Papa’s Back

Chapter 4

Burning Hate

Disclaimer: I don’t own this series or any other series. I am just floating an idea. I am making no money, nor plan to, off this venture. If you think of suing me over this, then grow up.

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---

Ranma sighed as he sat against Nabiki’s bed, waiting for her to return.

It wasn’t that he was scared for her safety. No one knew what they were planning...at least, no one that could legally object without severe repercussions.

The only possible threat would have been from the Amazons, and they had left a few months ago.

Nabiki still hasn’t told me what she did to get them to go. I just hope she didn’t do something stupid, like have them deported.

The girl had absolutely refused to explain how she had single-handedly managed to remove them from Ranma’s throat. All he knew was that they left without a word, the Nekohanten boarded up, and nothing remaining of their presence.

Despite her protests, the pigtailed man was still worried that Shampoo or the Old Ghoul would hop out and strike her down.

He shook his head of such thoughts. Nabiki would know better at this point if she was safe or not. The girl had a danger sense almost as developed as his.

He just used his to keep himself alive while she used hers to make profit.

Well...used to, anyway.

Now, they both received money from Ranma/Ranko’s modeling career.

He had been worried about it at first. After all, it was the first idea he had put such thought into. He had spent weeks studying models and their work as if it was a new technique. He learned of their contracts, wages, lifestyles, etc...

The plan was simple: he needed a manager who would not sabotage his/her career, and actually protect them from the dark side of the business while making certain they were the best and paid accordingly; as well as ensuring that said funds did not fall into panda hands.

He wanted Nabiki as a manager.

The problem was he had to make certain that her greed didn’t cost him every yen he made. He figured that his old man most likely left his name for many of the bills he undoubtedly skipped out on. If Ranma was going to have a future, he needed to have something to fall back on. While the Art was his life, he knew that it wasn’t very likely to find others like him who would see it as such, as well.

Besides, he needed a way to support a family if he ever had one. Sure, he could teach the Art.

Of course, look at the examples he had to follow. His Father, Mr. Tendo, Cologne, Happosai...

It’d be a miracle if he could teach a class, let alone in any way to keep them coming back for lessons.

So what did that leave him with?

Nothing.

If he couldn’t teach, he’d starve, or worse; his family might starve.

So, he needed something else; something that could support him and a possible family, and not take time from the Art.

That was when he remembered the Middle Tendo’s penchant for taking photos of either of his forms to sell.

If those perverts bought them, maybe he could do it for a living.

Not the nude part; Ranma didn’t want more perverts looking at his girl form than there already was. But maybe a legitimate modeling job could work. The Art kept him/her fit, so the “calorie watching” of some models wouldn’t factor into their work. While the work could sometimes be grueling; the travel would be nice, as well as leaving plenty of time for the Art to be practiced.

After all, it wasn’t like Ranma would be extremely social as most models were.

Of course, that little plan was all dependant on getting Nabiki to agree to be the manager of the soon-to-be-famous Saotome twins.

Ranma admitted he might not be book smart, but he knew enough that doing it by himself would be extremely stupid and prove fatal in this sort of battle.

He was slightly surprised when Nabiki not only agreed to hear the idea—for a nominal fee, mind you—but she agreed with how he planned to divide the money: third for the housing expenses of him at the dojo, third for her, and a third for him to be put into an account he and only he could access.

She even agreed to help him find any outstanding debts put with his name, so that he might pay some of them off.

Of course, he had no idea that six months later, they’d develop feelings for each other.

Let alone the six months after that, he would propose.

This led to today.

After spending most of the week discussing it, Nabiki had convinced him of what needed to be done. Both of their fathers, as well as Happosai, had pretty much destroyed the family honor of the Saotome and Tendo clans. Kasumi was safe because she was currently dating Tofu, who had come back three months into Ranma’s modeling career with some technique to keep him sane around Kasumi.

Akane? Those six months before he began to develop feelings for Nabiki had been some of the hardest on them. Her refusal to trust him had been the final nail into their relationship...if it could have ever been called that. She expected his trust that nothing was going on when she kissed someone during her plays, but refused to show the same trust when he disappeared for a few hours for his shoots.

And that didn’t even include how she reacted if those shoots took a weekend.

A silent knock brought him back to reality, as Nabiki poked her head in, the knock following a pattern he picked so he knew not to hide.

“Is it done?” he asked, as she entered the room and shut the door quietly.

She nodded, crossing over to him, as they embraced. “Yeah. I filed the papers. As of now, we are Ranma and Nabiki Kino.” She looked into his eyes. “Now, I know you use Kino as your career name, but can you tell me why you took it to begin with?”

That had been bugging her for a year. But Ranma had steadfastly refused to explain why he chose that name.

He nodded. “The old woman who first helped me out of the Nekoken...that was her last name. If...when...we have a daughter, I wanna name her after that woman.”

Nabiki smiled at that. For a while, she had honestly thought Ranma just picked a name out of the phone book.

But to choose the name of the woman who had probably helped him retain his sanity. It was sort of poetic in a way; choosing the name of someone who had shown him perhaps the most compassion on his training trip. “What was her name?”

“It took me a few months to find that out myself. Her name was Makoto.”

Nabiki smiled. “Makoto Kino. I think that would be a perfect name for our first daughter.”

Ranma smiled. His life...it wasn’t perfect yet.

But, it was fast approaching it.

---

Ranma sighed as he sat up on the futon, smiling at that memory. Things had been perfect then. I was just too impetuous to know.

Come to think of it; I still don’t know how she got the Amazons to leave me alone.

Shaking away those thoughts before he could become depressed once again by the loss of Nabiki, he sat up, putting away his bedding, and heading towards the kitchen to prepare breakfast. Showering could wait till afterwards, as well as dressing for “Ranko’s” photo shoot.

That had been another surprise. When he was just starting in the modeling world, Ichiko had helped, herself a veteran of a decade of work, even helping Ranma work his/her natural beauty to further reduce the need of makeup and increase the power of his/her appearance.

The fact that the woman was still in the business after all this time was amazing; now as one of the upper managers instead of a model/agent. But Ranma was glad the woman was still around; advancing in the business ranks, helping models survive in that world, to not rely on it forever like a crutch.

It was probably how Ranma was able to get back in so quickly, as well as get the contacts to work quickly enough to reactivate his old accounts.

Shaking his head, Ranma sat about preparing the meal for breakfast. He still had a few clothes given to him by Kasumi from the storage shed where his stuff was being kept, but he might need to borrow some from his daughter.

Ranma smirked at that; wondering how his daughter was going to react to her father asking for a nice skirt and blouse.

“Man, we’ve all changed. I just hope all of my changes were for the better.”

---

Makoto was blushing with slight embarrassment as she was walking to school with her father beside her...wearing a hot number Makoto had been saving for that “special date” she never got around to.

The sad thing was...her dad was getting more looks from guys than she ever had.

“Everything okay, Mako-chan?” she asked.

Makoto shook her head. “No, da...I mean, Auntie.” She caught herself, remembering it would be better for her if she addressed her dad’s female form as her Aunt. “I’m just a little jealous of all the attention you’re getting.”

Ranko giggled. “Dear, they’re only thinking below their belts. But if it bothers you, I can always give you a few of my secrets. After all, I doubt Kasumi was the best one to teach you how to hunt men.”

Makoto nodded, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. Even Uncle Tofu had said that Aunt Kasumi was a natural for getting guys to fall in love with her; she just didn’t know how she did it or that she did it.

Of course, she also was slightly embarrassed at the fact that her father looked much better in that outfit than she ever did.

“So,” her ‘Auntie’ asked, “what classes do you have besides the core ones?”

Makoto shook her head, trying to focus on the conversations rather than the idiot who had just walked into a lamppost after seeing them. “Well, nothing much. I thought about taking a drama class with Minako and Usagi, but that doesn’t seem like me. So far, all I have for this semester is a foreign language class, as well as a martial arts class.”

Ranko nodded. “English?”

“Yeah, how’d you know?”

Ranko smiled. “It’s always a good language to learn. Your mother thought it would become the standard language of business in the West, but it also offers more colleges for you to go to, should you choose college.”

“I know,” she said. She wasn’t so much upset that she didn’t have any cooking classes left, or the fact that she was now in a martial arts class that her own father/aunt was leagues ahead of the teacher in.

And she certainly was not going to ask her father/aunt to sign up as a teacher. She was going to have enough trouble keeping the Inners/Outers/anything vaguely human from pursuing her father/auntie as a love interest.

The possible idea that Usagi—no matter how much a friend—could end up as her step-mom...

She suppressed the shivers as best as she could. No, that possibility must not come to pass.

Nor must it be allowed for Ami, Minako, Rei, Hotaru, Haruka, Michiru, Setsuna, Mamoru...

None of them must be allowed to marry her father.

She knew these people. No, they could neither be trusted nor allowed to get near her father like that. She sure as hell didn’t want these people as...family.

What really upset her was the simple fact...that she didn’t know what was coming next.

Her father was back, and she knew damn well that she was taking this better than expected. But all of her encounters as Sailor Jupiter had allowed her to suspend such trivial things as belief and disbelief to such occurrences.

As such, she could easily become the little girl glad beyond measure to have her father back in her life...to have one parent with which she knew she’d never be alone again.

Of course, there were times where she missed being alone.

“Have a great day at school, Mako-chan!” yelled Ranko as Makoto began to try and enter the school grounds.

Several guys stared between the tallest girl in school and the hot redhead who had called out to her.

And then; proving that Murphy never stopped when he was on a roll, a sports car pulled up, being driven by the two Outers; Michiru and Haruka, as they were dropping Hotaru off to school.

So, we now had two confirmed lesbians and most of the male population staring at Makoto’s female-formed father.

Needless to say, a nice little twitch was developing.

“Oh,” said Ranko, noticing the two girls, “hello Michiru-chan, Haruka-chan. Can you give me a lift? My photo shoot is near the college campus.”

And thus, Makoto was soon dragged kicking and screaming into the school by Minako, Ami, and Hotaru.

Sometimes, you have to protect your family from perverts.

---

Akane Nakamura sat in the Teachers’ Lounge, checking over her lesson plans. Since it was her first day, she wanted to make a perfect first impression.

What she had seen already of the school filled her with hope. Any damage wasn’t very recent, but was made by occasional monsters, and not super-powered martial artists, or poetry spouting kendo principals.

The staff was competent.

The leadership was sane and actually cared about the student body.

She might actually be able to teach and have friends without some moron interfering.

That was...until she looked out onto the grounds, and caught sight of a certain girl screaming at a departing car.

Her! Why the hell is she here?

Quickly, Akane went to her class rosters, checking to see if that girl was on any of them.

Thankfully in her opinion, Makoto Kino was not taking any of her classes. Good, the less time I have to be around that piece of trash the better.

Taking a few calming breaths, Akane tried to re-center herself. She couldn’t risk losing this job, since it was her ticket out of Nerima and away from Kuno. Her child was already signed up for classes at a local grade school, and the lease on their apartment was already signed.

So, if she could just avoid the brown haired bitch, then everything would be fine.

Besides, unless she was a moron like her Father, then the girl would graduate this year, and Akane would never have to worry about her again.

Taking a deep breath, Akane stood up and headed to her classroom, after checking to see she wouldn’t pass Makoto in the hallway.

She was determined to stay as far away from that girl as possible. Well, at least Kasumi got rid of the trash a few years ago.

---

“Louis,” said Ranko, “if you don’t stop trying to get into my pants and start taking photos, I’m going to have to shove that camera up your ass.”

The French photographer gulped, seeing the looks of pain those blue eyes were promising, and resumed taking the photos, inwardly sighing at the fact that he would not be able to add this model to his list of bedded beauties...yet.

Ichiko smiled as the beautiful redhead modeled their newest swimsuit, lying on a beach set. Most of it would be replaced by CGI for the magazines and such, but the beauty herself was the real draw. “My, my, Ranko; you sure have kept your shape well.”

Ranko smiled towards her friend, one of the relatively few in the business who truly knew the relationship between Ranma and Ranko Kino. “You know me; I never sit still long enough to get fat.”

Ichiko laughed. “So true. So how was the forced vacation?”

Ranko sighed as Louis changed the roll of film. “I missed so much of Mako-chan’s life. I tried to get back sooner, but...”

“I know, dear. We’re all glad that you and your brother were finally able to make it back.” Ichiko handed Ranko a bottle of chilled water. The set might be fake, but the lights made things hot. “I did find a few places that might fit the bill for what you were looking for. A few are only a few blocks away from where you’re staying now?”

Ranko smiled as she once again resumed her poses for the camera. “How do they look?”

Ichiko opened a small folder, filled with the printouts from the properties. “A few would need to really be repaired. They haven’t been lived in since the Senshi started showing up, and they weren’t repaired if the battles got near them. But the asking prices are well below market value.”

Ranko nodded, changing her position again at the photographer’s prompting. “Not bad. I’ve got plenty of money to get them fixed. Are the local contractors any good?”

Ichiko smiled. “A few of them are based in Nerima, and most of the foremen worked there when you were younger.”

Ranko smiled. “We’ll have to go over them after the shoot.”

Ichiko nodded, before bringing up a darker topic. “You do realize that certain people are going to know that you’re back soon. The press is having a field day with that story. ‘Lost models return from lost island.’ I even found a few tabloids saying that you and your brother had a few kids.”

Ranko turned slightly green, shaking such images out of her head. “Trust me; those were the last thoughts on either of our heads.”

“Okay,” said Louis, “take five while we set up for the next shoot.”

Nodding, Ranko stood up, taking a robe being offered by Ichiko, and moving towards a small snack table with her friend.

“So,” the woman whispered, “does Mako-chan have any siblings?”

Ranko sighed. “Not ready to talk about that. Let’s just say I had plenty of opportunities over there.”

Ichiko nodded. I guess he’s still not over Nabiki yet. “Okay, but make no mistake, you are telling me about that place sooner rather than later.”

Ranko nodded. “Let me get a new home and settled first.”

Ichiko nodded. “Okay.” Then, she resumed their friendly banter. “So, it appears that poor Louis won’t be having his way with another model of mine.”

Ranko smirked. “He never had a chance.”

The two women giggled at that. “So, any chance of little Mako-chan joining you in this?”

Ranko set down her water. “I don’t know if she wants to.”

“She has the figure.”

Ranko nodded, but was thinking of other things. She knew her daughter wanted to go to college. She also had something that involved a lot of magic in it, further limiting her daughter’s free time.

Of course, Ranma could easily free that one up. You didn’t spend sixty years on a demon plane of existence without learning how to best kill them.

Then of course, came Makoto’s training in Revised Anything Goes. She knew the girl wanted to learn the family art. “I’ll tell you what, Ichiko-chan; I’ll ask her. But I fear she may already have a rather full plate. Besides, if she goes to college, I’d rather her have some fun in it.”

Ichiko could only nod in agreement. “Yes, I know how tough it was on her parents to both attend college and manage your brother’s career.” She turned to her friend. “I do have a few part-time positions available, if she just wants to dabble for the moment, unless you think you school’s training might make that an impossibility.”

Ranko nodded. “She’s like her father, wants to learn the Art. But...I’ll ask her. It’s her choice in the end.”

The girls nodded as they began to talk more about missed events, and how Ichiko and her family had progressed over those fourteen years.

---

Setsuna sat in her office, drinking her tea. So far, none of the students had needed to visit the Guidance Counselor yet, which suited the Senshi of Pluto just fine. It gave her the free time to think of her newest problem: Ranma Kino.

The Gates had no way to see into the present, past, or future of Hyurn, so she had no idea not only if this person was the real Ranma, but also what this person had done.

According to Little Lady, the man was in total control of that realm; a feat of great measure for any demon realm.

But, she did know of one level of his power.

No Queen Serenity of the Moon Kingdom had ever blown up a star. Even if they had been so inclined, the technology of the time was the only means. Even a Senshi at her best couldn’t use the mana tap of their seed to destroy their source.

So, this character could considerably have enough power to dispose of the Senshi should he see fit. His only ties to Usagi was through his daughter, and he had said so himself that they would be enemies if they were planning to take over “through either action or inaction”.

“I need to spend some time with either Little Lady or my future self.”

She was smart enough to tread lightly on this issue. She had no doubts that Makoto would follow through with her threats. The girl had finally regained some family, something each of the Senshi—sans Setsuna herself—had. And Makoto was not about to allow it to be threatened at all.

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Setsuna shook her head. “There are too many unknowns here.

“I...hate...unknowns.”

Okay, so I have somewhat of a plan. I need to approach Makoto to talk about revealing the Senshi to her father, talk to Little Lady to see what changes might have been made in the timeline with his return.

I find it a little hard to believe that no one mentioned him when they went to the future.

But then again, the other Outers hadn’t been mentioned either.

Then, see if he will help support Usagi’s ascension to Neo-Queen Serenity.

Better also check and see what if any of his troops might pop up. Wouldn’t be a good idea if the Senshi vaporize his peace envoy to Earth.

Setsuna shook her head. On that point, she really needed to see him soon, assuming her absence wouldn’t send Makoto on another “hunt” for those who might desire her Father.

“That girl is getting way over-protective with him.”

So, she would chat with him, feeling him out for his thoughts on her plans for Crystal Tokyo. She would learn where they stood in terms of power, if she could find a spot for a nice...sparring...match. She needed to learn if a frontal confrontation was a smart move against him.

But considering what she had seen of him through the Gates of Time when she had discovered who he was, she didn’t like her chances.

Sighing, she resigned herself to lots of time to be spent on such plans. Makoto could not be allowed to wander from her predestined path.

Looking towards the daily bulletin showing that a new teacher was starting today, she silently began to curse.

At least, she had one bit of news she could tell him to earn some trust.

She just hoped he wasn’t the type to shoot the messenger.

---

Omake by migele:

"Eyes on the road," Ranko reminded Haruka.

This caused Michiru to elbow her lover again, she had to admit that the petite redhead looked hot; she even accepted the correction Haruka had made on the rearview mirror.

But turning around and staring was too much.

"So you are back for good and someone relly high in the dimension you were in?" Haruka asked, trying to divert her fate from ending up on the couch, again.

"Top of the food chain actually," Ranko grinned. "But I still like it much more here."

"How was it there?" Michiru asked.

"Long story.

“What's with Hotaru? All that power can't be too good for her development."

"Long story," Michiru smiled.

"Where can I find your photos?" Haruka asked.

"Eyes on the road, I'm not sure," Ranko answered.

"Haruka!"

"Don't tell me you wouldn't enjoy a swimsuit poster in the bedroom."

"That's not the point."

Behind them; Ranko sweat-dropped. "I'm still here, you know."

The Outers had the decency to blush.