Well, well, well, will wonders never cease.
It seems I have rediscovered my muse - at least partially.
After a year's absence, I've been writing - a paragraph
here, a page there, on my various stories... and now, all
of a sudden, I've added enough to Wild Child part 2 that
it's about half done and I feel like posting it.
Besides, it seems as good a place as any to break it.
I love cliff-hangers. Bwahahahahahahahaha-- *choke* *gasp!*
Ahem.
Anyway, here it is below. If you want to read part 1 first, go to
http://nabiki.newberry.edu/deddy/fanfic/dave_eddy/wildchild/index.html.
My home page begins at http://nabiki.newberry.edu/deddy, for those
that are curious or who have forgotten who the hell I am. :-)
As usual, C&C is invited. I use Commonwealth spellings, mostly,
so be aware there may be some strangenesses.
Enjoy.
Wild Child 2 - Nodoka-san no Ko
by David Eddy
Last modified: Friday, 7 January, 2000
A fan fiction based on Takahashi Rumiko's Manga
series, Ranma 1/2. The characters of Ranma 1/2 are
the property of Takahashi Rumiko and her licensees.
Warning: Occasional adult concepts. Some readers may
be offended by some of the material contained herein.
Ranko lay in the dark quiet of Nabiki's room,
listening to the elder girl's breathing. Normally an
easy sleeper, tonight the gentle arms of sleep were
avoiding her. The old house was filled with creaks
and groans, night noises that would spark her back to
alertness each time she thought she might be getting
sleepy. At least the apartment had been quiet, she
mused to herself.
Looking idly around the room, Ranko noted the way
light of tonight's half-moon made peeked through a gap
in the curtains and painted Nabiki's cheek in argent,
making it almost seem to glow. Elsewhere in the room,
shades of grey delineated the shapes of Nabiki's room:
The desk and chair, the various oddments in the
room... At her feet the wardrobe against one wall,
next to the head of Nabiki's bed... and the bed
itself, positioned under the window to get maximum
benefit of any cooling breeze in summer.
Sitting up a little, Ranko looked again at
Nabiki's sleeping face. The moonlight that gently lit
her cheek cast the rest of her face into stygian
shadow. For a long moment Ranko looked, wondering.
Then she lay back.
Trying again to beckon sleep, Ranko put thoughts
of Nabiki out of her mind by idly wondering to herself
about her brother and his relationship with Akane.
*Akane* certainly wanted to have a relationship with
*him*, she was sure, but she was holding herself at
arm's length. A couple of reasons for that popped up
in her head, but she thought she had Akane pegged.
Her nervousness during the bath and her reaction to
her final question about doing it with Ranma in his
girl form were a flare-lit tipoff that she *did* in
fact find Ranma's girl form attractive but she pushed
him away because she hated herself for that same
attraction.
After all, everyone knew girls didn't do the
nasty with other girls. She smiled wryly to herself
at her own irony.
Thoughts of the others, though, failed to keep
the central issue away from her mind for long. She
was incredibly nervous, wondering what tomorrow would
bring, wondering whether she could take another day as
tumultuous as this one had been: Reunited with her
brother (and father), had her existence denied in the
most vehement possible way, and finally things had
reversed themselves once again when her own mother had
stood up for her and affirmed her status as Ranma's
twin... though only at second hand, since her father
had been too *cowardly* to show himself so the whole
matter could be resolved right then and there.
So now here she was, in limbo, with no prospect
of resolving things in sight. Still, even this was
better than life alone with her mother. The currents
of relationships and feelings in this household were
complex and many-layered, with rips and tides to catch
the unwary, but still she felt attracted to the people
here. Yes, to Nabiki, but who knew whether anything
would come of her initial attraction to her? The real
thing she determined was that she was not going to be
taken away from her brother now that she had found
him.
Wriggling contentedly under the covers at the
thought, Ranko relaxed into the enveloping warmth of
her futon and, as though summoned, sleep long-delayed
finally claimed the gently-smiling girl.
* * *
In the room she shared with her mother and "Panda-
san", onna-Ranma hardly slept at all. Instead, she
nervously huddled beneath the covers, her danger
senses' constant twanging making her night a misery.
Next to her, on her own futon, Saotome Nodoka,
mother to the great and wonderful (and continuously-
training) Ranma, slept deeply. Deeply, but not
quietly, for unfortunately for Ranma, her mother was
one of these who acted out their dreams.
*thud!*
Ranma watched as the sheath of her mother's
katana zipped over her head and struck the wall.
Cowering deeper beneath the inadequate protection of
her covers, Ranma eyed the naked, glittering blade as
her mother somnambulistically acted out some gruesome
ceremony.
*whiishhh* *chok!*
The katana at last wrenched from her grasp by an
uncomplaining wooden beam, Nodoka settled down to a
quiet sleep. Wide-eyed, Ranma studied the blade how
gently quivering three feet above her head, wondering
as she did so what Ranko was making of all the noise.
* * *
Sunrise found Akane shaking Ranko's shoulder.
Ranko reacted almost instantly.
"Gnwa?" She blinked a couple of times to clear
her eyes before focusing on the figure kneeling at her
bedside. "Akane?" She looked around briefly. "What
time is it?"
"It's a quarter to seven. I was just going for
my run, and wondered if you'd like to come along?"
"Come along?" Ranko finally focused on Akane
sufficiently to note that she was dressed in running
shorts and a sweat shirt. "Unh, yeah, sure. Just let
me find my stuff." She glanced again at Akane's
clothing and added, "Cold out there?"
Akane shrugged. "A bit." She got up and turned
to go. "I'll wait for you downstairs."
Ranko nodded wordlessly and sat up fully,
throwing off her covers. Her toes curled a little as
she stepped off Nabiki's rug onto the bare boards, but
she didn't let that deter her as she quickly unzipped
her pack and began to rummage for running clothes.
"Going out?" asked a sleepy voice.
"Sorry, Nabiki-san, I didn't mean to wake you,"
said Ranko. "Akane asked me out on her run." She
paused, drawing breath to ask a question, but Nabiki
beat her to it.
"Have fun, then. Me, I think I'll keep my bed
warm, thank you."
Ranko smiled and quickly changed. "See you
later," she said as she walked out the door.
Nabiki watched the door close, then glanced at
her clock. Shaking her head, she snuggled more deeply
under the covers. "Not even seven o'clock, on a
Sunday morning no less." She lifted the curtain, saw
the almost horizontal, orange-gold light of sunrise,
and shook her head to herself. "Martial artists."
* * *
Ranma woke to an unfamiliar pattern of footsteps
in the house. They were light, almost enthusiastic.
Her sister, she concluded with a smile. Then two sets
of footsteps, the gate opening and closing... Akane
and Ranko, going out running.
With a sigh she sat up. Her mother lay in her
futon, with her father - Panda-san, at the moment -
lying dead to the world at the far side of the room.
Briefly she quailed at the sight of the naked katana
still hovering above her, blade firmly grasped by a
wooden beam rising up the side of the room.
She shivered briefly as images of seppuku flitted
through her head. Ranma decided to get up and do some
training; maybe she could put them out of her mind
through exercise.
* * *
Akane pulled up by the dojo gate smiling. She
took a few deep breaths of the cool, crisp air and
took in the sights and sounds around her.
Ranko puffed up a few moments later, her steps
heavy and uneven. She bent over, chest heaving, and
fought briefly not to collapse to the road in sheer
relief. It would be way too undignified.
"That was nice!" said Akane with a smile which
faded as she took note of Ranko's distress. "Are you
okay, Ranko?"
"Yeah," said Ranko, her breathing beginning to
slow. "I think I'll survive."
"Oh well, come on into the dojo. I want to do
some training before having a bath."
"Uh... yeah... sure."
Ranko followed on rubber legs as Akane opened the
gate in the high wall surrounding the Tendo property,
then closed it after she had passed through. They
walked side by side to the dojo, then stopped abruptly
in the doorway. The dojo was already occupied.
In the centre of the floor, Ranma was performing
a kata, gracefully, flowing through it almost
casually, Ranko thought. She watched her twin, the
voices of her teachers echoing in her head: 'Your
movements must be precise and definite!' 'No,
*finish* the forms! Don't slur your movements like a
street tough's speech!' To her eyes Ranma appeared to
be doing it all wrong, but she *knew* from the stories
that she - no, he - was a top fighter.
She turned her head to ask a Akane about it, but
the question died unspoken as she noticed that Akane,
in an unguarded moment, was watching Ranma raptly.
Ranko turned back to see that Ranma was simply
continuing her... um... kata, she eventually decided,
calm, her face handsome in repose.
The kata continued, grew more complex, variations
on a theme piled on other variations like some Baroque
invention. Finally Ranma finished, then turned to the
watching pair.
"Hey," she said to them with a small smile.
"Good morning," said Akane with a small smile of
her own.
"Yeah, morning, Ranma," said Ranko. "How come
you're in your--"
Suddenly, Ranma was by Ranko's side with her hand
clamped over her sister's mouth. "Shh, Ranko!" she
said nervously, sotto voce, as she glanced nervously
towards the house. "If Mom finds out she'll kill me!"
Several expressions flitted across Ranko's face
before it settled down in apology. "Gee, I'm sorry
oniichan, I forgot."
"Don't call me that!"
Ranko looked hurt but nodded. "Okay, Ranma."
Tears glimmered in her eyes and her face had fallen.
Ranma could think only of his danger. "Don't
call me that either. To Mom, my name is Ranko! Tendo
Ranko!"
"Oh yeah, that's what started this whole thing
off. She told me about meeting you. Don't you think
that'll cause a problem, onii... Ran...ko?" asked
Ranko, stumbling over her currently-female brother's
name.
Ranma just looked at Ranko and said nothing. At
length she shrugged. "Well we're stuck with it now.
That's what I told her my name was last weekend. How
was I to know that..." Ranko turned her head away.
"Aw, shit, I'm sorry sis."
"Don't you think you two're missing a small
point?" put in Akane, who had watched this entire
exchange silently.
Ranma and Ranko looked at Akane with identical
expressions of surprised enquiry. "What's that?"
"Ngwah?"
"The moment anyone sees you together, they're
gonna realise you're twins. You two look absolutely
identical. If you weren't dressed differently and
your hair I don't think I could tell you apart at
all."
A silence descended. "Then last night, why
didn't mom...?" asked Ranma at length.
The three girls, two real and one faux, looked at
each other in puzzlement.
* * *
In her room, Nodoka sneezed. Sitting in bed, she
had been looking up at her naked katana embedded in
one of the room's wooden beams, wondering how it had
got there during the night. That panda still
slumbered away to her other side, though the panda's
owner, Tendo Ranko, was absent.
With a thoughtful frown she rolled out of her
futon, rapidly folding and putting the sleeping mat
away before hurriedly getting changed. With a slight
wrinkling of her nose she glanced again at the panda
before slipping quietly out of the room.
* * *
"I don't get it." Onna-Ranma frowned at Ranko.
She was tempted to move her arms just to see if Ranko
would follow her as if she were an image in a mirror.
Ranko, too, frowned in thought. "Yeah, well, I
figure the game's gonna be up pretty soon, um, err...
Tendo-chan," said Ranko, brightening a little as she
finally figured out how to address her sometime
brother.
"What game'll be up?" asked a new voice, a clear
contralto. The three martial artists jumped guiltily.
"Nabiki-oneechan!" said Akane, the first to
recover. "Don't sneak up like that!"
"Well, nothing gets me out of bed in the morning
like a the sound of conspiracy," she said with a
smile. "Are you talking about the Impossible
Cousins?"
"Well, one of us is more impossible than the
other," said Ranko with an innocent smile at Ranma.
Akane laughed shortly and Nabiki smirked while Ranma
had the grace to look mildly offended before smiling
at his sister.
"Well it seems to me the basic problem is that
nobody in his right mind could doubt for a moment that
you two are not only related by blood, but twins,"
said Nabiki. "God only knows why Nodoka-obasan didn't
pick up on it last night."
Ranma went a little pale, but she then
straightened and nodded. "Yeah, well, I didn't like
lying to mom anyway."
"Ssst, Nodoka-obasan's coming!" whispered Nabiki.
"Laugh!"
All four burst out into nervous laughter, and
Nodoka smiled as she approached. "It's so nice to see
you children getting along so well."
A pregnant pause was broken by Ranko saying,
"Thank you, mother."
Nodoka raised an eyebrow millimetrically, but
smiled to cover it. "I came over to say that
breakfast will soon be ready. And afterwards..."
A long, foreboding silence fell. Onna-Ranma and
Ranko shared a glance, while Nabiki did a fast fade.
Finally Akane nervously asked, "Afterwards?"
"Afterwards, I thought it'd be nice if we all
went to the zoo!" said Nodoka sunnily. She then
looked in mild confusion at the three teenagers
arrayed on the floor, limbs twitching. "What? What
did I say? Would you rather go shopping?"
* * *
At breakfast the family table was rather crowded,
with Ranko and Nodoka in addition to Ranma aka
"Ranko", Akane, Nabiki, Kasumi, and Soun seated around
its perimeter. Only the absence of Genma, who was
relegated in his panda form to the engawa with bamboo
and kitchen scraps, made the situation at all
comfortable.
Ranma was, of course, grateful that she would not
have to fight off her father's gluttonous attacks on
her meal. But she would rather have been fighting off
her father than having to deal with her mother... his
mother.
Still, as he saw his sister set down her rice
bowl and chopsticks with a determined air, he knew the
die was cast. Ranko was about to put into motion
their hastily-whispered plan, and he firmly clamped
down on the collywobbles that tried to upset his
stomach. Instead he reached for his tea.
"Mom..."
Nodoka's eyes flipped briefly between her
daughter and "Tendo Ranko" before settling on Ranma.
"Yes... Tendou-chan?" Her face registered muted
surprise mingled with growing suspicion at being
addressed in such a way.
"I have something to say..." Ranma briefly
examined the tea cup in his hand and straightened his
back unconsciously. Looking back at Nodoka, he smiled
and hoisted his tea. "I am--"
*whack*
Ranma slumped unconscious as the panda, a feral,
hunted look on its face, scooped his son's limp,
female body up and sprinted for the freedom of the
garden.
And screeched to a halt at the sight of the bare
blade of Nodoka's katana hovering, steady, inches from
his furry throat.
"Urrrrr," he growled in frustration, rolling his
eyes. He held up a sign: 'Please don't kill me!' He
flipped it, revealing more lettering: 'I don't
deserve to die!'
Nodoka watched this performance curiously but her
katana did not waver. She turned her head slightly,
addressing Soun.
"Tendo-san, can you offer an explanation for this
animal's extraordinary behaviour?"
Genma-panda began to edge sideways, but Nodoka
gestured with the sword and the panda once again froze
into trembling immobility.
Soun looked panicked, his eyes hunting for a
distraction. Then Ranma groaned on the floor and sat
up, rubbing her head. She looked around, eyes
widening at the sight of the naked sword being held
rock-steady at the panda's throat. Almost as an
afterthought, she rubbed her head. "Owww...." she
groaned. "Stupid old man."
Nodoka looked over at 'Tendou Ranko' and frowned,
the frown deepening into a glare as she returned her
gaze to the panda. Waiting until 'Tendou Ranko' had
gathered herself, she then spoke.
"I don't know what's going on here, Tendou-san,"
she said to Soun while pinning the panda with her
gaze, "but with respect, I suspect all is not as it
seems. Not only is this panda in no way a panda, but
the so-called Tendou Ranko..." She swallowed, then
gestured with a nod. "Look at her, she is the
identical twin to my own Ranko. It's as if she were
my son, somehow made... female...." She trailed off
in horror, her blade staying steady but the panda
forgotten, looking at the two Rankos.
A brief, cool breeze broke the utter silence that
followed, rustling leaves.
For a long, long moment, nothing happened.
Then the tableau was broken by a rustling thud as
Nodoka collapsed bonelessly in a dead faint.
Genma-panda jumped into action, grabbing once
more for Ranma and his pack, but in the blink of an
eye found himself pinned to the tatami floor, his
wrists tingling in discomfort in a joint lock, right
on the very edge of excruciating pain.
"Stuff it, you old shit," spat Ranma in his
broadest street drawl. "Mom's figured it out, an' I
ain't runnin' away, an' you ain't leavin' me to carry
the can." He grinned mirthlessly. "Betcha di'n't
think jujitsu holds worked on pandas, eh?"
* * *
Nodoka woke to the trickling of water being
squeezed from a cloth into a bucket. She opened her
eyes to see four girls kneeling along one side of her.
The eldest Tendou daughter, Kasumi, was wringing a
cloth which no doubt was intended for her brow.
"Oh, you're awake, obasama," she said cheerily
but with a tinge of concern. "Are you all right?"
Nodoka sat up and saw that Soun had been kneeling
formally to her other side, a small distance away. In
one corner, lying on its belly with wrists and ankles
tied and joined by another rope, was that impossible
panda.
Nausea failed to awake in her belly, and her head
remained clear.
"Thank you, Kasumi-chan, I believe I am."
Delicately she got to her knees and moved into the
same formal seiza position as the others currently
occupied. As she did so she looked around, looking
for her sword, but it was not obvious. Oh well, she
could find it easily enough if she needed it.
Just then the middle daughter, Nabiki, came into
the room and knelt between her two sisters. Nodoka
was interested to note that Nabiki now wore a kimono.
Nodoka bowed to Soun. "I apologise for bringing
discord into your home, Tendou-san," she said. She
waited for Soun's automatic response, then pressed her
inquiry.
"Forgive my extreme rudeness," she began, "but I
fear I must be direct. Who, exactly, is 'Tendou
Ranko'?"
Nervous glances were exchanged between the
residents of the house, and Nodoka was a little
surprised when it was Kasumi who spoke.
"She is a young man suffering under a curse, a
curse which causes him to take a female body from time
to time," she said. "Through his father's negligence,
ignorance, and haste, and a moment's carelessness,
*he* now is forced to become female when splashed with
cold water." Kasumi erased the frown she had been
directing at the panda and smiled. "Fortunately, hot
water returns him to his original - natural - body."
The smile became more unpleasant. "I suppose it is
Kami-sama's vengeance visited upon the father that he
also is cursed, to become a panda. It appears to suit
his nature well."
Nodoka frowned, ignoring the barely-suppressed
stares of amazement directed at Kasumi from some of
the others. "That seems... scarcely credible. Still,
it is very sad if true. What is this unfortunate's
name?"
Once again a long silence stretched. Eventually
'Tendou Ranko' bowed deeply to Nodoka. "I apologise
for deceiving you." Straightening, she paused for a
moment then reached forward and picked up a tea cup
full of hot - but not too hot - water. Then,
deliberately, she poured until suddenly she *shifted*.
Now 'Tendou Ranko' was indisputably male.
Then he set down the teacup and bowed once again,
slowly, formally.
"Saotome Ranma desu," he said. "Sumimasen."
* * *
Tearful reunion over with, and Genma restored to
human shape if not humanity, Kasumi served freshly-
brewed tea. Outside, the wind picked up force,
rustling the leaves of the trees in continuous waves
that made a pleasant background sound, allowing one to
ignore the background sounds of the city. A brief
rain squall made the air smell clean, kicking up the
garden scents and amplifying them.
Genma cleared his throat into a pause in the
conversation. "What, then, of this child Ranko,
wife?" he asked gruffly. Knuckles planted on his
thighs, he knelt in a position of rock-like solidity.
"I remember no daughter, yet even I can see that she
is Ranma's twin."
Nodoka trembled, her face pale, her eyes
flickering about the room, but she swallowed and
steadied herself, squaring her shoulders.
"The records show she was adopted into the
Saotome family at seven years of age," put in Nabiki
helpfully. "Oddly, her originating family is not
listed; or rather, it's given as... Saotome." She
pulled a page of fax paper from her sleeve and laid it
on the tatami in front of herself, within Nodoka's
reach. "And yet, as ojisan says, there is no doubt
that she is Ranma's twin." She frowned. "Even so,
Ranma is listed as being born into the family at a
plausible birth date."
Pulling another sheet of fax paper from the
sleeve of her silk kimono, Nabiki continued, "Also
according to the Saotome family register, you do not
have a twin sister, or a sister of any kind, obasama,
so that theory's out." She sighed, putting the other
sheet on top of the first. "It's a mystery."
Nervously, Nodoka pulled the sheets toward her
and read them, knowing already what they would say.
Honda Fujiko, adopted as a Saotome. On the same day,
the marriage of Saotome Kenji and Saotome Fujiko.
Saotome Nodoka, born of Saotome Kenji and Saotome
Fujiko. No other children. Suzuki Genma, adopted the
day before their marriage eighteen endless years ago,
known thereafter as Saotome Genma. Saotome Ranma,
born on such-and-such a date.
Saotome Ranko, adopted exactly seven years later,
original family not known but listed as Saotome. The
deaths of her parents.
So normal.
So much of the story not told by those bare
listings.
--
David Eddy - Senior Consultant, Progress Software Melbourne
dje@progress.com
Screening Coordinator and Subbing Bunny, Melbourne Anime Society
My home page is at http://nabiki.newberry.edu/DEddy