Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Beautiful Girl ❯ Ranko's Battle ( Chapter 4 )

Ranko's Battle

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Part 1: Angel's Tears

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Nodoka sat at the head of the table, her ears listening to every word that the eldest Tendo daughter spoke, but her mind refused to accept it The girl who they claimed to be her son had retired to her room but she knew that there was no way that the little Red-head could be her manly son...right?
"I don't believe you." she claimed firmly she then turned to Genma, "How can you sit there and let tell...this...tale?" her words became uncertain when Genma upturned a glass of water over his head and transformed into an giant panda.

"Gen...chan?" she whispered. The panda just sat there as Kasumi poured a kettle of hot water over her head.

"I'm sorry No-chan, but it is a very tragic, and true, tale. That girl that is asleep upstairs is all that remains of our son." the overweight martial artist heaved a sigh, "He tried to overcome what life threw at him, but he was defeated in the end." Nodoka shook her head.

"Then you failed. I wanted a son that would fight every challange, not a daughter that ran at the first sign of trouble." she touched her katana.

"Your son didn't run, he fought!" Akane hissed at the woman, "He fought it with all of his being. He survived things that would've crushed lesser people, myself included, and he did it with a style that only he could manage." Ryoga nodded and took over.

"I consider myself lucky that Ranma considered me one of his friends," his voice lowered to a whisper, "Even if I didn't deserve it."

Akane sighed inwardly, out of all the people present, Ryoga was taking this the hardest. He was still beating himself up over the entire issue, maybe that was a good thing though, because it seemed that her family accepted Ranma's forgiveness far too easily, but Ryoga hadn't. He wasn't going to stop beating himself up until he knew that he deserved to be forgiven, but when would that be?

There was a brief silence, it was then that Nabiki decided that it was time for her to put in her ten yen.

"Ranma didn't just give up. He did lose, but he went down like a true Martial Artist, he went down fighting. Even at the very end, he fought, I could see it in his eyes. He fought back against what he had to. Until the end, Ranma was a 'Man amongst Men'."

Ranko was *suppose* to be sleeping-suppose being the key word. She rolled onto her back and sighed. Was it really possible that the Kasumi-mama wasn't actually her mother? She could accept that, but that she was suppose to be a 'Man amongst men' or something? No.

"I'm a girl," she whimpered, "At least, I am now..." she rolled onto her stomach.
"But I was a boy at one time...but I'm a girl now." she rolled onto her side. "And I'm happy as a girl, I don't want to be a boy."

"...That's the spirit..." a familiar voice whispered.

"Ranma?" she gasped, Ranma had only visited her in her dreams never in real life. What did it mean?

"...Yeah, it's me..." she was silent for a moment, but Ranma continued. "...Don't fall into the same trap that I did...live for yourself...not for someone else..."

"So that's what happened. That's why you did what you did." she whispered in realization, she could almost see him nodding.

"...y...eah...I couldn't...take...i...t"

"Ranma? Are you alright?" she heard broken chuckling, like a radio station that wasn't being received clearly.

"...no...I've...all...but used my...allotted time...fading...can't stay...long..." for some reason, there were tears in Ranko's eyes.

"I guess this is goodbye."

"...Nev...er...I am...you...I...will...always...be...with...y..." then his voice was gone.

"Ranma?" there was no answer.

"Ranma? Please answer me." still no answer. Ranko slowly closed her eyes. She knew that he was right, that they were one in the same. So why did it feel like she just lost part of her soul?

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Part 2: Earning her wings...

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Nodoka slowly sat up on her borrowed futon. Her head swam and she briefly wondered where she was, that is until the living nightmare of what had been revealed last night came flooding back to her. Her son was a girl. The door to the spare bedroom opened and Kasumi's head appeared. The eldest Tendo daughter considered the woman in front of her.

"At least she's still alive." Nodoka looked sadly at Kasumi and fought her tears.

"She's alive, but she's not my son." Kasumi nodded in full agreement.

"Your right, she's not your son. But she could be your daughter." then she closed the door and left the Saotome patriarch to her thoughts.

Nodoka looked at the woman in the mirror. Where did she go wrong? At what point did she become so diluted that she could only see what she lost, not what she had gained?

She quickly, but carefully applied some make-up and went over to her clothes, and stopped. The kimono represented something. It represented the death grip she had one tradition, her unwillingness to see that the times had indeed changed. They weren't living in the glorious past of samurai's and ninja's...well, they weren't in the past anyways, as for the samurai's and ninja's...

Nodoka donned the kimono, possibly for the last time, and picked up the family katana. This too had caused a lot of harm. She had thrown away ten years of her life, ten years of her child's life, and for what? A piece of steel and a diluted concept of 'honor'. The Saotome patriarch placed the blade on the dresser, quietly opened the door to the guest room, and padded downstairs. She found Ryoga waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs.

"Ryoga-kun?" Nodoka was slightly bewildered at the sight of the lost boy paitiently waiting for her.

"Saotome-san...Ranko is still Ranma. You may not be able to see it," he turned away from her and gazed out at the koi pond. "But I see it, every time I look into her eyes, I can still see that cocky boy that I faced off against, I can still see the determination he showed whenever a new challanged arose." if there was any doubt left in the Saotome patriarch, it wasn't making itself known right now.

"I...I know Ryoga-kun. If my..." she swallowed, "My...daughter comes downstairs before I return, could you tell her that I will return shortly?" Ryoga nodded.

"Hai, Saotome-san." Nodoka nodded then quietly left, she had to make some purchases before returning.

Later on that morning...

Ranko came downstairs, and for the second time in two days, nearly caused her family to have a heart-attack.

"Ranko," Akane whispered as she tried to hide the pain in her voice, "Where did you get those?"

Ranko was dressed in a red Chinese shirt and...you know the rest. Ranko looked down,

"I...found them. I figured that if Saotome...m-mama was expecting a son...then maybe I...I..." the barrier she had been building to protect herself against Ranma's words began to crack.

"Then...maybe I...could change and become a...become a..." but she couldn't bring herself to say the words. She fell to her knees and shook with silent sobs. Akane moved to comfort the girl, but Kasumi stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder, and shaking firmly shaking her head.

"You're wrong child." a quiet voice contradicted from behind her. Ranko, her face still streaked from silent tears slowly turned around. There stood Nodoka Saotome.

Nodoka had switched her normal 'traditional' kimono for a yellow sun-dress and a white blouse.

Nodoka steeled herself against the voice that was screaming in her head.

"Don't do it!" it wailed, "She isn't your child! You gave birth to a BOY! A man amongst men!"

"The gender doesn't make the person!" she snapped back, "A man amongst men is someone who can make tough descisions, the *right* descisions. This is my child, and I'm proud of her." after that, the voice was silent.

Nodoka crouched down beside Ranko and placed her arms on the young girls shoulders.

"Ranko, you don't have to do this. I'm proud of you the way you are."

"But, you had a son."

"I had a child," she corrected, "A child that I can still see in you." she took a deep breath and continued, "Was Ranma's soul destroyed when you were born?" Ranko looked a little uncertain.

"No..." Akane caught on to what Nodoka was getting at.

"Ranko, Auntie Saotome gave birth to a soul in a physical container, the gender of the container just happened to be male named Ranma. You are still her child."

"That's right." Nodoka agreed.

"But...I was supposed to be a 'man amongst men'." Ranko tried again.

"A 'man amongst men' just means that the person has the ability to choose right or wrong, to take the good with the bad."

"Then I failed." Ranko claimed miserably, "I became a girl." Nodoka hugged her tightly.

"No, no you didn't fail. Because a 'man amongst men' also knows when he or she is defeated. You fought the good fight Ranko, but there are some things you just can't beat, some opponents that can't lose."

"Besides," Akane perked up,"Saotome Ranko doesn't lose."

"Don't you mean, 'Saotome Ranma?'"

"You are Ranma, just a female Ranma." they were silent for a moment. One was able to feel that Ranko's resistance was almost completely gone.

"Time to play my ace." Akane thought.

"Besides, you didn't lose. You're just...learning a new technique so you can face this opponent again." The room was silent save for Ranko's heavy breathing.

"...Thankyou." she whispered, then hugged her mother. "Thankyou for accepting me."

Nodoka returned the embrace.

"I don't think that it's me you should be thanking. At least, not entirely. You should also thank your friends; Akane, Kasumi, Nabiki and especially, Ryoga. For it was they who showed me what I couldn't see."

"...and what was that? Saotome-mama?" Nodoka smiled at both the question and the title.

"That I hadn't lost a son, I gained a daughter." Ranko broke off the hug and looked around.

"Thankyou, everyone. I...I don't know what I would've done without you." her tear-streaked face suddenly changed into a frown,

"But where is Ryoga?" no-one knew.

"I think he's still beating himself up over what happened, Ranko-chan." Ranko sat there for a moment then finally nodded.

"Before I get changed, I'm going to go see him. I think I may know where he is."

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Part 3: And learning to fly

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Ryoga sat underneath the bridge, a place where Ranma often went 'to get away from it all.' He was beginning to understand why too, the little spot was calm, peacefull. The perfect hiding place.

"Hey P-chan." that voice! He twirled around and his heart jumped into his throat. There was Ranma-chan...or was it Ranko?

"Ranma?" the pig-tailed martial artist flopped down and walked over and flopped down beside him.

"Well, that's what I was called, once upon a time." she gazed into the water and Ryoga did the same.

"oh...what do you need Ranko-san?" his heart returned to it's place in his chest...almost. It stopped somewhere around his lungs when the sound of Ranko's soft laughter reached his ears.

"Oh...Ryoga-chan..." Ryoga stopped looking at the waves, and turned his gaze towards the red-head sitting beside him.

"R-Ranko-san?" he asked uncertaintly. She faced him him, her large, innocent blue eyes seemed to gaze into his soul.

"Why are you still attacking yourself over this Ryoga-chan?"

"W-What do you mean?" she sighed and undid the pig-tail, allowing her crimson crown to rest around her shoulders and looked back towards the water.

"I mean...I don't blame you for what happened. Not anymore, this is my life," she looked back at him. "You have no idea how much it pains me to see you beating yourself up over this. What's done is done Ryoga-chan, let it go." her smiled turned mischevious, "Because I don't need my date to be depressed." Ryoga's eyes grew to the size of dinner-plates and he began to sputter.

"D-D-DATE!?!?" she giggled.

"Hai, Ryoga-chan. This Wednesday."

"W-Wednesday?, But...that's...TOMMORROW!" she nodded.

"Uh-huh, so you better be there." she narrowed her eyes.

"Or else I'll kick your butt all around Nerima and straight to Hokkaido." Ryoga got an indignant frown on his face, and he turned his nose up towards the water.

"I'll have you know that Hokkaido is very pleasant this time of year." Ranko stared at him for a good two minutes before breaking out mirthful laughter.

"Y-you're weird Ryoga-chan." she wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace, "Lucky for you, I like weird." she stood and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

"Tommorrow Ryoga-chan, at seven o'clock." she then walked back towards the Dojo.

Ryoga placed his fingers to the area where her lips had touched his cheek. When she had kissed him, he had felt as if all of his troubles had left, that none of them mattered at all. But when she had left, all of them returned. He hungered for that feeling of freedom again, he longed to feel that foreign emotion...what was it called? Happiness? Maybe...

"A date with Ranko-san..." he mused, "Tommorrow." suddenly, realization hit him like a ton of bricks.

"Tommorrow! Oh Kami-sama, what am I going to wear?"

END OF CHAPTER 4

Author's Notes:

LOL, with all the 'angel' part titles, I'm considering changing the title to something along the lines of 'Angel Wings' or something...nah. Doesn't have as much kick. Anywho, I have a bit of a competition going on right now, If you can give me a realistic profile for a character, I'll put it in as one of Ranko's allies in the final battle against Happosai. But *no* 'sucked in from a different reality* profiles okay? Thanks! email your profiles to me at b_baiye@hotmail.com