Continued Revelations


Ishida nodded slowly. "You are right to ask that, Ranma, but
unfortunately, I cannot tell you. I suspect that he wants more from you
than merely the fulfillment of his promise to his brother, but what it
is I do not know. All I can tell you at this time is what the Ishida
family wants for and from you, at the moment."

Ranma settled back into his chair. No-one had ever done anything for him
without asking something in return and Nabiki had assured him that this
was a universal truth. Having Ishida acknowledge that there was an
ulterior motive, even if he could not, or would not, say what it was,
eased his suspicions somewhat. Still he did not wait for Ishida to
continue, to explain what the family wanted of him. There was something
more important to make clear first.

"Whatever he asks, you know that I will do nothing that is against my
honor." As he spoke, Ranma watched Ishida closely, watching his eyes and
his face as Nabiki had instructed him, looking for his reaction. He
could not accept any help from them if what they might ask for in return
should go against his honor.

Ishida's response was free of any of the signals of unease or untruth
that Nabiki had taught him and Ranma finally allowed himself to relax.
"I am sure that my father would not ask anything of you that would harm
your honor. He holds honor too dearly himself."

"So... you said you could tell me what your family wants of me?"

"Of and for you, I said," Ishida replied, emphasizing the for. "The
Ishida clan means to see you free of the dishonor your father has bound
you with. We intend to see you educated. Where he has kept you ignorant
to make you dependent on him, we intend to make you dependent on no-one
but yourself." Ishida leaned forward in his chair as if to emphasize his
point. "In a more immediate sense, Ranma, we intend to give you a more
supportive family experience, a sane education, and the freedom to
develop your style of the art into something that can truly be called
your own."

Ranma frowned, trying to work through what Ishida had said. "So...
you're gonna put me in a different school?"

"As a start, yes," Ishida nodded. "And with your cooperation, we would
like to place you in a family unit..."

"A what?" interrupted Ranma.

"We would like you to live with a family. We don't think you should be
on your own just yet. We want to put you with a more normal family, let
you see what it is like in a home that has a mother and a father.
Probably one that has a teenager already, so that they'll be more
prepared for you."

"Huh... what about the art bit, what do you mean by that?"

"As I've mentioned already, I believe, the Ishida clan's opinion of
Grandmaster Happosai and your father is not very high. However, what you
have accomplished has clearly shown the strength of your art. Of course,
not all of it comes from your father or Happosai, does it? Several of
your techniques seem to have come from the Amazons, and at least one you
developed yourself, right?"

"Yeah, the Moko Takabisha, what's your point?"

"We intend to support you in founding your own branch of the Art, free
of any direct influence from Happosai or Genma."

"Oh!" Ranma's eyes grew wide as he considered this. One of the constant
irritants that had kept him with Genma in spite of his father's
unbearable stupidity had been the knowledge that in spite of his skill,
there would be little he could do without the support of an established
school of the art. To found his own school, if he lost Genma's support,
he would probably have to go and become a Master in another school. With
the way such schools worked, he would have to start over from the
beginning, the skills he already had would mean little. He would have to
retrain until he could master their forms without introducing his own
variations, as he had been trained to do since he was very young. Now
Ishida was basically saying that he could finally reject Genma utterly,
and they would support him in founding his own school, giving him the
backing he would need within the martial arts community.

As Ranma leaned back in thought, Setsuna sat forward. Perhaps her plan
could still be salvaged. "Ishida-san, earlier you spoke of a court
document that caused the final decision to be made?"

Ranma looked up. "Yeah, what'd my idiot father do this time?"

Ishida nodded and opened a drawer in his desk. Flipping through the
folders within, he finally withdrew one. Setting it on his desk, he
opened it and paged through the documents within, before finally
removing one and setting it on the desk in front of Setsuna, who picked
it up.

"As you can see, Meiou-san, this is little different from the many times
Genma sold Ranma. The key difference is that this agreement is a
properly drawn up contract, bearing Genma's signature and that of a
notary public, which was then filed with the courts. It bears far more
legal force than any of his other indiscretions."

Ranma was leaning against the edge of his chair trying to see. He sat
back when Setsuna passed the document to him. Glancing at the bottom he
saw his father's signature and hanko marking, beside another, unfamiliar
hanko. Returning his eyes to the top, he read the document, his eyes
popping wide in disbelief.

"He's done some stupid things," Ranma said slowly, "but even I can't
believe he'd be this stupid. I mean, he sold me to some people straight
out and then stole me back, but all the others were just engagements...
I still woulda been a Saotome."

The document which he was examining in disbelief clearly stated that
Genma agreed to train his son to become an expert martial artist then
transfer him to the Tsukino family register to serve as the protector of
their honor.

---

"I don't think that's a good idea, Setsuna-san." Ranma looked at his
benefactor dubiously. "I got my tent and all. I can set up in the park
easily enough."

"I'm sure you could," Setsuna replied, smiling at the young man walking
beside her. "But if the police noticed, you could get in trouble..."

"Ah, that's no big deal," Ranma interrupted, "Ryouga does it all the
time."

"Yes, well, in any case, Ranma-kun, it is no trouble. My apartment is
more than large enough, and it would be best if you had a chance to wash
before we see about getting you transferred. You do want to make a good
impression at your new school, don't you?"

"Yeah, whatever," said Ranma dismissively. For all Nabiki's training and
Ishida's words, Ranma still held a poor opinion of school. 

"Besides which, it might be wise for you to stay close while we work on
your fear, until the process is complete. We don't know for sure that
the attempt might not make your fear more sensitive for a while. More to
the point, if Genma realizes that you did not change your name yourself,
he may come looking for you. He is far more likely to find you if you
are staying in the open in a park."

Ranma fell silent for several minutes, thinking. He was tempted. Even a
couch would be better than sleeping in a tent. Just because he was used
to roughing it did not make it a preferable way to live. Being out of
view and away from where his friends and rivals would think to look for
him would make it far more likely that he would be undisturbed.

Unfortunately, Nabiki had photos of him and Setsuna and she had not
sounded very happy with him that morning. He would not put it past her
to find out where Setsuna lived and if they came there looking for him,
her apartment would probably be trashed.

Although, now that he considered it, would they be looking for him? At
first he thought that he might be safe, given their recent behavior
towards him. But everything changed today, he mused, I'm not a Saotome
anymore, I'm not engaged. I don't know what Shampoo thinks about my
disappearing act but it can't be good. Damn! I just don't know enough
right now, I don't know how everybody's taking this or even how much
they know.

Looking up he realized that they were entering an apartment building.
They would be at her door soon, he had to decide now! A brief image of
Setsuna walking into the bathroom the way Akane so often did wandered
through his mind.

They stopped at her door and Setsuna turned to him. Ranma did not wait
for her to speak.

"Well, uh, it's really nice of ya to offer, Setsuna-san, but it wouldn't
be safe for you if anybody in Nerima heard of it," he said, speaking
quickly. "I'll use a public bathhouse. See ya tomorrow!"

He turned and raced down the hall, leapt down the flight of steps and
was gone. Setsuna shook her head slowly, wearing a wry smile,
then unlocked her door and walked inside. Closing the door behind her
she leaned up against it and sighed deeply. And she had been so looking
forward to accidentally walking in on him in the shower! She had not
even needed foresight to know that that was practically a foregone
conclusion, if she could ever get him into her apartment in the first
place.

As Ranma headed towards the park he snapped his fingers in irritated
remembrance. Dangit, I forgot to get my scrolls. Briefly he considered
leaving them where they were. He reached the park and finding a rougher
region within it, as far as possible from the paths and benches that saw
regular use, set up his tent. He found to his dismay that the thought of
his scrolls falling into his father's hands would not let him rest.

Rising, cursing his father, he looked at his tent for a long moment
before springing away. A new tent could readily be purchased when he had
the funds but he would not likely find a second source for those scrolls
if his father found them. 

As he raced across the roofs, he calmed himself, clearing his mind,
sending all of his fears and emotions into a flame burning in
nothingness. The technique might not be as effective, with his limited
mastery, as his father's Umisenken techniques, but he could not take the
risk that his father might have countering techniques that he had not
shared with his son.

He stopped several houses away and stood unmoving in a shadow, watching.
There was a light still coming from the house but he saw no movement. He
allowed his eyes to pass slowly over the surrounding houses, looking for
any that might be doing as he was, watching from the shadows for him to
return to the Tendo home.

He saw no-one and after several minutes of silent watching revealed
nothing further he leapt from hiding and crossed the remaining distance
in a few great jumps, landing silently on the roof above what had once
been his room. In utter silence he crept to the edge of the roof and
dropped over, hanging upside down as he had so often done, peering into
his own room. The vast furry bulk of his father was visible within but
the window was shut. 

"Hmmph," Ranma muttered to himself, "Tendo should have been smart enough
to get rid of the freeloader once there was no chance of a marriage."
Unless he still plans on getting me as a son-in-law. What does it take
to get through to these numbskulls? The thought was lacking in it's
usual vehemence, more a comment of habit, the typical frustration unfelt
for he was still employing the Void and the Flame.

He released the eaves and dropped lightly to the ground before checking
out the rest of the windows. The only open window was also the source of
light he had noticed. Nabiki.

He paced back and forth on the grass for several minutes before deciding
that he would have to take a chance on being able to silence her before
she could cry out. With a mental groan given in advance for the pain and
embarrassment that seemed certain to follow, he leapt easily and landed
lightly upon her windowsill. Praise the Kami, he thought with a sudden
grin. Nabiki sat at her desk, head lying on her arms, which lay folded
over what could only be one of her ubiquitous ledgers.

Slipping past her he eased her door open. Once in the attic, it was the
work of mere moments to collect the scrolls from their hiding place and
secure them with Mousse's Hidden Weapons technique. Slipping back out of
the attic, he glanced at the stairs and then back at Nabiki's door. In
his moment of indecision he heard the sound of a knob turning and with a
sudden terrible clarity, he knew the noise came from Akane's room.

He leapt for Nabiki's door, easing it closed just as Akane emerged into
the hall, rubbing at her eyes as she walked to the stairs, heading for
the kitchen. Ranma spun about and leaned against the door and breathed a
great sigh, his eyes closing in relief.

They snapped open again when a short distance away he heard an answering
gasp. His eyes met Nabiki's just as she let out a strangled sob and
leapt towards him. The sheer improbability of her reaction left him too
stunned to mount a defense and so he found himself crushed against the
door by a sobbing girl.

He stood stiff with fear, expecting Akane to come roaring in at any
moment to pound him, and what excuse could he give? How could he justify
defending himself against her when he was here in the room of a young
teenage girl, in a home from which he had been thrown out, in the dead
of night, with said girl in tears?

He had no clue what had frightened or worried Nabiki so deeply that she
would cry. For just an instant he wondered if this were no more,
perhaps, than the usual manipulation that lay behind her tears so many
times before, when she feigned sniffles to force his hand. Was she so
angry with him that she was deliberately throwing him to Akane? Holding
him so that he could not flee until Akane would come and she could
accuse him of causing her tears? 

The cynicism that Nabiki had sought to teach him was not deep-rooted.
The incoherence of her sobs and the feel of her shoulders shaking as she
pressed against him, drove unfeeling thought from his mind. 

Even as Nabiki's sniffles slowed he realized suddenly that his
conditioned reaction to Akane had quite abruptly stripped him of his
technique, shattering his carefully built emotional void in the merest
instant. As soon as he noticed the lapse he fought to calm his breathing
and regain his control.

A muffled curse made its way to his ears. Akane had stubbed her toe
against a stair on the way up. Looking down at Nabiki, still holding
tightly on to him and still audibly sobbing, Ranma felt a strong sense
of dread but the technique was once more active and the usual feeling of
guilt had no chance to slow him down.

The very instant after the vibrations in the air reached his ear he was
out of the window, Nabiki cradled in his arms. His sudden motion shook
her out of her unaccustomed breakdown and she stared at him now with
wondering eyes. Though no longer completely distraught she had yet to
recover her ice queen facade. After believing that she had lost any
chance with him she was not about to miss out on a single instant of
being cradled in his strong arms, pressed lightly against those hard
muscles as they rippled beneath his skin with the force of his leaps.

Her stomach rose into her throat as they fell suddenly, dropping from
the roof of a two-story building past the level of the ground to land
without the least jolt on the incline of the canal just beside a bridge.
Ranma stepped beneath the overhang, near the bottom of the incline, just
above the deeper portion of the canal, and carefully set Nabiki down.

She shivered suddenly, feeling keenly the loss of his body warmth as the
chill night air blew through her thin nightgown and the cold concrete
froze her bare feet. She wrapped her arms about herself, glancing
uncertainly at the ground. She would be warmer if she could pull her
legs up and wrap her arms about them but she did not feel like having
her rear frozen.

Ranma sighed heavily and sat cross-legged on the flat lip at the bottom
of the incline. She felt a sudden warmth surround her and glancing at
him, saw that he was lightly glowing. Well, angry at her or not, he had
just abducted her from her house in the middle of the night. He owed
her. With a smirk, she placed herself in his lap before he could
protest. To her surprise, he gave no objection.

"Sorry about that, Nabs," he said softly. "I had to get some things that
I didn't want Pops to even know existed. Your window was the only open
entryway."

Nabiki smirked. "That, Ranma, was deliberate. I expected you a bit
earlier, though."

To his credit and truthfully, hers as well, he did not respond, as he
could predictably have been expected to, with a "Huh?" or similar
clueless response. Instead his brow furrowed for a moment as he looked
at her. He shook his head slightly. He could think of no way she could
have known, even with the techniques she had taught him, but he did
recognize that her statement was what she had classified as a "leading"
remark, designed to incite a question. "Always keep them off-balance."
He remembered her words and said nothing, not rising to her bait.

Her smile faded slightly and he noticed once more that her eyes were
puffy, red, and tear-stained. He reached up and brushed the tear tracks
from her cheeks.

She blushed at his touch, startling him, and looked down. "I'm sorry,
too, Ranma. I'm sorry for how I acted this morning. I didn't know, not
until I saw your reaction to Akane, that you didn't already know. I
figured it had to be you that changed your name. I thought you were
renouncing them and... it felt like you were rejecting me, too. As if
all of my training wasn't worth anything to you."

He shook his head but she put a finger to his lips. "Let me finish,
please." He nodded. She had regained her composure, mostly, though she
had still not re-erected her shields. "I leapt to a poor conclusion,
just the same as everyone here has done to you ever since you arrived,
and for that, I'm sorry. I wish I could have done something to stop
Daddy's reaction. I did work hard to keep Uncle Genma from passing it
off as another fiancee but I'm afraid that after I read the paper I felt
betrayed and I..."

She shook her head. "I should go back to the beginning, I suppose. You
still don't know what's going on, do you? A letter came for you this
morning and Kasumi found it first and mentioned it aloud. I tried to
grab it but Genma was too quick."

Ranma laughed softly. "He can move pretty fast for a tub of lard when he
wants to."

"Yeah, well... Daddy..."

This time it was Ranma who put a finger to her lips. "s'enough Nabs. I
probably know more about it than you."

Nabiki flushed angrily. "You mean you did know?" she hissed. "You did
this?!"

"No, no!" Ranma shook his head emphatically, but not as frantically as
he once might. "I did what you said, Nabs. I didn't know how to take
Akane's reaction so I pulled a page out of Pop's book, the Saotome
Secret Technique, and got away from everybody until I figured out what
they were talking about."

"I looked up the name and found a lawyer named Ishida. He confirmed that
it was the Ishida family. I'm not sure how they did it without the
permission of the clan head and all, but somehow they got me moved off
the Saotome rolls and onto the Ishida registry."

"You... you actually went out... and found out the cause of all this,
knowing nothing more than that something had happened that caused Daddy
to kick you out and Akane to call you Ishida?" Nabiki was staring at him
in open disbelief. "In under a day?!" Once more she felt the sharp pang
of realization, as she had felt it when he first applied his skills in
battle to her examples, the deep regret for what she had given up that
first day when she had rejected him, pushing him off on her sister.

"There's more. First off, Ishida is apparently the family name of my
grandfather on mom's side. Her father took his wife's name. I don't
think I ever met my grandfather, at least, not since I was old enough to
remember, but he made a deathbed request of his brother, my great-uncle,
Kamado, to look after Nodoka's children. He didn't approve of Genma,
like that's any great surprise. So now they're trying to fulfill that
request by getting me away from Genma and helping me set up my own
dojo."

Ranma paused, noticing that Nabiki's eyes had widened appreciably and
were once more glistening with tears. "K-Kamado? Ishida Kamado... is
your great-uncle?" Ranma nodded once more, irritated that his lessons
with Nabiki had never gotten as far as how to stall or prevent tears.

Nabiki felt like slapping herself as soon as the words escaped her mouth.
Revealing the effect that name had had on her and why would surely ruin her
chance with him, for he would then be unable to believe that she felt
anything for him beyond lust for what might come to him. Her tears dried as
quickly as they had come.

"And he's going to set you up with a dojo?" She moved on quickly, hoping
to make her earlier words seem part of a general pattern of shocked
disbelief rather than recognition. A thought struck her and she grinned
ruefully. "Must be the first time someone's seen what goes on around
here and not blamed you, huh? I can't tell you how sorry I am for that."

Ranma shook his head. "Doesn't matter anymore, Nabiki." He sighed. "I
can imagine how Pops took it. I may love him, in spite of everything he
did, but there is no way I'm gonna turn my back on a legitimate chance
to get out of that mess without destroying my honor, or everyone
else's."

"I'm more worried about how your mother might react," Nabiki said,
frowning. Nabiki structured her life around controlling her environment
and a big part of that was understanding how people ticked. It was
something she was genuinely accomplished at. She had misjudged Ranma
though, and as for his mother, well, she had no idea what drove Nodoka.

Ranma sighed and looked down. "Yeah, well... I'm no longer in her clan,
so the pledge no longer has meaning. Maybe... maybe with that out of the
way, she'll be able to be just a mother again. It seems like all honor's
ever done for her was get in the way of us being together... maybe now,
I'll be able to be with her without always worrying about how she'll
take something."

"I don't know, Ranma," Nabiki said sadly. "I'm not sure it will make any
difference. After all, she declared you manly a long time ago, but that
hasn't kept her from fingering her katana, or trying to get you to be
'manly' with your fiancees."

Ranma's shoulders slumped and he growled softly. "I know. I hope... but
I'm not going to let it go on, regardless. Maybe she'll come around on
her own, but even if she doesn't... without that contract, I am not
going to kowtow to her any more." 

Nabiki stared at him in startlement. After all the pain she had seen in
him when he was pretending to be Ranko, she had hardly expected such
assertiveness against his mother. She did not know how Nokomura's words
were echoing in his mind.

"...she could have... in my opinion, should have, taken the dishonor
onto herself, as a recognition and atonement for the mistake she made in
marrying him, leaving you free of dishonor." 

If she truly cared about the family honor, she would force Genma to do
something for Ukyou, and pay back all those people he stole from, he
thought to himself. It's like she gave up on him a long time ago, but
damnit, if she did... how can she not see that the Saotome name has been
completely tarnished by him? She is supposed to be my mother, she should
have been helping me resolve all this crap, not making it worse. She
could have protected me, saved me, instead, she's one of my biggest
headaches.

Nabiki noticed that Ranma's expression was darkening and spoke quickly
to redirect his emotions. "But at least your fiancee situation is
resolved now, right?"

"Not really," he growled again. "There's still Shampoo to deal with, and
Cologne. After all, all the 'obstacles' are out of the way now."

Nabiki shook her head. She did not really want to get into a discussion
about the Amazons tonight and she was trying to cheer him up, not get
him even more down. "You know," she said with a smirk, leaning back
against his hard chest. "You still haven't told me what you were doing
in my room in the dead of night."

"Yeah I did," he protested, looking down at her. "I told you I had to
get some stuff that I didn't want Pop finding out about!"

"True," she said, smirking, "but you know the Umisenken. The Way of the
Silent Thief, isn't that what Uncle called it once? You can't tell me
that he didn't come up with ways of getting silently into locked
houses."

He saw where she was heading and smirked. "Heh. You want me to say I
went that way to see you," he said, grinning, "but I wasn't using the
Umisenken."

"What? Why not?"

"Come on, Nabs, he made it. How do I know he doesn't have the counter
for it? He wouldn't have told me about the Yama if Ryu hadn't shown up,
and he didn't want to show me any more of the Umi than he had to. What
else has he got hidden? He's probably got techniques designed to handle
the Umi... so I used a different one, one I didn't learn from him."

"Tofu?" asked Nabiki.

"Some of them, yeah. Not all."

"Oh."

Ranma shifted a bit beneath her, then suddenly sprang to his feet,
sweeping her easily into his arms. She clung to his neck as he leapt
from the bank. "Sorry, Nabs, but I got stuff to do tomorrow. Can't stay
up all night and you know enough to work with now."

"You better keep in touch," she hissed warningly.

He nodded rather than speaking, though she noticed that even carrying
her, his breathing remained steady and even. He came to an abrupt halt
on a roof and she looked forward.

The Tendo house was awash in light.

"Damn," he muttered, "they must have noticed." He glanced at Nabiki in
her nightgown. There was no way they would believe she had been out for
a walk.

Sighing at the necessity, he leapt from the rooftop and landed lightly
before the gates of the Tendo home. The gate opened almost instantly and
to his surprise, it was Kasumi on the other side, though he could see
his father running quickly around the side of the house, obviously
having felt his ki. That was hardly surprising and indeed, expected,
considering he had kept his aura up, shielding Nabiki from the wind and
keeping her warm.

Kasumi smiled warmly at them. "You should have left a note, Nabiki," she
said.

Nabiki sputtered and finally got out, "I didn't have a chance!" She
glanced nervously at Akane who was running out of the house. Soun
rounded the corner behind Genma and he was carrying a naginata.

"Oh, my," Kasumi said, frowning slightly as she redirected her gaze to
Ranma, the remainder of the Tendo household looming up threateningly
behind her, lending force to her reproachful words, "Ranma-kun, did you
abduct my sister?"