Chapter Text
Prologue
Part 1
The man smiled as he slowly worked his way down the winding path between the trees, his cape gently trailing along the ground behind him. Then again, the man almost always had a smile painted on his face. He’d done it for so long, sometimes it felt as if that was just the way his face was shaped - a mask that had become his real face over millennia. Of course, he could also reshape his face any way that he wanted to, so maybe that was his natural expression. He could have changed his skin to scales or slime, and given himself a tail or any number of other additional limbs without a second thought.
Trees rose on both sides of him, with overgrowth dense and thick enough to block access to any direction other than the path he trod down – and yet, not a single growth of any kind rose to a height taller than the tips of his fingers were he to stretch them out over his head. Just as well, he thought – trying to penetrate them would’ve been useless anyway, even if he had wanted to go somewhere other than his current destination. The trees weren’t really there anyway. In fact, they weren’t even really trees, they were simply a convenient cover for the way reality was warped in this particular place. No type or amount of force could’ve penetrated them, for beyond the treeline there was nothing at all. Asgard could be funny like that sometimes - or at least this version of Asgard could be.
Well, almost nothing, the man reflected. Now, is it left or right at the second turn?
The man stopped, considering. After a moment of reflection, and upon considering the nature of the being he was here to see, he pulled a coin from his pocket and gave it a toss. Nodding, he turned to the right and began walking.
A few minutes later, he arrived. The path before him opened up into a clearing in the seemingly-endless tree line - a wide circular area maybe two dozen strides across, ringed in a circular wall of trees with occasional openings similar to the one he had just come through. In the center of the clearing was a waist-high circular well seemingly constructed of brick and mortar. And on the edge of that well, leaning forward and gazing into its glowing waters, sat a black cat.
“It has been quite some time since I’ve had visitors.” The cat intoned. “Several hundred years, by my relative time.” It turned its gaze to look upon the man. “I’m afraid you are a bit late to the party - The Bet concluded quite some time ago, and the winner has long been determined. What’s more, it seems that the majority of my influence has faded. I fear I may soon be due for a dormancy cycle.”
“I’m not here for any bets.” The man intoned. “I am here to repay a debt. And for that I need to use the well.”
“I’m afraid that will not be so simple.” The cat answered. “When I was running the contest, I was able to extend my payment for use of the Well to encompass anyone who was participating - but now that it has come to a close, I cannot simply use its powers on behalf of another. I’m afraid that if you wish to use the well, you will have to pay a price that it deems appropriate.”
The man nodded slowly, as if considering. For a moment, silence stretched in the grove. Then he slowly approached the well. His hand dipped back behind him, slipping around as if to grasp something resting at the small of his back, and a moment later he slowly withdrew a blade.
Its surface was darker than a midnight sky.
It was neither dull, nor did it glisten. The light seemed to simply disappear into it as if it had never been, as if the thing was feeding off of the available ambiance. It was set up like a dueling sword, with the blade and hilt turned at an angle away from the grip. It was longer than a dagger, but shorter than a proper two-handed blade, and while both sides were clearly edged, they were hardly symmetrical: one edge was straight as an arrow, while the other curved outward from the tip of the blade into a series of serrated edges before finally coming back to join at the pommel. What truly stood out about the blade’s design, however, was the revolver clip affixed between the hilt and the blade’s main body, with the trigger set into the handle.
“Ah.” The cat purred. “So that is what you will offer.”
The man nodded. He slowly set the weapon down on the side of the well, then turned as if to speak to it. “I offer the only thing I have ever loved.”
The blade shimmered for a moment, then was gone. A soft bluish-white light slowly spread from where the man had set the blade down, gradually filling the waters of the well.
“It seems that your offering was sufficient.” The cat intoned.
“Can I count on your aid?”
“When can anyone ever count on my aid?” The cat leaned toward him conspiratorially. “Does it promise to be amusing?”
The man’s smile widened. “When have I ever done anything that wasn’t?”
“Excellent.”
<=0=>
The summer heat hung thick in the air, the kind that made even concrete seem to sweat. Nerima was quiet for once - too quiet - like the world was holding its breath. Somewhere, a cicada buzzed, unnoticed.
The katana came loose from its sheath with a sound like no other.
“... from the beginning…” Kuno spoke, his voice heavy with emphasis. “... I always intended to give you my final wish.”
Ranma-chan gasped, her face flushing with excitement. Oh, Kuno… she thought. How could I have misjudged you so… Is it possible none of us really knew you at all?
“Wishbringer!” Kuno spoke, his voice thundering resonantly. “Now comes the final wish!”
He turned to Ranma. “Grant the Pigtailed Girl her heart's deepest desire!”
A chime sounded through the air, and an almost-robotic voice spoke: “Your wish is my command.”
And in a flash of bright white light, everything changed.
Because Kuno hadn't wished for Ranma to get what he said he wanted. He hadn’t even wished for Ranma to get what he thought he wanted. He'd wished for Ranma to get his heart's deepest desire - which meant what he really wanted - underneath the ego, underneath the pride.
And deep down, while Ranma did very much want to be free of his curse, he had a need that reached far deeper… something that he ached for deep inside, even if he couldn't admit it, even if he himself was barely aware of how much it hurt him constantly. Because every person Ranma knew wanted him for something: an engagement, a status symbol, a family vow, a validation of family honor, a tribal obligation, a source of interest and income… only one person seemed to have any interest in him for him , rather than what he could bring to them or do for them, and even then she only showed it partially, if at all. But even that small amount had awoken within him a sense of how deep his ache was, and that ache answered the sword's wish with the real answer to what his heart's deepest desire was.
‘I wish I didn't feel so alone.’
And that ache wasn't something that could be fixed in this moment, in present day. The only way to address that ache was to prevent it from ever having formed. This pain had been in Ranma from the beginning of his life - birthed in his childhood and reinforced constantly. And the only way to fix it was to address it at its source.
The world exploded in a blast of white light as Kuno's wish rewrote everything that was… by changing a lot of what had been.
<=0=>
The bell rang. I distinctly remember the way the bell rang before it all happened.
It wasn’t an actual bell, of course, but rather a series of chimes – actual physical bells had gone out of style long before I went into the public school system, despite their popularity on modern-day high-school sitcoms. Nowadays, it was always a series of timed chimes, set as if to make an almost-musical sound – as if they thought that by making the sound of our mandatory shift changes pleasant, it would somehow make us forget that none of us were there by choice.
Look, don’t get me wrong, I understood that there was a difficult situation going on here: all of us were underage, and all of us were basically stupid for all intents and purposes when it came to real-world skills. I had no doubt that if they were to throw me out into the wild of the real world on that very day that I would flounder and probably die from sheer inexperience. The prospect of facing the real world terrified me at some level that I wouldn’t readily admit to - so I fully understand that I was not in any position to be making any real-world choices for myself about my life. I get all that, it made perfect sense at the time.
But I couldn’t help it! I still resented all these adults making my decisions for me, whether it made sense to or not! I’m a God-damned free-willed human being here! I’m not a six-year-old anymore, I’m fucking self-aware, you tyrannical fuck-heads! I not only exist and have thoughts and feelings and dreams, I KNOW that I exist, and that I am the one having them! That should entitle me to at least some amount of basic respect for my right to self-determination! Even if I make stupid decisions, I should be allowed to make them and face the consequences of those, not have them artificially forced upon me by your ridiculous system of “school rules”! Every insane moment of my life is controlled by someone else, and I’m sick of it!
I’m sorry; I got kind-of carried away reminiscing there. Well, anyway, as you can see, I was…. A bit of a rebellious person. Or at least, I thought of myself as one. The truth is, I didn’t do any real rebelling. I still dutifully went to class on-time, studied the things I was given, read the books I was told to read, sat mostly in the back of the class, and kept my head down. The vast majority of my rebellion was internal: I silently loathed the system I was stuck in. Not the teachers, per se, for some of them were nice, but I held the system itself in contempt for not being better than what it was: a legacy of a leftover time from when factory-workers were the most-needed type of person in the economy.
I wanted more. I wanted freedom, even if I then went on to screw it up. I wanted it so badly I could taste it.
Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn’t gotten it in the way I did, on the day that I did. I know I gave up so much for it… and I know that I don’t know the full extent of what I gave up. A whole other life… a normal life. A job, a wife, a few kids, a dog, quiet evenings spent at home reading or gaming… it’s hard to say what I would have had. All I really know is what I do have. And what I do have, I believe, is worth it. She’s worth it.
She is worth anything.
But I digress. As I was saying, the bell rang, signaling yet another “mad rush to the next class” period of time. I sighed at the uselessness of it all, and packed my book away in my bag, then stood up and began quietly making my way out of the classroom. At least next period involved lunch break. At least sometime over the next couple hours I would get to see my friends again.
I walked into the lunchroom, and after making my way through the food line, I immediately made my way to the far corner, to the table where me and my regular group of friends always sat together. Not that we really did anything important – the most we ever did was discuss our favorite anime, argue over video games, and occasionally complain about how unbearably horrible our upper-middle-class American lives were. Dear God, we were so deluded.
Sitting the tray down, I asked “So guys, what’s the topic of discussion today?”
Duo – he wasn’t called Duo back then in his first life, but to me that’s who he is now, so that’s what I call him – turned to me and gave a slight nod of his head. “Whether or not Mewtwo is broken.”
“Oh, dear God, yes he’s broken!” I chimed in as I sat down and picked up my slice of pizza. “There’s a reason I don’t like playing you in Pokemon anymore!”
“He is NOT broken!” Ryuji said angrily. Again, Ryuji wasn’t his real name at the time, but after all these years living with him, I sometimes can’t even think of his old name anymore – I only really remember my own, and at that I don’t really feel attached to it the way I used to. “There’s PLENTY of strategies that you can use to defeat Mewtwo! He’s a perfectly valid character! Besides, if they didn’t want you to be able to use him, then why did they put him in the game?”
“Because they wanted you to be able to feel special for getting all the way to the very end of the game.” I responded. “And just because you can beat him doesn’t mean that he’s a fair inclusion in a team, dude. I mean, come on, he’s one of only 3 or 4 creatures in the whole game that can learn Recover, and all the others have shit for defense to make up for it. The guy is supposed to be a psychic type, but he’s got more defense than an Abrams tank AND he can heal himself a bunch of times? Plus, for all that crap about Psychic being weak to ghost, none of it’s actually real, hell Psychic is IMMUNE to Ghost, so he literally has no actual type weaknesses! Come ON man, you might as well skip the game and just punch the other guy in the face and declare yourself the winner, because it’s just about the same thing!”
“You can always include a Mewtwo in YOUR team, and then it’d be fair.”
“Yeah, sure, if I wanted to cheat like you I could. But I’d rather win the right way.” I had a Hypno as my team’s psychic – I thought it was cool that his signature move had to be learned by TM, and I’d noticed that when used by a Drowzee, Dream Eater’s accuracy seemed to go up – I’d played through the game 2 or 3 times, and I’d yet to miss with it, despite it supposedly having only a 90% accuracy.
We’d had this fight a couple different times before, and no one was ever willing to completely give on it. Duo kept vacillating on the issue, but I figured it was just because he knew that Mewtwo was super-powerful and just wanted an excuse to use him. Well, I appreciated him siding with me today, but I knew it would all come to a head soon anyway – I was currently working on a project to put the issue to rest permanently. I had a copy of Red and a copy of Blue, and I’d secretly been going through the game multiple times – each time I went through Red, I’d get all the way to the end and catch Mewtwo, then transfer it to my copy of Blue. In about a month I was going to challenge both of them to a match, no holds barred, any strategy or creature they wanted to use, as many as they wanted to play, and I would face them with a full team of SIX Mewtwo’s. Let’s see them try to argue that Mewtwo wasn’t balanced after that kind of ass-kicking. God, it was going to be SO satisfying.
Duo looked over at me. “There’s no RIGHT way to win. There’s just winning and losing.” He had that tone to his voice that always made me start getting mad inside – that look that always seemed to say to me that it was his way or the highway, and if I didn’t fall in line that he’d damn-well make me.
My smile dropped. I slowly turned my eyes to him, and I muttered just quietly enough to be heard. “I sincerely hope that you continue to feel that way.”
Me and Ryu generally got along pretty well – the guy was a wimp in some ways, sure, and he wasn’t always the best loser at things, but he was generally pretty fair-minded most of the time, and the most that he ever did was complain. I totally intended to beat him in the Pokemon debate, but I knew that as much as he would throw a fit about it, all he would really do would be to moan and complain, and then at worst he’d stop playing. That was fine, since I wasn’t obsessed with being a Pokemon master anyway – I’d gone to an official tournament once, and getting my ass beat that thoroughly had convinced me that I wasn’t going to be making it big as a pro-gamer anyway. Duo, on the other hand… Me and him had had words before, and it usually wasn’t good. Duo could be… aggressive. The guy only had his mother around to teach him how to deal with his anger, and while she was clearly an extremely sweet lady, she also was pretty obviously struggling in raising her only son. I liked Duo, I really did. The guy was brilliantly creative, and he had a way of seeing things from an angle that simply escaped me – he could be brilliantly insightful about things, and occasionally he had a way of piercing right to the heart of an issue in a way that would have taken me days or even weeks to work out for myself. I suspected that among our group of above-average smart people, Duo might very well have been the smartest of us all… but there was always this sense of tension between us that I felt, and I assume that he ignored. Of the three of us, Duo was the one who was the most willing to escalate things into getting physical – not that he’d ever done so very often, and he’d only ever tried it with me once, but he’d been known to knock Ryu upside the head every now and then whenever he said something particularly stupid, and while Ryu objected pretty strongly to it, he never actually directly stood up to Duo. I knew that eventually, Duo was going to try and get physical with me, and when he did… I wasn’t entirely certain what would happen. Duo was bigger and stronger than me, and he attended to school’s gym and weightlifting classes, so I knew he could probably pick me up and manhandle me if he wanted to… but the guy also had some pretty serious medical issues, mostly related to his breathing, and while he might be more willing to get violent with me if I crossed him, I knew exactly what I was capable of doing when I was pushed over the line, and I knew that if I ever truly lost it with Duo that I wouldn’t bother fighting fair with him, or even with any sense or decency or respect. Duo was used to people like Ryu, who would cower to his demands once he started escalating with them. I knew, on the other hand, that when push came to shove and I truly lost it, that I had no limits whatsoever. I’d had an incident already once, and what I’d done to the other guy had scared me – he had been bigger and stronger than me too, but in that moment, when that guy had pushed me too far, I had lost all control of myself, and I had been… the only word I could think of to describe it was vicious – I’d left the guy passed out on the bathroom floor, bleeding from his head, and I hadn’t looked back. Duo might be bigger and stronger than me, but if he ever really tried to boss me around, I knew exactly what would happen… and I didn’t want it to go there. Duo was a friend, possibly even a good friend. I didn’t want to hurt him. And I certainly didn’t want to have to deal with the fallout that would occur among our social circle if me and him ever did get into it for real, because somewhere deep down inside me I knew that once we started down that path that there’d be no stopping it, and I wasn’t going to let the worst parts of him intimidate or control me, no matter what the cost, no matter how far out-of-control things got.
So I said nothing, and just stared at him, trying to keep my aggression in-check. This was my friend. I was not going to lose it with him over Pokemon, of all things.
I think Ryu sensed the building tension, because he interjected loudly “Ken, I think you’re getting a little over-focused on Mewtwo – why don’t you and I have a match this weekend without any legendaries at all, and we’ll see where we are, ok?”
That did the job – me and Duo turned away from each other and back to him, and the discussion resumed. We had plans to meet up at Duo’s place on Friday right after school, and we would play games until well-into the night. It promised to be a seriously good time.
Then the bell rang again, and it was time to leave – our lunch period was the last one for the day, so it was straight to my next class.
Or so I thought. Little did I know just how much my life was about to change.
<=0=>
It happened as I was pounding my way up the stairwell, taking the things two at a time. By some miracle, I had not only the stairwell, but also a good portion of the hallway on both floors empty at that point in time.
“______ ______ _______!!”
I blinked, catching my balance with one foot on the next-to-top stair. I hadn’t recognized that voice, but it had reverberated pretty strongly through the stairwell.
Slowly, I turned and looked back down the way I had come. On the middle landing stood a small black cat, crouched on its haunches and looking directly at me.
“Huh.” I studied him for a moment, then shook my head in confusion, and began turning to head back towards class. It must’ve been one of the teachers upstairs, and the shape of the stairwell had confused my ears.
“I wouldn’t, if I were you.” The cat said. “You’d be missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime.”
My feet went out from under me from the shock. A searing pain slammed directly into my rump as I landed literally ass-first on the stairwell, and to my enormous chagrin, I then slid down the stairs, one bump after another landing against my just-bruised posterior, until I finally slid to a stop directly in front of the feline.
The cat's already-impressive smile widened at the sight. “That moment alone might just make this entire endeavor worth it.”’
“Ummmm….” I uttered, showing my overwhelming brilliance. “Uhhh, I think I’m ready to wake up now...”
“Oh, if only it were that simple.” The cat spoke again, chuckling. “Unfortunately for you, you are not dreaming.”
“Then you are not talking.” I responded.
Would you prefer that I use another method? The cat said to me, this time without its mouth moving.
“GAH!” I screamed, showing once again just how valuable my public-school education had made me.
The cat burst out in a very human-like laughter, guffawing as it raised its head to the ceiling. I just stared. I couldn’t STOP staring. A CAT. WAS. TALKING. TO ME. Look, man, you don’t just get over something like that.
Grabbing my backpack, I stood up, shouldering the thing and looking down at the creature. “Okay, so…. If I’m not dreaming… then clearly, I have gone insane. All the stress must have finally gotten to me, and I’ve snapped.”
The cat made a downright disgusting sound as it literally choked back its fit of giggles and turned to me. “No, I promise you that you are also not insane.” He turned his head slightly as he looked at me “Or at least, no more insane than any other human ever is.”
“Oooooookay…. Well, firstly, if I was insane, then that’s exactly what I’d expect my hallucination to tell me….”
The cat gave me a sardonic look, his smile never breaking.
“… but let’s assume just for a second that I’m neither dreaming, nor dead, nor off my rocker. WHY is there a CAT talking to me!?”
“Well, first of all, I’m not a cat.” He responded.
I groaned, and dropped my hand to my head. “Of course you aren’t.”
“I’m a god.”
I moved my hand slightly to look down at him. I sighed. “Of course you are.”
“You don’t believe me.”
“Of course I don’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because there’s only one God,” I said, with all the certainty of a high-school student who’d never been extremely devout OR extremely secular. “And last I checked, he didn’t have a penchant for going around as a walking symbol of misfortune.”
“All true.” The cat answered cryptically.
This thing was starting to give me a headache.
“Oooooookay… So you agree with me that there’s only one god… and yet you still call yourself a god...”
“Well, basically, yes.” The cat answered, still not having moved from his original position. “Kami-sama doesn’t really seem to mind sharing his title nearly as much nowadays as he used to back when he was first getting started, as long as none of the rest of us get too uppity and as long as we make sure to keep our capitalizations correct.”
I think at some level I was beginning to get used to the surreality of my situation. “That doesn’t explain anything to me.”
“Where would the fun be in explaining everything?” The cat mused. “Life is hardly fair when one has all the answers.”
“You are a very frustrating person, do you know that?”
“I pride myself on it.”
I groaned.
“My name is Toltiir.” The cat said to me. “And since calling myself a ‘god’ is too controversial for you, then I’ll put it this way: I’m an obscenely-powerful extra-dimensional being who exists across multiple realities and to some extent can bend space and time and warp reality to my will.” It turned its head to me, amused. “Does that explain it better for you?”
I blinked.
“Okay. So what are you doing here , and why are you talking to me ?”
The cat lost his amused demeanor, and for the first time he looked at me seriously. “I’m here to offer you a choice.”
Something that sounded like cold water splashing onto a hot griddle went off in my ears, and I watched what I can only describe as a hole in reality itself form behind the cat, through which I could see an endless array of what seemed like stars.
<=0=>
Several minutes, and one rather mind-blowing explanation later, I stared hard at the cat.
“Okay, so let me get this straight. You’re basically here to literally offer me the Narnia experience.”
The cat nodded.
“Okay. Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why me? Why bother? Why any of it? I’m literally just a kid, you’re a multiversal-level super-power! Whatever it is that you want from me in doing this, why can’t you just do it yourself? And if you don’t want something from me in all this, then why offer it to me at all? What’s more, why should I assume that whatever you have planned for me is going to be anything that I would like? You’ve admitted to me that you’re a god of mischief, why should I trust anything you have to say? And finally, what possible reason could I have for putting my fate in your hands, and why should I let anyone play around with my future, god or not?”
The cat stared at him for a long time.
“You know, I don’t normally make a habit out of explaining myself.” He finally said.
He daintily worked his way up several of the stairs, before jumping up on the guard rail so that he could look me in the eyes.
“But I’ve actually observed quite a few of your potential timelines, Mr. ______”
“How many?”
“Ten thousand eight hundred and thirty-four.” He responded without batting an eye “and one of the things that I know about you is that if I were to simply plunge you into the experience, it would corrupt you – your desire for personal independence runs far too deep through you, and to simply rob you of the decision would fill you with a resentment that would never end, and which could potentially taint your very soul. And so, despite my preferred methods of action, and despite how distasteful I personally find it, I’m going to be as straight with you as I can be.”
He looked me dead in the eyes.
“______ _______, the multiverse needs you. Not your parents, not your sibling, not your teachers, cousins, aunts, or uncles, and not me. It needs YOU. I have watched your past, and many of your potential futures, but I do not control what you do, I never have, and I never will. I only observe. And one thing that I know, having observed it countless times, is that you will fight with every fiber of your being against anything that tries to control you, whether benevolent or not, and no matter how many of your potential futures I have looked into, now matter how many alternative versions of you I have gazed upon, that inherent aspect of your nature has never, ever changed. And so I make you this offer, and with it I make you this promise:”
He gestured to the open portal behind me. “I offer you a chance that none in your reality shall ever truly experience. I offer you a second life, a chance to erase all of your past mistakes and start over, and I offer you the chance to live a life of adventure beyond anything in your wildest dreams. But more than that, I offer you a chance to live a life of meaning – a life where you will struggle and face pain and challenge, but where you will never doubt that your choices matter, and that what you do will change and save lives on the largest possible scale. And on top of that, I make you this promise:”
He raised one paw to his chest and carefully drew an X over his chest, and as he did, one of his claws left behind trails of light that hovered in the air. He then raised that same paw and held it up perpendicular to the ground, as if swearing in court. “Past this moment of transition, and the act of making you this offer, I swear upon my power as a god, I will never in any way interfere with your life or choices ever again. I shall quite likely be observing you, sometimes quite closely, but I shall never, ever interfere with your life again, nor shall I ever attempt to exert any sort of control over your life of any kind, no matter what.”
He looked back at me. “And to answer the final thing you asked: I do this because, as a god of mischief, it amuses me to do so, and for no other reason. Now choose. What do you want from your life, _____? Do you want a normal life? Or do you want to live the kind of life you have so far only fantasized about?”
Look, I know that you know at this point what happened… but I want to make it clear that just because we both know what happened doesn’t mean it was easy, alright? It’s never easy deciding between your own desires and your family and friends. I probably sat there and agonized over it for a good 5 minutes, which in the heat of that kind of moment is a lot longer than it sounds, believe you me.
But at the end of the day, you and I both know what happened.
I took a step towards the portal.
“Am I going to regret this?”
The cat cocked his head sideways at me.
“All mortals have regrets, no matter what they do. Beyond that, I cannot say – to tell you anything about what awaits you would be to change your path and exert a form of control over you that you would always resent. I swore to leave you free to decide your own fate, that includes freedom from the burden of foreknowledge.”
I sighed. “Are all gods as irritating as you?”
He smiled. “Only the best ones.”
I stepped through.
<=0=>
The first thing I remember is how hard the ground was as I literally landed on my ass on it.
Again.
This was beginning to become annoying. Not to mention painful.
Okay, first thing’s first – assess my new situation.
I was five years old at most.
No, seriously. I looked down at my body - my limbs were stumpy, my fingers were fat, I was light as a feather, and everything around me was HUGE. I was five years old. Maybe younger, it was hard to tell. I was standing in someone's yard.
And I seriously wanted to play in the dirt.
Okay. This now officially took the cake as the weirdest thing in my already entirely-too-weird day.
“Ken! Oi, Ken!”
Ken. That name exploded in my head as soon as I heard it.
Kenshiro. That was my name.
I fell to my knees, clutching my aching head. It felt like the worst headache I’d ever had, like my skull was going to split open and my brains were going to fall out onto the ground. The rush of blood through my head almost made me fall over and pass out, and at the same time I could barely breathe. Memories pounded into me - I couldn’t tell whether they were being implanted in me, or if I was just remembering them. Except that I was remembering them for the first time.
My name was Saotome Kenshiro. I was the son of Saotome Genma and Saotome Nodoka. I had 3 brothers: my two older siblings, Saotome Ryuji, and Saotome Futari, who had recently begun to insist that people call him Duo - Futari had been an unexpected birth, and his name had been something of an accident - and my one younger sibling, Saotome Ranma - the heir to our family’s ancestral school of martial arts, the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu, also known as the Indiscriminate Grappling, or the Anything Goes style. We had been practicing the basic forms for as long as we had been alive. Genma kept saying that one day he was going to take us on a serious journey to train in the true fundamentals of the style, and at some level I was afraid of what that would mean - would I have to leave my Mom? For how long?
I…..
My head slowly began to stop spinning. My dual sets of memories spun around and around in my head, but the pain had subsided for now. I was still confused, but I could breathe again.
“KEN!” someone shouted at me.
I blinked my eyes, only just now realizing that over the last few seconds I had fallen over on my side, clutching my head. I looked up, and caught sight of my brothers.
Yes. That’s right. I had brothers.
Wait. I had brothers.
I had only ever had one sibling before, and she and I had never gotten along well at all. In fact, I'm pretty sure that we had about as bad a relationship as it was possible for siblings to have short of outright hating each other.
Now I had brothers. And I'd had them for years. I could remember fights, arguments, roughhousing, being taught to share toys by our parents, I could remember birthdays, favorite foods, pranks, watching TV together, being put to bed together, late-night confessions, brilliant schemes (as we thought of them at the time), secrets traded and held, trust defended….
I had BROTHERS.
“Ryu. Duo.” I mumbled. "Ranma…"
“Oi, Ken, are you okay?” Ryu said to me.
“Ken…. is that… is that who I am?” I said quietly.
“Well, who else would you be?” Duo asked.
“I think… I don't know…” I took a deep breath. "I remember being someone called…" and I said my name.
Ryu and Duo fell over, both clutching their heads and letting out frantic wheezes, as if they were in too much pain to scream.
Watching us all on the ground, Ranma screamed in panic. "MOM! DAD! HELP!!"
<=0=>
So that was MY day. The rest of it was spent in the hospital, getting examined. Ryu and Duo woke up on the way there, and outside of insisting that they were fine, they both stayed pretty quiet. The doctors poked and prodded us, gave us a bunch of tests, examined all of our heads particularly thoroughly, and finally pronounced that there was nothing wrong with us and that it must have just been a fluke or a sudden allergic spike or some such. They gave her a list of things to watch out for and told her and Genma (a part of my brain kept wanting to call them Mom and Dad, but I just couldn't bring myself to do so) to bring us back if it happened again or if we showed any other unusual symptoms.
Mostly, I just kept trying to come to terms with it all. My dual sets of memories kept playing over and over in my head, images of Christmases with my family now regularly interspersed with memories of more traditional Japanese festivals - the meaning of many of which eluded me in both of my sets of memories.
Was I still a Christian? I had only ever had the vaguest idea about the principles that underlied eastern religions, and to be honest my newer set of childhood memories didn’t really grasp the complexities too well, but regardless there was now a part of me that had acted them out to some extent, and that part had a hold in that tradition of belief - a tradition I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to simply reject. I’d never been especially devout, but I’d also always rejected the atheist community with equal fervor - in the end I often saw both sets of ideas as simple attempts to control my thought processes and reign in my ability to think outside of their supposedly perfect little boxes.
Well, I guessed that I now had a third group of ideas to be ambivalent about.
I could remember my real father's voice, the touch of his hand to calm me as he prayed over me, an act which helped to calm my nightmares regardless of whether it had any real-world effect. I could remember my real mother's temper, her fiery and defiant nature that despite my denials I knew I inherited from her. But then, I could also remember Genma teaching me how to block, and challenging me to walk across a board that he had laid across a pond in the backyard to help improve my balance. I could remember the look he often gave me and Ryu and Duo, as if we were the redemptive hope of his existence. I could even vaguely remember the day my parents brought home my newest younger brother, Ranma.
Ranma. That name was familiar to me, and not just from my newer memories. Something in it tugged at the original me, the one who was a Gaijin at heart, and proud of it. I knew I'd heard that name before, but for the life of me I just couldn't place it. If only I could remember…
I probably sat for a good hour just wracking my five-year-old brain trying to dredge up a teenager's memories. And speaking of which, that in itself was quite possibly the weirdest part of this whole experience. I now had the body of a much younger person, and I’d nearly forgotten just how much nervous energy a young child had - just sitting still in order to try and think things through was becoming a serious challenge, and that wasn’t even counting the way my now much-younger brain was coping with my current experiences - which was to say, quite frankly, it wasn’t.
My memories of my old life were beginning to fragment. I don’t know quite how to express the experience of it, except to say that while I didn’t feel like my original memories were fading exactly, they definitely were getting fuzzier as time went on. My newer set of memories was relatively vague and fuzzy, too, something that I attributed to my now less-developed brain, so I had reason to believe that I, the original me, wasn’t going to just fade away. I could still recall everything, and I still knew who I was, but it was like I had to work exceptionally hard to bring about the level of mental clarity that I was used to working with. Whenever I tried to recall a memory from my original life, the version of it that I got was something more in-line with the majority of my new memories - something faded and granular, as if seen at a low resolution. I could concentrate and bring it further into clarity with some effort, but that was a very difficult thing to do - so I found myself stuck taking far longer to think through all of this than I was used to, and quite frankly it was disconcerting.
I also kept stealing glances at Ryu and Duo, my other two “brothers” who apparently had undergone a similar experience - just who were they supposed to be? I had to assume that they also were people from some other world who suddenly found themselves trapped in this one, with memories much older than they physically were awakening within them - an entire second life suddenly overlaid atop their original one.
Did I know them? I mean, in a sense I did - my child body had memories of them - mostly things like getting left behind while playing because I wasn’t fast enough to keep up - but there was at least something there for me to mentally latch onto. But did I know the new them? Were these people that I had known in my last life? Were they random strangers from across the planet? Or more terrifying yet - what if they were other versions of me, just put in different bodies to see how we played out? I mean, I was clearly in a new world, it stood to reason that there might be more dimensions than just the one I came from and this one, maybe there were different-universe versions of myself. What if this was a me -off in a sense, like some sort of contest to figure out who the best version of myself was by putting lots of me in different bodies and having us face off in some sense.
Man, wouldn’t that just be crazy. Not that my current circumstances weren’t already crazy in some sense.
I was shaken out of my reverie by the sound of a panicked scream. I looked up and saw Ryu struggling mightily to get away from the hands of the nurse who had been tending to him. In her hands was a needle, its tip still red with the blood she had been drawing from Ryu. Ryu was flailing around like a man under attack, panic in his eyes as he struggled to get away.
When we finally arrived home, it was a relatively quiet affair. Genma and Nodoka were still worried about us, and all through dinner they kept watching us as if we were gonna each grow a second head or suddenly burst into song or something. They checked us over one more time before putting us all to bed. Me and Ranma shared a room, but Ranma was still young enough to be struggling with putting basic sentences together, and most of what had occurred today had flown over his head. He was out like a light in moments.
I stayed awake much longer into the night, just staring up at the ceiling and trying to think about my circumstances. The whole thing was just so surreal, I still couldn’t take it all in. The encounter in the stairwell kept running over and over through my head. What had possessed me? Why had I chosen to do such a thing? Was I insane?
Clearly I was, that was the only explanation.
I needed to get out of here. This bedroom wasn’t really mine, and I needed to get out of it and clear my head.
Stealthily, or at least as stealthily as a young child can be, I crept out of the bedroom I shared with Ranma and made my way out into the night. The family home was in a relatively urban environment, and it wasn’t hard to find a way out past the normal trappings of civilization. I found a grassy hill overlooking some woods and sat, just staring out into the night, taking in the peace and quiet. The full moon hung high in the sky, casting the area around me in quiet shadows.
I don’t know how long I stayed out there - time flows differently for the young, I was beginning to rediscover - but it felt like quite a long time. Finally, I lowered my head and closed my eyes.
“Please,” I prayed softly, intending to beseech not the deity that had brought me here, but the only deity that I had any modicum of faith in, “help me make sense of this. I don’t know what I’m doing…”
“You couldn’t sleep either, huh?”
I jerked, startled out of my introspections, and turned. Ryu and Duo stood behind me, the moonlight illuminating their forms.
<=0=>
I stared at them for a very long time, unsure what to think, feel, say, or do. It felt like this was supposed to be one of those ‘big moments’, but for the life of me I just didn’t know what to say or do. Eventually I just settled on “yeah.”
“Understandable.” Duo said in response. “It’s a big adjustment.”
“Okay, hold on…” I spoke up, finally finding my voice. “... just out with it already. Who the freak are you two?”
Ryuji smiled, and it was both genuine and warm. “Come on, Ken - I know we look different, but put it together.”
“Put what together?”
Duo rolled his eyes. “Fine, fine - I’ll admit it: Mewtwo is broken. There. You happy now?” He said with a smirk.
I froze.
No way.
No freaking way.
It was them. They’d made it. I wasn’t alone.
They were my brothers.
Holy kami… they were my BROTHERS now!
I can’t describe the feeling that came over me then. It was… it was too much and too deep and… yeah. Even if I hadn’t been stuck with the brain of a freaking child, I still would have come up short trying to put words to it. So instead I just launched myself at them and, for the first time since we’d known each other, I pulled them into a hug.
“Oh, thank the kami…” I said, not questioning the change in my phrasing. “I thought I was alone.”
Ryuji didn’t hesitate. He got it. We WERE brothers now. He had the same dual sets of memories I did. He joined in . “Us too.”
Duo followed suit after a moment, but it didn’t take long for him to say it. “This is so gay.”
“Shut up, BRO.” I said. “We’re, like, 5 and 6. You sick-minded deviant.”
That got us all laughing.
We caught up after that. Apparently we’d each all had different experiences. Ryuji had apparently been hit by a truck - clearly not the most pleasant thing, and it had definitely left him freaking out in the hospital over the memories, but in general he was managing. Duo claimed he’d just straight-up jumped through the portal, no explanation needed… because of course he did.
“So…. what now?” Ryu asked.
“What do you mean, ‘what now’?” Duo responded. “This is life now. We’re KIDS, guys. However it happened, and why it happened, this is it now.” He looked around. “Besides, this is awesome. I mean, you REALIZE where we are, right? You recognize those names just as much as I did.”
Ryu nodded enthusiastically, but my own response was slower. “Kind-of.” I said. “I never really watched the series THAT much. Most of what I know is second-hand.”
“Well, trust me, it’s AWESOME.” Duo smiled. “We are going to be SUCH badasses.”
“Oh yeah.” Ryu joined in. “I mean… we’re gonna have to work for it… but seriously, this is going to be AMAZING. Plus, we’ll get to do SO MUCH to make things BETTER than they were.”
I looked over at them. “Guys, come on - that was fiction. This is real. I get it, and maybe before, when we were just reading about them they were just characters- but this? These people are real. I saw the looks on Mom and Dad’s face, they were actually scared for us.”
“If you knew more about Genma, you wouldn’t be so quick to stand up for him.” Duo responded.
“Hey, come on - I have the same memories you guys have. I DO know about him. But he’s still a person.” I held up my hands. “Okay, I agree that we should try to help where we can, and we should try to make things better - but we shouldn’t assume that we KNOW. These are people, they aren’t going to respond like chess pieces, okay? We shouldn’t try to move them around like we’re solving a puzzle.”
Ryuji’s smile deepened. “Agreed. This isn’t a game, and it’s not a silly story - for better or worse, these are our lives now. We should live them like they matter, because we’re stuck with them - and Ranma’s life is currently set up to be hell; I think we should do what we can to help… but yeah, it needs to be because we actually want it to be better, not just because we can.”
Duo hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Okay, fine. We wanna be awesome, but we also wanna fix things for the better.” He looked between the two of us. “We should also agree that we all have each other’s backs now. We’re brothers now. That may have a memory thing to it - but I think we should embrace it. None of us ever had any - we’re gonna need each other. We should be that for each other.”
Something deep inside me felt that again, and I nodded. “And Ranma too. He’s not here - but he needs it too. He shouldn’t be the fourth amigo. He’s not a character to us - he’s our brother.”
Ryu and Duo both nodded. “Agreed.”
Duo grinned. “The Brothers Saotome. Has a nice ring to it.”
I punched him in the arm. “Smartass. It doesn’t sound THAT good.”
“Better than anything YOU’VE come up with.”
Ryuji chuckled. “Alright, come on guys - let’s get back to bed. We’ve got a lot of childhood-ing to do, and I get the sense that we’re not gonna always be this articulate. I think we’re gonna have to go back to REAL childhood before we come back to this.” He looked at me and Duo. “But I’m not gonna forget who I was, where I came from, or who I am - and I’m not gonna forget this. You’re my brothers now - literally. And we’re gonna live that.” He said with a smile.
We all grinned. “Brothers.”
Chapter Text
- For Ryuji. Rest in peace. The torch is passed.
Prologue
Part 2
When we woke up the next day, we were a lot dumber than we had been the day before.
No, seriously- whatever we had managed to retain of our teenage intelligence for that one day as part of the transition? It was gone. I was dumb as a brick again. Literally, I spent the next couple weeks becoming obsessed with dinosaurs again. Kami, that was embarrassing.
But it was also kind-of cool, ya know? Kids… they see everything with fresh eyes. There’s a… magic… to the world when you’re that young, and I had sorta forgotten a little what that was like. It was really cool getting to see the world that way again. And even if the 3 of us couldn’t quite communicate the same way we used to, getting to have actual brothers was awesome in a way. Siblings who understood me, who got what it was like for me - that was special. Truly. My sister from my first life… she hated me. And deservedly so - I was… I’m not gonna go into that. She had every right to resent me, and she always kept me at a wary distance. And I learned to respect that. Hell, I felt like I deserved it.
Okay, real quick: For those of you who are curious and just waiting to find out what the fuck is at my center, like what the actual moment-to-moment events were… Fuck you. No. Never. Learn to live with your morbid curiosity and take it to your graves, because I’m taking this to mine. You don’t need to know, and you never will. Besides, it doesn’t matter. You’ll find out what the part of it that matters is when we get there, but the actual thing itself? I’m taking it to my grave, so stop looking or waiting. For real. This isn’t some sob story, this is my life - and some things deserve to die and be forgotten. What matters isn’t what actually occurred - what matters is that it hurt, and just how much so, and why - and that we’ll get to. But not the rest. So stop fishing for details, because I’m never sharing. It’s not what someone else did or what I did that’s important… it’s what I *am* that matters. The end.
Anyway… yeah. I never had brothers. And it was awesome.
I hated them.
That’s a lie. They were awesomely irritating. And we drove our parents mad. I actually really enjoyed that time of my second life. It was fascinating and crazy and awesome, but also heartwarming in a way that I had almost forgotten about. Fuck, that grounded me so hard, and I loved it. I even managed to forget about my own bullshit for a while. That alone was worth so much in its own way.
But eventually it ended, the way things always do. Nodoka wanted her sons to be “men among men,” and Genma was set on it - and what were we going to do about it? We were barely out of diapers, it’s not like we could get jobs and just emancipate ourselves. We were stuck. Legally we were dependent, and even I couldn’t deny it.
And so we signed the stupid contract - and off we went.
Okay, that’s not entirely true. We did sign Mom’s stupid contract - but by this point we’d known each other long enough to read each other’s tells - so when Duo gave me and Ryu a look, we both knew what it meant… and when Ryu picked up a bokken and started trying to hit me with it, it wasn’t because he actually was mad, it was so I could have the excuse to try and grab for Mom’s ancestral sword to try and hit him with the sheathe - and in the ensuing chaos that unfolded, as me and Ryu were pulled from the room, we saw Duo grabbing a pen and walking towards the contract, and we knew that whatever he was up to, we were going to be glad for it. And in hindsight, yeah - it probably saved our lives.
So, yeah - I didn’t find out until much later what happened, but I knew Duo did something, and in hindsight I’m glad for it. After that we left on our training journey. And let me just say: that was a level of hell I never expected.
<=0=>
Try to imagine hell on earth. Like, literally - fire and brimstone, lakes of pain and lava, personalized torture, whips and chains - not the “fun” kind that you people are weirdly into, the norma kind. Like, total, absolutely, complete non-stop pain and torture.
This was not that bad.
But it sure felt damn close sometimes.
Genma’s idea of “training” was “throw them into the deep end” - and his idea of “throw them into the deep end” was “full force from day 1.”
He literally attacked us with everything he had from the very first day. I would like to remind you: the man was near-on 300 pounds.
I was 10 at the time. Ranma was 9.
To say that this was “not fun” would be the understatement of all the centuries combined. The man was vicious. Any semblance that I imagined of the parent I’d grown up with was replaced very quickly. And on top of that, the man didn’t even have the decency to act honorably about it. The dude’s idea of ‘encouragement’ was taunting us while we were down. Needless to say, we learned quickly. I’m surprised we didn’t break any bones.
Ryuji bucked up under it. He took it all to the chin with a stoicism that I swear I had never seen him display in his first life. I don’t know what his experiences had done to him, but apparently something had changed in him, because the guy was like a tank for punishment. No matter how much Genma taunted him, no matter how cruel his treatment was, Ryuji simply took it without complaint and kept trying. I mean, I consider myself fairly diligent, and lord knows I can be mule-headed, but Ryuji was a monster. I guess going from “only child” to “firstborn” had a bigger effect on him than I thought.
As for Duo… well… let me come back to him.
Ranma and I both tried to follow up on Ryuji’s example, but we didn’t handle it nearly as well. Apparently as a kid Ranma was actually a bit of a softie. I don’t say that out of a desire to insult: he had a bigger heart than any of us ever thought. And when I saw Genma’s treatment intensify out of an intent to try and “toughen him up,” I saw red a couple times. I guess I should’ve known that that was a tactic of Genma’s, because it’s not like I ever laid a hand on him even at my worst - at least at first. But kami, how I tried. I worked myself to exhaustion trying to hurt Genma because of his actions toward us, but towards Ranma in particular - and the longer it went on, the more I watched the caring Ranma that I knew disappear, the harder I tried. Hell, at one point I literally tried to smother Genma in his sleep; I was seriously ready to end the guy. Didn’t do me any good, though - it turns out all I did was give him ideas, because after that we all had to learn how to sleep while still wary enough to wake up and dodge attacks even while unconscious. Random, unpredictable nighttime attacks became a regular routine. I think part of me deep down still truly hates Genma for how he treated us, even if I also have to admit that it was effective, and that the skills I’ve learned have been lifelong. I can even admit that I can’t think of any other way that it could have been done, at least not and still retain what we got out of it - but it doesn’t make it right. What he did was evil, and I will always resent him for that.
There was also the sheer chaos of the style of training. In-between the random and constant assaults there were also more formal training sessions, studying and practicing martial arts forms from a variety of traditions. What sucked was how much it got switched up every time we thought we had just gotten the handle of a particular style. The Anything Goes has a few fundamental forms and stances, but they are extremely basic and limited. Hell, they're pretty much a minimal scaffolding at best; everything else about the style is about having “form while formless.” I still don't entirely get what it means sometimes, I swear it's probably at least half just double-speak. But I digress: every month it was a new style we were expected to master while also completely ignoring everything we'd learned before. At first it was basic stuff we knew from Japan: Karate, Aikido, Judo, even Ninjutsu and Sumo got some time. But after that it started to get ever more ridiculous: a dozen different variants of Kung Fu, then Wing Chun, Tai Chi, and Bazhiquan. And then Genma started to shock us with how much he knew. He gave us genuine boxing lessons from America, then moved to Muay Tai, Sambo, Capoeira, and even Krav Maga. I will admit, the month we spent studying american-style “Pro Wrestling” was actually almost amusing by comparison to the rest - but even that turned out to be helpful. Not gonna lie, being able to look like we're seriously fighting when we're not actually hurting each other has been really useful every now and then. For a while we made some good side-money that way. But the need to master all of them that rapidly was absolutely grindingly painful - only to be forced to leave it all behind the next month when we shifted to the next thing.
Except we weren't expected to forget it all; when we were training in a new style, we were supposed to be 100% focused on that style, just completely starting over from nothing - but in-between we had these time-periods where we weren't focused on learning a certain style, and instead we were expected to use all of them when fighting, apparently those were “True Anything Goes Style” fights.
Also, every freaking moment was expected to be training. Literally. Walking down a road? Imagine a tightrope in front of you and balance on it. If you're not doing well, Genma will shove you. In fact, if there's a wall nearby, walk on it - balance practice. In fact, if you can jump your way there across rooftops rather than walking, do that. Even better if you're dodging thrown objects the whole time. Sometimes I can't even tell if any of it was actually real training or just blatant abuse just to be a dick.
It wasn’t just the unpredictability of the assaults themselves, or that we were never safe from them; it was also the creativity shown in placing us in perilous situations. Turns out skipping out on meals isn’t just a thing he would do because he was cheap; he also did it because it forced us to find solutions to the problem. We probably worked half a dozen summers worth of part-time jobs paying off his meals - when we were even allowed that option. Sometimes we had to fight our way to freedom in order to avoid jail time. And that’s not even counting the time that he maneuvered us into getting stranded on a log rolling down white-water rapids and left us to navigate it on our own. Genma’s idea of a “training exercise” didn’t include explanations or prep; his idea was to set up the problem, then throw you in and let you figure out how to get out or pay the price. Sure, it provided incentive, but it also left us permanently wary.
On the other hand… it also worked .
That's the crazy thing - despite the sheer insanity of the experience… it actually worked .
I still remember the very first time I caught a stone that Genma had thrown at me before I even thought about it. No, really - I literally did not know that he was even present, I'm not even sure if I knew why I did it at the time… I was just sitting there eating fish and rice with my chopsticks, and all of a sudden I just moved my hand and caught the thing. We all thought Genma had gone out to get more fish, and the fishing spot was an hour away. And yet I just… moved.
It wasn't until after I let it fall to the ground that I realized what I'd done. It was crazy.
After that it got stronger. It wasn't “the force” or anything - it was more just like… an instinct. Something we learned to trust. When our bodies said to move, we did. And it usually saved our ass. Turns out that was how we were supposed to sleep while still remaining safe from danger: hone that instinct until it could wake us up. Or until we moved from it even in our sleep. God, the sheer freaking sleep-dep. Fuck Genma. Fuck him with a pine cone.
And what's even crazier was when all the different style practices started to make sense. It wasn't so much that the Anything Goes had actual specific stances, motions or strike patterns… hell, even the stuff we were taught initially was more of a starter framework… it was more that, once you got good at it, it specifically lacked them. After a while, you didn't even really switch between styles. You just started… moving. I mean, you weren't mindless , it wasn't trance-fighting. It's just that after a while all the different styles and their various maneuvers started to just… gel. And then you started pulling what you needed the moment you needed it without needing to really think about it that much.
That was when it stopped being a chore and actually started being fun.
The first time me and Duo fought and really let go - I'll remember that fight for the rest of my life. It wasn't just like a dance with punches, because I'd seen those kinds of fights, and in those the thing is you can still clearly see each person's style like it's an identity - the guy trained in Fencing still always moves along a single plane, no matter how the rest of the fight goes. Each fighter ends up with something like a role to play, a mindset that they've come to embody and practice until it becomes reflexive - and so you can still characterize the fight in a way. Aikido users always flow like water - it's what they do . They can't help it. They couldn’t strike with rigidity and solid core power even if they tried - they've sacrificed that to be able to flow so well. Capoeira users can't not dance when they move, it just isn't in them. Karate users strike hard and solidly - it's literally how they roll.
The Anything Goes… it adapts . That is it's credo. That is it's core; that is it's essence. It's not change for the sake of change, it's not “learn everything and then use what works for you” - it's “learn everything, keep it, and use what works for you right now .”
The Anything Goes is morphic . It changes what it is moment-to-moment depending on what's needed.
And the first time it really clicked was epic. I still remember it. Duo tends to use flow-y styles, so he started by trying to dance around me. I countered with hard and solid force, trying to pin and flatten him. When that didn’t work, I switched to rapid and precise motions. That got him, but he immediately slammed into solid motions and power-backed anchored strikes. Then it was my turn to flow around him, only for him to immediately start going rapid-fire on me, at which point I grabbed him and tried to throw him, only for him to reverse it and end up being the one to toss me.
I lost. But fuck , I never forgot that rush. We didn't have a style. We had the adaptation . Fuck, that was addictive.
After that, Genma didn't have to push us to spar every morning. We were up before he was. It was in us at that point. We didn’t care about him any more, we were in it for ourselves. And fuck it was such a rush.
After that moment, everything changed. There basically wasn’t anything Genma could really do to us any more at that point. Being prepared for anything and adapting on the fly made us ready to tackle anything that he tried to throw at us. No amount of chaos was enough; it was always just another challenge. Cooking, traveling, setting up camp, hell even bathing - all of it was practice, all of it was mastery. It became everything; every moment of every day. It was life, it was breath. Everything was a challenge; and we knew how to handle it.
Well… most of us did.
So, yeah… remember how I said I’d come back to Duo? Yeah.
Duo… Duo had problems.
It wasn’t obvious at first. In fact, what seemed the most obvious at first was how much Duo seemed to excel at handling the chaos that we were going through. Where Ryuji wore down and found his solid core, where Ranma’s softness was slowly worn away, and where I found my inner fire… Duo seemed to just sharpen. Nothing got to him. No amount of Genma’s craziness ever truly phased him. He met every challenge, every unfair circumstance, every sudden backstab and harsh condition with the same smoothness, the same wit, and the same unflappable humor that he’d always had, all while somehow seeming to manage to come out ahead of pretty-much all of us at almost everything; it was like all of the harshness just slid off of him like water. He took to all of the trouble like he was the 11-year-old version of a navy seal. It was actually scary and shocking at once.
Until Ranma started getting better than him.
See… the Anything Goes may be all about adaptation… but we still all tended to have our own take on it. Each of us still tended to have strengths that we liked to ease into a little more than others. Ryuji was stoic, he was the oldest, and physically he was the biggest of us. Maybe not by much… but enough. So even if he could do some things like the rapid-fire arm strikes of Wing Chun, he didn’t tend to. He was solid and grounded, it was his tendency; so he actually tended to gravitate to the more simplistic but reliable and robust styles like Karate, maybe with a bit of the explosive power of things like Bajiquan; that kind of stuff. That was just his tendency. Meanwhile, I was fast. It had always been my thing; reflexes were always a talent of mine, and I liked to move - so stuff like Taekwondo’s aerial kicks were fun for me, and Wing Chun’s flurry strikes were a fun challenge. Hell, even Capoeira was good even if only for exercise; that sort of thing. I kind-of enjoyed the snappiness of Jeet Kun Do, too, but I found the conditioning to be a bit too much sometimes.
But not Ranma. Ranma was good at everything . I swear, the guy was a sponge . He absorbed everything better and faster than all of us. Or maybe it would be better to say that Ranma’s thing was adaptation, which made him a natural fit for “official” heir to the style. Me, Ryuji, and Duo were good at the Anything Goes, but we each still had inherent tendencies. We still drifted towards a style - and that drift meant we had weaknesses. Ranma didn’t. Ranma was just good at everything, but especially at the adaptation. Ranma adapted to our adaptations before we even started them. It wasn’t that he was smart enough to strategize about it - he just felt it. The guy had a real gift - which I guess makes sense. He was born for it, after all.
But that’s where things got bad . Because when it started to become apparent that Ranma was the obvious heir and the golden child… Duo’s smile gained an edge. That was when I started to realize that something was wrong. That was when some of the fears that I thought I had left behind in my first life started to resurface.
I still remember the first time we saw it. It wasn’t the worst thing at first - but we all saw it, even if we didn’t say anything immediately. It was over dinner, after Ranma had picked up his first kata faster than Duo.
<=0=>
“You know, it’s impressive, really. How quickly you pick things up. Like a sponge. No… not a sponge. A mirror, maybe. You’re amazing at reflecting things. Not understanding them, necessarily - but copying them back with just enough polish to pass. Like a really smart parrot with a black belt.”
I look over at Duo. I saw that calm look on his face, the way his smile didn’t touch his eyes - and I knew . I didn’t know how to express it - but I knew, deep down. I had hoped that having a real father, even one like Genma, or having real brothers, might have changed him - but I could see it. I knew this was the door opening, and I felt part of me die inside at knowing it.
I watched Ranma’s face fall. I watched his heart shred at Duo’s words - and that spark flared to life inside me.
“It’s not mimicry, it’s skill.” I said, taking another bite of my food. “I don’t give a fuck what Genma says; as far as I’m concerned Ranma’s the heir because he’s the best at it out of all of us. The fact that he’s a little behind some of us is because he’s younger, not because he’s less skilled.” I looked over at Duo. “When you were his age a couple years ago, you weren’t half as skilled as he is now. None of us were.”
Duo didn’t even flinch. He stirred his rice gently, then looked over with that same casual smile.
“Damn, Ken. You make it sound like I kicked your puppy.”
He let the silence hang a moment too long.
“I was just pointing out a strength. Ranma’s great at copying things, Ryuji’s good at taking shit like a bitch, and you're great at telling everyone how wrong they are. Everyone's got their talents.”
Still smiling. Still casual. His eyes were locked on mine. Still looking like at me like he was saying that I was good at baking cupcakes.
“You done with the moral defense speech? Or should I take notes for next time?”
It hit me like a punch to the gut. I felt the tension spike from my belly up to my neck, felt that all-too-familiar surge like a spike. Fuck me, that hurt. Because he wasn’t wrong - I mean, how could I even refute that without also showing it to be true? A second later, I stopped caring. It was a rigged game. I almost tried to cave in his smug face right there. I definitely wanted to. I felt my chopsticks start to silently strain and realized how hard I was gripping them. Because I knew better than what he looked like; this wasn't a tantrum. This wasn't Duo taking out some leftover aggression. This was something deeper. I'd seen it in our first life, and I'd hoped that his rebirth had altered it; I'd hoped that having an actual father may have given him whatever it was that he lacked. It both enraged me and saddened me to see that familiar look on his face.
Except now we weren't nerdy high school bitches he could just push around.
But then again, now neither was he.
Pathetic.
I blinked. Where had that come from?
Scum.
Fuck.
I stopped and took a slow breath, then set down my bowl of rice. “I’m going to go take a walk.”
Ranma looked at me, curious. “You okay, Ken?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be back.” I gave Ryuji a look and saw him nod. He knew: keep an eye on Duo, stick up for Ranma. I turned and walked off.
I don’t know what I was looking for. I just knew I needed to be alone. I had my own issues to grapple with. If I stayed I was going to do something I regretted.
I wish I could tell you I went on a magical journey of self-exploration, but it’s nothing so dramatic. I just walked until I was too tired to be mad any more, too tired to feel any fear… or anything else. And then I headed back. By the time I made it back to camp, it was late and everyone was asleep; even Genma. I crawled into my blanket roll and went to sleep.
<=0=>
After that it got worse. Any ability to give Duo criticism or feedback slowly vanished. It wasn't that Duo became petty; he became cruel and vicious. The jokes stopped being the kind that made everyone laugh and started being the kind that made everyone laugh at someone else . And there was always just that tiny hint in the background of them that made you think that they weren't entirely jokes. And Duo was never wrong. That was ultimately what truly infuriated me. Duo would be the first to demand an apology when one of us did him wrong - but he never gave one himself. He never “lost” a match - there was always some reason why the other person fought unfairly; a reason that didn't apply when it was Duo who won, even if he'd done the same thing. Never mind that the Anything Goes literally refuted the idea of “unacceptable tactics” in its very name. No, never mind that - you didn't win because the way you landed kicked sand into the air and clearly that was deliberate; clearly you were trying to kick sand into his eyes, so you cheated. Maybe it wasn't hurled at you as an accusation, but the subtext was there. Kami, it was stressful to the point of making me want to tear my hair out sometimes - but what truly made it bad was the fact that most of the time things were cool. It wasn't constant, and most of the time Duo was his normal insightful funny self - as long as you didn't ever criticize him, hand him a real loss, seriously disagree with him, or make him look worse than you.
Yeah. You can imagine how well that worked out.
This went on for a year . Dinner times slowly became silent affairs, with each of us quietly eating our meals, not bothering to say much to each other. Sparring matches became officially-required events, not challenges. For a time, things got bad.
And then, we had that run-in with the Yakuza.
<=0=>
Ryuji grunted as he carefully set Genma's unconscious body on the ground - although given the loudness of the “thump” that could be heard, it's possible he wasn't being quite as gentle as would normally be expected from the eldest brother.
Duo settled down beside the nearby stream and flipped his ponytail out of his face with a snort. “Well, that was a disaster.” he quipped.
Ken, landing on the ground next, stumbled down to one knee for a moment with the weight of the exertion they had just undergone. It didn't stop him from quickly rounding on Duo as he made his statement. “Ya think!?” Ken yelled with a sarcastic shock to his tone. “What made you think that you could pull the wool over the eyes of a Yakuza boss?” He continued.
Duo's tone was dismissive as he replied “What made you think that punching him was such a smart idea? You could have gotten Genma killed, and now because of your lack of self-control we've got them after us.”
Ken's mouth flattened into a line at Duo's redirection, his anger rising. “ Excuse me !? I could have gotten Pops killed!?” He whipped his hand up, finger pointing accusingly at his brother. “I asked you a fucking question, Duo!”
Duo, ever the cool-headed one, showed no concern at all at Ken's obviously rising anger. “No, you threw a temper-tantrum like a baby.” He replied with a patronizing coolness. “That wasn't a question, it was you trying to put your failures on me when I had the entire situation perfectly under control. When you're able to talk about things like an adult we can continue discussing that, starting with your apology for what you just did; until then you're welcome to go run off into the woods like you always do.”
Ken's jaw clenched and his arm raised, fingers curled into a fist.
Ryuji's muscled hand slapped down around Ken's wrist, immobilizing his arm. “That's enough.”
A low, rumbling growl emerged from deep within Ken's throat. “Let me go, Ryu.”
Ryuji's face was calm but stern. “No. Not until you're under control again.”
“You're not my father, Ryuji. You don't tell me what to do.”
“No, your father is over there on the ground, still bleeding, while you and Duo are arguing about blame.”
Duo chimed up again, his voice tinged with amusement and dismissal in equal measure. “I'm not arguing about blame, the blame is obvious - it's Ken who's trying to misplace the blame.”
Ryuji calmly turned to face Duo, his voice still even and measured. “You know very well that your actions in there were impulsive, headstrong, and rash.”
Duo snorted. “Please, like your actions are somehow perfect. Him ‘catching’ me was part of the plan from the beginning, it's not my fault you didn't trust me enough to let me play out my hand and decided to come in and try to buy out the problem. Where did all that money come from anyway, Ryuji? How long have you been impersonating Scrooge McDuck while the rest of us hunt wild game in the woods?”
Ryuji tensed, visibly irritated but maintaining his composure. “It doesn’t matter - it was my money. I don't need to explain or justify it to you.”
Duo sneered. “Guess family only matters when it’s convenient for you, huh, Ryuji?”
Ryuji’s voice grew louder. “It was for emergencies, for situations exactly like this.”
Ranma's voice broke through the growing ire. “Guy, come on. Are we really doing this? Blaming each other when we should be figuring out how to get out of this mess?”
Ken turned to Ranma, his muscles clenched tight. “There IS no getting out of this mess!” He all-but yelled. “We're stuck now, this is our life from now on! We work, we save, we run from those idiots, we pray they don't find us when we aren't looking, and one day we go back with a boatload of money and pray that we can pay them off to leave us alone instead of just killing us on the spot! That's it! There is no escaping this mess, Ranma! The only real solution for this mess was to not get into it in the first place! And none of it would exist if we hadn't kept rescuing him from his own idiocy!” He punctuated his last statement by pointing towards their comatose father.
Duo crossed his arms and scoffed, glaring at Ken. “And it wouldn’t have escalated if someone could keep their fists to themselves.”
Kenshiro snapped and rounded on Duo, his voice ringing. “BULLSHIT!”
Duo didn't even respond with words, instead simply letting out a dismissive scoff in response.
Ken's lips curled into a snarl and his voice lowered to a dangerous whisper.. “You.....”
Ken took a slow breath, his posture straightening, almost seeming to relax a bit - but his gaze on Duo made it clear that he was not calmer. He spoke with a deadly quiet. “I'm done with your utter bullshit, Duo. Genma's shit is bad enough and gets us into enough trouble... but you?” He paused to look Duo up and down significantly. “Genma is a drunk, irresponsible thief... but at least he has the virtue of being honest about that. You wouldn't be capable of honesty and integrity if all of our lives depended on it - which it did, TONIGHT - and you put all 5 of us at risk and put us in a situation that could very well follow us for the rest of our lives… all because you simply couldn't even conceive of the idea that someone could be smarter than you and could see through your act... you needed everyone in that room to think that you were better and smarter and wittier than everyone else so badly that you nearly got all of us killed and probably fucked us over for life with your stupid performance act - and even now, you're standing here right in front of all of us, and you still can't even manage to find the temerity to admit that you made a mistake, much less muster anything like an apology to your own brothers... you lying, scheming, cold-hearted, empty, pathetic little coward .”
Ryuji and Ranma just stared, dumbfounded - shocked into silence by the sheer ferocity and viciousness of Ken's words.
Duo's jaw tightened, his eyes narrowing. “You think you’re the only one carrying weight here, Ken?” A vein of bitterness worked it's way into his voice. “We all have our roles, don’t we? Maybe if you’d stop charging in like a bull every time things get tough, we’d—”
Ken's fist impacted with Duo's face like a 20-pound sledge slamming against a sack of rice. Duo was so taken off-guard by the sudden attack that it wasn't until he'd landed on the ground 6 feet away and bounced that he was able to gather himself again. Duo rolled backward, snapping up to his feet as he turned to face Ken again. “That fucking tears it!” He roared, his face suffused with scorn as he glared at Ken. “It's bad enough you lord it over me constantly, now you think you're gonna beat me into submission!? I'm done playing games with you, Ken! Time to show you how much I've been taking it easy on you!”
He barely had time to finish the sentence before Ken was on him again - except this time Duo was ready. He sidestepped Ken's next charge and swung around, aiming to sweep Ken's feet out from under him. Unfortunately Ken kept moving, which took him out of the range of Duo's sweep.
After that it was all a blur. For the next few seconds, Ken and Duo fought with reckless abandon - but surprisingly, the tactical advantage became obvious very quickly.
Duo was an insightful fighter. He had a talent for reading opponents and predicting their next moves, along with a superlative sense of timing, which let him use set-ups and counters well in most fights. He'd always done particularly well against Ken since Ken's focus on agility and acrobatics tended to risk making him predictable if he wasn't careful.
But not this time - this time, Ken was different. There were no fancy flips or twists from Ken now, no needless jumps or wide leaping dodges. Ken was fighting directly, to-the-point, and viciously. And WHEN Ken hit, he hit to hurt. Twice Duo barely managed to move enough to soften a blow before it broke one of his bones.
From the sidelines, Ranma and Ryuji watched. Almost as soon as it started, Ranma started to move forward to intervene - but Ryuji hold his hand out, stopping Ranma. He looked over at his youngest brother's face as he spoke. “I was wrong. They need this.”
“But…!” Ranma replied.
“I know.” Ryuji responded. “I think it's stupid too, and I'm worried about them too - and yes, the timing sucks, because hypothetically it would be smart of us to focus on getting safe and checking over Pops to make sure he's okay - but you know Genma, and you know that he's a cockroach… and this is something that has been building for a long time. They need to burn the energy out of their systems. If they start to get out of hand, we'll stop them - but for now, let's let them go. We can keep an eye out and try to make sure we haven't been found.”
With that Ryuji reached down and hefted Genma's unconscious body back onto his shoulders - and he and Ranma took off, following after Ken and Duo as the two of them fought their way deeper and deeper into the woods.
<=0=>
The fight wasn't going well for Duo. Ken had never fought like this before - he was laser-focused, efficient, and brutal. He shrugged off everything Duo tried, powered through the hits that Duo did land, and hit with a cold, calculated cruelty that didn't just hurt, it threatened.
“Is this better?” Ken asked Duo as he traded blows with Duo, his face twisted into a snarl as they blocked, countered, and dodged. “I remember, Duo - THIS is where it always ended up with us the first time through. If I wouldn't shut up and get in line, if I kept pushing, eventually you'd resort to THIS… direct, physical violence. You called me out twice, you challenged me directly to fight things out, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't because you actually wanted to; I think it's because you knew I'd back down rather than fight you… you did it to get my compliance. Well now we're doing it - now you're gonna get to fight it out with me like you always wanted. How does it feel!!?”
Duo let out a quiet sigh and rolled his eyes, his voice coming out low and quiet. “Wow, look at you, Ken - still the fucking drama queen. You make it sound like I shoved you into a locker and stole your lunch money.”
Duo intercepted a strike from Ken and twisted, sending him flipping end-over-end onto the ground beside Duo. “Newsflash: you’re not some tragic victim of my tyrannical past-life oppression. You were just annoying. And sometimes? Yeah, you needed to be shut up.”
He paused as Ken got to his feet and turned to him. Him and Ken glared at each other for a moment. Then Duo spoke again, more quietly, his tone almost sarcastic. “But thanks for the therapy session. Real enlightening.”
Ken blurred forward. Duo saw the motion, knew he was going to go for another powerful strike, saw the way his anger drove him, and deduced the trajectory based on his motions - upper chest, powerful strike meant to send Duo flying again. He intercepted Ken's incoming fist and rolled with it, stepping forwards and sideways along Ken's strike angle, preparing to knock him to the side.
Only Ken wasn't there anymore. When Duo turned to follow-up with his attack, Ken was already gone.
Ken had raced forward the moment he felt Duo's deflection, speeding past Duo's trajectory while falling into a crouch, before stepping backwards and slamming his back and shoulders into Duo.
Duo reeled, trying to catch his balance - and he felt Ken's hand clamp down on his throat.
Ken's eyes were wild, the look on his face something dark, twisted, and horrific. He glared at Duo, his face twisting into a rictus that Duo normally only associated with the monsters from slasher films.
Duo's back impacted against the ground hard as Ken slammed him down by his throat. He coughed at the impact - any harder and Ken could have snapped his neck or crushed his windpipe right then and there.
Time stopped as they stared at each other. Ken's breath came out in heavy pants as he glared down at his brother, his hand on Duo's throat clenching with strain.
“Liar.” Ken snarled down at him.
A silent moment passed, with both of them taking stock of each other.
And then the sound of gunshots split the night.
<=0=>
Ken was moving before the sound of the first shots finished ringing through the air. He and Duo exploded apart, each leaping in opposite directions as two men in black suits emerged from the underbrush, their pistols already firing.
Ken was closing on the second one before he'd even fired his second shot. He bobbed and weaved, dodging two more shots as he closed with the man before dodging to the side, putting the man between him and the other gunman. A sweep and a follow-up side-kick later and the man in black was flying bodily into his partner, their bodies crashing together.
Just as they did, Duo came sliding in. In one quick swipe he grabbed both of the guns from their hands before turning and landing a spin-kick that sent their combined mass tumbling into the trees.
As he landed, he turned to look at Ken, the guns held dangling in his hands. “Glad to see you finally found your inner psychopath, Ken.” With a few quick motions, he let the guns fall to the ground in pieces, their slides disconnected from the rest of the weapon. Duo quickly pocketed the ammo clips. His voice turned quieter and more bitter. “Too bad you only save it for the people who care about you.”
Ken winced, and a shudder went through his whole body, his eyes squeezing shut and his head turning away. After a moment, he shook himself and looked back at Duo. “Sorry.” He said. “I don't-”
“MOVE, BAKAS!” Ranma’s voice cut through their conversation, and a moment later he and Ryuji came rushing out of the forest, Ryuji still carrying Genma slung over his shoulder.
He looked at Ken and Duo. “If the two of you have come to a natural stopping point, I think it would be wise for us to GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!”
Without saying another word, he turned and barrelled across the stream and into the woods on the other side, Ranma following close behind.
Duo and Ken traded looks for just a moment before simultaneously nodding. “Later.” They both said at once, and then took off after their brothers.
The forest was alive with shadows and breathless urgency.
They ran.
Ryuji led the way, Genma’s body bouncing across his broad shoulders with every step. Ranma darted beside him, eyes sharp, listening for pursuit. Behind them, Ken and Duo kept pace, each barely sparing the other a glance. The moment between them hadn’t healed, but it had crystallized something. A truce. Temporary. Fragile. Unspoken.
Branches whipped past them as they sprinted through dense underbrush and clambered over the uneven terrain. Ken’s breath was steady. Focused. Every movement calculated. Every footfall deliberate. He heard the distance echo of a barked command in Japanese - They were being tracked.
They didn’t have much time.
“Up here!” Ryuji called, swerving hard to the left. The forest sloped upward, the path narrowing between jagged stone outcroppings and loose soil. Ken followed without question. Ranma leapt forward with his usual spring, but Duo lagged a step.
“Shortcut,” Duo muttered. “Left slope. I scouted it earlier.” He peeled off, veering toward a steeper incline. The others didn’t follow.
Ken skidded to a stop. “Duo, no-!”
Too late.
Duo dashed up the embankment - and the ground gave way.
There was a rumble, a crack, then a sudden collapse as the slope beneath Duo crumbled into a tumble of rocks and roots. He shouted, scrambling for purchase as the world slid out from under him. A cascade of stones roared down the hill, echoing like gunfire.
Ken didn’t hesitate. He launched himself toward the edge of the crumbling incline, catching Duo’s wrist just before his brother tumbled completely into the ravine below. For one heart-pounding second, Ken’s boots scraped uselessly against the ground… then Ryuji was there, grabbing Ken’s belt and hauling both brothers back up.
Duo collapsed beside the others, heaving. His arms trembled from the strain.
“You good?” Ranma asked, wide-eyed.
Duo nodded, not trusting himself to speak. Ken didn’t look at him.
From somewhere behind them, another voice shouted. Closer this time.
“We’ve got to move,” Ryuji said, already setting Genma back over his shoulder.
Ranma turned to the others, pointing through the thinning tree line ahead. “There. That mist. That’s lowland air; there’s a gorge or river ahead. We follow it. Go!”
They ran again. Faster this time. Desperation burned through fatigue.
And then the trees opened.
The moon broke through the canopy, casting silver light on the yawning chasm that lay before them. A deep gorge stretched out like the earth itself had been torn apart. And across it, barely visible in the fog and shadows, was a narrow rope bridge, swaying in the wind.
Old. Weathered. The wood looked bleached and cracked.
But it was their only way out.
Ranma swallowed, then turned to them. “I think it’ll hold if we go one at a time.”
“Not Pops and me.” Ryuji answered.
“That’s why I’ll take him.” Ranma said. “I’m the smallest, it’ll be the least weight.”
The others nodded, and Ryuji handed over Genma to Ranma. Ranma grunted heavily under the old man’s weight, but although he stumbled he managed to carry him. Step by slow step, Ranma began to work his way across the bridge.
It seemed to take forever. The night was quiet, but every sound echoed in the brothers’ ears like the coming of doom. Finally, Ranma made it across.
Ryuji was next - then Ken. The bridge creaked threateningly beneath the weight of each of them, but it held.
Duo started across - and that was when a dozen men in suits emerged into sight from the hill behind him, following their trail.
They hadn’t spotted them yet, but they were looking. If he was quiet and careful…
Duo turned and sprinted full-speed across the bridge, his feet pounding on the wooden boards as he dashed. The other 3 brothers all held their breath.
He made it more than halfway across before it happened.
With a series of loud snaps, the ropes anchoring the bridge to both sides of the gorge began to snap. The men in black suits began to yell and point
“Duo, stop!” Ryuji cried. Duo ignored him and continued to run.
The ropes snapped. The far side of the bridge began to fall.
“Shit!” Duo cried. He grabbed for the rope railing to one side, holding tight. “I’ve got it! I’ve got-”
The bridge plummeted. Duo’s grip slipped.
Ryuji and Ranma blinked as something rushed by them - a blur they could barely follow. It was only after he’d braced himself and launched that they realized that Ken had jumped.
Duo’s face was ghost-white, panicking. His palm was sweaty gripping the bridge’s former rope handrail. He trembled and his hand spasmed - a moment later he let out an honest scream as the rope slipped through his hand. He fell. Fuck! Not like thi-
Ken’s hand clamped onto Duo’s forearm, his fingers digging like tiny vices into Duo’s skin.
Duo’s eyes snapped open wide at the feeling, and he looked up into Ken’s eyes.
“I’ve got you!” Ken yelled at him. “Come on!” He looked up at the cliff face, just a dozen feet away. “Ryu! Ranma! Hurry up!”
“We’re on it!” Ryu yelled back as he and Ranma hauled on the ropes.
“Why are you doing this!?” Duo yelled at Ken.
“BECAUSE YOU’RE MY BROTHER!!!” Ken screamed down at him. “I’M NOT LEAVING YOU BEHIND! EVER!!!”
If anything, Ken’s answer seemed to make Duo even more terrified - but he reached up and latched his other hand onto Ken’s arm anyway, clinging for dear life as they were hauled upward one surge at a time.
They saw the Yakuza close on the far side of the gorge, their guns lifting. Gunfire sounded.
With a roar of effort, Ken heaved Duo upward to his level and put himself between Duo and the Yakuza. Bullets “thwip”ed into the mountainside on either side of them. Ken let out a grunt of pain.
A moment later they were being hauled up onto the other side of the gorge.
Ryu and Ranma looked like they’d just seen the second coming as they pulled Duo and Ken over the cliff.
“Yay you’re alive.” Ryu said quickly. “No time to celebrate, we gotta run!” He said, scooping up Genma and beginning to move.
Duo and Ken both nodded and took off - only for Ken to stumble and fall flat on his face not 2 steps later.
Blood was oozing from Ken’s leg in a continuous stream. “Fuck…” Ken said, his face beginning to pale. “This is gonna suck…”
Duo grabbed Ken and pulled him onto his back. “Shut up, you baby, it’s just a flesh wound. I’ve got you - you fucking glory hound.”
Ken groaned in pain. “Yeah. I hate you too, bro.” He flatlined.
The four turned and sprinted down the mountain, leaving the yakuza behind to empty their clips before cursing and resigning themselves to having to take the long way, knowing full well that their prey would be long-gone by the time they arrived.
<=0=>
They stopped a few hundred feet away to give Ken’s leg some basic medical attention - but after that they kept moving. They ran for several more hours - running all-out without stopping, before they finally called it quits.
They did make a fire that night - but they kept it small, and only used it so that they could have reliable light source and could use it for things like basic medical necessities.
Ryuji checked over Genma first, making sure he hadn’t come to any serious harm. Once he was certain that the old man was fine - just majorly unconscious from whatever those thugs had injected him with - he then gave Ken’s leg another look-over. Apparently whatever job he’d been working on as part of his side-hustle had come with some basic medical training. Not much, but enough to do basic stuff.
“It looks like he got lucky - the bullet went right through the muscle and missed anything serious, as far as I can tell. We should get him checked out at an actual emergency room as soon as we can, just to be safe.” He said. “We won’t be able to do it here, unfortunately - too risky - but we should take him somewhere as soon as we can, just to have him checked for infections.”
The other brothers nodded silently.
Ryuji turned took a couple steps away before seating himself on a fallen log and turning to face the other 3 brothers - Ken on his left, Duo on his right, Ranma across from him.
“Okay.” he said, his voice quiet but solid. “Out with it.”
“Out with what?” Duo asked.
Ryuji’s eyes met Duo’s, then glanced over to Ken. “...You both almost died tonight. That’s not nothing. You don’t have to say anything, but… if there’s something to say… this is the time.”
The silence dragged on for a long time, the sound of the fire crackling being the only thing disturbing the quiet. Until finally…
Ken heaved a sigh. “Duo…” he said slowly. “You're my brother. I've got your back through thick and thin - no matter what. I'm not going anywhere. I'd lay down on a grenade for you… I took a bullet for you, and I'd do it again…” His face was tired and a little ashen, but his eyes on Duo's were steady. “But I can't trust you.”
There wasn't any rancor to it. It was just a statement.
“You aren't right about nearly as many things as you act like you are, you don't know as much as you act like you know, and you aren't as good at all the things you act like you're good at - and you won't hear it when people tell you otherwise, or even when reality hits you in the face with it. You always make yourself the biggest and the best, and if that's not the case, if you aren't genuinely the best or you aren't genuinely as good or if you're actually wrong about something… you'll tear other people down to try and make it that way. And… I can't stand that.” He shrugged. “Not like ‘it makes me mad’... I literally can't stand by and watch you ruin someone else.” His eyes darted to Ranma for a moment. “It's wrong. I don't know what the right thing to do is all the time… but I know that's wrong. And if I see it and do nothing… then I’m just as wrong.” His eyes fell down to the ground. “And I’m already going to have enough to answer for when it’s my time. I can’t… I can’t add anything else to my list.”
Duo's eyes narrowed. “You know what, Ken? Maybe I am full of shit. Maybe I am too proud, too arrogant, too whatever the hell you think I am.” He lifted his arm and pointed at Ken. The gesture wasn't angry, just firm. “But you? You’re not some righteous crusader, either. You’ve got a darkness inside you that scares the hell out of me - and you use me as a punching bag to keep it from turning inward.”
He sighed and let his hand drop. “So yeah. Maybe I’ve got my problems. But don’t pretend you’re just some heroic messiah carrying all of our flaws on your noble back. We’re all cracked, Ken. You’re just better at hiding it.”
Ken didn't flinch. He just looked at Duo, then down at the ground for a moment… thinking.
“Yeah.” He said slowly. His head lifted again, turning his face up to Duo. “You're right.” He sighed. “You're not seeing things. It's there. And it's bad.” His eyes closed for a moment. “And it hurts.” He looked at the ground again for a moment and then back up at Duo. “And I'm sorry for letting it out at you. You deserved to be called out - but you didn't deserve that .”
Ranma's face was pensive. He leaned forward, his expression gentle but curious.
“What is it?” He asked.
Ken's eyes squeezed shut and he leaned forward, resting his forehead on his open palms. He sat there in the firelight for a long time, just breathing. The others waited; they didn't press him.
“I….” He finally said. “I hurt people.”
Ranma blinked. “We all hurt people, Ken. That's just part of life. No one means to, they just do.”
“I do.”
The words hung silently in the air for a long time. Finally Ken lifted his head again.
“I mean to hurt people. I want to hurt people.”
The other 3 brothers looked at Ken surprised and stunned. The weight of the moment hung heavy in the air for several very long seconds.
Finally it was Ryu who broke it. He leaned forward, his voice calm and centered. “What do you mean?” He asked simply.
“I mean…” Ken said, turning to look at him. “... that I'm a monster.”
Ken's pulled his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them as he continued speaking. “I… like … hurting people. I like causing pain. I like making people suffer. And not a little. Not like punching you guys during sparring.” A shiver ran through Ken. “I could have ripped Duo limb from limb tonight… part of me *wanted* to… and that would have been bad enough…” he squeezed his eyes shut as tears began to form in them “... but as bad as that would have been… it would have been just anger… this was worse…” Ken gasped in a couple breaths before forcing the rest of the words out “Part of me wanted to do it not because I was angry… but because that part would have enjoyed how much pain it would have caused him.”
The 3 brothers stood stunned at Ken's words. The silence stretched for a long time, punctuated only by Ken's attempts to control his breathing as he sat there, his muscles occasionally spasming.
“Why?” Ranma eventually asked.
“I don't know.” Ken answered. “It just… it just is . I've tried to trace it back, but there's no answer. There wasn't any event that made me this way. I wasn't beaten, I wasn't ignored or neglected… I just… I just am. This is just… me. I was just made this way. I don't know why.”
“Jeezus…” Ryuji whispered.
They all sat around the fire for a few minutes, just processing the gravity of what Ken had shared. Eventually, Ryu reached over and rested his hand on Ken's shoulder. “Ken… I'm sorry.” When Ken looked up at him, he nodded. “I judged you too harshly.”
A breath escaped from Ken, something from deep inside, and Ryuji watched him relax just a little. He didn't say anything- he just glanced up at Ryuji and nodded.
The fire cracked.
“Duo was right.” Ranma said. When the other 3 brothers looked at him, he looked down into the fire. “I'm not special. I'm not the best. I'm just good at copying. I am just a smart parrot. And I don't know what I'm supposed to be or do.” He looked up at the 3 of them. “I don't deserve to be the heir. I'm scared to be. I'm going to mess it up. I'm going to ruin the entire tradition. I'm going to break the school. I just know it. I'm not good enough. And I don't know who I am or what else I'm supposed to do if I'm not good at this.”
Ken and Ryu looked at each other. Ken nodded and Ryu stepped back, go back to his place. “You aren't supposed to know what you're good at yet, Ranma. You're young, you're supposed to be figuring it out.”
“I'm only a couple years younger than you, Ryu.” Ranma glanced around at his brothers. “And you all know who you are so much more than me. You're all hurt, and I see it, but at least you know .”
“We cheated.” Ken said. While Ranma had been speaking, he'd slowly relaxed more, his posture opening up again. He leaned forward, taking a slow breath as he re-centered himself. “Don't give us too much credit when it comes to knowing ourselves, Ranma. We have an unfair advantage.”
“I know.”
Ken and Duo both whipped their heads up to look at Ranma. “You know?” They asked at the same moment, followed quickly by Ken's “How?”
Ranma shrugged. “Ryu told me 6 months ago.”
Duo turned to face Ryu. “You TOLD him!?”
Ryu nodded, unphased. “He was old enough. He deserved to know.”
“FUCK, Ryu.” Duo said. “That was damn reckless.”
Ryu shook his head. “No it wasn't.” He looked at Duo and Ken. “We are older than him, even more than we look. We had entire lives before we got here. Those shaped us. Our lives here shaped us, too, but so did our first ones. If we didn't tell him, it would have eventually made things harder and harder to explain.”
“No it wouldn't, dude.” Duo replied. “People forget shit, stuff fades, people accept weird stuff all the time. It happens.”
Ryu shook his head. “No, they don't. They may forget details, but the remnants, the sense of things… those remain.”
Duo fell silent at that, and another long pause fell over the group.
Eventually it was Ryuji who broke it.
“I'm not strong.”
He snorted a little and shook his head. “I know I'm the anchor. Duo may be the face, but I've seen the way y'all look at me.” He looked up at them. “But I don't do it because I want to, and I don't do it because I'm the eldest.” He shrugged and spread his hands. “I do it because I don't know how to do anything else. It's all I've ever done.” He looked between Duo and Ken. “I held you two together. I held my first set parents together.” His gaze swept across the fire at the 3 of them. “And now I hold the 5 of us together. I don't do it because I like it, or because I want to. I do it because… I don't know how to do anything else.” His gaze fell down to the ground. “I've never been good at anything else before. Even this, with the art… I don't feel like I'm as good as any of you. I'm just older, and that makes me a little tougher. That's all.” He chuckled a little. “I still kind-of feel like I'm cursed… like I'm not ever allowed to have anything worth caring about or be good at anything.” He shrugged. “If I could do anything else, I don't think I'd be any good at it. Holding the cracks together so that people more fortunate and more gifted than me can make something meaningful… that's the only thing I've ever really been able to do successfully.”
Another stretch of quiet descended as they all took that in. Eventually it was Ken who spoke.
“You don't have to be that.” He said. “Not any more.”
He looked up at Ryuji. “Not for me. Honestly I don't like being handled anyway.” He said with a slight smile. “You don't need to play peacekeeper with me. I know I'm the guy who storms off - but I'll make the promise now: I'll always come back.” He look at the 3 of them. “Ragardless of how it happened… you 3 are my brothers. I'm not leaving. Ever.” He turned his eyes back to Ryuji. “So you don't have to make me and Duo get along. That's not on your shoulders. Me and him, we'll work it out ourselves - somehow.”
He and Duo's eyes met, and a few moments later there was a silent nod.
Duo hadn’t spoken in a while.
Not since Ryuji revealed how he'd told Ranma about them.
He’d sat still, hands loose in his lap, his face cast half in shadow. Every flicker of firelight danced across a different mask: amusement, detachment, contempt - but none of them stuck. None of them held.
And when the silence lingered too long, Ken turned to him. No fire. No accusation.
Just quiet.
Eventually Ryu and Ranma turned to, just staring at Duo - waiting.
Duo exhaled sharply through his nose. “Well shit,” he muttered, staring at the flames. “You all really went for it, huh?”
He didn’t look up.
“I thought if I waited long enough, I could ride this one out. Let you all get your feelings out and then do my usual: smirk, make a crack, dodge the heart-to-heart like a bullet in a bad kung fu flick.” He finally glanced around. “But damn. You assholes really meant it.”
The fire popped.
“…I don’t know how to do this,” he said, voice quieter now. “I can tell you the truth. I can even make it sound good. But it’s never real. It’s always… curated. Framed. Polished just enough that if you walk away? I don’t bleed.”
He looked at Ken.
“I made you all laugh because it was safer than making you trust me. I knew how to be clever. I never learned how to be honest. Not without giving away the part of me that’s already convinced you’ll leave if you see it.”
And then… his voice broke.
“…And the thing is? I don’t know who I am. I don’t. I’ve built myself out of reflexes and sharp lines and borrowed moves. And the second someone sees through it, I… I lash out. Because if I’m not the smartest, not the fastest, not the best… then what the fuck am I?”
His head dropped.
“…What if there’s nothing underneath?”
Hands clamped onto Duo. He started and looked up. All of them were there. Ken had Duo's right hand clasped in his. Ryu had his left. Ranma's arm was on his shoulder.
“You're not nothing.” Ranma said. “You never have been.”
“You're our brother.” Ryuji said.
Ken took a moment and took a small breath before looking up at Duo. “And even if there wasn't anything there… if you can stand to be brothers with a monster, then I can stand to be brothers with a void.” He nodded. “I'll take that over the other any day of the week.”
Duo didn't say anything at first. He couldn't. His mouth opened. Then shut. Then opened again.
He started to try and smile, but then his whole body shuddered and his face fell again… he tried to quip, to joke, to deflect… but nothing came. His face contorted, trying to look angry, then unconcerned, then amused… but none of it stuck. Finally he just leaned forward, his arms and legs quivering.
“You don’t understand…”
He wasn't angry. He wasn't self-pitying.
He was hollow. It was a confession with no hope.
“You don’t understand what it’s like. To never know if anything you say is true… or just something you said because it was the only way people would stay.”
“You ever try to cry and realize you don’t even know if you mean it? Because maybe it just gets people to stop being mad. Maybe it gets you off the hook. Maybe it’s all just… a tactic.”
“I lie without meaning to. I smile when I hate people. I make jokes when I’m falling apart. I don’t know who I am.”
He looked up at Ken.
“And you still took a bullet for me. You fucking idiot. Why!?”
Duo's eyes filled with tears he tried to hide, but they fall anyway.
“You’re supposed to be the monster, Ken, right? But you felt something. You cared. You fought for me.”
“I’ve never fought for anyone. Not really. Not when it mattered. I always ran. I always made it about me. Because I didn’t know how not to.”
He was shaking. His breath hitched. He stared down at the ground. He couldn't even look at the others.
“You should hate me.”
He felt Ken's hand on his shoulder again as Ken kneeled down beside him.
“If it's any consolation… you piss me off a lot.” He said, his voice calm and even. “But you're still my brother… by blood… AND by choice.”
“I'm not leaving you behind, Duo. Ever.” He looked up at Ranma and Ryu, who nodded, then back down to Duo again.
“None of us are.”
Duo didn’t look up right away.
His breath shook. His fingers twitched where they were clenched in the dirt. He didn’t cry… not anymore. He just breathed, like every inhale was scraping something jagged off his ribs.
“…I don’t know how to do this.”
He said it so quietly it barely made sound. His voice cracked on the last word.
“I’ve… never done this. Said what I really mean. Meant what I said. Trusted that someone would stay. Chosen to stay.”
A bitter laugh escaped him, quiet and dry.
“I’ve been lying so long I don’t even know which parts of me are real.”
He finally looked up — not at anyone in particular, just up, eyes shimmering in the firelight.
“But if you’re serious… if you’re all serious… then…”
He finally looked up again - his eyes darting across all 3 of them.
“…don’t let me slip back in. Not again.”
They all nodded.
“We've got your back.” Ranma said.
Ken nodded. “As long as you're trying, I'm in.”
Ryuji just clapped Duo on the back, smiling.
<=0=>
Yeah… so that was… a lot.
Sorry.
It was a big deal! What do you want from me? Me and Duo almost freaking killed each other, it was hard-core.
Okay… that's not fair.
Duo wouldn't have killed me.
God, that sucks to acknowledge. I had such real problems back then.
No, it's okay, I can admit it. I was struggling with some hard stuff. But I managed. Not that it's ever over, not for me - in a lot of ways I'm still managing. But I learned to manage it better. But it was a long road, and a long way there, with lots of trials and challenges along the way.
And yeah, I know, somewhere along the way you probably started asking yourself “geez, what the fuck is with these other bozos? I'm only here to find out what happens to Ranma.” Well, I'm sorry if you find this disappointing, but I was the one who lived this life, and this is my record of it.
My name is Saotome Kenshiro.
Last of my world.
And this is my story. As fully and completely as I can manage to remember it.
I'm a multiversal nobody who was gifted with a heavy load to bear just for existing. And on the scale of things the size of the multiverse, I haven't ever made a major real impact.
But I did what I could, and I saved a few people along the way. And now I want to share what happened.
Hopefully you don't mind going along for the ride. It's been a hell of a journey.
But I'll get more into that next time. Hell, this is still stacking the kindling. Haven't even lit the fire yet.
Fuck, I'm gonna be blushing when we get there. The most important moment in my entire life, and I swear it's like something out of the most cliche novel ever.
But I don't care. I lived it. It was real when it happened to me.
I'm rambling. We'll get there.
I'm out for now.
Take care.
Chapter Text
- For Ryuji. Rest in peace. The torch is passed.
Prologue
Part 3
Hey. Welcome back.
Thanks for coming back. I appreciate it. It's nice to be listened to - to be heard, even if silently. It means a lot… just so you know.
Anyway… where was I? Oh, right.
<=0=>
It took me a month to heal up from that damn bullet wound. A literal month of essentially sitting on my ass. It fucking sucked.
I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
Duo teased me relentlessly. “Cripple-san” was his favorite, but “limpy” and “savior-kun” also made some appearances, among many others. I didn’t take it personally, though - I understood it now. I’d started to get Duo - at least a little. It was weird - but I’d started to figure out that, with Duo, the trick was: it was what he didn’t say that mattered. Sure, he made fun of me - relentlessly - but the jokes stopped being the kind with sting to them. Obviously they were still personal - he was my brother after all - but they weren’t personal personal, ya know?
Duo was still Duo - but we all saw him now; we knew he had spikes, we knew he hid stuff - but now we knew what he was hiding. And that was all we needed to get it. Plus he stopped being a real dick. He’d still complain if he lost - but it was the complaint that was fake now, and we all knew it… and that changed everything. Sure he made fun of my bum leg - but he also was the one who turned Genma’s bullshit around on him the next morning and wound him around himself so hard that he ended up agreeing that I needed to be left alone and allowed to heal for however long it took. And that wasn't just because it made him look good. He acted like that was why - but I saw the quiet look in the back of his eyes when he smirked at me afterwards, the one that had just the tiniest tinge of fear and trust - and I knew.
Kami, this is sounding like a bad doujin. Yuck.
So Anyway, yeah Duo was finally back, or at least better - even if you did kind-of have to look closely to get him. And it was cool.
It took us a couple days to get far enough away for us to feel safe taking me in to get my foot checked out. Fortunately the place didn't ask too many questions - we said it was a training accident while we were camping in the mountains - and outside of calling us all bakas they believed us. Turned out I was fine - nothing too crazy, some antibiotics just to be safe. Told to eat lots of protein and iron to help replace the blood, etc.
All 3 of them made sure I did.
I think that was the point when we really became the Saotome brothers.
I wasn't alone any more.
None of us were.
Fuck, I remember how big that was. Now I take it for granted. I almost can't imagine living any other way.
Of course that was when we noticed Genma starting to collect stray cats. We shut that down fast . We stole that scroll and burned it - and any time Genma so much as looked like he might be thinking about it again, we disabused him of the notion quickly and with zero tolerance. Not that that was the last we heard of it, but at least we shut Genma down about it.
It was at that point that the dynamic started to shift between us and Genma - we realized that, sure, individually we weren't as good as him, but if all 4 of us decided we didn't like something he was trying, we did have the skills necessary to stand up to him. We didn't do it often, but every now and then whenever he tried something particularly stupid we'd make it clear that we had limits now.
<=0=>
Meanwhile, in Tokyo…
<=0=>
It was nighttime in Nerima. The pale glow of streetlights was the only real illumination. No figures prowled the night; the district was peaceful. In one home among the rest, a soft blue light could be seen through the pale yellow curtains drawn across a second-story window.
Nabiki Tendo sat in her desk at her room, staring at the large cube-shaped monitor set up on one side of it. Her fingers danced along the keys, occasionally switching to the old tan-gray mouse resting on a pad with an image of a cat on it. Her eyes were narrowed as she stared at the screen, her mind focused.
The spreadsheet on the screen taunted her. It was her enemy - an opponent she dueled with, and needed to overcome. And it was winning.
Three months . She sighed. I can buy us three more months.
She flicked to another page: stock projections. Too small. Always too small . Her trades so far had been lunch-money scale: enough to prove she had the knack, never enough to matter. She could grow it - she knew she could - if only she had the seed capital to push past scraps. Six months with a real stake and she could turn the trickle into something steady. Maybe even pull back on the hustles.
She sighed. Yeah, and while she was at it, she should buy a ferrari.
Three months.
She closed her eyes, taking a slow breath.
A sterile room. Her mother’s hand, dangling off the hospital bed. The steady, empty whine of a heart monitor.
Nabiki shook her head, anchoring herself to the present moment. She swallowed the pain, along with her resentment at her own father's lack of actions - they were all still hurting, even years later.
She had to do something. Three months wasn’t tomorrow - but it was soon enough.
Her eyes drifted towards a set of folders sitting upright in an organizer on the side of her desk, lingering on one in particular - second from the right, old and faded.
No.
She shook her head. She’d find another way.
Ami…
She sighed and saved the file, beginning to shut her computer down. She’d look at it again tomorrow. She felt her heart tense at the delay, but she needed it. Sleep mattered. She wasn’t any good to herself like this. She knew she’d have trouble sleeping, but she needed the fresh perspective too.
There was always a way.
<=0=>
Ranma's body thudded to the ground and Duo's foot pressed against his neck, holding him in place. Duo held Ranma's hand and arm in both of his, twisted around on itself in his grip as he smirked smugly down at Ranma. “Gotcha!” He said triumphantly. Ranma started to try and spin into a counter, but Duo gripped harder and twisted, and Ranma went precisely nowhere.
“Come on,” Duo said hauntingly. “Give it up, you know it's true.”
Ranma rolled his eyes and tapped the ground twice. Duo immediately released. “You got so lucky!” Ranma said in mock-exasperation.
“Yeah, lucky like a fox!” Duo responded. “You got predictable, don't lie!”
“Okay, fine, I shouldn't have gone for that last counter.” Ranma responded. “I still beat you the last 3 times.”
“The only victory that matters is the last one.” Duo said as he pulled Ranma up to his feet.
“Oh, so does that mean you're going to retire now with your final victory intact?”
“Most certainly not.” Duo said as he clapped Ranma on the back, the two of them beginning to walk back towards camp. “However shall you learn to be a properly humble and gracious winner like me if I don't stick around to teach you?”
Ranma couldn't help but chuckle. “Oh but of course, your royal highness…”
“That's MISTER royal highness to you, and don't you forget it.” Duo said with an irreverent smirk. “I will also accept ‘the great and mighty' and ‘oh perfect one’.”
That got them both laughing, and they kept going all the way back to camp. Apparently the other 3 hadn't come back from their own match yet because the camp was still empty - so they set about starting to make dinner, moving with the ease of long practice.
Duo stopped over by his pack and dug around in it for a bit. “Hey, Ranma…” he said, jerking his head softly to call Ranma over. “I, uh… I have something for you.”
“Really?” Ranma said, puzzled.
Duo nodded and reached into the main pocket, pulling loose a small book bound in dark red leather. He handed it to Ranma, who took it with a slightly puzzled look.
“Who's ‘Sin Sue’?” he asked after looking down at the cover for a moment.
“Sun Tzu.” Duo corrected. “An old Chinese military general.”
“Was this yours?” Ranma asked, turning the book over in his hand, examining it from all sides.
Duo nodded. “I may have taken some of the wrong ideas from it - but the general theory can be very useful - and you can apply some of the ideas to combat directly in useful ways.” He shrugged. “I just thought you might enjoy it.”
“Pops says that books are for nerds.” Ranma said.
“Pops also says that you can survive on just sake if you try hard enough.” Duo said with a smirk.
Ranma couldn't deny that. He went and tucked the book away in his own travel pack.
<=0=>
It was the stove that did it.
Nabiki came down from her room the next morning to find Kasumi looking disappointedly at their kitchen stove, her face sadly pensive.
“What’s wrong, Oneesan?” Nabiki asked.
“I’m afraid it finally went out.” Kasumi said, her usually serene expression now tinged with just a touch of sadness.
If she’d been able to think about it, Nabiki would have understood: their mother had used that stove. Unfortunately, she couldn’t afford to bother thinking it through like that; not with the ash-black fist that had just reached into her chest and begun to squeeze. She nodded, trying to appear casual. “Well, I guess it’s finally time for us to get a new one, huh?”
Kasumi simply nodded, still staring. Inside, Nabiki could feel the knife twisting. She knew the numbers. No stove meant no cooking. Eating out was expensive. It would be a minimum number of days needed for them to find a replacement. Kitchen equipment wasn't cheap, even if she could find a good one secondhand, which then came with it's own risks…
Three months just became two weeks.
She could feel the dominos already beginning to fall. The numbers didn’t lie, and now they were screaming. She could make all the plans she wanted; this was it. The clock was running faster now, and there was no way to slow it down.
Breakfast was cold leftovers. Nabiki ate mechanically. The food was just texture: fuel, not comfort. Everyone else was calm; none of them knew. Kasumi might suspect, but she still trusted Nabiki to handle it. Her miso soup was tepid, the surface sheen dull instead of inviting. The steady tick of the wall clock was like a drum in her ears. She felt like… she shook her head slightly. She didn’t have time to feel.
She forced herself to eat slowly. She couldn’t risk developing some sort of stomach issue that they couldn’t afford to deal with right now.
Her stomach tried to fight her. It didn’t want to eat. She took a slow breath and forced the food down. What she wanted didn’t matter.
She set down her bowl and chopsticks and smiled at Kasumi. “Thanks, sis - it was delicious, as always.”
Upstairs, her computer and spreadsheets waited, but she didn’t need to open them to know what they’d say. Two weeks. Maybe less if anything else broke. She passed the hallway phone, slowed… then stopped. Her hand lifted before she could talk herself out of it.
She dialed the number from memory.
“Yo.” A pleasant male voice answered.
“I’ve got something for you. Usual place?” She asks.
“It’s a date.” He answered jovially. They both hung up.
It wasn’t a date. But they both knew that.
Nabiki went upstairs, grabbed the folder, and carefully tucked it into her purse.
<=0=>
I'm ashamed to admit that I initially gave Ranma a little bit of a hard time about developing a reading habit. Man, how could I have drifted so far from where I started? That used to be literally all I ever did, and then I go and try to give my own brother a hard time for being interested. Kami, that's embarrassing.
Anyway - Ranma had a couple false starts, but once Ryu spent a couple afternoons going over it with him (and giving me a well-deserved scolding for discouraging his interests), Ranma got absorbed. He didn't read quickly at first, but he read voraciously . By the time we hit our next town, he was saving all of his spare money for the bookstore. He started with military tactics and strategy and martial arts - but it didn't take long for his interests to expand. He went from there to meditation and self-help, then religion and philosophy, then psychology, then economics of all things. From there he went absolutely everywhere . The guy's mind was absolutely voracious - pretty much the only thing he didn't have an interest in was fiction, at least not for a while. By the time 3 months had passed since Duo gave him his first book, Ranma was always carrying 3 with him everywhere he went. Every time we hit a new town he'd find a library if he could and a bookstore if he couldn't. He couldn't get a full grasp of the most technical of subjects like algebra or chemistry, but he banged his head against them anyway until he had at least a basic understanding. His interests were wide and eclectic - as long as it was something he didn't already know, he wanted it. It was sometimes hard to find time to even talk to the guy for a while, so obsessed was he with cramming every possible bit of knowledge into his head. Every meal he ate while reading. Every. Single. One.
Thankfully it started to die down after about a year - I think mostly because he ran out of “general knowledge” subjects to consume. After that he only read whenever he wasn't directly involved in something else, which meant that we at least got our brother back during mealtimes. Sometimes.
We took it with grace. Duo had made a good call - Ranma didn't just grow better at the art, we all watched him grow faster and better as a person. It was like he'd found something he'd been missing for his whole life - maybe it was ‘perspective'? Hard to say - but it seemed to help quell a lot of his concerns about being the ‘official’ heir. He started to walk and move with more confidence. He gained some quiet certainty to him - and we all secretly smiled to each other at it. When we weren't trying to beat the tar out of each other.
Of course, then we were recognized by some yakuza in this one town, and Genma declared that it was time for our journey to move to China.
After we went to visit an old friend.
<=0=>
Nabiki managed to keep her cool throughout the day, but it was a strain. First period was the worst. The math teacher’s voice seeped through the classroom air like a fog.
Nabiki would never have expected a hospital to have something like a library, but she guessed there must be a first time for everything. She was paging through a medical journal simply for lack of anything better to read when a feminine arm reached arm across and pointed at a spot on the page. “They misspelled ‘purulent’.” A voice spoke. Nabiki turned to see a young girl with a slightly mischievous smile. She blushed slightly when Nabiki looked at her, but continued. “It means ‘related to pus’,” she said, then seemed to draw in on herself self-consciously. “like pimples and stuff. They gave it a silly name because they didn’t want it confused with… other words.” Nabiki looked at her - then she put two and two together and giggled. That broke the tension. A second later they were both giggling.
“I’m Tendo Nabiki.”
“Mizuno Ami.” The girl responded.
During history, Nabiki accidentally knocked her pencil to the floor. She reached down to get it.
“Rook to D4.” Ami’s voice sounded over the phone. Nabiki took the indicated black piece and moved it, sitting aside her white knight. “You bitch.” she said teasingly. Ami laughed.
In chemistry, Nabiki opened her stationary pouch. A small white paper crane was tucked into the top.
Nabiki shook silently as she held onto her friend, her tears soaking the other girl’s shirt. Amy didn’t try to say anything - there are no words when someone loses a parent. She simply let her friend grieve. Eventually Nabiki’s tears finally stopped, giving way to numbness, and then eventually unconsciousness. The next morning on their way to school, Ami handed Nabiki a small white paper crane. “It’s not much - but it’s something you can keep with you.”
As the day went on, Nabiki felt herself changing. The pain inside, the twisting shards of glass, the tension in her chest… She buried it all under a mountain of necessity. She felt like she was crystallizing - like all of her feelings were just turning into solid patterns in her chest. The stress didn’t go away - it just… froze.
She was cold.
She was solid.
She felt the tension ease as her heart froze over. And she was glad for it.
<=0=>
He was already there when she arrived, propped against the park railing like he’d been waiting all morning. Faded jeans, sneakers just starting to split along the seams, a bomber jacket with the faint shine of too many nights in the rain. He had that look - not disheveled, just… assembled out of whatever would pass in three different neighborhoods.
His grin when he spotted her was quick and familiar, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. They flicked past her shoulder for half a heartbeat before settling back on her, like he was taking stock of who might be watching. The zipper pull on his jacket was a flattened subway token, worn smooth from years of use. Nabiki had never asked if the initials scratched into it were his.
The backpack at his feet looked light, but she’d seen him pull stranger things out of it than should’ve fit: prepaid phones, a handful of half-used train tickets, even a neatly wrapped bundle of blank application forms from three different banks. She’d never asked where he got them, either.
“Kei.” She greeted him casually.
“Miss Tendo.” He said, his tone light but respectful. He leaned back against the railing. “You said you had something for me. I hope it’s interesting.”
She nodded, her face calm. “Extremely.” She said with a coy smile that would have twisted her guts if they weren’t frozen solid.
She reached into her purse and produced the folder, handing it over to him, trying not to look at the name written on it: ‘Mizuno, Saeko.’
He raised an eyebrow but took it from her. He thumbed through the contents for a moment, then nodded in recognition. “Ah.” He said, turning to her. “Malpractice.”
She nodded. “Interesting enough?”
“Very.” He said. “How much?”
She named a number.
A very, very big number.
He didn’t even flinch. He just nodded and handed the folder back to her, knowing that she would want to keep it for safekeeping. His description of the contents would be sufficient to arouse interest with the right people.
“I’ll call you.” He said.
She nodded, gave him a knowing smile, and walked away without looking back.
The rest was simple and easy - technically. Two days later she got the call. The hand-off was simple. A tea shop half a dozen blocks away. An envelope for an envelope. She checked the contents before nodding and leaving.
She stashed the envelope in her treasure chest when she got home. She’d deal with the arrangements tomorrow.
She laid down in her bed and tried to cry. She knew she should. Technically it was the sort of thing that one is supposed to do. Catharsis.
The tears refused to come.
No one would ever know. There wasn’t any way it could be traced back to her.
It wasn’t anything that could have prevented what happened with Nabiki’s mother. She knew that. But it was enough to cause serious trouble… and be seriously lucrative.
It didn’t matter.
When Ami called the next day, she told Kasumi that she was busy.
They got the new stove.
Life went on.
<=0=>
That fat sack of dicks. I swear he's lucky we didn't kill him and leave him on the side of the road.
So for those who are playing the home game, we had a ‘Sister’ named Ukyo now.
Sortof.
Technically she was Ranma's fiancee. Stupid Japanese honor laws. I swear, all of this is such utter crap.
Okay. Let me go back a bit.
According to Ryu and Duo, we ran into Ukyo “late” compared to normal. We were already early teens at that time - but apparently most of our encounter with her worked out to be roughly close to what they knew of her. Except, of course, for the age difference changing things some.
All 3 of us could tell that Ukyo had a ‘thing’ for Ranma almost instantly. She was actually kind-of tsundere about it at first, really hating how much she lost to him and fighting extra-hard to improve her own skills against him, but also blushing constantly when she was around him. We all thought it was hilarious enough to make us need to stifle laughter. I'm pretty sure she would have been scandalized at the idea of holding his hand she was so innocent. Nevertheless, we saw that they got along and decided not to make a big thing out of it. It was actually my turn to stick up for Ranma to Ryu and Duo. I told them that yes, they had some foreknowledge of how events might work out, but that didn't make any of it a guarantee - and what's more, that didn't give them the right to go around making Ranma's choices for him and trying to arrange his life as if he was a piece on a chessboard for them to maneuver around. If Ranma and Ukyo liked each other, then we didn't have any right to try and decide for him what their best path through life was, even if we did have some knowledge about one way that his life might turn out. Our Ranma had the right to decide his own path and pursue his own interests - which at the moment seemed to be wanting to secure Ukyo as a good friend, something both of them seemed genuinely interested in, even if Ukyo showed some hints that she was interested in more.
I didn't take it too kindly when Ukyo's father proposed the engagement. Not because they weren't a good match, but because… well, obviously. It wasn't their father's decision to make. Yes, I know what the tradition dictates - fuck tradition. I almost burned down Ukyo's yattai, but Ryuji was smart enough to talk me out of it. In hindsight I'm glad he did.
What was crazy to me was how smoothly Ranma and Ukyo seemed to accept it. I mean, they did go off and have a conversation about it on their own, and I don't know what all got said - but my jaw definitely hit the floor when they both just came back and said okay.
I guess that's just cultural differences for you. That or maybe we'd had a bigger effect on Ranma than we thought.
But then Genma tried to ditch her.
So we killed him and threw him into the ocean.
…
Okay, that's not true.
He was still alive when we threw him in the ocean.
It barely even slowed him down. The freaking sea urchin crawled his way back into our camp 2 nights later.
Apparently the plan was to swim to China.
That got him thrown into the ocean again.
<=0=>
So even if we had wanted to, swimming to China was completely out. Ryuji and Duo both thought that we actually did have the capability to do it if we wanted to, but they both agreed that just because we could doesn’t mean that we should , and we all agreed that we just didn’t want to try. It was Ukyo, however, who really pinned the nail in Genma’s coffin.
“Sure, Gen-chan. Just so we’re clear, though - when we get there, who’s going to hold my hand and take me to the doctor when I get an infection in places you’re too embarrassed to name out loud?”
Ranma choked on his food. Duo chuckled.
God, I loved Ukyo.
Not like that, you pervs.
Okay, I shouldn’t throw stones like that. I’m just as twisted and perverted as anyone, within the range of my interests - just because I don’t point it out here doesn’t mean I'm pure-minded. It’s just…
That’s for me.
So I’m not gonna pretend like I didn’t ever glance sideways at Ukyo. She was perfectly attractive, and her personality was amazing. Once she got used to us and Ranma, a lot of her taundere tendencies evened out and she showed more of who she really was: down-to-earth, frank, pragmatic, but still warm - and that’s a rare combination. But thankfully, even if I’d ever really thought about it, there just wasn’t ever a real spark there - and given how I occasionally saw her and Ranma looking at each other, I’m glad for that.
Still, the point is: having a girl in the group changed things a little. Thankfully, Ukyo was extremely self-sufficient, so it’s not like we had to completely change everything about how we operated. Granted, we had to give her her own space for bathing and such, but Ukyo had roughed it before, she was used to it - although her pack was a little bit bigger than ours - apparently she needed… actually, to be honest, at that point I didn’t know what she needed. Even in my first life up to that point I hadn’t really known much about girls at the time, so I was fairly clueless about it all - but I knew she had different needs, so I didn’t make a fuss about it.
Thankfully she didn’t mind us treating her (mostly) like “one of the guys.” According to Duo and Ryuji, they thought that our Ukyo was a bit different from the one they knew in some ways, but she still had most of her normal traits - apparently she’d originally had gender issues? It's hard to say, our memories from our first lives weren't perfect, and less emotionally-important details, like specific story-beats from some j-random show that we'd watched, didn't tend to last. It was mainly big defining things that we'd kept - how we felt about our parents, that sort of thing. Whatever - to me, Ukyo is Ukyo. She’s like the sister I wished I’d had, and it’s awesome.
Anyway - yeah, we picked up some temporary jobs and worked a couple weeks to make the funds then bought tickets to China.
We should have let Genma try to swim to China. When the sharks ate him, we would have been saved a lot of trouble and frustration.
Then again, Ryuji would be a much sadder person in retrospect.
Chapter Text
- For Ryuji. Rest in peace. The torch is passed.
Prologue
Part 4
I still can’t believe that, of all the memories for Ryu and Duo to go blank on, it would be Jusenkyo that they would fail to recall.
I mean, in hindsight I can give them some credit, given what I know about the place now.
So, according to the old lady… Jusenkyo isn’t just some place full of cursed springs. Apparently it’s a place of fate. I’ve heard it described as ‘subtle but deep,’ like the place has something of a will of its own… or something like that. I dunno, I'm not sure I want to attribute will and intention to a piece of geography.
And it's not like our first-life memories were always 100% reliable. We recovered some clarity to them as we got older, but it was never completely the same - the big stuff remained, but lots of the little details stayed faded.
But geez, talk about a serious detail to forget. I mean, how could you possibly skip that!? It's literally the crux point of the whole series!
Maybe Ryu and Duo just hatched a scheme and decided that making our communal lives “interesting” for… ever… sounded like fun.
Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past them - or the world - to arrange just the kind of coincidence that would leave out the most important detail of all.
Regardless, Ryu and Duo both swear up and down to this day that the place was one of the details that they simply never recovered after their rebirth.
I still don't know if I believe them. But whatever. It doesn't matter now. What happened happened - maybe it happened for a reason. Maybe we were all supposed to end up there. All I know is… from the moment we left those springs behind, nothing was ever the same.
<=0=>
The sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon when the Saotome family finally arrived at the famous training grounds. The morning air was crisp, the cold air biting at their ears. Mist clung low to the ground, curling around the uneven pools scattered across the valley floor. Bamboo poles jutted out at odd angles, some worn smooth from years of abuse.
“So why are we here again?” Ranma asked. “I don't see what it is that we're supposed to get from training at this place that we couldn't get anywhere else.”
“Foolish boy!” Genma yelled at him. “You dare question your sensei!?”
Ken rolled his eyes. “You gotta have something worth teaching before you can be a sensei.” That got him clocked over the head by Genma, but before it could go any further the rotund Chinese man guiding them interrupted.
“And here, sirs and maam, we come to famous training ground of cursed springs - Jusenkyo!”
“Doesn’t seem like much.” Duo commented. “You guys ready?”
They all nodded, and a moment later they were all in the air, clinging to bamboo poles. All except Ukyo, clearly showing her much greater wisdom over the others.
“Wait, sirs! What you doing!? I have no finished my tragic story!”
Ukyo looked at the guide, puzzled. “What tragic story?”
As the brothers traded their first few blows above the ancient springs, their bodies held aloft atop the bamboo poles sticking out from the ground, the guide quickly began to give Ukyo a rough explanation of the place. As he got to the crux of the matter, however, Ukyo's eyes shot wide. She whirled.
“RANMA! GET AWAY FROM THERE!”
Unfortunately, Ukyo's very attempt to intervene and prevent a potential disaster ended up being the very thing that started one.
“Huh?” the pigtailed martial artist responded.
“Don’t drop your guard!” Genma yelled at Ranma, hitting him with a kick to his ribs and sending him into an uncontrolled fall.
The sound of Ukyo’s yell distracted Ken and Duo, who’s next mid-air clash resulted in them each landing a crossed-over fist-to-face blow, sending both of them flying away from each other. As it just so happened, Duo’s body was descending through the air at a perfect angle to intercept Ranma’s, and the two collided in mid-air, their mutual momentum sending them both plummeting into a spring - the same spring.
Meanwhile, Ryuji had opted to capitalize on the opportunity afforded by Genma’s sneak-attack on Ranma. With a spinning kick, he sent the old man flying off away from the rest of the group to splash in a spring, with the eldest Saotome sibling landing neatly on top of one of the bamboo poles. He smirked. “Gotcha, old man!” He cried trimphantly - only the be greeted by a sight of a massive white-and-black furred beast that came flying out of the water at him. “Huh!?” Ryuji said brilliantly before the panda kicked him sideways off his pole and into the water.
Ranma and Duo both pulled themselves up from the spring they had fallen into. In stereo, they each blinked, taking in the other’s newly-feminine body.
Duo spoke first. “What the hell happened?”
Ranma responded: “Why do you have…?” before looking down at his (now her) chest. This, naturally, resulted in the next major sound that echoed across the grounds being a feminine scream.
Duo meanwhile looked down at himself… her self appraisingly. As compared to Ranma's look of abject horror, Duo's face held a look of pleased surprise. She reached down and pulled her gi open just enough to peek inside at her… self. Her eyes widened and a cheshire grin spread across her face as she reacted to the sight of her new assets. “Holy crap, I’m STACKED! Sweet!”
At that point two other creatures pulled themselves out of the springs they had fallen in. Ken and Ryu both realized that the world suddenly looked a WHOLE lot bigger… After a moment, Ken looked down at the tiny black-furred paws he was walking on, taking in the claws sticking out of them, and tried to say “Uhhhhhh….” But what came out of him was more of a chuffing, squeaking sound.
Ryuji looked over at Ken and snorted, laughing, trying to vocalize “HA! You look like a bandit crossed with a pool noodle!” But what came out of him instead of was pure feline meows. He blinked. He tried again. Same result. He looked down at himself and was greeted with the sight of white fur interspersed with black stripes across his wide paws. Then he silently started to freak out inside.
Duo, silently watching her brothers come out of a pair of springs as a small white tiger cub and a ferret, made a decision. She turned to Ranma. “Sorry bro, I’m not into the twins thing.” She then climbed out of the pool and took a quick breath. “This is stupid.” She said out loud. “Fuck it! GERONIMO!” And she threw herself into the spring Ryuji had just crawled out of.
The splash from Duo jumping in startled Ken and Ryu, who both ran to try and get away from what they now understood to be dangerous waters. Unfortunately, they both ended up next to Ukyo, who hadn’t initially seen them - and when she saw Ken, she reacted.
“Eeeeeek! A rat!”
Her foot slammed into Ken’s long body, sending him flying… right into Ryuji… who went tumbling again, landing in his own second spring. Fortunately the impact arrested enough of Ken’s momentum that he was able to claw himself to a stop before he landed in a second spring himself - although there was a brief moment when he was scrabbling against the ground trying to stop his momentum.
Duo emerged from Ryuji’s first spring. She was still a girl… but she definitely didn’t look like Ranma now. Snowy hair with faint black stripes clung to her face, feline ears twitched atop her head, and a long striped tail whipped water through the air as she slunk out of the water. The gi didn’t help. She looked like a cosplayer who’d been dropped in a lake, and she was absolutely thrilled about it.
Ukyo was lifting Ken up off the ground. “Sorry, Ken.” She said apologetically
“You just startled me.”
Ken chuffed, looking over at where Ryuji had fallen in. His brother came out of the pool looking mostly the same, thank the kami… until he reflexively shook himself and stretched, and a pair of large white wings unfolded themselves from where he'd apparently had them tucked across his back.
Everyone stopped. Silence reigned as the newly-transformed brothers all took a second to simply take each other in.
That was when the massive panda formerly known as their father finally came ambling over to them all, glaring at them as if they were somehow the problem.
<=0=>
Yeah. So that happened.
Kami, that was a lot .
So the Jusenkyo guide got us all sorted out and dried off and finally started explaining everything.
After which we tried (again) to murder Genma. Have I mentioned yet how much we hated him?
Look, I’m not trying to full on scapegoat the man here - I get that at this point, with the amount of self-discipline we had, we definitely could have just left him behind and gone off on our own and done whatever we wanted.
But give us a little credit here too: even with some of us having gone through some of this before (in some form), we were still pre-teens. Fear of parental abandonment at that age isn’t just a matter of having been alive for a certain length of time; it’s a biologically hard-coded aspect of life. We may have hated Genma, but he was still our father (or legal guardian in Ukyo’s case). As much as we may have resented him (and we did), he was still the only one who could legally drive, get a passport, or open a bank account. You have no idea how limiting the lack of those things is.
So yeah, we kind-of had to keep Genma around. But goodness how we freaking hated him at this point.
Mostly. He still taught us stuff on the regular. And he was even beginning to slowly accept Ukyo as one of us. Hell, I occasionally remember seeing him look at her with a look of genuine tenderness every now and then - as if he saw in her something like the daughter he never got to have, regardless of her connection to Ranma.
He’s still a stupid fat panda.
Anyway - so now we all had Jusenkyo curses.
Perfect.
A lifetime now spent dodging rainfall, streams, puddles, lakes, and of course the ocean itself.
Damnit, I used to like to swim! Now I couldn't even if I tried - at least not the same way.
Ranma’s, Genma’s, and my curse were the simplest. Genma now became a panda, Ranma grew boobs, which made him intensely uncomfortable, and I (apparently) am now a ferret. Forever.
Yay.
Duo and Ryuj, however, were a bit more… unusual.
The way the guide explained it to us was: they were beyond lucky. Blending Jusenkyo curses is apparently very dangerous, especially when they’re very recently acquired. Apparently there aren’t any real rules or guidelines for what might happen if you go and douse yourself a second (or even a third) time with a Jusenkyo curse if you just got one. It could do any number of things, from the curses randomly destroying each other and canceling out, to them blending the cursed forms together into one cursed form, to having the second form replace your original, uncursed form so that you then only have 2 cursed forms that you switched between, to locking you forever in your cursed form, or any combination of those things. That’s apparently the primary reason why simply finding the spring of drowned boy and jumping in wasn’t necessarily a good idea - you might come out with much bigger problems than you intended. Apparently to have any chance of success, you have to wait at least 3-4 years for the curse to “settle” - and then you might have a chance… maybe. If you can still manage to find your way back - it seemed as if people with curses who were trying to come back tended to have… obstacles get in their way.
Apparently Ryuji and Duo got very lucky, in that when their curses mixed, it happened in a way that worked out decently for them; apparently the few who ever end up in their situation often end up looking like horrible misshapen monsters rather than their forms actually making any kind of sense, assuming they even still end up with a cursed form that's even clearly distinct from their uncursed form at all.
Apparently the spring that Ryuji and Duo both ended up in was called the “Spring of Drowned White Tiger Cub.”
Yes, I’m serious.
No, I couldn’t believe it either.
I also don’t know if the second spring that Ryuji fell into was for a duck or an eagle, but either way it was clearly some type of bird because it gave him wings. We didn’t know if they would actually end up letting him all-out fly or not, but he did figure out that he could at least use them to direct a fall - at least a little. That wasn’t even really gliding per se, but hey it was better than a straight fall; not that he intended to use them very often.
As for Duo… oh, he wasn’t cursed - as far as he was concerned, he was gifted now. He… No, wait, she … was now “the hottest thing on legs.” Great, as if he needed any more ego-stroking.
Don’t jump on that.
Yes, he did.
No, I’m not going to tell you about it.
Anyway… Apparently in Duo’s case the curses “blended,” similar to Ryu. So yeah, he was now this bombshell catgirl straight out of a manga and excitedly proud about it - but it got even worse… because when the guide went about pouring hot water on us to show us how to deactivate the curse… Duo kept the hair and ears.
The tail vanished, and he became a guy again… but he was now a guy with silvery-gray hair and cat ears.
Oh, and he was all-out bishounen now. If we thought his reaction to finding out he had a “curse” that gave him tits was excitement - oh no, this was a whole new level.
There would be no living with him after this. This was exactly what the rest of us didn’t need for him to get. He almost squealed in glee.
We spent the night in the guide’s shack, enjoying a very-much-needed good meal. Ukyo cooked - which was always a delight. After that, the guide said he would show us the way out of the area.
That led to the next major even in Ryuji’s life in the same 24-hour span.
<=0=>
Ami moved away to Juban at the end of that year.
Nabiki didn’t reach out.
She was too busy. She had investments to manage. Technically, as someone still officially listed as a minor, she wasn’t allowed to trade stocks - but she had a go-between for that.
She invested the money carefully in a diversified portfolio, splitting it in half and investing half of it in long-term high-yield investments that she wouldn’t get returns out of for years, but which would be invaluable once they finally began to pay off. The other half was split between her own choice of stock investments and personal necessities.
She paid off their family’s bills for a year in one go. She hired a contractor to come and evaluate the house’s current condition, focusing on the plumbing and electrical, along with any other issues that he could spot. He found 3, and she paid him under the table to take care of them. She replaced the other appliances that were on their last legs, estimated their average grocery budget and set it aside in a fund for Kasumi, and then re-invested the remainder back into her shorter-term portfolio.
That would set them up for at least a year, as well as smooth over many potential disasters in the future. But she knew it wouldn’t be enough. Unexpected events happened, and they would need emergency funds to cover things like school uniforms for the three of them. Kasumi still had a couple years of school left, and her and Akane were still growing, even if Nabiki’s development had started to slow (much to her irritation - it looked like she wasn’t ever going to have the figure that her older sister had).
So back to it she went. Betting pools and information brokering were simple ways of making side-change that she could collect; it was drips and drops, but now that their basic necessities were covered, she could afford to gnaw away at it and let it accumulate. It worked.
Until the pipe burst under the furo.
It wasn’t even dramatic. Just a creeping mildew smell at first. Then the floor started softening. A few weeks later, the boards gave slightly under Kasumi’s heel and her sock came away damp. When the contractor came, he told them it would have to be dug up and resealed properly. Mold was already spreading beneath the flooring. If it went too far, they’d have to replace the whole thing.
And then she was looking at her ledger again, checking the amount of growth her investments had generated.
She could have just tapped into it - it’s not like the money didn’t exist - but she knew that if she did that she would be resetting all of the progress she’d made with it since she started it - and they were going to need that. She’d paid them off for a year, not for ever , and there were going to be other emergencies. She needed those investments generating steady, reliable income by the time the year was up, and they wouldn’t be doing that if she tapped them now. That year was already closer - and if she was nice to herself now she was going to end up paying for it later.
So she did what she had to do.
That was when the name “Ice Queen” started to circulate.
She didn’t care. Caring what others thought about you was a luxury that only those who didn’t have responsibilities could afford. She didn’t have time to care what immature middle-schoolers who looked down their noses at her thought; she had real problems to deal with.
It took a week to get the thing fixed - but at least they got new tiling for the place while they were at it.
That night, she ran the bath extra hot and sat with her arms folded across her chest, letting the steam sting her eyes.
She told herself it was just the humidity.
<=0=>
“Gods, I’m starving,” Ryuji muttered as they trekked down the winding dirt road threading through the mountains, the last edge of the Bayankala range fading behind them.
“You’re telling me!” Duo-chan replied, her tail flicking lazily side-to-side. “I thought I knew ‘hungry ’ as I guy, but I’ve never felt hunger like this - how on earth do you manage it, Ukyo?” She said, turning to the okonomiyaki chef.
Ukyo chuckled. “You’ll get used to it. Just wait ‘till you get your first craving.”
“I might already be there.” Duo said. “I think I want beets of all things.” She said, pressing her hands to her belly with a confused expression.
“Beets?!” Ranma asked, turning to look at Duo with a puzzled face.
Duo shrugged. “Don’t look at me, my stomach’s gone rogue.”
Ranma didn't respond, he just buried his hands deep in his pockets. Ken rolled his eyes and kept walking.
The giant panda walking beside them grunted - a strange, bark-sneeze kind of sound - and pointed off into the distance with a big meaty paw.
“Ah yes, sirs! That is annual tournament of strong Chinese Amazons! Very exciting - only strongest girls compete!”.” As they neared the gathering, they began to make out the shape of the event more; there was what looked to be a buffet table set out for the event, besides which were a set of 4 massive log pillars obviously sunk deep into the ground. A set of ropes were tied between them so as to anchor an equally massive log so that it hung horizontally several feet off the ground, swaying gently in the wind. Upon the log stood two figures, currently engaged in a furious battle. The guide pointed to one of the combatants. “Look - that one very ugly, no?”
Ken blinked. “That’s a woman?” He made a face. “Ugh. The mace is the least threatening part.”
“Hai - look, that one much prettier, yes?” The guide said, pointing to her purple-haired opponent.
“Oh, yes.” Duo said with a smirk. “Definitely very pretty.” She casually raised a beet to her mouth and took a bite, her eyes fluttering closed for a moment as she did.
“Uhhh…. Guys?” Ranma interrupted. “What are you doing?”
Ryuji and Duo both turned to look at him, Duo still holding the beet in her hand. A chicken leg bone stuck out from Ryuji's mouth as they both looked at Ranma, confused. “What?” They mouthed from around their food.
Ranma gestured to the sign in front of the table with the large prominent symbol on it.
Ryuji and Duo both looked at the symbol, then back at Ranma.
Ranma pointed again. “It says ‘Winner’s Feast.’”
Ryuji and Duo had exactly one tenth of a second for that to register before something slammed down on the sign, sending it, them, and all of the food flying away in all directions, the two of them leaping away at the last second to avoid getting struck.
When she landed, Duo found herself face-to-mace with what looked very much like a weaponized paper lantern.
The purple-haired girl glanced between her and Ryuji before turning to speak to Duo. She spoke in a quiet sing-song voice, and Duo responded with a blank stare and a blink. “... kawaii?”
“She say: ‘Who you that eat my winner's feast? Why you dishonor me and Amazon tradition?’” The jusenkyo guide helpfully translated.
“Uhhhhhhh…..” Duo responded nervously.
“Guyyyyys?” Ken said warily as he and the rest of the group took notice of the events’ other attendees. Almost all of them were women, and to one not a single one of them looked frail or out of shape. And they all recognized that threatening tension associated with trained warriors even before so many of them began to produce weapons - some of them being of such a size that it seemed unbelievable they could ever have had them stored anywhere on their person.
Just as the tension began to mount, a large hand gently reached out and rested on the bonbori that the purple-haired girl was brandishing at Duo, guiding it away from the silver-haired catgirl. The purple-haired amazon’s eyes slid sideways, already anticipating the shift, but she allowed the bonbori to be gently redirected - until she and it were both facing Ryuji.
He bowed respectfully to her, never taking his eyes off of her, but his chin almost touched the mace that she held in front of her.
“My deepest apologies, Amazon warrior. I am Saotome Ryuji. We cannot read your signs, and we did not know the feast was meant only for the champion.”
There was a quiet moment in which nothing happened - the amazons stood poised, the Saotome family stood wary, and the purple-haired girl simply stared at Ryuji, her face inscrutable. She blinked, slow and deliberate - not with confusion, but calculation. Then, so subtly it was almost imperceptible, her grip on her bonbori shifted - not looser, not tighter… just different. She spoke again.
“Xian Pu.” She spoke, her pronunciation making her intended name very clear. She then continued in Japanese. “You dishonor Xian Pu victory, foreigner. Amazon law require justice.”
Duo, ever the observer, noticed something change in Ryuji - something so small even she wasn’t entirely sure what it was. Something in the back of Ryuji’s eyes that she couldn’t quite trace.
“Would you be willing to settle for a sparring match to settle the matter, instead of a battle?” The oldest Saotome said.
Xian Pu smiled, her expression coy, and her eyes flicked away from Ryuji’s for just a moment before returning. “You challenge Amazon?”
Duo blinked at that, then furrowed her brows as if trying to track down a memory.
Ryuji, not noticing, held the amazon’s gaze steadily. “If it will settle affairs without bloodshed - yes.” He spoke calmly.
Xian Pu’s smile widened and she dropped her maces, turning away from Ryuji with a sniff. Holding her arms behind her back, her wrists almost touching, her twin maces almost brushing the ground, she walked away a few paces before leaping high into the air and landing on the massive log again, her steps poised - almost dainty.
The Jusenkyo guide rose. “No, sir! Is very ba-”
Duo’s hand clamped down over the Jusenkyo guide’s mouth, cutting him off abruptly. She looked at his puzzled expression and held a single finger up to her mouth, a mischievous smile on her face as she winked at him.
Ryuji stepped forward, but before he leaped he first turned to the centerpoint of the arena itself and gave a respectful bow. As he did, the other Amazons there at the tournament seemed to relax at the gesture of respect. He took just a moment to stretch himself out, then leaped up to the opposite side of the giant log from Xian Pu. He then gave her an equally formal bow - which he was surprised to find her returning.
“Choose weapon.” Xian Pu spoke curtly.
Ryuji took a stance and held his fist out in front of him, clenching it firmly. “I am my weapon.” He said calmly.
“Foolish.” Xian Pu replied. “But honorable. I try not to leave too many bruises.”
Ryuji smiled back. “Right back at you.”
They both fell into stances - Xian Pu’s elegant and poised, Ryuji’s solid and stable - and then it began.
<=0=>
The two warriors stood a dozen paces apart, balanced atop the swaying log, staring intently at each other.They held for a long, quiet moment, each one taking stock of the other.
It was Xian Pu who moved first. She spun forward, twisting as she went, her right mace arcing to slam down atop the eldest Saotome’s shoulder. It was elegant, beautiful, and outright artistic in its motion but also its power. Every motion drew the eye, both to her and to her weapon, as it came down towards Ryuji, the strike itself a thing of beauty; a technique designed to distract from the very threat it was putting forward.
Ryuji knew better than to let that attack hit him. He’d seen how much damage those “lanterns” did when she used them on the feast table, and he knew that even he would be easily crushed by them if he let her connect with one. In contrast to Xian Pu’s elegant and precise motions, Ryuji was simple, practical, and effective. As she came down, he stepped forward, extending his arm and blocking her strike by stepping in past her weapon. The pole of the bonbori impacted against his forearm, and for just a moment their faces were mere inches from each other, their eyes locked.
Something slammed against Ryuji’s chest, and he found his heels skidding backwards against the log’s surface, his arms reflexively coming up to cross over his chest as he regained control. As he came to a stop, he looked past them to see the amazon smirking at him, her other bonbori held out before her in his direction.
He’d let her distract him.
God, she was pretty. And the way she looked at him…
Ryuji squared his shoulders, recentering himself. He took a slow breath, then adopted a lighter stance, his hands held out in front of him, palms open towards the amazon warrior.
Xian Pu smirked coyly at him - and then she charged again.
Ryu met her assault head-on. He dodged and weaved around the flurry, using his open hands to slap at her maces as they came for him, redirecting them around and above him as she attacked.
Xian Pu scowled as he continued to defend against her, her eyes narrowing to thin slits.
“Foolish outsider boy think he defeat amazon without attacking?”
Ryuji’s fist stopped millimeters from Xian Pu’s face.
The amazon warrior blinked - not in fear, but in disbelief.
Ryuji held his stance, fist extended.
“Stay focused.” he said to her evenly.
Her eyes slowly climbed from the fist up to meet his. No smile this time.
She didn't say anything. Neither did he.
They shared another silent moment.
And then Xian Pu brought her left mace around towards his elbow.
Ryuji ducked low beneath the arc, rising into a sweeping counter - his open palm flashing up, heel-first, toward her chin.
Xian Pu dodged away and backwards in a flip, her chin evading Ryuji's strike by millimeters, leaving the eldest Saotome to dodge out of the way of her legs as they came upwards towards his head as she tumbled away.
Almost as fast as she dodged she was back on him again, her maces coming at him in a whirling strike aimed to send him flying off the log in one sudden, smooth blow.
Ryuji dodged back again, but this time he clapped his open palm over the head of the second mace as it passed by him.
For the tiniest of moments Xian Pu's eyes widened.
Ryuji anchored himself and spun, adding his own momentum to the mace and pulling it around to the side of him, aiming to force it from her grip.
To his surprise, the amazon woman held on to the weapon, letting her own weight drag his attempt down, forcing him to exert even more effort. He spun harder, attempting to build enough speed to force her off of it and perhaps even send her flying - but she held onto it until Ryuji's momentum spun them around in a half-circle. Then she let go, allowing herself to be sent flying the other way down the swaying log while Ryuji struggled to regain his balance as the wood beneath them rocked back and forth from the sideways momentum he'd imparted to it with his maneuver.
Xian Pu tucked her arms and legs in, flipping several times over in mid-air, gathering some momentum before untucking just as she came close enough to land on the massive log. As she came to a landing, she used the momentum of her spin to throw the other bonbori at Ryuji, sending it rocketing towards him like a bullet. As her feet kissed the log, she was already moving - a blur of purple charging straight at him.
Ryuji flowed from the spin into a low drop, releasing the bonbori as the other whistled over his head. His foot swept wide, aiming to cut her charge out from under her.
Unfortunately she saw the maneuver coming. Ryuji's head snapped back hard as she leaped over his sweep, landing a hard kick straight to his face as she leaped past him.
Well that hurt… his brain informed him helpfully.
He shook his head to quickly to clear it and turned to face her.
Xian Pu's foot stopped its downward arc, hovering millimeters from Ryuji's face.
He blinked - surprised.
His eyes slowly traveled up the pink-clad leg attached to that foot to where his opponent stood in mid-kick, motionless, holding herself in perfect balance.
Xian Pu saw the path his eyes took and she snorted daintily.
“Focus.” She whispered.
Another silent moment passed between them - and then she withdrew her leg, pulling it backwards and upwards in the exact reverse of the overhead circular motion she had used to bring it down towards him, moving in one smooth continuous movement until her foot landed on the wood again, leaving her standing with her left side facing the eldest Saotome brother.
“You done play now?” Xian Pu asked him, her voice edged.
“What do you mean?” Ryuji asked.
Xian Pu sniffed and turned her chin up at him. “Xian Pu not porcelain doll, outsider boy.”
She turned and gestured, pointing to the ground beside the log while saying something in Chinese. In response, a rock the size of her head came flying up at her, tossed by one of the bystanders. She caught it out of the air and turned to Ryuji.
Then she pressed it gently against her temple. And kept pressing.
For a moment there was just a quiet creak - and then the rock cracked into 3 pieces.
She kept pressing.
A crack like a gunshot exploded across the valley as part of the rock exploded, parts of it shooting off in all directions, a blast of fine dust showering down onto the log below her as a significant chunk of it powdered under the pressure, reducing it by a third of its original size.
She kept pressing.
Inch by inch, Xian Pu slowly pulverized the rock against her own head, until at last the skin of her palm met her hair, the last solid piece of the thing falling loose in a shower of tiny stones.
She dusted her hands off, casually brushed the dirt from her hair, and turned her gaze back to Ryu.
She scowled at him.
“Stop disrespect Xian Pu. Xian Pu is warrior. You fight Xian Pu like one.”
She dropped into another elegant stance.
“Or forfeit. Before Xian Pu sting you again.”
<=0=>
Ken stood a few dozen feet away from the challenge log, his arms crossed over his chest, his skipping across the assembled crowd of spectators as often as they flicked up to the actual duel.
His eyes narrowed at the way the amazon warrior had spoken. There was something about that… something about the way she carried herself when she spoke combined with the tone of her statement.
…
He blinked. His eyes closed shut in a reflexive almost-wince, and he quivered for a moment, forcing a calming breath through himself.
He opened his eyes and refocused his attention on the two warriors. He took another breath, and allowed himself to listen.
Honor. Responsibility. Duty. Misfortune. Resignation.
His gaze flicked from one face to the other.
Crushed. Cursed.
…
Hope.
Ken turned and walked over to where Duo stood by the Jusenkyo guide, reaching out to grip her upper arm.
He hit Duo with a serious look when she turned her gaze to him.
“Out with it, Duo. What aren't you telling me?”
Duo grinned and held a finger up across her lips. “Sore wa himitsu desu.” She quoted.
When Ken's eyebrows furrowed even deeper, Duo reached over and gripped Ken's own upper arm with a wink.
“Trust me, bro.”
Ken sighed. “You better be right.” He said slowly.
<=0=>
Ryuji slowly rose to his feet. He took in the powdered dust and fragments that littered the wooden beam for a moment - then he straightened and gave her another bow.
“I find myself needing to apologize to you again… Shampoo.”
“I was disrespectful. You are strong, and I shall respect that going forward. Please know that it was not because of your status as a woman.”
One of her eyebrows curled ever-so-slightly. “Then why?”
Ryuji sighed and looked vaguely uncomfortable. “I am not certain. But it will not happen again.”
The corner of one of her lips quirked upwards ever-so-slightly.
Ryuji took a slow, steadying breath. And then he brought his own foot around in a wide arc that ended in a powerful stomp against the wood beneath them as he dropped into a semi-crouch, facing her with his right side. His left arm curled into a half-circle so that his palm faced down while he brought his right forearm up perpendicular to the ground, his fingers curled in front of him just below his chin.
“I will not strike you with the full intent to kill, Xian Pu of the Amazons - this is not a death match - but I will no longer withhold my strength or ability. I shall fight you to win.”
The amazon warrior smiled, and a fire lit behind her eyes. “Baji.” She noticed. “So you use the bodyguard style.”
“Among others.” Ryuji replied. “I am Saotome Ryuji, eldest son of the Saotome family, and a practitioner of Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu.”
She inclined her head ever-so-slightly. “Xian Pu is tribal champion of Joketsuzoku, daughter of Koh Hoom, great-granddaughter of tribal matriarch Koh Lon.”
Where Ryuji dropped low into a half-crouch, she rose up into a stance that left her balancing on the toes of one foot, her arms spread out to both sides like pieces of a crescent moon, her palms open.
“Xian Pu practice amazon Xiang Bo - Dancing Elephant style. Have no intention of losing to outsider, much less to male.”
Ryuji smiled. “Are you ready?” He asked calmly.
She smirked. “Is you?”
And, like twin tsunamis, they flowed inexorably towards each other.
<=0=>
The closest bystanders on the ground felt the impact when the two warriors connected, open palm strikes slamming simultaneously into each others’ ribcages, the impact sending splinters flying off of the ancient wood. Ryuji followed immediately by attempting to close the distance even further, his elbow coming up to impact against the amazon’s ribs - except she was no longer there.
For a brief moment, Ryuji could see nothing by a flash of solid purple as Shampoo rolled across his body, her touch on him feather-light as she spun past him along the outer edge of the battlefield, her hair whipping across his face for a moment just brief enough to be disorienting.
She smelled like lilacs.
As she came around behind him, she brought both of her hands together and struck hard against Ryuji’s upper back in a powerful pushing strike that shoved him off-balance and sent him tumbling forward towards the end of the log.
Her blow was effective, but not enough - she managed to push Ryuji a single step forward, but a moment later Ryuji’s forearm slammed against the amazon warrior’s chestplate as he quickly reversed his own momentum into a counter-strike that sent her back a step herself. She hopped over a sweeping kick, then deflected a strike aimed for her head. Ryuji pressed his advantage, attacking with two more quick jabs, the second of which she parried with a rising sweep of her forearm.
Their eyes met for just a split-second... and then, almost as if they had rehearsed it, they both turned - not towards each other, but away.
With dual screams of focus, their shoulders slammed against each other.
Shampoo's hair gusted away from her face. Ryuji's gi fluttered. Splinters flew from the wood of the log beneath their feet.
Shampoo slid an inch.
They both grinned.
Ryuji came around, his fist whistling as he spun towards her.
Shampoo’s hands planted atop Ryuji’s forearm as his arm shot forward and she tumbled up and over him, her feet planting against his back as she leaped high up into the air behind him.
Ryuji quickly recovered and lunged forward towards where she had been, putting distance between himself and her, turning towards the direction she had leaped. His eyes squinted as he attempted to see through the glare of the sun. He could see the amazon warrior twisting mid-air through the brightness, but not much else.
He caught a hint of a telltale gleam, and he immediately leaped backwards.
Shampoo came down where he just was, spinning into a wide slash with a large curved sword she had produced from somewhere on her. She was moving again as soon as she came down, the blade singing through the air as she threw herself into a series of slashes at Ryuji.
Ryuji let her back him away exactly two steps as he dodged left then ducked low - then he came up and pressed forward. Her sword came down towards him in an overhead strike, but his fist slammed against her abdomen, disrupting the movement, causing her swing to go wide. He followed up with another shoulder slam to her chest, sending her sliding several feet backwards along the log. He pressed his advantage, leaping forward in a charging punch, and she thrust the blade forward, its razor edge seeking to skewer him.
Ryuji leaned slightly to the side in mid-charge, the blade thrusting just past him, and as he landed he blurred into a rapid series of strikes. He struck with both fists, one into the amazon warrior’s shoulder, the other the inside of her wrist, disrupting both her balance and her grip on the weapon at the same time. Before she could recover from the impact, he struck her wrist again, this time with his other fist, and the impact knocked the weapon from her grip, sending it clatting to the ground below, then slammed into her with his shoulder again, throwing his weight against her to further her own recoil.
Shampoo slid backwards easily across the log, letting her momentum play itself out - until her foot struck the patch of gravel left from where she had crushed the rock against her head earlier.
For the first time in the battle, Shampoo stumbled and reeled, her arms flying out to both sides to try and regain her balance.
Ryuji’s shin impacted against the side of her abdomen - and into the open air she went.
<=0=>
Nabiki sat in her room, looking at the numbers on her ledger.
A tiny part of her wanted to scream with joy. She’d done it! They were in the black! Not just now, but into the future! She’d accounted for everything she could possibly imagine - everything from unexpected maintenance to potentially needing to have her or Akane change schools for their last year - and they were still ahead!
She stared down at the final number in the tiny corner box, and she felt her vision blur just a little. It had been worth it . It wasn’t the solution she would have wanted - none of it had been - but it had been worth it.
Barring natural disaster or acts of the kami, and assuming a moderate-to-low return on her investments and her current side-projects, then by the time any of them had to worry about money, she and Akane should be out of school and able to pursue other income options - and even then, they should be clear for about a year.
She felt like a band that had been wrapped around her chest had just snapped.Or at least… most of one. She still remembered what she’d done; she still knew what she was capable of.
She’d carry that forever now.
But her and her sisters were safe. If this was the price she paid for that, then she paid it gladly.
She sighed at the quiet ache, and for the first time in a while a smile spread across her face. She turned and walked out of her room, closing the door behind her. “Oneesan!” She cried as she walked down the stairs. “You want to go out for ice cream?”
“Oh my…” Kasumi replied. “Are you… are you alright, Nabiki? You never suggest that we spend money on things we don’t need.”
“Yes, well…” Nabiki said, pulling herself up to sit on the kitchen counter in a way that earned her the mildest of disapproving frowns from her older sister. “... I think we need this. We’ve finally turned things around, and I think we should celebrate that. Plus, I want to try one of the new parfaits I saw the other day.”
“Well… if you’re sure, Nabiki.” Kasumi said with a smile.
<=0=>
Shampoo’s body twisted mid-air as Ryuji’s strike carried her off of the log and away, her arms and legs alternately tucking in and sweeping outward to adjust her spin and momentum as she recovered. Her feet met the ground with a soft thump, a few strands of grass floating away from where she skidded to a stop.
On the ground outside the challenge ring.
There was a moment of frozen stillness as the assembled Amazon warriors took in what had just happened. This outsider male had just challenged their champion, and had defeated her soundly - not overwhelmingly so, he had not humiliated her - but there was no doubting that he had won, and done so fairly.
Ryuji’s eyes had followed Shampoo’s arc the whole way, his gaze locked on her as she fell, his muscles tense and ready to leap if she showed signs of landing hard. A quiet breath of relief sighed out of him as he saw her land gracefully and without issue. Calmly, he drew up to his feet again and gave her another respectful bow from where he stood atop the challenge log. “Well fought.” He spoke down to her resolutely.
Ken turned to Duo, his expression heavy.
“Talk, Duo.”
Duo just shook her head, her eyes almost sparkling with delight. “Just watch, bro. Trust me.”
The rest of the family could sense the tension in the air as Shampoo stood and turned to face Ryuji, her expression guarded as she considered, the other amazons present waiting.
Her motions as she walked back to the challenge log were smooth and precise. Ryuji seemed calm, but the slight tension in his shoulders betrayed him.
With a smooth motion, the amazon girl leaped back atop the challenge log and slowly began to approach the eldest Saotome brother.
“Uhhhh….” Ryuji said brilliantly, her continued silence unnerving him. “Sssso, I guess this means we aren’t going to have a war over the-”
His words were cut off as she continued to approach him, her hands held behind her back, her hips swaying. He swallowed.
“Uuhhhh… Miss… ” he fumbled, trying to say something respectful while his brain fried itself inside his skull.
“You… uhhh…” he opined. “You are very strong… Sham-”
Her hands came up smoothly and she took his face in her hands.
Her eyes… they're pink… Ryuji thought, finding himself caught in her gaze.
And then her lips met his.
Ryu’s eyes shot wide with surprise and shock, all coordination leaving him, his arms flying out wildly away from his body as the amazon girl vamped onto him. His balance failed him and he toppled onto his back atop the challenge log. Shampoo didn’t break the lock, following him the whole way down.
After several more extra-long seconds, during which the eldest brother lay there frozen, arms still held out at odd angles, Shampoo finally lifted her head and stared down at him, her hands still cupping his cheeks.
“Wode airen.” She whispered down to him. “Wo ai ni.”
Ryuji didn't have to speak Chinese to get a sense of those statements. Her tone said it all.
It was all too much for poor Ryuji. His brain had been in overload from the moment he felt her lips on his, not even counting what the rest of his body had felt when she’d glomped onto him. His eyes rolled back in his head as he fainted right where he lay.
<=0=>
Yeah. So… that happened.
Man, talk about a wild day. As if Jusenkyo itself wasn’t crazy enough, Ryuji essentially got himself married (for all intents and purposes) - and crazily enough, the dude didn’t seem to mind.
I’m actually kind-of shocked; I really expected him to fumble it. In his first life, Ryui had always been severely awkward around girls - and not in the “cute, funny” kind of way; more like the “reeks of desperation, fear of rejection, and deliberate self-sabotage” kind of way. Me and Duo used to give him such a hard time for the way that he would sometimes do things while deliberately trying to fail - it was like he was already so certain of his own upcoming failure that he decided he wanted to fail on his own terms, and so he deliberately did stuff badly or without really trying so that when he failed it wasn’t ‘real’ - or something like that. You’d have to have known him to really get it.
But when he woke up from his impromptu nap to find himself with his head resting on Shampoo’s lap, I saw something in him I’d never seen before. He didn’t just look up at the Amazon girl with interest - I mean, hell, who wouldn’t have been interested in her - he looked at her with what I can only describe as something like awe and terror - but for the first time since I’d known him, he didn’t immediately try to delve into his self-effacing joke routine that I’d seen him fall into constantly with women in his first life. He just laid there, looking up at her, as if he’d never been allowed to have a moment like this - and if he moved, someone would take it away.
<=0=>
Ryuji lay, frozen, barely even registering his own situation as his eyes held the purple-haired amazons.
“Nihao, Airen” Shampoo said down to him with a smile. “You like Shampoo Kiss of Marriage too too much?”
Ryuji blinked, then swallowed. “Shampoo…” he said awkwardly. “K-... Kiss of what …?”
“Marriage!” Duo-chan said with a wide smile as she tore into a plate of roasted chicken. “Congratulations, dork-face! You’re married! Apparently kicking their butts is this culture’s equivalent of a proposal. Time to start popping out Otosan some grandbabies!”
Ryu’s eyes went as wide as dinner plates as he stared up at Shampoo, his face slowly going increasingly more red.
“Aiya!” Shampoo said flirtatiously as she grinned down at him. “Airen wish make heirs already? Shampoo not expect airen be so excited.” She leaned down, bringing her face closer to his. “Airen must really like Shampoo.” she purred.
That was it for Ryuji. His eyes rolled back in his head and he went out like a light for the second time that night.
<=0=>
Poor Ryu. He was doomed from the first moment she looked at him.
I ended up confronting Duo later about keeping the info to himself about Shampoo’s… culture. Not like I used to confront him - I was gentler about it this time.
I only punched him in the shoulder.
While I didn’t like that he’d had that awareness and kept it to himself, I had to admit that he seemed to have been right: Shampoo was exactly what he needed.
She never lied about what she wanted. She was upfront, direct, and affectionate. And she challenged him in exactly the way he needed to be challenged.
Not that it was perfect - they had their own issues. We all did. Hell, we all do - the test never ends; that’s life.
But that’s for later. For now… they seemed happy. Nervous… but happy.
And despite Shampoo’s overt statements of affection, I’m pretty sure they didn’t just immediately go and jump straight to wedding night antics. I don’t think I’ll ever know - but my sense was always that they were closer to ‘dating’ than married at first, regardless of what they called it.
I like her. She’s good for my brother. And I can see that he brings out the best in her.
I’ve seen some versions of Shampoo on my journeys that I wouldn’t want to know. But the one that’s part of my family… she’s cool.
Anyway… we wandered around a bit longer after that. In hindsight it wasn’t that long, but it sure felt like it at the time.
We stayed at temples, did public exhibitions, and trained more. I could never entirely tell if Ryuji was un comfortable or too comfortable in his relationship with the amazon woman - but while he sometimes complained when she would full-on glomp onto him, he never pushed her away.
When she would cling onto his arm, he let her.
He may have looked a little uncomfortable sometimes, but I could see how happy he was - I saw that look of reverent disbelief on his face whenever he looked at her.
It wasn’t until years later than I finally put together why.
I guess if I'd listened to it more often it would've told me. But I wasn't ready for that yet.
Besides, I had other things to worry about - like how Duo started acting funny a few months after Shampoo joined us
At first it wasn't anything too crazy; in fact, we barely noticed it, outside of waking up a couple times in the middle of the night to find his blanket roll empty. Then one morning we woke up to find him missing. When he ambled into camp hours later, he looked like he’d been gnawed on - disheveled, bruised, exhausted. He made some disarming joke - something about clowns - then curled up in his blanket roll, falling asleep even though it was well past sun-up.
That was when I knew something was up. I wasn’t quite sure what, but I knew he was hiding something - and not in the normal way, where he hid little things because he was insecure. Something about this felt… different.
So I stalked him.
Hey, I’m his brother - sue me.
It took me a couple nights to find out where he was going and what he was doing.
But when I did, I wasn’t sure what to think.
<=0=>
The night air was crisp, with just the tiniest nip of cold to it - the kind that was comfortable enough most of the time, but where the slightest breeze could turn into whips of cold against your back if you let yourself think about it too much.
It wasn't a true ‘clearing’ in the woods - the branches of the nearby trees arched up over it enough to block out a good portion of the sky - but it was a space large enough to almost qualify as one.
The smell of fresh cooking wafted out of the place. A small portable grill, circular and made of ceramic, was set off to one side, it’s quiet orange light providing just enough illumination to turn the space into a playground of threatening shadows. In front of it crouched a young man, his silver-white hair tinted almost orange in the light as he watched the sausages on the grill slowly thicken and swell.
Off to his left, the ground fell away for a good 10-meter span - a steep, ragged bowl carved into the earth. From within rose the rustle of fur, low growls, and the occasional hissing squall.
He cooked diligently, turning each sausage with care, then setting them aside on a nearby plate. A fragrant heap grew slowly beside him.
It took over an hour to cook them all. As set of sausages cooked, he reached into a nearby bag and grabbed out some sort of herb, sprinkling it over them as they cooked.
A yowling sound began to fill the clearing as he continued. At the first of them, the man stopped, shuddering slightly. But after a moment he slowly took a breath and continued.
Eventually it was all done and he was left with two heaping plates of the things. He ate one, testing it’s flavor, then nodded approvingly, and got out a needle and some twine.
The large ears atop the man’s head twitched sideways, one swiveling independently to the side. He continued working. Carefully, he began to thread the sausages together, forming them into long stacked rows, each threaded together with twine running perpendicularly along the row.
Just as he finished the second set, he turned to the side and raised his voice.
“You might as well come on out,” he said flatly. “I’m not deaf… and you reek of impatience and sweat. You should’ve bathed yesterday.”
With quiet sighs, three other male figures slowly stepped forward from the shadowy treeline that surrounded the clearing.
Duo turned to face them, his face impatient. “What?”
They all seemed to think for a moment. Finally, it was Ranma who spoke.
“Duo… What is this?” He asked gently. “What are you doing?”
Ryuji raised one eyebrow at the smell of the herbs wafting through the air. “Is that… catnip?” He asked.
Duo smirked. “Yeah. What of it? A guy can’t try to do something nice for the neighborhood strays? Like give them a nice place to stay and some warm food?” He flicked one of the sausages into the pit playfully.
Ken crossed his arms.
“Oh, come on now, guys - I literally am one now.” Duo said, pointing to the cat ears atop his head. “You think that’s not going to affect my preferred form of company? At least they don’t ask me questions - they just want me for my food. It’s honest.”
All 3 of the brothers rolled their eyes at that one.
“Duo…” Ryuji said in a quietly cajoling tone. “Come on, man. We’re not that dumb. We saw that scroll just as much as you did. We know this isn’t charity.”
“Well, if you already knew the answer, then why did you ask what this was?” Duo replied. “Are you trying to trap me or something? Suspicious of your own brother?”
“Duo…” Ranma replied, ignoring the questions. “If that training was too dangerous for me to undergo - then why are you out here alone doing it to yourself?”
“Uhhhh, hello - because I am one? Duh.” Duo responded. “I’m not like you guys any more - this is fucking perfect , am I the only one who can see that?”
Ken sighed. “No, Duo, I see the ears, I get the reference - but that doesn’t mean that you’re not human any more - and just because you’ve got special ears and some markings, that doesn’t mean that you’re immune to what this shit will do to you.”
Duo rolled his eyes. “Yeah - that’s why I’m not doing it that way.”
The other 3 just looked at Duo, perplexed.
He raised his open hand towards the pit. “They’re NOT starving!” He said emphatically. “Hungry, probably - I can only get away to feed them once a day when it’s late at night like this - but NOT starving! I also let them out every night before I leave, and I clean the thing before I go so it’s not too gross down there. Yeah, okay, I trap them in there when I’m training - but I’m not being outright abusive ! They’re stressed, yeah - but they’re not feral.”
“Okay…” Ranma spoke. “Then how do you…”
Duo held up a finger. “I said they weren’t starving . I didn’t say that they were nice .”
Ken quirked one eyebrow, his expression flat. “You still haven’t answered the core question - why are you doing this ? We could understand wanting to do some special side-training of your own, that’s understandable - but this ? This is genuinely dangerous, Duo. Why this , specifically?”
“Because…” Duo faltered. He stopped talking entirely for a moment. His face twitched, and he quivered a little. Then he took a quick breath and turned to face the pit.
“Because it’s me.”
The other 3 walked up to him. Ranma gently put an arm on his shoulder.
“I don’t understand.” He said gently.
“I’m not sure I do either.” Duo said with a playful smirk. “But there’s something about…” he gestured towards the pit in front of him. His words came out quieter. “It’s not about being what you guys want or need. It’s not about what I need you to see me as. It’s just…”
He shrugged.
“ I am in that pit. Somewhere.” He sighed. “I can feel it when I’m down there… when they’re all around me, and it hurts, and I’m scared… I can feel me .”
Ken closed his eyes for a long moment. He seemed like he was trying to hear something. Then his eyes opened and he walked up, resting his hand on Duo’s other shoulder.
“Okay.” He said slowly. “I’m in.”
Duo turned and smirked at him. “Is that all it takes to convince you?”
Ken turned to look at him, and for a moment they shared a silent exchange.
“Yes.”
Duo snorted. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Ryuji walked up to the edge of the pit, his face resolute. “What do you need?”
Duo made an amused sound. “Honestly… I need you to not be around.”
When the others looked at him, he shrugged. “If I’m being watched… it’s different. I’ll be thinking about you thinking about me.”
“You’re weird.” Ken said.
“Sadist.” Duo jabbed back at him.
Ken rolled his eyes. “I’m not gonna leave you completely alone to possibly get mauled to death with none of us even knowing that there’s a problem.” He looked over at Duo. “You okay with setting up a bell or a gong or an air horn or something? Something you could do that’d let us know you need a hand?”
Duo nodded. “Yeah. I can work with that.”
“What happens if you break?” Ryuji asked. “What happens if you get lost in there, and you can’t find your way back, and so you can’t signal to us?”
Duo shrugged. “Then I get lost. That needs to be a real thing. I don’t know why - it just does.”
Ranma’s arm on Duo’s shoulder squeezed. “I’m worried for you, big bro.”
Duo waved his hand dismissively, snorting. “I’ll be fine. Have you met me?”
“Yeah. That’s why we’re worried.” Ken said.
“Softie.” Duo responded.
“I still think it’s not smart.” Ryuji said. “This level of risk is a lot, bro. You could walk away from this with stuff you won’t be able to get rid of.”
“That’s exactly the idea.” Duo responded.
Ken looked over at Ryu. He shared another moment, this time with his older brother.
“He needs this.” He said simply.
Ryuji sighed before turning back to the pit. “Yeah. I know.” He admitted. After a moment: “I can see it. Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
Ken nodded. He turned back to Duo.
“Promise us you’ll come back from this.”
“Nope.” Duo said, his face mischievous. “No promises where I’m going, jeeves.”
Ken scowled. “Fine. If you don’t come back from this in one piece…” His eyes narrowed on his brother. “I will hurt you.”
Duo’s bishounen face fell into a softer expression, one that seemed almost reminiscent of his female form. “Yes, daddy.” He whispered.
That did it. Ken turned away, his face twisted in disgust and revulsion.
Duo chuckled and clapped him on the shoulder. “Good try, bro. I’ll do my best.”
Ken took a moment and shook off his reaction. “You’d better.”
“Okay.” Ryuji interjected. “Who’s going to take first watch? And what can we use to set him up with a signal?”
The others walked off. Duo turned and looked back over the pit - which in the darkness looked like nothing so much as a massive hungry maw that was stretching open to eat him. The many tiny pinpricks of yellow that he saw appearing in it didn’t necessarily help the illusion of malevolence.
He sighed and reached into his pocket, pulling out a spare length of twine. He held it by one end in front of him, letting it dangle. His eyes closed for a moment, and he took a slow breath. Then he passed his closed fist in front of it.
It swayed in the slight breeze caused by his movement - but nothing happened.
For a moment he looked disappointed. He took another slow breath and tried again. Still nothing. Duo sighed and moved to put it away again in his pocket.
As he moved it, the bottom foot of the twine broke free, falling to the ground in front of him.
He looked down at it for a moment - then slowly smiled, his eyes traveling up to the pit.
“Mrow.”
<=0=>
I’m not gonna lie - I was worried about Duo. I got that he kind-of needed this, in his own way - but it was still a crazy-dangerous thing to do. He was playing with fire, and we all knew it
Hell, he was playing with something worse than fire. Fire would just burn him.
But he needed it. And he needed it to be real - including the threat of it. I could tell - maybe he would get burned, maybe he would end up scarred… but he needed that risk. And if he did get burned, then he needed that burn to happen.
Kami, that was a hard thing to accept. Watching my own brother do that to himself, night after night - and worse, knowing that he was alone with it.
I missed more sleep than I’d like to admit while he was going through that. I think we all did.
And at first… we felt like we had good reason to be concerned. Duo never broke down the way we expected him to - but we did see him adopt some more feline traits and behaviors in general. He never seemed to get scared of cats - but the way his ears moved seemed more natural, and we occasionally saw him reflexively reach out to smell things like he was examining them. I don’t think his sense of smell actually got literally better - or at least no better than it did when he first got his curse - but maybe he just started to use it more.
Me and Ranma and Ryuji did have a couple quiet talks as it went on, discussing whether we should try to talk him out of it again - but while we were concerned… he didn’t seem to be radically destabilizing - not that it would have been easy for any of us to tell if he was, but he didn’t seem like he was going crazy. If anything, he seemed… happier? That’s not quite right. But I don’t know hot to describe it. More anchored, maybe.
Maybe he did find a piece of ‘him’ down in that pit.
Obviously we couldn’t hide it from the others forever - but by the time they started to catch it, it was too late to do anything.
Genma actually tried to congratulate him on “embracing the true Anything Goes philosophy.” The fat pig - he didn’t actually care, he just felt good because having a son with ‘skill’ made him feel better about himself.
Shampoo didn’t consider the affair to really be too much of her business, saying something about how each warriors’ journey was different and shouldn’t be judged too quickly by others except themselves and their teacher.
Ukyo, on the other hand, actually got a little mad. Not because she and Duo were close , but because she felt hurt that Ranma had kept a secret from her.
I wanted so badly to get in and talk her out of it - but I didn’t. I don’t know why - I guess I just thought I’d be more likely to break something than help if I wandered in all clumsy-like into someone else’s relationship. Or I was just too scared to get close to Ukyo. Or Shampoo for that matter.
I didn’t trust myself around girls.
Regardless, she and Ranma talked it out. I think it was a little bit of a sore point for a while, but if you’re hoping for a massive relationship drama-fest for your reading pleasure, I’m sorry to tell you that it’s much more boring than that. It took a little while, but they got it settled.
Like I said, Ranma and Ukyo weren’t fancy or flashy - but they were solid.
Anyways, where was I? Oh, right - Duo.
So as the process went on and Duo kept up with the training, we definitely saw the results in his combat. If Duo was fluid before, now he was like mercury. I swear he could have probably sat on his own head if he wanted to. But what really changed things were the claws.
They weren't real claws - it's not like his fingernails suddenly grew all curved and pointy or anything - but real or not, they were something , even if you couldn't see them, and they worked . I watched him slowly get better at cutting more and more things with them. At first it was just soft stuff like string - but eventually he graduated to paper, then to cloth.
By the time he stopped with the pit training, he could make small cuts in wood blocks - and he kept working it.
Honestly, part of me is proud of him - even if the idea of Duo having constant 24/7 access to deadly cutting weapons does unsettle me a little.
Then again, it's not like any of us are any less potentially dangerous, and we don't need to be able to slice things to achieve that.
Eventually, he did quit with the pit training and let the cats go. He said he'd had enough - that he'd found what he needed.
I could tell he meant it because he actually thanked us.
We kept going. There were other incidents, other things that happened during that time - but those were the ones that made us who we were. Those were the biggest things that shaped us. The rest was just window dressing or stuff that just happened . And I don't need to list it all out - I can cover it as it comes up.
What matters is: eventually Genma said it was time.
Time to go to Nerima.
Time to unite the schools.
Time for us to “fulfill our destiny.”
…
Fuck him.
I didn't do it for him.
Chapter Text
- For Ryuji. Rest in peace. The torch is passed.
Chapter 1
Some stories start with a bang. They begin with a massive explosion, a momentous death, a horrible tragedy, or a natural disaster. Some stories are epic from their very inception. They have weight. They demand focus and attention by sheer size and scope.
Other stories are not so straightforward. Sometimes the stories that are the most important start with the simplest and most mundane of beginnings. Some stories start with a day just like any other day.
A Tuesday, in fact.
The date was September 15th, 1987. She would never forget that date. Not for as long as she lived.
It was “Respect for the Elderly” day, of all days - a national holiday dedicated to visiting and showing respect to those in the population who had made it well-past the age of 80. Which meant that school was out. Unfortunately, despite the overcast sky, it was an unseasonably warm day for September - and combined with the rain that had fallen earlier, it was the kind of heat that made one suspect that the air might be drinkable. It was the last sudden after-gasp of summer before giving way to fall.
Nabiki Tendo lay on her bed, dressed as lightly as she could get away with while still being presentable. She’d squeezed herself into the shortest shorts that she owned and thrown on a tank top. She was currently sitting on her bed, her legs idly kicking in the breeze of the fan that she’d pointed at herself, humming quietly as she paged through a magazine. Apparently some American archeologist had rediscovered El Dorado. The popsicle in her mouth tasted of grape, and the cold of it was a pleasant relief as, for once, she allowed herself to indulge in the kind of simple pleasure that she knew she needed.
That was when she heard her fathers voice calling for her and her sisters. The gravity in his voice made her eyebrow twitch. She knew that tone, and it didn’t usually bode well, but she’d occasionally had good opportunities come from it - so she smiled and gave him her best curious look when he walked up to her room to ask her to join him and her sisters in the family room.
Meanwhile, several blocks away, chaos was unfolding in the street.
<=0=>
Ken should have been considering patricide for the millionth time, but his heart simply wasn't in it today.
The sight of a giant panda making its way down the streets of Tokyo would have been more than enough to arouse panic by itself, but add to it the fact that said panda was brawling its way down the streets in an engagement with two young girls - one a vibrant redhead and one a silver-haired vixen - and the ‘what the freak is going on here’ factor was turned up to an entirely new level. By comparison, the two relatively small creatures that slinked behind the sight seemed almost uninteresting.
“You could have potentially tried just asking, ya know.” The white-haired girl said as she landed from a jump, her trenchcoat flaring out around her as she skidded backwards a couple inches, her arms held out and away from her body. She gathered herself up as she came to a stop and crossed her arms over her purple chinese-style shirt as she looked at the panda. “Just sayin’.”
In response, the panda dropped its martial stance and clapped its paws together in front of its face, bowing its head and closing its eyes while emitting a chuffing sound.
The white-haired girl smiled. “Got ya!” She said, sticking her tongue out while pulling her lower eyelid down.
The panda cocked its head slightly in confusion just before it stumbled forward as something impacted heavily against it from behind - something revealed a moment later to be the redheaded girl.
“If ya think we're gonna let you use us as bargaining chips again, you've got another think coming!” She cried as she bore the panda to the ground.
“Besides…” she said, stepping forwards off of the panda’s shoulders and onto the ground next to the other girl. “... I'm already set, thanks. You already went and engaged me, you don't get to go and change your mind now.”
The panda glared at the redheaded girl silently as it got to its feet.
“Oh, don't give me that! I can almost hear it now!” The redhead replied. “I know you consider me ‘The official heir to the school’ - but if that was what you truly wanted, then maybe you should have thought twice before you tried to sell me for a yattai!”
The girl sniffed and turned to walk away. “You'd better hope that Duo hits it off with one of them, because him and Ken are your only prayers at this point - and you know Ken would rather cut his own heart out and eat it than do anything for you. He'll probably reject all of them just out of pure spite.”
The white-haired girl gave the panda a wicked grin and turned to catch up to the redhead, casually putting her arm across the other girl's shoulders. “Not bloody likely.” She admitted. “But we'll see. Maybe one of them is nice and won't mind having a sex-changing catgirl for a fiancee.”
They both broke apart simultaneously and dodged to either side just in time as the panda leaped at them, moving aside just in time to dodge his kick - and the fight resumed.
Ken heaved a slow sigh as he held onto his brothers’ white-furred shoulders. Ryuji alternated between plodding along the street behind the brawlers trusting their commotion to draw attention away from him and Ken, and darting furtively from object to object in an attempt to stay effectively concealed. In all honesty, Ken didn't think it mattered or made much difference. Even if it had just been Genma and Ranma, uncursed, the sheer spectacle of the urban martial arts encounter taking place would have drawn significant attention regardless - as things were, trying to be anything like discreet was like trying to hide a kaiju behind a phone booth.
In truth, Ken thought this whole thing was stupid and that they shouldn’t even be there. None of them should have cared what Genma said anyway; the fat troll had no moral right to decide anything past his next lunch, much less what any of them did or why. Japanese family honor traditions be damned, the only reason he was here was because he wasn’t going to abandon his brothers, and they wanted to go - or at least they hadn’t strongly objected. He personally thought that they should just donate the old man to a zoo and walk away - sure, there were a lot of things that they wouldn’t be able to legally do for a few more years yet, but they’d long since proven that they could fend for themselves without any support whatsoever; surely they could manage to do so for another year or two before they were ‘officially’ of age and could get their own place. But that was just him; the others didn’t want to go through the trouble.
“Too bad you only save it for the people who care about you.”
Ken’s whole body tensed up, his eyes squeezing shut. His paws clamped harder into clumps of fur that he was using to hold himself onto Ryuji with. He felt the instinct to curl himself up into a ball, to dig a hole and disappear into it, to run into a dark corner and hide for hours, or maybe forever.
It wasn’t Duo. He and Duo had worked things out. They understood each other now. Besides, Duo hadn’t known. But those words…
Ken’s whole body quivered, every muscle tense and rigid.
He’d been right. He hadn’t meant it, he hadn’t known it - but Duo had been right.
Never again. For the millionth time, he swore it to himself: never again. Not so much as an inch. He was going to weld that door shut forever and leave it there to rot. Let it suffer alone and eventually die with him. The universe would have one less monster in it. Good.
He felt his muscles relax, his breathing beginning to even. He was okay. He would be okay.
He realized they weren’t moving any more. He opened his eyes to see Ryuji looking up at him. Ken realized he’d been holding on to his brother’s feline shoulders with a death grip. Neither of them was capable of speaking, but Ryuji looked up at him with slitted eyes that were filled with concern and curiosity.
Ken took a steadying breath, then shook his head at Ryuji. He let go with one paw and waved it, indicating to keep going. It was fine.
He was fine.
“Hey!” A loud male voice yelled.
The entire group turned to see a man in a navy blue uniform with white gloves pointing at them. The almost-militaristic neatness or his dress marked him even before they saw the badge adorning his flat-topped hat.
Yep. Just as expected. Ken thought.
The trio currently caught up in the fight turned as one to look at the figure.
“Just what are you doing causing a dist… urb…” the man trailed off, his voice sputtering to a halt as he realized that the large form he'd reflexively assumed to be some sort of person in a costume or suit was not, in fact, a person at all, but a full-sized panda bear ambling down the streets of the city seemingly attempting to assault two young girls.
His hand immediately went to his side, although whether to grab for the radio there or the sidearm it was hard to tell.
The Saotome family, recognizing the motion, all reacted at once, all moving as one.
Genma immediately leaped, his muscles propelling him high into the air.
Ken tapped his paw on Ryuji's shoulder twice in rapid succession. Ryuji, recognizing the signal, immediately took off into a sprint.
Ken let let off a quick high-pitched squeak, and on seeing Duo's ears twitch in response, he leaped off Ryuji's furry back and into the hand that Duo had held out behind her. Without waiting or checking, Duo immediately threw her arm forward, sending the furry body like a missile at the poor officer.
At the same time, Ranma grabbed Ryuji's feline body and threw it upwards, sending the (seemingly) excessively large tomcat flying up towards the rooftops.
The policeman screamed as a large rodent landed on him and began to scrabble around his shoulders and face. He twisted and yelled, his hands darting around his body as he tried to catch the furry creature, effectively putting on a dance.
Finally he managed to get his hand on the thing and pulled it away to hold it in front of him. Only then did he realize that the body shape was all wrong - it was bigger, fluffier, and much longer than a rat. Was that a ferret?
Did that ferret just wink at him?
Just as he was having this realization, the creature lunged at him again, its tiny jaws opening to reveal a mouth full of teeth and 4 disproportionately large canines as it snapped at him. He yelped and twitched in startlement, and the creature twisted itself free, dropping to the ground and scurrying off.
When the man turned back, the street was empty. Both the panda and the girls were gone.
<=0=>
Nabiki looked at her father with a combination of cold pragmatism and sardonic amusement.
“So, let me make sure I understand this.” She said smoothly. “You made a pledge on our behalf before we were ever born, with a man we’ve never met, to marry someone who wasn't even born yet, who none of us have ever met, who you know nothing at all about… because you were friends with his father once 20 years ago.”
Soun Tendo sat on the other side of the table, his pipe in one hand, and took a long, slow draft of it.
“Yes.” He said flatly.
Nabiki’s eyebrow twitched as she quickly evaluated the situation: surprisingly, this might actually be a not-unreasonable opportunity for her. Nabiki knew she was fairly pragmatic, but while the concept of a life as an eternal bachelorette wasn’t inherently terrifying to her in and of itself, she knew that somewhere down the line her feelings and opinions were likely to change, and she definitely knew that she didn’t want to end up old and alone one day. Her reputation among her peers was essentially shot, so any realistic prospect of a respectable relationship was very close to nil for her at the moment; not that she was excessively interested in romance, but she did need to keep the future in mind, and right now her best bet was to wait until after graduation before starting. While that was a feasible option, it still left her with another year or two before she even had a prayer of going on anything like a date with someone who didn’t assume that she was there to scalp them somehow. So unless she was willing to start looking into compensated dating (a notion that inherently sent a tiny shiver of revulsion down her spine), this was likely going to be one of her better options for a while. In essence she was risking having to annoy her father and go through an unfortunately drama-filled conversation in exchange for a blind date.
… not that anyone informed enough to know would ever voluntarily choose to date me…
She froze the thought before it could start to spread and put on her best smile. “Okay!”
“Okay?” Akane asked from beside her. She turned to look at Nabiki. “That's it? Just ‘okay'?”
“Well, why not?” Nabiki said, turning to look at Akane. “Not all of us just hate boys, oneechan.”
Akane just rolled her eyes. “Uhhhh, because we should have some say in our own future?”
“And who’s to say we don’t?” Nabiki turned to Soun. “You wouldn’t really expect us to marry someone if we just absolutely couldn’t stand each other, would you, daddy?” She said, affecting a pout.
Soun tugged his collar and looked vaguely uncomfortable, but didn't answer the question.
That was when the doorbell rang.
<=0=>
Nabiki and Soun were both up and moving moments after the bell rang. Akane and Kasumi both stood up, but neither followed them as they raced around the corner towards the front door of the house.
That is, until they heard Nabiki’s scream.
Akane was moving immediately after that - but she had barely gotten farther than the hallway before the two returned, running backwards the way they had come towards the living room.
Behind them trudged the form of a giant panda, the whole house shaking slightly with each of its heavy steps, carrying what appeared to be nothing so much as a giant brown leather sack across its shoulders. Akane and Kasumi gasped at the sight of the massive thing.
As they reached the living room, Soun skidded to a stop, turning to take a martial stance as he did.
“Oh come on, old man.” Spoke a feminine voice. “Put me down, there's no need to scare them.”
It was only then that anyone there noticed the sack it was carrying had a pair of legs protruding out from under it.
Calmly, the panda moved its arms and set the bundle down - at which point it turned to reveal that in actuality the mass of brown leather was actually a trenchcoat, from the top of which protruded a head full of silver-white hair pulled into a loose braid. As the person wearing it turned, they revealed themselves to be a buxom girl wearing a purple chinese-style shirt and shorts.
Huh. A cosplayer. Nabiki thought, noticing the catlike ears atop her head and slitted irises. She must be very dedicated to her look; they appeared very convincing. Probably custom work. She filed that thought away for later.
“Uhhhh…. I'm sorry, Miss…” Soun began.
“Saotome.” The girl said politely, giving a very prim and proper bow that was belied by the mischievous smile on her face. “I'm Saotome Duo. Nice to meet you.” She turned to the giant panda, gesturing, her smile widening even further. “This is my father - Saotome Genma.”
“Your… father…” Soun stopped as he heard the name. “Gen… ma…” His gaze slowly turned to the panda.
“Genma…?” He spoke incredulously.
The panda said nothing - but it groufed and gave a very human bow.
“Gen… ma…” Soun whispered, looking lightheaded. “And… his daughter…”
Duo turned and reached around the panda's form, pulling another redheaded girl forward and around. “Daughters.” She said impishly.
The redheaded girl scratched the back of her head self-consciously. “Saotome Ranma.” She said, introducing herself nervously. “Sorry about this.”
Soun fainted.
<=0=>
When the Tendo patriarch came to, he found that he had apparently been set up in a roll-out bed with a wet washcloth placed over his head. His first sight was Nabiki's disappointed glare. He caught a glimpse of Duo's white hair on one side of her and Ranma's red hair on the other.
“Oh, poor father…” Kasumi said. “He's so disappointed.”
“He's disappointed?” Nabiki asked. “Some fiance these are.”
“Stop it, you two.” Akane chimed in. “They’re our guests.”
Nabiki's eyebrows flattened as she looked at their father. “How could you make a mistake like this, daddy?”
“It wasn't my mistake!” Soun objected. “Saotome told me that he had sons!”
Nabiki's reached over and used her hand to emphasize Duo's femininity. “And what part of this looks like a son to you? Do you see a son here?”
Duo snorted. “Hey now, touching's extra.” she said, causing Nabiki to blink in startlement.
Akane rolled her eyes and reached over to touch Ranma on the shoulder, ignoring the by-play. “Join me in the practice hall?” She asked. “I'm Akane. Want to be friends?”
Ranma smiled and shrugged. “Sure.”
As the two of them walked across the yard towards the dojo, Ranma caught sight of two sets of glowing eyes peeking out at them from behind some bushes in the Tendo yard. She smiled slightly and gave them a careful wink of acknowledgement as she followed Akane into the dojo.
Hidden behind the bushes, Ken snorted, causing his whiskers to vibrate in a manner that was far too cute for him to be comfortable with and turned to look at Ryuji.
Ryuji just shrugged his feline shoulders at his brother before hunkering down further into the brush.
Ken turned his head, his eyes going back to the dojo, darting across it and the yard. He noticed one of the dojo's windows was open, and turned back to his brother for a moment. They shared the kind of look that only brothers can share
Ryuji scowled and his fur puffed out as he glared at Ken - but by the time he reached forward to try and stop him, Ken was already gone, darting out from behind the brush and towards the dojo. Ryuji hissed, but it was already too late.
Ken scurried across the lawn, his body alternately bunching and stretching like a furry slinky as he darted towards the base of the building. He jumped as he reached the corner, landing against the wooden beam, his claws digging in. It took him a moment to readjust and get used to it, but he managed to begin climbing the wooden beams that made up much of the dojo’s exterior. Over the next few seconds, he found his way across to the windows he'd spotted and climbed up just in time to see Ranma dodging out of the way of one of an advancing punch from Akane.
He saw Ranma spot him, and she immediately adjusted her dodge angle to pull Akane's back towards Ken. Ken quickly squeezed his way through the gap in the window and began climbing up one of the beams towards the ceiling, where he could get a good view of the fight.
“Come on, attack me!” He heard Akane say, followed a few moments later by a thud of impact and an “Ow! Okay, that kind-of hurt…”
“Gomen.” Ranma's voice replied, and Ken smiled.
By the time he made it to the ceiling beams and got himself perched in a good position there, the fight had been underway for a couple minutes.
Ranma was matching Akane blow-for-blow, and smiling the whole time. She wasn’t hitting to hurt or break, but she did land blows where she could. She was solid and grounded, but predictable. Ken could tell: the attacks that Akane was landing were landing because Ranma was letting her land them. But she was still letting her anger get the better of her.
After a couple exchanges, Akane stepped back. “You aren’t really trying, are you?”
Ranma smiled and shook her head slightly. Akane’s eyes narrowed. “Well, stop it. Fight me for real.”
“But you said you wanted a sparring match.” Ranma said. “I don’t know if I want to fight you for real. You seem nice.”
“I am nice.” Akane replied. “But I still want you to fight me for real.”
“Oooookay…” Ranma said, drawing out the word. “But only if you’re sure.”
“I’m sure.” Akane said, dropping into a stance.
She inched closer to the redhead, observing, her muscles tense.
Then she launched herself, her steps pounding on the floor, screaming a loud kiai as she brought her first forward - only to find Ranma’s hand wrapping itself around her oncoming wrist.
The world twisted, and Akane found herself stumbling forward as Ranma used her wrist to leverage her off-balance. She stumbled forward.
Something impacted against her back, between her shoulderblades, and she impacted against the far wall of the dojo with a thump, only just barely managing to turn enough to take the impact against her shoulder instead of her head.
As she turned, she felt a gust of wind, and found herself staring at Ranma’s clenched fist, which hovered centimeters from her face. Her hair gusted backwards from the speed of the motion. Her eyes shot wide with shock, and for a moment she just stared.
After a moment, Ranma’s index finger extended and she touched it briefly to Akane’s nose - then she pulled back, dropping her arms to her sides with a sheepish look.
Akane stared for a moment longer, unsure how to respond. She felt ashamed and belittled at having been so soundly beaten, and yet Ranma hadn’t been cruel about it or treated her with disdain. She opened her mouth to speak - just in time for a furry snake to drop down on top of Ranma’s shoulders with a squeak.
Akane let out a short scream at the sudden interruption just as Ranma leaped back, her own eyes wide with equal shock. Her outraged cry of “KEN!” interrupted Akane’s own response - and after a moment she realized that the thing attempting to crawl up Ranma’s shirt wasn’t a snake or even a rat… was that a ferret?
Ranma picked the creature up and held it at arms length. “What’re you doin’ her, Ken!?”
“Wait…” Akane said, indicating the creature. “That’s… yours?”
“Uhhh…. Yeah…” Ranma responded. “Sort-of. It’s complicated.”
Akane’s face lit up. “He’s so cute! Can I hold him!?”
Ranma’s face twisted into a mischievous smile as she looked down at the ferret. “Sure.” She said with an amused grin as she handed the creature over. “Scratch behind his ears, he loves that.”
“Oh, my goodness!” Akane squealed as she took the creature into her arms. “Aren’t you just the cutest little thing ever!” she said as she pulled him in close and began to scratch behind his ears and stroke down his back.
If a ferret could look irritated, Ken managed it. He alternated between tolerance of Akane’s treatment and silent glares at Ranma. Ranma simply smirked at him.
After a moment, Akane looked over at Ranma. “You’re good.” She said, her previous anger dissipated.
“Yeah, well…” Ranma said, resting her hand behind her head. “Don’t give me too much credit - this is all I’ve ever done since I was 6. I don’t know how to do anything else.” She shrugged. “You got to go to school - I’d kill to have that.”
“You want to go to school?” Akane said, incredulous.
"Well, I've never had it - you know so many things that I don't, and I want that. This?” She looked around at the dojo. “This is all I do. Whatever knowledge on anything else that I know has been by accident; just whatever I could grab to read on the way."
Akane paused. “Huh. I'd never thought of it that way.”
Ranma smiled and bowed. “Thanks for the match, Akane. It was fun.”
Akane blinked. “Oh. Right. You're welcome.”
<=0=>
So, believe it or not, I actually don’t know that much about Japanese culture.
Shocking, right? You’d think, having literally grown up there, that I’d know more than I do.
But the truth is… most of the memories I have of it… they actually aren’t mine, in a sense. I have two sets of origin memories… and honestly, these days, I kind-of feel like both of them are genuinely mine… but only one of them is from Japan - and they’re an infant’s set of memories. They’re… vague and disconnected. And outside of that, I’ve lived most of my life on the road. I think at most me and my brothers spent 1-2 years in a school setting at some point… and that’s it. I mean, you obviously pick up some things - you see enough images of Tanuki on signs, and you start to get the idea… but mostly we lived on the road… just the 5 of us - my brothers and Genma. And honestly… even when we went to temples, I never really paid much attention to the stories and legends.
I know the basics. I know it’s rude to not give your name. I know to always take your shoes off before you walk through the house. I know how to bow properly - not too shallowly or they’ll think you’re an ass. I know to never stick your chopsticks upright in your rice except at a funeral. I know to always rinse yourself before you get in the furo or else everyone will glare at you. But I don’t know the deep stuff. That stuff that you’d expect someone to know only because they grew up there their whole life? That vague, nebulous stuff that can’t really be easily captured in words because it would take most of a book to describe it but it’s integral to a place because it’s pretty close to being that place's soul? I don’t have that. We were too isolated for that - and any time Genma would try to talk to us about it, all I would hear was “this is my bullshit excuse for why you need to be dutiful and obedient to me even when I do nothing to earn it and just treat you like your job is to succeed at my dreams where I failed so that I can feel better about myself.”
I guess I’ve always been an outsider… even when I wasn’t. I’ve always… held myself apart, in some sense - even when I was surrounded by the people I was supposed to be a part of.
With connection comes acceptance, and warmth, and companionship… and even love. And that’s… that’s so invaluable. But with it also comes the possibility of chains. Of manipulation. With connection comes the possibility of someone someday trying to tell you “Look, all I need is for you to just do this one thing - and surely you aren’t going to turn away from our connection and relationship just because this feels a little icky to you… are you?”
And I’m simply not going to give in to that. Ever.
And that leaves me… sparsely connected.
I’ve got my brothers. Ryuji. Duo. Ranma. And I’ve got…
Fuck, I’m not ready to go there yet.
It’s coming - maybe I’m just stalling. Hell, we’re almost there. Fuck, I’m nervous about you seeing that. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
Sorry. I’ll be okay. Maybe I’m just rambling.
Anyway… yeah. I actually don’t know as much about my own cultures - either of them - as you might hope. I barely even understand what the kami are - and I haven’t had a cheeseburger in over 20 years, relatively-speaking. How old was I when I left? 15? 16? Shit, I’m older now than I was when it happened.
Fuck. I am stalling. I don’t want you to see that. I want it to stay just for me. I want to keep it in my soul until the day I die. It’s too… I don’t know.
But I said I was going to tell my story… and what we’re coming up on… it might be the core of it. Or maybe it's the real start of it. Either way, we’re almost there. Just a little more first.
Don’t judge me. I don’t think I could take it. I can shrug off the rest… but this? Be kind. Please.
Okay. Fuck it. Here we go.
So, we all ended up managing to get into the furo to clean up. We were sweaty and some of us were covered in dust and grime from the road. Japan is a very clean society - like for real, most other places just consider it a basic necessity of life, but for them it's a virtue. Fortunately, no one made a big deal about Ranma taking me, and Duo was somehow able to sneak Ryuji in, so for the first time since that morning the 4 of us were able to finally have some time to ourselves.
“Well, that was… embarrassing.” Ranma said as she soaped herself down.
I looked over my shoulder at her, just enough to see her head. “You managed okay.” I told her calmly before turning away again.
I'd become an expert at ‘not looking’ during bathing. I guess it wasn't technically a hard-core necessity - we could have started asking Duo and Ranma to go off on their own somewhere else - but Ryuji never seemed bothered by it, and I didn't want them to feel rejected just because I felt uncomfortable. It was weird, because they were literally my brothers - but they were also… yeah, every part of that was just straight-up gross, and I refused to even contemplate it. So instead I got good at controlling where my eyes went - after a while, it just became reflexive. I was already used to restraining myself, this was just a new application of the same reflexes.
Ryuji nodded. “I agree with Ken - I get that it was weird, but the two of you managed fine.”
“Forget ‘managed’, that was a blast.” Duo added. “I haven't had that much fun in forever.”
I snorted. “So have you picked one yet, neko-chan?”
Duo shrugged. “I dunno. They all seemed decent - except Akane. I don't need that kind of trouble.”
Ranma looked over at Duo. “I don't know what you're talking about, she seemed sweet - a little sensitive, maybe, but nothing crazy.”
“Oh, trust me, give it time - you'll see.” I heard Duo turn to face me. “Besides, who says it had to be me?” I could hear the grin in her voice. “Technically there's still two eligible bachelors in this family. Why don't you pick one that you like, Ken?”
I didn’t say anything. I didn’t have to. I just hunched my shoulders and kept scrubbing. They all knew me. No one had to say it.
<=0=>
As Nabiki crossed before the family room, she couldn’t help but notice the large, muscular man in white who sat opposite their father. She smoothed her expression and said nothing, but as she passed she examined the visitor with clinical eyes. Hard face, solid eyes, square jaw, an expression that spoke of restraint and stoicism. She filed it away. She was sure there must be a good reason for daddy to have more visitors, but it was certainly unusual. Maybe the man would finally have an explanation for the mix-up from earlier - her father wasn't usually the kind to be taken in that easily. She was still waiting to find out how a giant panda could be the ‘father’ of a pair of girls.
Maybe they're kitsune. She thought with a small smile. Wouldn't that just make for quite a story. Regardless, at the very least, they represented potential opportunity. For now.
A tiny part of Nabiki winced deep inside. She may smile - but that was all should afford to let them be - potential opportunity. Because there was always the possibility of having to have one of those moments again - one of those moments where she had to give up what she would prefer to have in order to keep the roof over their heads - one of those moments where she had to use people. She didn't let that part start to grow; she froze it over in her chest before it could get started, along with all the rest.
As she grabbed another popsicle from the freezer, Kasumi came through the room holding a basket of laundry. “Oh, Nabiki - when you get a moment, could you tell Akane that the furo is ready?”
“Haaaaai.” Nabiki drawled, drawing the word out. “Oneesan, do you know who the gentleman is with daddy?”
Kasumi just shook her head.
A slight frown touched Nabiki's face before she shrugged and kept walking. When she passed Akane in the hall, she took the popsicle out of her mouth just long enough to let her know. “Bath's ready if you want one, neechan.”
<=0=>
A few minutes later, me and Ryuji sighed as we eased ourselves into the hot water of the furo. Ranma and Duo, having already gone ahead of us and changed back into guys, sat on the edge, waiting for us to have our turn. “So, how are we going to break all of this to them?” Ryuji asked, his eyes closed as he relaxed in the warm water.
“Maybe we’ll get lucky.” Ranma said. “Pops already went out there - maybe by the time we’re done, he’ll already have explained it all.”
“I doubt we'll be that lucky.” I told him. “We're probably going to have to do all the work for him again.”
“We usually do.” Ryuji said from beside me with his usual stoicism. He shrugged and tapped me on the shoulder with the back of his hand. “Well, one way or another, there's nothing for it but to face up to it. Y'all ready to do this?”
I nodded, and me and Ryuji both stood up.
The bathroom door opened.
All 4 of us turned to see Akane standing there, a towel held across her waist.
I immediately turned my head - as soon as I began to catch sight of the shape of the figure at the doorway, I reflexively jerked my head away to stare at the corner of the room. I didn't see what happened over the next few seconds, so I don't know if I was the only one or not. I know that no one moved - but I don't know who was looking where or what expressions anybody had.
All I know is that a couple seconds later I heard Akane scream, her voice a mix of outrage, panic, and humiliation all at once.
Thank the kami, none of the others moved when she did - that could have made things even worse.
Except they got worse anyway. Because as soon as Akane's shrieking stopped, the whole world shook. Or, I guess more specifically, the house did.
“Oh no.” Ranma said flatly.
“Just great.” I mumbled.
“Figures.” Duo snorted.
Ryuji's voice rang out. “WAIT, SHAM-”
The wall of the room exploded inward.
We all moved instinctively, dodging the incoming debris and taking cover where we could - not that there was much cover to take - with the exception of the furo itself, the room was essentially just a big open space.
Two seconds later, it was over. The whole room was covered in dust and debris - and Shampoo stood there, looking through a hole in the wall, Ukyo standing beside her.
“Aiyaa!” she said as she took in the sight of it all. “Why Airen naked? Not that Shampoo complain. Shampoo finish training, come look for Airen. Hear cry of panic, come to help.”
“Shampoo!” Ryuji said, his brows furrowed.
Ukyo just crossed her arms. “Geez, you guys - I duck away for half a day to pick up some basic supplies, and look what I come back to?” She smirked, not bothering to look away from the sight of the four of us covered in essentially nothing but sheetrock dust.
And just when the situation couldn’t possible get any worse - that was when the entire rest of the Tendo house arrived, Soun at the head of the pack, attracted by all the rest of the commotion - to find the two girls they thought they knew missing, replaced by four naked teenage men, a person-sized hole in their house, their youngest daughter standing naked in the doorway, and two new girls - one with wildly purple hair - all standing around staring at each other like a kabuki play directed by a lunatic.
Fuck my life.
<=0=>
If she hadn’t seen it herself with her own eyes, Nabiki wouldn’t have believed it.
As it was, she had seen it, and she still wasn’t sure she believed it.
Shapeshifting curses activated by water temperature? Please. That was a new one.
But when the Saotome patriarch had picked Ranma up and physically chucked him into the koi pond and she’d literally watched his body change from boy to girl, she couldn’t doubt it any more.
This whole thing was unbelievable - and yet there it was.
For a minute, she’d almost been more concerned with the damage that had been caused to their house - the scale of the repair costs for such a thing were going to be astronomical - but just when she’d been about to start saying things she might have regretted, that purple-haired girl - did they really say that her name was “Shampoo”? - had reached into what she swore was a non-existent pocket in her dress and pulled out a ruby the size of a hen’s egg and simply offered it to Soun as if it was a tip at a restaurant.
Maybe she should find out if Shampoo was seeing anyone.
She allowed herself a small smile of self-amusement at the ridiculous thought before pulling herself back to the moment. Her father was taking in the last of the explanations, and had just finished pouring a kettle of hot water over Genma to change him back to his normal human self.
“Well, that’s wonderful!” Soun said, smiling with obvious joy. “That means that the schools may still be joined. Let us all introduce ourselves properly, and then we can discuss the matter further.”
Genma nodded. “Indeed. Allow me to make proper introductions of my sons.”
As Genma introduced them, Nabiki took them in at a glance, and she let herself look deeply. She was used to reading people; whether they might potentially be a mark, a business partner, or a threat - these things mattered. And people couldn’t help themselves. The clothes they wore, the way they did their hair, the way they carried themselves, the tone of voice they used when they spoke, how long they held eye contact with you, if they even held eye contact at all - all of it carried information… and the better you were at seeing it, the more you could know. One way or another, whether it was her, Akane, or Kasumi, this was going to be one of the most important moments of their collective lives. She needed every scrap of information she could get. So she looked - and she read them like books.
Not surprisingly for brothers, they all had similarities - the family resemblance was definitely present. They each were obviously in good physical shape - moderately tall at least, with well-defined arm muscles and the same general build. They were healthy and in good shape, which told her a lot in itself: they all had discipline, they all knew how to watch their diet, manage their time, and do what they needed to do first before dealing with what they wanted to do. You don’t get bodies like that if you’re the kind to sleep in until noon. They all sat comfortably next to each other - approximately equidistant spacing between them. It wasn’t deliberate, they were too relaxed for that - they simply all had a cohesive dynamic. That or they were very good at covering it. They all had similar features - but it was in the small differences that each of them showed their uniqueness.
Genma introduced the first boy as “My eldest son, Ryuji.” He had short black hair, a square face, and a strong jawline. He wore a black long-sleeve chinese-style shirt with rolled-up sleeves. Of the four, he was not only obviously the tallest, but also the most well-muscled, if only slightly. He was the most relaxed of the four. The way he held himself told Nabiki he was comfortable with who he was. Calm. Steady. His eyes met hers and her sisters with fairly simple openness. She knew his type instantly; he was a rock in the storm. He was their anchor. He reminded her a little of daddy - before mother had passed. Got it. If it had to be her, he was the obvious choice, logically. He would fit any of the 3 of them, though, if it came down to it. He would meet them where they were. Prime material. His soft smile showed some slight hesitancy. He didn’t realize he was a catch. Probably went through an awkward phase at some point. Still felt starved for female attention at some level. Easy to play, if it came to it, but best not to try, because he would eventually catch on to it. Not bad.
Except he was already apparently taken. She allowed herself a moment to take in the sight of the purple-haired girl in the red dress with the golden roses. She forced her eyes to only linger on the girl for a moment before letting herself move on - it was hard, the woman positively radiated attraction. Even Nabiki felt part of herself stir, and as much as she may joke to herself about it, she was fairly certain she didn’t have too many strong leanings towards other girls. But Shampoo wasn’t just a knockout physically - she could almost feel the warrior spirit inside the other girl, like a tiger in a cage with a rusty lock. She was as beautiful as she was dangerous. Nabiki crossed Ryuji off her mental list completely - no man, no matter how seemingly good of a catch, was worth getting on the wrong side of that woman.
The second son Genma introduced was apparently Ryuji’s fraternal twin, originally. Interesting. He was absolutely gorgeous. Of that there was no doubt. He had the kind of face that could fit the front covers of magazines. He would attract every woman for miles, and probably a surprising portion of the men. His features were a bit more elegant than the others - not so much as to look completely unrelated, but enough that it was obvious he was “the face”. She still couldn’t believe that the hair and cat ears were real - but she could see them twitch when he turned to Kasumi. Pure white, like snow - you had to watch how his hair swayed when he moved in order to notice the tiny hints of black stripes, like shadows in the daylight. His hair was the longest of any of the brothers, and he had it collected behind him in a braid that was almost samurai-like. Everything he did was perfect, every motion precise. He’d left his trenchcoat in the front room, but he still wore the sleeveless purple chinese-style shirt, and he apparently preferred silk pants. His clothes fit his frame like they were tailored.
He was fake. Every bit was practiced. She saw the emptiness behind his smile. The only time she saw it spark was when he turned to look at his brothers, and only barely - hidden. She’d seen his type. He made himself out of whatever others needed him to be in order for him to seem perfect. She was fortunate - she’d never got involved with his kind; but she’d heard from girls who had, and read some about them. The fact that she saw a spark of warmth in him at all told her that he perhaps wasn’t everything she’d read about - but he fit the archetype. Good luck to whoever ended up with him - whoever it was, it wasn’t going to be her. He was going to be a handful for whatever unlucky girl found it her job to tame him. Akane or Kasumi might have some luck - Akane had a strong enough will when she wanted to, she might be able to bring him down to earth - and Kasumi could tame an oni without raising her voice. If it came down to Duo, she was out.
Next was apparently Ranma - he was apparently the youngest son, at 16, but he still had much of the figure she would expect of a man 3-4 years older. He shared a general figure with Duo - not too thin, not too muscular - and he shared apparently shared his fashion style with Ryuji, although he preferred red, judging by his shirt color. His dark black hair was tied back in a short braid. His face was more angular than Ryuji’s, not as squared, but he lacked the bishounen roundedness of Duo, and his blue eyes had a charming almost-innocence to them. She liked what she saw in them. He was inquisitive. She recognized the look of someone who wanted to know. She could tell he was doing a decent job of ‘reading’ her and her sisters just as she was them. His eyes told her a lot about him - he was smart. Open, honest, fair, not judgmental or insecure. He had potential. Unfortunately, he was also already taken.
Her eyes darted to the black-haired girl in the blue chef’s outfit beside him - and she caught the girl staring at her with that angry look she recognized. ‘Hand’s off, he’s mine’, that look said. The girl’s massive spatula was quite telling in it’s omnipresence, and she could tell from the way she carried herself that she knew how to use it. She gave the girl a disarming smile and a tiny nod of recognition, and mentally crossed Ranma off her list.
<=0=>
As Soun introduced his daughters, Kenshiro took a moment and let himself ‘feel’ them.
It wasn’t an exact science; it was as much instinct as anything else. He’d picked it up as a byproduct during the training. At first it was just body language - if you looked closely, you could sometimes tell which way someone was going to move based on how they held themselves. Things like where their weight shifted, how their muscles tensed… it wasn’t perfect, and if they knew you were looking, they could fake it - but it could be a decent guide. But where it got interesting was in faces. Even if you couldn’t tell exact movements, if you learned to read the structure of someone’s expressions, you could often get a feel for their style itself even before they started moving. That was where it got interesting. Duo could do it too - but he did it to ‘game’ people. Ken did it to ‘get’ people.
Ken had no intentions of going along with Genma’s plans - but there wasn’t any reason to take out his beef with the old man on any of them. He wasn’t getting into a relationship - but he didn’t want trouble, and the best way to do that was to understand, so that he could get along with them. Starting off on the right foot, as much as he could, was simply smart.
The first was the eldest, who apparently was named “Kasumi.” She almost glowed. He got her within two seconds: warm, giving, tender, accepting, kind to a fault. She terrified him. Her kind always were like that… until they saw what was inside him. Then it hurt even worse when they simply stopped talking to him. Good potential friend and confidante - mostly. Wouldn’t understand the hard stuff. To stay on her good side: always thank her for everything she does - genuinely, but not over-enthusiastically. Didn’t want any crushes forming.
Next was the youngest, Akane - who he’d “met” already. He expected anger, but while she looked at the other brothers with mild glares, she simply stared at him blankly. Makes sense - on the one hand, he hadn’t told her that the ferret was him, on the other he’d been the only one with reflexes honed enough to look away when she walked in on them. Young. Uncertain. He sensed insecurity. She was the fighter, but not up to their level. Volatile - the two of them could explode off of each other in the wrong situations. Bad match even if he’d been considering it. Needs stable presence and dedication - too difficult for him to bring out in himself reliably. She’d set him off too easily, and he’d risk hurting her in ways he’d regret. Treat with careful respect.
<=0=>
That left the shortest, but apparently not the youngest son - who Genma introduced as “Kenshiro.” Of all the brothers, he was the least muscularly built, but the most toned. His hair was brown and cut short. He also was the only one to break their fashion trend: Plain white shirt. Cargo shorts. Ordinary. Too ordinary. And yet… when he leaned forward, resting his head on his hands… she realized his eyes were on her legs. She felt a smile of amusement crease her lips. He liked what he saw. She let herself look. He had nice arms. She wondered if he had abs. One would expect a dedicated martial artist to have good muscles tone all across his body. His gaze was moving.
Her eyes met his.
<=0=>
That left the middle sister: Nabiki.
Slender. Expression said guarded amusement. Tank top. Short shorts. Legs tucked under her slightly to one side. Legs for days. Legs that reached all the way to the ground. Legs that drew the eye. Legs that she knew drew the eye. Legs she wore short shorts to draw the eye to. He yanked his eyes away and back up to the rest of her.
She’d caught him looking. She smirked like a cat with a cornered mouse. She liked being noticed. And she liked that he knew that. He wasn’t a mouse.
His eyes met hers.
<=0=>
Blue eyes met brown - and locked.
Time stopped.
For the first time in her life, Nabiki’s eyes met someone she couldn’t read. He was an enigma. His playful smirk was partly genuine, but not completely - it also hid something, and she couldn’t tell what it was.
For the first time in his life Kenshiro gazed at someone he couldn’t feel out. Her smirk was real - she liked that he’d been looking. The challenge in her expression was also partly real - she wouldn’t mind seeing more. But her playful demeanor also hid something, and his instincts had no clue what it was.
Time stretched as they stared at each other - and in it’s own way, they waged a silent war between them, right then and there.
Nabiki had seen her fair share of poker faces. His was good, but not unreadable. The rest of the world faded away as she focused her attention. The cadence of his breathing, the way his eyes moved, the way he held his hands… she would see through him. He wasn’t going to hide from her.
Ken had seen his fair share of combatants who knew how to feint. She was good, but not beyond his capacity. The world narrowed as he focused. Her body was an act - her eyes were the window. He let his instincts guide him as he looked. What was she hiding?
His smile was a wall, but not entirely; he had a playful side.
Her smirk was a distraction, but only partly; she enjoyed teasing.
His defenses were hardened. He was hardened. Guarded. Restrained.
Her deflections were calculated. She was calculated. Precise. On-edge.
He never let go. He never let up. He was turned against himself.
She was always on. She was always watching. She never stopped.
They pressed harder. The moment stretched.
Pain.
Ken saw it. Not even the tiniest sliver - just an echo. A hunch - assumed based off of what he could see more than being actually seen itself.
Nabiki saw it. Not the thing itself - just an outline. A deduction, based on what she could gather more than what she actually saw.
Pain.
Shards of pain, thousands of them, like a million pieces of glass thrust through her heart.
Agony, like a burning fire, continuously eating at him and trying to consume him.
She had a mind like a steel trap - powerful and unyielding.
He had a spirit like a bonfire - it burned fit to incinerate the world.
She’d been forced to do things she hated.
He’d lost control before.
I betrayed them.
You are just like me.
He was naked.
She was bare.
Fear.
No. He couldn’t let someone this close. It wasn’t okay. He would end up hurting her. He didn’t want to hurt her. He knew how. He know exactly how. Kami, he didn't want to, but…
No. She didn’t want someone here. Here was too much. He was in her core. She would end up breaking him. She didn’t want to break him. She knew how. She knew exactly how. Kami, she didn't want to, but…
Oh, no. She knew him. She didn’t know what it was, but she knew why. She was in, whether either of them wanted her to be or not. Oh, Kami. She could break him with a single look. She saw his core. She understood. She knew how bad it was. To get that look, from her, who understood it, who felt it… He waited. He was about to die.
He knew her. He didn’t know what had happened, but he knew why. He was inside her, whether either of them wanted him to be or not. He could destroy her with a single word. He saw her. He understood. He knew. To hear it from him, who got it, who knew the weight… She waited. She was about to end.
She knew he saw her.
He knew she saw him.
No one would ever command him.
No one would ever own her.
He held a darkness inside.
She knew how to kill her heart.
He could take enjoyment in breaking her if he wanted to.
She could rip him apart and freeze the pain forever if she wanted to.
She was waiting for him to end her.
He was waiting for her to destroy him.
“I’ll do it.”
They’d lost track of everything outside of the two of them during the exchange. They hadn’t noticed the chaos that had been growing around them - they hadn’t noticed Shampoo threatening to turn Genma into a rug, or Ukyo making it clear that her engagement to Ranma was primary. They hadn’t noticed Akane announcing that she wasn't marrying any of them because they were all perverts.
The room fell completely silent. Everyone slowly turned to them.
“Son?” Genma asked, speaking to Ken as if he’d just be slapped in the face with a trout.
“Nabiki-chan?” Soun questioned, perplexed.
Holy shit. She’d just…
Great kami. He had just…
Did she really mean it?
Was he serious?
This was impossible. She couldn’t have really meant…
He was insane. There was no way he was serious about…
They stared at each other.
If I reject you, I confirm your worst. If I confirm your worst, I confirm my worst.
“I’ll marry Kenshiro.”
“I’ll marry Nabiki.”
They spoke simultaneously - their words echoing through the empty room like a gong.
They stared at each other.
He could read her. He knew her. He didn’t know all of her - but he knew the core of her. He knew the break that drove her. He knew the pain that fueled her. He knew how it ripped at her. He knew what she was capable of. He saw past her mask now - her face was an open book to him.
She could read him. She knew him. She didn’t know all of him - but she knew the core of him. She knew the scar that drove him. She knew the agony that burned him. She knew how it tempted him. She knew what he was capable of. She saw past his mask now - his eyes were windows to her now.
I see you.
Their breathing was slow and even - but only because they were both forcing it to be.
They both nodded - slowly, deliberately, carefully.
I could. I really could. Kami, how I could… But I won’t.
I’m scared. You scare me. I scare me. This scares me. But I won’t. Not to you. Not again.
No matter what. Not again. Not to you.
The silence stretched.
<=0=>
You could have cut the tension in the room with a knife.
Everyone stared, shocked into silence in the wake of Ken and Nabiki’s announcement.
The Saotome family had expected any number of possible outcomes - they had expected Duo to end up being the one to be saddled with the responsibility of marrying a Tendo. They had expected some sort of off-the-books “arrangement” to be quietly made with Ryuji.
They had expected the entire deal to be completely null and voided because an agreement couldn’t be come to. They had expected the possibility of the four brothers walking out of the house and turning their backs on their family name. They wouldn’t have been surprised if a sudden hurricane had spontaneously formed precisely over the Tendo house and obliterated the entire house just as the conversation was getting started. But for Ken of all people to agree to comply with the family marriage vow? All 3 brothers stared at him not just in shock but in absolute disbelief - whoever this was, this couldn’t be their brother. Duo quietly reached over and pinched himself, just to test that he wasn’t dreaming or hallucinating.
For their part, the Tendos stared in almost-equal shock at Nabiki - not because she’d agreed, per se, so much as because she’d jumped instantly to agreement, with no negotiating, no bargaining, and no power plays. She’d just… said she’d do it.
“Nabiki-chan… Are you sure?” Kasumi asked, leaning over to touch her sister’s arm.
Nabiki looked over and gave her older sister a quick reassuring smile, resting her hand over Kasumi’s. She then glanced at Soun. “Sorry, let me clarify: Daddy, I like the look of Kenshiro, and I’d like to get to know him some to see if he and I like each other - would that be fine enough with you for now?”
Soun blinked as some of his startlement faded and his eyes focused on his middle daughter. “Oh… Uh… Yes. Why yes, of course, Nabiki - that would be wonderful.”
Nabiki put on her most charming favorite-daughter-smile. “Thank you, Daddy.”
Genma’s jaw was welded to the floor. Ken? Ken was going to be one? But Ken never…
“Don’t toy with me, boy!” He sputtered in shock. “This isn’t some game for you to play with me! This is a matter of honor!”
Ken’s shin cracked against Genma's face - not flesh on flesh, steel on concrete. Nabiki had just enough time to blink and take in the scene of Kenshiro in mid-air, his face twisted in a snarl that seemed formed of purest outrage - except that she could see the pain beneath it now - before time seemed to catch up as Genma was sent hurtling backwards out of the room. The fat martial artist bounced once against the ground before landing in the koi pond with a loud splash.
“Stay the FUCK out of it, you worthless pile or trash!!” Ken screamed, standing there with his fists clenched, his body visibly shaking. “What the hell makes you think you have any right to talk about honor!?”
As Genma's panda form rose up out of the water, Ken turned, still quivering. His head turned, his glaring complexion settling on Nabiki again.
The scowl on his face was ferocious - but while the expression remained, the emotion of it vanished from his eyes when they met hers. He wasn't mad at her. He couldn't be mad at her. His rage was at Genma, at the situation, at the interference - at the control. He burned. He wanted to burn it all to the ground, to smash and break until it was all rubble. He wanted to wipe it all away and salt the earth rather than bow. But he wouldn't. He wasn't going to hurt her like that.
Nabiki's mildly amused expression remained untouched - but the corner of her eyebrow twitched ever-so-slightly. She knew. She understood. She wasn't set off by it - but she understood that he was. She wasn't judging him for that. He needed space. He needed to let the fire simmer down. She'd be fine. She knew how to handle this. He should take the space he needed.
Ken turned and walked off, his footsteps echoing down the hallway outside the family room. The silence he left behind weighed more than his rage had.
Another long moment followed as the rest of the people in the room, not being privy to the exchange between them, stared at each other in silence.
“Well… I think that went pretty well.” Duo said lightheartedly.
Ryuji busted out in a loud guffaw. After a moment, Ranma and Ukyo joined him. Shampoo just rolled her eyes.
“Anoooo….” Soun blinked awkwardly. “I'm afraid I don't understand the joke.”
“Oh my, do Kenshiro-kun and Saotome-san not get along?” Kasumi asked worriedly.
“You could say that.” Ryuji understated between chuckles.
Shampoo smirked. “Ken disobedient son. Strong-willed. Not bend easy. Always fight.”
“Not always.” Ranma added. “Just when he feels like people are trying to make him do something. If you talk with him rather than to him, he's really nice.”
Soun pursed his lips in thought. After a moment, he turned back to his daughter. “Nabiki?”
Nabiki kept her smile in place. She knew what she'd seen. She was sure. What terrified her was just how sure she was. Despite the suddenness of it, she knew, deep in her bones, that her decision had been the correct one. Maybe jumping straight to marrying him was a bit reckless, but…
She wasn't going to abandon him. That much she knew. So instead, she shrugged nonchalantly. “Like I said, Daddy - I'd just like to get to know him more.”
<=0=>
Surprisingly, as if to mock the chaos that had made up the rest of the day, the remainder of the evening proceeded smoothly. After a brief discussion, it was determined that Kasumi would help Ukyo and Shampoo to get set up in the guest room, while the Saotome men would make themselves comfortable in the dojo. Ken didn't show up for dinner, but the other brothers assured them that he would be back, and that he just needed some time to cool off. Soun frowned slightly, but didn't make an issue out of it. As the day went on, the oppressive heat gave way, and by evening the weather had cooled to a temperature that was manageably cooler.
Nabiki was checking her ledger, making sure she accounted for the damage done to the furo earlier that day, when she felt a quiet ‘thump’ echo down from the roof over her head. She blinked. A moment later, she heard several more sounds over her head that she realized could only be footsteps.
Normally, her reflexive response to this sort of situation would be to start by calling the authorities - not out of emergency, but simply because it would be easier to let them take care of it. But then, this had not been a normal day.
She had a hunch, and on an impulsive surge of recklessness, she got up and made her way to her bedroom window, sliding it open to peer out into the darkening evening sky.
Sure enough, she spotted Ken sitting on the roof off to one side of her window.
Kenshiro.
Her fiancee.
The man she’d agreed to marry. The man who…
Nabiki felt a shiver run down her spine at what she’d seen in him.
She should close her window. She should-
“Penny for your thoughts.”
He was looking away from her - out towards the setting sun.
She froze the nerves she felt. Her hands touched the tiling of the roof.
“Make it 500 yen and we’ve got a deal.”
He kept staring off into the sunset. “I don’t have any spare change right now.” He said. She saw him swallow. He was nervous too. Her posture was relaxed, but his muscles were rigid. He was anxious too.
She should go back into her room and close the window.
She stepped out onto the roof.
Slowly, she worked her way over to him. “How about a trade, then?” She asked.
His eyes darted over towards her for just a moment. She noticed the way they started at her feet and went up. It sent a small thrill through her. She saw the impish smile spread across his face, as if he couldn’t help it even despite his nerves. “Are you suggesting that I show you mine and you’ll show me yours?” His smile was genuine and a little daring, but his eyes still didn’t dart up to meet hers.
She found herself giggling just a little. She sat down next to him. “No point - we already did that one.” Her tone was a little more serious.
His grin faded. “Nabiki…” His eyes stayed fixed on the horizon. “I…” He was avoiding setting it off again.
She swallowed. “Ken… Look at me.”
She saw him tense. His eyes darted back and forth. After a moment, he lifted his head up and glanced around, his eyes scanning the yard and the buildings around them - checking for eavesdroppers. He took another slow breath, then turned his face to hers again.
The moment their eyes met, it sprang to life between them. Less intense, but still just as present. Like gazing into a set of facing mirrors.
“I…” He said slowly. “Is this…?”
Real? He didn’t say it. But she knew. She gathered herself, and began to speak.
“You’re… rigid.” She said, “You’re wrapped all around yourself. You’re… broken.” She said, “I don't know what, but something shattered you. It isn’t all pretty. You can’t put all the shards back together. It would be… bad.”
His breathing was slow, but deliberate, as he stared back into her eyes. He nodded slowly. He swallowed. “You… you know how to be cold.” He said. “You wish you didn’t. You don’t want to be. But…” He took a slow breath. “You can turn it off. You can just… stop caring. You… you had to.”
She nodded.
They both just stared at each other for a moment.
“So… we… we aren't imagining it.” Ken said slowly.
Nabiki shook her head. “I don't understand it - but it's real.” She took a breath. “You aren’t anyone’s puppet.”
He nodded. “And you aren’t anyone’s property.”
She smiled.
“I don’t understand this.” Kenshiro said.
“Neither do I.”
He took a slow breath. “What do we do?”
She followed his example. “I don’t know.”
His hand turned over. His fingertips rested lightly on his palm. “Do we want this?”
She glanced down at their hands. After a moment, “I don’t want to walk away from it.”
They sat in silence for a few moments. It was Ken that broke it. “Tell me something.”
She looked up at him. “What?”
He shook his head, then shrugged. “Anything. Tell me something I don’t know. Tell me something that I can’t… feel.”
She looked away self-consciously for a moment. Finally… “I like ice cream.”
There was silence for a moment. Then Ken chuckled. After a moment, his chuckle got louder.
Nabiki felt herself blushing. “What?” She demanded, her tone almost petulant. When she looked up at him, the feeling vanished - his nervousness was gone. His eyes were warm and gentle.
“Haagan-Dasz.” He said.
She quirked an eyebrow.
“I will kill people for Haagen-Dasz.” he joked.
She couldn’t help it. She started giggling herself after a moment.
They didn’t dissolve into uncontrollable fits - but they both sat there laughing gently for a few moments at the absurdity of the situation. When you find yourself suddenly aware of a stranger’s deepest and most profound secrets, it’s the casual things that suddenly feel intimate.
<=0=>
Nabiki crawled her way back through her bedroom window an hour later. They hadn’t talked much after that - they’d mostly just watched the sunset together. Ken had an air to him that made it easy to sit in silence comfortably, without feeling excluded or ignored. Kami, she hadn’t watched a sunset in years. Apparently Ken tried to catch it most nights - it was a way of grounding himself.
She smiled. She could do worse. He was dangerous - but…
She shook her head. Enough silly little girl fantasies. She wasn’t 12. Besides, it wasn’t official - regardless of whatever Daddy said, if she or Ken didn’t want this, she knew they could make it end whatever her father said. So where did that leave them?
Was Ken her friend?
That seemed too premature.
She sighed. Broken, passionate, fiery, hesitant, controlled. That was who he was. She knew that, and way more than she felt like she should. It was weird. Could she trust him with how much he knew about her? He could really hurt her.
Would she hurt him? Would she use what she knew about him against him?
Never. Came the answer, almost immediately. So immediate it scared her.
She’d have to trust that that was how he was feeling too. At least for now. She couldn’t afford the alternative.
Okay. Enough distractions. To bed. For real this time.
She closed the curtains on her window.
Tomorrow was another day.
Chrysicat on Chapter 1 Sun 10 Aug 2025 02:53PM UTC
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ancapgamer on Chapter 1 Sun 10 Aug 2025 04:12PM UTC
Last Edited Sun 10 Aug 2025 04:12PM UTC
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Hiryo on Chapter 1 Wed 13 Aug 2025 10:51PM UTC
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Hiryo on Chapter 3 Wed 13 Aug 2025 10:50PM UTC
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Hiryo on Chapter 4 Fri 22 Aug 2025 06:44AM UTC
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ancapgamer on Chapter 4 Fri 22 Aug 2025 08:29PM UTC
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Hiryo on Chapter 5 Thu 11 Sep 2025 06:38AM UTC
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