By: TJ
C&C welcome. I'd be happy to hear what you think.
MST's not welcome.
RYOUGAECHO@ABRAXIS.COM

a Colliding SYmphonies production. . .

Kasumi? Kasumi. . . .never born. . not there to help the family bear the burden of tendo san death.

On that thread. .

Part one
version 2.0

Soun Tendo sat at the living room table and thumbed through the mail, disgusted noises escaping his lips as he rummaged through more bills. The last thing he needed was another payment of some kind to be made. Then he saw it. A post card with unintelligible kanji on its 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 quaking as he finished reading the scrawled words from his old friend's hand. "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 it was, it was terribly empty. There was a large, low table, a liquor cabinet in a corner, and a TV on the wall. . .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 brief 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 too 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 myself I wouldn't dwell on it again.) He left the kitchen and headed upstairs.

He regarded the dirty wooden door. "Nabiki!" he called 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 slammed loudly on his face.

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

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

He entered the room, careful not to step on the papers 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 it's not too much to ask, what with everything I let you get by with."

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

===

"Akane!"

"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, her head coming to the top of the door frame. 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 both. Please come downstairs."

She pulled her flute apart as she walked back to her room, her heels hitting the floor soundly. "All right."

===

A few minutes later, Soun sat across from his two daughters at the living room table. Though both were kneeling, Nabiki's head barely passed Akane's shoulders.

"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 lenient 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, leaning forward at the same time.

"I wouldn't steer you as wrong as you think I do, girls. If he's unacceptable heir, then I'll break it. But he's an old friend who helped me through times I might not have survived without 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, her face flushing slightly.

"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," he ordered, the bickering grating his nerves.

"Yeah, when are they arriving?"

"His postcard from China said any day now."

"He's Chinese?" Nabiki asked, her tone darkening a bit. The thought of being engaged to a foreigner. . .

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

"Oh great. . .he practises martial arts. Whopee," Akane dead-panned, though her voice betrayed more interest than she intended.

"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, only to be filled a moment later by a light rainfall.

===

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

Genma, transformed, was running as well, but was slowly losing ground, given the shortness of his panda-legs. Every time he thought he could, he took a swipe at her to try to slow her down from her sprint. After another series of swipes, Ranma evaded the last with a sudden back-flip, and in mid-air changed into a jump kick. She landed neatly on Genma's shoulder at an almost perfect angle, and he slowly fell over like a ten-pin. He rose quickly, however.

"I said NO!" Ranma wailed, striking out at Genma rapidly. Genma parried slowly, noting how much faster she was when cursed, but missed his mark. Ranma scored with a powerful punch right where the solar plexus should have been on a normal target.

Genma was far from normal now. He blinked twice at the fist buried in his gut.

Genma belly-bucked as a counter and sent Ranma flying into a brick wall at the end of the street. She crashed into it back first, causing the wall to fracture a bit.

Ranma staggered, trying to regain her balance after being imprinted in the wall behind her, but fell to the blackness quickly. Genma stood over her as the rain began to let up, noting how ragged she looked. He probably looked about the same.

Genma grabbed their dropped packs, and her, and began that fateful march.

===

Nabiki adjusted her kimono a bit, tugging at the sleeves which seemed the inappropriate 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 they'll actually get here today."

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

"Maybe you need to cheer up," Nabiki said coolly, casting an arrogant sneer at her sister. Soun returned from the kitchen 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?)

"AAAHHH!"

Akane got her answer as her father and sister ran back down the hallway, followed by a huge panda.

Akane's jaw dropped, not forgetting to notice the struggling 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, who stopped her wriggling.

"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 centimeters shorter than the fur ball behind her. The short haired girl in the kimono looked large and quite full figured, even with the kimono, and was an entire head taller. The other girl in the short skirt towered over her, almost as tall as her apparent father.

She gulped. Then looking up, she said,"I'm Ranma Saotome. . .sorry."

Akane regarded the very short boy who was soaking wet. They must have been in the rain. Even though he was wet, his clothes were several sizes too large. They looked like they'd fit her better.

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 with its resonance. Ranma simply looked depressed as she knelt beside Soun as well.

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 eyes 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!?"

"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.

"Psycho. . ," 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 rebuttal and fell silent. Akane placed her hand on Ranma's shoulder. "It's not so bad. . .it's just that, he over reacts to stuff like this. Alot."

"Mmmm," Ranma groaned, sinking deeper.

"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 his 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. Start talking."

The panda coughed into its paw briefly.

"arhem." ___________________

Ranma walked into the garden where a Makiwara board was erected. Her mood lightening, she moved towards it, only to be disappointed on her second glance. It had been weather beaten and was thoroughly decayed. No one had used it in quite some time, evidently. Throwing 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 it's 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*

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

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

*CRACK*

The makiwara board disintegrated at Ranma's final blow.

===

Next part is 2 _ C&C WELCOME _

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. So if you're not happy about the difference in character, I'm sorry, but as the tag says 'alternate reality.'

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

Comment are welcome.

A Colliding SYmphonies production --

RYOUGAECHO@ABRAXIS.COM