A Ranma ½ fanfict by Tangent

Pre-reading and editing assistance by:

Lord Talon;

Nevrmore;

And some guy named Steve

DISCLAIMER: ‘Ranma ½’ and all characters therein belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogagukan, Kitty and Viz Video. This fanfict has been produced for my own enjoyment and to pass on without profit. Other characters that come into play in this fanfict may or may not be pulled from other sources (including other fanficts, RPGs, manga, anime, literature, or possibly even *GASP* American comic books!).

A WORD FROM TANGENT:

The Tendos and the Saotomes were taking a rare opportunity to visit Tokyo proper and do a little sight seeing. Well, at least that had been the idea. It was actually another one of Soun and Genma’s plans to get Ranma and Akane closer together by providing a romantic setting in the form of a tour. One that even had Nodoka’s tacit approval as a generally good idea. Unfortunately for these plans, Ranma and Akane had responded to the pressure of their less-than-subtle fathers by getting into yet another argument.

Nabiki hung back as Nodoka, Kasumi and the two disappointed matchmakers walked on ahead. Baiting the fights between Ranma and her younger sister was one of her favorite hobbies. Their arguments had supplied her with countless hours of soap opera like entertainment for the better part of two years now. Sure it was sometimes aggravating, even to her, but this trip was a little boring when they weren’t actually at one of the sights that she wanted to see.

Ranma and Akane had just about drawn even with their would be instigator when it happened. They had been crossing an intersection with the walk-light when a van barreled down on them, ignoring the red light as if it wasn’t there. Ranma had a split second to react, and instinctively knew that there was no way he could grab both Tendo girls and leap out of the way in time. One, maybe, but both would slow him down too much. Rather than leave one or both to fend for themselves, he shoved both of them hard and braced himself as well as he was able.

The last thing he remembered was the van filling his vision…

Dr. Keiko Ogata looked at the assembled families as she came into the waiting room. The families seemed to be in shock at what had happened to the young Saotome boy. Well, who wouldn’t be? By all rights, the impact from the van alone should have killed him, but witnesses swore that the boy had adopted some sort of pose to brace himself. Whatever he had done, it had worked, as the injuries from the van were the least of those that he had received. Unfortunately, the impact from the van had knocked him out, or he may have been able to recover from being thrown across the intersection and into the other cars. After pushing the two Tendo girls out of the way, he had been hit by the van so hard that he had cleared the intersection, rolled over a stopped car, and ended up under another one that ran over his legs as it pulled to a stop.

To their credit, the distraught drivers of the two cars were also present, offering to help cover whatever costs were required in the boy’s recovery. The van driver was another story, having turned out to be a belligerent drunk. He had actually gotten out of the van and tried to attack the boy for ruining his van. Tried being the operative word, as the boy’s mother had confronted him with the family honor blade. The police had prevented the situation from escalating any further. As it was, it was doubtful that the man would ever be allowed to drive again, and he was almost certain to have to cover the boy’s medical expenses.

As for the families…

Genma was in mute shock over what had happened to his son…his only son…

Nodoka valiantly held back her tears, trying to comfort Akane and Nabiki while she awaited word on her son’s condition one way…or the other.

The Tendos were the most openly emotional, alternating between shocked silence and tearful fits of grief and sorrow. For a while, they would be calm, and then one of them would say something and start crying. This, in turn, would set off the other Tendos. It was obvious to the doctor that they loved the boy as if he was one of their own.

Nodoka was hard pressed not to follow the Tendos down their river of tears.

Genma was a rock of silence, seemingly the least effected of them all, but inside all he could think about was his son…his only child…and of how he had failed Ranma as a father. Genma was almost dead to the world. He looked up at the doctor, and she could see the silent plea in his eyes that someone with less experience might have missed. ‘Please tell me my son is all right,’ they seemed to ask her. ‘Please tell me I have a reason to go on living.’

"Ranma Saotome is out of surgery and is in the recovery room," the doctor said. "He is out of immediate danger, but he has suffered multiple fractures all over his body, concussive trauma to his skull, and then there is the additional damage to his legs…"

"My…my boy’s going to live?" asked Genma as silent tears finally began to track down his face. Ranma was alive, and all else was just details.

"Yes, Mr. Saotome," the doctor assured him. "Your son is going to live." She really wished that she didn’t have to tell them the next bit of news, but they did have to be told. "However…"

"However?" Nabiki prompted, being the first of the Tendo family to find their voice.

"The injuries to Ranma Saotome’s legs are such that it is highly likely that he will never walk without assistance again…" The silence was deafening…

Ranma slowly regained consciousness and took stock of his situation. He was in a soft, contoured bed, wrapped in bandages, and had various tubes attached to him. This and the dull pain told him that he was probably in a hospital. He hurt all over, but he held off from activating the morphine drip…now that he remembered it. A vague memory indicated that it was to be used ‘once an hour’, but he wasn’t sure. He would have to ask the doctors later. He had never been on a morphine drip before.

Why was he on a morphine drip? Whatever had happened, it must’ve been pretty bad. A moment’s concentration…why was it so hard to concentrate? For some reason, he felt like he was going to fall up…or sideways. After a while he finally remembered the van that was about to hit him. He just couldn’t remember actually being hit.

It was actually a few minutes before he realized that there were other people in the room with him, and that they had been talking to him ever since he had opened his eyes. He seemed to remember seeing them before, then realized that they were his parents and the Tendos…and some lady in a white coat. Unfortunately, he was too tired to make out what they were saying. A moment later, he was too tired to stay awake…

"He seems so…so out of it," Akane said worriedly. Seeing Ranma like this frightened her greatly, and she felt guilty that he had been hurt so bad because he had saved her from being hit by the van. She also felt guilty that her first thoughts after being shoved out of the way were shock and outrage that Ranma had manhandled her. When she got up and turned to yell at Ranma she didn’t see him, and Nodoka’s scream finally registered in her ears.

FLASHBACK: just after the accident…

"RANNNMAAA!" Akane screamed, rushing over to where he lay, limp and seemingly lifeless. The driver had gotten out of his car and was trying to lift it off of Ranma’s legs. Akane, in a surge of hysteria induced adrenaline, flipped the car up off of her fiancé and over onto its back. Fortunately, everyone on the other side had already moved out of the way to make room for the car. Those who had been coming over to help lift the car, or who had grabbed trash cans or other items to help prop it up afterwards stopped in shock at the display.

"Please don’t die Ranma!" Akane pleaded through her tears as she knelt down next to him. "Please be all right, you jerk. I…I don’t know what I’d do without you." She began to sob into her hands. "I…I love you." Akane broke down, weeping openly for her iinazuke. She barely noticed when Nodoka intercepted the drunken van driver, but when she realized that he wanted to attack her fiancé, she almost joined Ranma’s mother – or rather, she almost attacked the man herself before the police separated the man and Nodoka.

All in all, the man was lucky that he had been arrested. If he had been able to continue his attack, Akane would have put him in a world of hurt…assuming that Nodoka hadn’t killed him first.

END FLASHBACK.

"He’s on morphine, Akane, and…the doctor said that he has a concussion," Nabiki tried comforting her sister while maintaining her aloof manner. For once she wasn’t succeeding too well, for she also felt guilty about the accident. In her mind, if she hadn’t hung back as she had, Ranma would have just grabbed Akane and leapt out of the way of the van. The more she thought about it, the more guilty she felt, as she remembered time after time that she had taken advantage of Ranma, or stirred up trouble between him and Akane. She had even arranged to ruin their wedding attempt last month, something that was now preying heavily on her conscience.

"You know what he’s like when he receives a big enough knock to his head," Nabiki continued…and immediately regretted as Akane burst into a new round of tears. How could she have forgotten how Ranma had gotten most of the really hard strikes to his head? In short order, Nabiki broke down in tears as well and the two girls had to be led out of the room by their father.

Nodoka sat quietly by her son and stroked his hair. To the last, he had acted as a man, and defended others before his own welfare. Now there was the possibility that he would never again walk without a leg brace, if not two. More likely was the chance that Ranma would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. For all intents and purposes, barring a miraculous full recovery, his life as a martial artist was over. She knew her son’s tenacity, and that his chances for full recovery were greater than the doctors thought because of his strong will and inherent abilities to direct the flow of his own ki towards healing. Unfortunately, she also knew that this might not matter…that her son’s injuries might be just too great this time.

A while later…

Ranma woke up once again, feeling more pain this time, but still feeling disoriented. Drawing from his currently hazy memory, he guessed that he probably had another concussion…. Among other things that is. It still took him a moment to remember why the rest of his body hurt.

"Ah… I see that our young patient is awake again," the doctor said. "Hello, I’m your primary doctor here at Tokyo General Hospital. My name is Dr. Keiko Ogata. You may call me Dr. Keiko, Dr. Ogata, or just plain Doctor if you wish. Can you tell me your name?"

Ranma actually had to think for a moment before something drifted into place in his mind. "Ranko Tendo," he responded, completely oblivious to the fact that he had just given his doctor the wrong answer.

Everyone just looked at Ranma worriedly. Genma and the Tendos had experienced something like this before with a couple of Ranma’s previous concussions, such as when he had briefly thought that he actually was a girl. Dr. Keiko, who had yet to get Ranma’s medical records from Dr. Tofu in Nerima, worried that the boy was showing signs of mental trauma and possible personality shift. Nodoka, who had no previous experience with ‘Ranko Tendo’ other than when Ranma had used it as an alias, just worried that her son had forgotten his own name.

"Okay…" Dr. Keiko said, trying to keep her tone calm. "You have visitors. Can you introduce me to them?"

"Hokay," Ranma responded as another wave of morphine induced relief washed though him (automatically triggered once an hour if not manually triggered sooner). "That’s Uncle Tendo…" he started, focusing on the first of the guests that he saw. "I live at his house now. He’s really a nice guy…"

Ranma gestured weakly at his father next. "An’ that’s Baka Oyaji." Ranma broke into a stage whisper and continued. "He turns into a Panda an’ he got me engaged to lots of girls. Even turned me into one. Made my life hell, let me tell you…" Dr. Keiko’s eyebrow shot up as she looked at Genma, who had just gone very pale. Nodoka’s glare at her husband told the doctor that there just might be some truth to the boy’s ramblings… Probably the multiple engagement part, and perhaps some forced cross-dressing (which might explain the confusion over his name). The other stuff was simply too ridiculous to believe.

"An’ that’s Aunty Saotome, my momma…" Nodoka stopped glaring at Genma and looked saddened as she realized that her son’s relationship with her might be more distant than she thought. Then she returned to glaring at her husband with renewed intensity as she remembered why Ranma had been away all those years.

"An’ that’s Kasumi," Ranma continued. "She’s really nice an’ is like the mother or older sister I never had…" Ranma frowned after a moment as he remembered that his real mother was in the room. "Sorry, Momma, but it’s true… Poppa never once told me about you while we were away. I never even got to write to you to find out what you were like…" Nodoka was really glaring at her husband now, and Genma was desperately looking for a glass of anything so he could retreat into his panda form.

"An’ that’s Yen-chan," Ranma said, waving vaguely in Nabiki’s direction. "I was engaged to her for a while once, when Akane-chan was really mad at me, but that’s over now." He paused for a moment as he remembered something else. "Just as well…she kept renting me out to other girls." Nabiki had the grace to look guilty at this, but tried to hold her tears in.

"An’ that’s Akane-chan, my very first iinazuke," Ranma went on. "Fell in love with her the very first time I saw her smile at me on the day that we met." His tone grew sad again as he remembered. "Things have gone down hill ever since…" Akane looked half torn between crying or being angry with Ranma over that comment. Ranma, for his part, was oblivious to the effect that his ramblings were having on those around him at the moment. They just swam in and out of focus in his concentration.

"Too bad we fight all the time," Ranma rambled on. "We had this stupid misunderstanding shortly after we met…walked in on each other in the furo by accident…" Ranma started to cry silently as he continued. "We’ve both been too proud to back down ever since…tears me apart every time she yells at me, but she never listens to my side of things. Sometimes…sometimes I think I’m such a jerk because it doesn’t hurt as much if she has a real reason to be angry with me… Why can’t I just tell her that I love her? Without making an idiot of myself by trying to take it back later? Why does she hate me? Does she hate me? It really doesn’t feel like what I thought love would be like… How can I still be in love with someone like that? Akane-chan, can’t you see that I love you? That I never stopped loving you since that very first day?" Ranma wept silently for a while as he tried to reign in his emotions.

Akane grew very pale as she realized that Ranma had just bared his heart to her. [He…he thinks that I hate him,] she thought. [And why not! I’ve been a monster to him!] She began to cry herself as she recognized the truth of what Ranma was saying. More than anything else might have, this brought Ranma back to an awareness of his surroundings.

"Aw, Akane, Don’t cry," Ranma tried comforting his fiancée. "I didn’t mean to hurt you! I never meant to hurt you! Ever! I don’t like it when you’re in pain!" Ranma began weeping openly again. "What ever it was, I take it back! I don’t want to hurt you anymore! Just tell me what it was and I’ll take it back!"

"Don’t you dare, Ranma!" Akane exclaimed through her tears. "It’s…it’s not your fault…"

"Whose then?" Ranma demanded; ready to pummel anyone who had caused her to cry, never mind the fact that he could barely make his body move at the moment.

"Mine," Akane said sadly. "Oh, Ranma…I’ve been so stupid!" She reached over and took his hand (the one without the IV needle sticking out of it). "All this time…all this time I’ve been in love with you too. Ever since I first found out that you weren’t like the other boys after all, I think. I…I’ve just been too stubborn and proud to admit it to anyone…even to myself."

Unfortunately, Ranma’s attention had begun to wander again by this point. "Kawai," he murmured.

"Huh?" Akane was startled right out of her depression by Ranma’s comment. She blushed and became a little flustered, but a little spark of joy leaped into her heart.

"Hey, look," Ranma rambled as he gestured vaguely upward. "A ceiling! Hello ceiling-chan!" His train of thought was well and truly derailed now, and the tracks had begun to bend in a roller coaster fashion. "This is my fiancée, Akane-chan, an’ my cousin, Nabiki, an’ my sister Kasumi, an’ Mommy, an’ Mr. Tendo, an’ Dr. Aiko, an’ Octopus-face! Say hello to all the nice people, ceiling-chan!"

Akane, whose little spark of joy had nearly been extinguished when Ranma had started talking to the ceiling, twitched repeatedly. Probably the only thing that had saved Ranma from an instant pummeling was the fact that he was still referring to her as his fiancée ‘Akane-chan’.

"I think that that’s enough excitement for now, everyone," Dr. Keiko stated, noting Akane’s dilemma. "It’s time to let him rest again, unless I miss my guess. Why don’t you all go over to the cafeteria and get yourselves something to eat?" Dr. Keiko turned to Ranma and continued. "We’ll all be back in a bit. You should just rest for now, because I’ve got something important to tell you that you have to know. Before, I go…could you tell me your name again?"

Ranma didn’t even stop to think this time, answering with the first name that dropped into place in his mind. "Yoiko Hibiki," he replied, still completely oblivious to the fact that he had yet to answer that question correctly.

After they had walked out of the room, Genma cleared his throat and spoke up. "Dr. Ogata, Is their somewhere reasonably private where we can tell you more about Ranma? Preferably with access to hot and cold water?"

"Of course," Dr. Keiko replied. She assumed that Mr. Tendo wanted to explain Ranma’s comments about having multiple fiancées, and possibly why the boy had given two different names as his own (both of them clearly girl’s names at that). She led them to an unoccupied lounge that had a water cooler with a heated option lever as well as the standard lever. There were plenty of paper cone cups available (which would turn out to be fortunate).

"I suppose it would be best to show you first," Genma started as he poured water into one of the little cups. "Much of what Ranma has just told you is true. I’m not sure about the rest, but I did do some terrible things to him, including getting him cursed to that he becomes a girl whenever he’s touched by cold water…" Dr. Keiko looked pretty dubious at this statement, but held her peace as none of the others challenged his statement. "Rather than expect you to just take my word for it, I will show you my curse. You see, as my son said, I do turn into a Panda…" With that, he upended the cup over his head…

Dr. Keiko looked shocked as Mr. Saotome was replaced by a rather large and portly panda…

END.