing with eachother, threatening to cancel eachother out. Then they both exploded in a large, and extremely violent explosion.
"Heh, your getting pretty good at that." both combatants were sweating quite profusely by now, they both had used up quite a bit of energy in there last attack. Though Ranko was far more winded than her male counterpart.

"Th-thankyou *wheeze* sensei."

They both had a good chuckle at that, and then leaned back against the invisible walls of her mind.

Ranma smiled at the other girl,

"Ranko?" he said in a female voice. Ranko blinked in confusion.

"Ranma?" Ranko looked up, very startled at her friend.

"Ranko honey, it's time to get up."

Ranko's world slowly melted away and was replaced by Kasumi's large, worried, brown pools.

"Oh...Mother. I'm sorry, I must've dozed off on the couch." Ranko didn't even bother to stifle a huge yawn then looked back at Kasumi who was shocked by what she said.

"Umm, Mother?" Ranko gave Kasumi a very worried look, "Are you okay Mother? Was it something I said?"

"Oh my, I believe that things just got a lot more complicated." Kasumi thought as she looked into the red pools of Ranko's eyes. There was so much warmth there, so much love.

"She honestly thinks I'm her mother. What am I to do?" she allowed a smile to spread across her lips and she directed it at Ranko.
"I'm fine...Ranko. You go upstairs and get cleaned up okay? We have some...unexpected guests." Ranko gave her 'Mother' (Kasumi) a nod then ran upstairs at about the same time that Nabiki in from outside, clad in a sailor fuku of all things.

"Oh Nabiki, what am I going to do?" she asked and looked longingly up the stairs.

"She thinks I'm her mother."

"Technically no, oneechan. She treats you like a mother because your the only one she's ever had."

Kasumi blinked in confusion as she stared at her younger sister.
"You look surprised oneechan. Is it really so shocking that she see's you as her mother? I mean you treated treated Ranma more like a son than a brother, and definately not a houseguest. So since she really is Ranma, than why would it be so strange if she still saw you as her mother?"

Kasumi considered her younger sister's words.

"Oh my, I guess you're right Nabiki-chan." she smiled gratefuly at her younger sibling.

"You know, I thought that all of the rigerous training, and hard knocks you received would dull your normally sharp wit and uncanny ability to think deeper into a situation than anyone else." Nabiki snorted.

"I'm a martial artist oneechan, not an idiot." Kasumi blinked innocently,

"There's a difference?"

"Oh...quiet. I'm going upstairs to change out of this fuku." again, Kasumi gave her an innocent look.

"Umm...Nabiki, why are you dressed in a fuku anyways?" Nabiki gave her a wry grin.

"It's my latest battle strategy! It makes me look like a helpless schoolgirl...until I flatten them!" she emphasized her point by slamming her fist into her open palm then jogged upstairs to change.

Half an hour later...

Ryoga Hibiki was trying to look inconspicious as he leaned against the doorframe that lead into the dining room. To the casual observer it would appear as if he was bored and was just there because he was looking for something to amuse himself. But a trained martial artist would be able to see that his eyes rarely left the back of a woman who had entered the Tendo household an hour ago. A martial artist would also note that Ryoga's muscle were taut, like a lion waiting to strike. The woman he was watching was named Nodoka Saotome, Ranma mother. She kept stroking that damned katana in her lap, as if it were some kind of pet. This was putting Ryoga on edge, she was acting as if death were just a commodity to be traded!

"So, Kasumi-chan. When can I see my husband and my son?" Nodoka asked sweetly, but her voice held a certain edge. If she had turned to face to koi pond, as Kasumi did, she would've seen the panda that was currently sitting the pond raise a sign that proclaimed.

"AFTER SUPPER." Kasumi inclined her head in a slight nod.

"After supper Auntie Saotome."

Nodoka's eyes got wide in hope.

"Really? well then let me help you there." she said insistantly. Kasumi bit her lip, then nodded in agreement.

"Thankyou Auntie Saotome, your help would be appre-oh, hello Ranko!" it was at this moment that Ranko came downstairs wearing a very flattering outfit. It was a three-piece outfit consisting of a Chinese tank-top, mini-skirt and a headband -all three were a deep blue and lined with gold. Kasumi also idly noted that Ranko was wearing a silver necklace that had a horse rearing up on it's hind legs, as well as she had taken her hair out of the pig-tail, and it was now in a pony-tail.

"Hello Mother," Ranko replied pleasantly then she turned to the other woman uncertaintly.

"Umm...Greetings." she bowed to the older woman. Nodoka's jaw went down.

"Mother?" she turned towards Kasumi, "Your her mother?"

"Well...uh-"
"Hello Nodoka." Everyone stopped and turned towards the owner of the voice. There was an overweight man in a white gi, glasses and a grim expression on his face.

"Oh...Genchan!" Nodoka raced over to the over-weight martial artist and embraced him for a moment.
"Oh Genchan. I've missed you so much." She pulled away and looked him in the eyes.

"Genchan? Where's Ranma?" Genma looked into her eyes for the longest time before replying.

"He's dead Nodoka. Our son, Ranma Saotome is dead"

Nodoka felt herself go cold.

"No, no, how? When?"

"A little while a go. The pressures of life got to be to much so he performed the perfect 'Saotome School Special Technique." Nodoka fell back, and was caught by Ranko.

"No...my son."

"Is now my daughter." finished Kasumi.

END OF PART 3