"I don't believe this."

Ranma throws the panda she calls her father against the wall, her voice an infuriated whisper that rings out louder than any scream could manage.

"No, I can't believe this. I don't want to believe this. How could - what the hell is wrong with you, pops!?"

The panda at least has the grace to look vaguely ashamed. Ranma paces up and down, her body a pendulum in the side room where they've found themselves.

It was the only way I could convince her to let us go on the training trip. She wanted an assurance that I would raise you properly.

Ranma rips the sign out of her father's hands, tossing it to the side. It flies out the window, crashing through the glass. Neither of them pay attention to it.

"So this whole fucking time, you raised me as a man among men so you could satisfy mom. You satisfied mom so you could teach me martial arts the way you wanted."

The panda nods, satisfied with the train of thought.

And Ranma stifles a scream. "This whole time, you said that I was learning martial arts so that I would be a man among men!"

From the outside, it's so fucking arbitrary.

Learn martial arts to be a man among men. Be a man among men to satisfy Ranma's mother. Satisfy Ranma's mother to learn martial arts. It's circular, going nowhere, it just feels like a huge lie, this amalgamation of pretense which supports Ranma's lifestyle. Ranma feels vaguely used and she doesn't understand why.

The panda shrugs, not seeing the point of Ranma's interrogation.

"And you! You always - you always told me off whenever I let Akane push me around-! And you, all this time, you and Mom-! She fucking has a katana to your neck! Our necks!"

Ranma had started hyperventilating somewhere along the way, gritting her teeth.

"You let me believe that Mom was dead this whole time!" Ranma spits. "You, you…"

The panda gets up and walks away, shrugging off Ranma's pointed remarks.

"You made me a man among men so that I could learn martial arts. Why the hell was my learning martial arts so important to you!? Was it just so I could marry in with the Tendos? To do what you couldn't, for the school of Anything Goes!?"

The panda doesn't respond with sign or with word. It doesn't need to - Ranma understands.

She's been made into a tool. Her whole life, she was taught to be a man among men, as a point of personal pride, an end in itself. But now she understands it was all just a means to an end. It was all a lie, it was all a fraud, it feels too big to even wrap her head around.

And if Ranma even plays along with this nonsense, what does that make her? Is it the right thing to do, playing along for her duties to her parents? Is it the wrong thing to do, marking her as an accessory to her own victimization?

How can she even call herself a victim? She's not a victim of anything . She can't actually be a victim, it's monumentally impossible to be anything but someone in control, just on the principle of the thing. And even if she could be the victim, this situation doesn't count as victimization. That's what she tells herself.

She tells herself a lot of things.

And even though she doesn't know what this means - what can it mean? - she still lashes out at the implications .

She catches up to the retreating panda, and slugs him in the face.

It's not the first time that Ranma has engaged in violence with her father; far from it. She beats up her father every other day in a spar. She beats up her father whenever he physically slights her (which happens often; as soon as she was able, she beat him up every time he tried to steal her food, and a few more times for good measure).

It's not the first time that Ranma has beaten someone up for an emotional slight; far from it. She lives in Furinkan, where every other martial artist is a chronically violent asshole with a talent for trying to make Ranma suffer.

But it's the first time she's beaten her father up for a purely emotional hurt. Every other punch and kick had some veneer of physical pain behind it, some kind of retribution for physical neglect. Not this. This attack comes from some deeper place that she doesn't look at.

She can barely even believe she's done it by the time the panda punches back, knocking her into the wall.

It feels good, getting some catharsis out with her fists.

And she hates that.

Nodoka is knee-deep in tissues, slugging back cup after cup of tea ("For the nerves," Kasumi says sweetly) by the time that the red-haired girl returns, the panda trailing behind her and grumbling furiously.

"The sink in the bathroom is busted," she growls out bitterly. "No hot water."

"Well…" Soun sighs, wiping sweat away from his forehead. "I believe a certain panda may have broken the water heater."

"Of course he did," the red haired girl growls. "Why wouldn't he have? Stupid."

She sits down at the table across from Nodoka with a thump , staring almost longingly before turning away.

"Oh? What is the panda doing with the water heater?" Nodoka asks, cocking her head to the side and clearing away the last of her tears.

The red haired girl snorts. Indecision flickers across her face.

"...he's very smart," she whispers. "For a panda, that is. He would make a pretty stupid human."

Hey!

"I can see that," Nodoka says, looking at the sign the panda brandishes with the full force of righteous indignation. "I never knew that pandas could be so intelligent."

"I suppose they can," Soun says awkwardly, coaxing her away from the topic. She lets herself be led along, because she doesn't know what to think.

"What's his name, young lady?" Nodoka asks of the red-haired girl. "Actually, for that matter, what's your name?"

The red-haired girl laughs bitterly, a private joke no-one else understands. "He doesn't need a name. He knows when we're talking to him."

"...I see." Nodoka says, although she doesn't see at all. "And… you? What's your name?"

"I'm Ran…" something vulnerable flickers in her eyes again. "Ranko. I'm just a family friend, visiting the Tendos for now."

"Hm."

Nodoka looks down at the last of the scalding hot tea in her cup, poured from the kettle on the table. Ranko is staring at the kettle, now, not at her.

The final dregs of Nodoka's tea go down her throat.

"Look at me, whining about a son I thought was dead just a week ago," she whispers. "This is the best news I've heard, really."

Ranko flinches visibly.

"I… I should go," Nodoka says shakily. But-

"Stay!"

"Stay!"

Ranko and Akane both turn to face each other, embarrassed by their unanimous declaration. Akane is the first to shrug it off.

"Listen, Ranma will be back in just a few days," Akane says, almost too smoothly. "You can stay with us, in the meantime, if you would like."

Nabiki does her best to suppress a shit-eating grin while Soun chokes on his own cup of tea.

"I know I would be happy to have you here," Kasumi says.

And Ranko seems to struggle with herself for several seconds.

"Ranma tells me everything. I can tell you about him, if you want?"

With an incentive like that, how can Nodoka refuse?