-------------------- Ranma 1/2: Awakening By Jack Staik, Bookkeeper-At-Arms -------------------- She awoke slowly, dizzy and unsure. A flood of incoherent half-understood memories raced through her mind. She sat up in surprise, confused as the memories washed over her. "Akane!" a voice cried. she thought. She looked at the man holding her. "Ranma," she whispered. He looked into her eyes. "You're all right? You remember?" "Sort of..." she mumbled. "There was a girl - Shampoo?" "Yeah - Shampoo tried to erase your memory with a secret technique. She used the wrong herbal shampoo, and you've been in a coma for a week!" "Yes - now I remember - she washed and dried my hair real quick, and all I could think of was - you." "Yeah," Ranma confirmed. "Instead of memory-erasing shampoo, it was a special mediataion formula, for intense meditation exercise." "Um, Ranma? Have I ever told you you're my best friend?" Ranma's eyes bugged out. "TOFU-SENSEI!!" he screamed, running out of the room. "SHE'S GONE NUTS!!" Akane giggled to herself while Ranma dragged Tofu in. * * * * * * * * * * Akane got dressed as Tofu told her the standard 'take it easy for a few days' spiel. "Now you may feel healthy, but we don't know what after-effects the Xi Fa Xiang Gao technique has -" "Doctor? May I tell you something in confidence?" Akane said quietly. "Of course, Akane-chan." "No." "Eh?" "I'm not Akane," she said. "Not anymore." Tofu sat down, waiting expectantly. "When I was meditating that week, I remembered everything I ever saw, knew, or felt about Ranma. And then, I began remembering more. Things that happened before." "Before you met?" Tofu asked. "Before we lived." she replied. Tofu nodded. As a Buddhist, he was more than normally aware of such things. "You knew Ranma-kun in a past life?" She smiled in a strange way. "In all of them." "Were you always married?" he asked. She laughed. "Hell no! But we were always the best of friends." She had a strange smirk on her face. "Ranma's going to be so confused with me being nice to him." "How much of Akane is still left?" Tofu asked sadly. She chuckled. "All of me, Tofu-sensei. I'm still Akane - but I'm also Jhery-a-Conel and Gabrielle and Moonglum and Little John and so many others. They were always there, but now I know about them - just as Ranma is Corum of the Scarlet Robe and Xena of Amphipolis and Elric of Melnibone and Robin of Sherwood. He just doesn't know it." "And what do you plan to do now?" he asked. "Now that you are ... what you are." "I am the Companion of Heroes, Tofu-sensei." Akane said. "And I'll be his friend and companion, standing besides him in good times and bad." She looked curious. "I've never been married to him before. He's usually doomed to find love tainted with tragedy." "Tragedy?" She nodded. "Oh yes. He's killed the woman he loved more than once, he's outlived wives and fiancees and lovers. He's suffered so much, and the only consolation is that he doesn't remember when he reincarnates." Tofu shivered. "Thinking of Kasumi? That it's possible for her to become Ranma's wife?" "Yes, I did think of that." "Don't worry, Tofu-sensei. Ranma's destiny makes him a Hero, whose destiny is to defeat Evil. And he always wins." Akane put her hand on his shoulder. "And every time he marries, his mate is always happy." * * * * * * * * * * Akane came down the staircase in the Tendo home, dressed in denim and carrying two backpacks. "What's the getup for, Akane?" Ranma asked. She tossed him the other backpack. "We're going to get your cure." she said with a smile. "WHAT??" Ranma and Genma said together. "You know where a cure is?" "Yep." she said with a knowing smile. "But we have to find it - as usual." Ranma was too excited to wonder what she meant by that. "Where is it?" Genma insisted. "Tanelorn." "Never heard of it," Ranma answered. "I'll tell you about it while we're looking." -------------------