Chapter Text
Ryoga had never wondered what it would be like to have a sister. He never thought that he would have a sister, which was one of the reasons why he had no idea how to handle Yoiko. It made him feel ashamed of himself, especially since, from the way she was constantly clinging to him, she must have missed him terribly.
And the worst part was that somehow he didn’t remember having a younger sister at all!
The sweet, energetic twin-braided girl sniffling into his arms was a total stranger to Ryoga. That fact only further fueled his growing sense of self-loathing. How could he forget his own sister? And how could he prioritize Akane, a guest, over his own flesh and blood? He was a terrible brother.
Tears started to fall down his cheeks when he realized just how much pain he must have caused her. He hugged her close to his chest before looking down.
“Please, forgive your big brother!” He said, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her slightly.
“Okay, okay!” said Yoiko, smiling with irritation at her brother’s action.
Ryoga stopped crying, glad that at least for now his sister wasn’t sad or mad at him anymore. Even so, his heart still hurt for Yoiko. She wanted nothing more than to be with her brother only to be treated this poorly. He sighed, and was about to take her upstairs to ask Akane if his sister could join them, when suddenly the front door swung wide open.
“Hello cousin! Long time no see!”
The brother-sister pair looked in the direction of the sound and saw two identical mountains slowly walking in by the doorway. Two identical boys about two inches taller and about an inch broader than Ryoga and short, untrimmed hair. Both of them were wearing faded black tracksuit bottoms and loose gray sleeveless t-shirts. The only difference between them was that one of them was wearing rimless glasses. Both of them started grinning the moment they saw him.
Ryoga blinked a few times, suddenly realizing what he was seeing and mirrored their expressions perfectly. “Hikaru! Katsuro! What are you doing here?”
He didn’t know what to think about his situation. He’s out into the wild and only bad things were happening to him, the moment he went back home, he was reunited with his dog, suddenly got a sister and his two best cousins appearing from thin air.
All of this almost made him forget the original reason why he was here in the first place. Akane was upstairs and he should go back to her soon and inform her about the new guests' arrival.
Part of him was disappointed that his evening with his crush was officially impossible to continue, but at the same time he was really happy. He hadn't seen any member of his family in years and now there were three of them!
“Come on, Ryoga.” said Katsuro, a twin without glasses. “The moment we saw Shirokuro appear on the news we knew that you’ll be here soon.”
“And since you missed all the other family gatherings since the past two years we came here to drag you there with us!” said Hikaru putting one of his arms on his brother's shoulder. “We all missed our dear Lost Boy.”
He twitched at the nickname that his cousins came up with back in elementary school. He was tired of it, but wouldn’t say that to his family. He kinda deserved that by ditching them so many times in the past.
It was at that moment that both brothers realized that Ryoga wasn’t alone. Yoiko used a moment when Ryoga was distracted to wriggle herself out of his arms and hide behind his back, cautiously looking at the twins using her brother as a human shield. He didn’t mind what she was doing, it felt kind of nice to finally be able to protect someone.
He wasn’t surprised she would be scared either, these two were massive even as kids. To someone as petite as her they must have looked like they were living, walking mountains.
Both brothers blinked a few times and leaned forward, looking at the twin-braided girl with interest. “Who’s there with you, cousin? Asked Katsuro, cocking his head to the side and smiling meaningfully. “Don’t tell me you finally found yourself a mate?”
Ryoga frowned at his cousin’s words. How could he even imply such a thing? Didn’t he notice how they resemble each other? They were even wearing matching bandanas!
“Knock it off Katsuro, she’s my little sister!” He said filled with the righteous anger of a brother protecting his sister’s honor. He even pushed his chest a little bit forward feeling really proud for performing his brotherly duties. Who knew that having a sister would be this rewarding?
The youngest Hibiki shifted behind her brother and looked sheepishly at two other boys, her eyes jumping from one to the other like she was desperately trying to think of something. Whatever that was Ryoga didn’t know but he wanted to be there for her.
“H-hello. I’m Yoiko” She said quietly and smiled weakly at her two cousins. It was clear that day that she wasn’t as comfortable with them as she was with her big brother. This realization made Ryoga extremely happy.
It didn’t last long however, their cousins, pushy as ever, basically shoved him out of their path and were leaning over Yoiko with fascination. If anyone else did that to Ryoga they would face some serious beating, but because he knew the twins he just sighed with exasperation. When these two found something that caught their eye then they got even more obsessed than Ranma.
He sent Yoiko an apologetic look. She was a Hibiki, she would survive these two, he was sure of it.
“No way! Where has old Hibiki been hiding you all this time, little cousin?” Katsuro started talking while looking at Yoiko from every angle. Ryoga’s sister was following his every move with her hands hard pressed to her chest, visibly tense by this whole ordeal. “It’s criminal that you're so old and still haven't shown your family! Did your parents keep you under a rock or something?” He shook his head and extended his hand towards her. “I’m Katsuro Nakano by the way.”
“And I’m Hikaru Nakano, his twin brother.” Hikaru added beaming at her from the side.
His little sister clearly didn’t like this much attention. Yoiko was looking at the twins for a moment before shooting Ryoga one desperate look. when she saw that he only shrugged at her she pouted for a moment before turning her back on him.
It makes him feel awfully like he betrayed her there. He started to ponder if he could actually do something to show Yoiko that he really cared for her.
He did not have time to make a decision because his sister made it for him. The youngest Hibiki smiled sweetly at the twins with her hands entwined behind her back and her chest put forward, catching Nakano’s full attention. “Nice to meet ya’! And w-well… about that. I-I always wanted to go with my Big Brother so…” She was saying all of that sheepishly, swaying her body absentmindedly from side to side.
Ryoga was flabbergasted at the site, he couldn’t believe that his sweet little sister would be able to do something… like that.
He swore to himself that he would put an end to this. When their cousins leave he will have a long talk with Yoiko. Hibiki’s shouldn’t be doing something so… obscene. It was absolutely unladylike and he couldn’t leave that as it was.
She should be more involved in his sister's upbringing. He was sure that her behavior was like this due to their family custom of always being somewhere else instead of where they should be.
Sudden movement snapped him out of his musings. “Ryoga? Yoiko? What took you two so long? Did you…” she stopped, looking startled at the Nakano’s who were standing next to him and Yoiko. “Who are these two?”
Ryoga turned around to see Akane and Shirokuro standing at the top of the stairs, looking anxiously at four people below.
Katsuro glanced at the black haired girl and whistled quietly to himself. He looked at Ryoga and smiled at him knowingly, making him incredibly embarrassed. Not even from his cousin’s suspicions, but from the fact that he wished that they were true.
For a split second, the eyes of the two brothers meet, communicating with each other without a single word. They both smiled before breaking their eye contact.
“Cousin, you finally manned up, huh?” He teased him, poking Ryoga slightly with his elbow. “Alright, I see how it is. We’ll leave you and your girl alone this time, better not waste our generosity.”
He grimaced slightly at the older boy's comment. He was glad they were leaving, it was great. Then he could finally focus more on Akane than on the two obnoxious brothers. He just wished they wouldn’t be so smug about it.
“Don’t mind us, miss.” He said to Akane with a polite smile, the one that Ryoga often gets from people that. he knew would want him to leave them alone as quickly as possible. “We were just passing through to say hello to our cousin. Now that we've done we’ll have to go.”
“But we’re taking Yoiko-chan with us!” said Hikari, putting one of his hands around his sister's small waist. “Our mom will freak out when she sees our little cousin, she is so adorable… or maybe we should keep her away from mom, she may want to eat her instead…”
Wait, what?
“I think that’s a good idea.”
Before Ryoga could react, Hikari leaned over the youngest Hibki and whispered something to her ears. The moment he stopped talking he turned around and started walking towards the door, taking Yoiko with him despite her protests.
“Huh? B-but, I…” Yoiko looked around anxiously and she planted her feet on the floor, unfortunately to no avail “Ry-B-ig Brother, help me!”
Ryoga flinched when he heard her sister’s cry for help. His body acted on its own and he was about to rush towards the girl when he suddenly stopped. He realized that the other brother, Katsuro, was glaring at him with a strange look in his eyes.
A strange feeling washed over his entire body, rendering him frozen like a statue. He felt power emanating from the boy, it was different from the battle aura he was familiar with. This one didn’t make him feel oppressive pressure or fear, but quiet, unquestionable authority. He didn’t understand it fully but he knew one thing, he couldn’t move even if he wanted to. He couldn’t disobey.
“Well, we’ll leave you to it, Ryoga.” Katsuro said, smiling brightly at the paralyzed Hibiki. “I promise to return your little sister in one piece tomorrow. Take care!” he added with a wink.
“W-wait Katsuro, you can’t just…” He started frowning at his cousin who casually waved him off.
“Don’t worry, we wouldn’t let our pretty little cousin hurt herself or something, you know us. Besides, your mom would kill us if something would happen to her, we’re not stupid.”
He didn’t say anything else, just smiled and turned around to them. Ryoga watched as his cousin and Yoiko disappeared into the night. Several minutes had to pass before Ryoga could move again.
Akane was looking bemused at the whole scene until the sound of closed doors snapped her out into the present. “Umm, Ryoga, what just happened?” She asked, confused.
Ryoga wished he could tell her, but instead he just stood there, looking at the door and scratched the back of his head, thinking exactly the same thing.
What the hell just happened?
Yoiko, or rather Ranma, took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. She was slipping into character a bit too much. A character who was on the verge of a panic attack. But who could blame her, when she was basically being kidnapped?
She looked through the window of the car they drove in, observing as they slowly but surely left Itabashi. Ranma once again cursed internally for letting herself get dragged here like this. She cursed Ryoga too. How could he let his little sister just be taken from their home like this? He was a terrible brother, that’s who he was!
But most of all, she was really angry at the fact that her whole plan had gone out the window. Ryoga could be doing who knows what with Akane. Even if she didn’t believe he would have actual guts to do anything, she couldn’t do anything to him if he tried.
She took a moment to look at the twins. Two guys who basically towered over her while standing were taking basically all the space in front of a car. She could barely see where they were going.
Ranma was pondering if she should just open the door and try to escape, but quickly dismissed the idea. She didn’t know if they were martial artists, but they were even stronger than Ryoga. She would need to wait for the right opportunity to get away from them, that was the only way.
One of the brothers, the one without glasses, stopped looking at the road for a moment, glancing at her in the mirror. She held his gaze for a moment, then turned away, her eyes glued to the window.
She needed to stay in character.
“Don’t worry little cousin, everything will be alright.” He said with a cheerful tone.
“That’s the worst thing you could say right now, Katsuro.” Said the other guy... Hikari, with a tired sigh.
“Why? It’s true! It’s not like we kidnapped her or anything.” His brother asked, looking offended. Yoi-Ranma scoffed at the statement. It was a clear kidnapping and she had no plans to let that go.
“We kinda did actually,” said Hikari, twisting in his seat and giving her an apologetic look. “Sorry about that Yoiko-chan but your big brother needed it. Kami knows that dork has a problem with talking to women… in general. He doesn't need an audience for that.”
Ranma found herself nodding. It was true to a comical extent and she often enjoyed watching her rival struggle with that. It would be much funnier if he wouldn't try to talk to Akane, though.
She shook her head, banishing the thought. Who cares that Ryoga’s tongue tied itself in knots at the sight of a woman? She needed to figure out how to get the hell out of here, not pity Ryoga.
“Yeah, Ryoga’s a little hopeless like that. That’s why the three of us just left to give him some space while we do something fun ourselves.” Said Katsuro grinning at her in the mirror.
“Again, I don’t think that’s something a girl would want to hear from a stranger…”
“I’m her cousin!”
“But she just met you, moron!” Said Hikari smacking his brother in the head. “You really don’t know how to handle girls, just like Ryoga…”
The exchange made Ranma giggle. She didn’t really get why she wouldn’t want to do something fun, but it didn’t really matter. Seeing Katsuro getting slapped in the face was fun enough.
These two maybe kidnapped her two who knows where but at least they were kinda funny. It didn’t change her situation one bit but at least it was sort of entertaining. She relaxed slightly and thought that maybe she could even play along a bit.
“So… where are we going, Hikari-san?” She asked the twin with the glasses. She decided that from the two of them he would be much easier to talk to. There was something a little bit more approachable about him. Ironic given that he was the one who dragged her to this car.
“What, you didn’t listen back there?” Katsuro chimed in before his brother could say a word. We’re going to finally show your adorable face to the rest of the family!”
Ranma froze, suddenly realizing just how screwed she was. It was some damn miracle that she was able to fool these two, but how the hell would she be able to keep this up in front of the entire FAMILY? Up till now, she was sure that Ryoga’s parents were his only family. Now out of the blue there were more of them? What gives?
Maybe bailing out right here and now wasn’t a bad idea? She knew that they were stronger than her but there was always a chance she could outrun them instead.
“Don’t worry Yoiko-chan.” Said Hikari with a reassuring voice,snapping her out of her panicked reverie. “We know that you are not a Hibiki.”
Ranma's heart froze, and her face turned pale as his words sank in. How did they figure that out? Why didn't they say anything in the first place? Why did they take her in if they knew she was a fraud? The questions began to pile up and she found her hand to shoulder shaking slightly.
“Y-you do?”
She took a deep trembling breath, forcing herself to not panic. She kinda knew it was all wishful thinking, she didn’t really look like Hibiki at all. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together and figure out something wasn’t right with her.
How to spin this? Her mind was going into overdrive trying desperately to find a way out of this situation. At the same time, her whole body tensed up, preparing itself for a very likely getaway.
Yoiko looked different from the other members of her family, but she really loved her brother and was living in his house. With that in mind, Ranma was thinking very fast, trying to come up with some explanation, and lamenting the fact she already admitted to not being a real Hibiki.
“Well, no one in the Hibiki family has hair like yours.” Hikari continued with an even, relaxed tone. “Plus those fake fangs don’t fool anybody, kiddo…”
“...You’re adopted, right?”
Ranma just sat there, her mouth slightly agape trying to understand what he was saying. She blinked a few times unsure if what she just heard was a joke or not. But it had to be, right? It was impossible for anyone to be gullible to this extent.
She needed a few moments to compose herself before she could move again.
“I-I… I mean that’s…” She stammered, not really knowing what she should say or how to react to something like this. They really believed she was adopted? Just like that, without any doubt or further questions? She couldn’t believe it.
Even so, it was a really close call. She should disappear at the first opportunity, maybe finally use some of her Pops’ skills she observed over the years.
Katsuki must have seen the tension and worry on her face. He smiled at her in the mirror, trying to cheer her up. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you a real one pretty soon. Right after your mom shows you to the rest of the family.”
Ranma didn’t know it was possible, but her heart sunk even deeper.
“M-mom?!” She asked, feeling a sudden shiver run down her spine.
She didn’t care that much about what Ryoga thought of her. They were rivals and sometimes pals, but first and foremost, they were martial artists. They knew what they were doing, were always ready to mess with each other, and almost everything was allowed.
Shiori Hibiki was a different story. She really only saw Ryoga’s mom a handful of times but she was always very nice to Ranma. She was really grateful that Ranma would walk her son to and from school every day. She even convinced her father to let her hang out with Ryoga a few times without him dragging her off for additional training after school.
What would the Hibiki Matriarch say if she caught her, trying to pretend to be her daughter? Even the thought of Shiori’s angry face sent a new wave of cold down her spine. All of this was escalating too quickly for Ranma taste. She was in big trouble.
Hikari didn’t realize the inner turmoil Ranma was in. He turned around once again with a cheerful expression on his face. “Yeah! It was supposed to be a surprise for Ryoga but I guess it could be for you too. Too bad Katsuki spoiled it like that.” He added, eyes shooting daggers in his brother's direction.
The anxiety she felt certainly shortened her life span. It was hell of a surprise, she had to give them that.
Ranma cleared her throat, struggling to control her hands, which couldn’t stop twitching. “D-do we really have to meet them? Maybe we could just go for ice cream or something? Then I could just wait for mom at home, together with my Big Brother…”
“Trust me Yoiko-chan, our gatherings are better than any ice cream!” Said Hikari, still as oblivious as before. For a moment, Ranma thought that maybe being dense was actually genetic in this family, but she couldn’t confirm it yet.
“Besides, we already told you, we left so that your Big Bro could at least try his best with that girl back there.” Katsuki reminded her, raising one finger from the wheel. “You don’t want your brother to be a loner forever, right?”
Ranma didn’t give a damn about that. But Yoiko surely did. She really cared about her brother. The redhead gritted her teeth, reminding herself that she needed to stick to the role. She couldn’t allow herself a single mistake.
“N-no.” Ranma grumbled.
“See?” Katsuki nodded, smiled approvingly at her. “So we’ll just spend some quality time as a family and give Ryoga a chance. It’s the least we can do.”
She averted her eyes from them, looking back through the window. She only now realized that she didn’t know where they were anymore. They were probably somewhere on the outskirts of Itabashi. The only thing she was able to see was trees and occasional clearings, and there were almost no buildings of any kind as far as she could see.
“Speak of the devil, I can hear them already.”
Ranma frowned, glancing through the window There was nothing back in the darkness behind them. The only sounds she could hear were the sound of the engine and the spinning of the wheels.
“I don’t hear anything…”
“…yet. Give it time, little cousin.” he said, winking at her through the mirror. “After tonight you’ll hear this and so much more.”
Katsuki started to turn which allowed Ranma to see several other vehicles parked side by side near some bushes. The redhead never really cared about anything with wheels, but by their size she knew they could fit quite a few people.
Their car finally came to a stop and their engine went quiet.
Both brothers exited the car in one fluid motion, mirroring each other. Ranma’s heart beat faster, realizing she basically wasted all this time. Her last chance to escape was basically gone.
She swallowed loudly as one of the twins opened her door, her a hand out of the vehicle. Out of habit, she winced realizing that the twin in glasses who opened the door for her wanted to be a gentleman. He treated her like a girl, which always made her feel strange. Just one more emotion added to the mix. It felt great.
“Let's meet each other, then. Come one, Yoiko-chan, stick close to me. it will be dark for a moment, and I don’t want you to trip on something.”
Hikari took her hand and guided her up towards the hill. She felt really irritated being treated like some small kid, but now that Ranma was standing, she once again realized just how gigantic these twins were. Compared to her petite girl body, the disparity was massive. She jerked her hand for a test. Nothing. She couldn’t free her hand.
With a convict's face, she let herself be led towards the ever so slightly louder sound of people. It wasn’t long before she was able to distinguish between the different voices. She noticed the smell of smoke and saw the familiar light of the fire dancing on the nearby trees. It didn’t take long when the three of them arrived at something that must once have been quite a large camping site. It was swarmed with people.
Ranma stopped, looking around to see at least a dozen people of all ages gathering around the big campfire. Both men and women were wearing clothes similar to the twins, alternating between tracksuit pants or shorts and t-shirts. They didn’t look strange or extraordinary in any way whatsoever, it was the other thing that startled the redhead.
She looked with wide eyes as the biggest wolves she’d ever seen walked around as if nothing was amiss. She couldn’t avert her eyes from the strange site, especially when she noticed one of the smallest grey wolves walking towards the fire. As it walked, it suddenly started morphing, its fur retracting inwards as its face flattened and its features rearranged. In a matter of seconds, a naked human boy of about ten years was standing in place of the wolf cub.
No one cared, except for Ranma. There was no reaction at the bizarre event.
She trembled slightly when the realization hit her.
Ryoga’s family were fucking werewolves.