Wild Child 2 - Nodoka-san no Ko by David Eddy Last modified: Wednesday, 29 January 2003 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 the 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, 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 possibilities why that might be 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 might 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 Nodoka's 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 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 embedded in 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 Tendou 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 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 the danger; she didn't notice Ranko's hurt. "Don't call me that either. To Mom, my name is Ranko! Tendou 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 the way you have your hair done, Ranko, I..." Akane trailed off, thinking that she couldn't say that people couldn't tell them apart because Ranko was clearly not quite as conditioned as Ranma... and that wasn't the kind of thing one said out loud, after 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 darkly how it had got there during the night. That panda still slumbered away to her other side, though the panda's owner, Tendou 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... Tendou-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 her sister. "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 her sister set down her rice bowl and chopsticks with a determined air, she knew the die was cast. Ranko was about to put into motion their hastily-whispered plan, and she firmly clamped down on the collywobbles that tried to upset her stomach. Instead she reached for his tea. "Mom..." Nodoka's eyes flipped briefly between her daughter and "Tendou 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 her hand and straightened her back unconsciously. Looking back at Nodoka, she smiled and hoisted her 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. Ranma dropped unnoticed to the floor. "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. "Tendou-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. "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 her broadest street drawl. "Mom's figured it out, an' I ain't runnin' away, an' you ain't leavin' me to carry the can." She grinned mirthlessly. "Betcha didn't think aikido worked on pandas, huh?" * * * 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 was 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 that 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, Kasumi- chan. 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, mother" 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. "I'm Saotome Ranma," he said. "Sorry 'bout this." * * * The tearful reunion that followed was complete with tiresome demonstrations, casual abuse, lies, evasions, and much sword-pointing. Eventually, with Genma restored to human shape, 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 in a blatant attempt to take control of the situation and avoid the question of the seppuku pledge. Knuckles planted on his thighs, he knelt in a position of rock-like solidity to emphasise his position. "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. Tanaka 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. * * * Saotome Nodoka knelt before a shrine erected in one corner of the small, broken down, one-room apartment that was home. And for her absent family, of course... but they had been gone for over a year. Now the sakura petals were beginning to fall, soon to make drifts in which children would play. Bell-like laughter sang out in Nodoka's memory as she remembered he artless joy of her son, Ranma, running and kicking up the drifts of pink petals along a pathway in a nameless park, smiling and calling out to her... In the gray coolness of her home, Nodoka lit a stick of incense, tapped a bell which shimmered brightly even in the dull surrounds, and put her hands together to pray. Pray for the return of her husband, and more importantly... Pray for the return of her son. Tears leaked from her eyes as she gazed at a framed photograph of the young Ranma. He smiled eternally, sightlessly from the frame, but in her mind's eye Nodoka saw him running and laughing and calling to her... 'mommy!' A sob wracked her, and she squeezed her eyes shut and bowed her head as the wrenching sobs pulled her forward almost against her will. She did this every week, praying for his safe return, and every night she thought of him. Wordlessly she sent an appeal to the heavens, praying, beseeching that on this, the seventh anniversary of her darling son Ranma's birth, her mistake would be corrected and he would be returned to her. And she could have a chance to correct the horrible mistake she had made in permitting her son to be taken in the first place. Hot tears forced their way from her eyes, burning their way between her eyelids but cooling as they flowed down her cheeks as she sobbed. The pain of the tears forced her mouth into a rictus of sadness, the corners pulled so far down she might be a living Noh mask. "Ranma," she cried softly, "Oh, my child, my child, if only I had never... perhaps if you had been born a girl I would have been spared this pain. Oh how I wish..." She cut off as a pearly white glow brightened the room, brightening quickly until it was almost painful. With a gasp of surprise she turned, fumbling desperately for her blade only to halt nervelessly at the sight that greeted her. A bronze-skinned, platinum-haired woman knelt next to her television, a couple of yards away, her head tossed back. A coruscating cylinder of white energy joined her forehead and a newly-formed hole in the ceiling; that and a strange, tense, singing noise in the back of her head held Nodoka transfixed. Then, all of a sudden, a large, translucent sphere ribbed this way and that with broad, textured bands of sky blue light formed on the floor in front of the strange, supernally beautiful woman. Oddly, Nodoka felt no fear, just a trust that sprang from within her towards this... woman. She watched curiously as something dark grew within the ball. And then, it ceased. With a sudden, crushing silence, the light stopped and the odd ball of... energy?... disappeared. Its contents flopped bonelessly, gently to the floor... a child, a girl- child... even as the woman swayed like a young branch on a weeping tree, slumping forward. She brought her arms forward but couldn't fully break her fall. A quiet *tunk* sounded as the woman's head hit that of the child, forehead to forehead, and there was a bright, silent flash of... non-light. "Owww...." said the woman as she reflexively forced herself upright. Nodoka ignored the woman as she stared at the girl-child in amazement. It was Ranma! Or at least, a child that looked as though she were Ranma. But Ranma was a boy, wasn't he? Yes, he was, he was! Then who...? "Wish granted," said a contralto voice. "Oww, my head." Nodoka looked up at the strange woman. "Um... who are you?" The woman smiled, and Nodoka felt herself bask in the light of the woman's radiance. "I am Urd, goddess second class, second category, limited. I am here to grant you a wish, which I have just done, to wit, one Saotome Ranko, the daughter you wished you had." She held one tanned hand to her perfect forehead. "I don't suppose you have any aspirin, do you?" she asked with a wince. All of a sudden Nodoka felt the aura of divinity in which she had been unconsciously basking disappear, and she was able to get a clear, memorable sight of a woman who had appeared in her home... the goddess who had appeared in her home. Beautiful, yes, but no longer supernally so; oddly clothed; and obviously a foreigner. That surprised Nodoka. Shouldn't the gods of the Japanese be Japanese? "We get that a lot," said Urd, smiling wryly. * * * "So you mean..." gasped Nabiki. "I've got a sister!" cried Ranma as he began to leap around the room like a hypertrophied frog. "...that a *goddess* came to you and..." "I've got a sister, I've really got a sister!" "...just *created* Ranko out of *thin air*?!" Nodoka nodded, smiling through tears that streaked her face. "Yes, and from that day on I had a daughter, Ranko. Suddenly my life was worth living again, and I was so happy..." "Pity you never thought about what your *new toy* wanted," said Ranko bitterly. Ranma came to a sudden halt, his ecstasy quashed by a strong resentment that seemed to be coming from somewhere. Intuitively he knew it was Ranko, and instinctively he pushed back with support and confidence even as he almost teleported to her side. Jaws dropped as he wrapped his arms around Ranko and cradled her head. She smiled up at him, feeling his support, and returned the hug. Ranma flinched briefly but she ignored it. "Oh, isn't that nice," said Kasumi with a broad smile.