//------------------------------// // Chapter 16: Nightmare’s return Part 4: Ukyo’s dreams and nightmares // Story: Finally at Pegasus A MLP: FIM and Ranma ½ X-Over // by Alicornian //------------------------------// Chapter 16: Nightmare’s return Part 4: Ukyo’s dreams and nightmares Ukyo sighed as she stood before a well-known restaurant in San Francisco California. A pizzeria where the only person she could talk to at the moment had been. For years she had been hoping to meet this person a part of her family and she had wanted to be with for a long time, her sister, or more precisely her half-sister. Steeling herself she opened the door and stepped inside. “Welcome to Pizza Hut, how may I help you?” a waitress asked her. “Can you speak Japanese?” Ukyo asked nervously. The waitress nodded. “Yes ma’am. It’s part of the job here. So how may I help you?” Ukyo smiled at this. “I’m supposed to meet someone here that kind of looks exactly like I do.” The waitress nodded and gestured for her to follow her. Ukyo followed her to a table in the back where a tall teenage girl, who was unusually tall for her age, standing at about 5'6" with dark gray hair, grayish mulberry eyes, and pink bowtie collar, sat waiting for someone. “Sis?” Ukyo asked looking to her. The girl looked at her and after gasping got up and gulping asked, “Ukyo?” Ukyo nodded and was soon hugged by the taller girl. “I can’t believe it. You look just like me, well except for the eyes and hair but, oh I can’t believe we finally get to meet.” Ukyo stood solid for a bit before slowly wrapping her arms around her sister and leaned into the hug. “Finally…” After the heart felt greetings Ukyo just smiled as her sister ordered for then a pizza. “So… how’s things been?” Ukyo’s sister asked. “Horrid.” Ukyo replied pulling out a recipe card. “I hope you can decipher this. It’s from… from MY father.” Ukyo’s sister raised an eyebrow at this and looked the card’s recipe over carefully till… “He wants you to do what?!” Ukyo looked down at this. “And if you don’t he’ll remove you from the clan? What kind of idiot of a father did you get?” Ukyo’s sister said slapping the card onto the table. “One who feels that the only way to regain OUR family honor is for me to do this.” Ukyo replied sadly. “Sis no offence but… I think you might be better off without him.” Ukyo’s sister said to her taking her hand. “But what about my restaurant? My home, my name, everything I worked for?” Ukyo pointed out worried. “This is just advice but still hear me out okay?” Ukyo’s sister said gently. Ukyo nodded and listened. “What you can do is sell your restaurant from under him. By law YOU own the place not him and you can take the money you get from it and buy a whole new place in the town I live in. Then we can talk to the mayor or the Principal of my school who knows quite a bit about American laws to have your family name changed over to mine and leave him in the dirt.” “But… what about my honor?” Ukyo replied looking down at the table. “We talking about the honor this card say you’ll lose if you don’t follow it?” Ukyo’s sister said holding up the recipe card. “Or the honor you already have by not even paying attention to this card or the idiot who wrote it? There’s a difference between personal honor and clan honor Ukyo and a clan that wants to do what this card says has no honor in my book. It’s… why I’ll never be a Kunoji.” Ukyo looked to her sister and slowly smiled. “Thank you sister.” Ukyo’s sister just smiled back as she squeezed her hand. “Now… how is it you know Ranma?” Ukyo’s sister asked looking to the card. This caused Ukyo to blanch. “You know Ranchan?!” Ukyo nearly yelled looking to her sister. “He and his sister are good friends of ours.” Ukyo blinked at this. “Ranma’s very kind and even helpful around the school I go to and his sister Ranko has such an amazing voice. I think my ears are still ringing from the party Pinkie set up.” Ukyo slowly sat back in her seat and just blinked. Ranma was here and he was playing the Ranma and Ranko act? Sure it was a smart idea but… “Octavia!” This brought Ukyo out of her thoughts as another tall girl, possibly 5’4” tall with moderate cobalt blue with cyan stripes in dark purple shades came up and hugged her sister, Octavia, from behind and pecked her on the cheek. “Vi I told you not to do that in public.” Octavia scolded but kissed back after Vi pouted. “Sorry Octavia. So… who’s your friend?” Vi asked looking at Ukyo. “I wanted to do this at home but,” Octavia said with a sigh, “Ukyo meet my love Vivian Scratch. Vi this is my half-sister Ukyo Kunoji.” Vi gave a smile and a small wave removing her shades to reveal very lovely looking moderate cerise eyes. “Nice to meet you.” Ukyo’s jaw dropped but after thinking of herself and Ranma back in the past before the failed wedding and returned the smile and wave. “Hello.” Vi blinked then looked to Octavia. “What? You know my mother was Japanese as well as American. She’s lived all her life in Japan so…” Vi nodded in understanding. “Not a problem Octavia. I took Japanese as one of my electives last year, remember?” Octavia blinked at this. “Really?” Vi smiled happily. “Yep! Helps a lot when you order a lot of sound equipment overseas. Besides Japan has the best sound tech out of every state here in America.” Both Ukyo and Octavia’s jaws dropped at the English accented Japanese and soon laughed with Vi soon joining in their joy and their meal. --- Everyone at the school was floored as they were greeted by not one, not two, but three new students! “Everyone I thank you for joining us in the Gym today to great our newest students to Celestial Moon High.” Principal Moon said happily. “Let’s give a warm welcome to Nabiki Silver, Ryoga Hibiki, and Xian Fu.” All three waved to the entire high school student body placed in the large school gym. “Xian Fu will all be joining the first year students to help her with her English and Japanese language classes while Nabiki Silver and Ryoga Hibiki will be joining the second year classes as they’ve already passed their English language classes. Remember to treat them as you would wish them to treat you. Thank you all, your allowed to go to your next period classes.” Everyone filtered out except Ranma and his six friends. “You’re going to school here?!” Ranma asked after everyone but the principal had left. “Yep, though I’m doing so because I… I really don’t want to go home. I already contacted Kasumi and she said that it was the smart thing to do as well… Ranma did you know Kasumi was going to leave the Tendo Clan and move here, as in this exact town.” Ranma looked away from her. “Maybe.” Nabiki was about to press a little harder into that but shook her head. “If you say so Ranma. I’m not going to be a mercenary anymore. I’m… going to start anew with Kasumi, here in America. Besides, I… kind of like it here and I already put in for a job to earn some money the right way.” Ranma looked at her confused. “Work? Where?” Rarity stepped forward and next to Nabiki. “Say hello to the newest employee and model for Rarity’s Boutique.” Everyone was wowed by this. “Well… way to go Nabiki. I hope you do well in your new life.” Sparkle said kindly. “Thank you.” Nabiki returned smiling. “What about you two?” Ranma asked Xian Fu and Ryoga. “I had to get back into classes Ranma, I mean I’ve been on the road far too much so when Principal Moon offered to let me take classes here I jumped right on it.” Ryoga replied smiling past him and causing Jackie to lower her hat over her blushing face. “Well… alright, but no coming after me for lunches okay?” Ranma said jokingly. “No promises Cloudsdale.” Ryoga said in return laughing. What about you… Sa… sham…” Dashie tried to ask getting caught up on Shampoo’s name. “It is okay to call Xian Fu Shampoo. I’m used to it.” Shampoo said in Mandarin. Dashie only blinked at this till Sparkle leaned over and translated for her. “Oh, okay Shampoo. So…” Dashie said embarrassed. “Our Great-grandmother requested that she go to school since they’re going to be living here for now on.” James said walking up to them. “It’s true. Great-grandmother is even reopening our Raman shop but under a new name, The Golden Dragon Café.” Sparkle soon translated for everyone which caused Ranma to smile a bit. “I did miss you guy’s Raman noodles.” Shampoo opened her purse she now carried on her and handed over a card to everyone there saying they would get one free bowl of Raman on the day of the shops opening. “Cool. Thanks Xian Fu.” Sparkle said happily. “Yeah, thanks.” Dashie said putting the card into her new vest pocket. “You’re welcome.” Shampoo said happily. “Well we better all get to second period before we all get detention.” Ranma said nearly causing Sparkle to freak out. --- “So… let me get this straight. Ukyo here is having family issues with her Dad, who’s the head of her family’s clan, and must hunt down and, rid of, Ranma and Ranko because their former dad, Genma, not only took their dowry, a Okonomiyaki Cart which was their only business, and left poor Ukyo on the side of the road forcing her dad to make her into a boy instead of raising her like a girl resulting in her becoming not only a tomboy but allow her to learn her father’s arts so that she could…” Vivian just shook her head at hos confusing this was. “No offence Ukyo, but your life isn’t just confusing but your Dad’s nuts; doesn’t he know that if you follow through on your mission to end Ranma and Ranko that not only you would be arrested but he too and that you could be in like serious punishment as in possible death row?” Octavia sighed at this. “Actually Vi, he does know and as mom told me before she and dad passed sadly doesn’t care about anyone but himself and what someone can do to help benefit the clan. It’s why mom left him and came here but…” Ukyo picked up on this. “Sadly Dad won custody over me and took me into his clan as his daughter however… if I had been caught for what I was assigned to do Dad would have used legal means to keep himself safe. You see on the clan register I’m a boy but since I’m a girl …” “Your dad would have gotten off scot-free while you either rotted in jail or was put on death row! What a jerk!” Vivian said angrily. “Now you know why my mom left him. Anyway we need to head over to the embassy so Ukyo can start selling her restaurant.” Octavia said hugging her sister. Ukyo hugged back smiling a bit. “Sis?” Ukyo asked after letting her sister go. “Yes?” Octavia answered. “Can… you tell me about mom? Please?” Ukyo asked looking down as they walked. “It’s… a touchy subject but… yeah.” Octavia said taking Vivian’s hand for support. “Mom… Mom was amazing. She was really good at not only the art of the sword but also the art of music, mostly string instruments. Her favorite being the Violin and Cello which got me into music. She allowed me to play it one day and sigh. You should of seen the smile she had that day…” Octavia stopped and looked down trying not to cry. “I… I was only fourteen years old when mom and dad passed away. Mom had a concert in New York and dad went along to give her support. This wasn’t a problem with me since I was on a class fieldtrip to the local museum and it was supposed to be a two day flight. But…” Octavia just stopped talking and leaned into Vivian who held her as she cried. “But?” Ukyo asked carefully. Vivian looked to Ukyo sadly. “The plane never left the ground. Investigators said it was a faulty engine.” Ukyo gasped at this news. “My family was good friends with Octavia’s and we helped her out till she could start living on her own. We got to know each other and… well you already know. My family only consisted of my Grandmother and Grandfather. They passed away the day Octavia and I got into high school.” Vivian further explained. She was soon surprised as Ukyo hugged her and Octavia. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.” Ukyo said gently. “No Ukyo,” Octavia said soon wiping her eyes with a tissue, “you deserved to know, she was your mom as well.” Ukyo nodded and hugged her again. “Come on, I’ll tell you more about her on the way.” Octavia said hugging her sister back. After a few moments the three started once again to the Japanese Embassy while Octavia told Ukyo of their mother. --- “That’s all for today class, remember to have the paper on Beethoven’s Moon Light Sonata by next week, thank you!” Lyra said happily grabbing her things. In a few weeks she and Bonny would finally be married and they still hadn’t finished all the invitations. They both knew who they wanted to invite but needed to be sure as a few of the invites where going to those not formally a pony. Bonny wanted it to be a small wedding while Lyra wanted to use the school’s soccer field, which was in the back next to the pool and the basketball court, but Bonny said it was far too large for what they wanted and Lyra agreed, she couldn’t argue with Bonny. Never could or even would try. She loved her far too much to want to cause a rift between them over something small or trivial. “Lyra, are you coming?” Bonny finally asked from the door way. “I’m coming Bonny, just grabbing all the papers before I go.” Humming a bit she snapped her fingers and everything magically lifted, flew, and landed carefully in her teacher’s bag then shut. “Lyra you know you’re not supposed to do that in the school. What if Ranma and his friends saw that?” Bonny said concerned. “I know Bonny but I really want to get home so we can be together tonight. I haven’t seen you since Nabiki came to town.” Lyra replied frowning. Bonny went up to her, wrapped her arms around Lyra’s waist and gently kissed her on the cheek. “I know, and I’m sorry for that. The class had been doing a lot for us, even going so far as make that beautiful wedding cake for us. I’m just glad the Cakes had room to store it for us while we prepped for the wedding.” Lyra nodded at this. It was a pretty big cake, about Bonny’s and her height, which was about 5’5” tall for the both of them, and was made in layers of their favorite cakes. Lyra loved the rich clear taste of vanilla while Bonny loved the taste of fun and creative chocolate. Sure it was different but once they had tried a marble cake the idea of a vanilla and chocolate layered cake was truly breath taking, let alone delish. As the left the school hand in hand they looked over the much younger students running out of Miss Cheerily’s school. “Lyra… will you miss all this when we go back?” Bonny asked a bit worried. Lyra looked right at Bonny shocked as she thought she would have brought up the subject of foals again as Bonny wanted a few after they married. How two mares had children was… dependent on the parents. Lyra just wanted to leave those thoughts at just that while she recovered from the interesting question. “Well… yeah I guess I will.” Lyra replied squeezing her love’s hand. “This is what I’ve dreamed of for years, what I’ve strived so long to convince everyone of. It’s… Bonny it’s a dream come true and… I don’t want to wake up from it.” Bonny smiled at her love as tears began to fill her eyes. “I was hoping you’d say that.” Lyra blinked at this and Bonny kissed Lyra deeply. “Not that I didn’t like that Bonny, as I actually loved it, why did you want to know that?” Lyra asked after letting the passionate kiss go. “Can’t tell you. Wedding gift.” Bonny said smiling. Lyra’s jaw dropped at this giving Bonny just enough to get a head start for home. “Hey, get back here!” Lyra yelled laughing. --- Ranma flopped onto the couch of his home and sighed. For some time Ranma had been thinking about the rest of the NWC; Principal Kuno and his kids, Happosai, and Akane, especially Akane. Akane was now wild, mad, dangerous, and was here in California and possibly heading here. She may have even called for back-up to help get at him. Just who was not hard to guess, his worse enemies: Herb, Taro, Saffron, and many others who had fought him before. Yet knowing Akane like he did she’d possibly call in those three, the most powerful and the most dangerous. Sighing he decided it was time for Ranko to have her time out and maybe help him see this from another angle. Grabbing a note pad Ranma wrote down his worries as a note to his other half and went to change. Ranko blinked as she looked at herself in the mirror. This was just getting far too weird for her taste but… she wasn’t complaining. It was weird but… it felt right. How and why she couldn’t really tell but she wasn’t going to fight it or argue against it. Shaking the water from her hair she walked to the kitchen table for something to eat when she noticed a note made out to her. Picking it up she read over the note. Ranko, I know this is weird reading a note from yourself for yourself but it seems to be the only way we can get these issues of our memories in order or something, I don’t know. Anyway I was worried about Akane and the rest of the NWC along with our old enemies she could easily call up. I’m not sure what to do should Akane show up with a truck load of enemies and well I wanted to know what you thought on all this. Please help. Ranma. Ranko had to agree with the note, this was weird but… it did help. As for Ranma’s worries he did have a point. Akane had a whole arsenal of old foes she could call up and she was now a danger to everyone as well. Just how did you handle someone who didn’t care who they hurt as long as they hurt someone? She didn’t know and that shocked her just a bit. Thinking it over she almost laughed. When they were just one person Ranma was always the battle strategist while she was… well his opposite. She wouldn’t just use her head for strategy she would use her head for planning out dates, read and understand maps or even instructions and so on. She was a field strategist, someone who used her head outside of a fight. So she nodded to the note. “Good call bro. Now let’s see…” First she thought on the current NWC members which were Principal Kuno, Tatewaki Kuno, and finally Kodachi Kuno. Out of the three Principal Kuno was the most dangerous as he liked tossing exploding fruit around. After him was Kodachi who liked using laced flowers to do her work, and last was the non-to-worry Tatewaki Kuno who spouted Poetry, waved around a kendo-ken (or katana if one was handy), and loved to hear himself talk… a lot! Tatewaki wasn’t an issue as she and Ranma could constantly defeat him but was tenacious and also on the thick skulled part of intelligence. Kodachi however was deranged and dangerous. She may be a Martial Arts Gymnast but it was a joke. She also liked to not lose and cheated every moment she could but what made her dangerous was her arsenal of Gymnastics equipment and study of pollen and toxins. Kodachi had a vast arsenal of clubs, ropes, hoops, and rubber balls, anything a Gymnast needed but with hidden dangers. The clubs could have hidden spikes, the rope could actually be a solid metal rod painted to look like rope, the hoop could be an enlarged Chakram, the rubber balls could be filled explosives, the list could go on forever but her most deadliest was her gymnastic ribbon. Sharper than a sword and as effective as a whip it was her deadliest weapon and was always on hand. As for pollens and toxins it wasn’t that hard to avoid as Kodachi normally used it in her trade mark black roses so as long as Ranko stayed away or avoided said roses she’d be fine. Last was the most dangerous of the Kuno clan, the Principal. He was literally unpredictable as whatever he planned was well… odd. Sure his goal was to ruin students’ lives and of course chop of her and Ranma’s former pigtail. Since Ranma and Ranko didn’t wear a pigtail anymore the goal most likely would be to ruin students’ lives. At one time it was to give everyone really stupid and embarrassing haircuts. The next time it was to force Ranma and just about everyone to bow to some statue of himself and beg for disrespecting him and his school, mostly him, and really backfired on him in the form of a Chi absorbing and firing teacher by the name of Ms. Hinako. Basically each and every thing he did to them and their fellow students just backfired and resulted in things being so random they… just made no sense at all which made him unpredictable. And always by rule of thumb, an unpredictable enemy was a dangerous enemy, especially when they tossed around exploding Hawaiian fruit. And was a nut, a very serious nut. Yet the most dangerous of the NWC now was Akane. Sure she had no martial arts skill what so ever, unless you call brawling a martial art, but she was heavily skilled in using her Chi weapon, Mallet-sama. The thing was one hundred percent pure Chi and was so hard it could shatter stone and steel with a single swing and according to Nabiki it wasn’t just a simple mallet anymore, it was now a true Chi weapon. Did this mean Akane was now getting ahold of the Chi Arts? And if so… just how dangerous would she become? She was the one she had to focus on when she showed up as she was the odd fighter out. The mystery guest per say. Pacing she then thought out how to handle each of them. Tatewaki wasn’t hard to handle as the moment he came into America or in town he’d be arrested since he wasn’t even seen as a martial artist in her and Ranma’s eyes. Kodachi could easily get out of an arrest using her flowers but fight wise… Not an issue. She and Ranma had Shampoo, Ryoga, and Cologne as allies now and they had Nabiki as well. Kodachi wouldn’t be able to touch them thanks to those four. Principal Kuno was an issue as he had evaded the JSDF the moment he entered Japan so how to deal with his was a bit of an issue. Lastly was Akane. How to handle her was simple, take her out to the amusement park and fight her there. No one would get hurt and it would be just one on one. Satisfied with what she thought up she wrote back to her brother, her other self, and got ready to spend time with Summer and her aunt at the movies. --- “What do you mean I can’t sell my restaurant?!” Ukyo yelled at the Japanese representative. “Miss please, try and calm down. I’m just stating what I see and what I see is that the Restaurant Ucchan’s cannot be sold by you; it has to be sold by the head of your clan, which is your father. Now if I could convince him to sell it for you…” The representative said before Ukyo slammed her hands down onto the man’s desk. “Call him and I won’t see one cent from the sell! Don’t you understand I want nothing to do with my father and his clan?!” The representative just sighed and looked to Ukyo’s sister. “Miss please calm your sister before I have to have her removed.” Octavia took her sisters hand and patted it sighing. “Look sir, my sister wants fully out of the Kunoji Clan and to take on my family name but to do so she needs to sell that restaurant so she can move it here. Isn’t there anything you can do for her?” The Representative sat back in his seat and thought on this. “There is… one way… we’ve used it before with another case but…” Ukyo looked at him in the eye. “What is it? What did he say?” Vivian quickly translated what the man said from English and she turned to the man happily. “Whatever it is sir, we have to try.” Octavia said on her sister’s behalf. The Representative sighed. “We had a case brought to our attention some time ago, about last year I believe, that revolved around a wanted American criminal along with some… highly illegal items done to a young man and woman, about your ages I believe, that caused a need to change the family name and grant protection on a national level but… to have this happen a fourth time…,” he sighed and looked at the sisters before him, “It’s worth a shot. I’ll need you to go through a background check along with answer a good amount of questions starting with where you last lived.” Vivian quickly translated for Ukyo who smiled and nodded. “I lived in Nerima Ward, Tokyo Japan.” The man quickly sat up at this. “Any contact with a Principal Kuno?” Ukyo understood the name Kuno but the rest was unclear. English was never her major study of language. Vivian translated and Ukyo quickly nodded. “Yes, he was the principal of the school I went too. Why do you ask?” The Representative just shook his head and switched over to Japanese. “It’s all very similar to the two cases we had before, twins to be more accurate, and well… I have to know. Do you also have serious issues with your family?” Ukyo blinked at this and nodded or shook her head at the many questions she was asked which the answers where written down for till finally the got down to the last question, the important one. “Now, who signed and paid for your restaurant?” Ukyo smiled at this question. “I did and I pay for everything in the place as well. Food, electricity, gas, everything.” The Representative wrote all this down and nodded. “Alright. That’ll be it for now. The background check will take about a week or two to complete but if everything looks good you’ll no longer be a Kunoji.” Ukyo smiled at this. Finally, the nightmare was about over. --- Somewhere in Japan a knock came to the sliding door of a bedroom. “Enter.” A voice called out. The door opened to reveal a young man in ninja clothing but instead of ninja weaponry he had cooking knives for weapons. “Lord Kunoji, we’ve gotten word from our contacts in Tokyo that the restaurant Ucchan’s is being sold without your consent, also the ninja we sent to eliminate the Saotome men is being investigated. Our contact said something about a background check.” The ninja reported with his head down. “So, my ‘child’ has decided to try and leave the clan by legal means.” Mr. Kunoji said staying in the darkness of the room unseen. “So it would seem my lord. How should we respond to this?” the ninja asked keeping his head low. “The ‘child’ knows that there is no leaving this clan without retaliation. Seek out our contact, inform them that the Kunoji clan has no ‘girl’ named Ukyo Kunoji in its clan and if the restaurant gets the go for sale…” Mr. Kunoji ordered pausing a bit, “Bring it to its foundation.” “Yes my lord.” Was all the ninja said before closing the door and leaving. “No one leaves this clan… without retaliation and no one leaves me… without… a satisfying end.” The man chuckled then laughed as he brought a large razor sharp spatula down on a photo of Ukyo Kunoji, his now former child. --- Normally Ranko didn’t like romance like movies and plays but the play, not movie which was Ranko’s mistake, wasn’t bad. It was a town made play called the Joining of Night and Day. It was mostly about a rich families’ daughter falling for an average working man. The man was played by Mr. Armor while his wife Mrs. Armor played the rich daughter. It had bits of comedy in it along with some tear jerking bits but it was a very good play. Finally it was coming close to the end, where the two were soon to wed. “If there is anyone here who does not wish these two to wed, speak now or forever hold your speech.” The actor for the priest said looking over the actors. “I don’t!” a voice called out from the group of actors. “Father!” Ms. Armor replied acting her part. “Why must you come between us every time? Don’t you see I love him?” The man playing Mrs. Armor’s father shook his head. “How you say such a thing? He has no money, no proper home, he will have you cook your own meals and care for the house. We have servants to do such tasks, money to spend as you please, and a proper home!” The man said asking. “Sir, I love your daughter with all my heart. If she does not wish to cook I will not force her to, if there is something she wishes to buy I will work hard to help her by the item, the home is small but it is a home, a shelter against the heat of the summer and the cold of winter. Please sir, let me wed your daughter.” Mr. Armor said acting his part quite well. “No, you shall not! I will not allow my daughter to marry a man with no wealth!” the man acting as the father said unhappily. “Then I renounce my family!” Mrs. Armor said to the man. “You… you cannot.” The man said in shock. “Father you care only for material worthwhile I care for something you do not,” Mrs. Armor said taking Mr. Armor’s arm, “his heart.” The man looked to the two then to the actors acting as the crowd for the wedding the spot light soon shining on a woman playing the father’s wife. After a long silence the man sighed. “You are right my daughter. I have been blinded by the riches I hold. My dear man, take good care of my daughter.” Mr. and Mrs. Armor smiled at this. “I shall sir. I shall.” It was then the play ended and everyone, including Ranko stood and applauds the actors who came out and bowed to the crowd. After everyone left Ranko, Summer, and the rest of the girls smiled and laughed as they walked home. “That was an amazing play.” Sparkle said smiling. “I knew my brother and sister-in-law were good actors but wow.” Ranko nodded at this. “Yeah, I never knew they could act like that. You could really sense the love the two characters had for one another through the whole thing.” Summer nodded in agreement as she tightened her hold on Ranko’s arm causing Ranko to smile. “Well, I have to getting on home, got to be up early to get on the golden delicious.” Jackie said tipping her hat. “We must be going as well.” Rarity said with Nabiki beside her. “We have a new line of clothing to get together for a fashion show at the end of the week. Later everyone.” Nabiki said as she and Rarity walking to their respected homes. “Pinkie and I must go as well Ranko. Mr. and Mrs. Cake are going to be out at a wedding they got hired to cater for and we have to mind the shop for them. Pinkie, time to go.” Nodoka said getting Pinkie’s attention who smiled and skipped ahead as they headed to their homes as well. “We have to wait for my family. Dashie’s staying over at my place tonight so…” Sparkle said blushing. “It’s a lot closer to the school and mom and her team are on tour so Scooter and I are on our own for the time being. Scooter’s staying the night at the Apples so…” Dashie got out before also blushing. “Don’t worry you two. We’ll see you tomorrow at school right?” Ranko said smiling with a blushing Summer on her arm. “Yeah. Sure. Later.” Dashie said trying to not turn any redder. Both Ranko and Summer giggled at this as they walked home. “Too bad Xian Fu, James, and their grandmother couldn’t come tonight.” Summer said sadly. “They had to get the restaurant up and running before opening day. They did promise to come see the next one with us though.” Ranko replied. “That’s good.” Summer said happily. They slowly walked through the town streets watching everyone close up shop for the night or get the late night juice and karaoke places open. Ranko and Summer just sighed. They loved their private time. No one to bother them, a nice calm night to themselves, they loved it… and they loved each other. Finally reaching Summer home Ranko received a full kiss on the lips before Summer went inside smiling. “Night Ranko.” Ranko could only smile back at her love. “Night Summer.” Sighing after the door closed Ranko began her trek home and began to worry. She loved Summer but… what about Kasumi? Didn’t she love her as well? Thinking on it she admitted she did but was it the love she and Summer shared or was it… something else? She didn’t know but for now she’d just get some rest and let Ranma have the rest of the night. --- It had been two full weeks since Ukyo, her sister Octavia, and her sister’s girlfriend Vivian had gone to the embassy to change her family name over to her sister’s which was ironically Choir. Now, after so many years, so many fights, so many mistakes, the nightmare was finally going to be over. “Excuse me.” Octavia said to the secretary. “Yes may I help you?” the secretary asked kindly. Octavia smiled. “We have an appointment with the Japanese representative for noon, Octavia Choir and Ukyo Kunoji.” The secretary looked startled at this. “Yes, he’s been expecting you, this way please.” This began to worry the small group. “Enter.” A voice called after the secretary knocked. The group entered to see the representative looking over papers over and over before he looked up. “Ah, miss Octavia and Miss Ukyo. Please sit we have some… news to discuss.” The group went to a few seats before the representative’s desk and sat down. “What seems to be the matter?” Vivian asked. “Well… let’s start from the top of this stack here.” The representative said patting a small stack of papers. “The top paper here is for one restaurant called Ukyo’s in Japan. Or what’s left of said restaurant.” The representative said sadly. “What do you mean what’s left of it, what happened?!” Ukyo asked worried. “After some paperwork we found that you were right about owning the restaurant and even matched your signature with the one of the property papers. The place is yours to sell as you pleased but last week… there was fire along with a gas main explosion. The fire crew and police force couldn’t find what had caused the fire but sadly the entire restaurant was brought to its foundation. Best we could get for just the foundation itself is equal to only two to three thousand American dollars but that was last week. We just got in touch with a property inspector and… the news isn’t good.” The girls looked to each other than hesitantly gestured for him to continue. “The explosion sadly shifted the foundation to a point that… even if we were able to sell it… it wouldn’t be for very much. We’d be lucky to get even a thousand out of it and with housing here in the states… that’s not very much. For an apartment sure but for a restaurant… not even close.” Ukyo just sat back in her seat, floored. The restaurant was her life and now… it was gone. “There’s more bad news to this pile.” The representative said sadly. “There’s… more?” Ukyo asked hesitantly. The representative nodded slowly. “We went through your background and according to them there is no Ms. Ukyo Kunoji in the Kunoji clan. There isn’t even a Mr. Ukyo Kunoji in it anymore. According to them Mr. Ukyo Kunoji died while traveling on a plane from China to Japan last year and has the death certificates to verify this. So sadly according to them, you shouldn’t even exist.” The representative said frowning. Ukyo began shaking before she shook her head crying. “No… no…. NO!” Octavia quickly pulled her sister into her arms and held her slowly stroking her hair as she cried. “Is this all we came here for? To hear all this bad news, what was the point of all this if all you can do is make things worse for these two?!” Vivian said protectively. “Easy there, that’s only the bad news. The rest of this stack here is good news. Very good news I should add.” The representative said removing the top four papers from the small stack. “We’re listening.” Vivian said annoyed. “Though she’s not on record clan wise we did check the hospital records of every hospital in Japan to see if there ever was a male and female Ukyo born. Both came back a yes but with some added benefits according to me.” Everyone looked at him confused at this. “What do you mean?” Ukyo asked through her tears. “According to this hospital,” the representative said handing over a birth certificate, “Ms. Ukyo here was born to an American woman by the name of Harmonica Choir, not Harmonica Kunoji meaning Ukyo here was always an American citizen from birth as well as your sister. She’s both an American Japanese Citizen or in laymen’s terms has duel citizenship.” This caused everyone’s eyes to widen at this. “Also we did a check on the Kunoji clan, apparently they’re a ninja clan connected to a Yakuza clan meaning the investigation will be placed in JSDF hands and since you’re seen as another key witness against Principal Kuno you Miss Ukyo also have state protection just as the three cases before. Your mother also made sure that you’d get something in her will the moment you left the Kunoji clan. I have that will right here if you’re interested in hearing it.” Ukyo and Octavia quickly nodded. “Very well,” He said taking the will out. “Understand that is an unread section of the will Miss Octavia, and was to be read once Ukyo was no longer part of the Kunoji clan as per its instructions.” Octavia nodded as he cleared his throat. “’I, Harmonica Choir, of sound mind and body, here by make this section of my will so that my daughter, Ukyo Choir, on departure of the Kunoji clan is here by entitled to the following: The contents and the Lock Box #14 itself in the Coltsville Bank, my old home 1313 Harmony Rd., and an exact equal share of money, to be granted in monthly stiffens, as my daughter Octavia Choir. She is to also entitle to one restaurant 1414 Colt Street .A letter explaining how I came about this restaurant is inside with-in the old fashioned cash register. Know that I love you my daughter and I pray you have a long and loving life with your true family. Sign, Harmonica Choir.’” The representative then handed the will over to the sisters who quickly read it to confirm it was all there. “Mom… did all this… for me?” Ukyo asked looking to her sister. “I believe mother loved both of us equally Ukyo. Welcome home.” Octavia replied smiling at her and soon gained a very heartfelt hug. Finally… the nightmare was over. --- Somewhere outside San Francisco Akane was working on some brand new techniques to use alongside her mallet. “Doragonburasuto!” A black burst of chi in the shape of a black dragon hit a stone target turning it into dust. “Kurai shōmei!” Akane yelled unleashing black chi like lighting at a cactus burning it to a crisp. “Oni ryū no haoto!” She called out again waving her hand causing a sharp dark wind to rip up the ground. Dragon Burst, Black Lightning, and the Wing beat of Demon Dragon where only three of Akane’s growing list of chi techniques she learned in only a few weeks’ time. Soon behind her came a set of clapping hands which she slowly turned to. “I’m impressed child.” A heavily tanned man with sunglasses, a palm tree-like topknot, Aloha shirt, lei around his neck, Capri pants, and sandals said next to a tall boy with short dark hair dressed in kendo uniform and a tall girl in long black hair tied up in a ponytail in a Chinese dress. “Took you three long enough; what did you do stop at Hawaii to restock your Hawaiian explosives?” Akane sneered at the group causing all of them to flinch. This was not the Akane they all remembered. This was someone else. “I see you’ve all met my student.” A voice said behind her. Everyone gasped as the last person anyone wanted to see stepped forward, Happosai of the Anything Goes founding arts! “Then let us get to work.” --- Ukyo, Octavia, and Vivian slowly entered the old restaurant once owned by Ukyo and Octavia’s mother. “Pretty run down don’t you think?” Vivian said looking the place over. “See if you can find a light switch.” Ukyo said looking around. Soon the lights popped on and they saw the old place. Though the inside looked old rustic and quite out of date the place still looked usable. “I thought disco was dead. Ugh.” Vivian said looking over the old equipment and seeing only items from the late 1970’s inside. “Well at least everything works. Let’s open this old cash register up and read that note.” Ukyo replied as her sister nodded beside the old register. Pushing an old open cash drawer button the drawer popped open with a click and ring of some hidden bell inside and pulled out a yellowing envelope signed for not just Ukyo but Octavia as well. “That’s odd. It’s for both of us.” Octavia said handing the letter to Ukyo. Ukyo gently opened the envelope and pulled out the old letter and began to read it. “’Dear Octavia and Ukyo, I hope that you find this letter well and where I had placed it. This restaurant once belonged to your father Raymond’s grandfather Octavia. I knew you would fallow in my footsteps of music so I had your father allow me to give it to your sister. Yes Raymond knew of Ukyo. Ukyo, this place is now yours to use as you place but do be kind to all of it. It’s old yes but well loved. On the back of this letter is a note only for Ukyo. Octavia I want you to follow these instructions completely and not go against them. First go to the door and lock it. Next go behind your sister and hold her, let her know you are there then… turn this letter over. Love, Harmonica Choir.'” Ukyo blinked as Octavia held her sister as Vivian closed and locked the door. Gulping out of nervousness Ukyo turned over the letter and began reading it to herself, Hello Ukyo, I knew you would come back to this family one day. Yet… you must know something about me and your sister. I know this will be hard to accept but… we’re ponies dear. Actual walking, talking, and very magical ponies, that were brought here to Earth by a very powerful spell; a spell that caused many things to happen to all of us. To sum it all up go to Principal Moon here in town, she will explain the town’s true past to you. As for your questions, Yes I am sane when I wrote this letter, yes I just read your mind, and yes this means you would have been born a pony. Octavia is your older sister no matter how she looks and loves you dearly. I am guessing you want some form of proof to all this. On your hip will be a mark, it will be much different than an average birth mark as it will actually have a shape and some form of shading to it. Your sister has such a mark as well. Have her show you it now. Good, now take a good look at it while she plays a bit of music, you’ll see it glow. Yours will do the same when you do your personal talent. This is your cutie mark dear, and I hope you have it. As for this letter it was to let you know how much I truly love you and how I did not wish you to be in the dark all your life. Should the people here in this town get to go back to our home of Equestria, go with your sister, your family, and I know you’ll love it there. Harmonica Choir, Earth Pony Ukyo just shook and looked to her sister scared. Nodding to Vivian, Vivian pointed to a few old chairs in the room which began glowing with a light cobalt blue glow and effortless floated to the right side of the restaurant entrance. Ukyo’s eyes widened at this as she also spotted on Vivian’s hip, a brightly glowing bridged eighth note. “H-how… w-what…” Octavia gave her sister a gentle squeeze. “Ukyo… it’s true. We’re not really humans. We’re ponies turned into humans. Vi here is a Unicorn, I’m an Earth. I’m not sure what you are sis but… I’m here for you.” Ukyo just shook her head and laughed. “Of all the craziness in my life… this just took the Okonomiyaki.” Vivian came over and hugged her as well. “Hey, it’s a lot less crazy than where you used to live.” Ukyo just nodded at this. “So… how do I get mine?” Ukyo asked causing the other girls to blink then giggle. “This is going to take some time.” Vivian said smiling. To be continued.