The Family

Author:

*Present Day*
How did she get like this? Who could she blame? Now she had it forever, and there was nothing that she could do about it. Her beloved angel would not see her again. Never, not in a million years. How had this began, she still didn't know. She searched frantically in her mind for the memories, and forced them out of her mind like a child out of the womb. Before strolling down memory lane, the woman looked around for her beloved, not there, go figure. Her angel wouldn't be here. She wouldn't lower herself to speak with a common slut.

*8 Months prior*
Ranma Saotome woke up with Akane in his arms. They had finally had enough of the tension between each other when they walked into the same room together, and had decided to settle the tension once and for all. Ranma's movements awoke Akane to the soft sounds of dew hitting the window after the morning mists came rolling in.

"Morning angel," Ranma said softly to her. Though last night Akne had been anything other than an angel.

"Good morning Ranma," Akane muttered to herself. Heaven was all she could describe this as. But heaven didn't last forever, how could she tell her parents.

And furthermore, how could Ranma tell her about his curse...

*Present Day*
The pain returned to her as she pushed hard to make it go away. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a familiar face walk in the door. Sort of. She couldn't quite but a name on who it was, but it was those eyes that gave the person away, and almost made the person look like...It couldn't be. No way. She once again focused on the pain and pieced together from her mind the next thing that happened.

*8 months ago*
Ranma and Akane held hands downstairs. Much to their surprise, the entire Tendo dojo had been decorated with confetti, balloons, flowers, and other white and matrimonial objects. Genma and Akane's father approached the two young lovers with a definitive plea.

"You are getting married tomorrow Ranma and that is final." Genma said to the young warrior, failing to notice Ranma's hand location.

Soun joined in on the conversation, "And young lady, I don't want to here anything about hating boys. You are a woman, and are not t hate boys to you understand me." Akane smiled and closed her eyes, and in her best little kid giggle shouted, "Sure father!"

Soun had dodged many things in the past, but this hit dead on. And for the first time Genma noticed their hands. Genma began to stutter mindlessly to himself. Ranma and Akane just smiled at the carnage they had caused. Soun began to grow red hot, steam seeping through his ears. He grabbed Ranma and pinned him against the wall.

"You made my daughter unclean! I'll kill you Ranma Sao..." Just then a small ki mallet came crashing down on Soun's head, and Akane just stood above him, smiling. However Ranma was not, knowing now what he must do. He took Akane's hand and led her outside, where a thunderstorm was brewing. There, as the raindrops silently fell, Akane was revealed to Ranma's big secret.

*Present Day*
Everything had seemed so complicated prior to that point. Everything from revealing herself to Akane, and other random happenings to Ranma Saotome,. Looking through the 20/20 vision of hindsight, Kami-sama she wished she could go back to those days, when everything made sense again, when everything was simple yet complicated. Normal yet abnormal, not like now where there was no light side to things, none that she could find. For the moment the pain had subsided...But here it came again, back to the past.

*8 mos. ago*
Akane stood their silent as she looked at Ranko Saotome, the busty young redhead she had seen so many times before. This explained it, the eyes. That was why Ranma and Ranko's eyes looked so much alike, mybe that was why she had those midnight, hentai fantasies of Ranko, because she knew all along it was Ranma. This just sealed it.

Ranko was still waiting, waiting for anything, a ki mallet to the head, a frying pan to the face, a scream, but instead what she got surprised her in a strange way.

Akane leaned over and kissed her smack on the cheek, a strange move to anyone who didn't notice. Ranko smiled as Akane explained her hentai dreams to her. Ranko even laughed at the part involving cherry blossoms and whipped cream. The two of them walked back into the house, to reveal themselves to her father when he came to, and to get the hot water going on Ranma.

The steam bath kicked into high gear and Ranma metastasized into his normal form once more. He leaned over to Akane, who was only wearing a towel over herself, "Was that kiss just for Ranko, or can I get some of that action to." Akane just giggled and nodded as she leaned over to kiss Ranma, their movements towards one another were broken apart by a giant panda, who came darting in holding a sign that read, <No hanky panky till tomorrow night! Got it you two.> Akane, realizing based on what Ranma had told her about Jusenkyo, decided that it ebst to listen to the strange panda's wishes. She and Ranma kissed each other on the lips and parted ways.

Later that day, Ranma was lured away by some of his high school friends, to a bachelor party.

*Present Day*
The men in front of her egged her on, telling her "just one more just one more." No that wasn't possible, he had no clue what he was doing. Not that she blamed him, she had been in that situation on that night. If she knew then what she knows now, she would change it. Literally. She never would have done it.

*8 mos. Ago*
The party began with toasts all around to Ranma. The usual stuuf, warning him what not to do with a married woman, telling him that the ball and chain had been fitted and now it just needed to be locked into place. Ranma just smiled, but knew it to be semi-true.

When the hentai girls were set to arrive, (Ranma didn't know of them at this time) Ranma was told to go outside and wait. As he stood in a Tokyo alleyway, an unforgiving maid forgot to look down when she dumped her bucket into the alley as she had done so many times before. The water collapsed all over Ranma. And guess what, it chilled like the northern seas during the winter. Ranko looked over herself, sopping wet. As luck would have it, his friends opened the door just at that time. Ranko looked at Akira, one of his new best buddies, hoping that he wouldn't recognize her. Akira, who was drunk as a Scotsman at this point, simply pulled the girl in to the bar.

"Sorry fellas," he announced, stammering, "but apprently, Ranma ditched us, and the hentai agency only sent this broad. So have fun while you can."

The group of drunken man stammered forward. Ranko had refused to get drunk at the party, remembering his training. Normally it would have been easy to defeat the whole lot of them had they been sober. But the twenty or so men were too overpowering for her, and the crushed her down to the ground. For most of them, their sobriety returned enough to began beating her down, and begin taking off their belts.

*Present Day*
The pain today was nothing like the pain back then. The pain of losing her angel was worse. Again out of the corner of her eye, she saw the muscular young man sitting in the corner, looking like he was holding something. She tried to concentrate on what it was, but couldn't quite make it out. The pain jutted out all her vision temporarily, and she was blinded by a flood of memories.

*8 mos. ago*
The men continued to beat down Ranko, ripping her clothing off inch by inch until every inch of her body was exposed to the cold Japanese air. The whole lot of them then took turns with her, trading her off as if she were a common house toy. One man in particular got the best of her.

It was the last man, Akira. Go figure. Ranko had dealt with the other 19, and as she had read somewhere, managed to control her emmotions enough to avoid being raped. She let them play with her, and get off with her. But she refused to except any gifts from them. The ones who had been incredibly persistent received blowjobs instead, satisfying their greedy tendencies. And they collapsed on the floor one by one. By the time Akira got to Ranko however, Ranko was exhausted, and her defenses were down.

Lord Ranko tried the same tactics, but it just didn't work. Akira forced himself in and out of her, pounding his manhood deep into Ranko, ripping every last shred of the virgin seal off of her, and sealing her fate once and for all. Akira smiled as he emptied himself into her, and she continued to scream against her will. Akira smiled, but then collapsed. Ranko tried desperately to rush home, gathering what few tatters of clothes she could. She stumbled out of the bar and pushed her way out onto the streets, wearing a ripped shirt, jeans with the button missing, and no underwear. Needless to say she tried to avoid any policeman, lest they stop her for being a distraction to drivers. Fortunately Ranko knew a back way home, and she used the alleyways to climb into the Tendo Dojo unannounced.

Akane was there as well, and smiled when she saw Ranko coming. Akane had hot tea brewing, and the hot water could be sacrificed just this once. As Rnako approached, and before she could get anywords out of her mouth, Akane dumped the entire contents of the kettle onto her, sopping her even more in the now dry night sky. Akane then looked strangely at Ranko then remembered something that Ranma had told her earlier.

"From what the guide told me, if I have heterosexual relations while I'm a girl, the curse become permanent and Ranma Saotome is no more."

Those words flew through Akane's mind like the Japanese bullet train, and she stepped back a few steps, then ran to her room crying.

*Present Day*
She could feel it now, the end was near. There was no turning back now. She could feel the pressure beginning to alleviate itself, and the world was about to become a bit better off so would say. For her though she didn't care. This thing was just a side effect, a side effect of her condition. And she ori...might as well not dwell on that she thought. I chose this and I have to live with it. Living, that was something that she had not experienced in a long, long time.

*8-7 months ago*
The wedding of course was canceled. Ranko, still unable to change back, began to adjust ever so slowly to her new life. Akane was off little help, but eventually she grew less and less mad at Ranko, especially after Ranko finally had a chance to tell her what had happened. How this had happened. It was on a blustery Saturday morning when Akane, content with her life for the first time in a month, awoke to the blaring sounds of sickness.

"BLEH!" Ranko spewed out the last bit of rice and sushi from the night before into the toilet. This had been going on for a few days now, maybe it was time to go see Dr. Tofu about this.

Ranko and Akane went together. Dr. Tofu did a few tests and took a urine sample just to see what the matter was. A few hours later, after waiting impatiently in his office, Dr. Tofu walked in to greet the happy couple.

"Ranko, how long has it been sine you had your period?" Dr. Tofu first asked. Ranko looked worringly at Akane, she hadn't had it yet. She decided in this case a little white lie wouldn't hurt. "About a month and a half ago why."

"Well, the UA came back and well I can firmly say that both of you are fine." Akane looked at the doctor strangely, "I didn't test for anything," she said.

"I know," the doctor replied.

After a few moments the realization came back to Ranko. Akira had gone and ruined her life even more.

She was pregnant.

*Present Day*
The new sould began crying into the world. And looked around at its family. It then looked at Ranko, who had given birth to this magnificent being. At first Ranko was reluctant to hold it. But the minute the bay opened its eyes and stared deep into Ranko's, Ranko's maternal instinct won out over her inhibitions. If only her angel was here, if only Akane was here. But then again why would she be. She had disappeared three months earlier. Ranko held her child, a baby girl, in her arms tightly, ignoring the fact that everyone left the room at the request of the young man.

The young man approached Ranko, smiling. "So what are you going to name her," he asked in his deep baritone voice. Ranko smiled, "Akane." The young man smiled as well and sat down next to Ranko. Ranko for the first time didn't have the pain to focus on, and she searched deep within the young man's soul. She saw a curse, a taint, something unnatural...

"Akane???" Ranko questioned. And the young man simply nodded his head in agreement. "I couldn't leave you like this, but I didn't want society to frown upon me when I wanted to marry you, so I decided this was the only way."

Ranko looked around confused, "But your a man only half the time." Akane shook his head, "No, the srping of drowned man is a permanent spring. You don't switch back and forth."

Ranko smiled as tears came pouring out of her soul for the first time in 8 months. Before the nurses came, at that one minute Ranko felt whole again, she felt natural, she was a family with Akane. Both of them.

*65 years later*
"There's no way that can be true can it grandma?" The young children sat in awe of the old woman, whose red hair had fainted to a light grey.

"Oh it's true," the old woman said, "Sometime they say on a clear night you can see up in the heavens the family still living together. Of course the family never died, but they just changed over time, as it will always be. Now run along."

The young children did as they were told, and a young man and his blushing wife came walking in past them.

"Thanks for watching them grandma."

The old woman simply smiled, "Oh ole grandma doesn't mind Ranma. I tell you, when I told you that story, you couldn't believe that you were named after that young man."

"I still don't grandma," Ranma explained, "It's just a children's tale, nothing more. And to be quite honest, I don't like the description of Ranko being raped told to those children." The grandmother nodded accordingly, and as soon as it was apparent that she wasn't listening, the young man walked off.

The grandmother walked out onto the porch and stared at the night sky. She looked in a locket around her neck. Akane, and Akane, together in heaven. Soon she would join them, be it as Ranko or Ranma it didn't matter. For once again, Ranko was content.

Finis