Phoenix: Reignited Edition [Ranma 1/2]

[AnneOminous]

Ranko inhaled sharply, slowing to walk behind Izumi instead of next to her. From her slightly ragged breathing, it sounded as if she was in some sort of pain.

The third time she heard it over the whistling of the light wind blowing in her face, Izumi looked behind with a concerned expression. "Ran-chan, are you okay? You're awfully quiet." She placed her hand on Ranko's shoulder, and before the younger girl could answer, she knew the problem. "Gods, you're shivering something terrible! Are you that cold?!"

Ranko nodded emphatically, unsure she could speak without her teeth chattering. The temperature was fairly mild for a December in Tokyo, but not for someone in a tee shirt, a knee-length skirt, and a full body's worth of skin as sensitive as a cat's tongue.

"Why didn't you put on something warmer, silly?" Ranko's sister shook her head, brushing a wisp of her hair that had been displaced by the wind out of her eyes and tucking it behind her ear just beneath her gray knit hat.

Ranko looked down, a glint of shame in her eyes.

Again, Izumi answered her own question. "You don't have anything warmer, do you?" For as obsessed with her new sister's wardrobe as she had been, she couldn't believe that she'd only actually added a few outfits to the eight or so that had been in the upstairs closet the day she arrived. The rest of the outfits Ranko had worn on stage had been things Izumi had loaned her from her own closet. We've gotta do something about this. At this rate, she's going to wind up coming down sick with something, Izumi thought with a deep frown. Well, I know what you're getting for Christmas, Ran-chan.

Izumi grabbed the faux leopard-fur trimmed sleeve of her heavy black cropped jacket, beginning to pull it off. "Here, put this on."

Ranko shook her head. "I'm f-f-fine."

Izumi rolled her eyes. "Like hell you are. Come on now. I've still got a sweater and jeans; I'm plenty warm without it. Let's go, little sister. I'm not asking here."

Ranko sighed regretfully. I can't make a girl suffer in the cold while… She shook her head with a self-admonishing roll of her eyes, her cheeks warming slightly despite the chill. You're a girl now, too, dummy. You don't have to be the white knight and take the hit all the time anymore. "O-k-kay. Th-th-th-thanks."

Izumi wrapped the puffy jacket around the redhead's shoulders. As Ranko's hands found their way into the sleeves, Izumi rubbed her back vigorously through the thick material to warm it up for her faster. "Since we're out shopping anyway, we are getting you at least a coat or something you can wear in the cold. It's non-negotiable."

"I th-think I'd like that, please," Ranko replied with a grateful smile.

---

"Alright. First things first, we need to find something warmer for you to wear. We need a pop star, not a pop-sicle." Izumi consulted the backlit directory kiosk of her favorite Shibuya shopping mall as she spoke.

Ranko nodded vigorously, rubbing her bare legs with her hands to try and warm them. She followed as Izumi led her into a large department store, pointing her in the direction of a display of denim.

"What size do you wear in jeans?" Izumi asked, already digging through a pile of slim-cut offerings.

Ranko turned to answer. She opened her mouth to speak, realizing at the last moment that the answer she was about to give had been in men's sizes. "I… actually don't know. Sorry."

Izumi shook her head with a smile. "Come to think of it, around the holidays, nobody does, honey. Get used to it." She pulled the same style of navy blue jeans in three different sizes from the white cubby shelf in which they were stacked, handing the pile of folded pants to her protégé. "Fitting room's right over there. Go on. Shoo."

After waiting for a moment for one of the three booths to be vacated, Ranko dropped the stack of jeans on its small padded bench, latching the door behind her. She unbuttoned the waistband of her red corduroy skirt, letting it fall to the floor and reaching for the topmost pair of pants. The first pair Ranko tried was far too big for her, but the second slid on comfortably. Zipping them up, she started to test her movement in them. They definitely fit tighter than men's pants, especially in the front. Of course, most of the pants she'd ever worn, especially in her masculine form, had been gi pants that were far more forgiving, designed for flexibility rather than fashion.

While she was slowly getting used to spending time in skirts, owing to Izumi's constant quest to doll her up for the ravenous crowds that watched her on stage, there was a certain comforting feeling about wearing pants again. Looking at herself in the mirror, she couldn't help but notice what the tight jeans did for her shape. Speaking objectively as someone who used to be a dude and spent a lot of time looking at girls, this ain't half bad. And hey! Bonus! They have pockets! Glorious pock… wait. She pulled her fingertips out of the slit in the fabric, where they had barely delved past her painted fingernails before hitting bottom. Okay, what asshole got the bright idea to put fake pockets on girls' clothes?! Seriously, that's just a cruel freakin' tease.

She emerged from the fitting room, carrying the red skirt she had been wearing, and setting the two rejected pairs on the little chrome rack designated for products that needed to be reshelved. "How's this look?"

Izumi gave her a thumbs-up. "They fit you good, it looks like! Keep 'em on until we're ready to leave so you stay warm, and you can change out of them when it's time to check out. If you like them, grab another pair or two, and let's keep going. Lots to do, and not a lot of time."

Mindful of her still-limited budget, Ranko returned to the shelf where Izumi had found the jeans she was wearing and picked up one more pair, this one in black. Turning, she hurried after her sister-turned-stylist.

Izumi led her up an escalator to the second floor, taking a mere moment to locate a display of winter coats. "Here, pick yourself something out from here. Ideally something in a neutral color, like we did with your purse."

Ranko nodded, setting about looking for something in brown, black, white, or gray. Hey, she thought with a bright smile, I'm learning! She wasn't sure if she was proud or embarrassed, but she leaned toward the former. Her gaze quickly fell on a white peacoat. It was constructed of a heavy fabric, so it would be warm without the addition of fur or other textures that would be distracting on her skin. She picked it up and held it against her body on the hanger. It came down almost to her knees, which she hoped would help keep her legs warm even when she was wearing a skirt. Izumi's cropped jacket had barely reached halfway down her rib cage, by comparison, even on her shorter frame.

"Nice choice! It's cute, too! Here, let me help you try it on." She helped Ranko out of the jacket she had loaned her sister, tossing it over the aluminum rack for the moment, and held the white coat open for Ranko to slip into.

Ranko found that the peacoat was surprisingly comfortable and easy to move in, and it felt warmer even than Izumi's fur-lined jacket she had on previously. "Oh, yeah, I like this one! Does it look okay?"

Izumi grinned, pulling her own jacket back on as she spoke. "One of these days you're gonna get the full shopping experience, where you try on eight or nine things before you find something you like."

The redhead shrugged with a winning smile. "Hey, what can I say? I'm easy to please. Low-maintenance girl, right here." She gestured to herself with her thumbs for emphasis.

Izumi scoffed. "Just wait until you're trying on wedding dresses. You have to do like two hundred of them, and they take twenty minutes each for two people to get you in and out of."

The white coat contrasted sharply with the neon red shade of Ranko's face.

"Oh, stop with that look." Izumi tittered, rumpling her sister's hair gently. "I know it never feels like it until it does, but it'll happen for you one day, too."

For a split second, Ranko allowed herself to form the mental picture of herself in a white wedding gown, almost hearing Akane's voice in the recesses of her mind, before she shook herself free of it. Snap out of it, idiot. There's about fourteen levels of wrong with that picture. I've got a better chance to walk to the moon. "Yeah, if you say so," she replied mousily, her cheeks warm enough to fry bacon on.

"Speaking of which…" Izumi took her hand, pulling her a few dozen meters into another section of the store. There, numerous formal gowns were displayed on mannequins positioned next to racks mounted high on the walls to keep the long dresses from dragging the floor. She pointed at a sky-blue shimmery satin dress. It had spaghetti straps, a fairly modest cut at the chest, and a floor-length skirt with a knee-high walking slit snaking up the left side. A blue-gray satin ribbon encircled it at the waist, tying in a loose bow at the left hip. "What do you think of that?"

Ranko's face flushed deeper still. "Yeaaaaaah, I don't think that's going to work. I can't wait tables in that!" Or, you know, wear it at all, she thought to herself. I'm a girl now, but I've still got limits.

Izumi laughed. "Not for work, blockhead! For the wedding! I'm thinking about going with that for the bridesmaids. I really like it, but we'll need to find some sort of a shrug for Yui if I do."

Crap. I almost forgot I agreed to do that. I mean… Ranko was almost lightheaded from all the blood flow to her face as she glanced over the dress again, now giving herself permission to actually consider it. It's really pretty, but, like, for somebody else. There's no way I could pull off something like that. I wouldn't even know how to behave dressed like that, when everything's all formal and proper and shit. I'll say the wrong thing, or eat something with my fingers that I wasn't supposed to, and some duchess somewhere will have a heart attack just thinking about it.

"Uhhh, how do we feel about a nice, casual wedding? Jeans, tee shirts, maybe some barbecue?" She chuckled nervously, fidgeting with her fingers.

"Not a chance, little sister. Did you forget who you're talking to? Hello, fashion queen, right here!" Izumi pointed to herself with both of her index fingers. "Sorry, but you're going to have to suck it up and be elegant for a day. Who knows, you might even enjoy the whole princess dress-up thing if you give it a chance." Judging by what Ranko had told her of her childhood, Izumi doubted she had experienced that type of play very much growing up.

"I wouldn't hold your breath," came Ranko's grumbled reply.

Izumi chuckled a little darkly. "If the corsets I've tried on so far are any indication, I just might have to."

Ranko could not stifle the tension-breaking giggle that followed, and Izumi joined her in it.

"Come on, you. Let's find you something fabulous for your big show. Your first real concert." The young fashionista motioned her recalcitrant sister toward another array of racks.

Ranko groaned, half-kiddingly, and followed as she was directed to a seasonal section. The racks were filled with festive cocktail dresses in red, green, white and black, as well as sweaters with holiday patterns on them. Her eyes fell on a green knit sweater, an enormous drunken reindeer fashioned on its front out of red sequins. Images of glittery presents and an array of elves, candy canes, bells, and other holiday imagery covered the entire rest of the garment. Who the hell would wear something like that? They're hideous! I mean, maybe they're warm, and that's why? I guess somebody's buyin' 'em, though, 'cause they've got a shitload of 'em.

"Okay, kiddo. Our mission is to find something flirty, cute, and Christmas-ey. Let's lock in."

Ranko shuddered. "Flirty? Really?! Do you honestly not think I get enough wandering hands on an average shift?"

Izumi rolled her eyes. "I know, I know. You're not likely to be out in the crowd too much this time, though. You're pretty much gonna be nailed to the stage, girl. Besides, you're putting on a show. You're an entertainer now, little sister. We have to give them what they want."

The redhead sputtered a raspberry with her lips. "Says who?"

Izumi snickered. "Don't forget, this whole thing was your idea, Ran-chan."

Ugh. She's right. Why does she have to be right? Resigning herself to her fate, Ranko began searching the racks. Alright, Ranko, think. What would have excited me to see Akane wearing, back when I was a guy? Or, for that matter… Her face warmed yet again, but she willed the intrusive thought out of her mind as quickly as it had entered. Stop that, Ranko. It's never gonna happen. She emitted a quiet, resigned sigh. I damn sure wouldn't have been worried about whether it was itchy, or too short, or warm enough, or if it had pockets, though. Man, shit changes when you don't have testosterone pumping through your brain by the liter, I guess.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when Izumi called out, "How about this?"

Ranko looked up as Izumi raised a hanger above her head, on which hung a mostly sheer red satin garment. Wait a second. That's a dress?! That looks more like something a girl would wear under a dress, if they wanted to be all sexy and shit. "No way I'm wearing that in public." Or in private. Or anywhere.

As she returned the hanger to the rack, Izumi gasped, her eyes falling on something across the aisle. "Oh, that's it. I got it!"

Ranko sighed resolutely, mentally preparing herself for whatever fresh hell her self-nominated fashion consultant had deigned to torment her with, and plodded along after her.

The elder girl reached the rack first, and pulled another hanger from the aluminum clothes rack. From it hung a forest green dress made of crushed velvet. The neckline was fairly modest, square cut and rimmed in white faux fur. It had long sleeves, with more white fluff lining the cuffs like Izumi's coat had. Izumi held it up to Ranko's body. Its lower hem, lined with more of the soft fake fur, came to just above the songstress' knees. A white vinyl belt was wrapped around the waist, and part of the vinyl was molded into a small white bow that concealed the clasping mechanism to secure the belt.

"That's… actually not that bad. All things considered, anyway." She glanced up at the wall-mounted mirror, chuckling a bit at her reflection. I'm gonna look like Santa's naughtiest elf in this thing. I'm guessing that's the point.

Izumi nodded excitedly. "Are you kidding? It's amazing! Go try it on?!"

But… you got me a coat and a pair of jeans, and I finally got warm! With a nod and a groan, Ranko snatched the hanger from her hand and locked herself in a nearby fitting room stall.

When she emerged in the festive holiday dress, Izumi clapped her hands excitedly. "Yes! That's perfect! It just needs a few finishing touches. I'm on it! Go get changed back into the outfit you wore in, so we can get checked out, and I'll be right back!"

By the time Ranko re-emerged in her tee shirt and red skirt, still wearing the white peacoat, Izumi was leaning against the fitting room wall waiting for her. In her hand was a small, green plastic shopping basket full of various accessories. There were hair clips, some sort of stockings, and a green velvet Santa hat that matched the material of the color of the dress nearly perfectly, and more things besides. "All set? Here, I also grabbed these, so you'd have some selection to choose from." Izumi pulled a stack of Christmas-themed cassette tapes out of the basket, showing the spines of the plastic cases to her companion. "You think these will work?"

Ranko shrugged. "Hell if I know. I guess so?" She'd never picked the music when she sang Christmas songs at the Tendo home; she had always just gone through whatever motions Akane had asked her to. At the bar, it had mostly been Mei picking the songs. And in any case, it's not like I know what they say, anyway.

The brunette nodded. "Alright. We should pay for this stuff and think about getting back to the bar. It's getting late, and they're gonna need us in time for opening." She led her sister to a nearby checkout station, where a bored-looking clerk in his early twenties leaned on the counter. He was almost impossibly thin, his red uniform polo almost a full size too big for him.

"Hello! Thank you for shopping at W… w…" His voice stopped mid-word as his gaze fell on the redhead standing at Izumi's side. He reached for Izumi's shopping basket, his eyes not leaving the redhead, and almost knocked it off the counter when he misjudged the distance he had to reach to extract the first of the accessories Izumi had chosen from it. "S-s-sorry."

Izumi flashed her sister a mischievous grin as the clerk managed to begin scanning their selections, dragging them across a barcode reader mounted under a panel of glass in the countertop.

Ranko pulled her new peacoat off, setting it on the counter to be scanned. She could have sworn the poor guy at the counter's eyes were going to pop out of his head as he picked up the coat with a tremble in his wrist. What's this guy's deal? He's acting like he saw a ghost or something.

Reaching into her purse, Izumi laid a stack of bills in the plastic payment tray on the counter, bowing in polite thanks as she collected the three bags containing their spoils, handing the two containing the jeans and the coat to her sister. "You should pop back into the fitting room and put these back on, so you're warmer on the way home."

Ranko nodded, and the pair started walking back toward the changing area. She shot Izumi a side-eyed glance, as her sister had started giggling the moment they were out of earshot of the register. "What's so funny?!"

"Oh, come on, girl! Don't even try to tell me you didn't see that." Izumi smirked, glancing back at the checkout counter.

Now what the heck did I get wrong? The redhead flushed in embarrassment. "Izumi, what the hell are you talking about?"

Wow, Izumi thought, blinking in surprise. She really is that oblivious, huh? She leaned in closer to her sister, speaking in a hushed tone. "That guy was totally checking you out, sis."

Ranko gulped so hard that thought she might swallow her own tongue. "N-no way!"

"Don't worry, little sister," Izumi said as they reached the fitting room stalls. "I'll stand guard while you change, so nobody comes peeping." She flashed her sister an absolutely devilish sneer. "Unless you'd prefer I didn't, that is…"

The redhead pushed open the middle of the three stall doors, turning back to Izumi with a flustered smile as she set her bags on the bench. "So, hey, Miss Konishi? Bite me."

---

Some forty-five minutes after departing the shopping mall, the pair entered the bar they called home through the glass double doors. Ranko was indeed grateful to have her new jeans and coat, as the temperature had dropped significantly in the two hours they had spent in the mall, and the wind had picked up as well. There hadn't been much conversation on the train ride back; Ranko had spent most of the train ride using Izumi's portable cassette player to listen to the new tapes through a bulky set of headphones that were fortuitously doubling as earmuffs, trying to get a head start on choosing and memorizing songs.

The main bar room was a flurry of activity. Hana stood on a tall stepladder, weaving strands of shiny silver garland through the trusses holding up the stage lighting. The garland was being fed from the topmost of six stacked plastic bins, with Ayako standing next to the pile ensuring the garland didn't tangle as it emerged from its plastic prison. Yui was furiously shaking her cocktail tin over her shoulder, behind an array of dozens of bottles of every shape and size scattered across the main bar counter. Behind the disorderly row of liquor bottles was an assortment of festively-decorated glasses containing liquids of varying colors and thicknesses, each with black plastic straws protruding from them. Unless she was in the kitchen, Mei did not seem to be present. An upbeat instrumental Christmas song thumped through the sound system.

Izumi waved to three of her friends, all women, who were huddled around table eight in the corner. One of them held aloft a hand-drawn poster advertising the last-minute Christmas concert to be held on Saturday night. "How's this look, Izzi?"

Izumi gave the girls a double-thumbs up. "That's looking great, girls! Good job! Can we do ten more just like it?"

Yui removed the mixing glass from her shaker tin, dipping a straw directly into the shaker rather than pouring its contents into a clean glass. She covered the end of the straw to create negative pressure, scooping a small sampling of the cocktail into her mouth. She smacked her lips loudly as she turned around, dumping the contents of her shaker into the sink. "Nope, way too tart. Let's try that one again."

Ranko looked around, taking in all of the commotion. "Wow! This came together fast!"

Izumi grinned, poking her sister playfully on the nose. "It's all for you, sis."

The younger girl blushed, tucking a stray strand of her red hair that had escaped her ponytail behind her ear.

Yui grinned up at the pair, finally having looked up from her mixology experimentation long enough to notice they had returned. "Hey, hey! What do you think, Izzi? Is our star ready to shine?"

Ranko's face took on more color yet, and she fidgeted with her hair some more, using it as an excuse to hide her face behind her hand.

Izumi, picking up on the young singer's discomfort, smiled reassuringly at Ranko and laid her arm over the shorter girl's shoulders. "She was born ready."

Yui gave a warm smile in response. "Damn straight. Oh, hey! Izzi, c'mere! You gotta try this!" She handed over a Collins glass filled with a thick white liquid. The outside of the glass was striped in a thin red ribbon, and a sprig of fresh peppermint floated at the top.

Izumi covered the top of the straw with her finger, lifting the straw to her mouth and releasing the pressure to free the liquid trapped within. A quiet mmm escaped her throat as she swallowed. "It tastes just like a candy cane! That's so freaking good, Yui!"

Noticing Ranko looking over with a curious expression in her eyes, Izumi reloaded the straw, holding it out to her. "Come on, kiddo. I won't tell if you don't."

Ranko grinned and stepped forward, and Izumi popped the straw past her lips and released her thumb. "Oh, wow. That really is good!"

Yui beamed, offering her sister a cocky smirk. "Did you honestly doubt me? I'm working on a gingerbread one and a spiked eggnog, but they're not quite right yet. I'll get 'em though; I've still got some time."

The young singer's eyes panned the room as she tried to make eye contact with everyone individually. They're all working so hard to put my idea together, in order to help Hana out. To help my family. Fuck, it feels so good to be a part of this.

Looking around, Izumi leaned over the counter. "Hey, Yui? Where's Mei hiding?"

The blonde shrugged, a perplexed expression on her face. "Your guess is as good as mine."

 

[AnneOminous]

"Said Santa to a pork chop, what have you a…"

Hana laughed, shaking her head and putting up her left hand. Her right, meanwhile, cradled her forehead in it. "Baby, baby…"

Ranko stopped singing mid-word, slumping her shoulders and growling low and loud in her frustration. "Damn it! I messed it up again, didn't I?!"

Her adoptive mother nodded. "It says boy child," she repeated in English, slower and more clearly enunciated than the lyrics had done. "Like, a little boy, like Hoshi."

The redhead sighed, wiping the sweat from her brow with a blue bar towel. Despite the late-morning December chill still lingering in the empty watering hole a few blocks from the Minato harbor, she'd been dancing under the bar's lone spotlight non-stop for hours. She had on a long-sleeved black turtleneck, a hand-me-down gift from Izumi after nearly freezing to death during their shopping trip two days ago. It clung tightly to her form. Below that, she wore her new black jeans and a pair of black heeled boots.

"I'm never gonna get this stuff in time! Maybe we should stick to Japanese songs." As she vented, she walked over to the karaoke station, pressing stop and ceasing the upbeat guitar blaring through the twelve ceiling-mounted box speakers that made up the bar's sound system. No lyrics appeared on the monitor, as they'd had to resort to regular cassettes, and so Ranko had nothing but her ear to try and mimic the unfamiliar English words.

"I don't know if there are enough Japanese Christmas songs, honey. Not popular ones, at least. But you can do it. You've already gotten four of them down, and we've still got a couple of days yet. C'mon, little star, sit down a minute. You haven't left that corner all day." Hana turned to look over her shoulder, calling back to the service bar. "Izzi, honey, bring your sister something to drink when you have a second, would you, please?" She pulled out a chair at the table closest to the stage for Ranko, physically guiding her to it by the shoulders.

Ranko sighed, nodding her thanks as Izumi handed her a pilsner glass full of soda. "It wouldn't be so bad if I could just keep everybody focused on the dancing, but there's no room to really do anything up there except wiggle in place." She gestured to the tiny triangular stage crammed into the corner of the bar against the back wall of the ladies' room. "I might almost be better off standing on one of the tables."

Hana flashed a knowing glance and a bit of a smirk in Izumi's direction as the brunette buzzed back to the service bar to resume stocking the back bar with liquor. "I mean, you wiggle with the best of 'em, baby." She chuckled deviously. "Maybe not so much in that top, though."

The redhead flushed deeply. "Mama!" She hid her face in her hand. "I think it shrank a little bit in the dryer. I feel awful; Izumi gave it to me and I messed it up the first day."

"It happens, honey. You gotta read the labels on stuff. I swear, half the stuff they make these days, you look at it funny and it just… poof!" Hana flared her fingers outwardly on both hands, miming an explosion. "Shit just evaporates! That's why it's tee shirts and jeans all day for me. No muss, no fuss."

Ranko scoffed, sipping from her soda glass. "Yeah, well, convince Izzi that I can dress like a biker on stage every night, and I'm in, too."

"Fat chance!" came a shout from the direction of the service bar.

The young singer giggled, shrugging at her mother. "What the hell, it was worth a tr…"

With a loud bang, the double doors at the front of the bar opened from the street, and Mei burst through them, tossing her purse on the counter. "So sorry I'm late, everybody. Time got away from me."

Yui grunted something in acknowledgement, but didn't seem very impressed with her sister's explanation. "For the fourth time this week," she grumbled as she shelved a bottle of bourbon.
Mei looked around, waving to Ranko as she took in the finished state of the bar's holiday decor. "It's looking really good in here!"

Yui scoffed, spinning a bottle of peppermint schnapps into her palm. "Nice of you to notice."

The blue-pigtailed girl rolled her eyes with a frustrated sigh. "Yeah, well… I guess I'm going to get the kitchen set up."

Ranko winced a bit at the tension building between her sisters.. "Here, Mei, let me come help?" Mei didn't react, instead just disappearing into the kitchen, and Ranko followed behind shortly thereafter, joining her at the prep counter in the small commercial kitchen. As Mei had already taken to preparing the batter for the chicken wings, Ranko began pouring flour and water into the steel bowl at the base of their countertop mixer, starting to get a batch of pizza dough prepared. "Hey, Mei… are you… okay?"

Mei growled under her breath in response. "Why is everybody asking me that all the time lately? I've just been busy, alright?"

The younger girl nodded quietly, approaching as non-threateningly as possible with her hands up at the level of her breasts. "Hey, it's cool. I'm not judgin' ya, sis. Just, ya know, if there's anything you want to talk about, you know I'm here, is all. Gods know you've been here for me; it's the least I can do."

Mei looked up from her plastic bin of flour and seasoning, managing a smile. "Yeah, I know. Thanks, hon. I just… I didn't wanna talk about it with Yui and everybody, especially while they've been so focused on getting ready for this show." She blushed a little bit, and her smile widened. "I've been seeing somebody."

Ranko gave a surprised little gasp, smiling as she rounded the prep counter across from her sister. "Well, that's great! I'm so happy for you! Tell me about him?" She flushed, realizing she'd never learned much about her sister's preferences in matters of romance. "Or her, I guess, if that's…"

The elder sighed dreamily, leaning forward on the metal counter between them over the large plastic tub. "My gods, Ranko, he's so handsome, and he's a good dresser, and the way he talks is so, I don't know, almost regal."

Ranko nodded as she added some paprika to the bin between them, rotating her wrist sideways in a please continue gesture with a little giggle.

"Gods, let's see… he's super popular, too. He's one of the top athletes at Shinagawa Academy. Like, he's set all kinds of famous records and stuff. Though, not as many, since he and his partner split up and he started competing solo."

The redhead looked up, confusion in her eyes. "Partner? What sport does he play? Tennis or something?"

"Believe it or not? Figure skating! You wouldn't think that would be so popular, especially compared to the more rough-and-tumble sports. But, ever since he started, he's only ever lost one match. I guess it doesn't matter what you do, they love you if you win!" Mei emitted a giddy little laugh as she reached for the oregano.

Ranko's face fell. Oh, no, she thought to herself. "Wh…what's his name?" Please be wrong, she thought. Please be wrong.

Mei smiled brightly, a far-off look in her starry eyes. She pronounced the name with almost reverence, as if she were speaking of a movie star or a king. "Mikado Sanzenin."

Ranko felt as if she'd been punched in the stomach, and the room started to spin a little bit. Not him. Not Sanzenin. Not here. Anything but that. Ryoga, Xian Pu, hell, Pop can find me here. I'll deal with it. But Sanzenin? After everything he took from me? Her mind flashed back to that day. Being lifted off her feet, restrained helplessly, and kissed. Taken. Violated. She looked up at Mei, still blissfully humming as she measured out spices for the fried chicken.

Can I tell her? Can I not?

A quiet "Oh." was all Ranko could get past her lips as she slumped onto one of the metal stools in front of the prep counter, her body limp as a sack of potatoes.

"Well, glad to see you're so excited, Ran-chan." Mei scoffed, flicking a fingerful of flour in Ranko's direction and leaving a few splotches of white on Ranko's black sweater.

Ranko did not seem amused by her antics, though, and her eyes had significantly clouded with a dark sadness in the space of a few heartbeats.

Mei waved her hand in front of the redhead's face. "Helloooo-o? Earth to Ranko! What got into you all of a sudden? I thought you were supposed to be Little Miss Holly Jolly today, anyway."

Ranko swallowed hard, reaching across the metal countertop for her sister's hand. The look in her eyes was deadly serious. "Mei, you… you shouldn't see this guy anymore."

The elder girl's demeanor changed instantly, the anger and frustration returning to her eyes. "Why not?! He's amazing, and he's actually interested in me. I mean, he asked me out; I didn't even have to chase him. He makes me feel special!"

Ranko sighed despondently. She couldn't tell her the truth. She wanted to, but doing so would admit what Mikado had done to her, and also tie a direct line back to her former life. She didn't imagine it would be that difficult to look up in the records to see just to whom the Golden Pair of figure skating had suffered their only defeat. At least, the victor's name wouldn't have been recorded as Ranko Tendo, but a photograph would be hard to deny.

"I just have a bad feeling about him, okay? Please, Mei… just trust me."

Mei slammed the plastic bin down on the counter, a cloud of flour poofing out at its sides. "You've never even met him!"

If only, Ranko thought to herself. "It's not like…"

"I've finally got somebody that's interested in me, who's not a total dirtbag and an addict, and all you can do is tell me not to see him?! Why can't you just be happy for me? Did I tell you to back off when you were floating on clouds about maybe dating a girl? Honestly, Ranko, I can't believe you!"

Ranko's eyes widened. Ouch. Low blow, sis. Fuck, how do I… "I… I just don't want to see you get hurt, okay?"

Mei roared at her in anger, rocking the redhead back in shock. "Who are you to tell me what I can and can't do!? After everything we've done for you?! You've barely been here a month, and all of a sudden you're everybody's perfect little princess! You've got the whole place revolving around you, and so excuse me if I found the last person left in Tokyo that isn't too busy worshiping you to notice anybody else!"

Ranko gasped, reaching out for her sister again. "Mei, I…"

The saloon door opened and Yui peeked inside, just as Mei thrust the clear plastic container forward with a furious scream, coating Ranko's face and sweater with flour and spices. "Just forget it! I'm out of here!" Mei threw her arm up at Yui over the countertop. "Go on, Ranko! Your adoring fans await!" The blue-haired young woman spun on the heels of her white tennis shoes and crashed through the steel back door with a loud bang, leaving it hanging halfway open as she turned to run down the alley toward the street.

"What in the actual hell was that about?" Yui made her way down the hallway, her heels making ominous clacking songs as they approached her coughing youngest sister.

Ranko coughed as she turned on her stool to face Yui, tears beginning to form in her right eye and streak through the thin dust of flour covering her face. She was crying so much more since she became a girl, and she didn't like it at all. I can't believe how quickly Mei turned on me. If only she knew what he did to me. What he tried to do to Akane. Who he really is. Mei was right to be angry, though. All I had to do was tell her, and I wasn't brave enough to open my damn mouth.

"She, um…" Ranko wiped her face with a scratchy brown paper towel, wincing as its rough texture scraped over her skin. "She's got a boyfriend."

Yui's stance softened a little, but her face wrinkled in perplexity. "That's what's got her so pissed off? She's… happy?! How's that happen, exactly?"

Ranko shook her head. "I've got a bad feeling about this guy, Yui. I tried to tell her, and…" She gestured to the open door.

Yui frowned, looking her sister over as if seeking some hidden information that might be written on her face somewhere. "Do you know something about him?"

Ranko swallowed hard, with an audible gulp Yui heard from a full meter away. All I have to do is say it, and… I just can't. He's a creeper, Yui. He hits girls and quits 'em. He takes without asking. He's an honorless scumbag. Akane and untold hundreds of people in that arena at Kolhotz High had seen how he shamed her. She couldn't bear one more person knowing, especially one who could carry that knowledge into her new life. I can't have Yui and all of them look at me like Pop, and even Nabiki and Kasumi, did once they found out. I can't stand the thought of them laughing at me. Mocking me. Looking at me with disgust in their eyes, like I'm some sort of…. She couldn't even bear to finish the thought in her mind, let alone give it voice. "It's just a feeling."

"You gotta be careful with stuff like that, Ranko! Clearly, she's really upset!" The blonde barkeep sighed, beginning to brush loose flour from the countertop into a nearby trash can with her hand.

Ranko nodded. "I know, and I feel terrible. I just don't want her to get hurt."

Yui stepped forward and put a hand on Ranko's shoulder, brushing some flour off of her black sweater onto the floor. "Sometimes, you gotta let people make their own decisions. Be there for them if things go bad, but don't go around assuming the worst and make them doubt the good things when they come. Besides, it's entirely possible you're wrong about this guy."

Ranko desperately wanted any hope to hold on to, for Mei's sake, that Yui might have a point. However frantically she searched her mind for it, she could find none.

 

[AnneOminous]

Akane walked briskly down the sidewalk, shivering from the cold. It was getting dark, and the December chill sliced through her school uniform like a naginata. She idly whistled the tune of Tatsuro Yamashita's Christmas Eve, smiling at the colored lights draped over the balcony railing of an apartment she passed. Man, that freaking song is everywhere this year. Those stupid train commercials, just every five freakin' minutes.

Pulling her black coat tighter around herself to guard against an icy gust, she smiled wistfully down at the Shakujii River, its water a dark snake cutting through a concrete channel opposite the chain-link fence to her left. So many times walking to school, Ranma ended up falling in there. Heck, half the time, I threw him in there myself. And out would pop… She felt her cheeks warm despite the chill in the air at the thought of the redheaded girl with whom she'd recently reconnected.

I wish I could call her. I can't risk calling the bar from home, but… maybe a payphone? She glanced down at her wristwatch, sighing in disappointment. Damn. It's almost six. They'll be opening any minute. She'll be too busy to talk, between her tables and singing. Akane smiled gently at the thought of her once-betrothed swaying on that tiny corner stage, beaming with joy and waving to the crowd. I wonder what Izumi's got her wearing tonight. She closed her eyes, breathing deep of the frigid December air and wrapping her arms around herself, imagining a slender redhead between them.

She giggled as she kicked a pebble along the sidewalk. Gods, what's gotten into me? When she was here with us, back when she was… when there was a chance, all I could think of most days was getting Dad to let me out of being stuck with Ranma Saotome. And now that she's a…

Akane turned her eyes to the southeast, staring up at the stars beginning to peek through the encroaching darkness. She half-expected to see spotlights dancing in the sky, beacons calling out to anyone who might follow them to a two-story brick building near the harbor, and within, the most beautiful thing in the Minato district. She bit her lip softly, shaking her head and turning back toward home. Ranko Tendo, what have you done to me?!

The high schooler sighed, turning her gaze from an office building. Both of the bushes flanking the walkway up to its front door were wrapped in colored lights and pocked with red and white glass balls. She was only with us for a year or two, but it already doesn't feel like Christmas around here without her.

Gods, I miss her.

---

Kasumi hummed to herself as she cleared the dinner table. Everything had been so peaceful at home lately, and she was glad for it, wrong though it felt sometimes. She felt terrible every time she allowed herself to associate the dramatic reduction in yelling, fighting, destroyed furniture, and general chaos permeating her home with the day that Ranma left. Of course, she missed Ranma, and still prayed often for his safety, wherever he might be. I hope he's at least found somewhere safe to spend the holidays, especially with the forecasts predicting more winter storms for the coming week, she fretted.

"Oh, Father? I forgot to ask you. What would you like me to make for dinner on Saturday? I'll need to go to the store tomorrow to make sure I have time to get everything ready."

Soun smiled up at his eldest daughter. She's becoming more and more the image of her mother every day, he thought with a proud sigh. "Whatever you think is best, Kasumi. I have every confidence in you."

Akane looked up from the television. "What's so special about Saturday?"

The Tendo patriarch chuckled, leaning over the table and reaching for his tea cup. "Well, Akane, as you know, the city council elections are early next year, and the mayor wants me to run again. More than that, though, he thinks I'd be well-suited to run for mayor myself, since he's retiring after his term ends. He's asked if he could come by for dinner and talk about it with me soon."

Akane grinned, turning excitedly to face her father from her cushion on the floor. "Wow, really, Dad? Mayor? That's great! I'm so proud of you!"

Soun chuckled, tamping down her enthusiasm with a downward wave of his hand. "Now, now, Akane, I haven't even decided if I'm going to run, let alone gotten any votes. But I have to admit, it's interesting, and we could certainly use the city salary since the dojo has been so quiet of late." He smiled happily at his girls. "I was actually hoping the three of you would all be here. I'd love to introduce the whole family to Mayor Dato."

His youngest daughter beamed, nodding emphatically. "Dad, that would be…"

Nabiki glared at her sister behind their father's back, making a throat-slitting gesture in her direction as she side-eyed the giant panda seated at the far end of the dining table. .

Akane blinked in surprise, but caught her sister's hint. "I… I don't know, Dad. Maybe? It's this Saturday, you said?"

Nabiki walked out from behind her father and sat on the tabletop, crossing her legs with her typical brash air. "I'm terribly sorry, Daddy, but Akane and I already have plans. The sorority I'm joining is going to have a lot of girls graduate this year, and they're hoping to recruit my little sister to replenish the ranks."

Akane shook her head in surprise, making a confused gesture to Nabiki out of her father's view. "Uh, yeah! Nabiki, crap, was that this Saturday? It slipped my mind. Could we maybe do dinner with the mayor Sunday instead, Dad?"

Soun stammered, glancing up at Kasumi. "Well, I suppose I could ask him. I mean, if you're both too busy for the mayor…" How is it that my youngest daughters have fuller social calendars than I do?

His middle daughter nodded, shrugging her shoulders in her father's direction. "You know how it is, Daddy. Availability is the price of popularity. That advice is free, but if you want me to help you manage your campaign, we'll have to come to some other arrangement." She smirked confidently, winking to her sister. Having captured Akane's attention, Nabiki hopped off the table to her feet and made her way to the stairway, ascending it and lingering in the hallway between her room and Akane's.

"Well, I'd better get upstairs! Lots of homework to do tonight! Thanks for dinner, Kasumi!" Akane stood, stretching her back and making for the stairs. As she reached the second floor landing, she rolled her eyes in her sister's direction, looking Nabiki over suspiciously. "Okay, Nabiki. Mind explaining why you just made me lie to our father and blow off the freaking mayor?! We don't have plans on Saturday night!"

Nabiki grinned deviously. "What are you talking about, little sister? Sure we do."

Akane growled, stomping her foot in her frustration. "What are you talking about?! I'm not going to some stupid sorority party! Who has the time for frivolous crap like that?"

The lithe brunette cackled in amusement. "Oh, Akane. I said we had plans. I didn't say we have the same plans." She reached into the pocket of the green puffy vest she wore over her orange sweater, pulling out a Polaroid photograph and waving it in the air. "But you do, in fact, have somewhere to be."

Akane groaned in exasperation. "Would you please just stop with the games?! I'm not going to pay you for your stupid picture, okay, Nabiki?! Just tell me what this is all about!"

Nabiki sneered in self-satisfaction, leaning her backside on the wall between her bedroom door and Akane's and nonchalantly crossing her ankles. "Oh, my dear little sister, there's no charge. Not this time. Let's call this one an early Christmas present." She handed Akane the photo. "I'll let Daddy know you'll be at the sorority house with me until morning." She winked with another mischievous smile, popping her back off of the wall and quickly slipping into her room, closing the door behind her.

Honestly! She's so smug about this kind of stuff! Akane turned over the Polaroid photo in her hand, her facial expression changing from fury, to confusion, and then to warmth. The picture depicted a chaotic jumble of colored papers on a college campus bulletin board. There were multiple flyers announcing that people were giving away old furniture. A yellow sheet with several tear-off tags at the bottom bearing the same phone number offered calculus tutoring. A black-and-white photocopied picture of a poorly-drawn demon in a stone archway was overlaid with text seeking people to play something called Dungeons and Dragons. A formal-looking scroll of nearly-packed kanji blared that the college's kendo team was holding open try-outs on December 23rd. And, at the dead center of the photo hung a hand-drawn advertisement promoting a special Christmas party and concert Saturday night at the Phoenix.

Akane's heart leapt with excitement. I might actually get to spend Christmas, or at least a little of it, with Ran… her! She hugged the photo tight to her chest, grinning up at the little duck dangling from a nail on Nabiki's closed bedroom door. Mercenary though she can be, when I least expect it, Nabiki can always find a way to surprise me with her kindness. You can try to hide it from the world, and let everybody think you're a heartless bitch, but… You're still my big sister, and you're always looking out for me. Thanks, Nabiki.

She slipped into her room, closing and locking her bedroom door and throwing open her voluminous closet. A real concert? Ranko?! I bet she's going to be amazing. She's gonna be perfect. Gods, what the hell am I gonna wear?!

 

[AnneOminous]

Ranko grumbled to herself, taking a long draught of her room-temperature tea. She wished she had some rocket fuel to pour into it. Between worrying for Mei's safety, her crushing sense of guilt at not being more forthcoming about her history with Mikado, and preparing for the concert to save the bar starting in just forty hours, she hadn't slept a wink in days. Mei hadn't come into work since her argument with Ranko, so the Phoenix had been short-staffed and more hectic than usual, to boot.

If this is a joke, Mama, I'm not laughing. This is ridiculous. Ranko's groan echoed in the empty bar room as she leaned forward on her stool, her elbows resting atop the main bar counter. Hana had instructed her to be up and dressed by 8:30 in the morning, though for what reason, she had not said. Still, Ranko was not about to disappoint her boss and benefactor, so she had done as she was told. She wore a businesslike blue blazer and matching pencil skirt over a cream-colored button-down shirt, all of which Izumi had brought for her the night before and insisted she wear for whatever the unknown occasion was. She hated the outfit; it was tight in the wrong places and itchy everywhere on her hypersensitive skin.

She heard a key in the front door lock and looked up as a stream of sunlight poured through the double doors. Ranko lifted her hand to shield her eyes as Hana stepped into the room, doffing her aviator sunglasses. At least, Ranko thought it was Hana. She barely recognized the old barkeep dressed as she was. Hana wore a pair of mid-gray nylon slacks and a matching suit jacket over a jewel-tone blue button-down blouse, the top button of her collar left open. Her short platform heels clacked loudly on the wooden floor of the empty bar, and her just-longer-than-shoulder-length salt-and-pepper hair was held back with a series of barely-visible hairpins.

"You don't have to stare, you know," Hana said with a smirk down at her youngest ward.

Ranko shook her head, blinking the drowsiness from her eyes. "Oh! I'm sorry, Mama! I've just… never seen you dressed like that before! It works for you."

Hana nodded, an amused chuckle escaping her lips. "I can clean up when I have to, I just don't like to. Now, let's have a look at you." She walked in a half-circle around Ranko's bar stool. "I think that'll work, yeah. Not bad, kiddo."

The redhead rolled her eyes. "I'm happy to please, not that I got much of a choice. Izumi didn't exactly make it sound like there was any room for debate on my wardrobe choices." Today, or basically ever, she thought with a slight flush of her cheeks. "So, when do I get to find out what we're actually doing at stupid-o-clock in the morning?"

Hana laughed heartily. "Tell you on the way. C'mon, you." She offered a hand to help Ranko off the stool. She had seen enough flight attendants and secretaries dismount the brown vinyl stools in pencil skirts to know that the transition could prove tricky even when one wasn't filled with bourbon at the moment.

The teen blushed furiously; the idea of being helped with such a basic maneuver owing to her clothing felt so feminine, and dependent, and weird. She'd reached a point where she didn't always hate it, but it was still a foreign experience for her.

Hana led her young charge out the front door, locking it behind them with her key. Following the Phoenix matriarch's lead, Ranko began walking in the direction of the train station. In a bid to amuse herself and take her mind off of her anxiety, she hopped up onto a long concrete seating ledge along the sidewalk, walking alongside Hana at eye level with the taller woman.

"Don't you think you should get down from there? What if you fall?" Hana smiled up at her martial artist daughter with a slightly disbelieving shake of her head.

Ranko smirked confidently in response. "Yeah, you're probably right." She hopped up from the seat of the long bench and continued walking, without breaking stride or slowing, along the top of the thin back rail of the bench instead.

The old barkeep rolled her eyes. "Okay, showoff, I get the idea. Now get down here before you hurt yourself."

The young lady, as she was being reminded to play the part of, stepped down next to her. "Yes, ma'am." Her father would have had a heart attack and died at the thought of his child following instructions from an elder without a fight – but then again, he had never tried actual respect in his dealings with her. "So… where are we going? What's with the fancy duds and everything?"

Hana smiled, disarmingly. "We're going to the library."

Ranko nearly face planted. "You… You got me dressed up like a secretary, and out here before the sun has had its friggin' coffee, to go stare at some dusty-ass books?!"

The older woman laughed, shaking her head. "Of course not, honey. We have a meeting."

Ranko blinked in confusion. "About what?"

"About you," came Hana's reply as she pulled open the glass door of the train station.

"Yeah? What does the freakin' library want with me, anyway?" Ranko looked legitimately confused. I've never known books to issue challenges before, but stranger things have happened in my life, I guess.

Hana dropped a pair of coins into the turnstile, leading Ranko through it and onto the train platform. "It's about your education."

The teen's mouth fell open incredulously. "Wait, what?! I'm not even in school anymore."

"I know. But we need to do something about that, young lady." Hana smiled reassuringly down at the teen, offering her a hand as Ranko stepped up onto the train.

Ranko shuddered with the memory of the night she left the Tendo home, staring up at Nabiki's old teal school pinafore. She couldn't… She wouldn't try to send me back to high school after everything, as a girl, would she?! There's gonna be questions, and stares, and probably some groupies, and girls who would expect me to know how to behave, and guys who… well, who don't know how to behave around girls. "But… I can't go back to school. I told you, I was so far back, it was ridiculous."

Hana patted her young charge's knee as they took their seats on the metro train. "I know, honey. Which is why we're going to do it another way. We're going to come up with a plan to get you caught up, and when you're ready, we will either get you enrolled in classes, or you'll take your equivalency exams and get your diploma. I promised you we would. The person we're meeting with today is an advisor who will help us get you on the right trajectory."

"But, I don't need school, or some test. I'm happy right where I am! Besides, you need me there to help with work stuff!" Ranko pouted, looking out the window as the Minato cityscape began to pick up speed zooming past.

Hana cocked her head. "Oh?! So you want to wait tables and have drunk guys grabbing at your ass for the rest of your life? What's your career plan beyond that?"

Ranko blushed in embarrassment. She really had no plan, and Hana knew it. There is one aspect of my job that I wouldn't hate making a career out of. I'd feel like an idiot even saying it out loud, though. That ain't ever gonna happen. With a defeated frown, she turned back to Hana. "I… I guess not."

"That's better. I don't want you to be scared about this, baby." Hana squeezed the redhead's hand tightly, giving it a reassuring little bounce in her lap. "You are behind through no fault of your own. None of this was your mistake, or your choice, and there isn't any shame in it. But we do need to fix it for you, little star. There's no time limit on this, either. We will help you every step of the way, and if we have to hire tutors to help you, we will find a way to do that, too."

Ranko blushed yet again. "I guess. I just don't know why it's such a big deal. I've been doin' okay so far."

Hana groaned in mock frustration. "Because you're a smart girl, Ranko, and you deserve better than slinging beer until you're forty. I want you to be able to do something you're proud of."

The redhead blinked, taking a moment to process what she'd heard. She didn't think anyone had ever called her smart before, and especially not a smart girl. She was learning to feel a little more comfortable every day in her new life, but hearing someone actually call her a girl out loud sometimes still made her feel as awkward and false as she did the first day she stepped out of that damned puddle in China. "Like… like what?"

Hana smiled, squeezing the teen's hand again. "Like literally anything you put your mind to, honey. I have every confidence that you can. We just need to help get you some of the tools you're missing so you can get there." She looked down into the young waitress' eyes with a sincere and serious expression. "I mean it, Ranko. I know your whole life was planned out for you before, and you didn't get an awful lot of say in the matter. I want you to know that you are allowed to dream for yourself now. Pick a dream, any dream, as long as it's yours and yours alone, and you can chase it. That's your right as a woman. And whatever you decide, we'll all be behind you and beside you the whole way."

My right… as a woman? To hear Pop talk about it, I didn't even get any rights as a dude. Ranko sighed at the mention of dreams. Hers hadn't been especially pleasant of late. "All of you? Even Mei?"

Hana rolled her eyes. "Yeah, even her. She's just being protective of her boyfriend. I don't know why you are so worried about him, but I'm sure you two will work it out. She loves you just like your other sisters do."

Ranko opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. Why can't I just tell them? He hurt me. I stopped him from hurting me again, and hurting Akane. I won. So, why am I so damned ashamed? I could end this right now, and I'm too much of a fucking coward.

The overhead speaker chimed to indicate their stop, and Hana stood, Ranko behind her. "Come on, young lady. Let's go find you a dream."

Hana's young ward blushed and followed where she led. The pair exited the train station, crossing the street and entering the library building. Hana walked up to the circular oak receptionist desk, Ranko in tow. "Hello, good morning? My daughter and I have an appointment with Ryuki Kagawa, please?"

The young male receptionist began to search the appointment book, and Ranko just stood there, her head spinning as if she'd been hit in the face with a board.

D… daughter?! I've been calling Hana Mama on and off for a few weeks, just to show respect. Just like when Akane called the old freak 'Grandfather' Happosai. Being comfortable with the idea of being referred to as a girl, or a woman, is taking some getting used to, but I'm getting there. But… being someone's daughter?! Like, having someone who sees me as a girl, isn't disgusted by it, and actually wants to claim me? Up until the day I left the Tendos' place, six months after what happened on the mountain, Pop still called me my boy without fail. That Amazon witch left me a wound that will never heal, and Pop couldn't help but rub salt in it every chance he got.

After years of her father expressing disdain anytime she made any effort to make peace with her feminine half, and the constant warnings that her mother would disown her - or worse - if she ever suspected that her child displayed any feminine tendencies whatsoever, Ranko had always just taken as fact that there was a part of her that would never find acceptance. But there, in that moment, there was Hana, dressed up all professional and serious-like, telling someone that she was her daughter with a straight face. She wasn't embarrassed. There was no disgust or derisiveness. She actually sounded… proud?

Sure, it's not like there was a legal adoption, or even that she's even using what the government would consider my real name. But it doesn't even matter. I'm stuck as a girl, sure, but for the first time in my life, someone sees me like I am and… wants me anyway?!

The singular word - daughter - brought the gift of validation to the impossible hope with which she'd left the Tendo home: that despite how freakish the circumstances that had befallen her were, if she were only willing to leave the cursed and broken boy behind, that she just might get to live as just a normal, regular, totally non-weird person. Sure, that normal person spends most of her time in skirts now, but she doesn't have to spend it hiding from crazy Amazons, poisoned roses and razor gymnastics ribbons, exploding rocks, prose-slinging swordsmen and panty-thieving ghouls. She doesn't wake up daily to the reminders of what a disappointment she is to her family, she thought, her mind racing with possibilities. To Ranko, those few syllables meant acceptance, trust, pride, love, and so many other good feelings that she had been chasing hopelessly for years. At that moment, she doubted anything in the world could have made her happier than being a daughter.

"Miss Tendo? Ranko?"

Ranko shook her head to jog herself back into the moment, looking up into the eyes of a concerned-looking older woman in a frumpy floral dress.

"Are you all right, dear?" The kindly-looking old woman peered over the rims of her glasses at the young redhead.

Ranko blushed furiously. "Yes, ma'am, I'm so sorry. I… just didn't sleep much last night." She bowed respectfully. Twenty minutes ago, I was laughing this off, but now, even if the whole thing blows up in my face, no matter what I do, I can't embarrass Han… Mama… after she claimed me as her own. She rose from the bow, giving her most demure, sincere smile up at the administrator. This is about my family's honor now.

"Ah, to be young." The elderly woman smiled, motioning to Ranko and Hana to follow her to a small cubicle in the back corner of the administrative area of the library. "So, Ranko, your mother told me what she could about your educational history, but there are some pretty big gaps. In fact, we couldn't even find your birth records or family registry anywhere, let alone any school transcripts."

Ranko gulped. This is going to take some fancy dancing, she fretted as she took one of the two leather chairs across the desk from Ms. Kagawa. "Firstly, please understand that this is no fault of… Miss Hana's," Ranko began. "My father and I traveled constantly, from the time I was five or so, including a lot of time we spent out of the country. So, I missed a lot of time in school, my school records are hard to come by, and I honestly couldn't even tell you what city I was born in. But, my pop…"

She thought about how to handle the next part for a moment, finally grunting in resolution. At least in this version of the story, he'll get the blame he deserves. "My father abandoned me about nine months ago, and I was living on the street until Miss Hana took me in." She smiled reverently up into Hana's beaming eyes.

The old woman frowned. "My gods, you poor thing! And, what about your situation now? Are you alright? Is everything working out where you are now?"

Ranko smiled gratefully up and to her right again, where Hana listened to the story with riveted attention. I guess parts of this are news to her, too, Ranko realized. "Oh, yes, Miss Kagawa." She reached to her right, squeezing Hana's hand and trying to say with her eyes all that she could only summarize in words. "She has been the absolute best mother a girl could ask for. I am so incredibly lucky that she found me."

Hana smiled back, looking away after a long moment and lifting her fingertips to her left eye.

The administrator smiled. "That's wonderful to hear, sweetheart, and bless you, ma'am, for having the kindness to look after her like that. I would love to help you get back on track with all of this, but we're going to have to start from the beginning and try to get you some sort of identification. I can't even file the paperwork to get you started without it. You'll need to go to the Department of Family Services for that, and they're closed for holidays until the new year. If you have any family that you can still get in touch with and see if they have any of your records, that will make the process a whole lot easier. Otherwise, we will have to almost rebuild your identity from scratch!"

Ranko's face broke out in a broad grin. That's exactly what I want, and all I have to do to get it is… nothing.

Ms. Kagawa continued. "If we're unable to find your school records, that's an easier problem to solve. We can give you a placement test in a few weeks. Don't worry about studying for it; the intent is not to grade you, but only to see what areas you still need academic work on. Our agency can then put you in touch with tutors and provide textbooks and other curriculum support to help you catch up any skill sets or refresh things you may have forgotten after not using them for a while. When you think you're ready, we can either enroll you in school, or you can take another exam to demonstrate basic academic competencies. If you choose that route, once you pass that exam, you'll receive a certificate that is functionally equivalent to a high school diploma. You can use it for most colleges, job applications, or anything else you need."

The kindly woman flipped the page on her desk blotter calendar, peering ahead to the following month. "How about we do the placement exam on January twelfth? That'll give you a few weeks to get the identification paperwork sorted out, too."

Ranko looked up at Hana for confirmation, and receiving a nod, she smiled at the registrar. "Sounds great! Thank you so much!"

The gray-haired woman stood slowly and arthritically, giving Hana and Ranko a grandmotherly smile. "You are so welcome, sweetheart. It was truly an honor to meet you both. Have a wonderful holiday."

Ranko bowed politely. "You too!"

The pair exited the building, Ranko breathing a sigh of relief. That could have gone a lot more painfully than it did, she thought. I was so worried they'd accuse me or Hana of fraud or something, without having any documentation to back up anything we said. Especially because what documentation I did have didn't match a damn thing I said… which is why I burned all that shit weeks ago.

Hana looked down to the young redhead, hugging her about the shoulders with one arm. "Do you have any idea how proud of you I am?!"

Ranko stopped walking, turning to face her sincerely. "I… think so, even though I don't always understand why. But, I meant what I said back there. I promise, I'm never going to stop trying to be worthy of everything you have done for me. I'm never going to stop trying to earn your pride. When you called me your… daughter… Mama, I thought I was gonna cry."

Hana leaned down, kissing Ranko on the top of her head through her braided red hair. "Me too, honey. Me too."

 

[AnneOminous]

"Please watch your step while exiting the platform. Thank you." A merry little chime alerted Ranko and her mother to the opening of the automatic train doors, and the redhead rose to her feet.

Ranko winced slightly, the backs of her legs having uncomfortably stuck to the vinyl seats under the borrowed pencil skirt she wore. Ow. Stupid Cat's Tongue.
The two well-dressed women stepped off the train and onto the platform. Ranko looked around, sighing softly as she followed Hana clear of the platform and toward the main concourse. She noticed Hana checking her wristwatch, probably for the fourth or fifth time since they'd left the library. She got a hot date or something? Ranko wondered. Honestly, I can't believe she even set this meeting up right now; between getting ready for the concert, the holidays and everything, it just doesn't seem like the most important thing. Her concerted expression gave way to a blush.

Hana motioned to a little cafe nestled into the corner of the station, just beyond the ticket booth. "You hungry, kiddo? We could grab a quick bite if you want. I just know you didn't get up early enough for breakfast before getting ready so early."

Ranko shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm okay, but we can stop if you wanna." In reality, she hadn't been eating much the last few days. Between concert preparations and the impending threat of an encounter with Mikado Sanzenin, she'd been running on pure adrenaline for the better part of a week.

Hana nodded. "Yeah, I could go for a tamagoyaki." She meandered over toward the order window, making and paying for her selection, leaving Ranko leaning against the gray metal railing overlooking the tracks and watching the trains come in. The teen seemed deep in thought.

After a few moments, the owner of the Phoenix returned from the order window, a white paper tray of folded egg in her hand. Her youngest adopted daughter was not where Hana had left her, however. "Ranko?" She craned her neck, scanning the crowd for the telltale shock of red hair, but she did not spy it. Maybe she went to the bathroom?

Hana walked toward the restroom, waiting a moment, and when no one she recognized emerged, she looked around again. Her eye caught on a dark little alcove, off of the narrow corridor leading from the main concourse to the restrooms. Sticking out into the entranceway at about knee height was a familiar black chunky heel. Ranko? Hana crept to the entrance of the darkened nook, as quietly as she could in her own heels. There, she found the young redhead, curled up in almost the fetal position on a slatted bamboo bench opposite a pair of dusty, inoperative vending machines that had been stored in the disused space. "There you are, little star. You disappeared on me."

The redhead nodded, sitting up on the bench and scooting over to one side to make room for her. "Sorry, Mama. I was just…" She shrugged, deciding the rest of her sentence was unimportant and not worth finishing.

Hana sat next to her daughter, offering her a bite of tamagoyaki with her wooden chopsticks. Ranko shook her head in polite declination, so Hana popped it into her mouth, speaking as she chewed. "What are you doing, hiding in here? You okay, kiddo? What's buggin' ya?"

Ranko frowned, looking down in shame at her hands. "Sorry. I was just thinking." She brushed a fleck of dust from the navy skirt she'd borrowed from Izumi. "I… used to sleep here sometimes, if it was too cold outside or it was raining or something."

The elder woman frowned, looking around the bleak little corner of the train station with a new perspective. "You're never going to have to do anything like that again, honey. You're never going to be alone again. Look at me." She waited for Ranko's eyes to lift to meet hers before continuing. "I mean it. I promise, Ranko."

Hana set her tray of food down on the bench at her right hip, turning on the seat to face her young ward. "Hey, you know you can talk to me, right?" Hana rested her hand on her daughter's shoulder. "C'mon. What's going on in there? I know you've got a lot on your plate right now with the show, this new exam thing, and whatever's happening between you and Mei."

Ranko sighed. The situation with Mei and Mikado was eating her up, not only with worry over Mei getting hurt, but with her own memories of her assailant being dredged up. If I tell them, and they pressure Mei to break it off with him, it'll be like I'm asking them to trust me over her. Mei already thinks I'm getting favoritism from them. It'll just make things worse and push her further away from me. Why can't I just… why can't I admit what he did to me? Why can't I be brave enough? She looked up into Hana's eyes again. "I'm sorry I'm such a mess."

Hana's shoulders slumped as she swallowed a bite of egg. "Hey. Knock that off now. C'mon." She reached out, stroking the teen's flame-red hair. "All of us are a mess, baby. You, me, all your sisters, hell, most people in the world. I'd take it all away from you if I could. Every single thing that's hurting you, or scaring you, or haunting you. But, I'm also grateful for the fact that one day, you woke up on this bench, and decided to make your life better. One day, you got up off of this bench and wandered into my bar looking for a job." She cupped her hand around Ranko's cheek. "And because you did - because you made that choice to look for something better - I got to meet my incredible little girl."

The redhead threw herself forward, wrapping her arms around Hana and squeezing her around the midsection. "Thank you. For the… for… thank you."

The old barkeep smiled, stroking her child's hair and putting her arm over her back. "Oh, Ranko, honey, you're so welcome." As she turned her body into the hug, she knocked her half-eaten tray of tamagoyaki to the floor. Whatever. I really wasn't all that hungry anyway; I was just trying to kill a little time. But, it should be late enough now, I think. "C'mon, precious. You about ready to get out of here, and go home?"

Ranko sat up, putting on a bright smile that was only slightly betrayed by her welling eyes. She did have plenty of reasons to smile, she realized, even when the reasons not to were the ones currently dominating her thoughts. "You bet!"

---

Hana slid her key into the lock of the glass door painted with her name, fumbling with it clumsily for a moment before turning it in the lock and pushing the door open. She held it open for her daughter.

As Ranko entered the main bar area of the Phoenix, she noticed that the aluminum stepladder and some of the other tools they'd used while decorating had been pulled out again. Maybe Ayako found some more decorations to put up? No, that's not it... She realized she no longer heard the attract music loop coming from the Pac-Man arcade machine in the back. Did it break? Mei's gonna have a conniption.

Hana stopped walking near the main bar counter, just watching the young redhead from behind with an excited smile. I wonder how long it'll take her to notice what changed, she thought as she pulled off her blazer and hung it over the back of a bar stool.

As Ranko approached the little alcove, she stopped suddenly. The arcade machine was completely gone, and so was the purple-felted billiards table. In their place were three six-top tables and chairs. They perfectly matched the ones that filled the rest of the bar, but Ranko had been through every centimeter of the bar she called home, and she knew they had no spares. The tables had to have been moved from somewhere. She looked back to the main room, counting the rows. Four, five, six, sev… no! The seventh row of tables is missing! Why? The lights in the back half of the room were turned off, so she hadn't noticed the change at first. She strode to the wall by the service bar and reached out for the light switch. When she flicked it, she gasped quietly as her eyes found the reason for the rearrangement.

The little triangular corner stage with the karaoke machine - her home for the last two months - had been entirely replaced. In place of it, a raised wooden platform now stretched the entire length of the back wall that separated the main bar room from the ladies' restroom. The platform was almost breast-high to Ranko, where the previous didn't even reach her knees, and there were three steps recessed into the right side to ascend it. Two of the large speakers that had previously been propped in the corner so the music could be heard over the arcade machine had been relocated, one on either side of the stage facing into the room from new mounts near the ceiling. Off to one side, near where the arcade machine had been, a small booth had been erected, and all of the sound and lighting control equipment had been moved into it. "What is… how…"

The entire front edge of the stage was lined in silver garland, and two large plastic candy canes stood bookending the stage in the back. The posters that had adorned the back wall were gone, leaving a clean backdrop of oak paneling. On the left side of the stage, in the very corner, stood a small, sparsely-but-tastefully decorated Christmas tree.

She stepped up the stairs, and she heard a loud mechanical clunk of a breaker being flipped. The Christmas tree lit up. The colored lights that used to flash patterns on the walls when the music played had been repositioned, pointing up at the center of the platform, where a simple pine stool and a microphone stand waited. The stool also had some silver garland weaved through its legs, and a few red baubles hung from it. Ranko covered her open mouth, taking another step forward. Resting on the stool was a single red rose, with a red ribbon tied around its stem bearing a small paper tag in the shape of a heart. She turned it in the beams of light to read it. Three immaculately calligraphed characters adorned the tag. They read, for our star.

"Surprise!"

Ranko turned, and found Yui and Izumi popping up from their hiding positions behind the bar. Both were wearing denim overalls smudged with dirt and wood stain, and Izumi's hair was tied back in a tight bun.

"You… you guys! You did this?"

Yui nodded. "Mm-hmm. Just barely finished in time, too. Mama was supposed to keep you out for another hour or so." The blonde rolled her eyes at Hana with a playful smirk of mock judgement.

Hana sighed in exaggerated defeat, shrugging her shoulders with a smirk. "The meeting didn't take as long as I expected, and I ran out of excuses, Sorry, girls."

Ranko looked out over the room from her raised vantage point atop her new stage platform, her jaw still slack in disbelief of what had been done for her. "But, how? We couldn't afford this…"

Yui pointed to the equipment as she spoke. "The lights, speakers, all of that stuff, we already had, we just had to move 'em."

Izumi grinned. "As for the stage itself, well, I guess it's a good thing one of us is marrying a building contractor in a couple months, huh? Kaito built everything. He had to run, but he says he loves ya."

"Girls, I… I don't know what to say. It's beautiful. I just… I can't believe you did this. Thank you so much." Ranko walked up to Yui, then Izumi, and then Hana, hugging them each in turn. "I'll… I'll be able to dance now!"

Hana smiled, wrapping her arms around Yui's shoulders on her left, and Izumi's on her right. "You deserve it."

Ranko bit her lip. On one hand, she was absolutely floored with the surprise and the consideration that had been paid to doing it for her at all. On the other hand, it broke her heart that Mei wasn't there, and she worried that the girls having made such a grand gesture without her input would only add fuel to her jealousy.

Hana looked around at the ladder and other remnants of the construction effort. "Well, since we're here early, we might as well help get this cleaned up."

"Of course." Ranko nodded and started moving toward the pile of tools.

Izumi stopped her with a gentle palm to her sternum, however. "Not in my favorite suit, you're not. Go get changed, silly."

Ranko blushed, looking down at her businesslike attire. "You got it!" She turned and rushed up the stairs.

---

Having changed into a pair of black jeans and a cherry red tee shirt bearing the bar's trapezoidal firebird logo across its chest, Ranko emerged from her little apartment. Her hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail secured with a short length of white satin ribbon, and she wore a bright smile. They built me a stage. They're trying to build me… a life. She had nearly reached the base of the steps leading down into the hallway separating the kitchen from the front of the house when she heard raised voices.

"Look, we're doing a concert to try to save this place. It's kind of important! We had to make it look decent. We've all been working our asses off getting ready. You'd know that if you'd been around at all!"

Is that Yui? What's got her so upset? Better hang back. Ranko paused in the hallway, listening to the conversation to determine if it was safe to come out.

The second voice was definitely Mei's. "Well, excuse me, Yui, for finally having a life and not wanting to be here seven days a week until I die, like you!"

Yui's voice responded, sharpened but not to the level of yelling. "Yeah, but you could have told us if you needed time. You just haven't shown up, and left us short-handed while we're trying to put this whole thing together and get out of this jam."

Mei scoffed. "I honestly didn't think you'd miss me all that much, considering you had Princess Diva here to pick up the slack. I swear, it's like you girls forgot I exist!"

Izumi growled in frustration from the direction of the kitchen. "Mei, of course we were going to have to focus on her! She's new. She's scared. She needs us! ALL of us! Did you hear me lose my shit when you showed up, and I wasn't the baby anymore?! Mama slept on the floor next to your bed for a fucking month, trying to keep you clean and get you through detox, and not one of us complained for a fucking second! We're all holding that poor kid together with our bare fucking hands, and we could really use your help, Mei!"

Ranko backed up on the stairs, careful not to make a sound. It's even worse than I thought. I'm… hurting them, just by being here.

"It's bad enough that she's taking over everything about this place, but then when I go try to find a little happiness for myself and let her have it, she has to shit all over that, too! Telling me how I shouldn't be going out with Mikado. Doesn't she have enough people here to kiss her ass? Does she really need all four of us to have our heads up her ass every night, or could I maybe get the occasional night off to have a life?!"

Tell her, Ranko. Walk down those last eight steps, right now, look her in the face and tell her. You're dating a creep. A pervert. A predator. Maybe I could say it like it happened to someone else. Just someone I know. Ranko shook her head. One look at my face and they'd know I was lying. They're too perceptive for that, especially Mama. She hung her head, shaking it slightly. You're right to be angry with me, Mei. Not because I'm a jerk. Because I'm a coward.

"That's enough!" Hana snapped, her voice coming from the direction of her office. "Look, I know you were the youngest here for a long time, and that it can be hard when someone new starts getting attention. But you know what a mess that girl was when she got here. She needed us. She still needs us. All of us. She misses you something terrible, Mei. Besides, she's killing herself, trying to put this place on her back and get us out of trouble. She's been here barely a month, and she's carrying this family, and this is how you treat her?! I'm disappointed, Mei."

"Oh, I'm sure her throngs of adoring fans will stroke her ego just fine!" Mei growled, and Ranko could hear the slam of what sounded like an aluminum tray being thrown. "Don't worry. I'll be here to help tonight, so nobody needs to cry about having to pour a few extra drinks. Oh, and by the way, not that anyone's all that interested, but Mikado's coming by for a while tonight with a couple of his friends. Ya know, just in case my family cares at all about meeting my boyfriend. I'm not really holding my breath, though."

Ranko gasped, and it felt like the world had begun spinning. She slumped against the wall of the narrow staircase, trying not to make a sound and tip her family off to her eavesdropping. That jerk, here?! In the only safe place I've ever known? What, so he can humiliate me again? I've finally got some people in my life who respect me, and… She swallowed hard. Go tell them. Walk down the stairs. Tell her. Before he destroys us both.

She stared at her feet, willing them to move, but they would not.

Hana sighed, and Ranko held her breath as she watched her adoptive mother pass the staircase to join Mei in the kitchen. "We didn't stop loving you just because we started loving Ranko. We never will. We're not going to run out of love, baby. There's enough for everyone. You're always going to be part of this family, no matter how much it grows. Of course we want to meet Mikado. All of us do."

Ranko ran back up the stairs, grateful she'd passed on Hana's offer of breakfast. There would be less to throw up.

 

[AnneOminous]

This chapter contains depictions of attempted assault and extreme violence. Reader discretion is strongly advised.

Ranko waved to the assembled patrons from her new stage platform with a pang of guilt, taking a shallow bow. I'm sorry, guys. You're not getting my best tonight. I've just… I've got more important things on my mind than pop music right now. Wherever she went in the room, her eyes were never far off from the table in the far corner by the front door, where Mikado Sanzenin and his two hangers-on: both slender but athletic men in their own right, sat. She might not have had experience with dating guys, but she knew danger when she saw it, especially when it sat in her home with a bottomless pitcher of sake.

I can't believe he hasn't even recognized me. I'm up here singing and dancing like a freakin' idol thirty meters from his table; it's not like I'm going stealth. Did… Did what he did to me mean so little to him that he doesn't even fucking remember me? Was it that casual for him, the way he got inside my head and filled it with fucking demons?!

When Ranko's gaze wasn't on Mikado, it was on his girlfriend. Mei still hadn't had much to say to her in days. It's not her fault, Ranko reminded herself as she stepped down from the stage. She doesn't know, and it's entirely my fault she doesn't know. Singing for two hundred strangers, I can do without a second thought, but having a conversation with my big sister and letting her know she's in danger… that, I'm not brave enough for. Some fucking big, bad martial artist I turned out to be. I'm not even sure she'd believe me if I did tell her, not with how hooked on him she is, and how pissed at me she is.

She glared up at table one, digging her pink-polished acrylic fingernails into her palm and wincing at the pain. I'm just glad Mei sat him in her section. If I had to bring that piece of shit a drink, I'd probably spit in it. Her stomach rolled at the realization that thundered through her mind. It wouldn't even be the first time he's tasted my spit.

The redhead rushed between her tables, doing her best to keep them happy while reserving herself as much time as possible. There was just one problem with that – the more popular Ranko's singing had become, the less interested the crowd had become in entertaining themselves with karaoke. Whether she had asked for it or not, the newly-expanded stage had become almost her exclusive domain, and the customers got restless when it wasn't filled. She almost didn't have time to serve tables between songs some nights, and the current shift was one of them.

She had barely dropped off a tray full of empty mugs when some of the more inebriated revelers at the few tables closest to the stage began cheering loudly, willing the platform spanning the length of the ladies' room at the back of the bar to come to life again. Ranko rolled her eyes at Yui, who could only wave her back toward the stage. With an exasperated sigh and a pitiful glance by way of apology at Izumi, who was frantically trying to cover the torrent of drink orders her two youngest sisters kept bringing her at the service bar, Ranko closed the distance to the raised platform and hopped up the three steps to take her place, picking up her handheld microphone from its stand. The hundreds of sparkly white rhinestones Izumi had glued to its once-smooth handle bit into her hand, and she squeezed it tight, letting the discomfort in her hypersensitive palm help her focus.

"Tell you what, why don't you guys pick the next song?" Ranko did her best to smile, and the crowd began shouting a cacophony of song titles at her. Hearing one louder voice call out a Japanese pop song she knew by heart, she pointed to the guy who named it. "Yeah, let's do One Night in Heaven! You guys know it, right?" Most of the crowd whooped in the affirmative; the song was new, and it had been getting a lot of play on the radio for the last few weeks. Ranko jogged down the stairs to the karaoke station in the booth where the Pac-Man machine once stood. She leaned over the monitor, pulling up the song and beginning the backing track. The Phoenix' songstress-in-residence hurried back up to the stage, grateful that the song's long instrumental intro gave her a few moments to take her position before the lyrics began to change color on the monitor.

As she finished the first verse, she looked up and spied Mei leaning on Mikado's table talking with him and his friends. Shaking her head slightly and trying to blend it into her choreography, she admonished herself. Mei doesn't want you looking after her, and you have a job to do, she thought to herself before launching into the chorus with a bit more effort. The crowd jubilantly sang along as Ranko gestured with her hands, waving both of them at shoulder height as she'd seen the two members of Wink do in the song's music video.

The songstress' eyes flashed throughout the room, trying her best to make eye contact with everybody at least once. The couple at table fourteen were going to need refills after the song. Table eighteen had put their menus down; they were likely ready to order. The girl in the green shirt at the bar had probably reached the point at which she shouldn't be served any more alcohol, and the creepy guy sitting next to her had definitely noticed her incapacitation. Yui was catching up on drink orders, Izumi was running the dishwasher, Hana had disappeared back into her office, and Mei was… nowhere to be found.

Almost forgetting to begin the next chorus on time, Ranko searched the darkened room frantically. Sanzenin's still in his seat, so everything's probably okay, but where's Mei? Searching the bar back area, she caught a glimpse of the trash can behind Izumi, which was missing its bag. She must have gone out back to toss it. Okay. She breathed a sigh of relief – but a short-lived one, because from the corner of her eye, she caught movement from the table at the back. Mikado made a gesture to his friends that anyone who had ever spent time with - or in the case of Ranko, as - a guy recognized as an indication that he was about to do something he wanted his friends to watch. He stood, heading out the glass double doors at the front of the bar and turning left, toward the alley. This doesn't smell right at all, Ranko thought.

The song was coming to a close, and all that remained was one more repetition of the couplets that made up the song's extended chorus. Thinking on her feet, Ranko waved to the crowd excitedly with a bright, if forced, smile. "Hey! You know the words! Let's hear you!" She pointed the microphone toward the crowd, and the exuberant audience got the hint, with a full sixty or so of the bar patrons beginning to sing the lyrics over the steel guitar backing track. As soon as her point had been made, Ranko tossed the scintillating microphone to a middle-aged woman standing near the stage and leapt down, leaving the revelers to finish the song on their own.

Ranko hopped down from the stage without taking the stairs and began pushing her way through the crowd toward the bar.

Yui looked at the young singer crossly as Ranko nearly threw a flight attendant out of her path. "Ranko! The song's not even over! What the hell are you doing?!"

Unable to get around a fat, balding man blocking the gap between the main and service bar counters, Ranko vaulted over the main bar with one hand. She did not especially care if the college coed perched on the closest stool got more of a show than she bargained for under Ranko's short black dress. She crashed through the slatted blue saloon door without answering Yui, rushing to the back door.

If I'm wrong about this, Mei will never forgive her, but if I'm right, and I don't act, I'll never forgive myself, Ranko resolved. It took her about two steps to make up her mind, and as she approached the door, which stood partially ajar admitting the frigid December air into the commercial kitchen, she knew she had chosen correctly.

"Mikado, what are you... Hey, stop that! I said stop!" Mei's voice echoed in the chill air of the alleyway.

Ranko slid through the door sideways without touching it, and found Mikado pinning Mei against the red brick wall of the drug store next door to the Phoenix at the far side of the alley. His left hand was holding both of her wrists above her head, and his right was beginning to make its way up her knee-length denim skirt.

Mei turned her face away from him and fought to break free, but the athlete's powerful grip was too much for her. Her urgent pleas quickly devolved into a desperate whine without discernible words.

"What's the matter, Mei?" Mikado chuckled darkly, toying with his prey. "I thought you liked m… urk!"

One moment, Mikado's face was centimeters from Mei's, and the next, it just… wasn't. It took Mei a moment to reorient, and as she did, she found Mikado lying on his back on the snow-covered asphalt.

Ranko, meanwhile, was rising from a sweeping crouch a half-meter or so behind him. Mei was almost afraid to look at her. They hadn't spoken in days, and now, forget the light dusting of snow covering the gravel of the alley – the fury in Ranko's eyes would have melted steel.

"Mei, you okay?" Ranko's eyes did not leave the prone antagonist as she spoke. "C'mere."

Mei pushed herself off from the wall, giving Mikado a wide berth as she circumnavigated him to reach Ranko's side. Though they didn't touch, Mei could hear in Ranko's breathing that she was shivering; the combination of a light snow, the Full Body Cat's Tongue pressure point, and the thin black minidress she wore was taking its toll on her, not to mention the tidal wave of adrenaline coursing through her.

Mikado stumbled to his feet, and Ranko leveled her arm in front of Mei, pulling her a step back and dropping into a defensive taekwondo stance between the two.

Mei grabbed at her arm. "Ranko, you can't! I told you, he's won hundreds of fights, and only lost one!"

Ranko smirked darkly, staring through her adversary. She wanted to watch him panic. It was high time he experienced what fear felt like. "Yeah, I know. Who do you think was the one that beat him?"

Look at me, you son of a bitch. Ranko sneered, tightening her stance. Remember me? I think you're gonna find I'm a little bit different than your average girl.

Mikado rocked on his feet with the realization. "No… It can't be… it is! It is you!" He smirked rakishly. "This night just keeps getting better! Back for more, finally? Just couldn't stay away, I suppose? No need to be jealous; you'll get your turn."

Mei opened her mouth to speak, but Ranko's voice broke the silence first. "Mei, get inside." She spoke through gritted teeth, a darkness roiling in her unyielding stare. How dare he condescend to me, after everything! Tonight, Ranko swore to herself, you're gonna pay. Not only for what you tried to do to Mei, but for what you did to me on that ice.

Ranko's every muscle was tensed to its maximum, pleading for permission to erupt in righteous fury. She ignored the icy tear streaking its way down her cheek, willing her eyes to produce no more. You're gonna pay for every single fucking time you've hurt me in my dreams. You've violated me over and over again, and it ends now. For the first time since the Phoenix Pill was destroyed, she did not fear being struck. She didn't care how much he hurt her, as long as she hurt him more.

She adjusted her stance slightly, bringing her arms more to her sides almost casually. Mei did not move, but Ranko's focus was now singular, and she spat her words in a voice icier than the December air at the nightmare made flesh in the alley in front of her. "I told you last time - if you ever laid your hands on me or someone I love again..." She no longer seemed to feel the cold.

Mikado laughed dismissively. "We'll see about that!" He rushed forward two steps, cocking his right fist back and launching it at Ranko's chest.

She did not move until a split second before his punch struck home, and then at lightning speed, both of her arms pivoted forward from her sides toward his arm, parallel to the ground with her left arm just in front of her right. Her right hand caught his wrist first, thrusting it harmlessly past her body to her left. Her left palm jammed into his elbow from the opposite direction with all the force she could bring to bear, and the alleyway echoed with a snap and a scream.

Ranko spun into a roundhouse kick to his chest that shoved her opponent back a step, and Mei gasped audibly at the sight of the supposedly invincible athlete's right arm now dangling limply at his side, bent the wrong way in the middle.

"You… you bitch! You broke my fucking arm!" Mikado roared.

Ranko nodded, finding a vengeful satisfaction in his wailing. "One bone down..."

She swept her left leg behind herself, low to the ground, and took a crouched pu bu kung fu stance, inverted to account for her left-handedness with her right leg and arm extended and her left arm poised behind her.

"Two hundred and five to go."

That's right, Ranko thought with a satisfied sneer, reveling in the fear in his eyes. My name is Ranko Tendo, and I'm the demon in your nightmares now. You'll never forget me again. She lifted her extended right arm, curling her fingers and beckoning mockingly in his direction.

With any semblance of strategy lost to his rage and the loss of his dominant arm, Mikado roared in fury and rushed her wildly. For a split second, Ranko had considered letting him off with just the one injury. Unfortunately for Mikado, that second was now over, and worse still, he had badly misjudged the momentum of his charge. Ranko knew that all of Mikado's martial arts experience and muscle memory involved fighting on frictionless ice, but on solid ground, the advantage was hers.

The lithe redhead easily sidestepped his charge, sweeping at his legs. Mikado stumbled forward, crashing headlong into the brick back wall of the Phoenix. Before he could turn to face her, he felt a sharp kick as Ranko dug her heel into his lower back, driving him forward against the bricks.

"How's it feel when you're the one being put up against a wall, bitch?!" Ranko jeered as she twisted her ankle, eliciting a grunt of pain from the figure skater.

"There!"

Ranko turned her head at the sound of voices, finding Mikado's two friends from the bar approaching from the direction of the Phoenix' front door. One wore a blue polo shirt, the other a green sweater, and both were in jeans. Okay, guys. You get one chance.

"He had it comin', guys." She shrugged, still pinning Mikado to the wall with her leg, her knee locked straight. "Do yourselves a favor. Walk away."

"Get her!"

Ranko smirked, pulling back her leg and driving her knee into Mikado's back and ignoring the two men charging her down the length of the alley. "Gotta say, you've downgraded from hiding behind Azusa. These guys are way stupider. Stay here a second, wouldja, Mikado?" As she spoke, she reached out with her hand, squeezing the skater's broken elbow and eliciting a loud scream. It still echoed through the alleyway as the girl in the black minidress turned to face her new challengers.

"Mei, get inside. Right now."

Ranko cracked her knuckles as Mei slipped through the back door and into the warmth of the Phoenix kitchen. "Well, okay, boys. If that's how you want it, who's first?" She dropped into a taekwondo back stance, her right leg and arm extended forward and her left arm cocked behind her with an open, upturned palm. For the first time since the Full-Body Cat's Tongue had been inflicted, she felt a sense of confidence in a fight. Can't get too cocky, though, she reminded herself. These guys may be nothin', but one good hit and I'm pretty fucked, and it's three against one.

The man in the sweater reached her first, and Ranko leapt forward into a kick toward his face. The assailant, the taller of the two, caught her ankle in both hands, gripping it tight. "Gotcha!"

Ranko grinned. "Yep! Thanks for the boost!" She propelled herself forward on her standing right leg, spinning upward and using his grip on her leg as leverage. Twisting in the air, she whipped her right leg around. His grip on her ankle released as the toe of her black leather boot crashed into his cheek. He fell to the gravel in a heap, and Ranko's momentum carried her toward the wall of the drug store next to the Phoenix. She landed in a crouch, glaring up at the man in the polo shirt who closed on her at a dead run.

Wait for it… wait for it… Ranko rose to a standing position, taking no fighting stance at all. When her opponent was less than two meters from her, she reached casually to her left, lowering a metal lever with a heavy clunk. The steel ladder for the drug store's fire escape slid down on its track punctuated by a loud squeak, crashing loudly to the gravel. The redheaded martial artist took a step backward, letting the charging thug slam face-first into the ladder.

Mikado's hanger-on had already started reaching for her when the narrow ladder dropped in front of him, and his right arm protruded between two of its rungs. Ranko grabbed his wrist, pulling him forward and slamming him into the ladder again at the chest. She ducked below his arm, still pinning him to the ladder with it, and delivered a series of three quick punches to his ribs. She only released his arm when she saw his sweatered friend approaching in her peripheral vision.

"Man, you guys just don't learn, do ya?" Ranko grabbed the side of the ladder, jumping and using the torque of her grip to add to the momentum of her horizontal motion. Again, her boot slammed into the young blond's cheek, sending him sprawling to the ground close to his friend.

After a quick glance behind her to ensure that Mikado was not rejoining the fight, she squared off against his two accomplices. "Guys, it's Christmas, so I'm gonna give you a present. Just this once." She raised her right leg until her knee was at waist height, holding her right arm forward and her left over and behind her head in a crane kung fu stance.

"Run."

The two men looked at each other, seeming to confer wordlessly about their plan of action. Nodding to each other, they turned and fled back toward the main street. "Sorry, Mikado!" the one in the sweater yelled as they turned the corner toward the harbor.

"That's ri — gyaaaa!" Having watched the pair until they reached the end of the alley to ensure they didn't turn back toward the front door of the Phoenix, Ranko had taken her eyes off of Mikado too long. She cried out as her hypersensitive scalp screamed with agony as Mikado yanked her beribboned red ponytail backward with his left hand, bending her backward until she was looking up at him and holding her hair tight in his grip.

Mikado sneered, his face lowering closer to hers. "You're good. I'll give you that. But now, about that kiss…"

No. No. Nonononononono… not again. Flashes of memories flooded her mind in an instant. A crowded arena. The stunned, pitied look on Akane's face. Her father's laughter when she went to him for advice. Fight. Fight it, she begged herself as the torrent of resurfaced trauma drowned out her thoughts.

"Get off of me!" Ranko threw her right fist out to her side, driving it up into his crotch.

Mikado released her hair, staggering backward with a pained grunt.

Ranko rose to a standing position, shaking her head. The avalanche of memories droned like alarm bells in her mind, and she wanted them gone.

I have to focus. It's time to finish this.

She cocked her fists in front of herself, her elbows tucked close to her chest, dragging her left heel through the gravel and bending her knees, weaving slightly on her feet in a muay thai southpaw stance.

"You want your kiss, Mikado? Come and get it."

I've learned a few new tricks since the last time we met, Ranko thought darkly. A little parting gift from the Amazons. She took a deep breath, exhaling it slowly as she replayed Koh Lon's instructions from a year ago in her mind.

Don't aim. Strike whatever's in front of you.

Don't defend. Your opponent will be too overwhelmed to attack.

Mikado rushed forward toward his prey.

Ranko did not move a muscle. Her eyes were almost glazed over, as if she were drunk.

Clear your mind. Thoughts make you slow.

Don't think. Just move.

She crouched slightly, and as he charged into her range, she drove upward into his ribs with a blisteringly fast punch, and another, and another, the blows crashing into him like an incessant hailstorm. Each strike rocked him on his feet, but they came so quickly that he could not regain his balance between them to defend himself.

Her mind was devoid of all conscious thought. Her hands moved autonomically, raining blow after blow upon her opponent. She did not know if each strike hit an arm, or a face, or a chest. She did not care. Every strike hit something, and the next invariably landed before Mikado could react. The memory of every tear Ranko had shed alone in the dark, every second of shame she had felt, and every mocking word she had endured because of Mikado Sanzenin became a spear that she fired into his torso with the force of a ballista and the speed of the deadly Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire technique.

Having cut herself off conscious thought - the key to unlocking the speed of the Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire technique - also denied her the will required to block the unconscious memories that resumed pouring into her brain unchecked. Her mind's eyes flashed with images of that night. Of the arena. Of a kiss. Of Ryoga's mocking. Of Akane's horror. Of crying. So, so much crying. She was no longer conscious of her surroundings. She did not feel the cold or the crunch of snow-dusted gravel under her feet. She did not hear the wind. She did not smell the full dumpster a few meters away. She did not see her fists move, and was barely aware of their meeting resistance when they struck home.

She thought she heard a sound, like a voice, but garbled, as if it were underwater. She did not process it. In the void of her mind, she was seconds from being trapped in Mikado Sanzenin's arms again. She heard another sound, distant, muffled, like someone shouting into a pillow. It blended into the cacophony of cackling and catcalls that echoed in her memory. His arms were closing in.

Ranko's fists continued launching forward with the speed of a machine gun, entirely on their own. Her right arm encountered a sudden, unexpected resistance, jarring her out of her memories. The distant voice rang out again, clearly enough to comprehend this time.

"RANKO! PLEASE! STOP!"

She turned her head, blinking, to find Hana standing behind her. The elder woman's feet were firmly planted on the ground, and she had both of her arms wrapped tight around Ranko's elbow, which was still raised above her head with her hand balled into a fist. A sound echoed through the alleyway, sounding eerily like a scream in Ranko's own voice, but Ranko didn't remember making one.

She turned her head slowly back in the direction of her other arm, her eyes an empty glaze. Her elbow was locked with her arm straight, her fist clenched around the collar of a silver polo shirt. Crumpled on his knees with his head hanging limply to the side, Mikado was barely conscious. His face was swollen and bruised everywhere. One of his eyes looked up at her, unblinking and glazed, and the other was swollen shut. Blood dripped from his nose and upper lip.

"He's had enough! Let him go!" Hana pleaded, trying to pull the slender teen back toward the bar.

Blinking through the horrified expression on her face, Ranko unclenched her fingers, and Mikado slumped to the gravel with a thud and a pained groan.

 

[AnneOminous]

The December chill followed Ranko through the steel door back into the Phoenix kitchen. Her eyes were completely dead and unfeeling. Mei, who had been huddled in the back corner of the kitchen near the walk-in freezer, quickly closed the distance between herself and her younger sister. When she did, she reached her arms around the redhead to hug her.

"Ranko, thank you. Thank you. You tried to warn me, and you were right about everything. I am so sorry I didn't listen. I was cruel and stupid, and I said terrible, mean things, and…"

Ranko did not acknowledge her presence. She did not turn to make eye contact. Rather, she walked right through Mei's arms without breaking stride, heading directly up the stairs. Mei's worried eyes followed her.

"Would somebody please tell me what the fu…"

Hana cut her daughter off mid-sentence as she closed and locked the door leading to the alleyway behind herself. "Not now, Yui! Shut it down. Right now!"

Yui gestured in confusion. "How am I suppos…"

Again, Hana did not let her finish. "I don't give a fuck if you have to pull the fire alarm! Clear it out, and don't let Izumi out of your sight until it's done!"

Mei slumped back into the corner next to the walk-in, her shivering not brought on by the cold. The adrenaline of the encounter finally giving way, she began to sob quietly. I was so sure he was a good guy. Finally, I had a good guy. And then he goes and does this? And tries to… Worst of all, Ranko tried to warn me he was bad news, and all I did was abuse her for it, she admonished herself in silence.

Hana crouched at Mei's side and reached out for her daughter's shoulder, but Mei shrank back from the matriarch's touch. "Mei, baby, you're safe now, sweetheart. It's okay. I've got you." Hana had not seen what Mikado had done, but it was clear enough to her what had happened.

The throbbing of the bass from the sound system up front faded, and Yui and Izumi shortly made their way to the back room. "They're gone," Yui said with a sigh and a shrug. "Everything's locked up tighter than a drum. Now, what the hell happened?!"

Hana looked up to her sadly. "Mei's date tried to force himself on her."

Izumi gasped. "My gods! Are you…"

The proprietress nodded. "She's going to be okay. Ranko… dealt with him."

Whether the battered perpetrator in the back alley would be okay, however, she did not know. In thirty years in the bar business, she had seen her share of fights, but nothing like that. It was as if the girl had been possessed. She wasn't sure that Ranko had even heard her screaming at her to stop. "Mei, I'm sorry to ask, but… the last time you saw Ranko fight, was she… like that?"

Mei shook her head, sniffling her tears back. "Not at all. She basically embarrassed them until they ran. But this time… Mama, that was…"

Izumi looked around for the subject of conversation, not finding her. "Where is Ranko, anyway?"

Hana shook her head, raising her palm in a not now gesture.

Yui stalked to the back door, double-checking to ensure it was locked, and then moved to turn off the oven which was beginning to smell of the pizza Hana had left burning within. She stroked her chin thoughtfully. "I don't get it. Ranko didn't take her eyes off of him all night. It's like she knew he was going to try something."

Hana nodded. "And she warned Mei to stay away from him."

In the corner, the blue-haired girl cringed, remembering some of the things she'd said to Ranko. I was so vicious to her, and Ranko really was only trying to protect me. I just assumed Ranko was jealous. Wait, didn't Mikado say something about jealousy? Something about wanting more? Is that what brought out that level of… rage? It couldn't be because she was protecting me, because she was protecting me last time, too. This was something almost… primal. It wasn't just anger, it was… hate. Almost as if it was her that he…

She gasped. There was only one explanation. Mei looked up in the direction of the closed door at the top of the stairs, sniffling and sighing in sadness and regret. "Mama, I don't think I was the first girl Mikado did this to."

---

Minutes later, there was a knock at Ranko's apartment door. Not receiving an answer, Hana gently turned the doorknob and swung the door open to find Ranko sitting on her bed, hugging her knees. Hana was somewhat surprised to see that she was not crying. Instead, Ranko was just staring forward catatonically. She didn't seem to even be aware that Hana had entered the room until the Phoenix's matriarch sat on the bed and rested her hand reassuringly on Ranko's ankle. The redhead tightened the ball she was curled into, pulling herself away from Hana's touch.

"Ranko, baby, are you alright? Are you hurt?" Hana received no reply. "Sweetheart, what happened out there? I've never seen you like that. I've never seen anyone like that. You scared us a little bit."

After a long pause came a mousey reply, her back still turned to Hana. "Is Mei alright?"

Hana nodded. "She will be, thanks to you."

With a heavy sigh, Ranko turned her head back to face her adoptive mother, still hugging her knees tightly. "Please don't thank me. I don't deserve it."

Hana reached up to Ranko's temple, brushing her hair from her eyes – partly to help calm her, and partly to check her for injuries. In her current state, Hana wasn't entirely sure Ranko would even notice if she were hurt. "Why wouldn't I thank you? You saved Mei. Again."

"You don't understand," Ranko retorted with a quiet whimper.

Hana nodded, stroking Ranko's hair. The teen shied away from the old barkeep's touch, but not enough to prevent it. "I know, honey, but I want to. Help me understand?"

The distraught redhead shook her head, undoing all the work Hana had done to corral her hair. "It's my problem. I'll deal with it. I always do. You should go check on Mei. She's going to need somebody."

Hana reached out for her shoulder, but Ranko shifted away on the bed again, trying to dismiss her. "Ranko…" She sighed quietly. I'm pretty certain Mei was right, but better not to let on that I know unless Ranko decides to open up about it, she thought. "Yui and Izzi are with Mei. She's going to be okay. And I am with someone else who deserves love and support. You don't have to carry everything alone. Not anymore. Please, let me help?"

Ranko looked away, her face and voice both tinged with shame. "I… I can't. I'm a disgrace."

"You most certainly are not! I know you lost your temper out there, but…"

Ranko interrupted her adoptive mother, and for the first time, there was at least a little inflection in her voice. "You don't get it. I was raised in the martial arts my whole life. I've fought lots of times. Hundreds. Thousands. When I fight, I fight to end the fight as quickly as possible and make sure everyone I care about is safe. That's what you're supposed to do as a martial artist. You're not supposed to lose your temper. You're supposed to be in control of yourself." She swallowed hard. "Tonight was different. I…" She could not finish the thought, her head lowered shamefully.

"It's okay, honey. I'm here. Even if it's just so you can get it off your chest." Hana patted her young charge's leg gently as she spoke.

The teen looked up, a tear running down her right cheek. She looked, for the first time that night, truly afraid. "Tonight, I wasn't fighting to defend anybody. I wasn't fighting to end the fight. I was fighting to end him. I could have killed him! If you hadn't stopped me when you did, I don't know that I could have stopped myself. I'm not even sure I wanted to stop myself. I wasn't protecting anybody anymore. He was beaten and we were safe. But I just couldn't stop."

Hana patted her leg again, nodding quietly. The fact that Ranko was capable of such a destructive, blind rage scared her, too, but she wasn't entirely sure it hadn't been justified, especially if Mei's theory was correct. I have to try and get the truth out of her somehow. The poor thing has carried this so long on her own that it already exploded out of her once. I'm pretty sure a second occurrence won't be good for anybody. She leaned a bit closer to Ranko, speaking as gently and non-threateningly as possible. "It sounds like you might have been angry at him about more than just what he tried to do to Mei."

Ranko did not answer verbally, but the way she physically shrank from the words and hid her eyes confirmed Hana's worst fear, and Mei's.

Hana shook her head in dismay. Is there nothing this poor kid hasn't gone through, at just eighteen? She wrapped her arms around the quivering girl, holding her tight. "He… hurt you too, didn't he, baby?"

Ranko did not look up at her, but slowly nodded her head, sniffling.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Hana coaxed. A pigtail shaking side to side was the only reply she received. "Don't you think you should?"

The teen closed her eyes, willing the images flashing through her mind to stop. "What's the point? It's done now. Nobody cared then; why would anyone care now?"

Hana looked away for just a moment, wiping a tear of her own from her cheek. If I could get my hands on Ranko's parents right now, I might be the one that has to be talked down from murder. The amount that this child has suffered without anything resembling a support system is just unforgivable. "I can't speak to what happened then. But I'm here now, and I care, because I care about you. Because you deserve a chance to heal, too."

Ranko wiped her eyes, burying her face back in her kneecaps. "I know you are, Mama. And I appreciate it. But like I said, you wouldn't understand."

Hana sighed. "I want to understand, baby. I want to help. Please let me."

"I can't." The distraught teen hugged her knees tighter. "I don't want to see it in my head anymore. I can't face it."

Hana slid her arm under Ranko's head, lifting it and resting it gently on her lap. She softly stroked the teen's hair with her fingers, trying to calm her in any way she could. "What if we faced it together?"

Ranko sniffled quietly, giving a small, resolute nod. "Um…" She bit her bottom lip and took a deep breath. She remembered what Hana had said at the library that morning. Her daughter. Maybe, she thought, almost hopefully. Just maybe, she might listen. Maybe she'll understand. Maybe she'll laugh. But if they all know me and Mikado had a history now, they'll never stop asking until I tell 'em the story. It might as well be now, when my heart is too fucking empty to hurt.

"So," Ranko began. Crap. How am I gonna get past telling her me and Akane were doing it as a couple? She'll know I used to be a dude… "My last year in school, his school's figure skating team and ours had a match in their school's skating rink. Our… um, our team had an injury, and they needed a last-minute replacement, and they asked me. I have no idea why; I don't even know how to skate. I could barely stand up without falling, let alone do any tricks or anything. We were out on the ice, and he came right at me. I tried to get away, but I wasn't fast enough, and I slipped.

"I almost hit my head on the ice, but he caught me. At first I thought he was being nice, but then he wouldn't let me go. His hands were… everywhere, and I couldn't get any leverage to get away because he picked me off the ground. I opened my mouth to scream at him, to tell him to put me down, and when I did, he lifted me up and… he kissed me." Ranko gazed down at her hands, despondently picking at her fingernails to avoid having to make eye contact with Hana.
"Like, crammed his tongue in my mouth and everything. I should have bit the damn thing off. I couldn't get away, I couldn't move, I couldn't even say no. And the crowd… There were thousands of them in the arena watching the match. And they just cheered, and laughed, and shouted dirty things at me. It was fun for them! I was just the sacrifice that got fed to the lion for entertainment."

Hana hugged her ward tightly around her shoulders. "Oh, baby…"

Ranko shook her head. "Of course, our school newspaper covered the match, so everyone at my school knew what happened too. I heard about it for months. Guys would come up and ask when it was their turn. I'd hear them in the hall talking about what a slut I must be to make out with some upperclassman from another school in front of all those people." In fact, most of them had said it to her face, because they thought they were being crass around a sympathetic fellow guy, and not the very subject of their taunts. "I'd never kissed anybody before, and now every time I think about it, I just hear them laughing from everywhere at once, like my skull is gonna explode with it.

"I had nobody to talk to about it. I didn't know what to do. I even made the mistake of going to my father for advice, and he just laughed at me, too. Said if I were a strong enough martial artist, I could have stopped him, and that since I wasn't good enough to beat him in a fair fight, I should just let him distract himself by… touching me… until he let his guard down." A tear fell from her eye, racing down her cheek and soaking into Hana's blue jeans. "I wasn't even good enough at being violated for him.

"I ended up having another fight with Mikado, and the second time, I won. Barely. I thought that when I beat him, I'd get over it. Like, I'd feel safe again. It would stop hurting. But it just never happened. All I could think about is that anytime I lost a fight, somebody could just… do whatever they wanted to me, and I wouldn't be able to stop it."

Hana sat with her back to the headboard, enveloping her young charge in her arms as both women wavered on the precipice of tears. "Oh, Ranko, honey. There are no words. I'm so sorry, sweetheart. But it wasn't your fault. I don't care what that asshole father of yours said. Try to focus on the fact that when you needed to, you got stronger, and you stopped him."

Ranko shook her head. "If I had stopped him, or even been brave enough to tell Mei about what he did, he couldn't have tried to hurt her tonight."

Hana sighed, nodding. "I understand why you would be reluctant to talk about what happened. I'm sure Mei will, too. But you did what you could, and when he did try to hurt her, you were there to defend her."

"Maybe at first," Ranko retorted. "But by the end, I wasn't even thinking about what he did to Mei. All I wanted was to avenge myself. I watched him all night tonight, and I kept telling myself I was making sure he didn't try to hurt her. And I mean, don't get me wrong, I did want to make sure she didn't get hurt, but… I think a part of me was hoping he would try something just to give me an excuse to hurt him back. I just kept remembering his hands on me, the smell of his breath, the sound of everyone laughing, and all I could feel was anger, and hate, and wanting him to suffer for everything he put me through. It's no better than he deserves, but it's my responsibility to be better than that."

The redhead cringed, looking away from her mother as the image of Mikado's battered face appeared again in her mind's eye. "I was seconds away from beating him to death, and I'm not sure I was even conscious anymore. I completely lost control, and that shames me and scares me more than anything he ever did to me. That's not who I want to be. I hate him more than ever for bringing that out of me, and I hate myself even more for losing control and letting him. And then on top of it all, the people I respect most in the world look me in the face and tell me they're proud of me for it, and it makes me wanna be sick."

Hana swallowed hard. I expected a hell of a story, but this is… a lot. She paused for a moment to process it all before responding. "I don't know much about being a martial artist. But you say that it's about protecting the people you love, right? Well, I say that the list of people you love and care about should start with yourself." She squeezed Ranko's shoulder, not sure if she was trying to give the girl some strength, or find some for herself. Probably both. "When you're in a fight, someone is trying to hurt you, and your job is to fight until they can't hurt you anymore, yeah?"

Ranko nodded, her cheek still resting in Hana's lap.

"Since he did what he did to you, have you had a single day that you didn't think about it? That it didn't make you feel vulnerable and afraid and angry?" Hana stroked her youngest daughter's hair as she spoke.

The redhead shook her head no.

"Do you think he can hurt you anymore now? That he'd ever dare to try again?" Hana wiped a tear from Ranko's cheek with a whisper-soft touch of the backs of her fingers.

Again, Ranko shook her head.

"Well, I don't know what place an old barkeep has to lecture a martial artist about honor, but I would argue that he never stopped hurting you until tonight, when you finally stopped him. He threw the first punch the day he did what he did, and you've been in that fight ever since.

"You're right to think about using your skills responsibly. They give you a power that you can wield against other people. The fact that you make the effort to consider how it impacts them - even when they have hurt you as much as he did - is what makes you better and more honorable than them. Maybe you did go too far tonight, and if I'm the only thing that stopped you, then I'm glad I did. Not because I think he didn't deserve what he almost got, but because you don't deserve to spend the rest of your life carrying the weight of that around. He has already haunted you long enough.

"I'm not proud of you just because you beat on that scumbag. I'm proud of you because you stopped. You defeated him when you stopped him from hurting you and Mei, and then you defeated him again when you made the decision not to let him drive you to do something you'd regret forever. Even if you did have help making that decision, there's no shame in that. All of us need help sometimes. All of us have moments where we're hurt and angry and broken and not thinking straight, and we need the strength of the people who care about us to lean on until we find our way again. That's not weakness, it's humanity. And the fact that you don't already know that breaks my heart. You've been facing everything on your own because the people who were supposed to be there to help you carry the load failed you. That's not your shortcoming, but theirs. You deserve support from the people who love you, and if I can only teach you one thing, I hope it's that."

She stroked Ranko's arm softly. "I don't know about the people in your past, but I can promise you that as long as the other girls and I are around, you will never have to face anything alone again, ever. I may be shit in a fistfight, but I will always have your back anyway. Come douchebag figure skaters or fucking dragons, or just a bad dream, I don't care. That's what it means to be a real family. Fuck bloodlines and ancestry and clan names and all that shit. It's being there for each other when the chips are down, no matter what."

Ranko's eyes welling, she sat up and leaned into Hana's chest, wrapping her arms around the elder woman's back and squeezing as if she feared she'd fall off the world if she let go. She breathed deeply of the scent of Hana's leather jacket - an aroma she'd come to associate with safety and peace. "I… I…" She knew what was in her mind, but it had been so long since she'd said the words sincerely to anyone that she couldn't find a way to will them past her lips.

Hana squeezed back, kissing the top of Ranko's head through her wavy flame-red hair. "I know, kiddo. I love you too."