By: EJ

Chapter I:

How It Happened *Prelude*

*a/n this part of the story take place when Ranma and Akane are about 20

Nerima

“RANMA NO BAKA!!” Akane Tendo chased after her fiancée with her mallet.

Ranma Saotome paid no heed to her as he ran, jumping from roof top to roof top. *there is no way, no how I’m going to do that*

Ranma ran into the dojo where Akane caught up to him and cornered him.

“Ranma Saotome, don’t you dare run now!” Akane’s voice was in a tone that Ranma knew would promise much pain if he moved, “I need your help. The wedding is in a week and there are things to be done. I don’t care how boring it is, you’re going to help me, so just SIT DOWN.”

“You are so un-cute when you yell.”

“And you need new insults,” Akane said as she sat down beside him and brought out her wedding lists.

“Oh and ‘Ranma no baka’ is really original”

The two of them bickered back and forth like this for about an hour until they were interrupted by a stranger.

“Sumimasen, but this is the ‘Tendo Anything Goes Martial Arts Dojo’ right?” the young women asked. She was about the same age as Akane, with shoulder length brown hair, and green eyes. She was wearing a black training uniform with a tiger crest.

“Yes it is. Can I help you?” Akane asked standing up.

The girl narrower her eyes as if trying to figure something out “Well I’ll be damned! Akane Tendo!” she exclaimed.

A very confused Akane asked “Do I know you?”

“You probably don’t remember me. The last time we saw each other we were playing marital arts with are Barbie’s in the sandbox”. The girl laughed.

“EJ Sarujintsu!” Akane ran over and gave the stranger a hug, “it’s been so long,” she said as she pulled away from the hug.

EJ then looked over towards Ranma, “This must be the Saotome boy my father told me about.”

It was Ranma’s turn to be confused. He was positive he had never seen or heard about this girl in his life.

“Ranma this is my friend Erin-Jianu Sarujintsu. I haven’t seen her sense we were 5,” Akane then turned to EJ, “how do you know about Ranma?”

“Actually that is why I’m here,” EJ was about to go on when Kasumi Tendo/Tofu walked in with a baby, “Oh EJ, he is just so precise,” She handed EJ the baby boy, “I think he’s a bit hungry but I couldn’t find his formula and I don’t know what he can and can’t eat.”

“That’s ok Kasumi. Akane, Ranma, I would like to introduce my son, Yukio”.

“Your son?” Akane asked, “I didn’t know you had gotten married. Did your husband come with you?”

“I’m not married”, EJ saw the surprised look on everyone’s face and laughed, “I’ll explain when I can see everybody. Kusumi, do you know when your father and Mr. Saotome will be back?”

“They should be back in time for dinner. Why don’t you stay?”

EJ shook her head in protest, “I’d love to but I can’t. I need to find a place for Yukio and I stay for a couple of nights. I’ll come back later.”

It was Akane’s turn to protest, “Oh no you don’t. You don’t just come here and leave. You’re staying with us and I won’t let you say no.”

“I don’t want to impose. I know your wedding is coming up and I don’t want to be in the way.”

Ranma butted in, “You might as well give up and stay, Akane is stubborn as in Ox.”

“I’ll choose to ignore that last comment Ranma,” Akane said as she glared at him and turned back to her friend, “and he is right, I am stubborn. Please say you will”

Yukio then gave a happy little squeal. EJ laughed, “I guess I’m out numbered,” she assured them, ”It will only be for tonight.”

#@#@#@#

“What happened to Yukio’s father?” Akane asked as she and EJ set the table for dinner that night.

EJ look over to the baby with a sad face, “his mother died from a fever after giving birth to him. I met his father while training. I was staying in their village and became quit good friends with him. Anyway, to make a long story short he soon died from the same thing that killed his wife, and before he died he asked me to take li’Yukio, because him and his wife had no family of there own in the village.”

“How sad”, Akane said sympathetically.

“But its fine”, EJ gave a small smile and sat down beside Akane at the table, “I plan on training him like my father trained me”.

Mr. Tendo and Mr. Saotome were quite shocked when they came home to find their old friend Shou Sarujintsu’s only daughter was staying at the dojo for the night.

“What brings you back to Nerima EJ?” asked Mr. Tendo as he; Ranma, Mrs. & Mr. Saotome, Kasumi, and Nabiki sat down to dinner. Kasumi and Nabiki were both visiting because of the wedding.

“I heard about the wedding and decided to stop in to say hello and to discus with you and your family about your packet between you, Mr. Saotome, and my father.” EJ answered as she fed little Yukio some soup.

Mr. Tendo and Mr. Saotome both turned a slight shade of green.

“What packet?” asked Mrs. Saotome.

“The one about my being one of heirs to the dojo.”

Everybody stopped eating. Ranma and Akane looked at each other making sure they both heard correctly then looked towards their fathers. Mr. Tendo began to turn a darker shade of green.

“Umm...EJ? I hate to ask this question again, but what packet?” asked a very confused Ranma.

“You haven’t told them about the packet?!? Father assured me you had”, EJ looked a little panicked. She never imagined that they didn’t know.

Mr. Tendo tried to get a hold of him self, “The packet was made, but under the circumstances a decision had to be made.”

“Once again, WHAT PACKET?!?!”

EJ turn away from feeding the baby and looked at Mr. Tendo calmly, “Should you tell them or should I?”

“I think you should, because I have no idea of how that old packet is relevant now.”

EJ handed the baby spoon to Kasumi and sat there for a minute to trying to figure out what she was going to say.

“About twenty-four years ago, my late father, Mr. Saotome and Mr. Tendo were on a training expedition. Our fathers trained together until the three of them were each engaged to be married. On this last training session Mr. Tendo told his friends about his plans for the dojo. He wanted to his dojo to obviously go to one of his children, should he have any, but he wanted to make sure there was an heir after that and so on. Mr. Tendo then proposed to my father and Mr. Saotome that an arranged marriage should take place between his family and one of theirs. Because none of the men had children yet the plan was a Tendo child would marry one of the Sarujintsu children, and if they were of the same sex a Tendo child would then marry a Saotome child,” EJ took a sip of water and a deep breath before continuing, “Anyway, a few years went by, Mr. Tendo already had two daughters and was expecting another child and assumed he was finally going to have a boy. Both Mr. Saotome and my father were expecting their first child. Mr. Saotome assumed he was to have a boy. That left my father. He knew he was going to have girl. Since it made sense that the arranged marriage should take place between two children who were relatively the same age Mr. Tendo and my father arranged marriage between me and his unborn child. The Saotome baby was born, and obviously it was a boy, a few months later I was born and obviously a girl. Mr. Tendo and my father continued to make plans and even made a contracted stating that I was one of the heirs. A few weeks later the Tendo baby was born. And to the surprise of our parents it was a girl. Our parents didn’t know what to do, they couldn’t force two girls to marry”, Ranma gave a short laugh to this one and Akane smacked him one upside the head, “So our fathers got together and came to and understanding, Ranma would marry one of the Tendo girls but should anything happen to all of them, him and I were to marry and take over the dojo,” Ranma was thinking *dear God not another psychopathic Fiancée!* EJ laughed at the look of horror on the married-couple-to-be’s faces, “don’t worry you two, I fully intend to see that you two get married and no Akane I don’t want to share him. Where was I? Oh yes, I remember. Mr. Tendo assured my father that I was still one of the heirs, but I just wasn’t going to marry in directly.”

Everyone was silent and turned to Mr. Tendo. Mr. Tendo cleared his voice and spoke up, “see a decision was made. So what is it that you want discussed?”

“Well actually this is where Yukio comes in,” EJ said taking the baby boy and setting him on her lap.

“The other arrangement was that when your two families got married that their heir would marry one of my children, providing there were any children and they weren’t the same sex.”

“It’s kind of ironic Akane. First you’re engaged to a girl, and now you’re engaged to a guy who turns into a girl.”

“Shut up Nabiki,” Ranma growled.

“What?” asked EJ as she picked up the baby spoon.

“I’ll explain later”

“You mean to say if Ranma and I have a daughter,” Akane blushed at the thought and continued, “then she would have to marry your son.”

“Yes. I do hate to do this, but it was my dieing fathers wish”.

“HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?!?” shouted Ranma to Mr. Tendo.

“I didn’t know I was going to have all girls!” cried Mr. Tendo.

“I have one more request. Akane, Ranma? Would you be Yukio’s God parents? I’m not forcing this one on you, it’s just encase something happens to me,” murmured EJ. She felt so bad bringing this whole situation on this family.

Ranma and Akane looked at each other and nodded, “we’d love to”, smiled Akane still trying to let this whole thing sink in. Less then week until her wedding and her children’s lives were already planned.

@#@#@

A few days went by and EJ and Yukio left. EJ assured that she and Yukio would be back in a few years to make further arrangements.

@#@#@

Ranma and Akane’s wedding came and went with no mistakes, unless you count Shampoo running in as a cat (it’s not her fault it began to rain just before she got to the church and it mysteriously stopped within seconds()

@#@#@

Almost year later we find are selves at the hospital to find a very nervous Ranma pacing up and down the corridor of the maternity ward.

“Calm down there man. She’ll be fine”, assured his friend Ryoga Hibiki.

“I know she’ll be fine. She always is.” Ranma said still pacing like a tiger in a cage, “it’s just taking to long.”

“I’ve done this already. It always takes this long. Now sit your self down. You’ve been pacing like that for hours now”, laughed Ryoga. He tried to take his friends mind off things by telling him about his first born, about the one on the way and how his wife, Ukyou, and he were handling parenthood.

A nurse walked into the waiting room holding a baby, “Mr. Saotome?”

Ranma stood up.

“Congratulations. It’s a girl!”

End Chapter 1