Chapter One: The Return

The temperature was 102° F that day, the day before it had been 100° F. That summer was one of the hottest anyone could remember. What made it even worse was that it hadn’t rained in weeks. Luckily, that would soon change.

As he walked through the woods, the rain started to trickle down slowly. His sunburnt skin stung as each drop hit; yet it felt strangely refreshing. He looked to the sky and let the rain run through his uncut bangs and into his mouth. The rain washed away the dirt that had caked on to his white bandana. He continued walking through the woods which was now covered by a thick layer of steam above the ground. The rain was now a downpour. Mud caked his boots, his black tank top and fatigues were soaked. He carried a backpack, but most of his supplies were now ruined by the unexpected rain. His eyes struggled to stay open and he slowed with each step. He hadn’t slept in close to a week and it was finally catching up to him. The path he was taking opened into a clearing. At the far side he could see that the ground dropped off and formed a cliff. He slowly walked to it and looked over the edge. A small city could be seen below and in the distance he could see the skyscrapers of Tokyo. He fell to his knees and let out a sigh of relief.

"At last my long and arduous journey has ended. After months of training I am finally ready. I will rebuild my family dojo. Prepare yourself Ranma Saotome. I have returned!"

As he said those words, he clenched his fist and pushed himself up to his feet. He was running on pure adrenaline now. The only thing keeping him going was the thought of defeating Ranma. He looked over to see a path leading down the hill. After adjusting himself, he set off again, towards the city.

****

"Maybe you should have brought an umbrella, Ranma."

"How was I supposed to know it was going to rain?"

"I don’t know, watch the news maybe!"

"I don’t appreciate the sarcasm Akane, and maybe you should mind your own business."

"Fine then! Last time I try and give you advice."

Ranma turned her head away from Akane. The two continued on their way home ignoring one another the whole way.

"We’re home everybody!"

"Welcome home Akane, how was your day?"

"It was fine Kasumi, but Ranma is acting like a jerk again!"

"I’m going upstairs to take a bath."

Ranma slowly walked up the steps throwing her shirt into a heap on the way.

"Oh dear. Perhaps I should have told her the hot water isn’t working today."

"No hot water! What d’ya mean there’s no hot water?!?"

"It means there’s no hot water!" Ranma read from the sign that Genma was holding up.

"A lot of help you are pops!"

Ranma ran back down stairs grumbling and wringing out her shirt.

"Ranma!!!"

"What is it now Akane?"

"Have you no shame at all? Put your shirt back on!"

Ranma growled at Akane and put her now wrinkled shirt back on. As the two argued, a loud thump came from the front door. Startled, Akane jumped and held on to Ranma.

"Uh…are you going to just sit there holding me or are you going to answer the door?"

"Oh shut up Ranma!"

Ranma and Akane started to argue again as Kasumi walked towards the front door.

"Coming."

She tried to open the door slowly, but as she opened it the door was pushed open by the weight of the person on the other side. A boy, about the age of 16 and carrying a backpack, collapsed into the room.

"Oh dear."

Ranma and Akane both turned and looked at the boy lying there. Ranma went over to him and slowly lifted up his head. Ranma jumped back surprised after seeing whom it was.

"Oh my god! It’s…"

****

Ranma, Akane and their fathers all gathered around the table and listened to the boy’s story.

"So that’s the whole story then?"

"Hai."

"Well Ryuu, you are welcome to stay here for a few nights to get yourself back on your feet."

"Arigatou."

"Uncle Tendo, does he really have to stay here? I mean he’s just going to try and kill me again."

"Well that’s just the risk we’re going to have to take then."

Ranma glared at Soun. Why had this guy returned? The last time he was here he about killed me on several occasions. Not to mention what he threatened to tell my mother.

"Ranma don’t be so rude to him, you heard what he’s been through!"

So big deal, the guy lost his father when he was five and has been wandering through Japan trying to find the umisen-ken this whole time. Then he finally finds it and when I beat him I thought he’d leave. But no, he has to come back. And so what if he’s been training this whole time and almost died of starvation and lack of sleep. No one seems to care when I go training.

"Shut up Akane!"

Everyone turned and glared at Ranma, who had changed back into a guy.

"You will not regret letting me stay here. Domo arigatou, Tendo-sama"

"Ryuu-san, I’ve prepared your room for you," Kasumi interrupted as she poked her head in.

Ryuu grabbed his backpack, flinging it over his shoulder and followed Kasumi up to a spare room. He set his bag down and let out a sigh as he walked over to the room’s only window.

"I’ll defeat you this time Ranma. I have to. I must rebuild my family dojo, and the only way to do that is to defeat you."

"Did you say something?"

Ryuu turned around quickly and glared at the source of the voice. Ranma stood leaning to one side of the doorway staring back at him.

"Leave me alone Ranma!"

"I’m sorry but I can’t do that. You see I know you have motives other than looking for a place to stay for coming back here."

"Heh…like that was a big secret Ranma. I’ve trained using my yamasen-ken and I believe that I have perfected it."

"Perfected it? You were supposed to have sealed it up after I beat you the last time."

"That may be true but you will not beat me again. And when you lose you will teach me the art of umisen-ken."

"Fine! We’ll fight tomorrow afternoon!"

"That’s fine with me Ranma, but beware because I am ready for you this time and nothing will allow you to defeat me."

Ranma left the room and went down to the dojo where he started to train for the next day. Ryuu stayed up in the spare room and slept for the first time in a week. He dreamt of finally rebuilding the family dojo and saving his father’s name.

****

Ryuu and Ranma stood in the dojo facing each other as Akane, Soun and Genma as a panda looked on.

"Why do I get the feeling that Ranma picked a fight with him?"

Genma held up a sign.

"Because he always does!"

"Ok, Ranma this time my yamasen-ken will leave you begging for mercy."

"Ryuu, you need to learn you can’t beat me!"

"Shut up Ranma, prepare to die!!"

Ryuu charged at Ranma sending a flurry of punches at him. Ranma sidestepped each punch and sent some back at Ryuu. Ryuu easily dodged the punches as Ranma had with his. The two continued to battle this way for quite some time, neither showing an obvious advantage.

"I see you’ve been training as well, Ranma, but I haven’t even begun to fight. FIERCE TIGER, OPENING GATES BLOW!"

Ranma opened his eyes wide and seemed unprepared for the coming attack. Ryuu landed with it and sent Ranma flying into the wall.

"Ok Ryuu, you want to fight that way. I wasn’t going to use the umisen-ken on you but it looks like I’ll have to."

Ranma got into a ghostly pose and as his battle aura disappeared all trace of him also vanished. Ryuu looked around stunned as Ranma reappeared behind his back.

"WHITE SNAKE VENOM RELIABLE FIST"

Ranma delivered a series of punches to Ryuu’s back. The punches burned as they hit and Ryuu soon fell to his hands and knees. Ryuu glared at Ranma then pushed himself back up to his feet.

"Heh…you won’t catch me off guard again. I’m going to end this now! Saotome School Yamasen-ken Ultimate Technique! DEMON GOD ASSAULT BOMB!"

Ryuu sent the blast flying at Ranma. Ranma still using the umisen-ken seemingly disappeared from sight and reappeared behind Ryuu, kicking him in the back of the head.

"Ryuu, I could easily beat you using the umisen-ken, but I don’t want you to embarrass yourself anymore than you already have."

Ranma got a confident look on his face as if he knew the battle would soon be over. He started to charge up his aura as Ryuu looked on.

"Ranma, what do you think you’re doing?"

"Oh my god, look at how confident he is! Ryuu doesn’t have any idea what’s going to happen!"

Akane looked at Ranma as he charged up. At that moment there was a knock on the door of the dojo and someone walked in. Akane turned and looked.

"Oh hello everyone, I see Ranma is having a fight right now. Shall I watch?"

Ryuu turned and looked, recognizing the woman.

"Lady!"

"MOKO TAKABISHA!!!"

Ranma turned the blast to Ryuu. Not paying attention he had no time to dodge the attack and was sent flying into the opposite wall hitting his head.

"Ryuu-san!"

Nodoka ran to Ryuu who was bleeding immensely from his head and was barely hanging in there.

"L-lady…"

"It’s okay Ryuu hang in there, you can’t die, you’re like a son to me!"

Ryuu let out a sigh and passed out as Nodoka cried. She held him in her arms and turned glaring at her son.

"Ranma, you went overboard this time. He’s such a nice boy, why’d you have to hurt him?"

"I was just defending my honor as a martial artist."

"Well Ranma, since you hurt him so bad I think you better help me carry him back to my house."

"Y-your house! You’re going to let him stay there with you?"

"Yes Ranma, I am!"

Ranma growled and put Ryuu over his shoulder. He growled as he carried Ryuu back, following his mother back home.

"Wow, I didn’t know Ranma would get so upset about someone staying at his mother’s home."

"Well Akane, he misses her. Since he has to stay here with you, he doesn’t see his mother much."

Akane turned and looked at her father and a sweatdrop formed on her brow.

"Who ever said I wanted him to stay here anyway?!?"

****

Ryuu lay there unconscious. His head was now bandaged and blood could be seen through the gauze. Next to him on the floor was his backpack and boots. The room was quiet and the only light came from the window on the opposite side. Ryuu slowly opened his eyes and held his head trying to fight off the pounding headache.

"Where am I?"

He looked around the room. It was pretty plain and looked as if it had not been used in some time. He looked over to the window and sighed realizing he was back in the nice ladies house in the same room he had stayed in before. The door slid open and Nodoka walked in.

"Oh hello, I’m glad to see you’re finally awake. You’ve been unconscious for two whole days now."

Ryuu looked shocked. Two days? I’ve been unconscious for two days? And why have I been brought here? Nodoka smiled at him, tilted her head and handed him a glass of water. Ryuu tried to crack a smile and slowly sat up. He took a sip and felt refreshed. It had to be true. It feels as if that’s the first thing I’ve had to drink in days.

"Arigatou, ma’am."

"It’s no trouble Ryuu. Anything I can do to make you heal faster will be fine. I expect you won’t be back to full strength for at least another week. I’ll leave the room now and let you wake yourself up properly. I’ll have breakfast ready in a little bit if you’d like to eat."

"Arigatou, ma’am, I would."

"Oh Ryuu you don’t have to call me ma’am. We’re friends and I think of you as a son. You can call me Nodoka, or even mother if you’d like."

Nodoka left the room and Ryuu looked stunned. He slowly got out of bed and limped his way over to the window and looked out it thinking to himself.

"She’s so kind to me. Why is she doing all this for me? Could it be that she truly thinks of me as a son? Is this what its like to have a mother? I can’t even remember my mother anymore. She left me when I was so young. I have no memories what so ever of her, other than what my father told me about her. And even that is starting to slip away. Domo Arigatou lady, I shall repay your kindness someday, I promise!"