Chapter Text
Akane Tendo believed in her gut.
Sometimes her gut told her not to walk down a certain street, or not to go out on a certain day, or—in one case— to reject a certain rising star of the Kendo club. Sometimes, like it did that fateful morning, her gut told her nothing except that something important was about to happen. And when something important was about to happen in a place like Nerima, the best Akane could do was center herself, stay alert, and pay a visit to her mother.
Other than her gut instinct, her mother was the other guiding pillar in her life. Even when she died— especially when she died— Akane's mother was the only one who really listened and helped Akane process all of the big emotions she felt.
Soun stopped visiting the Tendo matriarch's shrine, sectioned off in a corner of the dojo compound, soon after her death— driven too deep into grief every time he was reminded of what he'd lost. Nabiki had been next, losing any taste for sentimentality as it became clear that the fragile state of the household was becoming permanent. Kasumi kept up her visits, but they became little more than a formality— dusting off her mother's photograph and replacing wilting flowers just another in a long list of chores. Akane was the only one who genuinely visited after that first year.
Akane stepped through the threshold into the small annex that held her mother's shrine, bowing slightly as she entered. The room was the same as it ever was. Other than the fresh flowers, the shrine had been in stasis for almost a decade, a perfect reflection of the Tendo family that never fully moved on from the loss.
Reverently, Akane knelt down in front of the shrine and pulled a matchbox from a lacquered box to the side. Sending off warm thoughts of her mother, she carefully lit two incense sticks that flanked the shrine before leaning back to look her mother in the eyes.
Staring back at her through a fading colored photo was Mary-Beth Tendo. Brown hair done up into a bun, mouth turned up into a motherly grin, but hazel eyes burning with a challenge to the world. A moment in time, but perfectly capturing what Akane could otherwise only recall through cloudy memories and secondhand stories. Mary-Beth had been as much a lover as a fighter, as much a mother as an adventurer.
From what Akane had gathered from her father's drunken, sob-filled ramblings, Mary-Beth had been born in Texas in a town much too small to contain her spirit. The second she turned eighteen she took the first chance to get as far away as possible, joining the Women's Army Corps. Years of hopping from base to base eventually led her to being stationed in Okinawa, where she first laid eyes upon a wandering martial artist named Soun Tendo.
Their romance was quick, passionate, and as befitted the courting of two wild souls— absurdly illegal. In the eyes of the US Military, one day Mary-Beth Oglethorpe simply vanished, taking her M14 service rifle with her. Whether she was considered dishonorably discharged or MIA mattered to the young couple even less than Japanese gun laws, and a few called favors from old Tendo family connections was all it took for her new existence as Mary-Beth Tendo to become 'legal enough'.
'Legal enough' became the newly married couple's specialty. Their marriage? Legal enough. Their romantic escapades into Yakuza territory? Legal enough. The black market weapons they 'liberated' from their defeated opponents' hands? Legal enough. The shooting range they set up behind the dojo, when Mary-Beth got pregnant and finally swore off hunting down danger? Legal enough.
In Akane's early memories, the sharp crack of gunfire was just as prevalent as the sound of cinderblocks being reduced to dust under her father's hands. Then suddenly, everything was silent— her mother got too sick to shoot, and her father became too worried to do anything but tend to her. When Mary-Beth passed into the night, the silence remained. Her father retreated into himself, almost entirely dropping the art, while the guns with nobody left to shoot them slowly vanished from the home. All that remained of the once legendary Tendo arsenal was left in her mother's gunsafe, the centerpiece of her shrine.
Some part of Akane had always wanted to pick up a gun and fill the air around the dojo once again with the joyous sounds of gunshots, just as she had restored the sound of vigorous practice and smashing cinderblocks through her self-guided martial arts training. But the gun in the gunsafe was all that they had left, all that her mother had left, and Akane couldn't bring herself to even try to crack the safe.
Finishing her musings on the past, Akane returned to the present. Clasping her hands together, she began speaking softly to her mother. About what had happened since they last spoke, about how everyone was doing, and about the odd sense of foreboding that had initiated her visit. When she was done she sat in silence, letting her words dissipate into the still air of the room.
Usually she would have sat for a few minutes, imagining what her mother would have said in heavily accented Japanese, imagining her ghostly presence wrapping around her and giving her the comfort only Kasumi usually had to spare. This time, though, she felt it. Something stronger than any she'd had before, something that couldn't be dismissed as just her own imagination.
A light, misty presence like dew drops draped across her body sent goosebumps rippling down her skin.
One
Otherworldy whispers passing through her ear, unknowable but comforting all the same, drawing forth half-remembered memories of better times.
Seven
A twitch in her hand as it moved ever so slightly towards the gunsafe lock, unbidden by any conscious thought.
Seven
A voice echoing in her head, layering over the otherworldly whispers. 'Take your birthright, my blessed child.'
Six
Akane fumbled forward, hands shaky and eyes blurred with tears as she clumsily fiddled with the lock. Deep breaths, one number after the other. Slowly, methodically.
1-7-7-6
click
The lock came undone and her mother's gunsafe slowly creaked open. Akane wiped at the tears in her eyes and looked upon the treasure inside, and somehow she just knew. Just as she knew today was important, just as she knew her mother was with her, just as she knew her own name. What lay within wasn't just a gun. It was The Gun. It was Mary-Beth's M14 service rifle, but it was also a Colt .45, it was a Smith & Weston .9mm, it was an AR-15 and a revolver and a Type 97 anti-tank rifle. It was every gun at once but none of them at all and, down to her very core, Akane understood that it was also now hers. Slowly, reverently, Akane picked up The Gun and felt it become part of her very being, her ki flowing from handle to barrel and into every loaded bullet.
Akane rotated The Gun in her hand, taking it in as she brought her pointer finger to rest softly against its trigger. For a single moment, she could feel her mother's hand atop her own as though guiding her to readjust her grip. It made her sniffle again, emotion welling up as she—
"Akane!", the sound of her father's voice filled with an unusual excitement echoed through the Tendo compound and interrupted Akane's reverie. Unconsciously, Akane slipped The Gun towards where a holster would sit against her right leg. As she let go of the handle, The Gun vanished. Still, she could feel it resting there folded into her ki, waiting to be pulled out at a moments notice.
With one more glance at her mother's photograph, Akane left to answer Soun's summons.
—G—U—N—
Akane didn't expect to get a hands-on lesson in trigger discipline so soon after getting The Gun, but her father was putting forward a difficult challenge. Some random schmuck with a bit of martial arts experience was coming to their dojo, looking to get an engagement and inherit it right under Akane's nose? Akane didn't want to shoot her father over making such a dumb agreement without ever bringing it up, but it was a close thing. Whether she would have to wave her new firearm at the dumb boy arriving at their doorstep would be another matter entirely.
Suddenly, a commotion rang out from the courtyard and her dad and Nabiki ran out to greet their expected arrival. Akane lingered back with Kasumi, slowly making her way towards the courtyard with her hand resting comfortably against the handle of her concealed firearm.
The commotion grew louder, turning into heavy thumps against planked flooring as Nabiki and Soun came running around the corner, a massive bear chasing close behind already holding the body of one of its victims. In a flash, Akane knew exactly what she needed to do. The red-blooded American in her sang out as she manifested The Gun in her hand and raised it towards the creature. Just as she had felt the spirit of her mother guiding her earlier to open the gun safe, she could feel generations of spirits watching as she cocked The Gun, aimed between the great beast's eyes, and let out the fierce battle cry of her mother's people.
"CASTLE DOCTRINE!"
BLAM, the bullet struck right between the beast's black-rimmed eyes and it fell unceremoniously to the ground, dropping its victim like a sack of potatoes. The hall fell into silence as the Tendo family's eyes bounced between the fallen beast and The Gun resting comfortably in Akane's hands.
After a few moments, Soun was the first to react, beginning to sniffle as he took in the image of his youngest daughter. "Is… Is that?"
Akane's gaze softened as she took in her father's shaking form, "Yeah, it's Mother's Gun. I… I felt her this morning, Dad, she wanted me to have it." Akane held up The Gun towards her father, who reached out to gently caress its still-smoking barrel. As he went to grip it and take it from Akane, however, she could feel it reject his pull as it once again retreated into her ki flow and its comforting presence once again resting against her right thigh. Soun swept forward, scooping Akane up into his arms and swinging her back and forth as tears streamed down his face.
"Uh, excuse me?", the touching family moment was interrupted by the soft voice of the bear's victim, having lifted herself out from under the beast's thick arm pinning her down. Soun set down Akane to address the sudden guest, while Kasumi surged forward to look her over for any injuries.
"Are you alright? That panda didn't hurt you, did it?" Kasumi fretted over the girl, circling around her in search for injury.
The girl looked embarrassed to be cared for, and responded almost too quiet for Akane to hear, "No, other than a bump on the head. The panda is my uh, pet, actually." The girl awkwardly scratched behind her head as she looked down at the pool of blood slowly spreading from where the bear's forehead met the floor. "Could we, um, make sure he's alive, please?", she said, her voice raising as it became slightly frantic.
That made Akane feel just a bit guilty, even if her shot was perfectly justified. Stepping forward, she bowed to the redheaded girl. "I'm sorry for hurting your pet panda, Miss…" Akane maintained her low bow as she turned her head up to give a questioning look to the girl.
"Oh! Uh, I'm Ranma Saotome, sorry 'bout this." The girl matched Akane's bow with one of her own.
"You're Ranma Saotome?", Akane couldn't help but ask as she straightened her back.
"Yeah, I'm—" Ranma was cut off as Soun ran forward and grabbed Ranma by the arms, even more tears than before now spilling from his eyes.
"At last! You've come! It's so good of you to come! So—"
Soun froze in place. Slowly, he pulled back from Ranma and cast his eyes downward. Finally, he seemed to catch up with Akane had already noticed. Ranma was a cute girl. The revelation struck him like a bullet between the eyes and, just like the panda had, he fell to the ground with a loud thud.
—G—U—N—
It took them a few minutes but with the help of their surprisingly strong guest both Soun and the panda were patched up and resting on futons in the main room. The panda was, at the least, breathing steadily, while Soun had already woken back up and returned to his usual state of being— silently crying. With both of them out of the way, Akane could finally act on the excitement that had built in her since she'd laid eyes on the redheaded girl earlier.
"I'm Akane. You want to be friends?"
The little smile on Ranma's face was all Akane needed. It set off a fuse in her belly and she could feel the small flame slowly moving upward as she put a hand on Ranma's shoulder. "Join me in the practice hall?"
Without waiting for a reply Akane trailed her arm down Ranma's shoulder to grip her arm and help her up from her position seated next to her unconscious panda. With one final look back at her injured pet, she followed Akane out towards the dojo. Akane could barely contain herself, bouncing with each step as she led her new friend. The feeling of nervous anticipation she'd felt that morning had completely gone away, replaced with the comfort of her mother's Gun against her hip and the flaming warmth of having a new, cute martial artist friend burning its fuse towards her heart.
As they reached the dojo and Akane got into position, she even felt somewhat uncomfortable getting into her proper form. While her style of Anything Goes was largely focused on grounded fighting and taking advantage of her anger, the good turns of the day made her feel like she was almost floating on air. That was besides the fact that, with The Gun firmly integrated into her ki, she felt an almost instinctual need to use it, even in a friendly spar. Still, even as her hand twitched towards The Gun, she resisted the urge.
The two girls bowed to each other, and Akane immediately surged forward to strike the first, decisive blow of the match. Ranma bounced out of the way of one blow, then the next and the next. She was like a rubber bullet ricocheting around the battlefield, always at a completely different angle to Akane from one moment to the next.
As strike after strike failed to find a target, Akane began to feel the sweat gathering under her dougi. She took a moment to collect herself, adjusting her stance to defend against any counterblow Ranma might try to strike. Ranma just stared back at her, her wide sparkling eyes and pursed red lips giving any nothing of her strategy.
"Come on, swing at me!" Akane went in for another punch, paying close attention as Ranma curved around the oncoming fist faster than a speeding bullet. Somehow, the girl was reading all of Akane's moves. Was she telegraphing too much? Did Ranma have some kind of advanced speed technique? Why wasn't she fighting back? Questions raced through Akane's head, but they were all almost completely drowned out by the sound of her own beating heart. More than anything, Akane felt alive.
If Akane was going to have any chance of even touching her opponent, she would need to go all-out. For a brief moment she considered drawing The Gun and firing, but that would defeat the purpose of the match entirely. Akane wanted to touch Ranma, not strike out from a distance. Still, The Gun was an ever-present part of her ki…
Akane jumped forward with a battle cry, striking with a short jab from her left that forced Ranma back towards the dojo wall. Akane focused on her hip and swept her right hand across an imagined holster, manifesting a Winchester Model 70 deer rifle with a long wooden stock. With her left hand in position to grip the barrel, Akane quickly spun the rifle around and arced the blunt wooden end towards her opponent. Ranma jumped, letting out a yelp as the unexpected wooden bludgeon nicked the edge of her foot on its way towards smashing through the dojo wall.
Mere moments later, before Akane could even attempt to follow up on her first successful hit, she felt a firm poke against the back of her head. Turning around, she was met with a blinding smile from her opponent.
The fuse that had been lit in her stomach reached its end, and Akane could feel a cannonball blasting its way through every barrier holding her feelings back. The castle walls of internalized homophobia she'd built over the years, brought crashing down by the gunpowder era.
She could still hear her heart beating wildly, but now it was for an entirely different reason as blood rushed into her cheeks. Ranma Saotome… She was supposed to become engaged to one of them, if not for a mix-up of genders, right? Maybe with a bit of rough convincing her father would still approve of a match? It wasn't like he had a history of respecting legality when it had come to his own marriage, after all…
Shaking herself out of her cute-girl-induced stupor, Akane bowed to her future fiancee. They stared at each other for a few moment, both smiling and flushed with energy after their bout. Finally, Akane broke the silence between them. "You're… pretty good. Well, I'm just glad you're a girl."
"Huh?" Ranma tilted her head in confusion and Akane diverted her gaze in embarrassment.
"I mean, uh, girls are so— you know, I'd just really hate to lose to a boy!" Akane stumbled over her words, brain still rewiring itself after years of internalized homophobia had been blasted away. Another silence fell between the pair as Akane brushed her hand across the stock of The Gun still embedded in the dojo wall, watching as it disappeared and concealed itself once again against her hip. When she turned back around, she found that Ranma had already silently slipped away. Akane frowned, she hadn't come on that strongly had she?
Akane took a minute to look over the damage she'd caused to the dojo wall before her restlessness got to her. She was still so worked up, everything that had happened that day stacking on top of each other until she found herself pacing in circles around the dojo. Her mom's blessing, The Gun, the engagement, the panda, the girl…
Akane wasn't sure how long she paced around, but when Nabiki poked her head into the dojo there was already a bath fully hot and ready for her to soak— the perfect way for her to wind down. As Akane headed towards the bath, she couldn't help but imagine that Ranma would be there waiting for her, wet hair resting against her shining bare skin…
Still in her thoughts, she stripped off her robe and approached the door to the bath, 'Nah, there's no way I'd be that lucky, she's probably already taken a ba—'
'Oh.'
'That's a penis.'
Akane stared at the strange naked man she'd caught halfway through getting out of the bath. Without a word, she closed the sliding door between them and retied her robe before turning around and pressing her back against the door. Looking towards the ceiling, she took a deep breath
'In, two, three…'
'Out, two, three…'
"DIE MOTHERFUCKER!", Akane turned and slammed the door back open, MP5 submachine gun already out and spraying ki-infused lead towards the bathroom intruder. The private-property intruding pervert scrambled out of the bath, splashing water and cracked tiles left in his wake as he barely escaped the line of fire. Gritting her teeth, Akane gripped The Gun with both hands and swept the small room with a continuous stream of bullets.
Where the red-headed beauty Ranma had danced around the room like a ricochetting rubber bullet, the pervert bounced this way and that like a flea-sized target in a blantantly rigged carnival game. Akane continued to spray, pouring a continuous stream of ki into The Gun to provide the constant supply of bullets that ripped through the bathroom without ever hitting the naked creep and his flopping dick.
After a full minute of constant spray, Akane finally began to feel the limitations of The Gun's power. Pumping so much ki through it, especially after an intense spar with a cute girl, meant that Akane was quickly draining her own energy. She pushed against her limits, beginning to breathe in heavy gulps of steam-filled air as the bullets continued to rain down around her target.
With a final burst, Akane swept the bath with a line of bullets that sent the pervert ducking down to the ground to avoid. She gasped for air, her body aching and arms shaking so rapidly that she could no longer aim. The pervert capitalized on her momentary weakness, surging back onto his feet and jumping clear over Akane to cross into the rest of the bathroom. By the time Akane turned around, the only sign he'd even been there was a missing bath robe and a few droplets of blood leading out into the hallway.
With the last of her energy she yelled out to her family,
"PERVERT! PERVERT!"