Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Forgotten Memories ❯ Time To Bring Up The Past ( Chapter 3 )

**** All characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. This is just one of my ideas! So don't judge me just because of my imagination! ^_^ (\/) cyancat ****

Forgotten Memories

Chapter Three - Time to Bring Up the Past

Mousse could only stare at Akane. She couldn't come up with any words to say. The shock was still pounding into her. She looked down at the photo, trying to hide the tears that were building. These people were her parents? Then...then why would they leave her? If they were so happy here, then why leave their child?

"Mousse? Are you okay? I know it's a shock to learn all of this so fast." Akane squeezed her grip around Mousse's shoulders, trying her best to comfort the girl.

"Akane..." Mousse said, staring down at the photo.

Akane jumped at her voice, as she hadn't expected to hear it, "Yes?"

"You're sure that they're my parents?"

"Yes, I was a little uncertain for a while, but I know its true now. Everything just adds up to the same conclusion. The address, your age, even your name...everything adds up to Shampoo and Mousse being your parents."

Mousse quickly turned to look at Akane, tears starting to stream down her face.

"Then why would they leave me!? If they were so happy here in this town, then why did they leave me behind!? Why Akane?!" cried Mousse, and buried her face into Akane's shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably.

Akane wrapped her arms around the crying child and rubbed her back soothingly. "I don't know Mousse...I don't know why." Her heart ached at how much pain the girl had probably gone through in her life. Being alone was never easy, especially for a child.

They sat there for a while, Akane holding Mousse close and saying comforting words. It was then that Akane realized that Mousse had stopped crying and was apparently asleep in her arms. Akane looked around, wondering what she was going to do now. She couldn't just leave the girl here, like this. She heard footsteps coming towards her and turned to see Ranma walk in. He had been ready to say something to Akane, but when saw the scene before him, he shut his mouth. Akane hurriedly motioned for him to come over.

"Ranma," she said in a whisper, "Can you pick her up? She kind of fell asleep in my arms."

A little confused, Ranma walked over and picked up the sleeping girl, cradling her against him. "Just how did-"

Akane silenced him with a finger to his lips and gestured for him to follow her as she walked out of the kitchen. She lead him upstairs and to the room Akane had given Mousse. Ranma laid her down on the futon and stepped back. Akane kneeled down and pulled the blankets over Mousse, pausing once to look at her sleeping face. She then pulled Ranma out of the room before he could say anything. Closing the door, Ranma finally had enough of the silence and turned to Akane.

"What happened in the kitchen? Is there something wrong with her?" Ranma said out of concern for the girl. He had noticed Mousse's face as he had carried her, her eyes had been red and puffy from a long stretch of crying. What had made her start crying like that?

"She just found out who her parents are."

"So you told her?"

Akane nodded, looking at the door to Mousse's room. "She just wanted to know who her family was. I didn't want to keep it from her any more."

"You're sure that Mousse and Shampoo are her parents now? What about before when you malleted me for asking that same question?"

Akane turned to Ranma, pain apparent in her eyes, "When she asked about them and looked at me with those eyes, I knew she had to be. Those eyes are just like Shampoo's. Everything else thats she's told us has added up to the same conclusion. I can even bet that her birthday is a few days off from when we noticed that Shampoo and Cologne left here."

"So what are we gonna do about her now Akane? Let her stay here for now on?"

"I've got an idea, but first you have to go get our fathers and also Ryoga and Ukyo. I've got to talk to them all."

"What're you gonna tell them?"

"The truth and hopefully come up with an answer for Mousse."

"I see now how you came up with that conclusion, Akane. Even I saw the similarities between her and Shampoo. So what did you have in mind to do now?" Soun said as he sat across the table from his daughter.

Genma sat beside him, nodding in agreement. Ryoga and Ukyo were there as well and had been focusing on Akane's explanation.

"Well, I have an idea to help out Mousse, but I'm going to need everyone's help. She needs some answers about her life and I think the only way to figure them out is to find Shampoo and Mousse."

"WHAT!?" everyone said as one.

"You can't be serious, Akane! It's been at least sixteen years since we've seen Mousse and fifteen for Shampoo. Who knows where they could be by now!" complained Ukyo.

"Everyone, you've all seen how Mousse is. She is miserable being by herself for so long. She needs a family, but not our family. She needs the two people that should be caring for her right now! When she found out that they were her parents, she broke down crying asking why they left her behind. If I had left one of my children behind and they came to you for answers, you'd chase after me, wouldn't you? So why not for her?"

The room sat in silence from Akane's words. She was right, answers had to be found out no matter what the consequences.

"So what do you want to do about this Akane? Its your plan." Genma spoke up, breaking the quiet.

"Thats where you come in Genma. You and Ranma are going to find Shampoo."

"US?" Ranma exclaimed, "How are we gonna find Shampoo, Akane? It would have been easier to tell us to go find our cure!"

Akane turned to Ranma with eyes a flame with anger. "Because, you were the whole reason she came here in the first place! You and your father were at her village! If you could find it 20 years ago, I'm sure you can find it now!"

"Okay, okay, I'll do it." Ranma recoiled, scrambling away from his seat.

"So what about finding Mousse? We don't even have an idea where he could be." Ryoga said as Ranma scrambled to get out of mallet distance.

Akane twisted around and smiled at the oblivious boy.

"You know, funny you should ask about finding Mousse, Ryoga. It just so seems that you would be the best one to find him."

Ryoga looked around him, as if there was someone else behind him that Akane was talking to. He looked back at her in a look of sudden realization.

"Me!? You want me to find Mousse? You can't be serious!"

"Oh, but I am Ryoga." Akane said as she stood up and walked around the room, "You're not known as the Lost Boy for nothing. Since you always happened to be in the right place at the right time, it would seem fitting for you to find someone that is lost to us."

"If he's going, then so am I." Ukyo said, putting a hand on Ryoga's shoulder and smiling at him, as if to calm him for he looked a little panicky.

"Ukyo, you can't. Not while you're in that condition!" Ryoga protested, his eyes wide with worry.

"My condition? I'm going to have a child, thats all!" Ukyo said as she placed a hand on her stomach, "It's not a rare oddity these days, ya know. I'll be fine, anyways I still have five months to go before I have the kid."

"But you..." Ryoga tried to object, but was silenced as Ukyo hugged his arm and looked up at him.

"You're not gonna try to keep me at home now are you, Ryoga-honey?" Ukyo said, batting her eyes.

"N-n-no, Ukyo-dear. I wouldn't dream of it." Ryoga said nervously, knowing full well what came along with that tone of voice and batting eyelashes. Ever since he went out with Ukyo, he found out that she had a side to her that could rival Akane's temper and mallet.

Ukyo turned to look over at Akane, whom was stifling a laugh at the pair and smiled. "Don't worry about us, Akane. Ever since I got him a cell phone to carry with him, he can't get that lost. If you guys have one, then we can call you whenever we find Mousse."

"So its settled then!" Akane exclaimed, "Ryoga and Ukyo will go to find Mousse. The rest will go to the village to find Shampoo."

"I'm coming too."

Everyone jumped at the voice and spun around to see who had spoken. There they saw Mousse standing at the doorway to the dining room, her eyes still a little red from before.

"Mousse, are you sure that you want to come?" asked Akane hesitantly.

"Yes, I'm sure. I'm not going to sit here like a child and wait while you bring them back. If you find them, then I want to be there to see them first. I have to find out why she didn't want me."

"You could be causing yourself more heart ache if you go and we don't find them, you know Mousse." Ranma remarked, arms crossed as if he was deciding a heavy matter, "If we do, I can't promise anything to go right or wrong."

"I know, Ranma. But I took the first step coming here to find my mother and I'll follow my path to its end, what ever may happen." Mousse said as she nodded her head and looked down to the ground.

"Fine then. As long as you know what comes along with this. Who do you want to try and find first? Mousse or Shampoo?"

Mousse looked up to see Akane, Ranma, Ryoga, and Ukyo smiling at her warmly. She smiled back and answered, "My mother...I need answers from her first."

"Then you're with us Mousse." Ranma said grinning and motioned for her to come and sit by him at the table.

Akane bit her lip in coming to a conclusion and spoke up, "If Mousse is going with you two, then I had better go along too. The tribe might not like two men alone with a young girl walking into their village. They might just get the wrong idea."

Soun then realized his situation, "So you're leaving me here alone?"

"Oh dad, you're not going to be alone. You'll be with the kids since we're going to need someone to take care of them." Akane said as she walked over and put her arms around her fathers neck in a hug, "You'd do that for your daughter, wouldn't you?"

Soun could only shake his head in agreement as he knew that he couldn't get out of this from Akane. Whatever she wanted him to do these days, he had to do it. It wasn't like the old days, where he was the knowledgeable parent and could give out the orders. No, now he just the over sensitive senile old man of a father to Akane. Well, he thought to himself, he could just call Kasumi to come over and help him out. She was always good with children.

It was three days after they had made the decision to trek out and find the missing pair. It was hard enough for Mousse to wait one day much less three without feeling like she wanted to go out by herself. But she remembered that these people wanted to help her out and that they had bigger leads than she did.

She stood with her pack beside her and watched as Akane, Ranma, Ryoga, and Ukyo said their good-byes to their children. Something pained her inside, wishing that her mother was there saying good-bye to her with a hug and kiss. Maybe after they found her, she could finally have that family she'd been wanting for so long.

Finally, with all good-byes said, the group headed off on their way. As they neared the train station, Ryoga and Ukyo parted ways, now daring to go the way of a lost man and intuition. For the rest, they set their sights on riding the train. They traveled as far as it would take them out of Tokyo before debarking. Heading west, the group was able to reach the shore in less than five days. It could have been sooner had a certain panda not gotten hungry and eaten a local vendor out of all his food.

As they camped out that night by the shore, everyone was supposedly asleep but Mousse's mind had began to wonder. She walked out of the tent she was given and sat down in front of what remained of their cooking fire. What if her mother didn't want her? Maybe she had given her up as a baby because she was ashamed to have her.

She sat staring intently into the fire, thinking deeply into her own perceptions. Ranma was awake as well and walking out of the tent, he saw at how intent Mousse was staring into the fire. Settling down beside her, he tapped her on the shoulder, waking her from her trance.

"I didn't think that the fire's remains were so interesting this time of night."

"Oh Ranma! I didn't notice you. I've just been thinking on a few things."

"I could tell. If your stare was the sun, we'd have a fire raging by now. What were you thinking about?"

"Nothing really, just that...," Mousse hugged her legs, uneasy from her thoughts, "What if my mother hates me and doesn't want to have anything to do with me? Maybe she's ashamed to have me."

"You think that Shampoo's ashamed to have you? Ha! Thats a lie if I ever heard one."

Mousse turned to look at Ranma, puzzled at his words. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, Shampoo never gave up on a challenge even if her life depended on it. I think she would have been proud to have you as a child. There was no one that she loved more than Mousse."

"But Akane told me that Shampoo was also your fiancé. Didn't she love you instead of my father?"

"Akane was always my only fiancé and my first love. Anyway, Shampoo only loved me because it was her duty to. It was a minor technicality that I beat her, and so she knew that she had to marry me and love me. Though it was all fake. There were moments were she would let out her real feelings for Mousse, even though it'd only be for a minute and then she'd shut the door again."

"You really think so?"

"I know so." Ranma laid back on the ground and clasped his hands behind his head, "Shampoo was hidden, but no one can hide all their feelings forever. Just like you, I can see that you're really pained about finding Shampoo and Mousse. Scared, aren't you?"

"Scared? More like terrified. I'm finally fulfilling my dream that I've been having ever since I was little. Every orphan wishes that they could meet their real family or at least hopes to have one soon enough." Mousse rested her chin on her knees, starting to remember past days at the orphanage. They were both silent for a moment. Ranma looked over at the girl beside him, her face grim with memories.

"You should see that you have more with you than you think."

"What?" Mousse looked to Ranma, her face now changed to confusion.

"You carry traits that belong to your parents and I can see them clearly. You have Shampoo's eyes and Mousse's determination. There are so many details that tie you to them, you're closer to your parents than you think."

Mousse smiled lightly at that comment and trailed a finger in the dirt.

"So how did you turn out to be with Akane? How come you didn't choose Ukyo or some other girl to marry?"

"Me? Well it was more like I was forced to choose but I always wanted to be with Akane ever since I first met her. There was just something about her that pulled me to her. It was about two years after your parents had left. Ryoga and I were fighting as usual since he had a thing for Akane as well."

"Ryoga was in love with Akane?" Mousse snickered, not believing his words. Ranma sat up and held himself up with one arm while gesturing with his free hand.

"Yeah, I have to admit he was really sneaky too. Akane fell for his pig form, yet she didn't know it was him, so he got to sleep many a night with her in bed. Kami, how I hated him for that. Anyway, we were fighting and up comes this guy that says I did a horrible act to him. Like I humiliated him or something, I don't know. I didn't even remember the guy. So he shows us that he's taken capture of Ukyo and Akane. He then says that he's gonna kill them both in front of us. Well before I even know what I'm doing, I'm beating the guy nearly to death along with Ryoga beating on his henchmen. I save Akane before she's chopped in half by a huge blade and the same goes for Ryoga saving Ukyo. Thing is, I'm still so pent up with my feelings as I had just been beating on the guy threatening me, so I all of a sudden yell at her to be more careful and then I kissed her."

"What'd Akane do?"

"Well, she was shocked for a few moments afterwards. Actually everyone there was shocked beyond belief, even me for that matter. I guess something just clicked inside of me that caused me to let out my feelings for her in such a way. So afterwards, she starts to smile at me and kisses me right back. Now that totally knocks out Ryoga and he faints right there." Ranma said with a grin spreading across his face, "Ukyo revived him and brought him back to her place to take care of. Apparently during the fight, he got a really bad injury on his side and could hardly even stand without pain. So then starts our lives together."

"Wow, its like something you'd hear in a story book. So you guys have been happy ever since?"

"I guess, but even married life has its ups and downs. I'm just glad to have Akane with me. I was really lost before I met her. Funny, even after twelve years of marriage to her, it still seems like I just met her yesterday."

"So how old are Kisa and Shouji? I thought they were around my age. But it seems now that they're younger than I thought."

"They're not that much younger than you. Kisa was born a year after we were married. She's ten and Shouji's nine. Ryoga and Ukyo married about a year and seven months after we did. Then they had Taka, Shouji and he were born only a month apart from each other. Practically brothers it seems like at times. Now that Ukyo's going to have another child, Kisa is praying for it to be a girl. She's always wanted someone to be close to like the boys are."

"I had someone like that, I mean someone that was really close to me, back at the orphanage."

"What's her name?"

"Kyoko, she's ten just like Kisa. We grew up together at the orphanage and kind of became sisters. I looked out for her when Ms. Inaba went on her rampages and she was there for me when I needed it. I hope that she's okay back there."

Ranma stood up and began to dust himself off. He then looked back up at the sky. "I'm sure she's fine. She's probably worrying more about how you're doing. Not much good happens to a lot of runaway orphans."

"She would do that. Always looking out for other people before she thought of herself. That was Kyoko everyday."

"Well, its late. I hope that your worries are calmed now. Are they?" questioned Ranma with a eyebrow raised in concern.

Mousse laughed to herself and stood up. "They are thanks to you Ranma."

"Good, now sleep while you can. We've got a boat to China to catch tomorrow morning." Ranma said smiling before turning back to his tent and heading inside.

Mousse watched Ranma close the tent door behind him before turning back to her own. How was it that they always knew what to say to her? It seemed like they were the perfect family. Maybe everything would turn out for the best. That night as Mousse slept, she had a dream of being with her family and actually living a loved life. She was not restless like many other nights, but slept soundly like never before.

Well, Hello again. Chapter 3 is here! And Four is soon to come. Next chapter will have thier trip across the sea to China and then the trek to find the village. Maybe they find Shampoo right away, maybe not. We'll see how far the chapter gets before I need to start another.

I have noticed some have mentioned that Akane seems a bit out of character, too nice. Well, I figure that she would have changed through her years in marriage to Ranma and having two children. Love really does conquer all, I believe. Anyway, she was always nice in the anime, wanting to help a lot of people that came along, so its not that far of a stretch.

Thanks for reading!! Please Review!! I love to see the count go up and up!!

^_^ (\/) cyancat