Hey,

Here we go again...

*inflict inflict inflict*

FRAGMENTS

^*^*^

What's happened so far:

Ranma and the girl who 'killed' him 'died' twelve years ago during some
heretofore unclear event.  But, a man named Soichi and a woman named Kimiko
live.  Akane is engaged to married to Ryoga.  Nabiki is suspicious, having
glimpsed Kimiko and convinced herself she saw the woman who killed Ranma.
Akane attacked Kimiko at the mall when she saw her on an off-chance.

Oh, yeah, did i mention?  Kimiko looks exactly like Onna-Ranma.  (And no,
I'm not baiting you, Kimiko is NOT Ranko)

If you would like past chapters, please email me privately.

^*^*^

"Akane!  What do you think you're doing?  Attacking an innocent woman?"
Ryoga cried angrily, eyes flashing with rage as he stormed up to her.

Something else Akane had noticed about Ryoga, he had a terrible temper.
Although Ryoga could never, ever lay a malicious hand on Akane, his voice
was frightening enough to make her shake.

"Ryoga," she managed, "that, that was Ranma, Ranko, whoever."  She stared in
the direction the woman had run, "She was *here*."

Ryoga's eyes grew wide.

The four thousand doubts and fears that had not emerged since Ranma's death
rapidly resurfaced.

"WHERE?!"

^*^*^

"WHERE?!"

Kimiko jumped in the air, she whipped around to the direction of the
anguished voice, just in time to miss the wry smile that made its way across
Soichi's face.

"What the heck is that?" she said in a hushed tone.

"Good ol' Ryoga," Soichi chuckled bitterly, "should have known."

Kimiko turned towards Soichi again, "Are you sure, are you positively sure?"

He smiled at her weakly, and tightening his hand around her own, he said:

"Kimiko, *nothing* will break me.  Nothing will break *us*."

She nodded, took a deep breath, and grabbed their shopping bags.

"Come on, Soichi, just because we're staying put doesn't mean we have to
stay in here."

Soichi grinned, and stepped towards the city with her.

^*^*^

"Nabiki, I think this is the place."

Tendo Nabiki looked around the apartment.  She had to admit, Yuki had
certainly done well for herself.  It was elegantly furnished, understated,
and altogether comfortable.

Nabiki's blood boiled.

After Ranma's disappearance, Tendo Soun had fallen apart entirely, what
little income he generated teaching a few classes at the dojo disappeared.
Nabiki's drastically reduced income (due to Ranma's sudden passing) could
barely hold the family above water.

Needless to say, they had suffered until she had gotten a real job.

While here, Tanakawa Yuki was living in what could only be called . . .
opulence.

A cream and amber striped chair and stool were in her immediate vision, and
with her trained eye, Nabiki instantly priced it at about two notches above
what she could ever afford.  The floors were pieced together with broad
pieces of hardwood, smooth and newly-waxed.  Thick curtains fluttered in the
evening breeze, and the glitter of the city shone into the darkened
apartment.

Obviously, Tanakawa Yuki, now Yoshida Kimiko, had made a comfortable living
for herself.

And that was when Sanii heard the door opening.

^*^*^

"Nabiki-san," Sanii stuttered.

She gave him a death glare and hissed:

"I dare you to talk, Sanii, I dare you."

The two of them tried to ignore their physical closeness in the tight
confines of the broom closet.

^*^*^

The electric nightscape of Tokyo streaked across her window as Kimiko stared
to the streets that surrounded her.  She'd grown accustomed to the light and
sound after years of living in the rush of the city.

She could literally taste the tension that cut through the front of the car
cabin.  Soichi's hands were tensed on the steering wheel, and his eyes
stared straight ahead, serene, blue, thoughtlessly driving the car towards
their home.

She wondered how he did it.

And while he paid attention to the road, she turned inward and started to
remember.

^*^*^

Nerima
14 Years Previous

Oddly enough, though it was a well-known universal invariant that nothing
that could happen in Nerima could happen anywhere else, everything that did
happen in Nerima happened often, and even more commonly, at the exact same
time.

Which might have explained why two teachers on opposite ends of the tenth
grade hall both ordered two children out of their sight at the exact same
time.  This might also explain why instead of standing quietly in the
hallway, the two teenagers chose instead to make faces at the kids inside
the classroom.  Of course, this lead to a simultaneous condemnation into
after school detention.  At this point, the two were silent and wary, who
knew what punishment would come next, they might even be forced to listen to
Kuno's poetry!

The dark-haired boy only rolled his eyes as he waited quietly until Miss
Hinako was through eating her candy before she banished him to the
auditorium to clean, as it had happened a least a hundred times before.

The girl however, hung her head in flushed shame.  What type of person
manages to get herself detention on her first day at a new school?

And it so happened that the first of the two teenagers arrived in the
auditorium, it's chairs overturned and floors scuffed from a fight that had
broken out early that morning during an assembly, and with a long-suffering
sigh, the girl put down her things and started to sweep.

She had blue eyes the color of brilliant skies, and her hair was a startling
red that was known to draw more attention than an actual stoplight.

Just as she had started to sing to herself as she swept, a set of silent
feet descended upon the floors of the auditorium, and setting his bookbag
down, the spectator looked and listened, enjoying the song as much as he was
enjoying the view of the shimmering red hair.  Only after the girl had
finished two or three songs did he make his presence known.

Clapping, Saotome Ranma grinned, "Bravo, Encore, that was very well done."

And fast as a whip, he found himself face to face with a mirror image of his
female form, and Saotome Ranma, for the first time in his life, was without
words.

His initial reaction was to believe that this was all part of some intricate
plot Cologne had put together to either humiliate him or to marry him off to
Shampoo.  But the earnest and confused expression on the girl's face told
him that this was definitely something different.  Ranma honestly couldn't
think of anyone other than the old Amazon freak that had to the capability
to pull something like this off.

The girl's surprised expression became sheepish, and then angry, "Who are
you to skulk around and peep in on other people anyway, you, you," Ranma's
temper flared as he prepared for the 'pervert' comment that he knew must
have been coming.  "Skulker-arounder!" she finished unhappily.

There was half a beat of silence where the girl and the boy both held dearly
to their stoic expressions, and then they both broke out into gales of
laughter, unable to contain themselves.

"Tanakawa Yuki, at your service," the redhead smiled holding out her hand,
and as Ranma grasped it firmly, his heart still fluttering at an unhealthy
rate, and his mind still screaming from the unpleasant insanity of their
similarities, he replied:

"Saotome Ranma, likewise."

He looked at her closely for a few seconds more.  Aside from her hairstyle,
they were exactly the same in physical appearance.  The same eyes, the same
pale skin, the same red hair.  This was *too* weird, even for him.

He wondered for a moment why he hadn't seen her around Furinkan before, her
hair alone would have pulled droves of men towards her like sailors to their
deaths, why had Hiroshi, the school's most notorious repressed-pervert, not
even mentioned her before?

"Um, I don't mean to be rude, or nothing, but I've been here for a while,
and I've never seen you around before-" he started awkwardly, a hand on the
back of his head.

She nodded, "Hai, we just moved to Nerima, today's my first day."

Ranma nodded.

Somehow, when one entered the Nerima city limits, these things just
happened.

But she seemed normal enough, and Ranma had no intention of freaking out
some poor girl who didn't know half of the craziness that followed him
around, and he endeavored not to act weird around her.  Something he was
certain he would fail miserably in.

They glanced around the auditorium and shared a sigh, Yuki looked up towards
him and said: "Well, I've got sweeping covered, how about you start stacking
chairs?"

He nodded and headed towards the chairs, pausing every so often from his
labor to stare at her oddly.  And when she finally grew tired of this
treatment, she spoke up.

"What?  What's wrong with me, Ranma?"

He looked surprised, and stuttered, "Nani?"

She sighed and dropped her broom, "You've been giving me these frightened,
confused expressions ever since you got into this room, it must be something
about the way I look, well?  Spill, Ranma."

He groaned, and looking at the clock, he said in a resigned tone of voice,
"Come on, Yuki, it's four thirty, we can leave, I'll explain it while we
walk."

^*^*^

Nabiki seethed from her hiding place in the closet.

What were the chances that the *actual* cleaning crew would arrive to show
up to tidy up the apartment the same day that they decided to?

With any luck, they would leave soon, without anyone else arriving.

She glanced to her left where Sanii was currently fighting a mop for more
space in the closet, and losing at that.  She allowed herself a soft smile,
and wondered for just a moment what it would be like if she let herself like
him, and then, maybe to *love* him.  She was certain that her heart was
more than ready to shower him with her affections.

Over their three-year business relationship, their friendship had deepened
and ebbed, she knew things about him that his parents didn't, and he knew
things about her that no one did.

There wasn't a soul in the world who could touch her heart or make her laugh
as quickly as Sanii Kuzio could - and that was precisely why she was so
afraid.

The age factor wasn't a true issue for her, so what if he was younger?  As
long as he wasn't shiny, and wasn't named Chad, there was no real issue for
her; it wasn't as if she was a decrepit old woman seeking sexual release in
a young, virile thing.  She was genuinely attracted and fascinated by him.

She was afraid that she would end up losing him.  Sanii was only eighteen,
and at eighteen, hormonal impulse ruled above all, what if his affection for
her was just a transient thing?  What if all the passes that he had made
were fueled by nothing more than testosterone?

While she was certain of the emotion behind her rather subdued responses,
she couldn't be sure that Sanii's feelings were genuine.  And to take
advantage of his momentary fixation would be wrong.

Something she'd learned painfully in years passed when a certain pigtailed
martial artist died, and she didn't get the chance to apologize for her
crimes.

Blackmail and abuse was all well and good, as long as you didn't hurt
someone you truly loved and cared for.

"Nabiki!  Nabiki, get this mop away from me!  I can *feel* the dust mites
on my skin!" Sanii hissed urgently, fear in his dark eyes.

Nabiki sighed, then again . . .

^*^*^

After finally returning home and tipping their cleaning crew as they left,
Kimiko and Soichi had retreated to their bedroom, tired and contemplative.

She was lying on the bed, her eyes closed and her heart still pounding.
Kimiko could feel the mattress depress under the weight of her husband, and
she instinctively knew that his touch was coming before he brushed her.

"Kimiko-chan," Soichi started softly, brushing a tendril of hair from her
eyes, "do you ever wish that we hadn't left Nerima?"

She stared at him for a moment from where she stood slipping off her jacket
in front of her closet.  And as she watched him, images flashed through her
mind.

. . . Meeting a grinning boy in after-school detention one rainy Friday
afternoon, and trying to find out what about her appearance shocked him so
much.  A mystery that she'd been intrigued by, at least until they were
caught in a sudden shower walking back home.

. . . Dragging Ranma to her house in the snow after finding him beaten up
and bleeding by the sidewalk, Akane stomping off screaming curses on his
existence in the background.

. . . Telling each other stories by firelight during the Winter, ignoring
the fact that it was forty below zero.

. . . Finding out about their family's blood feud, and being forbidden to
ever see her friend again.

. . . Being forced to challenge each other and battle to the death for
family honor and the lives of every other member of their clan.  Whoever
lost dishonorably would be forced to be the second for their family when
they committed seppuku as honor dictated they would.

. . . Being alone, being so terribly alone and frightened as her loving
blast was turned black and hateful by some outside force.

. . . Running, running and not stopping, collapsing under Ranma's dead
weight as she lay gasping on the floor of the forest, praying to Kami-sama
to save them both.

. . . Freedom, with each other.

"Kimiko," Soichi said softly again, concerned by her long silence.

She turned her back on him as she walked towards the bathroom, "Never,
Soichi, never a doubt in my mind."

^*^*^

Nabiki and Sanii finally escaped the apartment after the couple fell asleep.

Neither of them really willing to talk about their two hour ordeal of
togetherness.

^*^*^

"RYOGA, STOP!" Akane cried at the top of her lungs.  It was the only way she
could get him to listen to her.

He'd been running around downtown Tokyo for nearly three hours, trashing
every store and ripping through every diner and McDonalds looking for his
old and most hated foe.

For two years of his life, Ryoga had led a life of fear, fear of discovery,
fear of rejection, fear of losing.  And all of his worries were rooted in
one Saotome Ranma.  The boy who was just a bit more handsome, the boy who
was just a bit more charming, the boy who was just a bit more skilled in the
art, the boy who was just a bit more than he could ever be.

The boy who had possessed the only woman he could ever love.

And that woman's voice finally permeated the thick cloud of rage that
surrounded his conscious mind.  He looked around at the damage he had left
in his wake and felt his face turning bright red from the enraged stares of
all the shoppers and businesspeople on the block.

"Oh, sorry, I'm, I'm so sorry!"

Grabbing Akane by the waist, he took one mighty leap and headed back towards
Nerima.

Well, either that or Hokkaido.  They were pretty close together, weren't
they?

^*^*^

Once again...um...how am I doing?

-Linda