On Tue, 29 Oct 1996, Zen wrote:

Akane snatched the photo from Shampoo.  "Let me see that!" she
said.  Sure enough, it was a picture of a bruised and battered Ranma,
sprawled on the ground, joints akimbo, eyes glazed, and obviously
quite unconscious.  Akane fought hard to hide her smile from the
other girl.  She would not have believed that Ranma could be that
clever.  The scene was one that she remembered well.

	Come on, Akane!  You've seen Ranma's cleverness in action 
before.  Just because he never used it in your relationship...

Miyake Shinobu was very pretty - she had dark hair a little longer
than Akane's own, and a delicate grace - at least until she got angry.
Like Akane, she spent a lot of time angry.  She was a student at
Tomobiki High, a school not too far from Furinkan.  Akane could not
remember exactly where they had met, but they had become good
friends.

The red head sitting next to her spoke up.  "It's probably Ranma
again," she said.  "I know that look."

Magami Eiko was new to Nerima - she had transferred to Tomobiki
from Graviton High last year, and it had been hard for her to make
new friends.  But she and Shinobu had hit it off, and Shinobu had
introduced her to Akane.  The three of them were now quite close.

	Ah-hum...

Shinobu nodded.  "Hai, Eiko-chan.  I do believe you're right."  She
turned back to Akane.  "Well?"

"Oh, Kasumi...  He's gone.  He's really gone, and he's not coming back."
Akane tried not to cry, but the tears just wouldn't stop coming.

"Your friends told me about the Ucchan when they brought you
home,"  Kasumi said at last.

"I had forgotten about Ukyou..." said Akane tearfully.  "I was just so
glad that he wasn't with Shampoo... I never stopped to consider
Ukyou..."

	Because you thought she was too nice to do this, right?

Akane was ashamed to remember how she had tormented Ranma
with observations about how cute Shampoo had been.  And when
Shampoo had taken it into her head to marry Ranma, she had been
furious.  Her own reaction had surprised her.  She didn't want Ranma
in the first place, so why should she have cared?  It had all been so
confusing!  It still made her head hurt.

	And indeed, why?

Still, despite his bluster, whenever Akane had been threatened, it
had been Ranma that had come to her defence, often over her own
objections.  But he had never let her down.

	And there could be problems arising from this, given that Akane 
seems to get attacked an awful lot, what's going to happen when Ranma 
isn't there for her?  Ryouga isn't going to be a very reliable helper...

Looking back on all of it, Akane was forced to the conclusion that all
of his claims to the contrary aside, deep down, Ranma had really
cared for her.  He had just never been able to show it.  He had stayed
for her, and she had driven him away.

	Yup.

<Who cares?> thought Akane to herself.  <Shinobu's right.  I've always
said that I didn't want to marry him, and now I don't have to.  So
why do I feel so empty inside?  Dammit Ranma, couldn't you at least
have said 'good-bye'?>

	It would have been a good idea...

been willing to listen on that last night.  The hole in her heart was
never going to heal until she had at least told him that she was sorry,
and that she didn't hate him.  She needed closure.

	True.

"I'm going after him." she said simply.

	Ookaay...

going to go get packed.  I'll leave as soon as I can get a lead on where
they might have gone."

	okay...

"As long as it takes."  Akane replied heavily.  She turned to face her
father once more.  "Ukyou followed him for ten years.  Ten years!
Can I do less?"

	Nope.

"What have we done to them, old friend?  What have we done?"

	Ruined their lives, you idiot!!

Obviously, this was meant to be the start of a series... Zen has no idea
how long it will run, but a number of events and sub stories have
been mapped out - At least some of them will actually get written!
^_^

	I can see a number of the possibilities...

SKJAM!