After Ranma Part 1
By Mike Cervantes

Tendou Dojo, late evening

There was a loud thud. The three sisters, Kasumi, Nabiki, and Akane, looked up from their spots at the dinner table, thinking it came from upstairs. There was another thud, and then a crash. The old master Happosai, looked up from the pile of panties he was ironing and turned his head sideways, thinking it came from the kitchen. He saw Kasumi stand from the table and move into the kitchen, putting a kettle of hot water onto the stove. There was a third crash, so loud it could only be the last one. Their father, Soun Tendou, walked down the steps. He shuddered, having heard the sound of wood splitting into a million tiny pieces. A short walk to the already opened entrance to the dojo had confirmed his worst fear. Already he couldn't stop the tears falling from his cheeks.

The north wall of the dojo had been entirely shattered. On the inside was Ranma Saotome, still holding the pose of the kick that sent his father flying through the now open wall and into the Tendou's koi pond. Outside, floating amongst so many shards of splinters was a bloated panda lying on his back looking upwards towards its wife, the curly brown-haired woman who stood with a basket full of fresh cut flowers from the garden.

"You know," Nodoka said sweetly, behind a kind smile. "You really shouldn't bait the boy so much."

"Bowf…" Genma grunted in agitation, though he didn't make an attempt to move.

Ranma slid into the house for the dinner table. Nodoka and Genma remained chatting outside. Soun, however, moved to the remains of the dojo's north entrance, looking stunned. His home had suffered a great amount of damage since the Saotomes had moved in, but the dojo had almost always been left intact despite Ranma using his martial arts in full force inside. Seeing that it had broken this time made the father of the Tendous feel so many different emotions all at once that he didn't even have the strength to say words. He merely sank to his knees in front of the damage. Nobody paid him any mind.

night

The sound of hammers coupled with frantic sobs echoed through the dojo as Soun worked feverishly to board up the damaged wall. Ranma sat on the roof, with his legs folded, seemingly doing nothing except thinking. Akane, who had changed into her pajamas, looked out at the silhouette of her fiancé casting a shadow on her drawn-in drapes. She'd shut the drapes because she knew he was out there, and obviously didn't want him peeking in on her as she changed, but now that she was changed, she debated opening them or leaving them closed all night. She was a little mad at Ranma for upsetting her father. Whenever Ranma did, she never said anything, but it did annoy her a little bit. Ranma could have at least helped him board up the dojo after he broke it.

Akane's eyes shut tight, and her fists clenched. After a couple of seconds of this, however, the drapes slid open, followed by the window pane. "Why don't you come inside Ranma? It's cold out there and there's no need to be pouting."

"I ain't pouting." Ranma said indignantly, unmoved, even in expression, by Akane's appearance.

Akane huffed in annoyance. "I don't get you. What is the big idea about knocking the wall off the dojo's window, anyway? Did the old man really deserve it? "

"They're talkin' about the marriage again." Ranma said simply. Though it sounded like an idle coment by Ranma, he knew the weight it contained, and so did Akane. Akane ducked her head back into her room, put on her slippers and climbed out the window. She sat a few inches away from Ranma, both of them staring out into the Nerima rooftops.

"Oh." She said.

"That's all you gotta say?" Ranma raised an eyebrow.

"Of course it's all I have to say!" Akane said harshly. "I don't want to get married."

"I don't want to get married either." Ranma replied. Akane didn't know why, but every time he said it, it stung her.

They were quiet for a long time.

"Well, what are they going to do?" Akane asked with a shrug. "I hope they keep it away from the dojo, so Shampoo and Ukyou and Kodachi don't mess the house up again like they did last time."

"You forgot Kunou and Mousse and Ryouga…" Ranma interjected in a belligerent tone, counting off each male suitor with his fingers as he did so.

"Um, right…" Akane blinked.

"Well, whatever they do, I ain't gonna be there. I'm going." Ranma stood up on the rooftop.

"Where? Back to China?" Akane mocked. That had been Ranma's goal all along, but now that the Jusenkyou waters were flooded, there was no way he'd be able to cure his curse.

Ranma lowered his head, obviously offended by her comment. Akane smiled, but her smile vanished as soon as Ranma turned around. His face was angry, not with annoyance, but contorted with rage and filled with contempt. Akane slid back, leaning on her hands when she saw it.
"I'm tired of the whole thing, Akane. I've stayed here and let myself be tormented by every martial artist within a billion miles of this place and for what? So I could inherit some damn piece of wood? I don't need the Anything Goes Dojo. I am already the most powerful martial artist in all of Nerima, maybe all of Japan, even if I do still change into a girl even when I touch cold water. I don't need to be here anymore, I'm leavin'." Ranma began to move away, but then Akane stood.

"So that's it? All this time just waiting around and you just decide you don't want a wedding! What about….what about your parents? You're supposed to be part of this school too! Ranma! Look at me when I'm talking to you!" She swung her hand at him intending to slap him. Ranma raised his own hand and caught her by the wrist. Ordinarily, she would have connected and sent Ranma flying off the roof. This time he stopped her. For a moment, it made her think of all the times he DID let her hit him.

"I'm leavin' and that's it." Ranma let go of her hand, and then hopped off the roof. Akane lowered her hand and watch him walk across the garden, to the front gate. In the distance, she still heard her father's sobbing. She doubted he saw Ranma leave. It was only her who saw him go. She sobbed once herself, and then went back into the bedroom.

morning

Akane, dressed in her school uniform, looked down at the rice and fishcakes Kasumi had set out for breakfast. So far things went on normally except for the fact Ranma wasn't at the table. Why was she so bothered by that? Ranma made up his mind didn't he? But it had been so long. She'd forgotten what it was like to not see him there. Akane gave an agitated grunt.

'That's all it is, it's just a habit,' Akane though 'All I need to do is give it some time. And he's going to disappear.' She held out a closed fist in front of her, pointing where Ranma would have sat, and opened her hand. "Poof!" she exclaimed. Anyone else around the table looked at her oddly. She blushed and put her hand back down.

Nodoka walked in and sat slightly to the right of the table, her tightly wrapped katana over her shoulder. She looked towards Akane and, with her usual polite smile asked. "Akane, have you seen Ranma?"

"No I haven't." Akane said, beaming with confidence, and stood, scooping up her bookbag on the way towards the front door. Everyone assembled at the breakfast table stared at her oddly.

Furinkan High, morning

There was a part of Akane that thought, even though Ranma left the dojo, he'd still be at school. He wasn't, and Akane felt disappointed. She immediately shook off that disappointment, though, and went back to being glad. Maybe now that Ranma was gone, things at school would be perfectly normal.
Ms. Hinako Ninomiya, her English teacher who resembled a 10 year old girl walked in, dressed in a miniature houndstooth-patterned skirt-suit. Upon seeing her, Akane's face turned cynical. No, nothing in the world would ever make school normal ever again.

Hinako, her head barely peeking up over her desk, flipped open her notebook and began to take role. "Saotome, Ranma…" She said when she got up to Ranma's name. "Saotome, Ranma." Hinako repeated. She put both her hands up on her desk and hoisted herself onto her arms, looking over the whole class. "Akane, have you seen Ranma?"

Akane turned her head away indignantly. "No, I haven't" she said in the same oddly confident way she had said it on the breakfast table. Hinako lowered her feet onto the floor and rounded her desk to Akane's table. "I've known Ranma to do a lot of despicably juvenile things, but he's not one to skip homeroom. Are you sure you don't know where he is?"

"I haven't the slightest idea." Akane kept her composure despite the whole class staring at the two of them and whispering whether Akane really does know, or worse, if Hinako was going to try interrogating it out of Akane. To the relief of the class, Hinako turned away, and goose-stepped back towards her desk, her long brown hair bouncing behind her. "That Ranma is always inventing new ways to be a hoodlum. If I see him again today he will pay with fresh blood."

lunch

Akane smoothed out the front of her skirt as she sat down at an outdoor table. She reached down and pulled up the bento box Kasumi had prepared for her and opened the handkerchief. "Thanks for the food." she murmured and pulled apart her wooden chopsticks. About then was when Ukyou walked up. She stood, dressed in her boy's school uniform. Both her masculine frame and the shadow cast by her giant spatula blocked out the sunshine Akane had intended to enjoy when she decided to eat outside.

"Akane, have you seen Ran-chan?" Ukyou asked. Akane noticed the two take out boxes she was holding under her other hand. "I had packed an extra lunch for him-"

"You've packed a lunch for him every day this week." Akane said flatly. She was getting pissed off. She hoped Ukyou noticed she was getting pissed off. "So far, that's 4 straight days of Okonomiyaki. You know, some days I wonder if either of you or him ever gets sick of eating fried cabbage in flour."

"Geez, Akane, it was just a simple question. What's stuck in your craw today?" Ukyou put her free hand akimbo, showing some genuine concern for her, even though she wondered more where Ranma had gone.

"Allright! Where is he!"

His voice thundered as loud as his self proclaimed title. Stampeding towards the lunch table with bokken drawn forward was Tatewaki Kunou. He skidded to a halt in front of Akane's table, forcing Ukyou to leap aside. "You cannot trick me by hiding beside your acquaintances, you deomonic cur! How dare you insult the noble Tatewaki Kunou with your lack of presence at our challenge!"

"Ranma Honey's not here." Ukyou said drolly. "What challenge are you even talking about?"

Ukyou was capable of brushing Kunou aside like many students often did, but Akane couldn't let it slide. The main reason for this was, as Kunou 'charged' hoping to uncover Ranma, his bokken knocked the entire contents of Akane's bento into her lap. Even with Ranma gone, somehow she felt her temper flare up just as if he were here. She leapt up, her face red and her battle aura flaring up at a level where even Kunou could feel it.

"Why does everybody ask ME where Ranma is! The both of you would rather forget I was engaged to the moron! Why come to me to find out!"

"Well," Ukyou said with a bit of imminence in her tone. "You are his fiancée."

Akane huffed and spun around, spilling the food that was on her lap onto the floor. "I don't know where Ranma is. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, he never really existed." She stomped off. Ukyou sighed and shook her head. "Poor girl." She left, along with the rest of the students, to abandon Kunou. "I guess he isn't here." Kunou said while standing, still in battle pose, over the empty table.

Tendou Dojo, late evening.

After all that had happened, Akane was feeling exhausted. She was too tired to eat dinner, or even train, which sparked immediate concern with her sisters. Kasumi and Nabiki followed Akane up the stairs, and listened behind the locked door of her bedroom as she rifled around for something. The door swung open violently, nearly hitting Nabiki, as Akane emerged with her bath items.

"Akane." Kasumi squeaked. "I…"

"I don't want to hear it, I just want to take a bath and go to bed!" She walked to the bathroom and shut the door.

"Real smooth, Sis." Nabiki scoffed and walked to the doorway. "Akane, just tell us what he said to start this fight…"

Akane was silent. She stood in the middle of the bathroom in her underwear holding her uniform in a bundle in her arms. Now that she'd thought of it for a moment she realized that they didn't actually fight at all. She'd tried to get him to argue, but he wouldn't. He just left. Akane lowered her head, she knew that in that moment, that he was really gone. He'd taken everything she knew about her life, turned it upside down and left without the slightest hint of remorse or responsibility towards the dojo. Or to her.

Akane opened the door. She was dressed in her uniform again, though she was still barefoot. When she looked into Kasumi and Nabiki's eyes, her face immediately contorted in pain, and she began to sob.

By the time Akane had calmed down and could be convinced to return to the dinner table, everyone had figured out Ranma had left. Soun, Genma, Nodoka, and Kasumi sat around her. Nabiki sat with her back turned to them towards the front door. They all lowered their heads in silence, feeling in their own way stunned over the fact he was gone. The only one who seemed un-phased was Happosai, who sat in the TV room still ironing his panty collection.

"Are you sure that's all he said?" Genma said, finally breaking the long silence.

Akane nodded once.

"I just don't understand it. All this time he's been with us. Only now he's decided to leave?" Soun rubbed his chin as he spoke.

"Maybe this is all just a phase, he'll be back as soon as he sorts things out." Nodoka, ever the positive one, said hopefully.

The door to the TV room slowly slid open. A pair of pink panties with a red ribbon flew threw the air slamming into Soun's face with enough force to knock the martial artist on his back. Happosai sprung onto the table shortly after. "You're all a bunch of fools!" He shouted, obviously deciding to express his feeling over Ranma's loss through anger. "You're all too blind to realize why he left! Bah! It makes perfect sense to me!"

Genma, obviously offended by his master's outburst bellowed "What? My son breaks off his engagement, leaves his fiancée and his inheritance, and all you can say is we're to dumb to know why!"

"What we really can't understand is why we've decided to bring you back into this house, you selfish old pervert!" Soun said, rising on his feet above everyone.

"Shut up, all of you!" Nodoka's uncovered katana shimmered in the air for a second before she brought it crashing down onto the table, splitting it in two. Genma, the sisters, Soun and Happosai had all thankfully dodged out of the way just in time. Nodoka sat again and cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, but you two momentarily forgot that he is your master. You should at least hear him out."

Happosai sat on the floor, crossing his arms. "Thank you Nodoka. You are very kind. Now listen you two: You're going to have to keep an open mind if you hope to understand what I am going to say. Now, think as far back as you possibly can, Genma, and tell me: in any time in Ranma's life has he ever been without you?"

Genma opened his mouth to speak, but then he immediately closed it. "No." He finally replied. Genma had to admit, from the time he took him from his mother to the time they arrived in Nerima, Ranma was never out of his sight.

Happosai nodded his head. "Now, why was it that little Ranma was never allowed to stray very far from his father, hm? Was it because you could not bear it, was it because you needed an accomplice for your thievery, or was it because you wanted him as your heir?"

Soun and Genma looked at each other. The revelation in their eyes was obvious.

Happosai shook his head this time. "You see what you've done? In the entire history of the School of Anything Goes Martial Arts there's never really been a dojo. As far as the outside world is concerned we're nothing but a bunch of miscreants, stealing our food and making a mess of the public baths. Yet, every time your son has stayed proper to his form you've punished him, dragged him back to that wooden box of yours and made him behave, telling him 'Some day you're going to be a great martial artist and an heir to our legacy.' You don't even realize that all this time, he's already surpassed the both of you. I've trained him. Cologne has trained him. Even all those martial artists he's made enemies with have trained him a little. Now, he's finally going on to be an Anything Goes Martial Artist in the same way I was and you were."

Once again the entire room was silent for a moment. Akane was the next to break the silence. "But…if you always knew that, how come you've waited until now to tell us?"

"Because I'm old too!" Happosai sprung up to his feet and pulled on what is left of his white hair. "I wanted to believe as much as Soun did that we could be more than what we are, but Ranma has gone and proven us all wrong." Happosai's tiny body sagged, but then he tilted his head to his students and grinned. "Soun. Genma. You've both done me proud, don't misunderstand, but one day, that son of yours is going to be the greatest one of us there's ever been." With that, Happosai scurried his way back into the TV room and shut the door.

night

Genma sat out on the front porch watching the fireflies dance around the garden. Nodoka came out a moment afterwards and sat by her husband in the proper way she always held herself.

"I guess I didn't raise him right." Genma murmured.

"You raised him fine." Nodoka smiled. "Like your master said, he is following in the purest path of your martial arts."

"Yes well…." Genma had a murmur of insecurity in his voice. "I don't understand why he would object so much to an arranged marriage. Ours is an arranged marriage, and I believe he knew that."

"He did." Nodoka nodded. "Genma, do you remember the promise I made you keep when you took Ranma away from our home?"

"How could I forget: If I didn't raise him to be a man among men we would both commit honorable seppuku."

Nodoka laughed a little.

"I fail to see how that is funny." Genma tilted his body slightly away from his semi-sociopathic wife.

"Genma?" Nodoka took his arm, coaxing him back to his usual seated position. "Do you remember the promise you made to my father when we were married?"

"….." Genma strained with all his might, trying to remember, but he couldn't. He didn't budge, though, not wanting to admit he didn't know.

Nodoka laughed again and put her head on Genma's shoulder. "Despite our arrangement, you still courted other women, but my father knew about your womanizing. He made you promise that if you were ever unfaithful to me, I would commit honorable seppuku."

Genma looked down at his wife, surprised despite all of this returning to his memory. He felt her tear on his clothed shoulder, and brought a hand around to stroke her hair.

"We married only two weeks after that." Nodoka said, closing her eyes and smiling. "So you see, you shouldn't feel bad about the arranged marriage not working out. You only did it yourself so that I could live. You did the right thing at the right time, Genma Saotome, and I know that some day, our son will do the same."

Genma held Nodoka behind her back, straightening up her posture as she leaned against him, watching the fireflies dance across the garden.

Akane lay on her back in her pajamas, looking up at the ceiling. She wasn't angry that he was gone, or sad. She really didn't feel any emotion over it at all. She was surprised that, out of everyone, it was the old pervert who finally helped her understand him. She wondered where he was, if he was safe, and she wondered if he missed her. But for now, wondering was all she could do. Akane pulled her sheets over her and turned out the lamp at her side. Settling into bed. She said "Goodnight Ranma." and drifted off into a deep sleep.

End of Part One