Do It
A Ranma ½ Fanfiction
By The Headcrook
Legal Disclaimer: Ranma belongs to Takahashi, while the original story is credited to Xen-Oh. This is basically a re-write of the original story. Enjoy.
A.N.: Before you begin to read this fanfic, dear readers, I will give you written warning. This is a dark fanfic, in which numerous characters are going to get bashed very badly. No one dies in this rewrite though, so that's a good thing. You've been warned. Enjoy the story.
Part One
Nerima – one of the wards that surrounded Tokyo.
Home to the martial arts clique known as the Nerima Wrecking Crew, but more importantly, home to one Ranma Saotome.
If anyone living in the ward noticed, they would have noticed a dramatic change in the pigtailed aqua-transsexual martial artist. Instead of the cocky, boisterous and carefree boy everyone had come to know and love, he was now silent. Silent and brooding.
It all came down during the wedding attempt some three weeks ago. Nabiki had charged Ranma's fiancées and rivals fees to attend the wedding between himself and Akane, only to have them completely wreck it and leave the Tendou Dojo in ruins. Kunou came dressed in a hakama, whereas his demented sister came wearing a black wedding dress. Ukyou and Shampoo also crashed the wedding, armed with explosive pork buns and oknomiyaki, which left the training hall in its present state.
Ranma's rivals, the the male Joketsuzoku Mousse and Ryouga Hibiki also crashed the wedding, as did Happousai, who had drunk the last of the Nannichuan water, thinking that it was the ceremonial sake.
Before things could get really out of hand, it was at that moment, the parties involved noticed Ranma. He was still in his tuxedo, but his demeanor had completely changed. Without saying a single word to anyone, he left the dojo. No one dared to stop him.
Some people say that he had finally reached the breaking point. Others have said that whatever was bugging Ranma, it would pass soon enough.
That was not the case.
Since then, Ranma had remained silent. Not even the offers of free food from Ukyou or Shampoo could break his silence. So things have returned to normal in Nerima...or as normal things can get in a town with highly-skilled martial artists.
One day, Ranma and Akane were on their way home from school. Not only did Ranma refused to eat Akane's bento (i.e. living weapon), he had also once again refused to eat both Shampoo and Ukyou's cooking. Now Akane couldn't cook, but Ranma refusing food from both the cross-dressing chef and the Chinese Amazon was something you didn't see every day.
Akane, however was upset that Ranma didn't touch her bento. He had tossed it into the garbage instead.
Ranma was on his usual perch, walking on the fence, hands in his pockets, hunched over while his violent maniac of a fiancée was on the ground. And as always, Akane Tendou was not very happy.
"So you think you're better than me just because you won't eat my cooking?!" Akane shouted at her fiancé
Ranma simply ignored her. He wasn't in the mood to deal with the one-woman feminist group that was his fiancée All he wanted to do was get back home without having to run into either one of his fiancées or his rivals.
Ranma hopped down from the fence and walked on, with Akane behind him.
"I'm talking to you, you baka!" Akane screeched. "ANSWER ME!"
Once again, she was greeted with his silence.
This was more than Akane could take. Within moments, Mallet-sama was in her hands, and with a battle cry of "RANMA NO BAKA!" she charged at her fiancée
As she delivered an overhead swing, hoping to cave her fiancé's head in, Ranma, without looking, stopped the mallet with one finger. He spun around, yanked the weapon out of Akane's hand and tossed it over the bridge.
That was another thing about Ranma. In the three weeks following the botched wedding, he had stopped holding back. Both the perverted Anything Goes grandmaster Happousai and the Joketsuzoku matriarch Cologne noticed the change in Ranma's fighting style.
"The boy is finally reaching his full potential, Co-chan," Happi had said one day after both he and Cologne watched as Ranma had turned Kunou into a human pretzel.
Normally, Ranma would boot him into the side of the school. But not this time. Kunou was sent to the hospital, seeing as how the school nurse wouldn't cut it this time around.
"I agree. Son-in-law has finally stopped holding back," Cologne concurred. "Things should get interesting real quick with this new revelation."
Back in the present, as Ranma tossed Akane's mallet over the bridge, he spun around and walked off.
He had barely gotten three steps before he heard Ryouga's signature battle cry. "SAOTOME, PREPARE TO DIE!"
Ranma hopped back, just as Ryouga came crashing down, heavy bamboo umbrella in hand, leaving a small impact crater where Ranma was at moments earlier.
"You honorless bastard!" the Lost Boy yelled. "I'll make you pay for making Akane mad!"
Ranma said nothing. After several swings with the umbrella, of which Ranma dodged with little difficulty, Ranma punted it out of Ryouga's hand, the umbrella following Akane's mallet into the drainage channel.
Before Ryouga knew what had happened, Ranma was standing face-to-face with him. With speed honed by the Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken, Ranma struck Ryouga in several shiatsu points, freezing him place. Ranma's azure eyes burned a hole into Ryouga's own, the latter helpless should Ranma decide on delivering a knockout blow.
Which is what Ranma did. But instead of knocking Ryouga out cold, he relented, his fist stopping mere centimeters from caving the cartilage into his brain.
Ranma lowered his fist. Pulling out a ink pen and a notepad, he scribbled down something and taped it to Ryouga's head. Once Ranma was gone, the paralysis had worn off, allowing Ryouga to pull the note off his face.
The sheet of paper had one thing written on it – You are such a hypocrite, pig-boy. Leave me the hell alone.
Ryouga growled to himself as he crumbled the paper in his hands. "I'll get you for this, Ranma!" he shouted, running off in the direction of the Tendou Dojo.
Unfortunately, hours later, Ryouga was somewhere in the Brazilian favela known as the 'City of God.'
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, RANMA!" Ryouga screamed as he punched a wall.
Following his run-in with Ryouga, Ranma arrived at the Tendou family home.
Akane had gotten home first, and the two fathers noticed the mood that the youngest Tendou was in, and automatically thought that it was Ranma's fault.
Kasumi Tendou stuck her head out of the kitchen, while Nodoka Saotome continued to cook. "Dinner will be ready shortly, Ranma-kun," she said. "Would you like a snack?"
Ranma nodded and followed Kasumi into the kitchen. It was noticed that Ranma remained civil to the eldest of the Tendou sisters, since she did nothing to offend or embarrass him.
Of course, this did not pass on both the two men of the house, Soun Tendou and Genma Saotome.
As Ranma finished up his snack, the two men barged into the kitchen. "Ranma? Why have you mistreated my baby girl?" Soun demanded, one step away from using his demon-head.
"Worthless boy!" Genma shouted. "Apologize to Akane and make it up to her by marrying her today!"
By sheer dumb luck, Akane was passing the kitchen and had heard Genma's suggestion. She was still upset over the events that had taken place earlier, and the thought of another wedding sickened her. "There is no way I am marrying that pervert!" she shouted. "There is no way that - "
That was all she managed to get out before she, along with Genma and Soun were like Ryouga earlier, frozen into place by Ranma's shiatsu attacks. Pulling out his notepad and pen, he scribbled three notes down and pasted them on each of the stunned offenders' foreheads, and giving Kasumi a nod of thanks, walked out of the kitchen.
Nodoka and Kasumi walked over to the three frozen people and looked at the three notes Ranma had written.
The Saotome matriarch looked at what was written on her husband's head. "He has called Genma a 'cowardly glutton,'" she said. "That is not manly behavior."
Kasumi paid her no mind as she looked at what Ranma had written for hr father. "Oh my. He called Father a 'whining baby.'"
Akane, however, came out of the paralysis point and ripped the note from her forehead. Ranma had reserved the most biting insult out of all of the three. Hers read - You got a lot of nerve calling me a pervert. If anything, you're more perverted than me, not to mention a complete bitch. Feh. That's fitting for you. Perverted Bitch.
Akane growled as he aura sprang out. "Ranma..." she seethed as she crumpled the note in her hands.
That night, despite the combined efforts of both Nodoka and Kasumi, dinner was somewhat tense in the Tendou home. Genma tried to get a reaction out of his son by trying to steal his food. "Boy! You're getting lax on your training!" he shouted as he reached for his son's plate.
Big mistake.
Ranma grabbed his father's wrist, twisted his arm back in an arm bar, then proceeded to bash his father's face into the table. Once, twice, three times, each time causing the dishes to shake with each impact before finishing off with a toss into the koi pond. Instant panda.
Thankfully, Genma landed back-first into the pond, leaving his face above water. He was still unconscious.
Soun was whining about the injustice of it all. "Why was my friend deserves such an ungrateful son?" he bemoaned. "Doesn't he care about honor? The union of the schools is at stake here and he doesn't even care! He doesn't want to marry my little girl!"
If Soun was paying attention, he would have noticed the vein pulsing in Ranma's head. Nabiki noticed and for once, was wise enough to keep her mouth shut, having remembered what had happened to Kunou days earlier. Kasumi also noticed and continued eating.
"I don't want to marry that sex-changing freak!" Akane butted in. "I would rather be in an engagement with Pantyhose Tarou than that jerk! Even Kunou is more of a man than he is!"
Before Ranma could lash out, his mother spoke.
"Ranma," Nodoka began, "your actions for the past few days have been very unlike you." She then brought her wrapped katana into view, and untied the ribbon, revealing the weapon in its entirety. "Your unmanly attitude has been unacceptable. I suggest you apologize to your father, as well as to Soun and Akane."
Ranma had caught the underlying meaning once Nodoka brought out Katana-sama out. The meaning was clear: apologize or commit seppuku. Akane watched the staredown between mother and son, grinning at the fact that Ranma would have no choice in bowing to her mother's demands.
Then Ranma slowly stood up and left the dining room.
That itself was strange. Ranma would never leave the dining room. Especially when Kasumi was had cooked dinner. Everyone watched as Ranma headed towards the second floor.
"What is he doing?" Nodoka wondered.
"What is that baka up to?" Akane muttered.
Their questions were answered minutes later when Ranma reappeared. The others saw that he had changed out of his red Chinese shirt and black pants into something that was unexpected, even for him. He had changed into a white mens' kimono.
What made Nodoka pale, as did everyone watching, was that inside the kimono, tucked inside the belt, was a hilt-less tanto. "R-Ranma...what are you doing?" Nodoka stuttered.
Ranma responded by simply handing her two sheets of paper. One was addressed to her, the second, was a death poem. Ranma then strode out to the yard, stopping only to pick up Soun's tatami mat from its customary place at the Go board, the latter of which Ranma also picked up.
The death poem read as: Thinking of my family, I die though I am not used to death, a success in the Art, who does not go into death calling for his friends.
Ranma places the Go board in front of him, rolls rolled out the mat and assumes the seiza position - legs drawn up under the body so that one is actually sitting on one's heels.
Nodoka read the second sheet of paper, which was addressed to her. It is clear that you have rejected me as your son. You may have accepted the fact that I am cursed, and that I have performed duties that makes me more than a man among men, but you kept the seppuku pledge over my head. Since I cannot be what you want me to be, I am fulfilling the pledge. I thought a mother should love their children, regardless of their flaws. I guess I was wrong.
"He's going to do it," Soun whispered, the color drained from his face. "He's going to commit seppuku."
Ranma then removed part of the kimono, tucking the sleeves under his knees to prevent him from doing something undignified like slumping to one side. After two sips from a cup of sake, he moved the Go board from the front to behind him, placing it on his rear, causing him to tilt slightly downward.
"Ranma..." Nodoka began.
"He won't go through with it," Akane muttered. "He's too much of a coward to kill himself."
"Shut up, Akane," Soun whispered back.
Ranma then picked up the tanto and pulled the blade out. The Tendous recognized the blade as that belong to their family. Ranma was going to kill himself using one of their family heirlooms. First, Ranma sliced off his pigtail and set the severed braid of hair to the side.
"Ranma..." Nodoka called out again, this time fear being the dominant expression on her face, her voice breaking.
Ranma ignored her as he picked up a sheaf of washi – paper handmade from the bark of a mulberry tree. With perfect care, he wrapped the washi around the naked blade, in order to get a better grip on the blade without cutting his hands on the blade.
Closing his eyes, he prepared to thrust the blade inside his body when Nodoka screamed.
"RANMA, STOP! I'LL DO IT! I'LL CANCEL THE PLEDGE!"
Ranma stopped, the blade an inch inside his body. Ignoring the pain, blood seeping out of the injury, Ranma leveled his gaze onto his mother. Sobbing at the fact that her son had nearly committed seppuku, Nodoka reached into her kimono and pulled out the seppuku pledge.
Sobbing, she tore up the yellowed sheet of paper. "My son...please forgive me...I knew this was wrong...please..."
Ranma looked at his mother long and hard before putting down the blade. He walked past the stunned group and out the door, heading over to Tofuu's clinic to get his wound dressed, leaving his sobbing mother and the shocked family behind.
Kasumi swallowed audibly. "He was going to do it," she whispered. "He was going to commit seppuku."
Soun nodded, the color drained from his face. "The boy has reached his breaking point. We should let him cool down for now. If what Akane and Nabiki told me was true about that Kunou boy, then we should tread carefully around him."
Kasumi and Akane nodded. Nabiki, in the meantime was thinking about how she could use this information to her own advantage.
As it would turn out, that would be her undoing.
End Part One
A.N.: Ranma's death poem was based off of the death poem written by Kukori Hiroshi, a Japanese soldier who died in a submarine accident during World War II.