Previous parts can be found at my website listed below...
I wish to take this moment to thank my pre-readers, Kelly "Skywise"
Schultz, Robert Kevin "Talon" Wible, Louis-Philippe "Phoenix" Giroux,
and Angeline Jacoba... Thanks one and all.
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Change, Grow, To Live
by Shaule Sachs
Part 3
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Version 0.4
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Akane Tendo awoke feeling that something was wrong... what it was
that caused that feeling inside of her, she couldn't say. But the
feeling was there. It didn't to go away as she bathed, dressed, and
finally headed towards the breakfast table. It was there that she got
the first inkling of what was wrong...
Seated around the table was her father, Soun, at the head, her
older sister, Nabiki, to his left, and the eldest Tendo daughter,
Kasumi, was seated on her father's right. Kasumi was serving her father,
first, then Nabiki, a bowl next to Nabiki for Akane, and then for
herself. The fact that Kasumi would start serving before everyone was
present shocked Akane to her core... True, she had just came into the
room and she was running late... But still, what about Ranma?
Where was he? Usually, he was the first one to appear for
breakfast having been up already practicing in the dojo since dawn.
True, it sounded like it had rained last night, and Ranma never was in a
good mood when he got drenched as he watched the stars from a place on
the roof above her room, but to miss breakfast? Ranma miss
breakfast... that was as unusual as Kasumi's serving before Ranma had
come to the table... Unless...
Unless Ranma didn't even wait for her to get ready... It would be
just like that baka to eat and ran off to school for the final exams
without her. He probably didn't even have breakfast here... he must
have gone to Ukyou's for breakfast... Probably laughing with his
'Ucchan' about what a terrible cook she was. And she was going to make
him breakfast this morning but she overslept... and now that...
that... Spatula Girl! had him... Why that baka...
"Akane," Kasumi began. "Are you going to eat your breakfast
before it gets cold?"
"Huh?" Akane stated. She had let her imagination run away with
her... "Sorry, Oneechan," she said sincerely.
During a lull in breakfast, Akane asked, "Where's Ranma?"
It was a simple question to which she expected the answer to be
either 'He's in the dojo' or 'He left early for finals.' Instead, she
got confused faces.
"Ummm...." Kasumi started but her father cut off with, "Who?"
Akane knew her father was not a morning person... She remembered
her mother saying not to disturb her father until he had had, at
least, three cups of coffee in the morning, but still...
So she repeated her question, "Where's Ranma?"
Her father blinked, turned to each of his other daughters, who
shrugged, and repeated his earlier statement, "Who?"
// This is ridiculous // Akane thought.
"Where is Ranma Saotome?" Akane asked calmly, despite her growing
anger, which for Akane was just this side of screaming... Akane noted
the puzzled looks on her two older sisters.
Puzzled, Soun thought a moment, and then replied, "I don't know
of any Ranma Saotome... The only Saotome I know is my old friend,
Genma Saotome..."
Sighing, Akane pressed, "Right, Ranma *Saotome*, Genma
*Saotome's* son..."
"But Akane, dear," Soun began. "My friend Genma doesn't have a
son... or a daughter. ... It was one of the reasons why Nodoka
divorced Genma..."
"But..." Akane began, now more confused than ever.
"The only 'Ranma' *I* know," Nabiki added. "Is Ranma Arashi, who
showed up last week... He and his mother live at the Temple on the
other side of Furinkan High School."
Now it was Akane turn to do her impression of an owl by saying,
"Who? He started school with only a week before finals?"
"Boy, Sis, you must have had a really strange dream last night,"
Nabiki said. "School just began three weeks ago. Finals aren't until
the end of the school year, not the beginning... As to Ranma Arashi,
he is only the best martial artist in Nerima. I'm making a lot of
money getting various girls to sign up for the martial art classes
he teaches after school. Not to mention the pictures..."
Seeing Akane's confused face, Nabiki added, "You remember... when
Ranma Arashi first came to Nerima last week... He commented on
Ryu-sensei's forms... When Ryu-sensei asked if he could do better...
Arashi-san did. Ryu-sensei was so impressed that he made Ranma an
instructor at his dojo and teaching assistant during gym class."
Nabiki giggled and continued, "Kuno-baby couldn't take there was
someone better than him... in the martial arts, so Kuno challenged
him... No one had ever beaten Kuno before Arashi-san showed up..."
"What?" Akane exclaimed... dimly she remembered the incident but
it seemed like a dream to her but she knew that Ranma Saotome was real
and that she lo-- him.... well, she ca-- for him... or something or
other. It sounded just like something Ranma Saotome would do. Ranma
was always showing off... Of course, if she was being honest with
herself Ranma was the best martial artist she knew of. Hesitantly,
Akane asked, "What... What is Ranma Sao... this Ranma Arashi like?"
"Nani?" Nabiki asked suspiciously. "He's in *your* homeroom. You
should know him better than I would..."
As she thought about it, dream-like memories surfaced into her
thought... Ranma Arashi looked just like the Ranma Saotome she thought
she knew... Except Arashi-san had a birthmark on his forehead that
looked kind of like a vertical line about two centimeters long. This
Arashi-san was a confident, honorable, and courageous martial artist,
also just like her Ranma from her dreams, but Arashi-san wasn't as
impulsive as her Ranma was. He wasn't the insulting, perverted,
woman-izing jerk like her Ranma was. Nor did Arashi-san has that
strange curse like Ranma Saotome had.
In her dream, Ranma seemed to attract women from all over. Akane
didn't understand it. She couldn't see herself spending ten years
looking all over Japan for her 'lost-love' like 'Ukyou Kuonji' did. Or
leaving the place of her birth, and going out into the World on her
own like Shampoo did, either. There wasn't a man anywhere that would
cause Akane to do something that crazy...
Akane felt a tug on her sleeve as Nabiki said, "Time to go... You
don't want to be late on a Monday, especially only three weeks into
the semester, do you?
Sighing, Akane replied, "No, Oneechan," and headed for the door
with Nabiki.
[=== End of Part 3 ===]
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