Disclaimer: These characters are not mine. They belong to the wonderful Rumiko Takahashi and her licensees (Viz Communications in North America). This work is strictly for the non-profit enjoyment of fans. No copyright infringement is intended.
 

    "Ranma-kun?"

    Akane looked up from her history essay when she heard her eldest sister calling for her fiance down the hall.  Getting up she stuck her head out the doorway.

    "Sorry Oneechan. He hasn't come back yet."

    Kasumi looked at her sister and saw a little guilt on her face.

    "Another fight Akane?"

    Akane didn't meet her sisters eyes as she replied. "He barged into my room this morning while I was changing. I panicked and hit him out the window. Shampoo barged in after him, he'd been trying to hide from her."

    Kasumi just nodded as the facts matched with the commotion she'd heard and Akane looked unhappy about what happened so shouldn't need a talking too about it. Besides, the window was still whole so it must have been open at the time.

    Akane tried to get off any discussion about her behaviour by changing the subject. "What were you after Ranma for anyway, Onechan?"

    Kasumi pointed to several cardboard boxes at the end of the hall.

    "I was going to ask Ranma if he would put those boxes in the attic for me."

    "I can do that for you."

    Before Kasumi could say otherwise, Akane was down the hall and lugging the boxes towards the hatch that led to the roof.

    Kasumi merely nodded and got the hooked pole which brought the hatch down to where they could fold out the ladder to get up to the attic.

    Akane handled the heavy boxes up into the attic before climbing up herself.

    "Will you be okay with them from there? Just put them over Nabiki's room."

    Akane grunted an affirmative and began to push the boxes through the dust.

    Standing, Akane pulled the string, turning on the unadorned light bulb and  tried to figure out where Nabiki's room was in the house. Looking around the piles she noticed how neat all the piles of items were up here. Large piles of old dusty boxes were arranged to leave large open areas. Then she realised the open areas were above her room, the guest room, the hall way and the bathroom. The patches in the floor and roof made it obvious as to why everything had been arranged such.

    Smothering her anger at herself and her fiancee's blame in those patches, she dragged the cartons over to above her sister room. She looked over the cartons already here, seeing old boxes of cooking equipment and other household appliances they hadn't wanted to toss out. There was one box which was different to the rest. It was an old hard wood chest with a heavy pad lock. She remembered seeing it from time to time but didn't know what was in it. She had a vague feeling it was her fathers but couldn't place why.

    Pushing the new boxes in to make the stacks neat and put her hand down to turn around but stoped as it squished. Her hand had landed straight on, and squashed, a spider.  It didn't stop her reacting.

    "Eeeek!" She dove back trying to fling the remains from her hand, and backed straight into one of the supports with a thud. Followed by an almost imperceptible tink of metal.

    "Akane, are you all right?" Her elder sisters voice called up through the hatch.

    "Yes Kasumi, just a spider surprised me." She called back wiping the remains in her hand against the support beam.

    "Alright little sister."

    Coming back over, she flicked the few spider legs on the floor over to one of the dark corners, suppressing a shudder.

    With a final look around she began to move towards the hatch leading back down stairs. As she moved, a glint of light got her attention, a reflection of metal on the dusty floor. Reaching out, she lifted the large key, her fingers brushing dust from it. Her eyes just seemed to be drawn over to the pile of boxes again, naturally lying the padlock of the old wooden box before drifting back to the key in her hand.

    Hesitantly she moved over to the box and lifted the lock, setting the key in its hole. She turned it gently and gasped despite herself as it unlocked with a clunk.

    With a nervousness she couldn't pin down she began to shuffle the boxes to let her pull the old chest from the pile. Wiping her now dirty hands on her dress without caring she dragged it forward, closer to the light bulb which was the only illumination up in the attic, and unhooked the padlock from where it had held closed the chest for many years.

    Lifting the lid, Akane jumped as it creaked again, before looking into the interior with trepidation at what she would find. There was assorted trophies, gi belts, pictures and scrolls filled the cloth lined chest to nearly the top. On the top rested a photo that brought tears to her eyes as she recognised the individuals.

    It was a photo of her father holding a trophy in one hand and the other around her mothers waist. She was also wearing a gi and holding a much smaller trophy as she kissed him on the cheek. Despite a bruising face, Soun's face was full of pride and love. In the back ground she saw another man in a gi with a medallion around his neck. Despite the lack of girth and dark hair on his head, it was Mr Saotome.

    A couple tears fell from Akane's eyes as she looked at her parents being so happy, even Mr Saotome was smiling broadly.

    Reaching into the box again she brought out the trophy her father had held in the photo. Shuffling the pile around she brought out the large box and opened the flaps fully. The glint had come from an old statue. Pulling it free it of the other items in the box she saw it was a martial artist in gi in a ready pose on top of a wooden pylon. On a gold plaque at the base was:

    Tokyo City Free Style Martial Arts
    1970
    1st Place
    Soun Tendo

    Akane smiled proudly at the though of father being so good back then and reached into the box again, this time she shuffled through the box for her mothers trophy, quickly coming to find it.  She put it beside her fathers.  Both were first place but the size difference pointed out the male division was obviously thought as more important back in the seventies, not that things were that much better these days.

    She continued to dig through the chest, finding a few more trophies, and a couple more photos in frames. Many got her crying again as she saw her mother smiling or just working with her father, but all showed relevance to the martial arts as well. Ones of her parents teaching classes, or just practicing themselves. She even found one of Mr Saotome with a large stack of Dojo signs, had he been a Dojo Destroyer?

    Another shocked her greatly as she found one of her mother teaching a class of young girls, the stance obviously based in Taichi, but what shocked her was she recognised herself, Nabiki, and Kasumi at the back of the class. Kasumi was actually helping her work out the stance. She must have been only four or five. She put this one to one side to take with her.

    The last photo she brought out showed her Mother and Father, smiling proudly in clean gi before the Dojo doors. Between them was the Tendo Dojo sign that had resided in the front of her house for as long as she remembered. Her smile cracked slightly as the image of her parents faded, replaced by her and Ranma, holding a sign for the Saotome Tendo Dojo between them.

    For a moment she was torn between suppressing the image and holding it, recalling how weeks ago the failed wedding had set back any dreams of such an image happening any time soon. But slowly her vision changed, now it showed the Tendo Saotome Dojo and Ranma stood at her side in girl form.

    'More likely with that baka.' She thought quickly but the anger passed quickly when she recalled how Ranma had missed up or even destroyed his chances at cures, generally because he was busy saving her.

    Placing the photo with the one of her and her sisters training, she continued to sift through the contents of the chest, finding documents and certificates among belts and other momentos.

    "Akane? Are you all right?"

    "Huh? Oh, sorry Kasumi. I've just been looking through some old stuff."

    "Alright Akane. It was just you've been up there several hours. Dinner will be ready soon."

    "Okay Oneechan, I'll be down soon."

    She began to pack everything away, then unpack again as she found it wouldn't all fit back in. Finally she managed to get it back into a resemblance at the order she had found it in. She kept the two photos of her sisters in her mothers class, and her parents opening the dojo, wanting to get them copied to have them herself.

    Closing the lid, she again found it wouldn't shut. Suppressing a scream of frustration, she opened it again to look at what held it open this time. It wasn't the contents, it was part of the lining of the lid had been pulled loose, probably by a trophy from one of her attempts to fit everything in. Pushing it into place to close the lid failed so she decided to push it inside between the lid and the rest of the lining. As she did so she was surprised to feel soft leather instead of wood.

    Looking closer, and with a little more lining being torn from it's mounts, she drew out a leather satchel. Hesitantly she sat it in her lap and began working old brass buckles holding it shut. Inside were more documents, but these where something she had never thought existed. Advanced techniques of the Tendo clan. Slowly, with gentle touches, she began to looked through them, seeing that they included techniques she knew her father used, and others he didn't.

    She found scrolls on armour techniques, weapons, bare handed defenses, even chi control and others she didn't understand in the pile.  Quickly tucking in the lining, she closed the lid and replaced the lock to where is had been for over a decade. She put it with the other boxes, keeping the key, and moved to take the satchel and two photos with her as she left.

    *****

    Akane entered the dining room still dusty, having been reading through the scrolls rather than having a bath, and just came in as her family, the Saotomes', and even Happosai were about to dig in.

    "Oh Akane, your so dusty. Didn't you get changed?"

    "Ah, sorry Kasumi, I... got distracted." Akane suddenly found she didn't want to admit to what she had found, self-conscious at having been looking through the locked chest without permission.

    Dinner passed easily, with Ranma losing the food battle with his father, his attention dividing to the quiet Akane.

    As they all finished and thanked Kasumi for the wonderful meal, Akane looked over to her father as he and Genma moved for their game board. "Dad, can you tell me how good a martial artist Mother was?"

    Soun, Nabiki and Kasumi all stared straight at her in surprise, a reaction she expected in asking the question. Talking about their late mother wasn't something often done in the household. Surprisingly, before Soun had a chance to begin crying in the pain of grief he felt still, the aged master of anything goes answered her.

    "Ah, one of my greatest students, she was..."

    "SHE WAS NEVER YOUR STUDENT!" Soun Tendo's out burst wasn't from his Demon head but it cowered everyone in the room anyway.

    Even Happosai took a step back nervously before regaining his composure. "Only cause you didn't do your job. She was sweet on you and you were supposed to seduce her to joining the school. But nooo, you had to marry her and turn you back on your duty to the school..."

    Again Soun interrupted, this time with a back hand that Happosai blocked only to be punched in the head with a left hook. "I NEVER FAILED THE SCHOOL! You failed the school and you brought us dishonour. It was only through Kimiko's efforts that the school has any reputation today!"

    Happosai turned from the angry man, to the audience of the sisters' and Saotomes'. "She never understood our ways, she was always so proud of her techniques. She wouldn't share more than the basics."

    The old man dodged nimbly from another strike from Soun. Twisting he landed a few feet away and faced him. "All right Soun, I think it's time the girls are shown their mothers school. You go get the scrolls and we can all begin training the girls to their heritage."

    Soun turned from the old man to sit back down before the shogi board. "There are no scrolls."

    Ranma may not have been as quick as some, but he noticed from the corner of his eye the way Nabiki and Kasumi narrowed their gazes on their father. Did they think he was lying?

    Happosai saw the disbelief on the face of the youngest Tendo girl, her eyes glancing upstairs for a moment before looking back at her father. His grin widened as he realised she must know where they are.

    "Oh, damn!" he said in a disappointed voice, his smile may have vanished but no one watching his face really believed him. "Those techniques were my only hope for dear Akane. Now she has no chance to be a real martial artist."

    Akane looked at him with devastated eyes before anger dawned in her eyes, growing hastily to boiling point as he turned to face her still speaking. "May as well hang it up Akane. Don't worry, with those hips you can just pump out a few kids while my true heir runs the school."

    Akane snapped off the table leg and began hunting the wretched little turd. He continued taunting her as she swiped at him with the wooden club over and over. He was clearing her blows with ease for several strikes before he was shoved from behind by a hand going faster than they eye could see and she brained him thoroughly with the leg rolling him away. He had no opportunity to recover as she leapt the table and booted him out the door and over the neighbourhood.

    Soun was still ignoring things though Ranma and Nodoka clapped and Genma gave a smiling nod. Only Genma had seen Ranma interfere in Akane's favour, Akane having been too stuck in her tunnel vision of anger to have spotted it.

    Akane just turned and ran up stairs with tears in her eyes and determination in her jaw. She'd show them all how good she could be.

    *****

    Ranma and Nodoka sat down on the rocks surrounding the pond, each holding a cup of hot tea and ignoring the cooling autumn night air. A slight breeze didn't disturb them as it blew a few more leaves from the trees to the yard.

    Nodoka looked at her son as she took a sip on her tea. He had grown into a man she was very proud of. He had his faults, but he was a good child and more than she had expected to get back from entrusting him to her husband. She regretted greatly the promise of him to be 'man among men' that had kept them apart for so long, and even now with her knowing of his curse, he was still distant. She no longer wanted him to be a man for her, she wanted her son back.

    "Ranma-chan, may I ask you if you think Akane is a good martial artist?"

    Ranma looked up at his mother and stifled words already coming to his
 

    Trent O'Donoghue

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