Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Ranma OneHalf: First steps ❯ Book One, Chapter Five ( Chapter 5 )

Ranma OneHalf Chapter five.

Ranma watched as her bobber floated and bobbed in the current of the Cedar. Sitting beside her Akane sipped his bottled water and watched traffic go by on the Fifth Street bridge. As usual whenever they were out in public, they were in their cursed forms.

Only this time, when they got home only one would be able to change back to their regular form. The other was going to be stuck for about the next nine months or so.

"Just my luck. The first time we sleep with each other I'm the one who gets pregnant." Ranma thought as she retrieved her line for another cast. Hauling back, she glanced over at Akane and noticed his expression.

"What ya thinking about?" she asked as she cast.

"Home." answered Akane as he lay back on the grass.

"Oh." Ranma said as her hook and bobber landed. "What about home?" she asked.

"I wonder how were going to get home now." he said.

Ranma gave Akane a puzzled look.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" she asked.

Akane propped himself up on an elbow and looked at Ranma.

"Ranma, think about it. By the time we get the money together for a flight home, you'll be seven or eight months along. You really don't want to be traveling when gotten to that point. And we'll be heading back to Nerima. How do you think everyone will react?" he explained.

Ranma shuddered as she imagined the how everybody would react. Beginning another retrieve she glanced at Akane.

"How about after?" she asked.

Akane nodded. "That would work. But what about the Amazons? Cologne would try to use our child as leverage against us." he pointed out as Ranma as she checked her bait.

Ranma flashed Akane a feral grin and flexed her fingers, chi claws refracting the light.

"Let her try." Ranma purred.

Akane gave Ranma a deadpan look.

"Now your scaring me." he quipped.

"Sorry, couldn't help it." Ranma said as she cast again.

Akane watched as the line hit the water and begin to drift in the current.

"Anyways," continued Akane "If were going to wait we could build up a reserve of cash. That way when we got back we wouldn't be a major drain on the household budget while we got jobs and such."

"You want to go back to the house?" Ranma asked as she watched the bobber bounce in the water. She could've sworn there was a nibble...

Akane rolled his eyes. "If the schools are joined we are going to need a dojo." he said.

Ranma bobbed herself on the fore head with the heel of her hand.

"Sorry. Ranma no baka." she said.

The bobber jerked suddenly in the water. There! Ranma brought the rod back in a smooth motion and set the hook.

"Got one!" she said as the fish broke the surface of the water in a large jump, scales flashing in the afternoon light. Landing with a large splash Ranma began to reel it in.

"What did you get?" Akane asked as Ranma stood up.

"Bass, I think. Big one too. Couple more and we'll have dinner." she said as she played the fish close to the shore.

After drawing in the fish to arms reach Ranma reached down and grabbed it by the lower jaw paralyzing it. Pulling it out of the water she put down her rod and used the Fish -be- Quiet stick to calm it down. Removing the hook, Ranma put it the bucket with other fish she had caught and picked up her rod.

Sitting back down Ranma picked up her bait can and began to bait her hook.

"So, before the second course arrived, you were saying that we should build up a reserve of cash." Ranma said.

"Yeah." Akane said before drinking from his water bottle.

"You got any ideas on how were going to do that?" she asked as she finished baiting her hook.

Rolling onto her back Akane put her hands behind her head and looked up at the cloudless sky.

"Well, working day labor isn't going to cut it. Not with a child on the way." Akane began.

"Mm-hm." agreed Ranma.

"So, I was thinking that I could get a regular, full time job and after the baby's born you could work part time. That way, in about two years we should have the money." Akane continued.

"What about housing? The apartment can barely hold two of us. I don't know about three." Ranma pointed out as she began another retrieve.

"Ah! I hadn't thought about that." Akane said as he sat up. "You realize that if we move to something bigger, it'll set us moving back by at least a year."

Ranma nodded. "Yeah. But we've been on this trip for five years, whats a couple more? And besides, our newest family member takes priority." she said, patting her stomach.

"True." Akane said with a smile.

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Ranma and Akane stood in the middle of the living room and looked around. It was a two bedroom ground floor apartment that was twice the size of their old apartment. It was part of a house that was converted to apartments. Not much as apartments go, but after five years on the road it seemed like paradise.

"Hey Akane..." Ranma said.

"Yeah?" Akane asked.

"We're gonna need to get some furniture." she answered as she looked around the empty room.

"At least a table." he said. "And curtains." Akane added, looking at the bare windows.

"And not to mention a bed." Ranma added.

Akane looked at Ranma. "You know what this means Ranma?" he asked.

"What?" she replied.

"We're setting up our first house." he replied.

Ranma blinked as she thought about what he said.

"Whoa." she said.

Akane nodded in agreement. "So where do we start?" he asked.

Ranma thought for a bit.

"Curtains first, followed by a table. We can use our sleeping bags until we get a bed." she said.

"Okay." Akane agreed.

Picking up their packs Akane began to lug them into the bedroom.

"But we're going to have to do it cheap though. We are saving to get home, remember." Akane reminded Ranma.

Ranma smirked as she cracked her knuckles.

"Well then, it looks like we're gonna have to use the Anything Goes Household Techniques." she said.

Akane dropped the packs and turned around to face Ranma.

"The what?" he asked.

Ranma grinned. "You'll see."

"Oh boy..."

Three weeks later they had a fully furnished apartment. Sitting at their table Akane dished some noodles and looked out the corner of her eye at Ranma.

"Where did you learn how to scavenge like this?" Akane asked.

Ranma shrugged. "Eh, when you grow up dirt poor you learn to be creative." she answered.

"That's one way to put it." Akane replied. She knocked on the table. "But making a table like we would have at home is completely different." she added.

Ranma shrugged again. "Hey, its Anything Goes. If it works, use it."

Akane nodded. "Mm-hm. And speaking of Anything Goes, I have an idea on how we can use the Umi -Sen -Ken." she said.

"Eh?" Ranmas eyebrows shot up. Reworking the Satome forbidden techniques had her attention.

"It's pretty obvious when you think about it; use it to cloak your attacks." Akane explained.

Ranma chewed thoughtfully while she considered what Akane was proposing. Flexing her hand she thought about what the Neko -ken and Chestnut fist could do when combined with the Umi -Sen -Ken. Swallowing she spoke.

"So, basically you'd change it from a forbidden art to an advanced technique." she said.

"Yes, actually." Akane answered.

"Your right, that is pretty obvious." Ranma said as she reached for the rice.

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Ranma paused in her writing when the baby kicked.

"Hey, wait until after you're born to do your katas." she told her stomach.

Picking up her pen Ranma looked at her note book and considered what she had written:

The Neko -ken training originally required the trainee to be wrapped in fish sausages and thrown into a pit starving cats. Assuming he survived the training, the trainee becomes an almost unstoppable fighter. Unfortunately they have no control over it and they become nothing more than a wild animal out of control.

Having mastered this technique I have come to realize what the person who developed this technique was trying to do: Imprint the attributes of a cat onto the mind of the trainee. But the way they chose to do it was completely wrong.

From my view the correct way to train the Neko -ken is this: You still expose the trainee to cats, but you don't wrap them up in fish and throw them into a pit of starving cats. Instead, you gradually imprint the Neko -ken through a series of meditation and exercises.

Ranma chewed on the end of her pen as she thought.

"Okay, but what kind meditations and exercises?" she thought.

Putting her pen down Ranma decided that this needed more thought. Getting up, she moved over to her favorite meditation spot, a window that got a lot of sun and that was in front of a heater vent. Getting into a comfortable position Ranma began to do her breathing exercises and let the warm sun relax her.

Soon the sun and mediation proved to be too much for her and she toppled sideways. Curling into a semi -fetal position, Ranma drifted off into a catnap.

"Neko -ken?!"

Ranma awoke instantly to Akanes exclamation. Sitting up she saw Akane leaning over the table reading the note she had been writing. Seeing Ranma sit up Akane turned to face her.

"What the hell are you thinking Ranma? After what you went through with the Neko -Ken why do you want to mess with it again?" she asked.

"Because I want to improve it, make it better. It's no different than your integrating the Umi -Sen -Ken into the School." Ranma said getting up.

"True. But still, the Neko -ken? Even the manual says that only a complete idiot would teach it." Akane said.

"Yeah, well, I'm not a complete idiot." Ranma said as she walked over to the table.

"No, you're a partial idiot." Akane dead panned.

"No, I'm a master of the Neko -ken. I know what I'm talking about." Ranma said, pointing to her eyes.

Akane rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips. "Do you do stuff like this just to prove that you can?" she asked.

"Yup." Ranma answered as she sat down at the table and picked up her pen.

A mallet bopped Ranma gently on the head. "Ranma no Baka. If you weren't pregnant I'd feed you some of my cooking." she said.

"And whose fault is that?" Ranma shot back.

"Shaddup." Akane returned as she wandered into the kitchen to make some tea.

Smiling slightly, Ranma went back to her writing. Feeling another kick she looked down.

"And you stay out of this." she told her stomach.

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Akane sipped her coffee and winced at the taste. It wasn't tea, but it had caffeine and it would do. It's not like they'd had time to brew up a thermos of tea beforehand. And in the panic they had been in when Ranma had went into labor Akane had completely forgotten to change into her cursed form. And now they were at the hospital her changing would lead to questions she'd rather not answer.

Akane winced as Ranmas scream echoed down the hallway, followed by naval grade profanity in Japanese. Glad that no one could understand what Ranma was saying Akane glanced up at the clock, which read 7:23 am. Akane blinked in surprise as she realized that they'd been there for over ten hours. She nearly dropped her coffee when she also realized that it was Monday.

"OH SHIT! WORK!" she screamed mentally. Realizing that she had forgotten to call in Akane got up to make a phone call and froze.

Realizing that she would have call in her male form she thought furiously. The only way she'd be able to pull it off is if she was invisible-

"Gah! Akane no Baka!" she said, smacking herself on the head.

Putting her coffee down Akane looked to make sure no one was looking and invoked the Umi -Sen -Ken. Now invisible, Akane went looking for some cold water. An hour later after phoning work and then waiting for a chance to slip into the women's restroom unobserved Akane returned to the waiting room to find a nurse there.

"Oh, there you are. You can see your friend now Ms. Tendo." The nurse said.

Gritting her teeth at the woman's pronunciation of her surname Akane nodded.

"Thank you." she said.

Akane followed the nurse down the hall to the room where Ranma was. "If we hadn't panicked I would have been able to witness the birth of my child." Akane thought. A smile crossed her lips. "Of course, if we hadn't gotten drunk this wouldn't have happened to begin with." she added wryly.

Stopping in front of a door marked 'Recovery room 3' the nurse stuck her head in and spoke briefly. Stepping back the nurse nodded to Akane.

"You can go in now." she said before walking away.

"But-" Akane began as the nurse walked down the hall.

Facing the door, Akane took a couple of deep breaths to steel herself.

"Nothing to be afraid of Akane. Your only meeting for the first time your child that thanks to a gender changing curse you fathered. Absolutely nothing at all." she told herself.

Taking a couple more deep breaths she swallowed. "Oh the hell with it. I'm terrified." she thought and opened the door.

Stepping into the room Akane came face to face with two redheads. One was looking like death warmed over, the other was wrapped in a blanket and newly arrived to the world. Akane winced as she walked over to the bed.

"Gods, Ranma, you look like hell." Akane said as she sat down.

"Tell me about it." Ranma said. Lifting the baby up so Akane could see she continued. "Akane, meet your new daughter."

"Hello there." Akane said to her daughter. " And what are we going to call you?" she asked.

Ranma smiled at her daughter. "Well, we did agree that her family name is Saotome* to keep our parents happy." Ranma said.

Akane nodded. Looking up at her Ranma continued. "And since she is you're daughter too, I was thinking you should choose her name."

Akane blinked and sat back in surprise. "Are you sure?" she asked.

Ranma nodded.

"Well, Hmmm." Akane said as she thought for a bit. Coming to an answer Akane straitened up.

"Lia**. Her name is Lia." she said with conviction.

Ranmas eyebrows shot up. "Lia? That's an American name." she said.

Akane nodded. "But she is and American Ranma. We asked the INS and they said that if she was born here she automatically gets American citizenship, remember? So if she's an American, she should have an American name." she explained.

"Well that makes sense, I think." Looking at her daughter Ranma continued. "Saotome Lia. I like it." she said.

Turning to Akane Ranma held out their daughter to Akane.

"So Lia, Do you want to be held by your mom?" Ranma asked Lia.

Taking her daughter Akane smiled at her and held her close. Sitting back in her chair Akane looked at her daughter and felt the exhaustion that had been plaguing her evaporate.

"Hi there. I'm Akane and I'm your mother. Or father, if you want to be technical about it." she said softly. "And you've already met Ranma. You can call us Mom and Dad." Akane added.

"Just don't get them mixed up and you start calling me Mom and her Dad." Ranma chimed in.

Akane looked up at Ranma. "Ranma, be quiet." she said.

"Okay." Ranma replied, and watched mother and daughter until she fell asleep.

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*For those of you who don't know, in Japan and the rest of Asia in general its family name first, followed by the given name. i.e., in Japan John Smith would be Smith John.

**Pronounced Lee-Ah, with a long 'I'.