Disclaimer: These characters are not mine. They belong to the wonderful Romiko 
Takahashi and her licensees (Viz Communications in North America). This work is 
strictly for the non-profit enjoyment of fans. No copyright infringement is intended.



And the Cradle Will Rock
Part 2 :When the Wind Blows
By RJ


Ranma and Akane laid on the floor, they have just fainted. 

~~~~~~SPLASH!!!~~~~~~~~

A slash of cold water was thrown over both of them.

**Cough**Cough** “What’cha do that for?”  Ranma yelled.

“To wake your ass up.”  Nabiki replied.  She helped her sister and handed Ranma a 
kettle of hot water.  Ranma returned to his male form.

“Man I had the weirdest dream that this girl came here, saying she was mine and Akane’s
 daughter and Juro was our grandson.”  Ranma nervously laughed as he placed his
 hand on his neck.  

“Umm Ranma?  It wasn’t a dream.”  Nabiki said.

“What?”  Akane and Ranma said.  Both their eyes looked  behind Nabiki to find a young 
women who held Juro in her arms. Her eyes met theirs and started to get up.  

She quietly said “Hello.   Sorry about this whole situation.”

Akane stared, she looked just like Ranma’s female form, but with black hair.  “They 
could be brother and sister,” she thought. “That has to be it,” she concluded wrongly.

“Well I guess I should explain.”  Keiko said as she looked at her young parent’s faces.
“Good idea,”  said Ranma.

“Let me make some tea.  Here let me take the baby and put him back to sleep.”  Kasumi 
said reaching her Juro.

“No”  Keiko said as she held him tightly.  “Let me do it please.”  She pleaded
.
“Of course.  I’ll go make that tea.”

	Keiko returned from putting the baby in the crib to find that everyone was sitting 
at the dinning room table waiting for an explanation. Even Ryoga, in his cursed form, 
was awake and waiting to hear this girl’s explanation as he sat in Akane’s lap.  She 
took the emptied seat at the head of table.  All eyes were on her.

“Umm, I don’t know where to start?”

“How did you get here if you are from the future?”  Akane asked.

Keiko smiled as she looked at her young mother. “That is a good question.”  She said 
as she reached inside cloak she wore and pulled out a small mirror.  “I traveled back
 here with this.”  She held it up and immediately they knew what it was, the Nan-ban
 mirror(1).  Only a piece of it though.  
 
“But how?”  Soun yelled. 

“Yeah, Nabiki stepped on it and broke it!”  Ranma yelled throwing a glare at Nabiki.

	Keiko held the small mirror in her hand.  Different from the last time they saw the
 magic mirror, it was only a shard from when it was accidentally walked on.  It was 
surrounded with gold and was only about the size of her hand.

“It was thrown away, I remember, plus it was broke.  How could it work?.” Akane asked.
“Yes it was, but Cologne retrieved it.”
“You mean Cologne has had the pieces of the mirror and never told us!”  Ranma yelled angrily.  
“I can’t believe she has the mirror and wouldn’t let me use it.”
“I would do you no good.”  Keiko stated.
“WHAT? You used it.”  he said.
“Yes, I am used it, but it is only through more magic that it entitles me to travel.
 Unfortunately only myself, Juro and my husband can travel through it.

“How can that be?”  Genma asked.
“That can be explained a little later, but for right now where is Cologne?”

“Cologne? Who cares where that old ghoul is.”

“It is very important.”

“I believe she is out of the country, went back to her village.” Nabiki said.

“How do you know that?” Ranma asked.

“I have contacts Ranma.  I make it my business to know where certain people are.”

“Speaking of which, what did she mean ‘Thank you for not telling’?  Did you know who 
Juro was?”  Akane asked her sister.
“Uh…”  she hesitated.
 Keiko, nodded slightly to give permission to tell them the truth.
“I knew who Juro was because I wrote my self a letter that told me.”

“WHAT?”  Ranma and the rest yelled.

“Hold on, I’ll be right back.”  Nabiki stood up and walked out of the room.  A minute later
 she came back with a 2 pieces of paper, a white gel pen and a small black light.  She
 sat down and held up the piece of paper. 

“ This is note we received when Juro was left on our doorstep a year ago. See,” she
 said holding the letter up.  “Well in the corner I noticed a tiny B. L. when I read it over. 
 You see, B. L.  stands for Black Light.  When the paper is exposed to a short wave 
black light anything written in white ink will appear.”  She uncapped her pen and wrote 
something out on the other piece of paper.  “Now as you see, it looks as if nothing is 
written, but when I turn on the black light it will show up.  Kasumi could you please turn 
off the lights.”  Once her older sister turned them off the group sat in darkness, until 
Nabiki turned on the black light.  The room glowed with many black light responsive 
objects.  She held up the piece of paper she just wrote on and place it above the light.  
A deep purple message was revealed, ‘Ranma you owe me money.’  Ranma growled 
slightly at Nabiki. 

“When I did this to the note we got I realized it was a letter from me.”  She took out the 
note they got a year ago and held it above the light.  Again a deep purple message appeared.

*****************************************************************

Nabiki,

I know you will have figured out this coded message because you are extremely smart 
and beautiful.  I know this because I am you, a future you.  Don’t believe me, well all I 
have to say is “JUICE.”  Now that you most likely believe, I will continue on.  The baby
 that was left with you and your family is your future grandnephew.  Yes, grandnephew. 
Akane and Ranma will have a baby girl, named Keiko.  She will then give birth to a son,
 Juro.  It is imperative that this is kept a secret the time the child is staying with you.  
No one is to know who he really is.  I have found enough early 21st century money to 
help with expensive.  I hope all goes well and if you are still not conceived, a blood test
 will help confirm this information.

All my love,
Nabiki

*********************************************************************

“Whoa.”  Ranma and Akane stated at the same time.

“You can turn on the lights now Kasumi.”  Nabiki said.

“So Juro is really our grandson?”  Ranma asked, but mostly looked at Akane.  Akane
stared back. She could hardly believe it also.

“Ohhhh my baby girl is going to have a beautiful daughter who will have a handsome
son!”  Soun cried as he hugged Genma who was also cried with tears of happiness.

“I can’t believe you never told us Nabiki,”  Akane voiced.

“Akane, I was told by myself to keep it a secret.  I was a little spectacle in the beginning, 
but I did get a blood test done and it is true that Juro is related to both you and Ranma.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back to the whole mirror thing again, how come it’s useless to us 
now?  Ranma asked Keiko, his future daughter.

“Tears no longer make it work,”  she said as she glanced at her watch.

What is the supposed to mean?  What makes it work?”

“Blood,” was her answer.  She stood up, put the shard of the Nan-ban mirror back inside 
her cloak and walk over to where the baby was slept.  She picked up her son and smiled.
Carefully she rocked the child, so not to wake him as she walked towards the group.

“Blood?”  Akane asked.

“Yes blood,”  she said as she looked past the group and into the backyard.  Ranma and 
everyone followed her gaze into the dark backyard.  A figure stood near by the Koi pond.

“Oh my!”  Kasumi exclaimed.

	The figure walked closer and revealed that it was man dressed in black silk pants,
 a white Chinese style long sleeved shirt with black gloves.  He continued towards the group 
and walked into the light of the living room.  He looked to be a little taller then Ranma, with 
dark shinny black hair, with one green streak in the middle of his bangs that hung slightly in 
front of his deep emerald green almond shaped eyes. He seemed to glide toward Keiko and 
the baby.  She smile as he came up to her and kissed her gently on the lips and then with
utmost care he lightly kissed the forehead of the sleeping baby.

  He looked up into her eyes as asked, “Is everything all right?”  

“Yes, right now everything is fine.  Was she there?”  She said as she gazed into his eyes.

“No, probably won’t arrive until after sunrise,”  he said.

“Oh,” she replied with a quick look toward Ranma and Akane.

The man looked at their bewildered faces and turned back to Keiko.  “I take it they don’t know
 of me yet?”  He asked as she nodded no.

	He turned around and faced Ranma and Akane.  He came closer to them, with 
Keiko right beside him.

“Father, Mother, this is my husband Sen,”  Keiko said.

	Sen bowed slightly, not as much as the Japanese do when they greet someone, but
 enough to show respect.  Ranma and Akane looked at the man in front of him and bowed 
somewhat uncomfortably.  They have just met their future daughter’s husband.

“It is most honorable to meet you Sir,”  he said to Ranma.

“Sir?”  Ranma thought.  How odd, an older man was calling him Sir.

“I know this is probably very confusing to you, but it had to be done.  There was nothing else
 we could do.”

“What do you mean, there was nothing else you could do?” Akane asked.

“We had no choice but to come back to this time, to leave our son with you.  It was the 
safest place for him to be.”

“I don’t understand?  Why is this time the safest place for him to be?”  Ranma asked.
“Because no one can harm him in the past.”

“Who would want to harm him?”  Akane asked.

“That is a very long story and will have to wait until we speak to Cologne.  It very important.  
She will return in a few hours and then we can explain what is going on here.”  Sen 
noticed the disapproved looks he was received, “I would really like to explain, but it was 
a long journey and I need to rest and regain my energy.  Please can you wait a few hours.” 
 he almost pleaded.

	Ranma and Akane looked at each other and back at Sen. 
“Yes, of course we can.  You can use my room to sleep in.”  Ranma said.

“Thank you Sir, but that won’t be necessary.  I need to be outside.”  He bowed slightly,
 turned and kissed his wife and child.  He walked outside into the backyard and sat in 
a lotus position.  Within seconds he was in a trance-like state.
 
“How odd.”  Akane stated.  “Why outside?”  She asked Keiko, but noticed she was no 
longer in front of her.  Keiko had walked over the crib and placed the baby back inside.
  She tucked her son in and smiled.  She located the rocking chair off to the side and sat back.  
She closed her eyes as sleep swept over her.

“Oh my, she will get a bad back ache if she sleeps in that chair.  Ranma why don’t you 
take her upstairs,”  Kasumi said.

	Akane was about to protest, but then realized that this was her daughter, not
some stranger, not another girl after Ranma’s heart.  For the first time this night Akane
 smiled.  She smiled because she knew she would end up with Ranma.  That, out of 
the prettier girls, he chose her.  They would have a child, a beautiful daughter and in 
turn she would have a beautiful son.  She smiled and looked at Ranma, who stared at 
her with a weird expression on his face.  He had asked her a question, but she was to 
busy inside her own head to hear it.

“Huh?”

“Do you mind if I put her in your room?”

“Oh no, not at all.”

	Ranma nodded and walked over to the sleeping girl.  As if she weighed nothing 
to him, he lifted her up and acceded to the second floor.

“Well I think we all should get some sleep.”  Genma stated.
“Good idea Saotome.”  Soun replied.

“I guess I’ll crash on your floor Nabiki.”

“Fine, no problem.”

“Oh look, poor P-chan is out cold.  I wonder why?”

“Probably because he just found out Ranma gets you,”  Nabiki thought.

 “Who knows Akane, is it really that important?”  

“I swear, I think he understands us.”

“Really Akane, how clueless can you be?”  Nabiki said as she walked away.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Not looking back she replied, “nothing.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sun had risen and as if nothing out of the ordinary Kasumi was already up and in 
the process of having breakfast made.

Upstairs Akane’s bedroom door slowly opened and Ranma’s head peeked in to look at 
the girl in the bed.

“Ranma, what are you doing?”  

Jumping about 5 feet, Ranma turned around to see Akane who stared at him with a
 frown upon her face.

“Jeeze, Akane you scared me.”

“Well?”

“Well what? I just wanted to make sure I didn’t dream it ok.”

Her face lightened as she looked past the pigtail boy and into her own room.  

“I understand,” she said.

“You do?”

“Yes, Ranma I do. It seems pretty unbelievable.”

Ranma smiled at Akane as he began to close the door.  “Come on, let her sleep some more.”

“Don’t worry I’m awake,” a voice within the bedroom called out.

“I’m sorry. Did we wake you?” Akane asked.

“No Mom, you didn’t,” Keiko said as she got up from under the covers.

Hearing the word “mom” Akane’s face started to turn a healthy shade of red.  She 
looked at Ranma, whose face seem to be doing the same. Thank the gods at the same
 moment Kasumi’s voice came from the bottom of the stairs, “Breakfast is ready.”

“Breakfast!  Let’s eat!”  Ranma cheerfully yelled as he escaped to the downstairs.

~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~

Downstairs the regular residents were seated at their usual spots with an extra guest
 holding a baby and a young man still sitting by the koi pond.

“Umm, is Sen going to come in and have breakfast?”  Akane asked.

With a half smile Keiko turned to see her husband waver slightly. “No he won’t need to
 eat, but should be done with his rest shortly.  He will join us when he wakes.”

“Doesn’t he eat?”  Ranma asked.

“Yes sometimes, but his body doesn’t require food as ours do.”

“What?  That doesn’t make sense,” Ranma stated. “People need to eat.  Sure I know 
some people can go a couple of days without any food, but our bodies do require food.”

“Human bodies need food,”  she replied.

“Sen isn’t human?”  Ranma asked.

“Nope,” was her simple response, in which the residents face faulted into the table.

“What do you mean he isn’t human?” Ranma asked forcefully.

However Keiko didn’t have time to answer, instead a voice fill with many years behind 
them answered instead.

“He is far from human son-in-law?”

“Cologne? How would you know?”  Akane asked.

 “Can’t you feel it?”  She asked as she started at the young man who at the same time 
quickly opened his eyes.

Sen approached the aging Amazon and said, “Long time no see Elder Cologne.”

TBC…….

Author’s Note:  I hope you like what is going on so far.  I think I finally figured out how 
I’m going to end it. Yeah! A bit of hanger there, just felt it was time to send this chapter.

(1) Nan-ban mirror: 

Episode 37

 Happosai came to the Joketsuzoku village in his youth and stole from Cologne a
magic mirror with the power to transport people another place and time when a tear is
 shed upon it. The mirror was dropped and Nabiki stepped on it.