[fanfic][Ranma]Kunou's second chance: Part 1

Inspired by Lord Archive's "Second chances" I just had to write

this down. After all doesn't everyone deserve a second chance?

I make absolutely no claim to the characters in this story.

C&C, MSTs etc. greatly appreciated as this is my first fic.

"My name is Tatewaki Kunou, Honours student in Literature,

captain of the University Kendo Team, but my peers call me 'The

Blazing Chrysanthemum of..."
     "Just your name will do sir."
     "Yes... I see."
     Tatewaki went back to staring at his hands. He still could not

quite believe that this was happening, but the handcuffs tight on his

wrists were a solid reminder. Absently he noticed the specks of blood

on the cuffs of his shirt and wondered whose they were. He couldn't

remember.
His mind wandered as he endured the policeman's questioning.

"What time did you arrive at the Tendou Dojo?"
Yes, it had been just this morning. There was to have been some

sort of celebratory feast that evening but he had arrived early in the

hopes of catching sight of the elusive pig-tailed girl. Giving up on

the beauteous Akane Tendou after her marriage had been the hardest

thing he'd ever done and would surely have been impossible without the

lovely vision of his pig-tailed goddess to draw him onwards. But even

with the pernicious influence of Ranma Saotome removed still his suit

failed. Since graduation, on the excellent advice of Nabiki Tendou, he

had proceeded to university to hone his mind as sharp as the finest

sword, and every semester break he would return to Nerima to attempt

to show his beloved that he was an artist and a scholar as well as a

warrior. He believed she was beginning to soften towards him at this

approach.
He had been chatting with Nabiki when Kasumi had sent him to

fetch something from the storerooms. That's when he saw them. Akane

Tendou and his pig-tailed goddess in a fervent embrace. He stood

frozen in the Dojo doorway at the bittersweet sight. Too soon they

separated and Akane spoke. "Are you sure you want me to do this? If it

goes wrong..."
The pig-tailed one took her by the shoulders and looked her in

the eye. "I trust you Akane. I have to get rid of this curse and make

my life my own again."
"I know."
At that, the pig-tailed one lay down in the centre of the dojo

and Akane picked up an ancient scroll. It was only then that he

noticed the mystic paraphernalia decorating the hall. Fearing to move

lest he interfere and endanger his beloved, Tatewaki watched as the

incantation proceeded. Gradually his beloved began to glow with a

heavenly light as seemingly freed of all mortal encumbrance, her naked

form slowly floated upwards before fading away. Dazed, he brushed the

tears from his eyes. It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.
Suddenly a masculine voice rang out through the hall. "Did it

work?"
Akane bent to help up the shadowed figure who was lying where the

pig-tailed one had been. "I think so, Ranma!"
Ranma? Tatewaki sat back stunned by what he had just seen. When

he refocussed a dripping wet Ranma and Akane were hugging and

laughing.
     "...no more bras, no more living in that body!"
     "Hey, being female isn't that bad!"
     "Its not just that. I'm in control again finally, in my own body!

The pig-tailed girl is gone forever."
     "Aren't you going to miss cousin Ranko even slightly?"
     "Um... are you?"
     "Well, now I can finally say I'm the only girl in your life..."
     As they kissed happily. Kunou stumbled out into the garden, the

world spinning around him. Black sorcery. The pig-tailed girl gone

forever? Ranma in her place, living in her body? Suddenly so many

things were slipping into place. The strange appearances and

disappearances, the sudden personality changes. He remembered back to

when Nabiki had first tried to explain the pig-tailed girl to him.

Ranma really did possess her, body and soul, in the most literal

sense. An evil unquiet spirit that had now evicted its host and

reshaped her living body to his own hideous visage once and for all.
Realisation hit him like a blow and he fell against the wall

retching. He had just watched the once innocent Akane betray and kill

her rival for Ranma's affections. The pig-tailed girl's last words

echoed in his head "I have to get rid of this curse... make my life my

own again... I trust you Akane..."
How had Ranma corrupted her so thoroughly? Truly Saotome was a

darker sorcerer than he had ever imagined. How could he have missed

it? All the signs... He had been so dense. And then he left them both

to Ranma's care while he went to University. A red haze began to fog

his eyes as anger and shame twisted in his stomach...
"...and Attempted Murder pending a psychiatric evaluation." The

detective's words brought him back to the present. "You are entitled

to one phone call."
He wasn't even sure he knew the mansion's number. And what good

would it do anyway. Sure enough he misdialled. Dropping the receiver

he let himself be led to his cell. It was all too late.
Behind him a tinny voice echoed from the earpiece, "Moshi moshi.

That night he received a visitation.
Emotionally deadened yet unable to sleep, he watched incuriously

through the bars as the glow of security monitors began to light up

the vacant guard station at the end of the hall. In a flash of light a

dark robed figure appeared floating above them before advancing

towards him. "Do you have any idea how hard you are to find?" a husky

female voice announced.
"Aah. Surely you are grim death come to end my suffering this

night."
"What? No! I am Urd, Goddess of Love! Here to grant your heart's

wish." And as she stopped before his cell he saw she was well suited

to the role.
"Alas you are too late for me. Today both my loves are lost to

me forever."
"Never say forever to a goddess. I may be able to help."
Momentarily hope lit up his face before he shook his head sadly.

"No, do not mock me. I cannot be worthy of your aid. They were in

direst peril and I abandoned them to their fates. If I'd only seen

what was in front of my eyes!"
"You are worthy or I wouldn't be here. The oblivious and

delusional often have the purest hearts. Reality can be harsh on

dreamers."
Staring at the wall, tears streaming down his face he muttered,

"I wish, I just wish... that I could have a second chance, to protect

them from him..."
"Wish Approved" startled by her cold voice he turned around just

in time to be enveloped in a vast column of light as he felt the world

evaporating around him.
He came to, stretched out naked on some sort of tiled floor. It

was the Kunou mansion's bathroom! But... that room was destroyed in

the Martial Arts Take-out Race. If he was here then the Goddess must

have sent him... back in time! Truly he would have a second chance to

separate his beloveds from the vile Saotome and destroy him! Tears of

happiness streaming down his face he was about to vow so to the

heavens when he heard footsteps in the hall. Wait, if he was here,

then where was the Tatewaki of the past? Surely outside the door!

Quickly he grabbed a towel and vaulted out the window and away from

the mansion. His younger self must never meet him and know his failure

he thought determinedly. Their prides would never stand it. Mind

quickening he began to plan. He needed a disguise... (actually any

clothes would do at this point)
Behind him in the bathroom there came a knock on the door.

"Older Brother? How much longer will you be. School starts in an