Chapter Text
Ranma fumed. He’d get that directionless fool Ryouga back for using him to lead him home to be alone with Akane! But how was he going to do it? That’s right, Ryouga had a little sister! What was her name again? A smile crossed Ranma’s face. This plan was foolproof!
Ranma watched as Ryouga and Akane entered the house. It was time to lay on the girlish charm.
“Welcome home!” she said.
“Who are you?” Ryouga asked.
“You’re so mean! Don’t you remember, big brother? It’s me, Yoiko, your little sister!” Ranma said with her best childish smile.
Ryouga was taken aback.
She looks like Ranma, Akane thought, unamused.
“Yoiko? How long was I gone for? You’ve gotten so much bigger since the last time I saw you!” Ryouga said as he hugged his sister closer. “Eh? When did you change your hair? I thought you liked pigtails. Don’t tell me you figured out how to braid your hair all by yourself? Amazing! Look, Big Brother got you another stuffy from his travels!”
Ranma paused. Had she gotten the hairstyle wrong? Now that she thought back on it, yeah, that time when she had waited for three days to fight Ryouga in middle school, his kid sister had offered him food and tea while he waited in that lot. She’d worn her hair more loosely tied back, right? Crap! She could still work with this!
“Y-you know, to look less childish! I’m a mature woman now, you know!" She pushed the large stuffed dog away.
“I see,” Ryouga said with a nod. He looked a little sad. “Huh? You’re still using the step-stool in the kitchen, even at your height?”
Crap! She forgot to clear away the step-stool and child-friendly kitchen tools! Quick, think of something!
“Big brother, who’s this strange lady?” Ranma asked in her best innocent and frightened voice.
“This is Akane. She’s an important guest, so don’t get in the way, okay?”
“Sure thing! I’ll stay out of the way!”
Ranma then made every possible interruption she could think of. She was always jumping in at the precise moment Ryouga was going to do something romantic. It worked for awhile, but the farther she sucked him in to the act, the more painful Ryouga’s brotherly affections were becoming. She’d been power-poked in the head, spanked, and tossed into a wall when a kettle of hot water was headed in her direction. Akane was catching on!
Ranma had to get out of this before it killed her! She said she was “going for a walk.” That was a mistake. Ryouga would not leave her alone. When she did manage to escape, the fool kept throwing things at her to try to get her to turn around and come back.
She would have made a clean get away if she hadn’t noticed one of the dog’s puppies in the street. She decided to go back and return it to its mother.
Upon her return, she was hugged so tightly by Ryouga that she couldn’t breathe.
After getting the puppy back, the dog took off at a run.
“Checkers, what’s wrong? Where are you going?” Ryouga asked.
“Big brother, is that you?” a little voice asked.
Oh, no!
The girl petting the dog was an elementary school student. She still had her school backpack with her. She indeed had her black hair tied into tiny pigtails with bright yellow ribbons. She looked a little perturbed at the sight of the two other girls near her house. She held tightly to the dog’s fur.
“Yoi…ko?” Ryouga asked as he glanced at the older girl he was holding, and then back at the girl with his dog. Ryouga tossed Ranma to the ground and made a flying leap for the little girl. He made contact.
“Yoiko! Big brother was so scared you’d grown up without him! Though, it was kind of strange that you were being so rude to Miss Akane and didn’t even notice me when called and called to you, and I even threw that brick post at you….”
Yoiko looked at Ranma then. “Big brother, that girl looks nothing like Yoiko. How could you make such a bad mistake? She’s not even that cute,” the little girl said flatly with the sweetest smile.
Wait a second, her fist!
BAM!
Well, Ryouga was down for the count. For a child, Yoiko could sure throw a punch. Oh, no! She was glaring in her direction now!
BAM!
“How dare you impersonate Yoiko! You better not have been trying to rob us!”
“Ah, you’re the real sister, then?” Akane asked pouring hot water on Ranma so that she changed back into a he.
“Oh! Hello! It’s nice to meet you! I'm Yoiko Hibiki.” she said. “Would you like some tea, miss…?”
Akane wasn’t going to ask where the little girl got the full tea tray from. “I’m Akane Tendo, and yes, please. Let’s go back inside.” She hoped the neighbors wouldn’t be all that phased by the two unconscious boys with large bumps on their heads that she was dragging back into the Hibiki household.
Akane smiled. Having tea with another girl like this was nice. The real Yoiko was chatty and very sweet. She was very interested when Akane said that she trained at a dojo. It took a second to get used to the fact that the little girl referred to herself in third-person, but there were worse quirks.
While they were sitting together, Akane noticed that Yoiko had one different colored band on each of her fingers. “Pardon me for asking, but what are those bands around your fingers for?”
“These? Yoiko uses them to keep track of important things. Life can get messy when the bills are due, or all the food has gone bad while everyone else is off lost somewhere. So Yoiko has the different colored bands around her fingers to help me remember. The red one is to buy food, and the green one is for the utility bill, blue is for water and so on. They come off when the chore is done.”
“Are you alone a lot?” Akane asked gently.
“Oh, no! Yoiko’s got Checkers and now, her puppies!” she said with a smile. “Yoiko is sorry about her annoying speech, but Mama and Papa have sometimes forgotten Yoiko’s name when they’ve been away for a long time, and big brother doesn’t come home as often anymore, so Yoiko is a little worried she’ll forget her own name if she doesn’t say it sometimes. It um, it helps when someone addressed Yoiko by name.”
Ah.
“You know, Yoiko, if you do get lonely, you can always stay at the Tendo Dojo,” Akane said. “I’d love to have you over to play sometime!”
Yoiko paused. She couldn’t keep her excitement to herself. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you, Miss Akane! I really want to play with you again, too! Oops! I need to start making dinner if I want to have it ready for big brother when he wakes up,” Yoiko said as she tied an apron up and used the stepstool to reach the stove. “He usually stays unconscious for a few hours after I punch him like that.”
“You’re not mad at him?” she asked.
“Of course, I’m a little mad that he fell for such an obvious trick! He’s an idiot sometimes, but I love him dearly.”
"Well, bye Yoiko!" Akane dragged the still unconscious Ranma out of their house.
*
Ryouga awoke with a start a few hours later. “Where am I now?” he exclaimed.
“Ah, good timing, big brother! Dinner is almost ready!”
“Yoi…ko? Dinner?” he asked. “Coming!”
“Did you have a nice nap?” she asked.
“Nap? You mean, Akane didn’t come by and you weren’t a teenager? Or is this a nice dream I’m having right now?”
“Miss Akane did come by to see the puppies, but you fell asleep right before she left.” Yoiko hopped down from her step-stool. You must have dreamed the other part! I haven’t even turned ten yet!”
“What a relief! Ah, look Yoiko! Big brother brought you something from his travels! I saw it and I thought of you!” He presented the stuffed dog to her.
“Ah! It’s so cute! Thank you! I love him!”
The two were able to eat their meal in peace.