Categories > Anime/Manga > Ranma 1/2 > The Raven
Gently holding Li Tai, her baby eagerly suckling at her breast, Xian Pu sighed as she listened to her great grandmother moving about, from her bedroom to the kitchen, and out the front door. It seemed she and her husband wouldn’t have the pleasure of the presence of the head of her family at breakfast — again.
Not that Great-grandmother’s presence has been that much of a pleasure lately, the teenager thought. She knows Mu Tse and I conspired to kill Ranma. I don’t know how, but she knows. And what happens to my future advancement in the tribe if she refuses to provide even such support as she can after Nerima?
Careful not to disturb her child, the purple-haired girl leaned over and shook the shoulder of her snoring husband. Mu Tse was instantly awake and reaching for his glasses (she had finally convinced him being able to tell her from a wooden pole was worth the hit to his pride). Slipping on the coke-bottle lenses, he smiled happily at the mother-and-child scenery they revealed. “Now, that’s the proper way to wake up,” he murmured, and his wife gently punched him in the shoulder.
“Our little one isn’t the only one that’s hungry,” she informed him with a laugh in her voice. “Time to get breakfast — just for two.” Mu Tse grimaced at the news and rose to throw on a robe, pausing only long enough to gently run his hand along the back of his daughter’s head and give his wife a soft kiss before heading for the kitchen.
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Xian Pu had just put her contentedly full and once again sleeping daughter in a cradle by a wall in the main room and was sitting down at the table for the simple breakfast Mu Tse was preparing, when the couple heard a knock on the door.
Mu Tse hurried over to open the door, froze, then stepped back and bowed deeply. “Elder Li Ku, welcome to our home,” he said respectfully. “But I’m sorry to say that Elder Ku Lon has already left for the training field, you should find her there.”
“I am not here for the Elder,” the tiny wizened old woman balancing on her staff replied coldly. “Xian Pu, Mu Tse, your presence is required by the Council at the training field.”
Xian Pu stiffened at the lack of her title as Champion in the summons, but rose to her feet. “We will come immediately, of course,” she responded calmly. Turning, she carefully lifted her child from the cradle even as her mind raced, trying to figure out what could have caused the Council to so suddenly turn hostile.
A few minutes later the two teenagers approached the training field, Elder Li Ku pogoing ahead and two warriors that had come with her walking behind the two. Xian Pu was now fighting down rising panic — she still had no idea what was happening, but the empty streets they had walked along told her it was serious.
Then they turned onto the final street leading to the field, to find their view blocked by a line of warriors running along the field’s edge. As they approached the warriors parted, faces cold. The little party passed through the opening, the line reforming behind them, and Xian Pu and Mu Tse slammed to a stop at the sight now revealed — a very familiar redheaded Japanese girl waiting in the middle of the field, a bared katana in her hand and a large raven on her shoulder, beside Elder Ku Lon balancing in her staff.
Xian Pu looked around wildly, only to find the field completely surrounded by warriors, an elder in front of the line every dozen feet or so. Her hold on her armful tightened to the point that the baby woke up, wailing at the pressure, and the teenager forced her grip to relax, gently bouncing Li Tai and murmuring to her until her crying died away and the little one smiled up at her mother and burbled happily.
“Xian Pu, Mu Tse, stand forth for one demanding justice!” her great-grandmother intoned loudly in Japanese. “A Seeker of Justice formerly known as Saotome Ranma, now named Raven, has come seeking one that had conspired at her murder, and one that carried it out.”
Xian Pu and Mu Tse exchanged despairing glances, and with a sigh Xian Pu turned to one of the warriors behind her — a lifelong friend but her face now as cold as the rest — and offered Li Tai to her. “Tai Tai, whatever I may or may not have done, your namesake has done nothing. Will you guard her?” After a long moment, Tai Tai nodded, face softening. Handing her spear to the warrior next to her, she took the baby in her arms. Holding Li Tai in the crook of an arm, Tai Tai tickled her under the chin, bringing out a happy gurgle. Xian Pu and Mu Tse each placed a hand gently on their child’s head for a brief moment. “Grow straight and strong, my little one,” Xian Pu murmured, then the couple turned to again face the two waiting for them in the middle of the field.
When the couple reached the elder and revenant patiently waiting, Ku Lon continued in Japanese in a voice leached of all emotion, “The accuser and accused have met, let Justice be done.” Without another glance at her daughter and son-in-law, she pogoed around them as the raven silently took off from Raven’s shoulder.
Raven watched the old woman cross the field to settled beside Tai Tai and her great-great-granddaughter, the raven settling onto Tai Tai’s shoulder, then refocused on her prey. “Let’s get this over with, I still got a last visit ta Naerima,” she said in a voice cold with hatred.
“I not have my weapons,” Xian Pu protested.
“Turn around.”
Xian Pu turned to find a warrior carrying the two chúi she had left at home, mothers with newborns being exempt from the requirement for warriors to be armed at all times. With another sigh, she accepted them and turned back as the warrior backed away. “My baby?”
“Yer kid’ll be fine, I’m not gonna hurt her.”
Xian Pu’s shoulders slumped slightly in relief, then she straightened and took a deep breath. “As Ran — as Raven say, ‘let’s get this over with’.” Without warning, her chúi whipped around toward the revenant from each side, only to have Raven drop into a crouch. The chúi aimed at her head brushed her flame-red hair as it passed overhead while the heavy iron sphere of the chúi aimed at her thigh pinwheeled down the field when her katana slammed into the handle edge-on.
Mu Tse desperately twisted, breaking off his own charge forward with swords in hand, when the katana that had just cut through his wife’s weapon looped around and sliced open his robe across his chest. The two Amazons fell back, breaking contact with Raven, their eyes widening at the sight of the suddenly pitch-black blade in the revenant’s hand.
Xian Pu felt despair washing over her at the failure of the best chance the pair had to win, a voice in her mind telling her to just give it up, charge in and die, to get it over with. No! she told herself as her lips pulled back in a teeth-revealing snarl. I may die, but I will go down as an Amazon! She glanced over at her husband out of the corner of her eye, and seeing that his attention was partially on her she moved her head in a circular motion. He didn’t acknowledge her signal, but fell back further and began to circle as Xian Pu again slipped forward toward their patiently waiting enemy.
Raven turned to follow Mu Tse until Xian Pu was at the edge of her peripheral vision. Just as the redhead started to step to the side to keep Mu Tse in sight, Xian Pu charged forward, undamaged chúi again swinging at Raven’s head and the handle of the other coming in at her side.
To the Amazon girl’s shock Raven dropped her katana, one hand slamming into the underside of the handle of the undamaged chúi to divert it up and away while the other hand grabbed at the front of Xian Pu’s tunic. The revenant ignored the headless handle, grunting as it smashed into her ribs, instead falling back and pulling Xian Pu forward. Then the redhead’s feet slammed into her stomach and thrust her upward, and all the air left her lungs as two heavy blows smashed into her breasts.
Xian Pu landed on her feet and staggered, looked down, and her eyes went wide at the sight of the hilts of two of her husband’s heaviest throwing knives flush against her chest. She looked up toward Mu Tse as she heard him scream, only to find Raven in front of her, yanking the knives free and stepping back and to the side as blood poured down the Amazon’s torso. “I had a lot of time ta think, over the past year hangin’ on Rothgan’s wall waitin’ fer the next rape. Did ya actually think I didn’t figure out just what you two did?” the revenant asked, but Xian Pu ignored her. Airen! she tried to shout, but her mouth was full of blood and she couldn’t get air into her lungs and the darkening ground was rising to slam into her face....
/\
Raven stepped back, away from the corpse at her feet, readying herself for an assault as Mu Tse charged toward them. But the Amazon ignored her, falling to his knees and gathering his wife’s body into his arms.
With a sigh, the redhead relaxed and turned to step over and pick up the Saotome honor blade. She turned back to where Mu Tse was gently stroking purple hair as he stared into his wife’s unseeing eyes. With an effortless slash, his head rolled across the field as his blood-spurting torso collapsed across Xian Pu’s body.
For a few minutes Raven simply stood there, gazing down at the two corpses, then cut off a piece of Mu Tse’s robe and wiped the katana clean of blood. Task complete, she walked over and picked up the sheath, sheathed the sword, then turned toward the edge of the field where Tai Tai stood with LXian Pu's baby in her arms. She walked forward with her eyes fixed on the two only to stop when Ku Lon stepped in front of her without saying a word. The revenant stared down at a her longtime nemesis and trainer for a long moment, then chuckled. “Ya can relax, ol’ ghoul. I told Shampoo I wouldn’t hurt her kid, and I meant it.”
Ku Lon silently gazed up at her for a time, then stepped aside. “If you aren’t going to take your revenge on the child, why are you interested in her?” she asked in a quiet voice.
“ ‘Cause I’m gonna help her,” Raven replied. She stepped forward and crooked her arm while gazing fixedly at Tai Tai, and after a moment’s hesitation the warrior placed the baby in the revenant’s arm. Raven gazed down at the infant and smiled. “I’m gonna take her away from this backwater hellhole an’ give her ta someone that’ll raise her ta be a human being with a future instead of a killing machine defendin’ a dying people.” Lifting her head, gaze hardening as she stared at the warriors in front of her, she asked, “Anybody got a problem with that?”
There was no reply, but the warriors stepped aside, opening a way off of the field. Raven strode through the opening and turned down the road toward the front gates, ignoring the ancient crone pogoing along behind her.
When they reached the gates, Ku Lon nodded to the guards to open them and bounced to the ramparts above as the revenant strode through and across the fields toward the surrounding forest. The elder watched until the last sight of the flaming red hair disappeared into the trees with what little was left of the ancient woman’s future.
________________________________________
A/N: I can't claim to have thought up this general situation myself, I got it from a Western I read many years ago, where a gunfighter's wedding was interrupted by some old enemies that caught him with his guard down, raped his bride and then killed the both of them — they thought. Years later, when a gunman starts hunting the members of the gang, he finds one of them living as a farmer, married with a baby.
Not that Great-grandmother’s presence has been that much of a pleasure lately, the teenager thought. She knows Mu Tse and I conspired to kill Ranma. I don’t know how, but she knows. And what happens to my future advancement in the tribe if she refuses to provide even such support as she can after Nerima?
Careful not to disturb her child, the purple-haired girl leaned over and shook the shoulder of her snoring husband. Mu Tse was instantly awake and reaching for his glasses (she had finally convinced him being able to tell her from a wooden pole was worth the hit to his pride). Slipping on the coke-bottle lenses, he smiled happily at the mother-and-child scenery they revealed. “Now, that’s the proper way to wake up,” he murmured, and his wife gently punched him in the shoulder.
“Our little one isn’t the only one that’s hungry,” she informed him with a laugh in her voice. “Time to get breakfast — just for two.” Mu Tse grimaced at the news and rose to throw on a robe, pausing only long enough to gently run his hand along the back of his daughter’s head and give his wife a soft kiss before heading for the kitchen.
/\
Xian Pu had just put her contentedly full and once again sleeping daughter in a cradle by a wall in the main room and was sitting down at the table for the simple breakfast Mu Tse was preparing, when the couple heard a knock on the door.
Mu Tse hurried over to open the door, froze, then stepped back and bowed deeply. “Elder Li Ku, welcome to our home,” he said respectfully. “But I’m sorry to say that Elder Ku Lon has already left for the training field, you should find her there.”
“I am not here for the Elder,” the tiny wizened old woman balancing on her staff replied coldly. “Xian Pu, Mu Tse, your presence is required by the Council at the training field.”
Xian Pu stiffened at the lack of her title as Champion in the summons, but rose to her feet. “We will come immediately, of course,” she responded calmly. Turning, she carefully lifted her child from the cradle even as her mind raced, trying to figure out what could have caused the Council to so suddenly turn hostile.
A few minutes later the two teenagers approached the training field, Elder Li Ku pogoing ahead and two warriors that had come with her walking behind the two. Xian Pu was now fighting down rising panic — she still had no idea what was happening, but the empty streets they had walked along told her it was serious.
Then they turned onto the final street leading to the field, to find their view blocked by a line of warriors running along the field’s edge. As they approached the warriors parted, faces cold. The little party passed through the opening, the line reforming behind them, and Xian Pu and Mu Tse slammed to a stop at the sight now revealed — a very familiar redheaded Japanese girl waiting in the middle of the field, a bared katana in her hand and a large raven on her shoulder, beside Elder Ku Lon balancing in her staff.
Xian Pu looked around wildly, only to find the field completely surrounded by warriors, an elder in front of the line every dozen feet or so. Her hold on her armful tightened to the point that the baby woke up, wailing at the pressure, and the teenager forced her grip to relax, gently bouncing Li Tai and murmuring to her until her crying died away and the little one smiled up at her mother and burbled happily.
“Xian Pu, Mu Tse, stand forth for one demanding justice!” her great-grandmother intoned loudly in Japanese. “A Seeker of Justice formerly known as Saotome Ranma, now named Raven, has come seeking one that had conspired at her murder, and one that carried it out.”
Xian Pu and Mu Tse exchanged despairing glances, and with a sigh Xian Pu turned to one of the warriors behind her — a lifelong friend but her face now as cold as the rest — and offered Li Tai to her. “Tai Tai, whatever I may or may not have done, your namesake has done nothing. Will you guard her?” After a long moment, Tai Tai nodded, face softening. Handing her spear to the warrior next to her, she took the baby in her arms. Holding Li Tai in the crook of an arm, Tai Tai tickled her under the chin, bringing out a happy gurgle. Xian Pu and Mu Tse each placed a hand gently on their child’s head for a brief moment. “Grow straight and strong, my little one,” Xian Pu murmured, then the couple turned to again face the two waiting for them in the middle of the field.
When the couple reached the elder and revenant patiently waiting, Ku Lon continued in Japanese in a voice leached of all emotion, “The accuser and accused have met, let Justice be done.” Without another glance at her daughter and son-in-law, she pogoed around them as the raven silently took off from Raven’s shoulder.
Raven watched the old woman cross the field to settled beside Tai Tai and her great-great-granddaughter, the raven settling onto Tai Tai’s shoulder, then refocused on her prey. “Let’s get this over with, I still got a last visit ta Naerima,” she said in a voice cold with hatred.
“I not have my weapons,” Xian Pu protested.
“Turn around.”
Xian Pu turned to find a warrior carrying the two chúi she had left at home, mothers with newborns being exempt from the requirement for warriors to be armed at all times. With another sigh, she accepted them and turned back as the warrior backed away. “My baby?”
“Yer kid’ll be fine, I’m not gonna hurt her.”
Xian Pu’s shoulders slumped slightly in relief, then she straightened and took a deep breath. “As Ran — as Raven say, ‘let’s get this over with’.” Without warning, her chúi whipped around toward the revenant from each side, only to have Raven drop into a crouch. The chúi aimed at her head brushed her flame-red hair as it passed overhead while the heavy iron sphere of the chúi aimed at her thigh pinwheeled down the field when her katana slammed into the handle edge-on.
Mu Tse desperately twisted, breaking off his own charge forward with swords in hand, when the katana that had just cut through his wife’s weapon looped around and sliced open his robe across his chest. The two Amazons fell back, breaking contact with Raven, their eyes widening at the sight of the suddenly pitch-black blade in the revenant’s hand.
Xian Pu felt despair washing over her at the failure of the best chance the pair had to win, a voice in her mind telling her to just give it up, charge in and die, to get it over with. No! she told herself as her lips pulled back in a teeth-revealing snarl. I may die, but I will go down as an Amazon! She glanced over at her husband out of the corner of her eye, and seeing that his attention was partially on her she moved her head in a circular motion. He didn’t acknowledge her signal, but fell back further and began to circle as Xian Pu again slipped forward toward their patiently waiting enemy.
Raven turned to follow Mu Tse until Xian Pu was at the edge of her peripheral vision. Just as the redhead started to step to the side to keep Mu Tse in sight, Xian Pu charged forward, undamaged chúi again swinging at Raven’s head and the handle of the other coming in at her side.
To the Amazon girl’s shock Raven dropped her katana, one hand slamming into the underside of the handle of the undamaged chúi to divert it up and away while the other hand grabbed at the front of Xian Pu’s tunic. The revenant ignored the headless handle, grunting as it smashed into her ribs, instead falling back and pulling Xian Pu forward. Then the redhead’s feet slammed into her stomach and thrust her upward, and all the air left her lungs as two heavy blows smashed into her breasts.
Xian Pu landed on her feet and staggered, looked down, and her eyes went wide at the sight of the hilts of two of her husband’s heaviest throwing knives flush against her chest. She looked up toward Mu Tse as she heard him scream, only to find Raven in front of her, yanking the knives free and stepping back and to the side as blood poured down the Amazon’s torso. “I had a lot of time ta think, over the past year hangin’ on Rothgan’s wall waitin’ fer the next rape. Did ya actually think I didn’t figure out just what you two did?” the revenant asked, but Xian Pu ignored her. Airen! she tried to shout, but her mouth was full of blood and she couldn’t get air into her lungs and the darkening ground was rising to slam into her face....
/\
Raven stepped back, away from the corpse at her feet, readying herself for an assault as Mu Tse charged toward them. But the Amazon ignored her, falling to his knees and gathering his wife’s body into his arms.
With a sigh, the redhead relaxed and turned to step over and pick up the Saotome honor blade. She turned back to where Mu Tse was gently stroking purple hair as he stared into his wife’s unseeing eyes. With an effortless slash, his head rolled across the field as his blood-spurting torso collapsed across Xian Pu’s body.
For a few minutes Raven simply stood there, gazing down at the two corpses, then cut off a piece of Mu Tse’s robe and wiped the katana clean of blood. Task complete, she walked over and picked up the sheath, sheathed the sword, then turned toward the edge of the field where Tai Tai stood with LXian Pu's baby in her arms. She walked forward with her eyes fixed on the two only to stop when Ku Lon stepped in front of her without saying a word. The revenant stared down at a her longtime nemesis and trainer for a long moment, then chuckled. “Ya can relax, ol’ ghoul. I told Shampoo I wouldn’t hurt her kid, and I meant it.”
Ku Lon silently gazed up at her for a time, then stepped aside. “If you aren’t going to take your revenge on the child, why are you interested in her?” she asked in a quiet voice.
“ ‘Cause I’m gonna help her,” Raven replied. She stepped forward and crooked her arm while gazing fixedly at Tai Tai, and after a moment’s hesitation the warrior placed the baby in the revenant’s arm. Raven gazed down at the infant and smiled. “I’m gonna take her away from this backwater hellhole an’ give her ta someone that’ll raise her ta be a human being with a future instead of a killing machine defendin’ a dying people.” Lifting her head, gaze hardening as she stared at the warriors in front of her, she asked, “Anybody got a problem with that?”
There was no reply, but the warriors stepped aside, opening a way off of the field. Raven strode through the opening and turned down the road toward the front gates, ignoring the ancient crone pogoing along behind her.
When they reached the gates, Ku Lon nodded to the guards to open them and bounced to the ramparts above as the revenant strode through and across the fields toward the surrounding forest. The elder watched until the last sight of the flaming red hair disappeared into the trees with what little was left of the ancient woman’s future.
________________________________________
A/N: I can't claim to have thought up this general situation myself, I got it from a Western I read many years ago, where a gunfighter's wedding was interrupted by some old enemies that caught him with his guard down, raped his bride and then killed the both of them — they thought. Years later, when a gunman starts hunting the members of the gang, he finds one of them living as a farmer, married with a baby.
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