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The characters of the Ranma 1/2 universe are the creation and possession of the brilliant Rumiko Takahashi. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi and her licensees (Shogakukan Inc., Kitty-Fuji TV, Viz Communications Inc.)
No copyright infringement is intended.
'This is not my house,' Nabiki thought to herself. 'It can't be.'
She felt nothing. Maybe it was the surrealness of this nightmare. Maybe she had played the part of a heartless money-grubbing girl too long. Maybe she was just in shock.
She looked over at her father who stood, not in tears, but glaring at the place his old friend had just been.
Off to the side, her sister, Kasumi, broke down into tears. Not the fountains of tears one would expect of their father, but those of deep heart wrenching sobs, almost as if she were making up for years worth.
Tofu Ono practically jumped across the room to pull her in his arms. Hardly the gibbering laughing manic he should have been in her presence.
Ranma-chan jumped up and tore off, past her, and up the stairs. Behind her she heard the slam of a door, followed by the tinkle of a wooden duck bouncing against its perch.
'It's a good thing he ran to Akane's room,' she thought out of the blue. 'Sliding doors just aren't as satisfying to slam.'
Akane appeared in front of her.
"Here, will you watch over Himiko?" her younger sister asked.
Nabiki barely nodded before she found the little girl in her lap. Behind her, she heard Akane bound up the stairs and into her room.
'No, this is not my house. I don't know anyone here,' Nabiki thought. 'Any minute now, I'm going to wake up. Akane is going to be yelling at Ranma for something or other. Kasumi will have breakfast ready. Father will be playing shoji with the panda. And everything will be all right.'
Himiko began to squirm in her arms. She looked down into twin pools of brightness. Nabiki couldn't help but try to smile for the girl.
"Somehow, I don't know how yet, but somehow everything will turn out all right. You'll see," Nabiki promised; for herself or Himiko she wasn't sure.
= = = = = = = = = =
In her room, Akane found Ranma-chan sobbing on her bed. After closing the door, she moved to her iinazuke's side. As she got closer, she could hear Ranma mumbling, "not going cry, not going cry," between sobs.
"Ranma?" Akane said as she placed a hand on the trembling girl's back.
"No!" Ranma screeched. Suddenly the red-head was curled up in a tight ball on the opposite side of the bed. "Go away! Leave me alone."
"Ranma," Akane tried again, softer than she had the first time. "I want to help."
"I'm a ronin! Worse than that, I'm just trash to be thrown out when every body's done."
"You don't really believe that, do you?" Akane asked; her heart leapt up into her throat.
"Pops sure dropped me fast enough," came Ranma's muffled reply.
"Don't you dare listen to that fat lazy...."
"And the Amazons?" Ranma interrupted. "You heard Nabiki. Mouse told 'em everything an' they certainly didn't want me anymore." Ranma sniffled, not quite crying now, but Akane didn't think she could hold it back much longer.
"We care!" Akane countered. "I care."
"Any minute now, your father's gonna come up an' kick me out."
"No he isn't!"
"Like he's gonna wanna keep a ronin slut under his roof."
Akane pounced on Ranma. It wasn't the brightest thing she could do, but it was only thing she could think of at the moment. The smaller girl shrieked under her and began wiggling trying to get away.
"Listen to me Ranma! Listen to me!" Akane hissed into Ranma's ears. "You're not a slut! You're not any of the things your father said downstairs. He didn't know! He doesn't know!" Akane pleaded. "And no one is going to take you away from me, Ranma Saotome. I don't care what anyone else says."
Ranma calmed down, uncurled enough to clutch onto Akane's shirt, and continued sobbing onto her shoulder.
"I love you," Akane cooed in Ranma's ear. "Don't forget that."
= = = = = = = = = =
Akane awoke with a yawn, and snuggled closer to....
Akane's eyes snapped open as she bolted upright in her bed. He was laying next to her, in her bed, in her room. Akane felt a moment of panic; then, quickly her anger rushed in like an inferno, burning away that moment of helplessness. She reached back to pound the invader to her private sanctum when suddenly, the previous night came crashing through her thoughts like a megaton hammer.
Akane sat there staring at the lithe form of her iinazuke. It was almost impossible to believe this girl could smash through stone walls and bend metal bars with her bare hands. How could this small girl change into the man that both terrified her and made her feel safe all at the same time?
Akane's eyes searched the slumbering figure, seeking answers to questions she couldn't voice yet. There was only a slight hint of the ugly bruise around Ranma's right eye from the night before. Easy to over look, if one didn't known what to look for. The bruises along her forearms also seemed to be fading quickly.
Softly, Akane reached over and brushed her hand along Ranma's side. Under the silky red shirt, she could feel the bandage that covered her right hip. Akane's eyes glanced down where she knew another bandage covered a ragged leg. She wondered how much of a scar would remain or if the only scars left would be of the invisible kind.
Ranma had always been a quick healer. It was so easy to believe that as long as he looked okay, there was nothing wrong with him. As long as he was a rude sexist pervert, there couldn't be anything wrong with him, right?
She brushed a loch of hair away from the slumbering girl's face.
Akane thought back to the first time she saw this face. She had hoped for friendship, then tossed it back in his face not half an hour later.
Akane closed her eyes as unwanted emotions bubbled up at the stirring of those memories.
She was just standing there - naked, in front of a boy.
She had entered, wanting to befriend this girl, only to be confronted by something from her worst nightmares.
He was nude - standing there - in her furo - staring at her.
There shouldn't have been a boy standing in her furo. There shouldn't be a boy anywhere in the house. Daddy was the only male around.
Part of her wanted to disbelieve what her eyes told her.
She looked down and saw his thing. He was definitely nude. She had never seen a naked boy before. The first and only coherent thought up to that point had been to intellectually point out what that thing was used for. It looked huge; thoughts of that thing getting anywhere near her sent waves of mind-numbing panic throughout her being.
Slowly, she stepped back out of the furo and slid the door closed. She reached for her gi top and mechanically slid it on. She stepped out into the hallway and slid the outer door shut.
Then what just happened broke through her shock. The morning fights. She told them no. The boys responded by trying to force her. She didn't want to date any of them. They felt they had the right to beat her into agreeing. The only reason she could imagine for a strange boy to be naked in her furo was that he must have been of the boys from school; he must not be content to wait for the morning beatings. He obviously planned to force himself onto her in her own home.
He invaded her home - invaded her private world - seen her naked. Never before had she felt so violated.
She screamed her head off as she ran to her family.
As she ran down the hall, it occurred to her 'what if it had been Nabiki or Kasumi whom had decided to wash up at that time?' There was no way any boy could have known she would be bathing then. With those thoughts, anger burned in her anew, fueling her strength as she hefted the table, fully intent on killing the would-be rapist.
Akane blinked her eyes open. She could feel the tears forming at the corners of her eyes.
Suddenly, Ranma's body stiffened and several expressions passed through her face, too quick to identify.
= = = = = = = = = =
"Good morning, Akane," a voice greeted Akane on her way into the dinning room.
Akane glanced up to find Dr. Tofu setting at the table with Himiko. He cradled her with one arm while the other held a plastic bottle used for feeding. She didn't seem interested at the moment.
"Good morning, Dr. Tofu," Akane returned after a moment. She was still feeling emotionally raw from last night and this morning. The sight of Himiko brought on even more emotions that she just wasn't prepared to deal with yet.
"You're planning on going to school today?"
Akane blinked a couple of times before looking more closely at the good doctor. She couldn't tell from his tone whether he approved or not. Truthfully, she didn't know. She only grabbed her uniform from as much habit as to a reason to escape the from her room.
"Akane," a surprised tone drifted from the kitchen doorway. "Would you see if Ranma and Nabiki are going to be up for breakfast?" Kasumi finished with a tired voice.
"Uh," Akane responded. "Sure." Inside, she felt her chest clench.
She turned toward the stairs in trepidation. She didn't even know why she felt the way she did. Each step churned her stomach in unpleasant ways.
The first door she came to was Ranma's. She knew he came here when she left for the furo.
She knocked on the sliding door, but received no answer; though she could here movement within.
"Ranma?" she probed, as she slid the door open.
Inside, Akane found that Ranma had yet to change forms or clothes. Instead, she seemed to be playing with her pack.
"Going somewhere?" Akane asked, a whole new fear coming over her.
"Just gettin' ready for when Pop comes back," Ranma replied, keeping her back to the door and Akane.
"You think he might return?" Akane responded. At the thought of Genma returning, anger washed over her apprehension.
"Sure," Ranma replied with certainty. "He's always leavin' me alone when everybody gets upset at him. But he always comes back for me. Sometimes takes a couple o' nights, but he'll pop back in and we'll both be off ta train some more."
"Don't you want to stay?" Akane responded, hurt. "What about Himiko? What about me?" she asked in a small voice.
Ranma looked down. "Akane . . . " trailing off, she stood up, but still didn't look at her. "I think breakfast is ready."
Akane gapped, as Ranma spun and walked past.
Pain, fear, hurt, anger, guilt, and many more emotions stormed within Akane's soul. She spun around and found herself staring at a stone-faced Nabiki.
"Does nothing ever affect you!" Akane screamed with the full force of the maelstrom raging within her.
Not waiting for an answer, Akane turned and marched back the downstairs.
Nabiki remained behind, silently shaking from the force of her own emotional tempest
= = = = = = = = = =
As Soun Tendou contemplated the last of breakfast, he cast an unusually observant eye over the table.
Akane sat on his left and Nabiki on his right, both dressed for school. He didn't know what to think about that. Should he insist they stay home for the day? He knew they had skipped yesterday; and Akane really couldn't afford to miss much more. He watched their stolen glances of his friend's son and wondered at Akane seemingly ignoring his middle daughter.
Kasumi sat on the other side of Nabiki. At a glance, she appeared as happy and carefree as one expected of his eldest child; however, there seemed a definite weariness about her that he wished he could honestly say didn't belong. Guiltily, he wondered whether it really was something new or something that may have been growing for some time. The quiet loving-awe on her face whenever she cast a glance toward her right only further emphasized that fatigue he now observed.
A tired Dr. Tofu feeding Himiko the last of her bottle was the target of Kasumi's glances. Mr. Tendou more than understood those feelings. He couldn't help remembering better times, when it was him holding Kasumi, Nabiki, or Akane. The memories that washed over him, left him feeling warm, yet paradoxically empty. He wanted to be there for each of his daughters; but in his grief, he missed out on so much of their lives.
'No wonder my little baby girl resents the engagement so,' Mr. Tendou thought sadly. He truly thought he was doing what was best. Now he was not so sure.
Opposite the good doctor, lay an empty space that embodied much anger and pain. 'How could you, old friend?'
Ranma sat, as was custom, next to Akane; though, with or because of Genma's absence, he sat further away than normal. He was dressed in his everyday wears that left no real indication of his plans for the day. He sat there slurping up the last of his meal, apparently oblivious to the pain around him.
He fought down a wave of anger. His family - his girls were hurting, and he wanted to punish someone for that. Ranma just sat there, like nothing was wrong. He knew that was not true. He knew the boy was hurting.
Mr. Tendou took a slow deep breath. He was well aware of just whom Akane received her quick judgement from. Himiko, his Himiko, had always been a paragon of patience and understanding; while he was always quick to jump to conclusions with little or no evidence. And he knew well just how much that could hurt someone.
He never told anyone of that last day with his wife. Sick and weak in the hospital, she needed to be sponge bathed each day. When he learned of that, he accused her of cheating on him. He said many angry hate filled words. Doctors told him she was terminal, that there was nothing they could do for her. Those words meant nothing to him. She lived weeks longer than the doctors said. To him, she was a fighter who would have beaten the odds. Instead, she died before he could apologize. She died with those words between them; and to him, he was responsible for her death.
Last night, he helplessly watched that scene unfold again, this time between a father and son.
"Hey, it's time for school!" Ranma announced, breaking into Soun's thoughts.
"Before you go, I would have a word with you," Mr. Tendou said.
"All right," Ranma responded with a puzzled expression.
His daughters looked at him with questions in their eyes. Dr. Tofu stood up with little Himiko.
"Stay, everyone," Mr. Tendou said. At first, being a family matter, he thought of asking Dr. Tofu to leave. However, considering how much he had done for their family and Ranma, Soun couldn't bring himself to alienate the good doctor, especially if what he said last was true.
"Ranma, I would like to adopt you into the Tendou clan," Mr. Tendou stated formally.
Ranma stood there for a moment, surprise clearly written across his face.
"I, uh, that's, um, I mean, thanks for the offer and all," Ranma said, trailing off.
"I mean it, Ranma," Mr. Tendou insisted.
"Ya don't have to trouble yourself," Ranma responded.
"It wouldn't be any trouble, Ranma," Mr. Tendou replied. This really wasn't going the way he imagined.
"No really," Ranma insisted. "It's not a problem," Ranma said, slightly more forceful. "You'll see."
Ranma hoped over the dining table, grabbed his books, and started for the door. Akane followed him a moment later, worry and anger warring plainly on her face.
Mr. Tendou looked toward his eldest daughter, wondering what he had done wrong.