*-*-*-*
The story so far...
Akane got a wish. Akane made a mistake. Akane
never met Ranma.
But Akane kept her memories. Oh My!
*-*-*-*
Akane was still on her knees in the garden. The quiet
was disturbing.
She had stopped sobbing and was just crying quietly.
<Ranma, I didn't mean it,
It wasn't supposed to happen like this. I was going
to make a wish and we were
going to be happy and never have to worry about Happosai
or Ukyo or Cologne or
Shampoo or Kodachi or Kuno or anybody. Ranma... where are
you?>
Akane stood and walked mechanically back into the house.
She entered the parlor and sat down on the couch, mulling
over
the time since school. She had been so angry at Ranma.
<What
had he done again? Oh yeah, he was hanging all over
Shampoo and...
no, that's not right, Shampoo and Kodachi were hanging all
over him.
Then he ate Ukyo's okonomiyaki, and then he came over to
eat with me...
and he brought UKYO!>
"Oh yes, he was truly doing some horrible things today wasn't
he
Akane-chan?"
Akane turned around to find the goddess of the past glaring
at her
with a look so cold Akane thought the temperature inside
had dropped a few
degrees.
"Yes, Akane, I must admit. Ranma was truly deserving
of that wish,
what was it he did again? He ate lunch with you and
his best friend?
That would be one of the most unforgivable things a man
could possibly
do to me."
"Who are you to judge ME?" Akane's temper was flaring
at the
condescending woman who had given her that magic ring.
"This is all
your fault anyways, that magic ring that you gave me.
You knew what
was going to happen, you knew that Ranma would get me mad
and that I
would accidentally waste that wish just to get rid of him."
"I am Urd, Goddess of the Past and of Love, Second Class,
Second Category; limited, and I will judge you as I see fit.
So
don't go trying to blame your problem on me. I know
the past, Akane,
not the future, the future isn't set anyways so even if my
sister was
here there was no way I could've known just how stupid you
would be.
Don't start blaming me, and don't start blaming Ranma for
something YOU
did. You are always claiming that you are a martial
artist yet you lack
self-control even more than I do, you attacked Ranma on a
daily basis whether
he did anything or not. If he looked at you, you hit
him. If he looked at
anyone else, you hit him. If he insulted you, you hit
him. If he was nice, you
treated him like he had a mental illness. I checked
up on you Akane-chan.
Something I should've down before I ever agreed to that
wish, but I'd already
done that..." Urd stopped for a moment to catch her
breath, and calm herself down.
"I started to like you Akane-chan, because deep down I'm
willing to bet that
you are a good person, even if you are possessive, angry,
paranoid, and jealous.
Heck, I'm most of those things myself. Claim responsibility
for what happened
Akane, and mean it, and I might consider trying to help you."
"Urd, I... I'm sorry, but... Ranma he just got me so mad
that... I just
wasn't thinking... I mean, I say stuff like that all the
time, and even if he
gets mad at me... he would always just... I would just have
to..."
"Sorry can't fix everything Akane-chan... The best
I can do right now
is tell you how your life went so far."
"But if I never met Ranma, then how come I remember everything."
"That's part of the wish, Akane. There are beings out
there that also
grant wishes... when they change the past. The person
who made the wish changes
with it. When we do that, the person is excluded from
the shift. Otherwise they
wouldn't realize that they'd made the wish."
"So... where's Ranma now?"
"Ranma is living happily in Nerima..." The Goddess
suddenly looked
rather smug as she gazed at Akane.
"He's still in Nerima? Then I can find him and we can
be happy and
everything will just the way it was before, you'll see."
"...with Ukyo."
Akane's face fell and she looked ready to cry again.
"But, but why?
I mean, wouldn't his father remember about the engagement
to one of us, either
me, or Nabiki, or Kasumi? His dad was always really
adamant about that engagement.
I mean, he wouldn't let Ranma live with Ukyo, he just wouldn't."
"That's just it Akane-chan... Ranma didn't get to the dojo
that night..."
~~Flashback~~
Two years ago...
A panda and a red haired girl with a pig-tail faced off in
the street of
Nerima. It was raining hard.
"I TOLD YOU POP! THIS IS NO TIME FOR FIANCEE'S!"
Having said that, the redhead leapt up and landed a kick
on the panda's
face sending it flying into a street sign, where it collapsed
in a heap.
"I'm going back to China now, so suck on that, Oyaji."
Unbeknownst to the girl, the panda had gotten back up and
was holding
the street sign in one paw. It swung it towards the
girl.
Call it divine inspiration, cause that's probably what it
was, but
something warned the girl of the attack ahead of time.
She ducked under
the blow and caught the sign with her hand. Standing
back up, she turned
around and faced the panda.
"Now you listen to me, Oyaji, and you listen good.
I am not..."
She swung the sign towards the panda's face. It impacted
with a clang.
"...going to let you..." She did it again. "...ENGAGE me
to some girl..."
She did it again, this time there were murmur's from the
gathering crowd.
"...that I HAVE NEVER EVEN MET!" She swung the sign
at the panda to accentuate
the last word, and it broke across it's skull. The
panda fell down, unconscious.
The redhead turned around and glared at the crowd, which
stepped back
and began walking away. The redhead could hear the
people talking.
"...and I thought Tomobiki was wierd."
"Don't stare darling, or I'll hurt you."
"Imagine! Engaging a girl to a girl."
The girl began to get slightly pissed at that one.
After the crowd had the left, the redhead picked up the panda
and slung
it over her shoulder, impressive considering how much that
thing had to weigh.
Walking a few blocks, the girl found a bridge under which
the ground
was relativley dry. Setting up camp, the girl stuffed
the panda into one
of the tents. Heating a kettle of water, she dumped
it on herself and turned
into a good-looking young boy.
Growling, Ranma crawled into his tent and tried to get some
sleep.
~~Kcabhsalf~~
"So you see Akane-chan... you and Ranma never met. As
such, he
didn't fall in love with you. Besides, all it would
take would be a couple
of deluxe okonomiyaki and Genma would stand behind Ranma's
engagement to her,
you know that as well as I do." Urd was know standing
on the other side of the
room going through Soun's stash of alcoholic beverages.
"You'd think he'd keep
something better on hand... sheesh."
Akane had passed through anger and was now absolutely enraged.
She
couldn't believe it, this so-called goddess was treating
her like the entire
thing was her fault! Like it was her fault she got
so mad at Ranma for being a
pervert!
This time however, Akane was not going to lose her cool.
"That doesn't
explain why Ranma's living in Nerima... I mean, wouldn't
he have left after he
confronted his father like that?"
Urd stood up, holding a sake bottle. It was one of
Soun's more expensive
brands. "He tried Akane-chan, Kami-sama knows he tried.
His dad wasn't too
happy about leaving, but Ranma managed to use just the right
combination of blunt
objects and sharp ones to convince him that it was the wisest
thing to do. Then,
when he was on his way out of town, he ran into an old...
acquaintance of his."
"When you say old acquaintance... do you mean.."
"No Akane-chan, Ukyo came a couple days after this."
"A COUPLE DAYS! But it was a long time before she came here.
If she came
here about three days after Ranma that would mean she got
here before Shampoo even."
"Apparently Ryoga was just as upset about his Jusenkyo curse
then as he
is now, or, was now." Urd shook her head, temporal
mechanics was just too much
for her. "Anyway, their fight attracted alot of attention.
Newspaper's included.
Ukyo was just at the right place at the right time to see
the paper. I mean,
a headline that reads 'Saotome/Hibiki brawl results in massive
property damage'
would kinda be noticed by someone who had sworn death on
Ranma."
"Ryoga's got a Jusenkyo curse?"
"Whoops, forgot who I was talking to." She leans down
close so she's
talking right to Akane's face and addresses her as one would
a small child. "No
Akane, Ryoga is a perfectly normal, well-adjusted human being,
there is absolutley
nothing wrong with him at all." Urd stood back up to
her full height and muttered
so that Akane couldn't hear. "I hope you wise up someday."
Akane seemed to buy Urd's explanation with a simple. "Oh."
Urd popped open the bottle and took an impressive gulp, draining
almost
half of it. "So, things happened pretty much the same
with Ukyo... except that
Ryoga gave her a little haircut with that belt of his.
Poor girl. She challenged
Ranma, he found out she was a girl, found out about the engagement,
called her
cute, and she fell for him again. She opened up the
Ucchan's a few days later,
and Ranma figured with Ryoga dropping by at all hours that
he could afford to
stay here and his skills would stay up. He still takes
occasional training trips
with his father, but now Ukyo comes along." She tried
to take another swig from
the bottle she was holding and found it empty. "Drat."
She leaned back down to the cabinet and pulled out another,
this one was
slightly more expensive. "Let's see... is there anything
else you need to know...
hmm." Urd placed her hand to her chin in a thoughtful
expression, which looked
awfully out of place with the drink in her other hand.
She began to tick things
off on her fingers. "Okay, lesse here. Kodachi's
still after her man." Akane
looked about ready to speak up. "Don't ask... it's
more complicated than it was
in your world. This's some strong sake y'know, 's good
stuff."
"Is there anything that's changed for the better for me Urd?
Anything?"
"Hmmm, oh yeah, Kuno's not after you anymore... that's good.
Although I
personally don't mind a guy who's a wee bit over-affectionate.
The fact that he's
an idiot doesn't count in his favor though."
"How in the heck did that happen, I thought he'd be after
me forever!"
"Well..." She put her hand on Akane shoulder.
Akane noticed that there was
a fairly large pile of sake bottle behind her, and her breath
reeked. "...He started
chasin' after the pig-tailed girl, see?"
Akane nodded.
"And then... he realized that she was under that foul sorcerer
Saotome's
evil spell. He made it his obligation to free her...
follow so far?"
Akane nodded again, this was basically the way things happened
in her past.
It still didn't explain why he wasn't after HER anymore.
"Well, Akane-chan... He, ya know Kuno..." Urd seemed
slightly tipsy. "He
found out that Ukyo was also under Ranma's spell... wish
I had more sorcerers like
Ranma, he's great with the ladies... *hic*." Reminded
of Ranma's infidelity Akane
began to fume again, faced with a goddess who was downing
her father's entire supply
of sake didn't help much. She noted that the pile seemed
bigger than the last time
she checked. "Kuno found out that Ukyo was also under
Ranma's spell. He decided to
try and free her as well. He began to devote more and
more time to getting both of
them for himself. Selfish nutcase..."
Akane leaned over and checked her father's liquor cabinet.
Urd had
apparently gone through half of it, and it was a pretty big
cabinet.
"Akane... I'll explain the rest of this later, right now.
Can I borrow your
couch?"
Akane stood up in a hurry. "Why should I let you?
You've been nothing but
trouble since I me..." Akane's speech died off as Urd
collapsed into an almost
coma-like state on the couch. Akane could hear her
mumbling in her sleep.
"Mmmm, 's good sake."
Akane was absolutley astounded. "Whod've thought a
goddess could get drunk?"
"I would have."
"What the..." Akane turned, startled at the voice,
and found herself
face to face with a girl who looked to be about twelve, she
was dressed in a
slim red and white outfit and had a hammer propped on her
shoulder. She had
the same kind of marks on her face that Urd did. Different
color, and different
shape, but the same basic marks.
"You're a goddess too aren..."
"I don't have time for this. Out of the way."
The girl walked over to stand
next to the couch and pulled a wierd helmet out of her dress.
She placed it on Urd's
head.
She pressed a button on the helmet and it began to glow.
After a few seconds
Urd shot up to a sitting position and the little girl removed
the helmet.
"Skuld's instant hangover cure, patent pending."
"What... where... huh? Oh, hello squirt. I was
having a nice dream..."
"Dad says stay away from the booze while you're working.
Bye now!"
Skuld waved and walked into the kitchen, running water could
be heard for a few
seconds and then the doorway began to glow. After it
subsided there was no more
sound from the kitchen. Urd looked noticeably upset.
Akane checked the cabinet and noticed that all the sake was apparently
back where
it had been when Urd first showed up.
Akane closed and locked the door to the cabinet and turned
around to face
Urd. "So? Before you tried to remove all the
alcohol from my house."
"Um... I forget, where was I?"
"I think you were at the bit about Kuno?"
"Oh, um, yeah. Anyway, Kuno is now chasing after Ranma
and Ukyo because
he believes that they are under Ranma's evil spell.
He calls Ukyo his 'Goddess
of okonomiyaki' and other such nonsense. He thinks
that she's madly in love with
him. Anything else you need to know you'll probably
find out later. Now if
you'll excuse me, I have to talk to my father. No drinking
on duty... HAH!"
That being said, Urd disappeared into the T.V. set.
Leaving Akane just as
upset, angry, and lost as she had been feeling before Urd
arrived. The only
difference was that now she knew that Ranma was in Nerima,
he was with Ukyo, and
she didn't have to worry about Kuno anymore.
The door to the house opened and in stepped a rather daringly
dressed Nabiki.
She was wearing jean shorts and a tank-top "Hey Akane, Dad
still asleep?"
"Um, yeah, I think so... why?"
Nabiki gave Akane a calculating look. It quickly receded
back into her
emotionless mask. "Good, c'mon. I hope you're
hungry, I brought dinner from
that Nekohanten place. They make good Ramen."
"Umm, why isn't Kasumi cooking?"
Nabiki arched an eyebrow at Akane, as though she'd just said
something
that didn't make any sense. "Akane, you know perfectly
well that Kasumi works
over at the Kuno mansion every monday. How else would
we pay our bills? I still
haven't found that redhead or gotten that okonomiyaki chef
to let me take pictures
of them yet and Kuno doesn't buy your's anymore. The
other boys at school do,
but they can't afford the prices that I used to charge him."
Nabiki stared down
at her hand as it clenched into a fist almost of it's own
accord. "Kuno no Baka,
why'd you have to... um, anyway. Here." Nabiki
handed Akane a box with a set of
chopsticks attached, she opened it to find a bowl of Ramen.
Akane figured that
since neither Shampoo nor Cologne knew her now that it was
safe to eat.
Nabiki was the first to finish her food and ran upstairs
after doing so.
When she re-emerged she was holding her camera in one hand
and a few pieces of
cloth in the other. She noticed that Akane was finished
when she reached to bottom
of the stairs.
She motioned towards the dojo with her head. "C'mon
Akane, it's time for
that photo shoot."
Akane head whipped up in shock at that. "WHAT?"
"Akane, not only did you promise me, but if you want to eat
at all next week
you will be going through with this. C'mon."
<I did WHAT?> "I... okay."
Nabiki tossed her the red thing that she was holding in her
hand. "Don't
worry Akane, I don't sell pornography. We don't need
money badly enough for me to
do that to you..."
Akane blushed from her hairline to her toes as she walked
into the dojo.
Nabiki waited for a moment before following, she finished
her last sentence
to herself, making certain that Akane was not within earshot.
"..yet."
She wiped the stray tear from her face with the back of her
hand and made
her way towards the dojo.
End part 2
Author's post-script: Where is this going? I do not know...
but I do know that
there is more in store. Chapter 3: Forever my Ran-chan,
will probably be a while
in it's release, it's going to be longer... much, much, longer.
"With a promise of stranger things to come"
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