Disclaimer: Takahashi Rumiko-sama owneth Ranma 1/2 and all that pertains to it, without permission or intent to profit I write for entertainment purposes and pray that she does not send an army of Anything Goes Jurisprudence-practicing Martial Arts Lawyers to use their ultimate attack of 'Copyright Infringement Lawsuit' against me.

I don't have an equally witty and weird disclaimer for the fact that the band Warrant owns the song "I Saw Red" and all related rights to it. If I could be witty, weird, sage and creative all the time, I wouldn't take so long to write stories and chapters...

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"I Saw Red"
By J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'

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"And I didn't need to see his face, I saw yours, I saw red and then I closed the door, I don't think I'm gonna love you anymore."
- 'I Saw Red', Warrant.

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The Saotome/Tendo engagement was over. All the threats, blustering and tears from Saotome Genma and Tendo Soun couldn't do a thing to restore it as their hopes and dreams to live off their childrens' futures shattered. It was only fair; so was Saotome Ranma's heart also shattered. It was only his training in controlling his emotions and techniques like the 'Soul of Ice' that was keeping Saotome Ranma from shattering bones as well. It was only focusing on that training that was keeping Ranma from losing control of the maelstrom of emotions he was feeling at the moment. It was only that control that was keeping the Tendo family compound and possibly a good portion of the surrounding neighborhood from being ground zero to a living natural disaster happening. Ranma couldn't decide whether to feel angered, saddened, relieved, frustrated or any one of a number of other emotions that were currently whipping through him like a wind that was changing from hot to cold and everything in between with each new gust and knew that if he let his control slip, even if for only a second, the results could be devastating to anything and anyone around him. So he focused on training and on the thought that martial artists were supposed to protect others, he would be endangering them and not protecting them if he lost control, if he lost control he wouldn't be able to call himself a martial artist anymore, not in his eyes. It was all he had left, he had lost everything else, he had to keep The Art, so he had to keep control...

He had grown accustomed to the idea that, at some point, he and Tendo Akane would one day be married; despite their early differences, by the time of the incident with the Phoenix they had started to grow closer or at least he had thought they were growing closer. Then it all began a downward spiral; Akane not waiting for him to explain that he hadn't said something, but was thinking it when she 'heard' it; the failed wedding; the fact that, with the destruction of Jusenkyo, there was no longer any hope for a cure to his curse or any others; the 'Chinese Amazon' civil war between those that didn't want to force anyone who could fight a god and win to do anything they - that is, he - didn't want to do and those who saw his defeat of Saffron as all the more reason to bring him into the tribe as breeding stock whether he wanted to join or not, a civil war that ended up with him, the local Chinese Amazons and Nerima itself caught in the middle - it had been worth it, though - Cologne's faction had won and Mousse had earned Shampoo's respect by winning against both of the twins when they had came after her enough that she was willing to accept him as her husband...

Then Akane's birthday had come. On advice from Kasumi, Ranma had gone up to Akane's room to take her a tray of food for breakfast in bed as a birthday surprise, instead he had been the one surprised; surprised because Akane hadn't been the only one in her bed. Hibiki Ryoga had been in Akane's bed with her and even Ranma was able to notice the clothes scattered on the floor and figure out what they meant. With a calm born of the Soul of Ice, Ranma had shut the bedroom door and went back downstairs. Sitting the tray on the middle of the table, he had uttered three words and walked out not just of the room or house, but of the Tendo Compound itself...

"The engagement's off."

Ranma didn't know it, but while he was fighting a war for survival and his continued freedom, hell had broken out on the proverbial homefront; Akane hadn't considered that he was fighting for himself, he just happened to be on the same side as Shampoo by default, she had taken the entire mess to mean that Ranma was choosing Shampoo over her. Then Ryoga and Akari had a falling out over something Ranma really tried to avoid thinking about since just the idea made him sick to his stomach, and things got worse; the two 'friends', Akane and Ryoga got together had a pity party for themselves and for each other, complete with stolen bottles from Tendo Soun's private sake stash... That had been the first time. It wasn't the last time. They had gone behind everyone's backs, never officially breaking the engagement between Akane and Ranma, never even letting him know she was no longer even going to attempt it, they had strung him along and used him as a distraction, doing so for months. If he hadn't tried to take Akane breakfast, they probably would have continued to do so. But Ranma didn't know any of this. All Ranma knew was that he was angry and depressed and even partially relieved all at once and it was creating a storm inside him that he didn't know how to handle without focusing on the 'Soul of Ice'. What Ranma knew was that he couldn't handle being around the Tendos, being in Nerima at the moment, so he was walking and he'd keep walking until it was time to stop...

Then he'd worry about whatever happened next.