Balance of the Valley

Balance of the Valley is written by James Thomas and was published online on July 18th, 2003.Fubarfics News at Welcome To Fubar Fics! - Retrieved 28-07-2018
==Description==
==Plot==
Akane Tendo lies dead in Ranma Saotome's arms at the site of his battle with Saffron. While Kiima shows the others Saffron's egg, Ranma wades into the pool with Akane's body and begins a ki attack that will destroy the cavern everybody is in. However, at the last minute Ryoga Hibiki snatches Ranma out of the cavern, saving his life. Ryoga tells him that Akane would have wanted him to live, but Ranma is convinced that his life has no meaning anymore. Ranma then sees Kiima with the baby that has newly hatched from the egg and snatches the baby from her, telling her he will keep it since they have deprived him off the light of his world. An attack to take back the baby fails and Ranma walks off. Ranma returns to the Tendo Dojo with the baby Saffron, wondering what she will do next. As it is raining when Kiima suddenly turns up, Saffron's captain is in her cursed form which is that of Akane. Soun Tendo see her as she argues with Ranma about raising Saffron and won't acknowledge that it is not Akane that he is seeing. Genma Saotome then turns up and strangely has no memory of Akane's death. Kiima denies all knowledge of how this may have happened, explaining that due to the fight and the release of hot water the people of the mountain no longer need Saffron. She however still wants to serve her king and that she would sacrifice anything for him. Ranma takes her up on that, using the Full Body Cat Tongue to make her adverse to hot water and telling her his condition is that she not fly and remain in her cursed form.
The next morning Nabiki Tendo wonders at the cool behaviour between Ranma and her younger sister, "Akane" telling her to let it go. Ranma visits the Nekohanten where Cologne reveals that Genma's memory loss is a side effect of using the Xi Fang Gao technique to remove the hold of the surikomi egg. She then tells him that it is probably for the best that he stay in Nerima and raises Saffron, adding that she and her fellow Chinese Amazons will be returning to China meaning Ranma won't forced to marry Shampoo any longer. Over the next few days things settle into a routine, Kiima noting that the two adult men in the house are too stupid to realise that she is not Akane, that Kasumi seems wilfully blind to the whole matter, and that Nabiki was digging for dirt. A few weeks later Ranma comes home to a house with only Kiima and Saffron inside, this being another attempt by the fathers to put their two children together. The pair sort of come to an uneasy truce over dinner, but afterwards end up yelling at each other. Ranma demands that she leave as she reminds him that Akane is dead, but Kiima refuses to leave without Saffron and Ranma won't release the baby.
Two months later and the father attempt a wedding ceremony by knocking Ranma out and dressing him in a tuxedo. Ranma wakes up and storms through the house to find Kiima dressed up in a wedding dress. The two talk and Ranma learns that she thought Ranma was the Amazon's "Chosen One", a fighter trained specifically to assassinate Saffron, which was why she has hated him all this time. She gives Ranma insight into how the three major powers of the Jusenkyo valley sat in an uneasy balance and where many of the Amazon's rules came from such as the Kiss of Death. In apology for how she has treated him and misunderstood his feelings for Akane, having believed the girl was a convenient excuse for Ranma as an assassin to take on Saffron, she offers Ranma complete power over to do as he wishes, handing him her sword. Ranma contemplates asking her to commit seppuku or killing her himself, but tells her instead she will help him replay his debts. His debts are that he marry Akane and take over the dojo, meaning Kiima will have to remain as Akane and marry him. Outside a debacle has occurred with a barrel of water from the Jusenkyo Spring of Drowned Man, during which the baby Saffron has been splashed. He'll now have a way to hide his wings when he gets older. Kiima and Ranma comes outside and ask if the wedding is still able to go ahead. At this point Shampoo turns up and attacks, but Ranma convinces her to let him go. The fathers get Ranma drunk and Kiima pulls him away upstairs to her room where the two have sex, Ranma calling out Akane's name throughout.
The next morning Ranma tries to leave the bed when he wakes up and realises it is not Akane, but Kiima refuses to let him leave and they make love. With an empty house for a week Kiima asks Ranma to train her in his art, which she thinks is very much like flying, after seeing him practise. Nine months later their first child, Megumi, is born and is eventually splashed with Jusenkyo water to hide her wings. Then in the fifth year of marriage a stranger turns up at the dojo and is revealed to be Akane, very much alive despite being thought dead and buried. She demands that Kiima leave so that she can have Ranma back. Kiima says she will leave without a fight, taking Saffron with her. She asks to be able to take her daughter with her, but Akane won't let saying it will hurt Ranma. Kiima goes to leave, but when Akane kisses Ranma he realises that it is Shampoo and unmasks her. Shampoo attacks Kiima with a knife, but Ranma intervenes at the last minute and Shampoo dies on her own blade. Ranma tells Kiima that Shampoo got her wish, to die in battle like an Amazon. He confesses that for a moment he'd wished that it really was Akane back from the dead, but then knew he didn't as he was now in love with Kiima.
==Notes==
*Followed by Saffron Saotome, also by Thomas.
==See Also==
*In My Dreams
*Simulacrum
==External Links==
*Balance of the Valley at Welcome To Fubar Fics! - Retrieved 28-07-2018
*Balance of the Valley at Fanfiction.net - Retrieved 15-01-2020
==References==
Category:One Chapter Story