On Her Own, part 4

A beautiful day was dawning in the village. Sakura was already up, and wanted her mom to get up too. "Papa-mamma, please get up! It is time for our morning workout."

"Yes, dear, it IS time." Ranko replied, smiling at her daughter. "Let's get ready."

Ranko changed into her typical outfit; her daughter was dressed identically, of course. "Are you ready, Sakura?"

"Yes, mom! Let's go to the front yard and work out!" She hurried to assume her position on the gravel yard in front of the house.

"Okay!" Ranko replied, following her daughter.

=======

Nodoka lead the procession to her son's house. It had been over thirteen years. They arrived at the appropriate address, and saw two identically dressed girls performing an identical kata. One was a short young woman in her late teens, and the other was a small child, probably about five. The older girl had red hair and the younger pink. Both wore their hair in ponytails. "Excuse me," Nodoka asked in Japanese "do you know where Saotome Ranko lives?"

Ranko stopped her kata. A woman was asking her in Japanese, of all languages, where Saotome Ranko lived.

Sakura beat her mom to the punch, responding in her adopted tongue. "Papa-mamma is Saotome Ranko! I am Saotome Sakura!" The youngster enthused, finishing with a bow. Turning to the black-haired girl, she offered her the same twinkle that entranced her mother. "You're pretty."

This caused her mother to blush slightly, then ask, "My daughter isn't shy, Miss?"

"Tendou Akane," the girl responded, the glanced at the child with a wide smile, "Thanks Sakura-chan!"

Turing from Akane and her daughter, Ranko then looked at the older woman with a shocked expression. Was this the woman who haunted her dreams?

Nodoka wondered who papa-mama was. She looked at the teenager, noticing how much this small girl's face looked like her own. The mother continued to study the girl, seeing something in her eyes that was very familiar; her son had the same eyes. Unconsciously, she fingered her katana.

Ranko swallowed. This woman's stare was unsettling enough, but the threat of violence was unnerving.

Genma was similarly upset. As Nodoka touched her weapon, the Saotome Patriarch ran for the hills, his abrupt departure unnoticed by any save Ranko. Her father's presence confirmed suspicions about the woman's identity.

Nodoka still didn't have the answer she sought, "Why did you take my son's name?" Again she reached for the weapon on her back without conscious thought.

Ranko instinctively put herself between Sakura and the woman, assuming a ready stance, just in case. She had no doubt she could disarm... her mother, but her daughter was in danger. Glancing down at the girl, she offered a smiling suggestion, "Sakura, dear, please go inside. You can show Akane our home." Thinking for a moment, she looked up at her... mother. "Maybe we ALL should go inside."

Nodoka offered a stiff bow as Ranko continued, "UN-armed."

Anger crossed the Matriarch's brow for a second. She felt a gentle touch on her arm, accompanied by a whisper, "Auntie, let's do like she wants."

"Hai." Nodoka said as she removed her sword and handed it to Ranko.

Ranko took the sword with reverence, then motioned for her guests enter their home. There was something familiar about the weapon. Somehow a lot of half-forgotten memories were associated with it... memories that were becoming half-remembered after more than a decade of neglect. With a wistful smile, she followed her daughter and visitors into the small house.

Having put the tea on before she and Sakura began their workout, it was now ready for her guests. Ranko poured three cups, serving Nodoka and Akane, while keeping the third for herself.

Nodoka took the seat indicated by the redhead with Akane taking another. The spotless and orderly house impressed Mrs. Saotome. "You are an excellent housekeeper miss..."

Ranko sat down, her daughter hopping into her lap. "Like my daughter said, Saotome Ranko. I've gotta ask, why did pop run off? I would have liked to talk to him, too." Ranko's expression darkened. "He's got a lot to answer for!" Her eyes shimmered.

Akane looked troubled. She had expected Ranko to be a hero, or dead... not a girl.

Nodoka was now almost certain that this was, or at least had been, her son. She clenched both her fists and looked down in anger, frustration, and... sorrow. "When you were a child, your father had the two of you swear an oath that you would become a man among men, or both of you would commit seppuku."

"So you came here to KILL me? I hoped I could meet you again, that you would accept me... That you might love me." Her expression grew darker still as she averted her eyes. "Pop always said girls were weak. I knew he wouldn't want me anymore, but I hoped, you might..." Tears began to fall. "I lived for this day, Mother. I just..." All her dreams were ashes now. But dreams were for the children, not the parents.

Swallowing her tears of heartbreak, Ranko continued. "I got knocked into a spring where a girl drowned at Jusenkyo, so I got cursed to be a girl in cold water. Then I got taken to a fortress where these evil... men..." She spat. "Made my curse permanent, made me a girl. I managed to escape from them. Finally, I ended up here."

Nodoka's mind reeled. How could Genma have taken her son to so dangerous a place? And how could he abandon Ranko? At last she spoke, sadness permeating her voice. "We did not know your fate when we came to China, we just wanted to find our son... But there is the matter of the agreement you marked with your father." She withdrew from her kimono a bound document. Untying it, she presented it for Ranko's inspection.

Ranko wiped the tears from her face with one of her shirtsleeves. She then carefully read the paper. The document said if Ranko was not a 'man amongst men' at the end of his training, that he and his father would commit Seppuku. At the bottom, her father's seal and her... his... own handprint marked it. Ranko swallowed, then looked at Sakura, offering her daughter her hand. Both girls stood up and looked at Nodoka. "Mother, I will NOT kill myself. PERIOD!"

Sakura turned to her mother and began to cry. "Mommy, why would you kill yourself? I love you! Please don't do it, Mommy!" The child pleaded.

Ranko lifted her daughter and hugged her close, "Don't worry, little one. I'll stay with you," The young mother whispered. She looked into her own mother's eyes, with the searing gaze of any mother protecting her child. "Mrs. Saotome... If you wish your son dead, okay, he'll be dead. My daughter and I'll go to a place where we'll be loved and I'll be accepted." She couldn't keep a stray tear from falling as she continued. "A place I left just because I wanted to try to find... you. I'll let you decide what happens to 'Ranko', it's just a word, after all. We can figure out another one for me if you want 'Ranko' to die."

Nodoka answered, first with tears of her own. It was a full minute before she responded. "But the agreement... You promised to become a man amongst men... what of that? Is your honor so cheap that you will ignore the oath you swore?"

With each second the mother spoke, emotions seemed to drain from Ranko's face. Akane looked from mother to daughter, wishing there was something she could do, but couldn't think of anything.

Ranko thought for a long while before she spoke again. "Mrs. Saotome, I swore on my honor to raise my child. I did so as an adult. As a child, I marked that paper with a handprint. It was a game, nothing more. My honor requires me to raise my daughter, and I shall. But..." She paused for a few moments, her breaths ragged with the sobs she could barely keep under control. Finally, she continued, "My heart wants to be with you, but my child comes first." She closed her eyes before concluding, "I thought yours might too."

Nodoka thought about what the young woman had just said about honor and how it drove her. With tears of her own streaming, she knelt before Ranko, bowing as she spoke, "Forgive me, Ranko. I hope it is not too late to welcome you into my heart, daughter" She changed her position to sitting before continuing, "And granddaughter." She smiled at the child Ranko held. "Tell me about your daughter."

"She's the daughter of my friends who died a few months ago. Their dying wish was that I raise her as my own, and I am honored to do so. I had intended on returning to Japan to find... you, mother." Ranko stopped for a few moments then regained enough composure to continue. "But I knew that I couldn't attempt a trip like that without endangering Sakura. So I decided I should stay here until she grew up."

"If only your father had shown such wisdom." Nodoka had banished her tears, but they threatened to return. "I am just happy to see you, after all this time." Nodoka embraced her daughter. Both women shook as they shared tears filled at last with joy and love, though still touched with sadness and regret.

After a few minutes, Ranko let go of her mother and looked at Akane. "And why are you here, Miss Tendou?"

"Your father and mine promised to have ah... the... Saotome son marry one of the Tendou daughters. I thought all of the boys at school were jerks. But when I read in the paper what you did, all those people you rescued; I thought you might be a man, not a boy..." She began to cry.

"I couldn't save Sakura's parents... and I owed them my life! I could save only fifteen people, not the two I loved. It was a horrible day for me." Ranko looked thoughtful for a few moments. She spoke again. "Mother, you came expecting a son, but found me. Will you accept me?"

Nodoka did not hesitate. "I would love to have a daughter. There is so much you must learn."

Ranko held up her hand to protest, then put it down. She realized that she HAD walked the road she had tried to avoid, finding achievement, happiness, and a little girl who had become the center of her life.

Ranko turned to her mother, Pop trained me for ten years, I guess it's your turn."

Nodoka looked at her daughter with anticipation. "Do you wish to return to Japan?"

"I'd like to, but Sakura needs to decide." Ranko hugged her daughter, dreams alive again. She kissed the top of her head, the looked down at the child. "Sakura, would you like to live in Japan? My mom wants me to come home with her."

Sakura looked up at her new mother. "Yes, papa-mama, I would love to go to your home. You used to be so happy when you talked about Japan. But first, I must say goodbye to old mom and dad."

Ranko turned to her mother. "Before we go back to Japan, I need to visit some friends... to say goodbye. Would you please come with me?"

Nodoka smiled warmly. "Of course, dear."

Akane spoke up. "I'd love to see a bit of the country before we return to Japan, Ranko."

Ranko and Sakura spent the next hour saying goodbye to their many friends in the village, then packing their meager possessions.

Most of the time was spent in a rocky field, where Ranko and Sakura offered tearful good-byes to two people who gave them life.

=========

The trip back to Joketsuzoku was bittersweet for Ranko. In the city, she visited Mei-Lin and her 'niece'. The infant had a real talent for being cute and crawling into trouble...

"Just like 'Auntie-Ranko'", Nodoka mentioned with a bit of pain.

Ranko would miss seeing the little girl grow up, but promised to write Mei-Lin.

A bus ride north brought them near the farm where Ranko had spent her first winter. Grandmother and Grandfather had prospered after all the work Ranko had done to help them.

At each stop along the way, Nodoka and Akane were impressed by all Ranko had done. Akane actually began to wonder whether she actually could have some sort of relationship with another girl. But Ranko was more than just a girl or a boy... Still, her body was that of a girl, cute enough to make Akane a little jealous. Ranko might even be a girl for the rest of her life, and Akane's. The pretty redhead sure seemed happy, as a girl, and Ranko's daughter adored her mom. Was Akane really ready for a relationship like that?

Finally, they boarded one of a procession of rickety cars behind an ancient steam-powered locomotive on a trip to visit Ranko's second family, the Amazons of Joketsuzoku. The train slowly chugged through a mountainous region for a day and a half. In what seemed the middle of nowhere, Ranko pulled the cable to signal that they wanted out at the next stop. The train stopped a wilderness junction of rail and a faint trail. The four people got out. "It's about ten kilometers from here to the village. We'll meet my sister Shampoo there."

"Sister?" Nodoka looked at Ranko with surprise.

Ranko couldn't help but smile. "She twice save my life while in the village. When I left, I was accepted into the tribe and Shampoo was made my sister."

"You joined a tribe of natives? Why, Ranko?" Nodoka asked.

"They saved my life, mother. I would be dead, or worse if it wasn't for them. The least I could do was join their tribe, but I was honored to do so."

Nodoka responded. "I would like to meet the girl who save your life, Ranko."

"Let's get going, it's a bit of a hike!" Ranko said to get things moving. After about two hours of hiking, they crested a hill and saw the village. "This is where I came after I escaped from the Musk fortress. These people saved my life."

A guard came up to Ranko, bowed and spoke to her in Mandarin "Welcome back, teacher, who have you brought with you?"

Ranko replied "My mother, a friend of hers, and my adopted daughter. Could you get Shampoo?" The guard left.

"What did they ask, Ranko?" Akane asked after the guard left.

"She asked who I had brought with me, and I indicated my mother, a friend, and..." Ranko looked at Sakura.

"Her daughter!" Sakura added with a grin.

A few minutes later, a purple-haired young woman, about Ranko's age, hurried to greet her sister. Ranko called to her "Shampoo! How are you doing? How goes the war against the Musk?"

Shampoo embraced Ranko. "The battle is going well. The Musk have been beaten back every time they have tried to take Jusenkyo. The training you provided has proven invaluable."

Ranko let go of Shampoo, and spoke Japanese. "Shampoo, this is my mother."

Shampoo went to Nodoka and bowed, then embraced her. "I Shampoo. I very happy, meet mother of brave warrior Ranko. She great teacher, she teach whole village martial art. She also my sister."

"My name is Saotome Nodoka."

Shampoo offered Nodoka her prettiest smile. "You child look like her beautiful mother."

"Thank you, Shampoo. Sometime, you must tell me all about the time you spent with Ranko." She smiled as she let go of the young amazon.

Shampoo went over to Akane. "So, you Ranko's friend?"

"Yeah, I guess you could say that. My name's Tendou Akane. Actually, our fathers engaged us before we were born, so I guess I'm her fiancee."

"I Shampoo. Ranko my sister, so Shampoo know her! You warrior too, Shampoo see you have muscle."

"Yes, I practice martial arts."

"You learn martial art from Ranko, she good teacher, Akane. I talk little girl now. Nice to meet you, Akane."

"Thank you, Shampoo!"

Shampoo went to Sakura. "What your name?"

Sakura answered in Mandarin "My mother gave me a Japanese nickname before my parents died, Sakura. That's my name now. My parents gave me the name Gloss."

"Your mother was an Amazon?"

"Yes, my father fell in love with her when he visited your village. She wasn't a very good fighter, so he defeated her."

"What was here name?"

"Floss"

"I don't remember her, perhaps my Great Grandmother does. Lets' go visit her." She switched to Japanese. "We visit my Great Grandmother."

They all followed Shampoo to a large house.

=======

Cologne had never expected to see Ranko so soon. Had she decided to move into the village? No, the woman beside her looked too much like her. She must be here to show her mother the village. Perhaps this could be an opportunity to broaden Shampoo's horizons before she took her place among the tribe's leaders. "Welcome, Ranko, am I to assume this is your mother?"

Ranko gave the matriarch a proud smile. "Yes, Cologne, this is my mother."

Having been introduced, Nodoka went to talk to the Amazon leader. "I am Saotome Nodoka. I must thank you for saving my... daughter's life."

"Most of the honor for that goes to Ranko's sister Shampoo, as I'm sure you have heard. However, our tribe has helped many victims of the Musk, though few have contributed as much to our community as Ranko has. She provided excellent martial arts instruction, as we helped her to recover and adjust. We were sad to see her go, but are pleased to see her mother is a warrior. She will prosper under your guidance, I am certain."

"Thank you. Ranko has said she will accept my training, and I do intend to teach her the way of the sword."

As my great granddaughter needs some exposure to the world outside before she takes my place as a leader, I was wondering if she could join you in Japan, where she could attend school, and perhaps a university. Though her Japanese skills are poor, she will have no problem with any other classes."

Ranko was almost beside herself with joy. She turned to her mother. "Do you think, perhaps, she could stay with us, mother? We became sisters during the time I stayed here. I sort of promised to invite her to Japan when I had the chance."

Nodoka hesitated for only a moment. "Yes, though I am a woman of modest means."

"Mother, whenever I needed money, I earned it. I will contribute no matter where I live."

"Shampoo work to pay bill, Mrs. Saotome."

=======

While they awaited a final decision on Sakura and Ranko's immigration status, Shampoo insisted Ranko open the package she had given her two years before. It held a beautiful Chinese-style dress, sky-blue in color, like the shirts Ranko wore in the village. The hotel they stayed at had a dry cleaning service, so the dress was soon like new. Ranko had four people to help her pick out accessories for the new outfit, which Shampoo insisted she wear home. Finally, everyone got the OK to travel to Japan.

=======

At last, it was time to leave. Ranko carried a revised Japanese passport, with a new picture. Sakura would be allowed to immigrate to Japan, based on her adoptive parent's citizenship.

Ranko gave a final look at the mirror. Her sister had insisted she wear this dress, though Ranko had NEVER worn one in public before. While her pantsuits had been cut fairly close, the dress had been tailored with jeweler's precision. It was a tribute to Ranko's careful conditioning, and lack of growth, that it fit her perfectly, two years after its purchase. Her hair was the other change, though shorter than Shampoo's, two years hair growth allowed Shampoo to fix Ranko's hair in a style like hers. Unlike the time two years ago, she was very happy with the image in the mirror, though she missed her ponytail.

Ranko sat between Akane and Shampoo on the plane. Sakura had insisted on sitting with her 'grandmother' as she had never had one before. Ranko turned to Akane "Miss Tendou?"

"Call me Akane."

"All right... Akane, would you like to be friends?"

Akane smiled "Yes, I'd like that. Will you spar with me at our dojo?"

"Yeah, I'd like to test your skills." Ranko looked thoughtful before continuing... "Akane, did my father tell you what happened at Jusenkyo?"

"Yes, he said fighting broke out, and you were separated. He ran from the area until the fighting died down, then looked for you, finding nothing."

Ranko turned to her sister, speaking in Mandarin.

"Are you ready to go to school, Shampoo?"

"Yes, Ranko. I hope to learn better Japanese."

"I'm really glad you can come home with me, if only for a few years."

"I'm excited about visiting Japan and the modern world." Shampoo said with a yawn. "I'm a little tired, I think I'll try to sleep." She closed her eyes.

Ranko noted Akane was trying to take a nap too. She amused herself with an airline magazine for the remainder of the flight.

=======


Back to start of Ranma-chan and Ranko Shrine

Back to start of Anime Review section

Back to Main Index Page

Back to start of Ranma 1/2 section