A Ranma ½ fanfict by Tangent

Pre-reading and editing assistance by:

Lord Talon,

Nvrmore,

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: This story gets into some sensitive issues. The diverging point is, as in a few other fanficts, the neko-ken incident. Genma himself hasn’t changed too much, but he does still get some really stupid ideas. Other than the neko-ken training, he has only done one other thing to Ranma in this timeline that would be considered physically abusive even in the course of martial arts training. Well, actually, he does many things to Ranma that are unquestionably abusive, but these two incidents are way over the top. It too, like the neko-ken, is the result of a really stupid idea, it’s bad, and it’s mentioned in this chapter. So I’m not going to write any more about it here.

PROLOGUE: Saotome Returned

Nodoka Tendo smiled gently as she looked across the table at her husband. Soun was attempting to show their four-year-old son, Isomu, how to play shogi. She was glad now that they had found this solution as to how to join their clans after she had filed for a divorce in absentia from Genma Saotome.

Her worthless first husband had left on a long training journey, and had taken their only child, Ranma, along with him, vowing to raise him to be a ‘man among men’. It had broken her heart to let them go. What had happened nearly a year later still gave her nightmares from time to time. Nodoka had received that call…that horrible call. That terrible call from the police informing her that her son was in the hospital after having been dropped repeatedly, by her husband, into a pit of starving cats.

Ranma still bore the psychological scars from the incident, even if he had recovered completely in the physical sense. Despite years of therapy, he was still afraid of cats, although he was no longer prone to succumb to the neko-ken training unless he was confronted with a large number of them or one or two that were obviously hostile. Despite this particular weakness, she still loved him. After all, he was her son, and it wasn’t his fault that Genma had inflicted him with ailurophobia.

Genma, on the other hand, had passed out of her heart forever. What he had done to their son was nothing short of monstrous. She would never forgive him.

Casting such dark thoughts aside when she heard the scurry of activity in the genkan (entranceway), she smiled and was about to join her beloved Soun in inquiring about Ranma and Akane’s first day at school. They were twelve now, and were going to be attending a new school next year, so they were going to make the best of their last year of elementary school. The smile froze on her lips as Akane came running into her parents’ arms crying. Ranma was nowhere to be seen.

"Akane," asked Soun, his voice full of fatherly concern. "Where is your brother?"

"A…a…<sniff>…a bad man came out of nowhere and took him away!" Akane wailed. Nodoka paled at the news, suspecting the worst.

"Who took him?" Soun prompted. "What happened?" With that, their daughter described, in her tear filled, halting voice, how a strange man wearing a white gi, glasses, and a bandanna had ambushed her and Ranma. Ranma had leapt to her defense automatically, despite the fact that they were of equal skill, but had been knocked-out easily by the strange man who called Ranma his son.

Nodoka and Soun exchanged horrified glances at this news. Genma Saotome had returned, and had kidnapped the son he had lost all rights to even see. Nodoka gathered Akane and Isomu into her arms as Soun rushed to the phone to call the police, and wondered how she was going to break the news to Kasumi and Nabiki…

CHAPTER ONE: The Return of Ranma

Rain was falling lightly in Nerima.

Soun sorted through the daily mail in the vague hope of finding news about his missing son. It had been four years now, and there had been no sign of Ranma or his biological father, Genma. Nodoka still wept over the loss of her first child from time to time, as did Kasumi (who had become something like a second mother to the boy).

Each of their other children had responded in similar ways to their loss, but had come up with different methods of coping with it. Akane had thrown herself into her training with a passion that bordered on obsessive, apparently having vowed to herself that she would not stand by helpless should anyone threaten her family again. Isomu, who barely remembered his half brother, had taken up the family schools of Anything Goes Martial Arts and the Righteous Blade as Ranma had before him (apparently harboring a romantic dream of adventure in which he would seek out and rescue his older brother). Nabiki, having lost her first mother and then her adopted brother, became reserved and had taken to learning all she could about how to gather information and track down people. Particularly missing people, like her brother. And Kasumi…well Kasumi had become the pillar of unyielding emotional strength that saw her family through their years of trial and sorrow, at least when she was where they could see her. But in the twilight hours of the night, when she thought that no one else could hear her, Soun and his wife often overheard the sounds of restrained weeping coming from the kitchen.

Soun reflected on all this as he sorted though the bills and letters. Then he saw it. A postcard that depicted a panda in a bamboo forest. Hoping beyond hope that it bore the news that they had waited so long for, he turned it around. Joy leapt to his heart as he read the short message.

Dear Family,

I have missed you all and look forward to seeing you again. I have finally escaped the old man in China, thanks to some new friends, and they are going to bring me home. Traveling with me are Elder Cologne, her great-granddaughter Shampoo, and Mousse (I think he’s in love with Shampoo).

Akane, Shampoo and Mousse are both our age. I have told them both of how we used to train together, and they look forward to meeting you. I hope you kept up your training!

I love you all,

Ranma Tendo.

PS: You’re not going to believe what happened to me! I’ll have to show you.

"Oh how we have waited for this day!" cried Soun joyfully. Four years they had waited. Four long and terrible years. Casting decorum to the wind, he rushed to gather his family in order to give them the good news…

* * *

Ranma walked quietly down the streets that had once been familiar to him, carefully holding his umbrella so that he would be able to be reunited with his family in his proper gender first. The umbrella he had chosen for this purpose was quite large, enough so that Elder Cologne could easily hop beside him and share its shelter. Mousse has also purchased a large one, hoping to share it with Shampoo, but she had gotten a smaller one for herself and walked alone beside them. Not that any of them really minded getting soaked by the rain as such, but it was important to Ranma to show up at home in his true form first.

Despite feeling pretty good at the prospect of being reunited with his family, Ranma’s mood became somber as he once again reflected on what the old man, his biological father, had done to him over the past four years. Four years of training so intense that it often went past the border into abusive. Genma rarely pulled his strikes as much as he needed to during his training sessions. Not after the first night after he had kidnapped Ranma anyway, when a young and terrified boy had tried to return home. Nor did he restrict the physical punishment to their ‘sparring’. For four years, pain and fear dominated Ranma’s life. Four years of carrying everything the old man saw fit to bring with them in one huge pack. Four years of fitful sleep, bound and gagged because he had never stopped trying to get away from his ‘master’. Four years of sporadic meals while he watched his ‘master’ eat regularly and well. Four years of hell.

Followed by two weeks of blessed relief. That was when, once again on the run from the old man, Ranma had entered Joketsuzoku with the intent of making her final stand…

* * *

"It’s his handwriting, all right," confirmed Nabiki, looking carefully at the message on the postcard. "I don’t like the post script though…it sounds ominous."

"Who cares," Akane declared happily. "Ranma is finally coming home!"

"We will just have to find out what it is when he gets here," Kasumi pointed out.

"I wanted to be the one to rescue him!" Isomu pouted, causing a chuckle all around.

"When is he going to get here?" Akane asked.

"It shouldn’t be too long now," Nodoka pointed out. "The post card was dated last week, and it sounds like they plan to come straight here. Kasumi, why don’t you give me a hand in the kitchen so that we can prepare for them, just in case."

"I want to help too!" Akane declared. Nabiki and Isomu almost paled at the thought before they remembered that their sister had been making progress under their mother’s tutelage. Not much, despite her years of effort, but now her cooking was somewhat palatable (as opposed to completely inedible). With both Kasumi and their mother there to work damage control, they might not even be able to tell which part of the meal Akane had helped with.

The preparations for their Sunday dinner (with possible and much hoped for guests) were almost complete when a knocking could be heard at the front door.

"I’ll get it!" Nabiki called out. She still had to race her father and Isomu to the door though. Waiting for them at the front door was a small group of people with umbrellas. Three of them were obviously Chinese – a boy with waist length hair and glasses wearing robes; a girl wearing clothing designed for acrobatic combat who had purple (?) hair; and a withered old woman who may just old enough to be Soun’s great-grandmother let alone the girl’s. The other boy was Japanese, familiar, and seemed to be somewhat amused by Nabiki’s skeptical examination.

"Hey, Nabs," the boy greeted, using a nickname Nabiki had last heard about four years ago. "You’d think that you hadn’t seen me in a while."

"Ranma!" Nabiki exclaimed, hugging her long lost brother. Soun and Isomu threw themselves at him as well, and Ranma found his breath being forced out of him by his family.

"Hurts!" Ranma gasped. "Can’t… breathe… Need… air!" [Ah well,] he thought. [At least I can die happy…]

"Let the poor boy go," the old Chinese woman admonished. "I didn’t come all this way just to have my new son crushed to death by his other family." She chuckled lightly to show that she didn’t mean anything disparaging by her comment.

"Other family?" Soun asked, letting his embrace loosen.

"Yeah," Ranma explained. "I kinda got adopted by the amazons after Octopus-face chased me into their village."

"Octopus-face?" Soun inquired.

"You know," Ranma explained, "Genma Saotome. Do ya really expect me to still call him ‘Pop’ after all he’s done to me? You’re my real father now, and the only one I have as far as I’m concerned." Soun was touched by his adopted son’s declaration, and smiled at the boy. Ranma’s eyes lit up, soaking in the smile of a father who truly cared for him. An expression he hadn’t seen on Genma’s face since the first day he had been kidnapped. It had been so long…

"What’s wrong?" asked Nabiki concerned about the sudden shift in Ranma’s mood. The haunted look that passed his eyes, and the shudder that accompanied it, disturbed her.

"I’ll tell you later," Ranma replied. "When everyone’s together. It’s not something that I like to talk about, but you deserve to know what happened." Ranma’s voice became somber again. "You all do."

With that, the group entered the house.

Nodoka, Kasumi, and Akane were just about finished preparing dinner when Nabiki came into the kitchen.

"Hey, guess what?" Nabiki began her announcement.

"What?" asked Akane, distracted from what was, admittedly, not one of her better efforts at meal preparation. Sometimes supervision didn’t help as much as everyone hoped it would, but it did keep the kitchen intact at least. She’d learn how to cook decent food with more consistency… eventually.

"Well, a certain missing brother is in the common room…" The middle Tendo daughter quickly sidestepped as Akane ran past her. Nodoka and Kasumi started gathering everything to bring out, and conscripted Nabiki to help them since Akane had run off. Nabiki just shook her head and began to gather things herself as she tried to guess which dishes Akane had helped to prepare…

Ranma was just about ready to sit in his accustomed spot at the table when he suddenly ducked and bobbed to the side. Akane went sailing past him, a bit surprised that her flying tackle and planned hug had been evaded, but she recovered and rolled easily to her feet. Ranma smiled at her antics, and permitted her to hug him this time.

"Oh Ranma," Akane began tearfully. "You’re back! When that mean old man took you away and I couldn’t do anything about it, I…I…"

"It’s okay, Akane," Ranma said gently. "I’m back now… I’m back…" A shudder convulsed through his body as his memories of the past four years once again ran through his mind.

"Wh… what is it, Ranma?" Akane asked, echoing Nabiki’s earlier concern.

"I’ll tell you after dinner," Ranma said, pulling himself out of the pain of his memories. "I’ll tell everyone after dinner."

Dinner went by relatively quickly, with Ranma finishing last despite being the fastest eater. He had eaten his meal with a desperate fervor, as if he expected the food to be taken away at any moment. He had also happily accepted seconds, thirds, and contributions as everyone ate a little of what Akane had prepared and then passed it on to Ranma (including Akane). He ate it all, with not a grain of rice left in his bowl or scrap of food left on his plate to show that he had eaten at all.

"It never ceases to amaze me when you do that, Tendo," Mousse commented. "When I think on how badly your father mistreated you, I wish we had tried harder not to let him get away…"

"You didn’t really know, Mousse," Ranma responded as he set his chopsticks down. "None of you did. I’m just glad that he’s gone. And stop calling him my father!" he commanded. "He lost the right to that a long time and a pit of cats ago, even without what he did to me over the past four years!"

"Just what did he do to you, Ranma?" Nodoka prompted, worried about what had happened to her first son.

Ranma looked at everyone waiting expectantly, and knew that he could put it off no longer. "Well…"

Ranma had summarized the hell that he had lived through for the past four years. The intense training, the needless abuse. The nights of fitful sleep in ever more complex and secure bonds. Genma had taken him out of Japan within a month of his kidnapping in order to evade the authorities, choosing to wander the hinterlands of Thailand, Vietnam, Korea, and China instead. Always they had moved on whenever it looked like the locals might be sympathetic to Ranma’s plight. They were nearly always on the go. Occasionally, Ranma would get away for a while, but Genma had always caught him afterwards and had punished Ranma’s efforts abusively. Ranma would recover, wait for Genma’s guard to drop once more, and try again.

Finally, Genma had led his son to the Cursed Springs of Jusenkyo. Rather than listen to the guide, Genma had leapt to one of the poles instead, instructing Ranma to do the same. Ranma took the opportunity to hightail it away from him instead, but the old man’s guard hadn’t been as low as he had thought. After a brief and violent altercation, Ranma had been tossed all the way back to the training ground where he landed in one of the springs.

When Ranma had come up for air, Genma had been so stunned by the transformation that Ranma had taken the opportunity to run off in another direction…

"Wait," Nabiki interrupted. "What do you mean by ‘transformation’?"

"I got cursed at Jusenkyo to take the form of whatever had last drowned in the spring whenever I come into direct contact with cold water," Ranma explained. "If someone will get me some, I’ll show you what I turn into. Hot water returns me to my true form until it happens again though, so it isn’t really that bad to live with. Heck, it’s worth it just for the fact that octopus-face hates the fact that I turn into a girl."

"Nani?" was the collective response of the Tendos as they facefaulted.

"Never mind," Ranma continued, seeing that his family was too stunned for any of them to go get some cold water. "I think the tea has cooled off enough…" With that, he upended his cup over his head…and became a girl with red hair, expressive eyes of a slightly brighter shade of blue, and a bemused expression. She was obviously shorter than before, and was disconcertingly cute considering that she had been quite male only a moment ago.

There was much twitching among the group.

"I can see why Genma would be upset with your curse, Ranma," Nodoka commented after a moment. "When he had dragged you off the first time, ten years ago, he had made a vow to raise you to be a ‘man among men’…"

Ranma snorted at this. A distinctly male gesture, that seemed odd coming from such a cute girl. It seemed somehow reassuring to his family, as if the change was only physical. The effect was somewhat ruined by the vaguely feminine nature that her mannerisms assumed after the transformation. Ranma did not appear to be aware of this aspect of the change.

"It ain't so bad, really, once you get used to it," Ranma explained. "I guess the fact that the old man hates it so much helped me to accept my curse sooner than I would have though." Her voice dropped a little as she continued. "It’s a little weird, not recognizing the sound of my own voice or my reflection in the mirror. Actually, it’s my hands that disturb me the most, since they are what I see most often…" Ranma trailed off quietly.

"We will just have to learn to accept it as a family then," Nodoka stated. She remembered the seppuku pledge that her former husband had made, and had also remembered officially absolving Ranma’s part in it after the police had returned him to her the first time. Ranma was her child, regardless of what Genma had done. Nothing would change that. They would get through this somehow.

"Thanks, Mom," Ranma replied. "Anyway, I actually managed to stay ahead of him for a few days this time. I think I’m a bit faster as a girl, and I can fit through smaller openings quicker too. He only caught me once after that and… and…" Ranma broke off, shuddering convulsively and fighting back tears.

"And what?" Akane asked for them all.

Cologne whispered something gently to Ranma, who nodded and turned around, lifting her shirt. Her back was a mass of faded bruises, mostly healed after two weeks of recovery, but still terrible to behold.

* * *

Ryoga wondered briefly just where on earth he was. He had originally set out for school over a year ago, and had long since resigned himself to the fact that he would have to take placement tests... again. He silently cursed his nonexistent sense of direction once more, before continuing on his way.
Then he heard a scream. A girl's voice, crying out in agony. Racing towards the sound, he soon heard meaty smacks, as for heavy impacts against flesh, that these screams where punctuating. As he cleared the rocky crest ahead of him, he saw a redheaded girl tied face-down to a boulder and stripped to the waist. Her back was a mass of welts and bruises, newly formed
and horrifying to behold.

The cause of all this pain was glaringly obvious. An older man in an off white gi, wearing glasses and a bandanna over his head, beating the girl mercilessly with a Bo staff. Ryoga's blood boiled with anger as he increased his pace. What he heard as he closed in only served to increase his rage...
"I'm only doing this for your own good, Ranma!" the man grunted angrily, with no trace of compassion in his voice. The Bo staff was raised high once more.
Ryoga plowed into the man at a dead run, and thus began one of the toughest fights he had ever had to date...

Ranma-chan, thankful for the respite and sending silent prayers for her savior’s success to the kami, worked her bonds quickly. They weren't nearly as complex as the bonds she slept with that she had earned gradually over the years of nightly escape attempts. They hadn't needed to be, since her tormentor was wide-awake to watch her. Now that he was distracted, she could get away easily. Briefly, as her limbs came loose, she once again fantasized about a stage career as an escape artist. She had certainly had enough training for that at least. Genma never did seem satisfied with her martial skills, no matter how much she had improved. Even the few times she had beaten him were not enough. A moment’s more reflection, and she was free.
Grabbing her gi top quickly, she once again ran for her life. Even with all the pain she was feeling, she ran dead out. If the old man caught her again, she knew she would die... slowly. Maybe the old fool wouldn't really mean to do it, but she would die just the same. He had taken Ranma’s becoming a girl as some sort of personal affront, and thus something else to beat Ranma for. With a weapon this time, the first time outside of sparring that she was hit with something more solid than a fist or stick. This had to end, and soon...

* * *

"The fool tried to beat the curse out of her," Cologne explained softly. "She barely survived as it was, for he had inflicted a horrible amount of punishment upon her. It took a tremendous amount of courage for her to try to escape again so soon after such a beating, and had we known then what he had done, we would not have let Genma escape so easily."

"I’ll kill him," Nodoka uttered weakly. She, like the rest of the Tendos, had become quite pale. Even Mousse and Shampoo, who had seen Ranma’s back before when it was much worse, still grew ill at the sight. Ranma put her shirt back down.

"Not if I kill him first," Ranma stated flatly, her face awash with a mix of despair, fear, and hate before she calmed down again. "Octopus-face got away, but he’ll try again. I’ve got to be better than he is when that happens," Ranma’s voice cracked as tears began to course down her cheeks. "I’ve just got to! I…I can’t go through that again! I…I’ll kill myself first if he gets me again!"

"No, Ranma," Akane pleaded for them all. "Don’t even think about such things! We’ll face him together! I’m a much better fighter than I was then! I won’t let him take you away again!"

"No, Akane," Isomu stated firmly, for all that he was only eight years old. "We won’t let him do it again!"

"None of us will," said Kasumi, who had taken Ranma into her arms and was rocking her back and forth gently.

"Your training will pick up as soon as you have fully recovered, son," Soun stated, choosing to ignore the gender issue for the moment. "As fast and as far as you can go. I will not fail you again!"

"I’ll kill him before I let him hurt you again," Nodoka swore under her breath, angry as only a mother defending her child can be.

"Together then," Nabiki stated as she ran through her various contacts and began to lay plans for defense. "Team Tendo will withstand any assault."

"Together," Ranma said tentatively.

"Together!" they all said again as one.

Cologne just looked at them and smiled. [They will do nicely,] she thought to herself. [They will do very well indeed…]

Nodoka watched as Cologne expertly applied a special herbal lotion to Ranma’s back. Her son turned daughter was currently lying prone on a futon, in part to make it easier for the amazon Elder to reach her back, but mostly because it was more modest than sitting would have been. Besides, between the effects of the healing balm and Cologne’s tsubo (pressure point) technique, Ranma was usually sound asleep by the time the treatment was finished. This time was no exception, and Cologne chuckled lightly as Ranma’s breathing became regular and her head slumped down to rest on her arms.

"I’d like to thank you for looking after my," Nodoka hesitated for a moment, confused about Ranma’s curse, "…child." She silently berated herself for her difficulty in accepting Ranma’s curse. As she had said earlier, they would have to learn to accept it as a family.

"No need to thank me," Cologne replied as she continued to rub the lotion in. "It is merely my duty as her…‘other’ mother to see that she becomes well again."

"‘Other’?" Nodoka prompted.

"Ranma was adopted as an amazon after her altercation with her father in our village," Cologne explained. "While I hadn’t been there at the time, I was told that she put up quite a show for someone so obviously in pain."

"Genma fought… her, even after what he had already done?" Nodoka could not hide the horror that crept into her voice.

Cologne corrected. "From what I was told, Ranma had run into the village during the last fight of our tournament, grabbed a spear, and leapt to the top of one of the poles supporting the suspended log. Which," the amazon Elder said, "was an impressive feat even before we knew that some of her ribs were cracked."

* * *

Ranma waited with dread and anticipation for Genma to catch up with her. It was too much to hope for that her rescuer had defeated him. Even if he had, Genma would not honor the terms demanded of him for his loss. He would come. And he would try to punish her again.

"No more," Ranma stated to herself as she positioned her self atop her perch. "This time, either you die… or I do. I’m not going to take it any more!" As she readied the spear for battle, her thoughts flickered briefly to the dagger she had snatched along with it. The weapon that she would use to take her own life if she couldn’t defeat the old fool this time…

Ranma’s focus sharpened once again as she saw a familiar figure becoming visible over the ridge. Genma was dodging the armed women, much as Ranma herself had, but much less politely. Ranma had never shoved any of them out of the way.

"Well," she muttered to herself, "I suppose it was too much to ask for the guy to keep him busy longer than that. He was only about my age, after all." With that, she braced herself for the upcoming fight…

* * *

"Perhaps we should call Dr. Tofu," Nodoka mentioned, hoping that she wasn’t insulting her guest, but not willing to treat Ranma’s health so trivially. Concern for her child overrode her curiosity for the time being, and the conversation took a different track.

"If that will make you more comfortable, then by all means call your doctor," Cologne chuckled lightly. "Ranma is near the end of her healing process now, but it never hurts to have another healer. Besides, I don’t intend to stay in Japan indefinitely, so your Doctor should be told of Ranma’s condition."

"You are welcome to stay in our home while you are in Japan, of course," Nodoka offered.

"I thank you," Cologne replied, "but no. I have already made other arrangements. Ranma is nearly completely healed now, and I will commence with her training as an amazon warrior when she is, but there is another wound in her heart that can only be healed properly by family. The Tendo clan has been her family longer than I have, so she will heal that wound more quickly here."

"But surely you are our family as well, if you have adopted hi…her," Nodoka countered.

"It is kind of you to say so," Cologne said. "But it would be better if we handled the matter carefully. After all, while Ranma has been adopted as an amazon, I am not a member or ally of the Tendo Clan yet. We shall talk more on such matters later however. The hour grows late and this young one is already fast asleep."

Ranma snored gently from the futon she had been laying on, having missed most of their conversation, but dreaming peacefully all the same…

TO BE CONTINUED…