"You want us to WHAT?!?"
And with those words out of my youngest sister's mouth we all
stared at Father, who had by now begun to sweat under our intense
gaze.
After a long moment of silence, Nabiki finally asked "Care to
explain that one, from the beginning this time?"
Putting on a pained expression Father looked at us all and
said, "A long time ago, just before even Kasumi was born, Saotome
Genma and I made an agreement to unite our two schools of martial
arts by marriage. Err.. even though Ranma isn't a Saotome anymore,
Tsukomo Nodoka is hoping to uphold the honor of her... um...
remaining family and keep the agreement."
"Now I know you are all a bit young for such matters, and I'm
not saying you HAVE to do it, I'm just asking you to... think about
it, for a while. As a future possibility."
With that Akane jumped to her feet and yelled, "No way! No how!
There isn't any way I'm going to marry that... that... boy! That...
that... walking mental institution! Forget it!" The sound of her
stomping off to her room was more felt then heard, and the slam of
her door was eventually followed by a sigh from Father.
Looking down at the table Father muttered, "Just... just think
about it, okay?" and then he also left, headed out to the dojo. I
could already spot the tears running down his face, even at a
distance.
Nabiki and I just sat there, looking at each other, her with a
frown on her face as I could almost watch the quick thinking machine
that her mind was wrap itself around this new wrinkle in our lives.
Getting up myself, I followed the path that Akane had taken and
walked upstairs to my room, gently closing the door behind me.
And what suprised me most about this whole thing was simply the
fact that I wasn't shocked. Somehow I knew things were leading up
to something like this. And as I sat on my bed and thought about it,
all those little conversations with "Antie" Nodoka, all the simple
and innocent questions, suddenly made sense.
She had been planning this all along, from the very beginning.
But why?
And, of course, the answer was plainly obvious.
For Ranma.
Everything that woman did, was for Ranma. She must think that
he might never marry because of his problems, and was using this
agreement between her ex-husband and our father to make ensure her
family's bloodline.
That's so silly though. Ranma should have an easy time finding
someone. He's kind, honest, a might simple at times, but a good boy
all around. All you had to keep in mind was his... oh.
And so armed with the whole picture, at least as I saw it, I sat
down to think. Eventually, I reached out and pulled down a book
from the shelf next to my bed. One of only four that lay there. My
diaries.
Mother, before she passed away, had taught me to keep a diary.
She said that going back and reading your past might help you make
important decisions now, because it brought forward things that you
had forgotten about as time went by. She also told me to start a
new diary for each major change in my life, to keep such things
seperate and in perspective.
Four diaries. One started when I was six years old, my first,
given to me as a present from my mother, Kami bless her memory. The
second one I bought a month after she died, because I had nobody
else to talk to while our whole family suffered. The third on my
first day of Junior High 2 years ago, announcing the first steps toward
my fast approuching adulthood. And I still write into them, all of them.
Usually not more then once or twice a month, but I still do.
The fourth diary... the fourth was a whim. I still don't even
know why I did it. Started the day Tsukomo Nodoka and her son
Ranma showed up on our doorstep just three months ago. Three short
months that I already knew had changed my perspective on things, in
ways I hadn't even thought about, till now.
And so I laid back on my bed...
And opened this piece of my life...
And began to read.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Diary of a Mature Child
Prelude
written: 1/28/2001
Okay, I told everyone that I would never continue, nor do
anything with, the short scene "A Child's Prayer" that I posted on
the FFML a couple weeks ago. I was just getting an relentless
idea out of my mind, and that was going to be the end of it.
I was, of course, very wrong.
This alternate timeline takes place about 4 years after the
original scene portrayed in "A Child's Prayer" but is a continuation
(somewhat) of it. Hopefully, this short series will be finished
quickly as I'd really like to get back to work on my original
projects that I started over half a year ago.
And, of course, this was not written for profit and all
character's of note are owned by Rumiko Takahashi. Also, since I am
still new to writing, any C&C will be gladly accepted.
--- Tabyk (tknight@europa.com) (http://home.dal.net/tabyk)