The Phoenix Saga

Ranko grumbled to herself, taking a long draught of her room-temperature tea. She wished she had some rocket fuel to pour into it. Between worrying for Mei's safety, her crushing guilt at both hurting her and not being more forthcoming about her history with Mikado, and the concert to save the bar starting in just 40 hours, she hadn't slept a wink in days. Plus, the work in the bar itself had been crazy, since Mei hadn't shown up since they had their fight. Still, Hana had instructed her to be up and dressed by 8:30AM, and here she sat, alone at an empty bar, even though Hana was late and she had no idea what this was about anyway. She wore a businesslike blue blazer and matching pencil skirt over a cream-colored button-down shirt, all of which Izumi had brought the night before and insisted she dress in today. If this was turning out to be a prank, Ranko was not amused.
She heard a key in the front door lock and looked up as a stream of sunlight poured through the open door, lifting her hand to shield her eyes. Hana stepped into the room, doffing her aviator sunglasses. At least, Ranko thought it was Hana. She barely recognized her dressed as she was. She wore a pair of mid-gray nylon slacks and a jewel-tone blue button-down blouse, the top button at her collar left open. Her short platform heels clacked loudly on the wooden floor of the empty lounge, and her raven hair was held back with a series of barely-visible hairpins.
"You don't have to stare, you know."
Ranko shook her head. "Oh. I'm sorry. I've just never seen you dressed like that before! It works for you."
Hana nodded. "I can clean up when I have to, I just don't like to. Now, let's have a look at you." She walked in a half-circle around Ranko's chair. "I think that'll work, yeah. Not bad, kiddo."
The redhead rolled her eyes. "I'm happy to please, but when do I get to find out what we're actually doing at stupid-o-clock in the morning?"
Hana laughed heartily. "Tell you on the way. C'mon." She offered a hand to help Ranko off the stool, the transition proving tricky in the restrictive skirt. The teen blushed furiously - the idea of being helped to do anything like that felt so effeminate and weird. She'd reached a point where she didn't always hate it, but it was still a foreign experience for her.
Hana locked the door behind them, and they began walking toward the train station. Amusing herself to take her mind off of her anxiety, Ranko hopped up onto a long concrete seating ledge along the sidewalk, walking alongside Hana and now almost at eye level with her. "Don't you think you should get down from there? What if you fall?"
Ranko smirked. "You're right." She hopped up from the seat of the long bench and continued walking, without breaking stride or slowing, along the top of the thin back rail of the bench instead.
The Phoenix's matriarch rolled her eyes. "Okay, showoff, I get the idea, now get down here."
The young lady, as she was being reminded to play the part of, stepped down next to her. "Yes, ma'am." Her father would have had a heart attack and died at the thought of his child following instructions from an elder without a fight – but then again, he had never tried actual respect in his dealings with her.
"So… what are we doing?"
Hana smiled, disarmingly. "We're going to the library."
Ranko nearly faceplanted. "You… You got me dressed like a secretary and out here before the sun has had its coffee, to go stare at some dusty books?"
The elder woman laughed, shaking her head. "Of course not. We have a meeting."
Ranko blinked in confusion. "About what?"
"About you."
"Yeah? What do they want with me, anyway?" Ranko looked legitimately confused. She'd never known books to issue challenges before, but stranger things had happened in her life. Hana dropped a pair of coins into the turnstile, leading Ranko through onto the train platform. "It's about your education."
The teen blinked incredulously. "Wait, what? I'm not even in school anymore."
"I know. But we need to do something about that."
Ranko shuddered with the memory of the night she left the Tendos, staring up at Nabiki's school dress. She couldn't… She wouldn't send her back to high school after everything, as a girl, would she? There would be questions, and stares, and probably some groupies, and girls who would expect her to know how to behave, and guys who… well, who likely didn't know how to behave around girls. "But… I can't go back to school. I told you, I was so far back it was ridiculous."
Hana patted her knee as they took their seats on the metro train. "I know, honey. Which is why we're going to do it another way. We're going to come up with a plan to get you caught up, and when you're ready, we will either get you enrolled in classes, or you'll take your equivalency exams and get your diploma. I promised you we would. The person we're meeting with today is an advisor who will help us get you on the right trajectory."
"But, I don't need school, or some test. I'm happy right where I am."
Hana cocked her head. "Oh? So you want to wait tables and have drunk guys grab at your ass for the rest of your life? What's your career plan beyond that?"
Ranko blushed in embarrassment. She really had no plan, and Hana knew it. But there was one aspect of her job that she wouldn't have hated doing more, though she felt foolish admitting it out loud. "I… I guess not."
"That's better. I don't want you to be scared about this, baby." She squeezed Ranko's hand tightly. "You are behind through no fault of your own. None of this was your mistake, or your choice, and there isn't any shame in it. But we do need to fix it. There's no time limit on this, either. We will help you every step of the way, and if we have to hire tutors to help you, we will find a way to do that, too."
Ranko blushed yet again. "I guess. I just don't know why it's such a big deal. I've been okay so far."
Hana groaned in mock frustration. "Because you're a smart girl, Ranko, and you deserve better than slinging beer until you're forty. I want you to be able to do something you're proud of."
The redhead blinked. She didn't think anyone had ever called her smart before, and especially not a smart girl. She was learning to feel a little more comfortable every day in her new life, but hearing someone actually call her a girl out loud made her feel as awkward and false as she did the first day she stepped out of that damned puddle in China.
"Like what?"
Hana smiled, squeezing her hand. "Like literally anything you put your mind to, honey. I have every confidence that you can. We just need to help get you some of the tools you're missing so you can get there." She looked down into the teenager's eyes with a sincere and serious expression. "I mean it, Ranko. I know your whole life was planned out for you before, and you didn't get an awful lot of say in the matter. I want you to know that you are allowed to dream for yourself now. Pick a dream, any dream, as long as it's yours and yours alone, and you can chase it. That's your right as a woman. And we'll all be behind you and beside you the whole way."
Ranko sighed. Her "dreams" hadn't been especially pleasant of late. "All of you? Even Mei?"
Hana rolled her eyes. "Yeah, even her. She's just being protective of her boyfriend. I don't know why you are so worried about him, but she'll come around eventually. She loves you just like your other sisters do." The overhead speaker chimed to indicate their stop, and Hana stood, Ranko behind her. "Come on, young lady. Let's go find you a dream." Her youngest charge blushed and followed where she led.
They exited the train station, crossing the street and entering the library building. Hana walked up to the circular oak receptionist desk, Ranko in tow. "Hello, good morning? My daughter and I have an appointment with Ryuki Kagawa, please?" The young male receptionist began to search the appointment book, and Ranko just stood there, her head spinning as if she'd been hit in the face with a board.
She'd been calling Hana mama on and off for a few weeks, as a sort of honorific to show respect, in the same way Akane called the old freak "Grandfather" Happosai. Being comfortable with the idea of being referred to as a girl, or a woman, was taking some getting used to, but she was getting there. But… being someone's daughter?! Like, having someone who was a parental figure, who saw her as a girl, and wasn't disgusted by it? Up until the day she left the Tendos' place, six months after the incident on the mountain, Pop had still called her my boy without fail. That Amazon witch had left her a wound that would never heal, and Pop couldn't help but rub salt in it every chance he got.
After years of Genma expressing disdain anytime she made any effort to make peace with her feminine half, and the constant warnings that her mother would disown her - or worse - if she ever suspected that her child had any effeminate tendencies whatsoever, she had just accepted that this was a part of her that would never find acceptance. But now, here was Hana, dressed up all professional and serious-like, telling someone that she was her daughter with a straight face. She wasn't embarrassed. There was no disdain. She sounded… proud? Sure, it's not like there was a legal adoption, or even that she was using what the government would consider her real name. But it didn't matter. She was stuck as a girl, sure, but for the first time in her life, someone knew that and wanted her anyway.
The singular word brought the gift of validation to the impossible hope with which she'd left the Tendos – that despite how freakish the circumstances that got her here were, if she were only willing to leave the cursed and broken boy behind, that she just might get to live as just a normal, regular, non-weird person. Sure, that normal person spent most of her time in skirts, but she didn't have to spend it hiding from crazy Amazons, poisoned roses and razor gymnast ribbons, exploding rocks, prose-slinging swordsmen and panty-thieving ghouls. She didn't wake up daily to the reminders of what a disappointment she would always be to her family. To Ranko, those few syllables meant acceptance, trust, pride, love, and so much more that she had been chasing hopelessly for years. At that moment, she doubted anything in the world could have made her happier than being a daughter.
"Miss Tendo? Ranko?"
Ranko shook her head to jog herself back into the moment, looking up into the eyes of a concerned-looking older woman in a frumpy floral dress. "Are you all right, dear?"
Ranko blushed. "Yes, ma'am, I'm so sorry. I just didn't sleep much last night." She bowed respectfully. Twenty minutes ago, she was laughing this off, but now, even if the whole thing blew up in her face, she would not dare embarrass Hana after having claimed her as her own.
"Ah, to be young." The elderly woman smiled, motioning to Ranko and Hana to follow her to a small cubicle in the back corner of the administrative area of the library. "So, Ranko, your mother told me what she could about your educational history, but there are some pretty big gaps. In fact, we couldn't even find your birth records anywhere, let alone any school transcripts."
Ranko gulped. This was going to take some creativity. "Firstly, please understand that this is no fault of Miss Hana's," Ranko began. "My father and I traveled constantly from the time I was five or so, including a lot of time out of the country. So, I missed a lot of time in school, my school records are hard to come by, and I honestly couldn't even tell you what city I was born in. But, my pop…" She thought about how to handle this one for a moment, finally grunting in resolution. At least in this version of the story, he'd get the blame he deserved. "My father abandoned me about nine months ago, and I was living on the street until Miss Hana took me in." She smiled up into Hana's eyes.
The old woman frowned. "My gods, you poor thing! And, what about your situation now? Are you all right? Is everything working out where you are now?"
Ranko smiled gratefully up and to her right again, where Hana listened to the story with riveted attention – parts of this being news to her, too. "Oh, yes, Miss Kagawa." She reached to her right, squeezing Hana's hand and trying to say with her eyes all that she could only summarize in words. "She has been the absolute best mother a girl could ask for. I am so incredibly lucky that she found me." Hana smiled back, looking away after a moment and lifting her fingertips to her left eye.
The administrator smiled. "That's wonderful to hear, sweetheart, and bless you, ma'am, for having the kindness to look after her like that. I would love to help you get back on track with all of this, but we're going to have to start from the beginning and try to get you some sort of identification. I can't even file the paperwork to get you started without it. You'll need to go to the Department of Family Services for that, and they're closed for holidays until the new year. If you have any family that you can still get in touch with, that will make the process a little easier. Otherwise, we will have to almost rebuild your identity from scratch!"
Ranko grinned. That was exactly what she wanted.
"If we're unable to find your school records, that's an easier problem to solve. We can give you a placement test in a few weeks. Don't worry about studying for it; the intent is not to grade you, but only to see what areas you still need academic work on. Our agency can then put you in touch with tutors and provide textbooks and other curriculum support to help you catch up any skill sets or refresh things you may have forgotten after not using them for a while. When you think you're ready, we can either enroll you in school, or you can take another exam to demonstrate basic academic competencies. Once you pass that, you'll receive a certificate that is functionally equivalent to a high school diploma. You can use it for most colleges, job applications, or anything else you need."
The woman flipped her desk calendar to the following month. "How about we do the placement exam on January 12th? That'll give you a few weeks to get the identification paperwork sorted out, too."
Ranko looked up at Hana for confirmation, and receiving a nod, she smiled at the registrar. "Sounds great. Thank you so much!"
The gray-haired woman stood slowly and arthritically, giving Hana and Ranko a grandmotherly smile. "You are so welcome, sweetheart. It was truly an honor to meet you both. Have a wonderful holiday."
Ranko bowed politely. "You too!"
The pair exited the building, Ranko breathing a sigh of relief. That could have gone a lot more painfully than it did, she thought. She had been so worried that they'd accuse her or Hana of fraud or something, without having any documentation to back up anything they said. Especially because what documentation they did have did not match their story at all, and Ranko had burned it weeks ago.
Hana looked down to her, hugging her about the shoulders with one arm. "Do you have any idea how proud of you I am?"
Ranko stopped walking, turning to face her sincerely. "I think so, even though I don't always understand why. But I meant what I said back there. I promise, I'm never going to stop trying to be worthy of everything you have done for me. When you called me your daughter… I thought I was going to cry."
Hana leaned down, kissing Ranko on the top of her head. "Me too, honey. Me too."