Tendo Nabiki Enterprises, Incorporated Presents:

A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic side-story

Careful Destiny

Part Three
"Regrets and Recriminations"


by:
Todd Hill
AKA Shadow Stalker

Inspired by the "Ranma 1/2" Manga and Anime by Rumiko Takahashi

WARNING! While this story is *NOT* a lemon, it does have some adult situations in it. Read at your own discretion!

LATER THAT EVENING...

Evening was falling upon the sleepy prefecture of Nerima (whump! ^_- ). As the sun completed its
lazy arc across the sky, people spilled out of their offices and shops and headed for home. Nabiki Tendo
was among the bustling crowd of home-seekers, heading to the Tendo Dojo following her meeting with
Tatewaki Kuno.
She had been unceremoniously ushered out of the cafe moments earlier because she'd sat there for
an hour getting nothing but free refills of tea. 'I don't see what that guy's problem was,' she muttered to
herself disgustedly. 'He's got a hellacious markup, so it's not like he's losing any money...' It wasn't one
of her regular hangouts since Kuno tended to frequent it, so she was able to ignore the incident, knowing
that she wouldn't go in there again unless she had to.
She reached into her purse to assure herself that the money Kuno paid her was still there, then
laughed at her foolish gesture a moment later. Her, losing money? Ha! Her emotions darkened as she
recalled her meeting of less than an hour ago with Kuno. She couldn't even hope to understand him
sometimes. Before Kuno and Akane were engaged, he had acted as if he'd die without her. But after their
relationship had become a reality, she'd gradually become unimportant to him. At least it had appeared that
way to Nabiki.
She felt herself grow angry as Kuno's unconcerned look taunted her in her mind. He'd given her
that look after she'd pointed out in the cafe' how indifferently he was taking his separation from Akane. He
obviously didn't give a damn about anyone but himself, and he didn't care who knew it.
Nabiki had been roped into helping him with his latest obsession, Ranko Saotome. While milking
him for all he was worth usually didn't bother her, this job really made her uncomfortable. For example, she
was never in control at any point in the meeting. She usually considered herself to be a pretty savvy
negotiator, but this time she was completely caught off guard by the unreality of the day when Kuno had
made his business proposal. After the amounts of payment had been mentioned, all she had done was to
simply accept his offer, including the down-payment, without debate. She crushed the wad of bills in her
hand angrily, wishing it was Kuno's neck instead.
Adding to her emotional disquiet was a little voice in her mind warning her not to do anything at all
for him; that he didn't deserve her services, regardless of how much he was willing to pay. Kuno's
behavior demonstrated just how unfeeling he was. The way he had groped, kissed, and fondled Akane
before the fight spoke volumes about how he considered her, possibly all women, to be property and
nothing more. That made his defeat at the hands of Ranma Saotome all the more special, and satisfying, for
Nabiki.
'Sure he spouts poetry, and seems to act like his world revolves around loving a woman, but he's
so *fake!* Akane really deserves someone much better than Kuno-chan,' she regarded her sister with a
wan smile. 'Poor little Akane. If only you weren't so emotional. You probably could've coasted along and
milked him for all he was worth,' she lamented. Nabiki felt a slight annoyance over the monetary loss her
sister had suffered as a result of her breakup with Kuno. She brushed those thoughts away a moment later,
however, reasoning that her sister was better off without him.
The more Nabiki thought about the meeting, the more she wanted to punish him, even with the
beating Kuno had received this morning. Not only because of what he did to her sister, but also because he
regarded all women as being beneath him, and that pissed her off big time. She felt a strong wave of
defiance pass through her, and considered what she was about to do. 'I guess I'll return the money and tell
Kuno-chan to go jump in a lake,' she thought half-heartedly.
The call of the money was deafening, however, and it easily broke through the fragile resolve her
conscience had conjured within her. She found herself ignoring her heart as she released the bills from her
angry grip and withdrew her hand from her purse. Her conscience sighed in defeat as Nabiki allowed her
practical side to take over. But her conscience wasn't going down without a fight. A quick spark of
inventiveness popped into her head, prompting a look of wide-eyed realization on her face. 'I may be able to
make both myself and Akane winners ...' she thought with a smirk, the beginnings of a devious plan coming
to mind. Nabiki halted her thoughts as she rounded a final curve and walked through the gates of her home.
She slid open the door to the Tendo home and popped her head through the doorway, scanning
the house. "Daddy! Kasumi! Akane! I'm home!" she shouted as she walked in, closing the door behind
her. She paused in concern, scratching her head in confusion as she listened for a response from *anyone*.
Taking her shoes off and dropping her books on the floor, Nabiki began wandering through the house.
Her father was neither in the den nor in the dojo. She walked into the kitchen, expecting to at least
find her older sister working on something, but Kasumi was nowhere to be found. "Well, at least Akane
should be lounging around somewhere," she muttered irritably as she roamed the downstairs of the house.
'Where the hell *is* everybody?' she thought as she approached the staircase.
Nabiki walked upstairs and poked her head in Akane's room. To her relief, she saw her younger
sister laying in bed sound asleep, still in her school clothes. She allowed herself a small smile, knowing that
Akane needed the rest after what she'd been through today. After all, losing Kuno and then fighting those
idiots from the Kendo club wasn't something that happened every day.
The sounds of a cash register rang joyously in her mind as she remembered the lunch-time fight in
which her sister had participated. 'When she wakes up, I'm gonna have to thank her for knocking that
Kendo goon out,' Nabiki thought with a smirk. 'After being out of practice for so long, I figured the odds of
Akane even joining the fight were enormous. She made me quite a bundle today.' She patted her purse,
which contained the IOU logbook for all the bets she'd have to collect on Monday. A financial windfall,
indeed.
Her face fell as her fingers grazed past her little book and encountered something more substantial.
Nabiki traced the bulging outline of Kuno's down payment through the fabric of her purse, and felt an
unusual pang of guilt stab at her heart. 'I told you so' her conscience prodded, twisting the knife a little.
'Your sister's not even single for a day, and you're helping her ex to shack up with some girl you don't even
know!' Nabiki flinched slightly at the venom of her own thoughts.
'Damn that rich fool!' she cursed silently, hating him all the more for what he'd done to Akane and
what he expected Nabiki to do for him. As much as she loathed admitting it, Nabiki again found herself
wanting to give the money back. The fact that she had accepted it from him in the first place was at the
heart of her guilt. Her conscience told her that she was adding to her sister's problems, and she wasn't
used to feeling that way. But her pride stepped into the argument, halting her waffling by reminding her that
if she returned the money, her reputation with him and the rest of the school would be shot to hell. Since
she couldn't find any way to argue with that, Nabiki quickly dismissed the idea.
She looked at the sleeping form of Akane again. The blissful look on her younger sister's cute face
hid well the turmoil that she knew Akane'd been going through. She hoped that her sister's pain would end
soon, so that Akane could get back in the saddle and date boys again.
In spite of herself, Nabiki suddenly had to hold back a depressed sigh. She had always been
curious about her sister's popularity with boys. She found it ironic that her younger sister, who had little
interest in money, and even less in boys, was courted constantly by the wealthiest student at school. 'Why
did she seem to get the attention of all of the guys at school in the first place?'
Nabiki found herself doing well to get just a passing glance from the boys at school, even from the
poor ones. She felt it extremely unfair for her to be so unloved by boys her age, and for a brief moment she
experienced a slight glimmer of satisfaction from Akane's pain and sorrow. She immediately chastised
herself for allowing such a mean-spirited thought. 'But,' she admitted, 'sometimes it's the only way to keep
the hurt down.' Even though she fought it, a lone tear streamed from her eye and rolled down her cheek.
Feeling herself sliding further into a depression, she dismissed the bittersweet thoughts from her
mind before she wound up reducing herself to tears in Akane's doorway. She reached her free hand up and
swiped the moisture from her cheek and took in a deep breath. With all the optimism she could muster,
Nabiki told herself, as she had many times in the past, that her own growing wealth would get her out of her
boy troubles. The only reason it hadn't worked yet was that she just wasn't rich enough.
'When I have enough money, the world will be at my feet. Men could come later,' she guessed.
'After all, relationships and romance are nothing more than window dressing.'
But despite all her blustering, even Nabiki was human enough to realize that living life alone wasn't
for her. She couldn't really say what benefit something as intangible as love would be to her, especially
since she had never been in a serious relationship with a boy, yet Nabiki held hope that she would find out
one day.
With tears rimming her large brown eyes, she felt herself on the verge of collapse, and didn't want
to dwell on her love life anymore. So she dismissed that debate for another day, when she didn't have other
things occupying her attention, and felt herself slowly returning to normal as the last residual feelings of
despair disappeared. The eager opportunist wiped more tears from her cheeks and smiled down at the
sleeping figure of her younger sister, then quietly left and walked to her own room.
Closing the door behind her and turning the lock, Nabiki sat on her bed and emptied the contents
of her purse. Among the multitude of candy bar wrappers and various cosmetic items were the two things
she was looking for. She fished the banded wad of money out of the pile and placed it on top of her desk
without comment. Then she took her transaction log in hand, retrieved her ledger from its hiding place, and
pulled a couple of empty pages out of a nearby notebook.
With abacus at the ready, Nabiki took a pencil out of the drawer and placed her papers down on
her desk. With a rapid flicking of fingers, she totaled up the wins versus losses for the betting pool. After
creating itemized bills for the losers, with appropriate interest rates for those paying in installments, and
making out a list of winners, she recorded the tidy profit in her ledger's plus column. She happily pulled a
black ink marker out of her desk drawer and crossed out the red number for house finances and replaced it
with a modest, positive figure.
'Not bad, if I do say so myself,' she thought with a smirk. 'Now Daddy and I might be able to
afford the repairs to the dojo.' Her good humor vanished. A slight flicker of irritation crossed her face. The
damage was a sight unprecedented in all of her years. She didn't buy the explanation her father had given
her, but didn't argue the point. He'd had a silly grin on his face at the time, and she wasn't entirely sure
about his mental stability, so she let the matter drop. Nabiki figured that she might have to confront him
about it again before forking over any of the money needed to get the repairs done.
She closed her books, placed her makeup and transaction log back in her purse and tossed all of
the empty wrappers in a nearby wastebasket. She was about to turn the desk lamp off when she saw the
money that Kuno had given her, covered by one of her used figuring sheets. She sat down at her desk and
pulled the money out of hiding. With a prolonged sigh, Nabiki dropped the money down on the desktop
and stared at it intensely.
'And what am I supposed to do with you?' she asked of the multi-denominational pile of cash.
'Kuno-chan wants me to get information on that Ranko girl. I'm not so sure I should, though...' She
drummed her fingers on the desktop, occasionally letting one of them brush against the top bill in the pile.
'After all, it was the girl's brother who had saved Akane by beating Kuno in the first place. Why should I
put her through that kind of grief?'
The money sat there before her, answering her unspoken questions. She scoffed at the cash-pile,
muttering "not fair" under her breath. She leaned back in her chair and thought about all of her available
options. Nabiki scrutinized the wording of Kuno's agreement, looking for any loophole she could use to her
advantage.
"I'll offer you the standard hourly rate, plus a finder's bonus of fifty-thousand yen when you find
out all you can about her," she recalled him telling her in the cafe. She smirked as an idea, half-formed
during her walk home, blossomed anew in her mind. Kuno would be relying on her trustworthiness when
she handed over the information. All she had to do was fudge some of the data, or deliver the truth in such
a jumbled fashion that he would be scrambling for the rest of the school year to sort it out. Either way, all
should be well in the end. Kuno would be clueless, Ranko would be safe, and Nabiki would have quite a lot
of cash on her hands. She giggled girlishly as she imagined herself rolling in money on her bed.
Energized, she suddenly found herself looking forward to the investigation. Leaning towards her
closet, she pulled out a fresh scrapbook from a container on the bottom shelf. She placed the notebook on
her desk and delicately ran her hand across its rough, blue cover to clear away dust and bits of paper that
had collected on it. She gnawed on her lower lip as she debated what to call it. A smirk crossed her face as
she wrote "Project Ranko" across the top. She then opened it and began listing items that she needed to
investigate, in order of importance, and sources of information that she could possibly tap. After four pages
of hectic writing, she laid her pencil down and closed the scrapbook. Hiding it and the money in a secret
compartment, she turned off her lamp and looked at the clock on her desk.
'Whoa! Almost an hour gone, and I haven't even done my homework, yet. I guess I got carried
away...' she thought absently. She looked about her room and made sure that nothing appeared out of the
ordinary. 'No sense in having someone find out what I'm doing,' she thought as her gaze panned across
the room. Satisfied that nothing appeared amiss, she laid down on her bed and crossed her arms behind her
head, staring at the ceiling. 'I *really* don't want to do my homework right now,' she sulked, her mind
casting about for a way to postpone the inevitable. Feeling indulgent, a smile slowly crept onto her face.
'I feel like taking a bath,' she thought, stretching her arms luxuriantly. She gathered her shorts,
panties, and tank top in her arms and headed off for the bathroom. She dashed down the hall, quickly
covering the distance from her room to the bath and closing the door to the changing area behind her.
Not wanting to wrinkle her uniform any more than it already was, Nabiki carefully shrugged herself
out of her dress and shirt, hanging them on a hook next to the door. She then took off her panties, and
tossed them in the clothes bin. Ready to relax and think about the task at hand, she grabbed her towel and
entered the bath.
"Oh, hello, Nabiki," Kasumi said cheerfully as her younger sister entered the bath, her hand
hovering over her right leg in mid-scrub.
"Sorry, Sis," Nabiki said quickly, her scheming thoughts coming to an abrupt end. "I didn't hear
any water running, so I assumed..." She stopped suddenly, and turned to walk out. Her mind was clinging
doggedly to her investigation of Ranko's life, making idle chit-chat impossible. Her older sister's
unexpected presence in the bathroom, while pleasant, was unwelcome at the moment.
Kasumi smiled and patted the empty stool next to her. "Please don't leave. It's been so long since
we've bathed together. Besides, I need to talk with you anyway..." She scooted over a bit to allow some
room for her younger sister to sit. She noted Nabiki's reluctance, and added, "I'm sorry, Nabiki. I didn't
mean to take you by surprise. We can always talk later, if you like..." She kept the smile on her face, her
hand resting on the nearby stool.
Nabiki thought she heard a mild barb in that last statement. Keeping her face expressionless, she
walked over and sat next to her sister. She took her brush and soap in hand and began to scrub,
occasionally shooting curious glances at her older sister, who seemed either oblivious or unconcerned
about the surveillance. 'What's so important that we have to talk in the *bathroom?*' She wasn't getting
any clues from Kasumi's body language, but that wasn't anything unusual. She found it irritating that her
older sister wasn't talking to her, just smiling sweetly and scrubbing. 'I guess I'll just have to ask her
what's going on if I'm gonna find out anything...' "So what's on your mind, Sis?" she asked with feigned
disinterest.
Kasumi stopped scrubbing her legs and let out her breath in an elongated sigh. "Akane told me
about what happened today." She placed the brush on the floor at her side and looked down at the tiled
floor. "When she came home she was really upset, and it took me a while to get her calmed down. I'd never
seen her so disturbed before. To tell the truth, it bothered me quite a bit."
Nabiki nodded, her interest piqued by Kasumi's serious tone. 'Ah... I guess our little sister didn't
take the loss of Kuno-chan very well.' She couldn't understand why, though, given Akane's loathing of
him. She should've been anything *but* upset, Nabiki reasoned. "I saw her in her room a few moments
ago. She was asleep at the time, so I guessed she was doing okay - "
"I don't think that she's okay, Nabiki," Kasumi interrupted. She looked directly at Nabiki, and
continued. "When we talked earlier today, I could tell how fragile she was. It seemed like the slightest thing
would make her crumble. Right now she doesn't need any more problems to deal with," she finished
cryptically, placing a hand on her sister's shoulder. "So, I want to hear everything that happened at school
today."
Nabiki dropped her soap and brush next to her stool, then crossed her legs and faced Kasumi.
"Now Sis, I hope you're not thinking that *I* had anything to do with what happened ..." she replied in a
defensive and slightly irritated tone.
Her older sister shook her head. "I'm not thinking that at all!" she snapped, then stopped for a
moment as she realized how rough she sounded. "It's just that Akane was so upset when she got home
that she could only give me a few details of what happened. Her life's seen so much change today. So I
want to hear everything that happened to her starting with when she got to school."
Nabiki relaxed a little and propped her chin up in one hand, letting the combativeness in her
posture ebb. She gave a quick recounting of the primary details of Kuno's battle against Ranma, and the
fight afterwards with the Kendo team. She kept the details of her meeting after school to herself. It was bad
enough seeing her older sister this consumed with worry. Adding to her concerns with Kuno's unique
brand of idiocy would be irresponsible.
Kasumi sat in silence, putting all of the details of her sister's story together in her mind. "And
that's all I remember about today," Nabiki said, finishing her recounting of the day's events. "Akane wasn't
around when I left school, so I thought she'd come straight home. Looks like I was right."
Kasumi frowned. "Then you didn't see what happened to her after school was over, did you?"
Nabiki shook her head. "No, I had... things ... to take care of, so I didn't stick around after school.
What happened?" she asked quickly, eager to stop her sister from pressing for more details.
She propped her chin on her hand and filled Nabiki in on the missing parts. "Well, this is what
Akane told me. Ranma had agreed to meet her after school was out, so they could talk. Apparently he'd
asked her out on a date..." Kasumi paused a moment as a strange look momentarily entered Nabiki's eyes,
but decided to avoid commenting on it for the moment and instead continued her story. "She said she
wouldn't go out with him. Personally speaking, I think it was wrong for him to ask her out in the first place.
After all, she did just lose her fiance..."
Nabiki snorted and shook her head. "Kasumi, Akane may have been engaged to that jerk, but she
obviously didn't like it. 'Upset' isn't the reaction I would've expected. 'Overjoyed' is more like it. Or
'ecstatic,' 'elated,' 'thrilled,' 'euphoric,' 'extremely hap-' "
Kasumi placed her hand on her sister's knee to stop the thesaurus recitation. "I get the idea," she
deadpanned. Nabiki smiled and winked in response. Kasumi squeezed her sister's knee affectionately then
withdrew her hand. "There's a little more to the story," she continued, her serious look returning. "The
reason that she was upset wasn't due to her breakup with Kuno. From what I could gather, she *wanted*
to go out with Ranma, but things went bad when she found out that he was dating Kinuko Amagi. At least,
that's all she would tell me." Kasumi's smile reappeared, slightly dulling the impact of the stare she was
leveling at Nabiki. "Now, I was hoping that you'd be able to shed some more light on that."
Nabiki frowned before answering her sister's request. She had already told more than she wanted,
and loathed giving away perfectly sellable information. But since it was her older sister doing the asking ,
and it was for Akane's sake, she continued to break her own rule. Besides, she might be able to get
something marketable out of their conversation.
"Well, it had been common knowledge that Kinuko 'took pity' on one of the campus wimps and
agreed to date him. She paused, putting a finger to her lower lip, trying to recall more details of the
relationship. "It may have been Ranma that was last dating her. But even if it was, they broke up over three
weeks ago. I know that because I had a pool going to see how long her latest fling would last." She smirked
to herself, remembering the money she'd earned from that wager. "As far as I know, he's not with anyone
right now. She should be able to date Ranma if she wants to."
Kasumi sighed in defeat, not quite satisfied that she knew everything. Furthermore, if Nabiki's
information was as accurate as usual, this conversation only served to confuse her. "Well, I'm still worried.
Akane hasn't been happy since the day she was engaged to Kuno. Now that she's free of him, she's going
to need some time to adjust. I feel that jumping into another relationship right away would be the worst
thing for her to do."
"Aren't you being a little harsh?" Nabiki asked. "After all, you don't really know Ranma. Someone
like him might just turn out to be exactly what Akane needs." Nabiki shrugged her slender shoulders,
feigning indifference. "I wouldn't worry about it, Sis. Our baby sister's a tough girl; and if today's fight
was any indication, she's still quite capable of taking care of herself."
She flushed as an image of Ranma in action raced through her mind. "Besides, dating him might
make her feel like a woman for a change. He's got a cute bod..." She smirked mischievously at her own
wantonness. But she had to admit that her assessment was on-target. She hadn't paid much attention to
Ranma in the past, but after watching him turn Kuno into pounded fish-cake this morning, she couldn't help
but notice how well-built he was.
Kasumi blushed deeply. "You're incorrigible, Sis," she chided. The eldest Tendo daughter shook
her head at the openness of Nabiki's sexuality. Both women lapsed into silence, the soap flying as they
cleansed themselves. Kasumi pondered something as she scrubbed her stomach, her face becoming
serious. "I need to tell you something else, Sis, and I want you to keep it between us for now."
Her younger sister nodded, always willing to take free information from anyone. She dropped her
cleaning utensils on the floor and crossed her arms, resting them on her knees. She then leaned forward and
rested her chin on her arms. "Go ahead, Kasumi. I'm all ears."
Kasumi adopted the same pose, their faces very close. "You know that the engagement between
Akane and Kuno had been arranged by Daddy." Nabiki nodded, grimacing at Akane's poor fortune. "Well,
he did that to cover for a previous agreement that had been broken a long time ago."
Nabiki's eyes widened in shock. "Are you telling me that there was a *previous* marriage set up
for Akane?"
"Not exactly," Kasumi corrected. "Daddy had agreed with another family that they would marry
one of their children to one of us so that they could properly carry on the Anything Goes school. The
agreement was broken when you and Akane were still little. You probably don't remember any of it."
"You're right," Nabiki shrugged indifferently, "None of this rings a bell." Despite her casual
outward appearance, warning sirens were going off in her mind. 'This conversation could take a *very* bad
turn,' she thought. Not only that, but the fact that she hadn't heard of this sooner bugged the hell out of
her. 'Kasumi and Daddy did a good job of keeping *this one* a secret,' she thought sourly. 'But it's too
late to worry about that now. All I can do now is figure out how little I know.' She phrased her next
sentence accordingly. "I am glad that I wasn't forced to marry someone I never knew, Kasumi. Does Akane
know *anything* about this?"
Kasumi shook her head. "No, and I want it to stay that way for now, okay?"
Nabiki was shocked by her sister's intensity. 'Yes, this conversation is definitely heading
downhill,' she noted before quickly acceding to the demand. "Okay, I won't tell her. But I don't understand
why you're telling *me* this in the first place. After all, now that our sister is free of her engagement to
Kuno, she should be free to look for a boyfriend..." Nabiki let her sentence trail off as a terrible realization
hit. "That's assuming there aren't any more arrangements. Right, Kasumi?" she challenged, her eyes
narrowing in an intimidating glare.
"No, there aren't any others that I'm aware of," she replied, ignoring Nabiki's cold demeanor. "But
there's a *very* good reason that I'm telling you this." Kasumi paused, not sure how her younger sister
would take this. "You see, Ranma's family was the one that broke the original agreement with Daddy."
One of Nabiki's eyebrows shot up before she could contain the reaction. Despite the lusty feelings
she had for him just a moment ago, the thought of being forced into a marriage with anyone, even Ranma,
chilled her. "What!? That little wimp was engaged to one of us!? You're kidding me, right?" It was bad
enough seeing her younger sister suffer through an arranged marriage. But to come so close to being in one
herself...
Her sister shook her head, her voice starting to tremble. "Nope, it's the truth, Nabiki. The results of
what happened next were far reaching." She paused for a moment to collect herself. "When Ranma's father
broke his agreement, Daddy felt that our family was severely dishonored. For many years he searched to
find another suitor for one of us so that our family name wouldn't remain tarnished."
Nabiki's head shot up, an angry frown distorting an otherwise beautiful face. "What?! You mean
Daddy was willing to shack one of us up with some guy off of the street just to keep his own honor!?" She
sat up a bit and crossed her arms in front of her, indignant at her father's selfishness. "Are we prostitutes to
him?!"
Kasumi showed her a hurt look, and instantly grew defensive. "Nabiki, calm down!" she shouted,
louder than she meant to.
She recoiled slightly at Kasumi's outburst, forced herself to relax, and wiped her anger from her
face. "I'm sorry," Nabiki responded gently, wanting to sound sincere but not cowed.
Kasumi relaxed her own stance, and resumed her story. "Daddy was very upset after Mr. Saotome
broke their agreement..." Her mind reeled as she suddenly returned to that fateful day.


<* Soun's hands clenched the receiver of the phone tightly, his knuckles turning white. Tears
were streaming down his face, and his voice was trembling. "Genma, just what the *HELL* do you mean
you're calling off our agreement?!"
A beautiful young woman held a trembling Kasumi to her as they watched the angry exchange take
place. She cradled a very young Akane in her free arm as she sought to console her oldest daughter.
"Mommy, why's Daddy so upset?" Kasumi asked through tear-soaked cheeks. She rubbed her
reddened eyes and sniffled slightly.
"Shh, Kasumi-chan. I'll explain later, okay, dear?" Kimiko Tendo looked into Kasumi's little face
and smiled comfortingly at her. "Everything's gonna be okay," she soothed as she caressed her daughter's
cheek. She turned back to watch her husband with a mixture of anger and concern evident on her face.
"Now you listen to me, Saotome! If you break off the engagement, I will NEVER speak to you
again!" Soun thundered into the receiver.
A tinny voice could barely be heard over the other end. Both Kimiko and Kasumi leaned forward
to catch what Genma was saying. "...isten to me, Tendo!? I'm doing you a favor by breaking off this
engagement. I can't have Ranma marry one of your daughters..."
"Are you saying that there's something wrong with my children, Saotome?!" he thundered.
"No! I..."
Soun cut him off furiously. "Listen carefully, Genma, because I'm only going to say this one more
time. You will honor our agreement or you will never be welcome here again!"
A long pause, then Genma finally spoke with a resigned voice. "I'm sorry, Tendo, I can't...
"
Soun stood in front of the phone, his mouth agape in shock. He held onto the receiver absently, a
dial tone droning softly from the speaker.
Kasumi watched her mother place Akane in her playpen, then run up to her husband. "Soun dear,
what was that all about?"
Soun looked at her like she was a stranger. "What? Oh... sorry, Kimiko-chan. Genma called to tell
me that he's broken our agreement to marry our children..." he stated in an eerie monotone.
She placed a hand against his back. "Soun, what does that matter? Our daughters should be free
to choose whomever they want to marry..."
Soun shook his head violently, interrupting her. "NO! Genma and I swore to marry our children so
that the future of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts would be assured! How could he even think of
breaking such a sacred vow?" Soun angrily tightened his grip on the phone, his face flushed red with rage
and his body trembling slightly. "Fine! If he wants it that way, then we'll never speak to them again!"
Kimiko held her hands up to her face in shock. "Soun, surely you can't be serious? They're our
*best friends!* I've known Nodoka since we were both children-"
More upset than Kasumi had ever seen him, Soun ignored his wife's protests and continued
yelling. "Honor demands that we shun them, and that is what we will do." She started to protest, but he cut
her off. "I will not debate this point! They are not to see us or speak with us *ever again!*"
Her eyes tearing, Kimiko turned and ran away from her husband, leaving him alone and angry with
the receiver still in his grip. *>


Kasumi wept silently as memories of past events returned to her mind as clearly as the day they
had happened. When she could speak again, her voice was thick with sorrow. "I remember it just as it
happened, Nabiki. Mommy and I watched him talking on the phone. I could see just how hurt he was. Later
on, he swore that he'd never speak to Mr. Saotome ever again, and that he'd redeem the honor of the Tendo
name and the school of Anything Goes, whatever the cost."
"For several years after that, Mommy tried hard to help him get through it. But he was always so
desperate, and driven. He wouldn't listen to her, always saying that the school had to have a successor.
And when Mommy died, Daddy dedicated his life to undoing what Mr. Saotome had done. He'd become
obsessed with insuring that the Anything Goes school would continue. He'd been unsuccessful for many
years trying to find someone suitable to marry one of us."
"I think that he began to believe that people considered us not worth marrying. I could tell that it
was hurting him deeply, even though he tried to hide it. And with him always looking for a successor to the
dojo, he hardly had time to be with us..." Kasumi covered her face with her hands, unable to keep her
emotions in check any longer.
Nabiki frowned. She had to agree with her sister, though. Her father had never been prominent in
her life, which meant that Kasumi had been her rock while she and Akane had grown up. To see Kasumi
crying in front of her now was very hard to take, since it was so *unlike* her sister to be this upset. She
shelved the information about the past and the Saotomes for now, and concentrated instead on consoling
her sister. If Kasumi had suddenly snapped, Nabiki wasn't sure what would happen to the family. She sat
forward and held Kasumi by the shoulders, trying to figure out how to comfort a crying sibling.
"They're the reason Akane's feeling the pain she's in right now!" Kasumi continued bitterly.
"They're the reason we didn't have a father around all the time! We owe *all* of that to Ranma's family!
They're ... they're ..." She broke off, her anger palpable in the humid air. Years of torment that had built up
inside of her were finally being released in a flood of sorrow and despair.
Nabiki wasn't sure she could keep herself together if she watched her sister's emotions unravel for
much longer. She stood up and pulled her older sister to her feet, hugging her tightly. "Shhh... Kasumi, it's
okay now. Akane's going to be okay, and so's Daddy." She rubbed her sister's back gently, while Kasumi
held onto her desperately. She buried her head in Nabiki's shoulder and cried heavily. Nabiki fought back
the few tears that had threatened to surface in her own eyes, asserting an iron grip on her rising emotions.
She had no good first-hand recollection of any of the events she just heard from Kasumi, so it
didn't affect her the way it did her sister. But she was beginning to understand why her father and Kasumi
behaved as they had for so long. Nabiki allowed herself a rare moment of compassion and love as she
spoke to her sister again. "You've done a lot for both Akane and me, Sis. We both love you so much." She
looked down at the shaking body of her weeping sister and held her tightly. She placed her hand against
the back of Kasumi's neck to steady her. "If it'll make you feel better, cry all you want."
Kasumi continued to do just that, clutching her younger sister with something that almost
bordered on fear. She had held her pain in for so long that it shocked Kasumi at how powerfully she wept.
Nabiki brought her hand back down to rub her sister's back. She admitted to herself that she had no
experience in dealing with a crying person. It galled her that she wasn't able to comfort her sister properly,
but she persevered, hoping to end the flow of her older sister's tears.
As her hand glided across her sister's back, she realized that Kasumi was covered with cold, soapy
water, and was shivering. Nabiki looked at the nearby tub, a temporary solution for her sister's pain coming
to her. "C'mon, Sis, we could both use a hot soak," she suggested as she guided her older sister towards
the tub. Kasumi said nothing, merely nodding her assent as she followed her sister's direction. She could
feel the emotional flood within her start to ebb, and her sobs gradually lessened to an occasional sniffle.
Nabiki sat first in the hot water with her arms extended outward, and helped Kasumi step in. The
tub just barely accommodated both women. Nabiki didn't want to leave her sister alone, so she forced
herself to endure the cramped conditions. They sat together, with Kasumi sitting deep in her lap. Nabiki
wrapped one of her arms around her sister to hold her while her free hand wiped away more tears. Kasumi's
crying stopped as she sat cradled in Nabiki's comforting embrace.
A few moments of silence passed between the two as they soaked in the steaming hot water.
Kasumi tried to picture how they might've looked to others, and couldn't help but chuckle at her
predicament.
"What's so funny, Sis?" Nabiki asked with a smile. 'What do you know... It worked,' she thought
to herself.
"Akane and I were in almost the same position less than two hours ago. She was crying in my lap
much like what I'm doing with you right now." She shook her head at the irony, but didn't scoff at Nabiki's
actions. For the first time in a long while she truly felt loved, and was basking in the comfortable feelings
that realization had created within her.
"Well, you looked like you could use a friend. So get comfortable and relax, Sis," Nabiki said
cheerfully. Her smile never faded as she loosened herself up and enjoyed the feeling of both the hot water
and Kasumi's skin against her own.
The eldest Tendo daughter reclined against her younger sister, absorbing the companionship and
drawing comfort from Nabiki's soft presence. "Thank you, Sis," she said softly as she closed her eyes.
Nabiki adjusted herself slightly in the tub so that Kasumi could submerge more of herself in the hot
water. They sat together in silence for a long while, resting comfortably. After a long while, Nabiki stirred,
having dozed off. She blinked a couple of times to clear her vision, and reached up to stroke Kasumi's face.
"Hey, you awake?" she whispered into her ear.
Kasumi's eyes fluttered open at her sister's urging. She pushed her head back so that it was
touching Nabiki's shoulder, a wan smile crossing her face. "Mmm. Yes, I was just thinking is all..."
Nabiki sighed softly. "Kasumi, there's no need for you to keep dwelling on this. I think I
understand why you're upset with the Saotomes, but that's all in the past. We'll be okay as long as we
Tendo sisters stick together." She brought her free hand up to her sister's shoulder and gave her an
affectionate squeeze. "Don't worry so much about the past, Sis. Things usually have a way of working
themselves out." She let a small silence intrude as she thought about one fact in particular that stuck out
from Kasumi's rant. "It's interesting, though, that the person who saved Akane from a doomed life with
Kuno would wind up being Ranma Saotome," Nabiki admitted.
"Yes, ironic isn't it, Nabiki?" Kasumi replied absently.
Nabiki's look became thoughtful as she further considered Kasumi's words. "I wouldn't go so far
as to say ironic, Sis. You're assuming that Ranma doesn't know about the arranged marriage between his
family and ours. He may very well know about it..." She squirmed under her sister as the scheming
subroutines in her mind kicked into overdrive, feeding her guesses about Ranma's motivations. "In fact,
that might explain why a wimp like him would turn into a hot-shot martial artist all of a sudden. Maybe he's
trying to redeem himself, or his family, or something..."
Kasumi's mind was still clouded with feelings of anger and regret. She didn't like the idea of a
Saotome being with Akane, regardless of what one had done for her. "I guess the only way to find out what
his motives are would be if we actually sat down and talked to him," she commented with a hint of
resignation.
Nabiki smiled, and patted Kasumi on the shoulder. "That's actually a good idea, Sis. The only
question is, how do we get Ranma alone and talk to him away from Akane?"
Kasumi stroked her sister's arm. "If anyone could figure out a way to do that, you can Nabiki," she
said confidently.
Nabiki smirked victoriously and raised a hand in the air. "I gladly accept all praise of my abilities."
Both ladies broke into a fit of giggles.
Kasumi rubbed her fingers against one of her own arms, and noticed how rough her hands felt.
Placing her hands on either side of the bath, Kasumi stood, and held a hand down to Nabiki. "I'm turning
into a raisin, Sis. We'd better get out and dry off."
Nabiki agreed with her older sister as she looked at her wrinkled fingers. She grabbed Kasumi's
hand and stood up next to her, allowing her older sister to slip an arm around her waist. "Let's get dressed.
We don't want Daddy thinking we've left him alone," Nabiki announced. They both stepped out of the
bath and grabbed their towels before heading into the changing area.
"I've got to get dinner started anyway," Kasumi said as she closed the door separating the bath
and the change room and wrapped a towel around her body.
Nabiki grabbed her sister's hand before she could leave. "Kasumi, what we just did. Please
don't..."
Kasumi smiled, understanding what her sister was asking of her. "Your secret is safe with me,
Nabiki." She closed her hand around her sister's, and bent down to whisper in her ear. "I love you too, Sis.
Now and always," she said before kissing her sister on the cheek and turning to leave the bathroom.
Nabiki was glad she wasn't near a mirror at that moment. She was pretty sure that she had a silly
grin on her face, and was afraid to confirm it. She knew that such a display of emotion would've ruined her
reputation if anyone else had seen it, but she let the grin stay there as she dressed for the night. Despite
herself, she knew that she hadn't felt this good in years, and clung greedily to the warmth of her sister's
words. Humming a long-forgotten song, Nabiki turned the lights off in the change room and walked back to
her bedroom.

****

Ranma wearily trudged down the narrow street leading to his house. It had taken him a lot longer
to get there than it should have. In his mental fog, Ranma had inadvertently headed from Dr. Tofu's office
directly to the Tendo Dojo. He'd caught himself just shy of the gates to Akane's place, and angrily
reversed his course. Unfortunately, that extra walking time had done nothing to help him clear his
confusion. Instead, differing thoughts about what happened to him during the day whirled chaotically
through his mind. The results of which left him feeling nervous about what might lay ahead.
"Ouch!" Ranma muttered under his breath as a twinge of pain shot through his arms. He winced
involuntarily, his mind jolting back to the present. He wasn't about to admit it to Ranko, but his arms were
damn tired. "I hope I get home soon," he grumbled sourly. 'As much as I care about you, Sis, I don't think I
can carry you much longer...' he added to himself. He walked on, hoping that he got to the house before he
accidentally dropped his little sister on her butt.
Ranko wasn't hearing him, anyway. She'd somehow managed to doze off while riding on his back,
and was snoring softly in his ear. The exhaustion of the day had caught up with her and cast her into a
deep slumber. Her head lolled on his shoulder, and her arms hung loosely around his neck. Despite the
pain, Ranma smiled to himself. "She's just like me. It's odd how we seem to be able to fall asleep
anywhere," he mused.
Ranma grew quiet again as he walked onward. The last few paces separating him from his home
were getting increasingly difficult and painful, but he endured it stoically. 'A martial artist should be able to
handle such discomfort easily,' his father's voice taunted him in the back of his mind. As his home finally
came into view, he couldn't help but feel glad that he wouldn't be straining his aching arms much longer.
He figured that he'd have an easier time getting her in the house from the back, so he walked
around to the other side of the house. To his relief, the door wasn't locked. Reaching for the door with the
toe of his shoe, he slid the door open with little effort. Then with the practiced balance of a seasoned martial
artist, he stepped inside, making sure that he didn't hit her head on the door frame as he crossed the
threshold.
He looked about the room and didn't see anyone. Listening carefully, he couldn't hear anything
except Ranko's light snoring. Ranma frowned to himself. 'I know Pop's still at work, whatever that is, but
Mom should at least be somewhere downstairs.' He called out to her, and frowned when he didn't get an
answer. Ranma had only lived with his mother for the past three weeks, and this was the first time that she
hadn't been there to greet him when he got home from school. He told himself not to worry. If he was any
judge of character, his mother seemed to be pretty good at taking care of herself.
He decided to search the house after dropping Ranko off in her room. He ascended the stairs
slowly, the burden of his sister's making the climb awfully difficult. Once at the top, he could hear water
running in the bathroom down the hall. 'Mom must be in the bath,' Ranma thought with some relief.
He walked silently past the bathroom door to his sister's bedroom, opened the door, and walked
inside. With an extended sigh, Ranma sat down on Ranko's bed and pulled her arms away from his neck.
He groaned in pain from his throbbing muscles, and tried to massage the soreness away.
Ranko moaned slightly as Ranma moved about, but kept on sleeping. He struggled to remove the
bookbags that she had been carrying on her back, then set them on the floor next to her bed. He cupped the
back of her neck in his hand and gently laid her head down on the pillow. He picked up both of her legs and
moved them so that she was laying properly on the bed.
'I don't know how, but she's still asleep,' Ranma thought to himself with a wry grin. He put a hand
against her forehead, and noted with relief that, unlike the time in Tofu's office, she had no fever now. He
watched her as she slept, thinking to himself that she looked unbearably cute, even with the bandage on her
cheek. 'Must be in the genes,' he thought jokingly. 'I'd better let her know she's home.' Ranma slid up on
the side of the bed, placing one of his arms across her as he bent down, placing his lips near her ear.
"Ranko-chan, wake up," he whispered gently.
Ranko's eyelashes fluttered lightly as she was dragged from her slumber by a soft voice calling her
name. Seeing her brother leaning beside her, she opened her eyes with a start and almost shoved him away
from her, causing Ranma to recoil in surprise. She caught herself as she remembered just how different her
brother was now. She regarded him with a sheepish smile as she resumed a relaxed position. "Hey, Ranma."
She turned her head a bit, checking out her surroundings with a bleary-eyed gaze. "Are we home already?"
she asked in a weak voice.
Seeing that she wasn't going to clobber him after all, Ranma leaned down a bit to look at his
sister's face. "Yep. We're in your room," he whispered as he caressed her injured cheek. "How's the cut
feel?"
Ranko winced at the pain caused by his contact. She reached up and caressed his hand in return,
stopping him from pressing against the tender skin any further and bringing quick relief to her cheek. "I
guess it's better," she told him, strength returning to her voice. "Although it's still a little sore..." she
grumbled.
Ranko grabbed his shoulder as he propped up next to her.. "Hey, Ranma. I know I was stubborn,
and acted like a real jerk after I fell down, and I'm sorry about that. I should have realized at the time that I
couldn't have gotten to a doctor without your help," she admitted. She was once more confronted with the
stark difference between the person hovering over her now, and the jerk who'd teased her endlessly in the
past.
She felt extremely grateful for having a brother around to watch over her, and suddenly pulled him
to her. She wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. "Thanks again for what you did for me today,
Ranma. I really appreciate it," she said amidst sniffles.
He struggled for a second, having been surprised by the unexpected gesture. He relented quickly
and curled his arms underneath her to return the embrace, despite the fact that it felt like Shampoo was
glomping him. He also took some comfort in the fact that Akane wasn't waiting behind him to pound him
into orbit. "Hey, nothin' to it, " he said in a low, soothing tone. He held onto his younger sister, listening to
her heartbeat as his head lay against her chest. He smiled to himself, knowing full well that one of the best
benefits of his wish was currently cradled beneath him in his arms.
She was every bit the best friend and sibling that he could've hoped for. She had helped him
whenever he'd needed it, and had kept to herself everything that he'd told her in confidence. She had the
same interests that he did, and most importantly, she wasn't engaged to him like all the other girls had been
in his 'other life.'
For a fleeting moment, he wondered what it would've been like to be engaged to someone like
Ranko, and to his surprise found himself thinking of Akane. With the exception of their attitudes, the two
were a lot alike. In fact, when he thought of both of them, he wasn't sure if it was a lot of Akane that he saw
in his sister. His smile broadened as he realized how lucky he could be to have both of them in his life. If he
didn't screw things up, that is.
He sat silent for a moment and listened to his little sister's soft breathing, and felt the light
thumping of her heart against his cheek. Ranma wondered why he had been an only child before the wish.
Back in his 'other life,' he'd thought many times about what having a brother or sister would be like, but had
never really brought the subject up with his father. He'd been constantly frustrated by the lack of response
whenever he tried, and eventually gave up on asking about it.
He dismissed his thoughts as being unnecessary. Recently, things had been a little rough after his
wish had been granted, but once Ranko and he had cleared the air between them, he'd found that having a
sister was every bit as wonderful as he'd hoped it would be. Also, despite the setbacks he had suffered
with Akane today, he had no intention of using his other wish to bring himself back to his cursed life. Deep
down, he knew that this was the life that he wanted to lead, and this was the family that he wanted to be a
part of.
As his sister drew a deep, shuddering breath, his mind wandered abruptly to more 'adult' territory.
He began to realize, with a start, just how uncomfortably close his face was to Ranko's breasts. *Vividly*
remembering what they looked like from his own reflection in the mirror in the past, and from Ranko's visit to
Dr. Tofu's a couple of hours ago, his pulse started hammering loudly in his ears, signaling an increase in
arousal. As gently as he could, Ranma pulled his arms out from under her and sat up, his heartbeat slowing
as the distance between them increased. Ranko released her hold on him, but kept their faces very close.
He looked at her lingeringly, her warm breath a gentle caress against his face. 'She's so cute,' he
thought to himself. She smiled at him and winked, causing him to smile in return. Acting on a sudden
impulse, he bent down to kiss her on the forehead.
Ranko saw it coming and realized what he was going to do. Confusing thoughts became suddenly
clear, causing her to intercept him midway. With a start, she realized that she was kissing her brother fully
on the lips. Her body drove her actions from that point, deepening the kiss as she coiled her arms around
him tightly.
Ranma's cheeks colored furiously as his lips met Ranko's. He resisted initially, but felt his
resistance crumble. He surrendered, laying atop her as he felt her wrap her arms around him. He closed his
eyes, finding an odd comfort in their intimacy. As wrong as it should have seemed to be doing this, he
didn't try to push her away, instead holding onto her as tightly as she was clinging to him. After about ten
seconds of extreme closeness, Ranko unexpectedly broke contact.
She sat back against the headboard of her bed, squirming out of her brother's embrace and putting
as much distance between them as she could; realizing what she'd just done, and with whom. "Oh God!"
she blurted, abashed. Her mind was a-swirl with confusing thoughts and lusty images she'd normally
reserved for her daydreams about Hikaru. Embarrassed beyond belief, she clamped down on her confused
desire and intently avoided his gaze. "Ohhh... Ranma... I... I'm so sorry! I..." she stammered, covering her
tingling lips with a trembling hand.
Ranma's heart raced as the thought of what just happened replayed in his mind again and again.
He hadn't expected it to happen, but now that it had, he found himself utterly confused. As he tried to
understand what just occurred, he realized that Ranko was trying to talk to him. He sat away from her, his
distancing of himself quieting her stammered apology and making her feel even more uncomfortable.
"H- Hey, it's okay, Sis," he said with a wave of his hand, trying to act impassive about the
incident. It wasn't working, however, as he was visibly reeling from their intimate contact.. "Granted, it felt
... weird-" He forced himself to pause, swallowing to cover his flustered speech. "- but after everything
we've been through today, I guess you're excused." He laughed nervously at her.
Ranko's cheeks reddened further as Ranma stared at the floor. "I don't know what came over me."
Ranma crossed his arms in front of himself, getting back under control. He looked up at his sister
again, his expression softening. 'I think she's more confused about this than I am,' he thought with some
relief, ironically finding some form of ease in that. "It's okay, Ranko... Although, I guess it was probably my
fault too. Brothers don't usually kiss their sisters; under any circumstances."
His look became apologetic. "I'm still new at this. Having a sister, I mean... Well... you know you
mean a ... a lot to me, but ... but I guess it wouldn't be right for us to keep doing that," Ranma said
uncomfortably, the words sounding as if they'd been dragged out of his mouth. He put a hand to his head,
which was starting to ache. 'Actually, the reason I didn't stop that kiss probably has a lot to do with
Akane,' he told himself with some consternation. 'I *have* to get things taken care of with her, as soon as
possible.' He looked at his sister again. 'I don't need to complicate my life anymore-' he began, breaking
off the thought as Ranko spoke once more.
She looked at her brother guiltily, her hands still trembling slightly from the intensity of her
emotions. "I hope you're not upset with me," she said in a small voice.
Ranma shook his head, and forced himself to quit dwelling on the incident. He walked back to the
side of the bed, and looked at her earnestly. "Ranko, I already told you it was okay. Honestly! I could think
of a lot worse people to kiss than my own sister." 'Although,' he added to himself, 'as strange as it may
seem, that kiss felt ... nice.'
Ranko reached up and took his hand in hers, squeezing it gently. She sighed in relief, grateful that
Ranma wasn't upset with her. "And by the way, I love you too ... Ran-chan," she said with a wink, the color
returning to her face.
Ranma smiled at the use of the pet name, forcing calm as he returned the hand squeeze. Anxious to
leave the subject behind, he clapped her on the arm brusquely. "I'll be back in just a -" he began as he
slowly turned and headed for her door.
"Hey, Ranma!" she called out quickly. "Why don't you to answer that question you ducked back
at Dr. Tofu's office?" she asked to his back, making him stop in mid-step.
Ranma turned around again, his eyes showing her a genuinely puzzled look. "I didn't duck a
question, Ranko... Which question are you talking about, anyway?"
Ranko shook her head slightly. "You never answered my question about what you were going to
do about Akane."
Ranma nodded, the confusing events of the late afternoon replaying in his mind. "Yeah, that's
right. We were going to discuss it after we got home from Dr. Tofu's-"
Ranko gestured to her room. "Well, we're home now," she prodded.
Ranma had to smile at her persistence. "Yeah. I guess that-"
Their heads turned as Nodoka yelled from downstairs. "Ranma! Ranko! You two home yet?!"
Ranma grimaced. He was glad to have the interruption, but he wasn't looking forward to explaining
Ranko's injuries to his parents. True, they still considered her a better martial artist than he, but as far as he
was concerned, Ranko's safety was his responsibility. Ranma turned back to her door. "I'll talk with you
about Akane after I get through talking to Mom and Pop," he said over his shoulder.
Ranko blanched as she realized that they could both be in trouble for her condition. She sat up and
tried to get out of her bed, slipping on the sheets as her weakened arms refused to support her. With a
grunt her head collapsed against the pillow and her body went limp on the bed. Ranma went to her and
quickly held his hands out, stopping her from getting up. "Don't move, Ranko! Remember what Dr. Tofu
said. You're to stay off that leg for the rest of the day."
Ranko looked at him angrily, her frustration over her injuries adding fuel to the fire in her eyes.
"Ranma, I can't let you take the rap for what happened to me. I'm responsible for this," she said, indicating
her bandaged face.
"And I'm responsible for you," he said, bending down to her eye level and poking her gently in the
chest. "Now I want you to stay right here and wait for me to return." His tone of voice indicated that it
wasn't just a suggestion.
Ranko looked like she was going to object again, but Ranma stared her down. "Dammit! Listen to
me! You're going to make that ankle worse if you keep walking on it, so you're going to just stay there!
Understand?!"
Ranko relented, and flopped back against her pillows angrily. "Fine! Be that way!" She turned her
head from him, as she steadfastly avoided his gaze.
Ranma's look softened as he realized how upset he'd made her. It didn't help to quiet his own
anger, however. "Now cut that out, Ranko!" he shot back indignantly. "I'm not punishing you. I just don't
want to see you get hurt any worse than you already are." He stared directly at her, his gaze never
wavering.
Ranko turned her head to face him, her angry look slowly disappearing. "I understand *why*
you're doing this, Ranma, and I appreciate your concern." She sat up, crossed her arms in front of her, and
winced at the twinge of pain from her bruised breast, despite her best efforts to conceal it. "*BUT* I'm old
enough to take responsibility for my own actions," she said proudly. She held her arms out to him, and
indicated that he should help her to stand. "C'mon, Ranma. I'm not gonna take 'no' for an answer."
He didn't move at all, and refused to answer her. 'It's like I'm talking to a damned brick wall,'
Ranko thought with extreme exasperation. Then inspiration struck, prompting her to smile. "I have a
compromise. You can help me walk downstairs, and we'll talk to them *together.* Okay, Ranma?" She
blinked, turning o the cuteness to full intensity.
Ranma sighed in resignation, then smiled at her. "You remind me of me from before the wish, you
know that, Sis?" he asked her playfully. He bent down and pulled Ranko up to a standing position, with her
pivoting on her good foot.
She laughed at his comment. "Were you so demanding?"
He snorted. "I was a real pain in the ass, is what I was!" he shouted in jest, moving behind her
suddenly to get out of striking distance as her arms swung in broad swipes, hoping to grab a piece of cloth,
pants, or hair. She giggled as his fingers found ticklish spots on the unbruised sections of her ribs, halting
her swinging motion. 'So much for Ranko getting her rest,' Ranma thought to himself as he put her arm
around his neck to help her walk.
He winced as Ranko landed a light punch to his side. "That's for calling me an ass, jerk!" she
taunted, a smirk on her face.
He smiled down at her, mussing her hair with his free hand. "Me? I'd never do *that.* Ooof!" he
said, sucking in a deep breath as she landed a fist in his gut. It wasn't a really painful hit, but it definitely
got his attention. "Okay, okay! I get the message." he said, his smile never waning.
"Good! I may have been knocked around a bit, but I can still take care of myself, understand?" she
asked, arching one of her eyebrows as she spoke.
He said nothing, merely nodding instead, not wanting to tempt fate any further. 'Not-uncute
tomboy,' he thought to himself with a smirk as he opened the door to her room and led her to it. 'I hope
Mom and Pop don't overreact when they see her,' Ranma prayed as he guided her to the stairs.

****

Nodoka prowled the downstairs again, looking for her kids. 'They should've been home over an
hour ago. I hope nothing's happened to Ranma.' She worried as her search through room after room
continued to turn up nothing. She went out to the training hall, and found Genma in there, working out.
"Genma dear, have you seen the children?"
Genma stopped his kata abruptly and turned to his wife, his breathing labored. Grabbing a towel,
he dried off his bald pate and walked towards her. "What was that, dear? I didn't hear you."
Nodoka looked at him impatiently. "I *said*, have you seen our children?" she reiterated,
thumping him on his arm with her petite fist.
Genma shook his head and crossed his arms, surreptitiously rubbing the spot where she'd socked
him. "No, I haven't, dear. I came straight here after work, so I didn't even go in the house. They haven't
been out here, as far as I know, so your guess is as good as mine."
She bit her lower lip, which she often did whenever she was upset. "I'm worried, Genma. I've been
looking for them, and they're not anywhere around here. They should've been here long ago..." Nodoka
began biting her nails, her worry for Ranma's safety clearly eating away at her.
He reached out and held her to him. "I think Ranma's going to be okay, dear." She sighed deeply,
indicating that she didn't share his opinion. "But, if it'll make you feel any better, let's go inside and wait for
them to get home, okay, Nodoka-chan?"
Nodoka put her arms around her husband and lay her face against his broad chest. She smiled at
his use of her pet-name. "Yes, you're probably right, Panda-bear." Saying that didn't console her any,
however. She didn't like the idea of Ranma fighting. It just didn't seem *right* to her.
Genma put an arm across her slight shoulders. 'Nodoka's worrying far too much about the boy. If
he's as good as I saw last night, he should be okay,' he told himself half-heartedly. But Genma couldn't
help but acknowledge the twinge of doubt that was crawling around his mind. Without saying anything
further, the two turned and walked out of the training hall and back into the house.

****

Ranma knelt down to help Ranko sit at the table. He heard her gasp as she tried to fold her bad leg
behind her in a standard sitting position, and quickly lifted her back up, his hands remaining under her arms.
Once the pain of her offended ankle had subsided, she opted for crossing her legs, leaving her good leg
underneath the damaged one.
After Ranko was seated comfortably, Ranma sat beside her. He kept one of his arms around her
shoulders, keeping her upright and letting her know that he was there for her. She was about to tell him that
she could manage on her own when the back door whipped open and their parents stepped inside.
Nodoka's eyes went straight to the table, where she saw her children sitting casually, allowing her
to exhale deeply in relief. "Thank goodness you two are home!" she declared in relief. "We were so
*worried* about you two!" She let go of her husband and ran across the room to her children, wrapping
one arm around each and hugging them to her tightly.
Her pleased expression changed to one of puzzlement as she noted the tension running through
both of them. 'Perhaps things hadn't gone so well, after all?' she worried to herself. The fact that Ranma
had his arm *willingly* around his sister added greatly to her confusion.
She eyed her son closely. 'I wonder if he actually fought that Kuno boy. Ranma doesn't look like
he has a single scratch on him.' She ignored her son's pseudo-embrace of his sister for the moment, intent
on finding out why they appeared to be so nervous.
"What's going on you two?" she asked suspiciously, looking at each of them. After a moment of
silence passed between the three, she was still unable to figure out what was the matter. Tired of getting
nothing from Ranma, she turned to Ranko and noticed the bandage on her face.
Her eyes widened. "What happened to you, young lady?"
Ranko self-consciously brought her hand up to the bandage. Nodoka scooted around to face the
wounded cheek. She knelt down in front of Ranko and pulled her daughter's hand away from the bandage,
then cautiously ran her own finger around the edge. "What caused this?" she demanded.
Ranma's grip on Ranko's shoulder tightened, his nervousness prompting him to speak suddenly.
"Mom, don't get upset with her. It's my fault that she got hurt," he declared, his face tight.
Ranko turned to protest, but was overshadowed by Nodoka's sudden anger. "What do you mean,
'it was your fault?'" She sat back and glared at both of her children, wondering what Ranma could've done
to Ranko that would've injured her like that.
Meanwhile, Genma walked over and sat down beside his wife and placed an arm across her
shoulders. "I think you'd better explain what you did to her, Ranma. Now," he declared ominously.
Ranma sighed, and prepared himself for the worst. As succinctly as possible, he told them about
the fight with Kuno. "He didn't even hurt me. I defeated him, broke his bokken, then Ranko and I went to
school."
"How did Ranko manage to get hurt during that fight?" Nodoka pressed tersely.
"She didn't. I haven't gotten to that part yet, mom." He paused to collect his wits, then pressed
on. "At lunch we were attacked by seven guys from the Kendo club in revenge for what I did to Kuno."
Nodoka and Genma's eyes opened in alarm. "I took out four of them. Akane took out one, but not before
three of them had ganged up on Ranko." Ranma's look became self-recriminating. "I should've paid more
attention to her. If I had, then she wouldn't have been triple-teamed."
Ranko felt the eyes of her parents descend on her. Genma was half smiling at Ranma's
achievement, but Nodoka's face was a stark contrast to that. "Now you know why I never liked the idea of
you fighting, young lady. This could happen to you again if you continue to..."
Ranma held his hand up. "Mom, I'm not finished yet." He flinched as Nodoka shot an irritated
glance his way for interrupting her. With some effort, he continued to speak. "Towards the end of the fight,
Akane took out one of the guys that was holding Ranko back from fighting, and I took out the other. After
that, Ranko finished off the guy that was beating her."
"So what does that prove? She still got injured," she pressed, pointing to Ranko's cheek, although
she could already see that she wasn't going to win this argument.
Genma spoke up, understanding what Ranma's point was. "It proves, dear, that once Ranko was
fighting one-on-one, she was able to take out her foe, despite her injuries." His chest swelled with pride as
he brought his massive arms across it. "She's a great martial artist. The only problem was that she got
attacked by some kids that don't know the meaning of the word honor."
"And what's to prevent her from getting attacked like that again, Genma?" Nodoka shot back hotly.
She was upset that she was the minority in this conversation. Normally Ranma would've either abstained
from arguing, or taken her side. It felt odd to her to not have her son's backing, and a small amount of hurt
crept onto her face. This incident had once more drummed home to her the inherent danger of being a
martial artist. She didn't want her little girl facing that danger any longer, and had expected Ranma to
understand that.
Ranko's anger peaked as she watched the conversation flow between her brother, father, and
mother. "Would you people *stop* talking like I wasn't here?" she yelled, her eyes narrowed in anger and
her face flushed.
All heads turned to her in various stages of shock. "Sorry, Sis," Ranma added sheepishly,
squeezing Ranko's shoulder again and encouraging her to speak for herself.
Nodoka looked at her daughter's plaintive expression and was unable to stay angry at her little girl.
"I'm sorry for talking over you, Ranko. I just don't like seeing you injured." She looked closely at the
bandage, trying to forget about the argument by concentrating on Dr. Tofu's handiwork. "It seems that
you've already had this looked at, dear. Whoever worked on it did a good job."
Ranko smiled as she remembered the kind Dr. Tofu. "Yeah. Dr. Tofu really knew what he was
doing."
"Who's Dr. Tofu?" Nodoka asked, puzzled.
Ranma quickly spoke up to answer. "Well, he's a doctor close to the school. I felt that Ranko
needed to be taken care of quickly, so I took her there. I was told that he was very good. Oh! Don't worry
about the bill; he took Ranko's insurance card."
Nodoka appeared mollified by Ranma's explanation, and moved on to other concerns. She looked
down and saw that Ranma's hand was still on Ranko's shoulder, and spoke again. "Well, you two are
obviously getting along a lot better," she said with obvious satisfaction.
Ranko realized that her mother was referring to Ranma's affectionate behavior towards her and
blushed, but halted her instinct to push his hand away. "Well, yeah... He and I came to an understanding
recently."
Ranma smiled and began rubbing his sister's shoulder as he talked. "She's right. It's like I finally
learned to appreciate having a little sister." Ranko's blush deepened, but she couldn't help but smile
inwardly. This last week with her brother had been an absolute paradise compared to the last fifteen years
of her life that she'd had to endure with the other 'him'.
Nodoka smiled warmly. "I'm glad that you two aren't brawling anymore. It's about damn time you
started getting along," she declared, putting a hand on one shoulder of each child.
Ranma blushed this time. "Yeah. As far as I'm concerned, I won't bother or fight with Ranko
again. Except for sparring, that is." He made a mental note to ask his sister sometime later about how he
treated her in the 'past'.
Ranko absently rubbed her bad ankle, wondering if she could remain off of it over the next several
days. She had this nagging suspicion that she wasn't going to be able to remain idle for too long, at least
she *hoped* she wouldn't be sitting around on her tail for days. She couldn't *stand* that! At his
comment, she turned to face him and smiled challengingly. "Hopefully that won't be too long in coming,
Ranma."
Nodoka 'awwwed,' sending both children into a deep crimson blush. "Mom..." Ranko protested,
shuffling uncomfortably in her sitting position to try and fight off her embarrassment.
Ranma looked to his father, who had been watching the whole exchange with some amusement.
Hoping to wipe the smirk off of his father's face, Ranma decided to talk to his father outside. "Mom, I need
to talk to Pop for a bit, please." He brought his hand down from Ranko's shoulder, but let it run against her
back before he stood up. "Let's go to the training hall, okay, Pop?"
Nodoka frowned. "Is everything all right, Ranma?"
Ranma looked at her, nodding his head. "Everything's okay, Mom. I just want to talk to him about
some guy stuff, is all." He smiled, wanting to forestall any further questions.
Genma looked to Ranma and nodded. Without saying anything else, both men walked out of the
house and headed to the training hall.
Nodoka turned from watching the men leave to look at her daughter again. "Well, I wonder what
*that* was all about."
Ranko shrugged her shoulders. "Beats me. He probably wants to talk about Akane, is all."
Nodoka sighed as she remembered what Ranma had promised to do if he'd beaten Kuno. 'Which
was something I didn't expect him to do,' she admitted to herself. "I hope Ranma's not going ahead with his
plans to marry that girl. He hardly knows her."
Ranko looked up to her mother. "Well, I've met Akane, and she's not a bad person. If you want to
know the truth, I think they're a good match."
Nodoka shook her head, which was swimming from all of the confusing things she'd heard and
seen in the past ten minutes. "You two really *are* getting along better, aren't you? It's odd hearing
positive things about Ranma coming from *your* mouth."
"MOOOOM!" Ranko yelled, afraid that her blush was going to become permanent.
Nodoka held her hands up in a placating gesture. "Okay, Okay! I'll stop..." 'I don't want her to
blush to death,' she thought with some mirth.
She examined the bandage closely, and noted how stiffly Ranko was sitting. "Honey, you look like
you're awfully sore. How badly were you hurt?"
Ranko looked over at her, wondering how her mother would handle an explicit list of her injuries.
'Might as well get it over with...' she shrugged to herself. "Well, to tell the truth, I was worked over pretty
badly. But it wasn't anything I couldn't handle," She was quick to add. The raven-haired sprite struggled
to catalog the list of injuries that she'd sustained, but her foggy mind wasn't cooperating. She snapped her
fingers as she suddenly remembered something. "Ahh, the instructions! Dr. Tofu gave me a list of things
to do to take care of my injuries. That should tell you better than I can about what happened to me."
Nodoka shook her head. 'How can someone as delicate as Ranko be so casual about being hurt?'
she asked herself. 'She's got the body of a girl, and she acts like a girl most of the time. But that damned
male-martial-artist-mindset keeps popping up at the strangest times.' She dismissed that thought, however,
knowing that her daughter wasn't as reckless as she sometimes seemed. "Where's the list?" she asked her
daughter.
"It's up in my room."
Her mother stood up. "Well, let's go to your room then."
Ranko held her hand out to her mother. "Could you help me up, please? I also twisted my ankle."
Nodoka looked at her sternly before taking her hand and helping Ranko to her feet. "And when
were you going to tell me about that one, little girl?"
Ranko looked at her calmly. "Mom, I didn't hurt it during the fight. I sprained it after school when
I was walking home. I tripped, that's all."
Nodoka rolled her eyes, but accepted Ranko's story. She curled one of her daughter's arms around
her neck, and slowly helped her up the stairs.

****

The two men entered the training hall, the wide doors of the building closing slowly behind them.
"What did you want to talk about, son?"
Ranma sat in the center of the training hall, gesturing for his father to do the same. Genma did so,
facing his son on the mat. "I wanted to talk to you about the fight."
"I thought you already did, Ranma."
"Well, yeah, I did. I just wanted to make sure you knew that I would've prevented those guys from
hurting Ranko if I'd not been so wrapped up in my own fight." Ranma's gaze descended to the floor as a
wave of guilt passed through him.
Genma smiled to his son. "Hey, you don't need to worry about that. Ranko's a martial artist, and
she knows that pain's gonna be a part of the package. Besides, she didn't look that injured to me, so it
couldn't have been all that bad. I'm just glad that you did help her when you could. Besides," he added.
"Knocking out four out of seven armed enemies isn't bad for someone who's only been a martial artist for a
few weeks." Genma patted Ranma on the knee. "You should be proud of yourself. You defeated those four
hoodlums, and also managed to take care of their captain. All in a day's work, I'd say."
Ranma's head came back up abruptly as he realized that, despite his father's occasional thickness,
he was right. "Yeah! I guess defeating Kuno isn't as big a deal for me as it is for everyone else." He
pushed away the sudden thoughts of Akane that had cluttered his mind at the mention of the fight. His
immediate concern was mending the rift between the Tendo and Saotome families. "Pop, you know that I
made a deal with Mr. Tendo."
Genma nodded. "Yes, you told Soun that you wanted to marry Akane, right?"
"Close, Pop. He and I had agreed that Akane and I could go out if I defeated Kuno. I'm going to
worry about that later."
"Later? How much later?" Genma asked worriedly. He didn't want anything *worse* to happen
between him and Soun. Ranma postponing the promise was a dangerous thing in Genma's eyes.
"Calm down, Pop. Geez! I got Mr. Tendo's okay to go slow. I thought it'd be best for me and
Akane if we didn't rush into anything." 'He'd freak if I told him about what Kinuko did to me. Best to keep
that to myself,' Ranma added to himself. "Anyway, that was only half of the agreement."
"Oh, there's more?" Genma said with extreme interest.
"Yeah, Pop. I had Mr. Tendo promise that he'd call off the feud with our family. Plus, he agreed to
sit down and talk with you if I won."
Genma's eyes enlarged to the point of almost falling out of their sockets. "Ranma, you didn't?!"
He showed his father a puzzled look. "Yeah, Pop. I ... did..." He stared at his stricken father,
utterly confused. "I thought you'd *like* to hear this..." He broke off, too baffled to continue.
Genma shook his head, as if trying to shake off a weight. "But it's been so long..."
Ranma sighed lowly. With all that had happened to him in the past two weeks, he'd forgotten that
his father had a tendency to overreact. Especially over nothing. "Pop, it's okay. Mr. Tendo and I talked
about it today while I was at Dr. Tofu's. You know, when Ranko was being looked over. Anyway, he
knows that I won the fight, and he and I thought that the best way to settle things between our families was
for us to come over to his house tomorrow."
"Come over to his house tomorrow?!" Genma started making gagging noises. "What are we
gonna do once we're there, boy, have some sort of touchy-feely encounter-session?!" He shuddered at the
thought of everyone holding hands and singing campfire songs while swaying to the music.
Ranma shot Genma an angry look. "Hey, cut the crap, Pop! You know, I sacrificed my time and
energy to try and bring two families back together, and all you can do is whine about it?! Typical..." He
turned away from his father, too upset to meet the older-man's gaze.
Downcast, Genma sat in silence as he absorbed what Ranma had said. "You're right, boy," he said
at length, looking up again. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to sound ungrateful. It's just... it's been so long since
Tendo and I have had any good words to say to each other. I'm not so sure that, once we're in the same
place at the same time, we'll have a peaceful meeting. The last time we talked was years ago, and we were
both angry."
Ranma could tell that his father was still having trouble with the idea of a meeting. 'But,' he
figured, 'all I have to do is push a little more, and maybe he'll do it.' "Don't sweat it, Pop. We'll have fun, I
promise."
Genma eyed his son warily. "What did you tell him we were going to do, Ranma?"
"Well, Pop. When Mr. Tendo and I talked last night, we also fought. For about twenty minutes."
Genma's brow shot up. "Well, we managed to trash his dojo as a result, so I offered our services to help
repair the damage I helped to cause."
Genma calmed. 'At least he had thought of something that would provide a distraction in case
things didn't work out all that well.' "Alright, Ranma. I guess that's not such a bad idea. What do we have
to do on our side?"
Ranma held out the slip of paper that Soun had given him. "This is a list of things that we have to
bring with us when we arrive at the dojo tomorrow. Only the things not marked with an 'X'."
Genma nodded and pocketed the list. "Was there anything else?"
He shook his head. "That was it. I don't have anything else, really." 'Nothing else that I *want*
to tell you, that is...' he finished to himself.
Genma stood and pulled Ranma to his feet. "Why did we come out to the training hall, Ranma?
We could've talked about that in the house."
"Aww, I couldn't stand Mom talkin' about me like that anymore in front of Ranko. It was starting
to embarrass the hell out of me. That, and I don't know how Mom would've taken the news about
tomorrow's trip to the Tendo house."
Genma nodded at Ranma's foresight. "I guess I'll tell her about it after we go back inside. To tell
you the truth, I have no idea how she'll react either." They walked back to the house. "By the way, you
shouldn't be embarrassed about being protective of your sister. That's a very honorable trait, Ranma."
Genma reached over and clapped him on the back. "And I appreciate you taking care of my little girl."
Ranma relaxed at his father's words. He'd been tense since he and Ranko had walked downstairs,
but now that the worst part was over, he smiled. Everything was going the way he'd hoped. 'What could
possibly go wrong tomorrow?' he asked himself light-heartedly. He cringed as he heard thunder crack in the
distance.

****

Nodoka entered Ranko's room with her daughter in tow. Ranko hobbled over to her bed as her
mother closed the bedroom door. Reaching down, she pulled her bookbag into her lap. Fishing her hand
around inside, she came up with the bag of stuff and the list that Dr. Tofu had given Ranma. "Here's the list
I was telling you about," she said as she handed the list over to Nodoka.
Nodoka sat next to her daughter on the bed. "Let's see. Hmmm..." Her brow furrowed in barely-
contained anger as her eyes scanned through the list. "Minor bruises, a few abrasions. The cut on your
cheek, and a sprained ankle." Nodoka folded the list and placed it on the bed between them, running her
fingers through her hair as she released a long, exasperated sigh. "Looks like you got worked over quite a
bit, if that list is any indication." She began rummaging through the bag of items, and pulled out a powder
packet. She picked up the list again. "According to the instructions on here, before you go to bed tonight,
you need to soak in a bath with this powder mixed into the water."
Ranko smiled, the thought of a soaking bath pleasing her greatly. "Yeah, I guess so." She stood
up on her good foot and reached down to take the packet from her mother. Nodoka deftly pulled the packet
out of reach, then put her arm up to keep Ranko from toppling due to overreaching. "You can't walk in there
by yourself. Come on, young lady, I'll help you." Nodoka stood up from the bed and slipped her hand
around Ranko's back. Ranko put her arm around her mother and walked to the bathroom.
Once in the bathroom, Ranko unbuttoned her shirt and pulled it over her head. Nodoka undressed
as well, pulling her clothes off and placing them in a nearby basket. A puzzled look crossed Ranko's face as
she watched her mother undress. "Mom, why are you taking your stuff off?"
Nodoka stepped out of her panties before answering her. "You've got a sprained ankle, and I
don't want to worry about you slipping in the tub or something else like that, so I'm going to help you
bathe."
Ranko rolled her eyes at her mother's over-protectiveness. "Mom, didn't you *just* take a bath?"
Nodoka nodded. "Yes, dear, but I don't mind taking another one."
Ranko shrugged, knowing that she wasn't going to convince her mother otherwise. It'd been a
little while since she'd last bathed with her mother, but the thought of sharing the bath didn't bother her, so
she resumed undressing. Her mother gasped when Ranko removed her bra. "Ranko! You didn't tell me you
got hit *there!*" Nodoka exclaimed as she knelt down to look at Ranko's bruised breast.
"Well, that cream that Dr. Tofu gave me numbed the bruise. Since I couldn't really feel it, I forgot
to mention it." 'Yeah, right!' she added to herself, the thought dripping with sarcasm. "Don't worry, he told
me that the bruise was superficial, and that it would heal within a week," Ranko said nonchalantly.
Nodoka brought her hands up, and pushed up against the nipple; lifting the breast up to reveal the
bruise much more clearly. "How sore is it?" she asked as she traced the outside ridge of the bruise with a
finger.
Ranko winced as her mother's finger occasionally made contact with the bruise. "Well, it's starting
to hurt again. I guess I'll have to put some more of that cream on it after I get out of the bath. Hopefully the
hot water will help it too." She looked in the mirror behind her mother, finally able to get a look at the bruise
herself. Her eyebrows lifted as she saw how dark and big the bruise was. 'Damn that Kenji! I should cut
his you-know-what off for this,' she thought angrily. 'He'd better be glad that this bruise isn't permanent.'
Nodoka stood up. "That must've hurt a lot, dear."
Ranko nodded, bringing her hand to her breast self-consciously to cover the bruise. "It did," she
said with a grimace.
Anger replaced Nodoka's earlier concern as she looked at the wounded breast again. "Who did
this to you? Do you even know who it was?"
Ranko nodded again. "Yeah, it was that brat, Kenji."
"Kenji Kurosawa!?" Her eyes flashed angrily. "That little snot did this to you?" Nodoka made a
move like she was going to leave the bathroom. Ranko anticipated this and grabbed her mother by the arms
to keep her from running out.
"Whoa whoa whoa! Mom, don't worry about it! I made him pay for what he did to me." She
glanced down at her pants, remembering the battle trophy she'd put in her pockets. "Let's just take our
bath, okay?"
Nodoka deflated, agreeing that healing her daughter was more important than that spoiled brat,
Kenji. She reached over to the raised tub and started the water running, then turned back to Ranko and
helped her remove her pants and panties. Nodoka's anger started rising again as she saw the myriad of
bruises and cuts on Ranko's legs. 'God, what that boy did to you is inexcusable. I hope you punished him
greatly for this, Ranko,' she thought to herself, trying unsuccessfully to dismiss the anger from her mind. 'If
Ranko says it's been taken care of, then I should believe her.' She rubbed one of her daughter's legs
consolingly. "You're such a pretty girl. This sort of thing shouldn't be happening to you."
Ranko put her hand on her mother's head to keep from falling while her mother removed her
panties, taking care to maintain balance as she stepped out of them. "Thanks Mom. You know, the reason
I'm so good looking is because I take after you," she said with a smile, rubbing her mother's head gently.
Nodoka stood up and smiled broadly, wrapping her daughter up in an affectionate hug. "That was
very sweet of you, dear. It's good to know that at my age I can still turn a few heads." She winked at
Ranko, then stood beside her, keeping an arm around her daughter as they stepped up to the bath. After
pouring the powder into the water, she helped her daughter sit down, then got in. They both moaned
appreciatively as they reclined against the edge of the tub. The two sat side by side in the oversized tub,
their arms around each other as they closed their eyes and enjoyed being submerged to the shoulders in the
soaking bath.

****

Soun Tendo entered the gates to his home and walked mechanically to the dojo. From the moment
immediately following his conversation with Ranma to now, Soun had nothing else on his mind except the
reunification of the Tendo and Saotome families. His body was moving on auto-pilot as he walked into the
dojo and sat the bags of repair material on the floor. Slowly he sat down against one of the sturdier walls of
the building, and lost himself completely in thought.
He'd felt genuinely pleased that Ranma had been able to atone for what Genma had put him
through so long ago, and consequently end Akane's engagement to that bokken-wielding buffoon. But
even with that, a part of him continued to rage against reconciliation. He kept reminding himself of all the
pain that he suffered as a result of Saotome's betrayal. Some part of him wasn't quite ready to forgive
Genma yet.
Soun frowned inwardly at the word 'betrayal.' Yes, it had *felt* like betrayal. At least it had at the
time. His subsequent campaign to wed away a daughter was firmly rooted in the idea that he had to avenge
the loss suffered by Genma's inaction. But over the last few years Soun had come to realize that his choice
of motivation may have been poor. It had never occurred to him that Genma may have had a reason for
making that infamous phone call. He realized suddenly that he had never given the man a chance to explain.
Now that he'd heard Ranma's story about why Genma did what he did, Soun was beginning to feel that the
responsibility for his family's pain rested on his *own* shoulders.
His pain now lay mainly in the fact that he was living with three near-strangers in his house. Every
day he regretted the time with his children that he lost. A loss that he knew was a result of his single-
mindedness. He'd been so caught up in his own campaign of righteousness that he never took time to look
around and see what the world was doing. It wasn't until the death of his wife that he'd begun to question
the wisdom of finding a husband for one of his daughters.
That doubt had grown deeper after he'd paired Akane up with that idiot Kuno, and had seen how
greatly he'd caused her to suffer. Oh, she'd borne the discomfort admirably, but it still showed through.
He looked at his hands, appalled at what effort his actions had on those around him. 'It's because
of my temper that I've lost precious time with my daughters. I also lost my wife, and pushed away my best
friend. My God, what have I done?!'
Smothered in anguish, Soun was overcome with racking sobs. As he cried, he knew that he
could've prevented a lot of suffering if he had taken the time to listen instead of simply reacting.
Confronted with that truth, the intensity of his weeping increased. Several grief-stricken minutes had
passed before he noticed that the angry voice inside of him that had been his motivation for so many years
had died away, to be replaced with an overwhelming feeling of release.
Soun composed himself, wiping his eyes while his grief dissipated. Some humor began to creep
back in as he slowly smiled, appreciating the irony of the situation. He had Ranma Saotome to thank for
bringing this sudden change about. He never thought that he would feel as free and *alive* as he did now.
His mind rejoiced as he now realized that he had the opportunity to be there for his daughters, and to live a
life free of an oppressive burden.
'I'll be able to reunite with Genma! Maybe we can get back to the way things used to be.' He
thought of his wife, and felt a small pang of regret. 'Oh, if only you were with me, dear. I miss you so
much.' Soun stood up, a determined look on his face. 'Now that I've been shown what I've done wrong,
you can rest assured, my beloved one, that I will do my best to see that the girls are treated well and are
happy from now on.' His mind and his conscience felt clear for the first time in an age. Soun walked from
the dojo with a spring in his step.
He entered the house, and saw Kasumi chopping away in the kitchen. Not seeing Nabiki or Akane
at the table, he assumed they were in their rooms. He walked into the kitchen and returned Kasumi's smile.
"Oh, hello, Father!" she said as she continued to chop vegetables, never missing a beat.
Soun returned her smile. "Good evening, Kasumi. Everything is okay, I trust."
Kasumi hesitated only slightly at the question. "Well, everything's okay now."
Soun didn't like her answer. His humor dampened slightly. "Kasumi, is there a problem?"
Kasumi was never able to lie to her father, so she turned to answer him. She laid her utensils on the
counter, and wiped her hands on her apron. "Well, Daddy, Akane was a little upset when she came home
today."
"How upset was she?! Why-" he fairly demanded. 'Maybe Ranma's not as good as I thought...'
Kasumi flinched at the volume, and held her hands up to cut him off. "Don't worry, Daddy! She
was put through a lot today, but she's okay." She hesitated, not knowing how her father would take the
news that he'd failed at another arranged marriage. Seeing Soun's patience start to wear, she plowed ahead.
"She lost her engagement to Kuno today."
'Oh, that's all... Whew!' Soun thought with relief. He nodded to Kasumi, pretending that he'd not
already known about this. He wanted to keep Ranma's and his agreement secret for now, so playing dumb
was his best option. He summoned up as much grief on his face as he could. "That is unfortunate.
Although, given her initial reaction to the engagement, I'm surprised that she would consider this a bad
thing..."
Kasumi shook her head. "I don't think that she's very upset over losing Kuno." She kept the part
about Ranma's desire to date Akane, and the mess with Kinuko, to herself for now. She didn't know all of
the facts yet, and didn't want her father to get upset over something like that until she knew for sure.
"Although it was a rather sudden and drastic change in her life. She should be fine, as long as she doesn't
push herself. She just needs a little time alone."
Soun let the tension leave his body. "I agree, Kasumi. If she's allowed some time to recover, she
should be okay." He turned to leave the kitchen, stretching his arms. "I've been shopping all day. I think
I'll relax for a little while." He was about to walk out of the kitchen, when Kasumi called to him again.
"Daddy, don't you want to know *how* Akane lost her engagement?" she asked with a bit of
concern.
He turned suddenly and popped his head back in the doorway. "Not really, dear. I'm sure she'll
tell me when she's ready. Besides, you seem to have everything well in hand." Kasumi's mouth was a small
'o' as she listened to him.
"I... what?" She was confused, and didn't know what to say next.
Soun continued on as if she hadn't spoken. "Oh, and Kasumi. I'll need to speak with all three of
you in a few moments, okay?"
"Yes, father. Is there anything the matter?" she asked dazedly.
Soun shook his head and answered quickly. "No, dear. Actually it'll be good news." He aimed a
smile at her before ducking out of the kitchen again and heading for the table.
Kasumi resumed chopping, the matter over her father's reaction to Akane's misfortune puzzling her
no end. She tried to ignore the multitude of questions she had, but couldn't shake one particular thought
from her mind. 'I wonder how happy Daddy will be when he finds out that a Saotome was responsible for
Akane's 'rescue' ?'

****

A wet Ranko and Nodoka exited the bathroom, their bodies wrapped in large towels. After guiding
Ranko to her bedroom and seating her on her bed, Nodoka quickly went to hers and dressed in something
casual. She stepped back into Ranko's bedroom a moment later with an old pair of Ranma's boxers in hand,
as well as one of his T-shirts. "Ranko, I'd rather you wear these old clothes to sleep in while you're using
that ointment." Nodoka wrinkled her nose, remembering the smell from her daughter's clothes. "All of your
clothes, especially your bra, was reeking of the stuff."
Ranko was a little surprised, although she guessed that she shouldn't have been, realizing that she
must've grown used to the smell of the stuff after being around it for so long. She stood up and unwrapped
her towel from her slim frame and set it on the bed, then sat down on it. Grabbing the nearby tube of
ointment that Tofu had applied to her wounds earlier, she squeezed some onto her fingers. She frowned at
the heavy scent, but forced herself to continue as she began rubbing it vigorously into the bruises on her
arms, and stomach. She took particular care around her breast, the sensitive tissue complaining greatly
whenever she pushed too hard against it. Nodoka took the tube from her daughter and began applying
more of the smelly stuff to Ranko's legs.
The two finished covering all of the wounds in short order. Nodoka capped the tube with much
relief, and placed it back in the bag of medicines sitting on the floor by her side. After letting the ointment
soak into the skin for five minutes, Ranko put on the old T-shirt and boxers that her mother had brought her.
She then bent down and gingerly pulled on the ACE bandage for her ankle. "Whew! I'd better open a
window before I pass out," Ranko slurred as she stood up drunkenly. Her hazy mind noted absently that
her ankle was feeling much better after the bath, and that she could actually apply pressure to her foot
without screaming. 'That doctor really knew his stuff.' Quickly she hobbled over and opened the window
to her room, leaning outside of it a bit to breathe in the sweet outside air and flush away the smell of the
ointment.
Nodoka nodded drowsily, the smell of the ointment beginning to getting to her as well. She wiped
her hands off on Ranko's towel, then propped herself up on the bed as she felt a little spacy. She welcomed
the warm evening breeze as it wafted into the room.
Once she began to feel normal, Ranko moved away from the window and sat down on the bed next
to her mother. "Thanks for the bath, Mom. It really helped," she said as she put an arm around her
shoulder.
Nodoka looked up to her daughter and smiled. "I didn't mind it at all. I'm just glad you're feeling
better." She looked at the clock on Ranko's desk. "Oh dear, it's past six-thirty. I'd better get downstairs.
The two bottomless pits are probably climbing the walls waiting for dinner."
Ranko laughed hard at the not-inaccurate description of her father and the 'new' Ranma. "Okay,
mom, I'll be downstairs in a bit. I can make it on my own now."
Nodoka patted Ranko on the knee. "Alright, Ranko. Just remember what the doctor said. Take it
easy on the ankle for awhile."
"I will, Mom."
Nodoka stood and took Ranko's towel from the bed. She turned and walked out of the room,
destined for the kitchen. After the door closed, Ranko flopped on her bed, feeling bone tired all of a sudden.
She lay there quietly, her legs hanging off the side of the bed and her arm across her eyes. Ten seconds
later she was asleep.

****

Kasumi and Nabiki walked into the room and sat down at the table with their father.
At the girls' entrance, Soun turned to look at them. He scowled when he noted Akane's absence.
"Where's Akane?"
Kasumi smiled wanly. "She was still asleep, and I didn't feel it would be good to wake her."
He nodded as she spoke. "I guess you're right. I'll tell her about this later."
"Tell her what, Daddy?" Nabiki chimed in. "All Kasumi would tell me was that you had an
announcement for us. What's the big fuss?"
Soun smiled and crossed his arms in front of himself. "There's no fuss, Nabiki. I just wanted to tell
you what I had planned for tomorrow."
"I thought you were fixing up the damage to the Dojo tomorrow," she countered.
"Well, Nabiki, we're having a 'clean up the dojo party' tomorrow!" he said enthusiastically,
rubbing his hands together heartily.
The enthusiasm wasn't rubbing off on Nabiki. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously, and she couldn't
keep a groan from escaping her. "A 'party?' You mean you want *us* to help you with the rebuilding, eh,
Daddy?" she grumbled.
Soun winced. "Well, that's it partly..."
Nabiki shook her head disgustedly. "I should've guessed that's what you had in mind. You really
need to learn how to break bad news to people better, Daddy; your approach was transparent," Nabiki
chided. Then she recalled the last part of what he'd just said and sighed. "O-kay, Daddy. What's the rest
of it?"
Soun shifted uncomfortably under the intense gaze of his middle daughter. "Nabiki, stop that!
Don't forget that I'm your father." Nabiki's gaze relented somewhat, and Soun relaxed enough to continue.
"What I was going to say was that we're going to have a party, and I have invited guests."
Kasumi's eyes brightened at the prospect of a party with guests, and she clasped her hands
together expectantly. "That's nice" 'This party may be just the thing to help cheer Akane up,' she added to
herself. 'It may wind up giving me a lift too.' She turned her attention to the logistics of party-giving.
"About the guests, how many will there be, Daddy?"
Soun shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I'm not sure really. Three, maybe four people."
Nabiki remained skeptical of the party. Her eyebrows furrowed as she considered the obvious.
"And how much are we going to be paying for all of this extra help, Daddy?"
"Oh, nothing at all!" he declared proudly. "They *volunteered* to help. In fact, they've even
promised to buy half of the supplies that we'll need."
Nabiki's eyebrow arched upwards in shock. Her father, a savvy bargainer? 'Maybe Daddy's
finally gotten the hang of negotiations...' Her expression became wary once more as she considered
something else. '... or he hasn't told us everything yet.' She sharpened her gaze. "So who's coming over
tomorrow?"
Kasumi nodded eagerly. "Yes, please tell us. I'd like to know if it's anyone I know so I can fix their
favorite dish."
Soun bigsweated at the questions. He didn't want to let that particular cat out of the bag yet. He
wasn't sure if either of them knew about the Saotomes or not, but best to be safe for now. "Oh, it's just
some old friends, that's all. You wouldn't know them, so I'll just wait and introduce them tomorrow morning
when they arrive. Is that okay for now?"
"Tomorrow morning? Oh my! I'd better get to work on setting up the house for the party then.
And I also have to finish cooking supper," Kasumi exclaimed as she stood. "Was that all you wanted to tell
us, Daddy?"
Soun nodded. "Yes, that's all for now, Kasumi."
With that Kasumi sprinted for the kitchen, her apron awhirl. The clanging of dishes could soon be
heard.
Nabiki hid a sour look. Kasumi's exclamation had effectively derailed any further interrogation of
her father. Resigned to not knowing everything, she got up from the table and headed for the stairs. "I'm
going to my room for awhile," she announced.
Soun grunted, his mind elsewhere. Nabiki climbed the stairs, frustrated that she wasn't able to
learn more from him. 'I know he's hiding something from us. But God knows what it could be. I guess we'll
just have to wait to find out tomorrow ...' she thought as she disappeared upstairs. She hated surprises, but
didn't want to press the matter. Free labor and free parts was a good enough inducement to leave her father
alone. 'For the moment, anyway,' she thought with a smirk as she disappeared into her room.

****

"Ranma dear, could you go and tell your sister that dinner's ready!" Nodoka called out from the
kitchen.
Ranma turned away from the TV and stood up. 'It's about damn time. I'm so hungry I could even
eat Akane's cooking,' he declared angrily. The loose thought set off images of Akane's pretty face, both
before and after his wish, in his mind. 'Hell, I wonder if she can cook now...' He turned to face the kitchen,
yelling "Okay, Mom" before heading up the stairs.
Reaching the top step, he strode from the staircase and gently knocked on her door. Not getting
any response from Ranko, he slid her door open. He poked his head in, and saw her laying there with her
legs dangling off of the bed; her feet not quite touching the floor. She was snoring softly, and one of her
arms was draped loosely across her eyes, and he couldn't help but chuckle at her odd sleeping pose.
Ranma didn't advance into her room, however, as the smell of ointment was still heavy enough to make him
pause.
Deciding not to disturb her, he turned away from her room and slid the door shut behind himself.
He descended the stairs quickly and walked towards the table. His eyes narrowed when he saw that his
father had already started eating. "Hey, leave some for me!" Ranma shouted indignantly.
Genma laughed through a mouthful of food, and continued to eat heartily despite Ranma's angry
protest.
Nodoka walked into the room a moment later with another round of food. "My goodness, Genma!
I'm glad I made more food! Otherwise the children would've starved!"
He shot her an indignant look over his bowl, but didn't stop eating. Ranma laughed out loud as he
sat down at his usual spot at the table.
"Where's Ranko? I thought I asked you to go get her, Ranma." Nodoka's face became slightly
reprimanding. "I thought you two were supposed to be getting along better now."
Ranma swallowed his indignant retort, not wanting to get into an argument with his mother right
now. "Mom, I went up there to get her, but she was asleep. I didn't want to bother her, so I let her continue
sleeping." Nodoka's stare persisted. "Don't worry, I'll save something for her and carry it up to her after
we're done, if that'll make you happy, Mom."
Nodoka's critical gaze disappeared, to be replaced with a small smile. "Very well, Ranma. I'll expect
you to somehow keep some of this food from the human vacuum cleaner over there," she said as she
indicated Genma with a shrug of her shoulder.
She and Ranma broke out in a fit of laughter as Genma coughed and sputtered. "I am not a vacuum
cleaner, Nodoka!" he shouted indignantly. Smiling, he struck a prideful pose, flexing his arms like a
bodybuilder. "You have no idea how much effort it takes for me to maintain this figure," he proclaimed
grandly, then picked up his chopsticks and resumed eating.
Ranma and Nodoka facefaulted at Genma's declaration. Picking themselves up, they both glared at
him before continuing to eat. "Whatever, dear," Nodoka said as she picked her rice bowl up. Ranma just
snorted derisively and began shoveling rice into his mouth. Smiling evilly, he began sneaking food from
Genma's area while his father's mind was fixated on his rice bowl. Ranma had managed to get six strips of
beef before he was caught. He chewed quickly, swallowing the purloined sirloin before Genma could
protest.
After a few more moments had gone by, all of the food was gone and the table was a disaster area.
Nodoka surveyed the damage and clapped a hand to her head, groaning disdainfully. She knew what a
chore it would be to recover from one of Genma's all-out eating wars with Ranma, but the shock of seeing
the aftermath never dulled. She had watched the eating 'brawl' from a safe distance, keeping her limbs out
of the striking area. At one point she was afraid that the two would come to blows as Ranma had to keep
fending his father off to avoid having Ranko's dinner being consumed.
Ranma stood up and placed Ranko's meal on a tray. "I'll carry this upstairs now."
Nodoka nodded, then smirked as she saw the longing in Genma's eyes as he watched the uneaten
food leave the table. With practiced balance, Ranma trotted up the stairs carrying the tray of food in one
hand. The two p