Nodoka's Lessons - Chapter 6

Nodoka’s Lessons – A Ranma One Half Fanfic
By Michael A. Ivins

Ranma, along with his family and friends are the property of Rumiko Takahishi and I use them without permission. I am creating this story mainly for my own amusement and hopefully the entertainment of others. I’m doing it for fun and make no money off it, so please don’t sue me.

WARNING: This chapter has LEMON content. It contains explicit descriptions of sexual acts and incest. If you are under the legal age where your community allows you to read this kind of thing, Stop Reading. Likewise stop if you find such material offensive

Chapter 6
Resolutions

Before leaving to board the bus Ranma and Akane had resumed their birth forms. Now the three walked from the bus stop toward the Tendo home.

Ranma told the others, “I want to talk about something and you have to promise to be serious, Mom.”

“Why wouldn’t I be serious?”

“When this subject comes up you have a tendency to get a little silly. Can you promise not to get out the fans and do your little dance?”

Knowing what her son was referring to, Nodoka asked, “You want to talk about the children you and Akane plan to have together?”

Ranma confirmed, “Yes, mom.”

She promised, “All right, I’ll be serious.”

The pigtailed martial artist said, “When Akane and I were walking to school this morning we started talking about it. If she’s willing to share me with you, that is. The main point of disagreement was on how many kids we would have. I wanted four. Akane, tell mom what you told me about that?”

Not sure why Ranma was making such a big deal of it, Akane replied, “I said that as long as I was the one having the labor pains and giving birth, we’d limit it to just two,”

Ranma nodded. “It was the suggestion you made after that that got me thinking.”

Now Akane looked really confused. “I… don’t remember making a suggestion.”

“Sure you did,” He said. “You said you’d be willing to raise four kids if I gave birth to the other two.”

The black haired girl stopped and stood with her mouth gaping. “That… wasn’t a suggestion. That was a joke!”

Ranma shrugged. “You may have meant it as a joke, but I’m taking it seriously.”

“But…” She couldn’t seem to think of anything to say.

In a thoughtful tone Ranma said, “Everyone has asked me what I was trying to prove to myself with the Gang Bang during the party. A large part of it was to clarify my feelings about being a girl. I won’t give up on being a guy, but I’ve decided that I really like being a girl. I think I like it enough that I’d be willing to have a baby… your baby, Akane.”

“You want me to be the father of your baby?”

“Yes,” replied Ranma.

There was silence as they resumed walking. Akane finally said, “That has got to be one of the sweetest but weirdest things any man has ever said to a woman.”

“Does the weirdness bother you that much?”

“It used to. I’ve come to realize that I really do love you Ranma, even with the weirdness. If getting married to you and both of us having babies means sharing you with your mom, I’m willing to do that.”

She addressed her mother-in-law to be. “Auntie, or maybe I should start calling you ‘mother,’ I do like you. I may even be starting to love you. I can easily see why Ranma would fall for you. (Well after you got over that manliness obsession.)”

“Thank you Akane. Now that you stopped hitting Ranma with your mallet, I like you too.”

Akane smiled. She asked, “So how did you want to do it? We take turns?”

Ranma grinned. “I have a plan. We both leave samples at a sperm bank. Then work at it really hard. I say we take a week or maybe two with one of us staying as the girl and the next couple weeks we trade off. When the first of us gets pregnant the other will be artificially inseminated. I’m good enough reading ki that I can tell almost immediately when one of us gets pregnant. This way we’d both give birth close to the same time. We could then claim you had given birth to twins and raise them that way, telling everyone they were twins.”

The raven haired girl protested, “But they keep records at the hospital. It’s unlikely both babies would be born on the same day.”

“If we give birth at home we can get a midwife who is in on it. She can fudge the date on the birth certificate for one of the kids.”

“Is this why you were so distracted in school today?” Akane asked. “You were dreaming up this plan?”

“Well, yeah.”

Nodoka put in, “It does seem an odd way to go about it, but it would mean more grandchildren.”

The two teens rolled their eyes. Ranma commented, “Mom, you look way too young to be a grandmother.”

With a huge grim on her face, Nodoka said, “Why thank you, Ranma. You see that, Akane? That’s part of why I love him.”

When they arrived at the dojo Nodoka told them, “I want you mainly as back up. I’m going to go talk to Genma. I don’t anticipate he will do anything but yell, but I’d appreciate it if you could come once the shouting starts. Until then why don’t you watch television or something?”

To say Ranma was not comfortable with that would be understating it by a lot. She was his mother and his lover; he worried about her. Still it was unlikely that Genma would do anything violent.

He and Akane sat on the couch in the living room and he picked up the remote. He turned on the TV and put on a channel to view local news. The newscaster announced, “In our lead story tonight, police have informed us that the famed lecher, pervert and panty thief known as Happosai is dead. Investigations have revealed the man was guilty of much worse than anyone had previously believed. We’ll have details after the break.”

Ranma’s eyes went wide. “POP, SOUN, EVERYBODY, GET IN HERE!”

They rushed up and Nabiki demanded, “What’s the emergency, Ranma?”

“They just said on the news, Happosai is dead.”

Iin a shaky voice, Soun questioned, “The Master is dead? How sure of that are they?”

“They said they’d give details after the commercial. So far all they said was he was dead and he’d done worse things than anyone believed.”

Everyone found a seat and waited for the commercials to end. In a small screen to one side of the newscaster a picture of a very short, very wrinkled old man appeared. “The man known as Happosai is a figure of some mystery. A man of diminutive stature and apparent great age he was yet a martial artist of great skill and seemed to have vigor and energy of a much younger man. Rumors abound about him, one saying that he is more than 300 years old.”

“The activities most associated with the old man were the stealing of women’s panties and other lingerie and fondling women against their will. While it may seem impossible, the famed lecher perfected a martial arts technique that let him steal women’s undergarments without first removing their outer garments.”

“Happosai had been involved in a number of fights against several strong martial artists who have tried to defend women against him. Serious property damage has often resulted, while the damage to the old man was not what the defenders hoped. The old man has not only survived what should have been fatal injuries, he has repeatedly been seen to get up and continue fighting even after being hit with supposedly lethal attacks.”

“It would seem that this incredible resilience was not enough for his most recent battle. He was seen to be fighting against a young woman who claimed to be a sorceress. The fight ranged over a wide area and caused a great deal of collateral damage. Then the fight just seemed to stop. Approximately one hour later the body of Happosai was found in an alley.”

“In spite of the old man’s resilience there can be no question that he is dead. In what appears to be a ritual killing, his heart was cut from his body, set aside, doused with gasoline and burned. There was a circular design drawn on the ground around the burned heart. That circle was marked with symbols in a language that is unknown to police investigators.”

“Whoever it was that had killed the old man had left a file folder next to the body. That file contained documents that aided police investigations into the matter. It would appear that Happosai had done far worse things than stealing lingerie and touching women. The documents and victim testimony confirms that the old man committed numerous rapes, possibly as often as once per week.”

“The victims of these assaults appeared to have been under the influence of some kind of hypnotic mind control that prevented them from remembering the face of their attacker. When they were notified of Happosai’s death it seemed to break that control and they were able to talk about it in great detail.”

“The documents in that file also helped to clear up a mystery that has baffled police for more than a year. In what was believed to be an unrelated case, the bodies of two teenaged girls were found in Nerima. This discovery coincides exactly with the date of the first reports of lingerie theft perpetrated by the old man after a more than ten year hiatus. Both of the girls looked like they had been dead for months or years with all moisture gone from the body, almost like mummies. This was in contradiction to the fact that both girls had been alive and talking to friends the day before their bodies were discovered.”

“After investigators reviewed the information provided in the file they re-examined evidence found at the scene where the bodies were discovered. What they found strongly suggests that the girls were killed in a ritual performed by Happosai. The exact purpose of the ritual is unknown but they were drained of their vital energies and bodily fluids.”

“Investigations continue. The police released this information to the press in the hope that hearing this report would break the mental control the old man put on his rape victims. It is hoped that victims hearing this report will find that it jogs their memory of an assault at the hands of Happosai. If you have been a victim of this man, please call the number on your screen. You may remain anonymous.”

Ranma used the remote to turn off the TV. He asked, “It sounds like the time they found those two girls would be the same time he first got out of the cave.”

The black haired girl was looking sick. “That’s around the time he showed up groping the girls at school and looking for me…” She broke off with a shiver. In a whisper she repeated, “Looking for me.”

Ranma speculated, “We know he draws female ki from the girls he touches and the underwear he steals. Maybe he’s a ki vampire like he turned Ms. Hinako into. But he must be able to drain a person completely instead of just weakening them like she can. He would have needed a lot of ki after being sealed up in a cave for all those years.”

The pigtailed boy’s eyes grew wide and his face looked green. “That… little monster touched me… repeatedly.”

Kasumi reached into the kitchen and grabbed a large bowl. She walked over and set it down in front of Ranma before turning to Soun and Genma. Uncharacteristically, she was furious, “Father! Uncle Saotome! How could you? You let that murdering monster live in the same house as your own daughters.”

Nabiki was shaken out of her usual calm. “I just thought he was an old man with a weird hobby. He actually killed girls.” She shivered as well.

Every female and the one part time female glared at the adult males. Nodoka finally spoke. “I don’t care how much you feared the man. Letting someone who is a murderer and a rapist live in the same house as your own children is unforgivable.”

Soun was struggling to find his voice. He finally said, “I… I… never knew the depths he would go to. I never knew he would actually kill someone.”

Ranma was a little out of it at the moment. “Those hands that killed touched my breasts.” He vomited into the bowl Kasumi had provided.

Genma protested, “He had some kind of hold on us. We weren’t just afraid of him. We couldn’t disobey.”

Nabiki seized on something her father said. “You said you let him live here because you didn’t know he would kill someone. Did you know he was raping women?”

“I… I…” He seemed to be struggling to force out words. Genma also seemed to struggling similarly.

Getting angry, Nabiki demanded, “Well, Daddy? Did you know he was raping women? I’m waiting.”

In a rough voice Ranma spoke up. “Soun, he’s dead, he can’t control you anymore. Fight it.”

“I can’t… remember.”

Genma seemed to waging his own internal battle.

Ranma reflected that his dad probably wouldn’t care if his girl form got raped. He’d probably say it was Ranma’s own fault for not being a good enough martial artist to defend “herself.”

The chime of the doorbell interrupted the discussion. Everyone broke off their arguments and did their best to put on a calm face. Kasumi went to the door.

When Kasumi returned, she was followed by a man who appeared to be about 25. Kasumi said, “Mr. Saotome, this man says he is the son of your sister. His name is Saotome Satoshi.”

Genma looked puzzled for a moment before frowning. “Satoshi? Timiko’s bastard?”

“Genma! What a horrible thing to say.” Nodoka’s tone was one of reproof. “Satoshi was the name your sister gave her son.”

The young man stepped forward. He was of average height with black hair and brown eyes. He was well muscled and moved like a martial artist. He said, “Don’t worry about it Auntie Nodoka. I never expected more than barely civil treatment from my uncle. I’ve learned that from the way he was with mom.”

In scornful tones, Genma said, “If he was even really a Saotome, I might be more polite.”

The young man replied, “It’s not my fault that my father was a rapist. I didn’t ask to be born.”

“Humph!”

The young man bowed and said, “I as said, I am Saotome Satoshi son of Saotome Timiko. I have the misfortune to be related to the ill mannered fellow there. I am guessing that the gentleman with the moustache is Tendo Soun, the owner of this house. Am I correct?”

Soun stood and bowed. “Yes, I am Tendo Soun. These are my daughters, Kasumi, Nabiki and Akane.” As he said each name the named girl bowed her head.

Satoshi bowed to each in turn. He turned back to the head of the household and remarked, “You are truly blessed to have three such lovely daughters.”

Kasumi thought to herself, “He’s nice.”

“What brings you to Nerima?” Soun inquired.

The young man replied, “My mom asked that after I finished my mission of vengeance, I look up my family and let them know what was going on.”

“Mission of vengeance? Who were you getting revenge on?”

Satoshi took a moment to look the speaker up and down. At first there was no recognition. The expression changed to one of speculation as he asked, “Are you Ranma?”

Ranma looked surprised to be asked. “Who else would I be?”

Toshi laughed and replied, “You need to realize, the last time I saw you was when you were only two years old. You probably don’t remember.”

Looking puzzled, Ranma thought. “Your face looks familiar. I’m sorry I can’t remember you any better than that.”

“That’s Ok. At the time I was only five myself. I remember you more from pictures. You grew up a lot since then. With Genma as your father I’m sure you’re a martial artist.”

Ranma nodded. “I’m the heir to the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts.”

“Yeah… Anything Goes.” He momentarily had an expression as if he had just tasted some thing really bad. The expression didn’t stay. “To answer your question, I was not getting revenge for myself, but for my mom. The person who was the target of that vengeance was my father.”

“Father,” blurted out Genma. “Timiko never told me who he was.”

“The only reason I haven’t sworn revenge on you and your friend, Mr. Tendo, is that he who sired me controlled you and erased your memory of the event.”

Soun was confused. “What have we done that you would want revenge?”

Satoshi shook his head. “You watched as that bastard raped my mother. Mom told me you were paralyzed and not able to help her, but she’s still bitter about it.”

In a gentle tone Nodoka asked, “Who was your father.”

The young man took a deep breath. “Over the centuries he has been known by many names. The one he has used most often and the one you knew him by was Happosai.”

Everyone rocked back in their seats at that pronouncement. The most violent reaction was from the older men in the room.

Soun was pale and looked a little sick. He said, “I can remember it now. The Master wanted to demonstrate his power. He wanted us to swear total obedience to him and to agree to follow the path of perversion that he taught. He used pressure points to paralyze us. We were awake and able to see, but unable to move. We were powerless to interfere.”

Genma continued. “My sister… He raped her… slowly, over and over. He used some other kind of pressure point on her. It stole her will, made her compliant to him. She couldn’t resist.”

Silence followed. Kasumi finally said, “This is obviously a highly emotional issue. Why don’t we all sit down and try to calm ourselves. I’ll make tea for all of us.”

As everyone sat back and Kasumi went to the kitchen, Nodoka said, “The timing of your arrival is an amazing coincidence. We were talking about this very issue. Specifically about Soun letting that… person live in this house.”

Toshi’s eyes went wide and he looked around. He closed his eyes a moment. When he opened his eyes he said, “Now that you have said it I was able to identify the evil taint I detected. Normally I would get angry and demand to know how you could allow such a creature to live near young women. I can see he still had control over you even after so much time.”

He leaned forward and massaged the bridge of his nose as if suffering from a headache. “I will have to examine the ki of every woman in the house to see if Happosai molested them and erased the memory.”

“NO!” Soun shouted. “He wouldn’t! He promised he’d never bother any of my children.”

The young man sighed again. “And there it is, the price for your cooperation. I doubt if someone like him cares enough about honor to keep a promise. Still, he would know that if he broke the promise and you found out, it would make trouble for him. He would likely abide by the promise as a matter of expedience if he wasn’t desperate for a female energy ‘fix.’”

Nabiki was having trouble wrapping her mind around this. “Are you saying that the old man could have raped one or more of us without us having any memory of it?”

With a grim expression the young man nodded. “His normal pattern is to only erase the memory of what he looks like. This leaves the victim aware she was raped but unable to identify her attacker. If he did anything to you girls he would have been more thorough in his memory erasure to prevent Mr. Tendo from finding out.”

Ranma hesitantly said, “If you’re checking their ki for possible rapes, you’d better check me too.”

Toshi raised one eyebrow in a quizzical expression.

The pigtailed boy grabbed a glass of water and splashed himself, turning into a girl. At this Toshi’s other eyebrow went up and his eyes went wide. “You have a Jusenkyo curse?”

“You’ve heard of the place?”

Toshi laughed. “You could say that.” Suddenly where an average sized young man had been sitting was a girl with pale blue hair. She was the same height as her male form. She was quite pretty.

Ranma-Chan boggled. “How did you do that without water?”

“I’m a sorcerer,” the blue haired girl said. “After I got cursed I found the whole water magnet thing to be such an annoyance that I looked for a way to change the trigger. I can change at will now. I can’t cure you, but I could change your trigger too. It took a lot of work to find the way for me to do it, but now that I know how, it should be fairly easy for someone else.”

Ranma shook her head. “I don’t want a cure anyway. I would like to stop being a water magnet.”

The sorceress looked surprised. “You are the first Jusenkyo curse victim I’ve met who didn’t want a cure.”

The redhead shrugged. “I’m comfortable with the curse now. I like both my forms.”

Toshi nodded. “I’ll check the women out later. I want to finish my story first.”

He took a deep breath. “The creature you called Happosai wasn’t human and hadn’t been for a long time. In his youth there was a real Happosai who was a good man and a brave fighter. He fought against an evil wizard and lost. The punishment inflicted by the wizard was a terrible one indeed.”

“His body was changed to an undead creature and a demon spirit was allowed to possess it. For more than two centuries he was a prisoner in his own body while witnessing himself committing unspeakable acts. It was a terrible torture for a man of high morals and principals to endure.”

Everyone boggled at that. The concept of the words “high morals” and “principles” being applied to Happosai seemed beyond belief.

“After a time of this the spirit of the original man gave in to despair. It didn’t actually die but totally withdrew and was as good as dead. It retreated beyond recovery. It would have been better if it had fully died for that would have rendered the demon spirit unable to use ki.”

He paused. “From the looks on your faces you are wondering if was necessary to kill him. You wonder if his spirit could have been rescued, freed from the possessing demon. After all that time the only freedom he could have was death. If his soul could have been put back in control of his body it would have been a drooling idiot if old age didn’t kill him without the demon to maintain the unnatural longevity. Believe me, killing him was a mercy.”

“When mother was pregnant with me she was troubled by an apparent ‘hole’ in her memory. She went to a local priest. That priest wasn’t able to restore her memories but was able to recognize the fact that magic had been used. He sent her to a sorcerer he knew of. That sorcerer was able to break the spell that clouded my mom’s memories.”

“At first Mom hated me and what I represented. She told me she contemplated getting an abortion to be rid of me. That same priest I mentioned talked her out of it. He pointed out that even given who my father was and how I came to be conceived, it was not my fault.”

“I guess at that point my mom made a decision. She not only let me live to be born, she was going to make me the instrument of her revenge on the monster. She contacted martial arts masters to train me and sorcerers, mages and wizards to teach me their Arts. She reasoned that martial arts alone wouldn’t be enough, nor would magic alone. Only someone who could combine both would be able to defeat the little monster.”

The listeners nodded, agreeing that this was probably the best course.

“Mother was pleased when you trapped Happosai in the cave, but she was not content to leave it at that. She figured that he would eventually escape. My training continued and even intensified. For the last two years I have been traveling in other planes of existence. I wasn’t in this world when the monster escaped from the cave. If I had been here I might have been able to prevent the deaths of those two girls. I don’t think I was ready then to take the creep out but I know I could have saved the girls.”

“Some of the other planes have different time flows and that is why I look like I’m older than I should. By the date on the calendar I should be only 20 years old, but with all that I’ve lived through I am actually 30 years old and look 25.”

“As to how I got the girl curse, that came about as part of a fight against an evil wizard. He was strong but not strong enough to beat me. He sent a minion to Jusenkyo to get curse water, telling him he wanted to ‘turn the boy into a bitch.’ The man wasn’t terribly bright. Instead of getting water from the pool of drowned dog, he got water from the pool of drowned girl.”

Ranma said, “So instead of turning you into a dog…”

“He turned me into a girl,” the sorcerer completed. “I was one seriously pissed off, wet sorceress. Some of my spells are more powerful when cast by a girl. Using that power boost, I was able to beat him. Word of advice, Ranma – Unless you have strong magic of your own, never get a sorceress mad at you. It’s only slightly less dangerous than getting a goddess mad at you.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Toshi chuckled softly before continuing. “When my senseis felt I was ready, I went after he who sired me. I was able to lure him using my female form. It was when he was glomped onto me that I changed back to male. I cast a spell that completely drained him of all ki and rendered him dormant.”

“I then used an enchanted blade to cut out his heart and placed the heart in a spell circle. I poured gasoline on it and burned his heart.”

“Why so elaborate?” Nodoka was curious.

Toshi explained, “If the heart had been put back in the body he could have come back to life. The spell circle assured that all energy was purged from the heart and it could never be reconstituted. Even now an evil sorcerer could fashion a substitute for the heart and still bring him back.”

“Why would anyone do such a thing?” Soun looked shaken.

“A sorcerer might believe the old freak had knowledge that could still be useful. That may even be true, but I don’t care. I would have burned the body if I had time but the police were coming and I had to leave.”

“What will you do?” Akane was the one to ask this time.

“I will wait until the police are done with the body. If they don’t cremate it, I’ll steal the body and burn it myself. If they do cremate I’ll swap out the ashes for those of a dead pig I got from a meat market. I can then cast the proper spells on the ashes to forever banish the demon spirit from this plane. When I do that then Happosai’s human soul will be freed to go on to the afterlife.”

He shook himself and took a sip from the tea that Kasumi had put in front of him. The rest sat for a time and just thought about what they had heard. Finally the gathering broke up with the fathers going back to the Shogi table. Nodoka and Kasumi went to the kitchen while Nabiki went to her room. Ranma and Akane stayed in the living room with Toshi.

Toshi stood and walked over to Ranma. Ranma sat on the couch and Toshi held her hands in front of the red haired girl. After a while she said, “I find no taint of Happosai on your ki. Who ever you had sex with, it wasn’t him. I can also find no trace of any spells or ki manipulations that would cause a memory erasure. I do find a lot of magic”

Ranma frowned. “What are you talking about?”

The sorceress elaborated, “The most obvious is the Jusenkyo curse. I also noticed that your male and female energies are the most balanced of anyone I’ve ever read.”

Ranma considered that for a moment, then requested, “Could you explain that?”

From nowhere Toshi produced a sketchbook. He flipped it open and took a pencil to draw a symbol of two teardrop shapes with the tail of each curled around the head of the other and shaded one of the shapes. “Everybody has seen this symbol but not everyone knows what it means.”

Akane was looking on and said, “That’s the symbol for Yin and Yang, right?”

Thinking about it, Ranma answered, “It’s supposed to symbolize the male and female in everyone. I’m not sure what it means beyond that, though.”

“It is also used to symbolize other opposites like positive and negative, creative and destructive. Yin or female is often thought of as creative because it is the woman who creates new life in her body. Yang, or male, is thought of as destructive because the male is most often the fighter. Most people have elements of both in their personalities. That’s why a macho tough guy can still be a loving husband and caring father.”

Ranma supplied, “And a loving mother can fight fiercely to defend her children.”

Toshi nodded in acknowledgement. “With most people, even Jusenkyo sex-change curse victims they are mostly one or the other with those elements needed to make a better balanced person. Your aura is almost perfectly balanced between male and female energies although you are just slightly more on the female side at the moment. I suspect that’s only because you are in female form right now. The edge would probably be on the male side when you’re in your other form.”

Seeing the puzzled looks, Toshi drew a couple bars on the page of the sketchpad and shaded them with the shaded portions being close to half the length but one being slightly over half and the other being slightly less. He said, “Think of this like a video game where these are your life energy and magic bars. The difference here is that one is your male energy and the other your female. An additional difference is that when one goes up, the other goes down.”

Ranma nodded.

“For someone with your kind of Ki signature I can understand why you would say you like both of your forms. Even if you don’t want to get rid of the curse, there are ways to make it easier to live with.”

“Like what?”

Toshi explained, “I notice your female form is quite a bit smaller than your male form. Can you still effectively do your martial arts in that form?”

Ranma glared a little. “I’m not as strong in this form and my reach is shorter. I’m a lot faster in this form, so there are compensations.”

The sorcerer nodded. “How would you like your female form to be as tall as your male form?”

“You could do that?”

The blue haired woman nodded. “Since I got my own curse I did a lot of study on Jusenkyo curses. I know a lot about them now. I’ll bet you believe there are 109 separate curses – one for each spring, right?”

Ranma and Akane both nodded.

“Actually that isn’t true,” the sorcerer announced. “Since the water in all of those springs comes from a single magical source it is the same curse in all of the springs. It is a body switching or body modification curse.”

“Huh? But what about all of the animals and people who drowned there?”

“It’s still the same curse,” Toshi repeated. “What those people and creatures did was to provide a template or pattern for the change. You also probably didn’t know that the creature doesn’t have to drown to leave a pattern on a pool.”

Ranma interjected, “Actually we do know that something doesn’t always have to die.”

Surprised, Toshi asked, “How did you find that out?”

Ranma told the story. “When we were fighting the phoenix people, captain Kiima threw Akane into a pool that didn’t have a curse, or I guess you’d say it didn’t have a template. She almost drowned but was pulled out before she died. Then Kiima used the curse to make herself into a copy of Akane to deceive us.”

The sorcerer’s eyes got wide. “You mean there is a spring of Drowned Akane now?”

“The guide told us that it isn’t there any more.”

She shook herself. “To get back to what I was saying, about templates. They can be very general or very specific. The one based on Akane would be very specific and include looks and hair color and style. The template for Ranma’s curse is more general. His… her template mostly just specified human and female and I think young. There are a few other small details that help you adapt, but that’s about it. Basically your own body supplies the rest. ”

“Then where did the red hair come from?”

Toshi glanced over at his aunt. “Since Auntie Nodoka is a redhead, I’m guessing you had the gene for it in you already. Basically you look like you would have if you had been born a girl.”

“I couldn’t be a tall girl?” Ranma grumbled.

“I was able to learn something else about the curse. It won’t let you change the template to look like your birth form, but it will let you change it in other ways. Basically the curse doesn’t care what you change into as long as it is different from your birth form.”

“Wait. Are you saying you could make my girl form taller?”

“Yeah, that wouldn’t be hard,” confirmed Toshi. “It’s just a matter of adding a few more details to the template. I’m sure you must have wondered where the extra body mass goes to when you change from your male form to this smaller body.”

“Of course I wondered,” Ranma affirmed. “I didn’t think too seriously about it, though. I figured it was magic and I’d probably never understand the answer.”

The sorcerer smiled. “It’s not that difficult. Are you familiar with the Hidden Weapons technique?”

“Sure, I know a guy from China who is a master of the technique. You use your ki to create an invisible pocket ”

The man nodded. “Actually the full explanation for that is much more complicated, but what you said will do for now. When you changed into a smaller form the first time the curse magic created a similar pocket for the extra mass to be stored in. A pocket is also created when the curse form is larger than the birth form. That pocket is permanent and doesn’t draw on your ki to maintain it. Mana in the environment keeps it open.”

Looking confused, Ranma commented, “This is interesting but what does this have to do with making me taller in my girl form?”

“Just this. I can change the template so that none of your body mass gets stored, just moved around. You would stay about the same height. At the same time you would still keep the pocket and I can teach you how to use that to keep other stuff in it like your Chinese friend does.”

“Humph,” said Ranma. “I wouldn’t exactly call him a friend. It would be sort of cool, though. I wouldn’t think that it would be a pocket big enough to keep much.”

“Not at first,” Toshi conceded. “Once you learn how to access it, you can work on expanding it.”

A thought occurred to the red haired girl. “Can you change a template from an animal to a human?”

“I can’t change it to match the birth form, the curse itself wouldn’t allow it. Who did you have in mind to change?”

Ranma pointed at Genma. “Pop changes into a panda. Since you can’t cure him could you change the template so he changes into some other kind of human?”

The sorcerer looked thoughtful. “I’d need a template to copy from. The only human transformation template we have readily available is yours. If I had access to Jusenkyo I could use the template from the spring of drowned Virtuous Man or spring of Drowned Raging Hentai.”

Ranma contemplated that. “I would love if we could change his curse to Virtuous Man. If the girl template is all you have to work with, he might still be willing. I know he tried some Instant Nyaniichuan and didn’t seem to mind it too much. I think all of us would like to see the panda gone forever.”

Akane nodded.

After a bit more thought Ranma said, “I know someone else who has a curse to turn into an animal. Maybe he would be interested.”

Ranma’s fiancé looked confused. “Did you mean Taro?”

“If we do this right she’d never have to find out Ryoga was P-Chan.” Out loud she said, “He might be interested.”

“You can ask him. He probably won’t be happy when he hears Happosai is dead.”

It was Toshi’s turn to be confused. “Why would anyone be unhappy to hear that the old freak is dead?”

With a sigh Ranma told a greatly condensed version of the story. “Happosai was present for this guy’s birth. He gave the boy a ridiculous name and by the laws of his tribe, only Happosai can change it again.”

“What was the name?”

“Pantyhose Taro.”

Toshi snickered then smoothed his features with an effort. “With the old man’s obsession with ladies’ underwear I guess that’s not surprising. What does he turn into?”

“He fell into the spring of a yeti riding a bull holding an eel with a crane. He later fell into the spring of drowned octopus and that got added to his earlier curse.”

“Oh, that’s a rough one. Since the first template was already a composite the second one just added to the first. If it had been a template for a single creature it would have switched.”

“Would that be a problem?”

“I don’t think so. I’d be switching out a complicated template for a simple one.”

The sorcerer flipped the page of his sketch book and began to rapidly draw. After a moment he turned the book and displayed the drawing. “Would you call this a good likeness of your face and head in female form?”

The picture was a little small, so it was obviously not intended as a portrait. The quality of the drawing was excellent. Ranma and Akane both agreed that it was a good likeness.

Toshi formed an image in his mind then set about putting it down on paper. His pencil moved quickly and he seldom needed to use the eraser. When he turned the book around Ranma and Akane looked at the drawing. While the head was still Ranma-chan, the bikini-clad body looked longer and leaner and more muscular. Visible in the drawing were well developed deltoids, biceps, and triceps. The figure in the drawing had ‘6 pack’ abs, muscular butt and powerful looking legs.

The black haired girl said, “You’re a good artist. You could draw manga.”

The young sorcerer smiled. “Now that I’m out of the revenge business, maybe I’ll look into that as a job for the future.”

Ranma commented, “This looks like a girl super hero with my face. Are you saying that I can look like this?”

“Yes. This way I could use all of the mass and musculature of your male body in the female one. Besides, you’d look really hot like this.”

Both Ranma and Akane looked at him inquisitively. “Uh… Did I say that out loud?”

Both Ranma and Akane nodded.

“I, uh… have a confession. I’ve always kind of had a thing for buff looking women.”

Ranma gave her cousin an appraising look. The influence of the Family Stone made her willing to get intimate with family members. Since this was a cousin, that would still apply.

She decided to put that aside for the moment. She asked Akane, “How would you feel about being male and having sex with me in that body?”

Akane looked thoughtful. “I’d have to try it first before I could say.. Toshi is right that you would look really hot. I’d like to try it.”

Ranma nodded and said, “You said something about more magic.”

“Oh, right. I saw something in your aura that I think is the Nekoken.”

The redhead’s expression darkened. “Yeah, you read it right.”

“How did that happen?”

Ranma directed a glare at her father. “Baka Oyaji got hold of a book that told about this invincible martial arts technique. It wasn’t until after it had gone wrong that he read the warnings at the end of the book.”

“If he would do that to a child he really is a baka.”

Akane asked, “Do you know some magic that could cure him of that problem. He can’t hardly be around cats at all or he goes crazy.”

“I’ll have to study up on it. I may know a way, but I won’t know for sure until I can look in my books.”

“What else?”

“From what you’ve said, I get the impression that you have lots of weird stuff happening in your life.”

Ranma rolled her eyes. “You could say that.”

“There is a curse on you that makes you a chaos attractor. It’s kind of like the old Chinese curse that goes, ‘May you live in interesting times.’ This curse attracts weird things and situations to you like the Jusenkyo curse attracts water.”

The redhead nodded. “That had to have been on me for a long time. Weird stuff has been happening to me as long as I could remember.”

“I’ve seen magic like this before, but never as strong as this. I’d have to study on this one too before I could even attempt to modify or remove it. If I tried to do anything to it now, I could make it worse and worse could get you killed.”

“Anything else?”

The sorcerer looked embarrassed. “Maybe I should wait until I can talk to you in private.”

Ranma glanced at Akane who shrugged. “Akane is my fiancé. You can talk in front of her.”

He looked over at the black haired girl for a moment. “I found what looks like sex magic on you. It appears to be recent.”

“Oh, that’s the Family Stone.”

The sorcerer frowned for a moment. “That sounds familiar. What does it do?”

“It increases libido and decreases inhibitions. Everybody in the house has been exposed.”

The sorceress looked around at the people in the room. “Everyone in the house? What… kind… of inhibitions are we talking about?”

“The ones against incest.”

The sorceress eyed her cousin nervously.

Ranma had to laugh. “Relax, cousin. I’m not going to try and seduce you. At least, not if you don’t want me to. Maybe you’ll be more interested if you can get me looking like that drawing.”

“Uh…”

Akane slapped her fiance’s arm. “Stop teasing her. She’s being nice by offering to help you with your problems.”

“I’m just joking with you, Toshi.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Ranma shook her head. “For someone who’s 30 years old, you’re pretty shy.”

The blue haired woman confessed, “I spent almost all of that time training or in magic study. I didn’t have a lot to time to interact with people other than teachers and enemies. I’m not always comfortable in social situations.”

The redhead nodded. “I spent ten years traveling with my pop as my only companion for most of it. I’m getting over my shyness with the help of mom, Akane and her sisters.”

Akane spoke up, “Maybe you should check my ki now.”

“Oh, right.” The blue haired girl stood again and examined Akane.

“Your aura is clean. You have not been molested by Happosai.” She didn’t comment on all of the other sexual activity she detected in Akane’s aura.

After she finished that Nabiki came by. She had not been able to concentrate on anything when she had gone off to her room so she came back down to get her ki scanned. The whole discussion earlier had upset her more than she would have liked to admit. The knowledge of what had been sharing her home had been deeply disturbing.

When she was informed that she had not been molested without her knowledge the mercenary girl was infinitely relieved. With her mind more at ease she went back to her room to do some homework.

Since the process was not time consuming, Kasumi came next and was given the reassurance that she had not been raped by Happosai. Nodoka had not been hanging around the house enough that she felt she should be a candidate for being assaulted by Happosai, but she felt that it would be better for her peace of mind to be scanned.

When Toshi scanned Nodoka his expression became serious. When she saw the expression she asked, “What’s wrong? I haven’t been around this house much. The old gnome hasn’t had much chance at me.”

Toshi drew her aside and told her, “I don’t see any trace that you have been molested by him recently. I do find evidence of some manipulations done to your ki several years ago. It looks to me like your memory has been altered or partially erased. It was too long ago for there to be any identifiable trace of who did it.”

Looking alarmed the Saotome mother asked, “What was done to me?”

The blue haired girl said, “Give me a moment.” From seemingly nowhere she produced a scroll and unrolled a portion of it to look at. Visible to those looking over her shoulder were charts of pressure points.

Toshi was frowning at what she was reading. Finally she said, “I double checked. The ki manipulation done on you would have rendered you infertile.”

“Infertile? You mean the reason I was unable to have a second child after Ranma was something that someone did to me? Somebody deliberately made me unable to have another child?”

“That’s what it looks like.”

“When was this done?”

The blue haired sorceress looked at the scroll again then seemed to be doing a calculation in her head. “I can’t say for sure but I’d have to guess it was right after Ranma was born. Just about 17 years ago.”

“Why would anyone do such a thing to me?”

“Auntie, I’m sorry. The simplest explanation would be that someone didn’t want you getting pregnant.”

“But Genma always said he wanted a big family. He was terribly disappointed when he was told that I couldn’t have any more children. It was when he was told that that Ranma was going to be our only child that he came up with the idea of the training trip. He was pinning all his hopes for the future of the school on Ranma.”

Still peering at the scroll, Toshi said, “There would be a side effect to this. If this was left in place for several years you would likely lose interest in sex. Did that happen to you?”

Nodoka’s eyes went wide. “Yes, that did happen. Once or twice a year I had periods when it came back but they never lasted more than a day or two. That is, until the Family Stone. As things are now I may be a little too interested in sex.”

“Hmm,” said the sorceress. “Most of the magic I’ve studied was for fighting. I’ll have to study up on it, but I may be able to get everyone’s libido back to more normal levels.”

“Could you make me able to have children again?”

“Uh… Maybe. I’m reluctant to mess around in there. That is an area of the body that I’ve had little interest in working with before and know almost nothing about it. If I try to mess with things in that part of your body I could end up hurting you badly or even killing you. I’m not willing to take the risk.”

Nodoka’s face fell.

Toshi put a hand on Nodoka’s shoulder. “I’m sorry if this sounds insensitive, but are you sure you still want to have children after all this time?”

The auburn haired woman looked at her (currently) female son and blushed. “Yes, if I could, I would like to have another child or even more than one.”

“I’ll check my books, but I’m not going to make any promises on that. I should say that you shouldn’t give up all hope. Since losing interest in sex was a side effect, the magic that reversed it may also erode the main effect. You could get fertile on your own from having been exposed to that magic stone.”

“How sure of that are you?”

“Not very sure. I would suggest that I do another reading on you in a few months to see if I can see any unraveling of the effect.”

“Could you at least undo the memory block so I could remember who did this to me?”

“Yes, I can do that. I would warn you that they may be painful memories.”

“If someone was doing something to me against my will, I want to know who and what.”

Before they could proceed Kasumi stepped out of the kitchen carrying dishes of food. She announced, “Dinner is ready. You will be staying to eat with us, won’t you Toshi?”

“Why thank you, Kasumi-san. I’d like that.”

Ranma confidentially told her cousin, “The only person I know who can cook better than Kasumi is my Mom.”

Toshi told Nodoka, “Let’s find a quiet spot after dinner and I can give you the treatment to restore your memory.”

Everyone was very subdued during the meal. They all had much to think about and didn’t feel comfortable talking about it. There were still a number of glares that the females at the table directed toward the only two men currently in the house.

After the meal Toshi went with Nodoka into Kasumi’s bedroom where they could have privacy. While they were doing whatever they were doing the rest of the people in the house began pairing off and getting affectionate. (They did still have increased libidos from their exposure to the Family Stone.)

“ARRGH!” The sound from Kasumi’s room was not a scream so much as it was an inarticulate shout of rage. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked toward the stairs when Nodoka made an appearance. She stalked down the stairs holding the katana with her hand on the hilt. She was gripping it so hard her knuckles were white.

When she got down the stairs she stalked over to stand in front of Genma, who had been fondling Kasumi in his lap. When she saw the look on Nodoka’s face, Kasumi got up and moved away.

The Saotome matriarch spoke in a tightly controlled voice. “In all of the commotion over that perverted gnome’s death, I was distracted from my original purpose in coming here tonight. If you wish to keep your head attached to your body, I recommend you listen and don’t argue.”

The bald martial artist swallowed nervously. He didn’t think he had ever seen his wife this angry before.

“Genma, I am divorcing you. I am taking custody of Ranma. You will have no further say in his life. I will not have him living with you where you might have any influence on him.”

The elder Saotome male looked like he wanted to speak but the partial drawing of the katana silenced him. When he closed his mouth, Nodoka thrust the sword back into the scabbard with a click.

Nodoka turned to Soun who had been seated while Nabiki was sucking him. Under the force of her glare his erection deflated.

The woman told him, “I cannot tell you how to run your household and I know you feel a strong bond of friendship with my former husband from the mutual hardships you endured under the training of the perverted gnome. I still strongly recommend that you throw this piece of human trash out of your home and never have anything further to do with him.”

Soun’s expression was one of utter astonishment.

The Saotome mother turned and said, “Ranma, go get your backpack. Pack enough in it for a few days. You can come back for the rest of your belongings later. For as long as this… panda… remains living in this house I don’t want you staying here. More of his manners and attitudes might start rubbing off on you if you stay.”

Ranma opened his mouth to ask what was going on, but the expression on his mother’s face left no room for argument. He stood and headed up the stairs.

Nodoka turned back to the Tendo parent and said, “Soun, if you would be so kind, would you get those marriage papers you mentioned and bring them here. I’d like you to give them to Akane so she and Ranma can sign them as soon as they feel ready. Considering some of the topics of conversation lately, I wouldn’t imagine it would be long.”

To Akane she said, “I invite you to stay at my house tonight. If you do sign the marriage papers the two of you will be welcome to stay for as long as you want. There is plenty of room for the three of us. I expect that when you start having children the house will likely be too small and you’ll want something bigger.”

When her father handed her the papers she stuffed them into her book bag. Then she went up the stairs to pack an overnight bag.

Toshi had come downstairs and Nodoka now addressed herself to the sorceress. “I would imagine you are probably staying at a hotel right now. You are welcome to come stay at my house for at while.”

The blue haired girl bowed and said, “I thank you for the kind offer, Auntie. However, I will have to decline for the present. I do not wish to intrude into your home and I have some spells to research anyway. May I take a rain check on that offer?”

“Of course.”

Ranma and Akane were back down the stairs in a few minutes. They left together with Toshi. She parted with them after only a few blocks to go to her hotel. As they walked Nodoka still held a tight grip on her katana. Ranma and Akane decided that it would be for the best if they didn’t question her yet.

When they finally got back to the Saotome home they went to the living room where they Nodoka went to sit on the couch. Ranma dropped his pack on the floor and went to sit beside his mother. He put his arm around her to try and comfort her. Akane moved to sit on her other side and put an arm around her as well.

Ranma asked, “It must have been pretty horrible for you to react this way. Do you feel like talking about it yet?”

“I don’t feel like talking about it, but I think I must. It took every bit of control I possess to not kill Genma. I don’t want to get that close to losing control again.”

“What do you remember?”

“For a period of two years after you were born, that perverted gnome was in my bed more often than my husband. He used magic and pressure points to suppress my memories of it. He used the pressure point technique that Toshi spoke of to make sure that I didn’t get pregnant. But that wasn’t the worst.”

Ranma kept silent. He could wait until his mother found the words.

“Once a week he drained me. While he was ravishing me he drained my bodily energy. When he finished I was so weak that I literally couldn’t lift a finger. And while he was doing that Genma watched and actually cheered him on and yelled encouragements like, ‘Fuck that bitch good.’ Happosai used some kind of mind control on me so I couldn’t resist him. If that little freak wasn’t dead now I would kill him slowly.”

“I don’t care what kind of control or hold the freak may have had over Genma, I can never forgive what he allowed to happen to me. I can remember now feeling certain that I was going to die every time I was drained. I wanted to die to end the humiliation and torment, but they wouldn’t let me die. I had to stay alive to care for you.”

“They only stopped because they said they had more training that they couldn’t do in the city. When I heard that Genma and Soun had sealed the little monster in the cave I thought we were free and could lead a more normal life. That was when Genma told me that because I couldn’t have more children, he was going to take the one child we did have to train on the road. I refused to let him take you, but he took you anyway. He left behind that contract. I never asked for it.”

“I swear if I had these memories I would have taken you back the moment I met you again. I wouldn’t have left you under that man’s control. I would have spent every yen I had to track you and get you back from him. I would never have let you endure the tortures that man subjected you to in the name of martial arts training. I would certainly never have suggested you go to him as a sex partner.”

Nodoka fell silent. Ranma finally asked, “Do you think Pops remembers any of that?”

The older woman shook her head. “Probably not, but it doesn’t matter if he does or not. What matters is that he didn’t try to stop that monster, didn’t even say a word against it. He just watched and called out encouragements. I’d say it is a testament to his lack of character.”

After some thought Ranma said, “Maybe it would be better if Toshi didn’t change Pop’s curse template to a woman.”

“No! Toshi must change it. I’m hoping I could talk Toshi into locking Genma permanently into the form of a woman. Then he’d never be able to use that panda form to hide in plain sight. He’d not be able to use it to have sex as a man with a human woman. Being locked into the form of a woman would be a fitting punishment for someone with his attitude toward women.”

The pigtailed martial artist nodded. “I can’t argue with that.”

He paused before saying. “This is such a mess. Considering what I now know about the founder of the Anything Goes School I’m not sure I want to continue as the heir. Maybe I could create my own school that was free from any taint of that demonic pervert.”

“Perhaps that would be for the best,” mused Nodoka.

Akane protested, “That would get my father crying about the joining of the schools again.”

Nodoka turned to the youngest Tendo daughter. “Unlike my former husband your father is not a basically bad man, but he is weak. The fact that he retreated from the world after your mother’s death is proof of that. He should have taken up the parental responsibilities of his late wife or he should have remarried so his new wife could have taken over those responsibilities instead. What he did do was shirk his parental duties and left you girls to raise yourselves. You would be better off free of him. Your sisters would be better of leaving him as well.”

Akane sat with bowed head and a somber expression on her face. “I understand what you are saying and I can even agree with it to a degree. As Ranma’s wife I’d be moving out anyway and Nabiki will be moving out to attend University at the end of the school term. I don’t know if Kasumi could be persuaded to leave. She’s played the housewife for so long, I don’t know if she could break herself away from it now.”

Ranma put in, “Now that the Family Stone has had done it’s work, Kasumi is more like a real wife, even to taking care of Soun’s sexual needs. Thanks to that magic I can’t see that as a bad thing in itself but I worry that it might also involve her servicing my perverted father as well.”

Nodoka’s face changed from its angry scowl to an evil grin. “If we could talk Toshi to using his magic to change Genma’s curse template to a woman and then locking her that way, my former husband could be the one to ‘service’ Soun.”

The pigtailed martial artist grinned as well. “As you’ve told me, ‘You have the most delicious ideas,’ Mom. Those two deserve each other.”

The youngest Tendo took that in and said, “Maybe if that happened, Kasumi might be persuaded to leave. After all, daddy wouldn’t be alone.”

Ranma asked, “Do you think we could talk cousin Toshi into doing that?”

The Saotome mother said, “I think we should have a chat with him tomorrow. I think if we tell him what Genma has done to Ranma and me, he might be willing to do something to punish Genma.”


Author’s Notes: I originally wrote one, much bigger, chapter but broke it into two chapters. I’m hoping that these chapters will sufficiently tie up loose ends and yet still leave an opening for a sequel. I know this started out as a hentai and is ending as something else. I hope I don’t completely lose my audience.

If anyone wants to do fan art based on this chapter, the image I would most like to see is a reproduction of that drawing of ‘buff looking Ranma-Chan’ that I described. Obviously any other art anyone feels like drawing would be appreciated.