Grave's New Life

Chapter 20

By Philip Weigel

Disclaimer: AHHH! My brain! It's sucking my brain! The Lawyers! They've been possessed by the pathetic Cartoon Cartoons on Cartoon Network! AHH!!

Okay, I'm good now. I don't own Ranma 1/2, Gold Digger or Ninja High School. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi-sama, High Lord Fred Perry and Godfather Ben Dunn respectively.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Sitting on the porch, looking out into the yard, Grave smiled as she thought about her life. Things were going so right and seemed to only be going to get even better as her life went on. Standing and stretching lightly in her light blue kimono, the petite Werecheetah walked into the back yard, humming a tune as she took in the day. She was so glad that she had managed to finally live in a place where people in general accepted her with ease. Sighing in contentment, she turned around and was about to walk into the house when she heard some shuffling from behind her. Turning to look, she smiled and kneeled down as a little girl in a little blue dress ran at her. "Mommy!" The little girl, her body covered in light golden fur, black spots and sporting a tail out of her back-side, squealed out happily, hugging Grave tightly.

The Lycanthropoid smiled brightly before kneeling down and hugging the little girl. “How are you, sweetie?” She asked, smiling as her daughter giggled and started rambling off things as little children were apt to do. “Really?” She asked as soon as the girl was done speaking. “Well, I suppose you’ve had a busy day. Why don’t you run inside and get cleaned up and then you and your daddy can play?”

The girl nodded enthusiastically. “Sure mommy!” She squealed before letting go of the hug and running into the house.

Grave smiled as she watched her little girl run into the house. “Such a little angel.” She sighed to herself. She gasped slightly as she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her from behind. She looked over her shoulder and relaxed slightly when she saw a pair of deep blue eyes. “Hi honey.” She smiled at him happily, before leaning back into him.

“How have you been?” He asked in his rich masculine voice, his hug tightening around her. He couldn’t believe how lucky he had been to get her as a wife, but he sure wouldn’t complain.

Grave purred lightly, cuddling into him and just enjoying the warmth he offered her. “Mmm... Can’t complain.” She sighed happily, closing her eyes and wrapping her arms over his.

“I bet, Grave.” Her husband said, his love for her apparent in his voice.

She smiled, purring a little louder in his embrace.

“Grave...” She blinked as her husband’s voice started to soften lightly.

“Grave...” Suddenly his voice sounded as though it was at a distance, not to mention a lot light and a bit higher pitched.

“Grave, wake up, you’ll miss breakfast...” [1]

Suddenly the area around her flashed, then went black, before the Lycanthropoid groaned and cracked an eye open, groaning as her vision was filled with a white blinding light. Groaning a little louder, she blinked as she saw a person’s hazy image in front of her. “Wha…?” She mumbled out, blinking until she saw the person in front of her totally. “Who?” She groaned, before taking in the face. “Ranma? What are you doing here? And... Why are you a girl right now?” She asked, taking in the red hair and the bright blue eyes, not to mention the shorter body.

“Mom wanted me to get you up before she got done with breakfast, since you were sleeping in today.” The redhead said, shrugging slightly. “As for why I’m a girl… It rained this morning.”

Grave blinked and looked at the window on the adjacent wall to her bed. “Weird, the window has hardly any water on it.” She looked at her friend and blinked as she started grumbling about it raining on only one side and only for a few moments before quitting. “Uh huh…” Grave said at length, sweat-dropping. “Just tell auntie that I’ll be down in a few minutes.”

The redhead nodded, before turning and leaving. “Sure thing, Grave.”

As soon as her friend was out of the room, the Lycanthropoid sighed and slumped on her bed. “Darn it… That was such a dammed good dream too.” She whimpered and sighed. “Darn it! I wouldn’t mind something like that either.” She grumbled to herself, pouting miserably as she sighed, her shoulders slumping in depression. That had been an almost perfect dream, yet... “Just a dream… Maybe I don’t deserve a life like that?” She asked herself as she curled up to a ball by pulling her knees up to her head, before resting her forehead on her furry knees. Maybe she was destined to be just Ranma’s friend and nothing more?

She sighed, before getting off the bed and grabbing some clothes and changing quickly. She needed to eat and maybe the day would get better as it went on. Though, for some reason, she didn’t think it would.

(----)

Nodoka blinked as she watched that cute Neko-tama pick at her food, her eyes having a bit of a distant look to them. She sighed as she remembered seeing that look many times in her life. ‘Most of the time when I looked at the mirror.’ She thought to herself, thinking about the past few years and all the loneliness that she had gone through while her family was away on her. She got up and walked over to her son, now daughter. “Ranma,” she whispered to the redhead, “Neko-tama is a bit sad. Want to go out with her today and try to cheer her up?”

Ranma-chan blinked, before looking at Grave, who was barely paying any attention to her surroundings. “Sure.” She didn’t like seeing her friend looking so depressed. Grave may have been moody lately, but she seemed to be really depressed today.

The older redhead nodded, before heading to the kitchen after grabbing some dirty dishes. After placing the items in the sink, she blinked as she heard a loud rapping at the door. “I’ll get it.” She called out to her son-turned-daughter and guest.

Thinking about her son, she had to admit that it had been a surprise to find out about the curse, not to mention her husband’s curse, though she had to admit that he deserved it. ‘Honestly, who does stuff without checking the warnings when training?’

(---)

All across Japan and China, several people sneezed for no apparent reason. [2]

(---)

She shook her head as she heard a louder knocking at the front door. “Coming.” She called out, walking to the door quickly and opening it. She blinked several times as she saw a short man with short, spiky hair and a white lab coat. “Um, hello?”

“Ah, yes, are you Mrs. Saotome?” The man said in a slightly accented voice.

“Why, yes I am.” Nodoka said, nodding. She had to admit, for a gaijin, he spoke incredible Japanese.

“Ah, good, good.” The man smiled at her. “My name is Professor Steamhead and I’m a teacher at the school your son goes to.” He said with a bow.

“Oh, Sensei.” Nodoka said, surprised, bowing back. “What brings you here?” She asked, curious as to why a teacher would show up on a Sunday.

“I was supposed to give your son a letter, but it slipped my mind until today. You see, there’s going to be an inter-school sporting event later this week.” He shrugged. “Personally, I would rather have an inter-school science event, but more students want sports rather than science and steam.” He shook his head, obviously upset that no one would be going to even try to use steam to save the world. It was quite obvious to the good professor of Steamology that people needed a powerful example of steam’s uses. He idly wondered if that Saotome boy would want to use his experiments again.

Nodoka nodded and thought about it. “Hmm, thank you for letting me know, Sensei.” She said, bowing. “I’ll let Ranma know about it.” Though, she idly wondered why the school hadn’t announced it yet. She mentally shrugged and walked back into the house, before closing it on the American.

Steamhead blinked, he couldn’t recall the last time he had a door shut in his face. He shrugged it off before turning and leaving. “Now that that’s taken care of, time to finish that steam-powered telephone!”

(---)

Ranma-chan blinked when her mother walked back in, humming a tune. She shrugged; it probably had nothing to do with her. She sighed as she waited for Grave to come back down from upstairs. ‘Well, she DID just leave to shower...’ She thought to himself, her thoughts trailing off when she heard her mother calling her name. “Yeah?”

A quick re-cap of what happened not too long ago later...

Ranma-chan blinked, before shrugging. “So? Just some sports and stuff to do. Nothing too hard.” She knew that most, if not all, the people that would be in the events wouldn’t be anywhere near her physical fitness level.

Nodoka looked at her son-turned-daughter and shook her head. “Don’t be too over-confident. Who knows? Maybe someone here can surprise you.”

Ranma-chan snorted at that thought. After all the crap she went through from the training trip, and then the stuff on Jade, there probably wasn’t too many people on Earth that could match her in ability, any thoughts about Ryoga’s cursed form barely passed through her head. “Mom, after everything that I went through, a little school event like this can’t be too much.”

Nodoka sighed, seeing that her child was too stubborn to change her mind on the matter. “Very well, just make sure not to be too surprised if someone’s better than you think.” Though, truthfully, from what she knew, she doubted if anyone would be in the condition that Ranma was in.

The redhead smirked. “Hey, I’m the best.”

“Then what about G’nolga?” A familiar, yet new voice spoke up from behind the redhead. Turning, the redhead was about to retort, when she got a good look at what Grave Digger was wearing. Besides the smirk on her face, the short Werecheetah was wearing tight black pants that went from her hips down to her ankles, a white shirt that covered her breasts and went down to her abdomen, and to top it off, she was wearing a light blue jacket over her shoulders. Grave giggled at Ranma-chan’s expression. “Take a picture, it’ll last longer.”

Ranma-chan shook her head. “Uh... Yeah, about that...” She stared for a bit more. “Kawaii.” She muttered softly.

Grave heard that and blushed slightly. She wasn’t the best at speaking Japanese, mostly knowing basic speech and some phrases here and there. She was quite thankful for that translation spell that had been cast on her, when she and Brianna were still connected; back on Jade hadn’t worn off yet. The thought of not being able to understand and communicate with her best friend made her shudder mentally; it wasn’t a pleasant thought for her in the slightest.

Behind her child, Nodoka smiled as she watched the two. She wondered when those two would quit being skittish around each other. She had to admit that it was fun watching them act the way they did around each other. [3]

“Uh, yeah...” Ranma-chan said slowly, before shaking her head and grinning. “You good now?”

“Yeppers!” The Werecheetah smiled and nodded before running from the stairs to the door. She turned around and smirked at her friend. “Come on, slowpoke!” She winked, before turning around and running out of the room.

Ranma-chan blinked a couple of times, before smirking and running out after Grave. “I’ll show you who’s a slow-poke!” Her voice disappeared around the corner as the two left the house.

Watching the Neko-tama and her child leave, Nodoka blinked a couple of times before shaking her head. She was glad the two were getting along so well, but she wished that they would do more together; she wasn’t getting any younger after all, she wanted grandchildren before she was too old to enjoy them. [4]

(---)

Ranma-chan grinned as she ran after Grave Digger. With the way the girl was keeping ahead of her and the way she was moving, the redhead could’ve sworn that she was using magic to keep just out of reach. Though, she wondered why Grave would be using magic to keep out of her reach. Shrugging, the petite redhead decided that it didn’t matter too much and concentrated on trying to catch her friend.

Ahead of her friend, Grave smirked to herself. Using the natural abilities that she had, which weren’t much at all, she had to admit, even if only to herself. At least she could use a minor portion of magic to boost her speed and stamina. It might not be insanely fast like real Werecheetahs were capable of, but it was still quite a bit faster than a normal person’s speed. Though the fact that her friend was easily keeping pace with her made her wonder just what the boundaries of normal were.

Ranma-chan idly wondered what brought up the chase that she and Grave were doing at this point, but she mentally pushed it out her mind as she ran. This was a lot more fun than sitting around the house after training most of the day and being at school.

Grave giggled as she ran a bit further ahead. She blinked and skidded to a stop in front of a park. She blinked as she took in the scenery, mostly wide-open with trees, a swing-set on the other side of the park, with a sandbox and slide not too far from them. Her eyes widened slightly and she blinked as she felt a rush of air over her head. Turning her head to the side, she blinked a few times as she saw Ranma-chan turning around to face her. “Um, sorry.”

The redhead cocked her head to the side, looking at Grave confusedly. “Why’d you stop?” The chase was just starting to be fun when Grave stopped running and caused her to nearly crash into her friend.

The short Werecheetah hesitated for a moment, before looking back at the park and sighing. The last time she had been to a park was. . . Her train of thought stopped right there as she recalled memories that she had, but weren’t hers at all. She sighed and looked at the redhead, before forcing a smile to her face, one that even her companion could tell was forced. “No real reason.” She said, walking past the redhead, until Ranma-chan grabbed her arm, stopping her.

“Grave, are you okay? You’ve been sad all morning.” Ranma-chan asked, frowning slightly. While she wasn’t the best person to talk to about inter-personal relationships, she had gotten better since managing to get away from Genma awhile back, but she was by no means an expert at dealing with people.

Hearing the concern in her friend’s voice, the Werecheetah smiled gratefully. Morbidly, she idly wondered where she would have been if she had not known her friend. ‘I’d probably be dead.’ She thought to herself, closing her eyes and practically shuddering in dread.

Ranma-chan blinked as Grave Digger closed her eyes and shuddered for a few moments. “Grave? What’s wrong?” She asked, worriedly, especially as Grave opened her eyes, a wild and distant look to them. That definitely wasn’t the look of the girl that she had gotten to know over the course of the last couple of months.

Grave Digger shook her head as the memories started to vanish. Looking at her friend, hers, not Britanny’s, not Gina’s, and especially not Brianna’s, but hers, she smiled and hugged the redhead tightly. “Thank you.” She said, kissing Ranma-chan on the lips lightly, before laying her head on the redhead’s shoulder, uncaring of anyone who may have been looking at them at that moment.

Ranma-chan blinked when Grave kissed her quickly, but, before she could react, the girl broke the kiss and just hugged her and laid her head on the redhead’s shoulder. Mentally shrugging, she returned the hug as her friend clung to her for a bit.

After a few minutes, Grave broke the hug and smiled at Ranma-chan. “Thanks, I needed that.” She smiled impishly, before turning around suddenly. The redhead was about to ask what she was doing, until a tail came out of nowhere and slapped her in the shoulder. “Tag, you’re it.” Grave giggled, before running into the park.

Ranma-chan blinked and mock-growled. “Hey! Get back here!” She called out, running after her giggling friend.

(---)

Groaning as he finally woke up, a rather bruised, slightly burned, Genma cracked an eye open, before leaning forward and falling out of an impression, in a brick wall that he had crashed into the previous night, only to land flat on his face. He put his hands to his sides, before pushing up and groaning with extreme exertion. After a few moments of trying, he gave up and let his arms flop to his sides. He didn’t know who that girl was, or what she had done to him, all he knew was that it had hurt.

Thinking back on the girl who had done this to him, he didn’t see anything that would have indicated that she was a martial artist, at least by the way she walked, nor did he sense any typical aura that martial artists carried around them. She could have been like, Genma shuddered unconsciously, his master and been able to hide it, but he doubted that, after all, she had been glowing, and he had sensed something from her, but what, he wasn’t sure.

As he passed out, his only thoughts were that he hoped that some crazy person didn’t come by and try to kill him.

Had he been awake for ten more seconds, Genma would’ve hoped that kids didn’t pick up sticks and poke people with them.

To be continued. . .

________________________________________________________________________________

Preview of Next Chapter: “Okay, look, Ranma here, well, plot’s moving slowly, but that’s okay, gives me some time to relax. Huh? What do you mean you want me in this club?”

[1] How many of you think I skipped ahead in time just now? Be honest.

[2] I think I’m abusing the sneeze joke.

[3] Hmm, maybe THAT’S the reason people pushed Ranma and Akane together in the main series, it was fun watching their reactions, as long as you weren’t near them when they blew up.

[4] Sound like Nodoka?

Questions? Comments? Let me know people! Though, should I bring Ukyo into this fic or not? Any suggestions as to what could happen in the future? You might not think it, but I *DO* take people’s comments into consideration, if they make sense that is.