what if tendo san lived?
what if genma died training?

what if akane wasnt born?
nabiki?
kasumi?
kasumi. . . .never born. . not there to help the family bear the burden
of tendo san death.


Soun Tendo thumbed through the mail, disgusted noises escaping his lips
as he rumaged through more bills. The last thing he needed was another
payment of some kind.

Then he saw it. A post card with unintelligible kanji on it's front,
framing a picture of a panda. "China?" he muttered. "Now, who the hell
do I know in China?" He flipped over the card.


 Tendo-kun.

  Coming from China with Ranma as promised and planned.

   Arrive later in August.

  Genma Saotome.

Soun was shaking as he finished reading the scrawled words from his old
friend. "At long last, a sign from you and your son. . .it's about damn
time you wrote, Saotome-kun." he checked the cancel date on the postage.

August 20th.

"Well! They could be arriving any day now. I suppose I should let the
girls know." He trudged back to the living room.

As spacious as is was, it was terribly empty. There was a large table, a
liquor cabinet and a tv, as well as seat cushions. . .but it seemed
hollow to look at. He set the stack of bills on the table in the place
where Nabiki usually sat.

After a breif scan of the room, he went to the kitchen and put a kettle
on the stove, igniting the gas burner. He spared this room a glance as
well. It was very drab, and colourless. His limited cooking ability left
him with very little he could do with the spacious kitchen. It seemed
like such a waste, especially after she. . .

He shook his head. (I promised myslef I wouldn't dwell on it.) He left
the kitchen and headed upstairs. "Nabiki!" he said at the closed and
locked door.

"What is it?" her voice escaped muffled by the door.

"I need to speak with you!"

"Later. I'm busy," she said, clearly annoyed at the intrusion.

Soun grew angry, but calmed himself. He knew how to deal with his
daughter. "Bills came!" he shouted through the door. After a moment of
curious noise, Nabiki emerged wearing little more than a body suit
leotard with an oversized collar shirt over it, clearly leaving little
to the imagination..

She looked up at her father in annoyance. "Well? Where are they?"

"Downstairs."

"Oh, jeeze. Too lazy to bring them up to me, Daddy?" she said, her voice
dripping with venom. He felt his heat rising again, but sought to
control it quickly.

"I need to speak with you and Akane. Now go downstairs and wait for me."

Nabiki turned to go back to her room. "Come on. I don't have time for
you." The door shut loudly on his face.

Soun growled. After a moment of though, he nodded to himself.

He buried his fist through the door causing splinter to fly out the
other side. Nabiki shrieked in fright and he ripped the door off of his
fist, in the process ripping it out of it hinges. "What the hell are you
doing?"

He entered the room, careful not to step on the notes or cd's strung on
the floor. His tone was very calm. "I ask very little of your time
Nabiki. Now I think you owe it to me to hear what I have to say once in
a while." He walked over to her place on the bed. "I think its not too
much to ask, what with everything I let you get by with."

She swallowed heavy. She would always forget too quickly whoher father
was and what he did, but such reminders were not new to her. "Alright,
Alright, I'm coming. Jeeze." She began gathering some of her notes
together as Soun left the room and the debris.
===

"Akane!" he yelled.

"What?" a muted reply came from down the hall.

"Come downstairs, please!"

"I'm practising!"

"Just for once will you do as I ask!?" he hollered.

After a moment, Akane opened the door to her room down the hall and
stepped out. She was holding a flute while her other hand smoothed her
long hair.

"What is it, Dad?" she said, also sounding less than enthusiastic.

"I need to speak with you two. Please come downstairs."

She pulled her flute apart as she walked back to her room. "All right."

====

A few minutes later, Soun sat across from his two daughters.

"Fiancee`?"

"Yes. An old friend is returning from a training trip with his son, and
I've asked that he come here. He promised our schools would live on no
matter what happened to either of us.. . now with your mother gone, I. .
was bereft of a son to pass the school to. Genma offered his son to me."

"How sexist," Nabiki spat.

"Perhaps. . .I've been too soft on you girls, without your mother to
give you guidance. .I may have been too leniant on you to make up for
it. . .but because of my errors, I have hurt the family. If anything can
be done to fix it, then engaging one of you to Ranma would help us."

"What!?" they chorused.

"I would not steer you as wrong as you think I do, girls. If he's
unacceptable heir, then I'll break it. But he is an old friend who
helped my through time I might not have survived with-out his shoulder
to lean on. Show him respect when he arrives."

"But don't we get some say in who were going to marry?" Akane barked.

"Well, maybe he's good looking, Akane. No need to chew his head off
before he gets here."

"I hate boys."

"You hate everybody."

"Both of you hush."

"Yeah, when are they arriving?"

"His postcard from China said any day now."

"He's Chinese?"

"No. . .he and his father went on a training mission to China, to
further his martial arts skills."

"Oh great. . .he practises martial arts. Whopee," Akane deadpanned.

"What is he like?"
"How old his he?"
"What's he look like?"
"How tall is he?"
"Does he do anything other than martial arts?"

"I don't know."

"Huh?" they chorused again.

"I've never met him."

Silence became deafening as his daughters sat dumbfounded.

====

Ranma bolted down the street, her chest bouncing, annoyingly reminding
her of her condition. Her clothes clinging to her and the fact that she
was soaked through didn't help her disposition much.

Genma furiosly chased, taking cheapshots at Ranma's back when he thought
he could reach, trying to pick him off of her incredible running rate.
Ranma dodged the last swipe with a backflip and rolled into a jumpkick
which plated neatly in his massive shoulder. Genma fell backwards but
stood up quickly.

"I said NO!" Ranma wailed as she struck out a Genma rapidly. Genma
parried slowly, noting how much faster she was when cursed. Ranma scored
with a powerful punch right where the solar plexus should have been.

Genma belly-bucked as a counter and sent Ranma flying into a brick wall
at the end of the street.


Ranma staggered, trying to regain her balance after being imprinted in
the wall behind her, but fell to the blackness quickly. Genma grabbed


her dropped pack, and her, and began that fateful march.

====

Nabiki adjusted her kimono a bit, tugging at the sleeves which seemed
the innappropriate length. Akane could only gawk. "How could you wear
that thing for these bums?"

"Who knows? He might have a bod. Besides, Daddy shut up when I put it
on." Akane nodded at that remark. "Maybe today they'll actually get
here."

"I can't believe you're looking forward to this!" Akane adjusted her
rather small skirt under the table.

"Maybe you need to cheerup." Nabiki said coolly, casting an arrogant
sneer at her sister. Soun returned from the kitche with a kettle, set it
down, and opened the doors to the garden.

"My what a day!" he said with vim.

"LET ME GO!!!"

Everyone turned in the direction of the front door. "That must be them.
Saotome! Hisashiburi!" Soun ran towards the stairs and the front
entrance. Nabiki stood to follow.

Akane merely turned to face down the hall as she watched Nabiki walk
lightly. (Why are they so special?)

"AAA!"

Akane got her answer as her father and sister ran back the way they
came, followed by a huge panda. Akane's jaw dropped, not forgetting to
notice the strugling form slung over its shoulder. "Put me down you
moron! You're scaring them shitless!" A raspy voice called.

"What the hell is this, Daddy?" Genma drew up short as he looked at the
three of them. He set Ranma down in front of them.

"Are you. . ?" Soun asked meekly, pointing at the small girl.

Ranma felt truly small. His father stood like a furry wall behind her,
so she was going to be stuck for a while. She looked up a Soun, who was
quite a tall man, maybe a few inches shorter than the furball behind
her. The short haired girl in the kimono looked large with as wide and
full as the outfit was, and was a head taller than Ranma. The other girl
in the short skirt towered over her, almost as tall as her apparent
father.

She swallowed looking up at every body before saying, "I'm Ranma
Saotome. . .sorry."

Akane reguarded the very short boy who was soaking wet. They must have
been in the rain.

Nabiki was getting the smell of the fur to prove that speculation. She
too looked at Ranma. "He is cute," she said mockingly.

"At last you're here, Ranma!" He grabbed her in a hug, double checked
what was poking his abs, pushed away from Ranma and passed out.

=====

Akane knelt down beside her father where he passed out and began fanning
his face with her hands. Nabiki, was giving Ranma dirty looks. "Some
fiancee`. . ."

The panda growled, shaking the hardwood floor. Ranma simply looked
depressed as she knelt beside him too.

Akane wasn't impressed. "So what's your story?" Ranma merely sighed and
closed her eyes. Akane swallowed hard. She thought that she was the only
one who could look so depressed. "Hey, it can't be that bad. Where's
your father?"

Ranma merely looked back at the panda. Soun's eye began to flutter, and
he bolted upright screaming. "Ahhh!"

"What's the deal, Daddy? You get us all excited for this?" Nabiki
gestured in Ranma's direction.

"Where is Genma?" he demanded of Ranma, ignoring Nabiki. "He said Ranma
was a boy!"

"Sorry m`bout this. . .," Ranma uttered again. "But. . ."

"But what!?" Soun yelled.

"Knock it off, Dad! Look at her! She's probably seen worse days than
us!" Akane yelled back.

"Yeah, but you think you could tell the difference between a boy and a
girl by this age," Nabiki complained as she walked away.

"Pyscho. . ," Akane breathed at Nabiki.

"And what about this Panda!?" Soun yelled again

"What about it? It's not doing anything. If it was going to hurt us
there wouldn't be too much we could do about it!" Soun seemed to be a
bit mollified at that rebuttle and fell silent. Akane placed her hand on
Ranma's shoulder. "Its not so bad. . .it just that, he over reacts to
stuff like this. Alot."

"Mmmm," Ranma groaned.

"Well, be that way then. Honestly," she spat as she stormed back
upstairs. (Nasty little street cat.)

Ranma didn't bother to look up at her and traded glances with Genma.

Soun seized Ranma suddenly. "If you're Ranma then where is Genma? What
is going on here?" he demanded shaking ranma around by her shirt. Ranma
broke ihs hold with little effort and walked away. "Pop'll tell ya
watcha need ta know," she uttered, pointing at the panda.

Soun slowly turned his head to the Panda who had yet to move since
sitting down. (Well, Hana, please give us strength in your absence.)
"Alright," he started. "go ahead talking."

___________________

Ranma walked into the garden where a Makiwara board was erected. Her
mood lightening, she moved towards it, only to be dissappointed on its
second glance. It had been weather beaten and was decayed. No one had
used it in quite some time. Taking a light punch to its ropes, a great
deal of rotted debris shook free from the post. (What has the old man
done to me now? Jeeze. . .) she continued to lightly smack the board,
loosing herself in thought. (What a run down dump he brought me to.
Dull. Kinda lifeless if ya ask me. dunno why anyone would live here. But
I guess its here we stay. . )

*WHACK*

*WHACK*

(What to do? They're going to find out sooner or later. Yeah. One guy
and two girls?)

*WHACK*

(Well, it probably won't be much of a problem if he was gon ta marry me
off. hmph. Jerk.)

*WHACK*

('Its not so bad. . .') she thought of Akane's soft face trying to
playcate her with those words.

(Sister, you don't know the half of it.)

*CRACK*

The makiwara board disintgrated at Ranma's final blow.


C&C WELCOME--lable mail TO TREVOR please.

Notes: to make it more plausible that a Kasumi wasn't born, I moved
Nabiki and Akane's births up and changed a bit about their biology, as
well as their personality.


Without a nurturing prsence or vitality of Kasumi, would they be as
harsh as the next teenager?

Comment are welcome. If you wish me to further explore this avenue, let
me know.

--
__________________________________________________
|Colliding SYmphonies consists of:               |
|________________________________________________|
|Eimi Nagakawa--of Okinawa, and of Shojo         |
|Trevor J Hamilton--of Fantasy Realm and Fanfics |
|Allan Zilinzik--of dark and depressing human    |
|   nature, and of strong gothics                |
|G.T. Hamilton--of Ranma and Anime Fanfics, and  |
| musics of life and time                        |
|________________________________________________|
|            Home page coming soon               |
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