Disclaimer: These characters are not mine. They belong to the wonderful Romiko 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 Saves Kimiko (working title) Part 1 A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic by TeW Last Update: 2002-06-10 Status: Draft =================================== "We're home!" Kimiko called out. Predictably, Soun dashed into the entryway and swept her up in a hug. He could be *so* affectionate, though this time it probably had more to do with their being two hours late. "Honey, I was so worried about you." "I'm sorry Soun. We had a near-miss with a car and stopped at a tea shop to calm down and thank the young man that saved us." Akane made herself known by tugging on their legs. "I want a hug." Soun bent down and gave his youngest a gentle hug. "Daddy, we saw a neat boy who saved me and was fast and he said I'm a tomboy but he likes tomboys and he's going to show me his girlfriend when I'm older and he's magical 'cause he's got curse and I really think he's neat." Akane babbled. "Umm..." Soun said. "Akane dear, I'd like to have some grownup talk with your Daddy. Why don't you go wash up?" Kimiko said. Akane nodded and ran off. "What was all that?" Soun asked. "Oddly enough everything she said is true." Kimiko said. "Let's go sit down, this might take a while." * * * * Soun looked down at the table, where two coins sat. One was dated eight years from now, the other ten years. "So Akane ran out in the street chasing a butterfly and this boy saved her from getting hit by a car?" "That's right. He even saved the butterfly. It was...close Soun-chan. He said I would have saved her if he hadn't, he *did* pull me back from going after her, but I don't see how I could have saved her in time." "But..." "He was *fast* Soun. I saw him on the opposite side of the street, he was wearing a red shirt with a big wet spot on the chest, and I was wondering what had caused it. Then Akane pulled out of my hand and he *blured* he moved so fast. He grabbed Akane and pulled me back and this car went by going way too fast and I..." Kimiko swallowed hard. "It was *so* close Soun." "But these coins, the bit about the future, and his curse...." Soun said. "Sounds unbelievable doesn't it? I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it myself. There's more too. He said that if he hadn't shown up I would have saved Akane, but would have been killed by the car myself." "How could he know that?" Kimiko waved at the coins. "He *knew* Soun. He was from the future." "So this boy comes back into the past and risks his life to save you and Akane. Why? Why would he do that?" Kimiko smirked a little. She'd been saving this for the end. "Other than his being a kind and honorable young man, he didn't want to see his future Mother-in-Law get killed." Soun's jaw dropped. Kimiko reached forward and closed it gently. "His name is Ranma Saotome. In his future he was engaged to Akane, and I was dead. He said...he said you all needed me to stay." "He was right. We do need you." Soun said, tears in his eyes. They sat staring at each other for a moment. "Are there any other little surprises you're saving?" Soun asked. "Well...I think I know where that wet spot on his shirt came from." Soun just raised his eyebrows at her. "After he pulled us back Akane was scared. She clung to him and cried on his chest. I was still recovering myself, but I heard him mutter 'great, now she gets the other side.' I think his fiancee must have been crying on him." Soun worked that around in his head. "Well, I guess he'll be a good match for Akane then." "Before he went back he asked us to help his mother. You know Genma took little Ranma away a few months ago. She'll be lonely. We could help her by asking her to take care of the girls for a day or two." "Oh? Soun said in a low voice. What did you have in mind?" Kimiko smiled and came around to sit on his lap. "I was thinking we'd see if she could take them tonight while we headed out to that little hot spring we spent our honeymoon at." Soun wrapped his arms around his wife. "Sounds good, let's call her right away." * * * * "Bye, Ukyou!" Ranma waved from his seat on the top of the food cart." Ukyou yelled something back, but he couldn't really hear it with all the noise the cart was making. It almost sound like 'stop you jackass'. * * * * Akane hugged the manga to her. She'd never known there were stories about people who traveled back in time! Her big sister Kasumi had seen it and bought if for her, and her sister Nabiki had helped her read some of the words. A girl who could travel in time when she was in a fire. Just like Ranma traveled in time to save her. She couldn't wait to show her friend Yuka the story. * * * * "No dad! Please don't put me back in there with those cats!" Ranma cried. "Hush, boy. Be a man about it. Complaining about a little training is something a girl would do." * * * * Akane fingered her copy of "Time Enough for Love", which she'd just finished reading. She'd had a facination for time-travel stories since she was a little girl. Probably because she *knew* time travel was possible. She resolutely put the book back in the bookshelf and went over to her desk. The book had been good, but had taken a long time to read. Time she should have spent studying for finals. She surpressed a little shiver of excitement. This was her last year in grade school, and she was really looking forward to going to junior high. But first she had to pass all her finals. She sat at her desk and pulled out her books. She was still hard had it when her mother called her down for dinner. * * * * "Akane are you sure?" Soun asked. "Yes, daddy. I *really* think I'm ready." "Very well, show me your Kata." Soun had to agree that she was good. She might very well be ready for her black belt in Kempo. He'd have to arrange for a test, though that might cause some problems as well. Old master Sato was prepairing a class for thier black-belt test, maybe it would be best if he had her join them. There could be no worry of him favoring his daughter then. Soun called out a few more moves, then ran through some of the more formal attack and defense moves. She did well even in those, though they were not her strong point. "Very good daughter. I agree that you are about ready for the test. However, I think I will arrange for another master to test you, just to make sure I don't go too easy on you." Akane blew out her breath. "Like you've ever gone easy on me." Soun laughed at her naitivity. Still, she was only thirteen, he'd been just as bad at that age. "So tell me daughter, why your sudden decision to try for your blackbelt?" "I...well, I'll be sixteen pretty soon." "In two and a half years." Soun agreed. "I just thought it was time I got myself ready for..." His daughter's voice faded out and she looked down with a blush. "Ah, you want to be ready for Ranma when he comes?" Soun tried to keep the amuzement out of his voice. "I was talking to Auntie, and she showed me some pictures she just got and a letter." "I see. You may take the test as soon as I can arrange it. You may also join my advanced course after that, if you promise to work hard." Akane squealed and gave him a hug. "Thank you daddy!" Soun stroked his daughters hair and hoped that her obsession with Ranma wouldn't lead to disappointment. * * * * "Ranma Saotome, I challenge you!" "Ryoga? What are you talking about?" "I challenge you to a duel of honor to see who the best fighter really is." "Okay, when?" "Now." "Umm...sorry Ryoga, I've got to get back. Pop said he wanted me home as early as possible today." Ryoga looked confused. "Oh, okay. How about tomorrow morning? Maybe in the lot behind my house?" "Sure! See you there Ryoga." Ranma bounced away with a wave. Ranma thought, he'd never had one of these before. * * * * Yuka waved to Sayuri as she ran off for home. Her parents were having a party for her, celibrating her graduation from junior high. "You want to come over to my place?" Akane asked. "My parents are just planning a nice dinner, and Auntie Saotome's coming over." Yuka caught the note of concern in her friends voice. "No thanks, Akane-chan. My mom and dad said they wanted to talk to me tonight. They're having some old friends over and they want me to dress up." "Yuck. Are we still on for shopping tomorrow?" "You bet! I'll need it after an evening of entertaining my parent's friends. Double yuck." Akane giggled. She also caught Yuka's hand and gave it a squeeze. She squeezed back. Yuka didn't know what she'd do without a friend like Akane. Sayuri too, but Akane had been her friend for a lot longer, and her family had always been willing to help when things got tough at home. She shifted her thoughts to thier upcoming shopping trip. "Hey, Akane? Do you want to hit the bridal store?" "Huh? We always look in the window, or do you mean actually going in?" "Going in. After all, isn't Ranma supposed to be showing up soon?" Akane moved closer and dropped her voice. "I don't know for sure, sometime early next school year I think, so maybe a couple of months. But just because my fiancee's showing up doesn't mean I need to look at wedding dresses!" "So you don't want to go?" Yuka asked with a wicked grin. "Well...maybe just to look around a little." * * * * "This place doesn't look so tough pop." "Come on boy! Follow me." "Oh, Mr. Customers, what you doing?" * * * * "Yuka!" Akane called. "Akane!" Yuka called and ran right into her friends arms. "Yuka? What's wrong?" Akane asked gently. "Was it your parents again?" "Yes! Well, no...Oh Akane, oh how could they!" Akane looked down at the top of her friends head in worry. This wasn't like Yuka at all, her parents must have done something really bad this time. "Tell me what's wrong Yuka. Maybe we can talk to my mom and dad." "*They're* not going to help me this time." She said. "It's partially their fault, and yours too." "What?" "You know that boy Hiroshi? He's always hanging around with that neighbor of Sayuri's." "I know who you mean." "His parents and he came over last night. They brought gifts. *Betrothal* gifts." "Oh...Oh!" You're engaged?" Akane asked. She'd never known anyone besides herself who had an arranged marriage before, at least at their age. "They said they weren't going to tell me until I graduated from high school, but that since you seemed to take your engagement so well, that they thought I would to." "That doesn't make the engagement my fault you know." Akane said sourly. "I-I'm sorry Akane." Yuka said "It's okay. I take it you *don't* want to go to the bridal store today?" "No!" Yuka pulled out of Akane's arms and glared at her. "Okay, where *do* you want to go." Akane asked. Yuka slumped. "I don't know." "Well, if your feeling this bad, there's only one choice...." Yuka looked up at her with a glint in her eye. "Ice cream." They said in unison. * * * * "Suck on that old man!" The redhead girl said to the panda. As soon as she turned away the panda moved up behind her and wacked her across the head with a sign. The panda growled at the bystanders, then froze in shock when he turned back to his currently-female son. A small shape had appeared in her hand, and a glow surrounded her briefly. As the panda watched the whole thing, glow and object, dispeared. "Growf?" After a moment he shrugged and threw the girl over his shoulder, grabbed their packs, and headed for the Tendo dojo. * * * * Akane carefully measured the flour and sugar for the cookies. This was the first time her mother was letting her help with one of her special cookie recipies. Now that she saw how they were made she understood why, they were *complicated*. She wasn't a bad cook like she'd been when she was younger. A few months under Auntie Saotome's stern instruction had changed that. She was still not as careful as she should be, and that was probably why her mother wouldn't normally let her help with this recipie. "Hey mom, why are we making these anyway? You only do this for special occasions." "Well, your father recieved a postcard today." Her mother said. "Yeah?" "Put the bowl down dear." "Sure." Akane said. She put the bowl down and turned toward her mother, a small knot of excitement and worry growing in her stomach. Her mother took her by the shoulders. "It said that Genma Saotome and his son Ranma should arrive today." "Ranma's coming?" Akane heard herself ask. "Yes." Akane stood completely still for a moment. "AhhhIvegottotakeabathandfindmynewdresssorrymomIgottago" Akane dashed out of the kitchen, pausing only long enough to hang up her apron. She would have been rather hurt if she'd seen the way her mother was laughing as she left. * * * * Akane looked at herself in the mirror with a critical eye. She pulled her long hair back and tied it with a ribbon. She smoothed her new dress and checked the way it layed. Not bad. Maybe not great, but not too bad. She hope Ranma liked her like this. He'd said he liked a tomboy, but that didn't mean he didn't like a girl to look nice too. She sighed. She really wanted this engagement to work. She'd been looking forward to being Ranma's fiancee for a long time. Even when all the boys in school were being jerks, she told herself that Ranma would be different. Unfortunately, he liked someone else. When he had rescude her he'd said he'd introduce her to his girlfriend when she got older. The real meaning of that hadn't really hit her until she was much older. Akane looked the mirror image of herself in the eye. She didn't know what was going to happend when he arrived. She didn't know if he'd remember they're earlier meeting, if he'd suddently remember when they reached the time he'd gone back to save her, or if he'd never remember that episode. No matter what he might remember, she was going to give herself the best chance she could. This 'tomboy girlfriend' of his was going to have some serious competition. * * * * Ranma woke up hanging upsided down over the shoulder of a panda. Not all that unusual, but he should be back at the graveyard. He'd asked the mirror to 'take him back' hadn't he? Maybe all the tears had shorted the thing out. Man, that girl couldl cry! He felt his shirt pocket. No mirror, but he was definitely in glrl form. Then he noticed they were passing the place were the Nekohauten should be, and it was just an empty building. Something was wrong. He figured it out as soon as he saw the Tendo house. The patches near the door where Shampoo had made her entrances, the cracks in the wall where Ryoga had impacted it, the newer places where the roof had been repaired after Akane had sent him through it, they were all missing. The house looked to be in as good a shape as when he'd first shown up, maybe even better. Somehow he'd ended up back at his first meeting with the Tendos. His father set him down in the hall facing the people inside. Looking at the scene he wondered if maybe this was some kind of mistake. Things were really different. Mr. Tendo looked the same, but Mrs. Tendo was standing next to him rather than Nabiki, and neither looked afraid. Nabiki herself was nowhere to be seen, there was a cute girl standing with her hands on her hips who looked like...Kasumi? In jeans and a tight sweater? And there was a boy about nine years old who was staring at the Panda. "Hello, Ranma." Mrs. Saotome said. "It's nice to see you again." Then Akane came out of the kitchen with a kettle of water. She was wearing an apron over a nice dress and was wearing her hair long again. "Here you go, Ranma. I hope it's not too hot." Her eyes were bright, but her voice sounded a little shakey. "Umm...thanks." He grabbed the kettle and poured some over his head before handing it to the panda. The Tendos watched the transformations with interest, but didn't seem to be shocked or afraid. Mr. Tendo waved them into the main room. "Come in you two. I'm sorry that Nodoka and Nabiki aren't here. They're at a Kendo match this afternoon. Let me introduce you to everyone else." "My wife Kimiko you've both met of course. This is Kasumi, my oldest, who I'm afraid must leave shortly to catch a train back to university. My youngest daughter Akane, and my son Juku." "Nice to meet you." Ranma said. "It's good to meet your children. I didn't know you'd had a son Tendo." "Yes, Juku was a nice change of pace after three girls." Kimiko answered. "Not to mention a bit of a surprise. In a way it's Nokoka's fault for insisting on watching the girls for us for a long weekend." Kasumi smirked at that, while Akane blushed and looked away. Ranma's face felt hot enough that he was sure he was blushing too. They all sat down the at the table except Akane, who went into the kitchen and brought out tea and cookies. Ranma carefully sampled one of the cookies. "You maded these Akane?" He asked. Akane looked nervious. "Some of them, and I helped with the rest. Do you like them?" "They're...very good." He said. "Do you want to go spar?" Akane asked him. he thought. "Sure, sounds good!" "Okay, I'll go change and we can meet in the dojo. Do you remember the way there?" "Sure." "Okay, see you in a few minutes." Akane disapeared into the kitchen, then reappeared a few seconds later without her apron, gave him a smile, and dashed up the stairs. Genma cleared his throat. "Boy, what's going on? First you act like you know Kimiko, and now Akane seems to think you've been here before." "It's kind of hard to explain pop. This isn't the first time around for me." "Huh?" Mrs. Tendo spoke up. "I can explain Genma. Why don't we let Ranma go spar with Akane." Genma nodded and Ranma greatfully headed for the dojo. He definitely didn't want to try explaining this to pop. * * * He faced off with Akane, determined to take her seriously and equally determined not to hurt her. "Ready?" Akane asked. He nodded. She charged at him and started with a punch that looked like one of her piledrivers, but turned out to be a feint quickly followed up by a roundhouse kick. That took him enough by surprise that he had to slap her angle and duck under to avoid it. She took advantage of the momentum to swing around into anther kick, this one too low to duck and he was forced to jump over it. A few more near misses like this and Ranma finally realized that *this* Akane had a different style than the one he was used to. He jumped back and switched to a mostly defensive fight, studying her style. She was faster and more flexable than before, though not as powerful. Her attitude was different too, she was more exuberant and seemed to be having more fun with the fight. Actually she had a much better foundation for advanced Anything Goes techniques now that she did before. Once he'd analysed her style he stepped in and grabbed one of her kicks, sending her toward the mats by the wall. She surprised him again by rolling out of the throw and coming back at him with a flying kick. He overreacted a little and sent her to the floor harder than he intended. She sat up and raised her hands in defeat. "Whoo! That was quite a workout. Thanks Ranma." Ranma frowned and mentally 'less stanima' to the differences from her old flighting style. "Do you mind if we talk a little? I've got some questions." Akane said. "Sure." Ranma helped her up and they moved to sit against the dojo wall. Akane looked sidelong at him. "So, how much do you remember?" "You mean from saving you or from being here before." Ranma asked. "From being her before." "Pretty much everything. I was here about a year." "Oh." Akane said. She looked down at her hands. "I-I'm sorry Ranma." "Sorry about what?" "You came here and to you we'd been engaged a year and I didn't act much like a fiancee did I?" "You mean you didn't yell or hit me over the head with a table? I guess not, but that's okay." "I hit you?" Akane said, her eyes wide. "Sometimes. You had a bit of a problem with your temper and I don't always watch what I say." "Oh, I guess that explains it." Akane said in a quiet, sad tone. "Huh? Explains what?" Akane perked up immediately. "So, tell me about this girlfriend of yours, the one who's a tomboy too." "Oh, um..." Ranma started. It figured she'd remember that. "Let's see...she's not very cute, except when she smiles, but she's beautiful. Just not...you know...cutsey. She's a horrible cook and not very good at sewing or stuff like that, though I guess she's pretty good at dressing nice." "She does sound a little like me. I'm hopeless at sewing or knitting and it took me *forever* to learn to cook. My mom actually gave up on me, it was your mom who taught me." Akane gave him a weak smile. "So when do I get to meet her?" Ranma swallowed. This could be dangerous. At least this Akane seemed a little calmer than the old one, he might live through this. "Right now, come on." * * * * Genma was beginning to doubt the wisdom of coming to the Tendo's. Not only was Nodoka spending considerable time here, but it seemed his old friend and his wife had gone stark raving mad. "I still don't understand." Genma said. "How could Ranma have saved you without my knowing about it? And why were you on the south end of the island? That's where Ranma and I were when he was six." Kimiko flung up her hands. "I give up. We'll have Akane explain it all later, she's been facinated with the whole idea since we met Ranma and seems to understand it better than the rest of us." "We have other things to discuss anyway." Soun said. "Yes, the engagement." Genma replied, happy to move to a less confusing subject. "So who should it be, Nabiki or Akane?" Soun asked. "Akane." Kimiko said firmly. "She's been expecting to be Ranma's fiancee since that incident we were discussing." "Very well, Akane it is." Soun agreed.. "I'll get something to drink to celibrate." Kimiko said. "That would be wonderfull dear." Soun said. After Kimiko was safely out of earshot Genma decided he had to get Soun's real opinion of all this. "Tell me old friend, what do you think of this story about Ranma saving Akane ten years ago?" "To tell you the truth Genma, I used to be skeptical. They certainly seemed to believe it, and it wasn't doing any harm, so I went along with it. Now though..." "Yes?" "Now that I've seen the curse for myself, and the way Ranma seems to know them and his way around here, I have to believe it. And that is unfortunate." Soun said gravely. "Why 'unfortunate'?" "Because the boy used some treasure of the master's to get to them. We can hope that he simply found some cache Hap...the Master had hidden, but it may be that the master is still alive." "No..." Genma whispered in horror. "I'm afraid so. Your boy may have more information, we will have to talk to him about it soon." * * * * "Ranma? The front door is this way." Akane said, pointing down the hall. "Yep, but we need to go here." "That's the bathroom." "Uh huh." Ranma took Akane into the changing room and in front of the full length mirror that was on one wall. "Akane, meet the tomboy." Akane staired into the mirror. Then turned to him. "Me?" She said in a small voice. "You." "But...you jerk!" She said angrily. "You lied to me, you made me think there was some other girl you liked!" She slapped him, though with so little force he barely felt it. "How could you do that to a little girl!" Ranma hid his grin. There was no doubt his tomboy fiancee was still around. "I was trying to cheer up a little girl who had just had a close call." Ranma said. Akane calmed down some at that. "Jerk." She muttered. "That was the most important day of my life and you were just saying things off the top of your head, weren't you?" "Yeah, well I told you I don't always think before I talk." "Hmph. Well I guess you're not the perfect fiancee I've been dreaming about. But you're cute, and a good martial artist, and I guess I can put up with an engagement." "If I remember correctly, we're not going to have a choice in an hour or so." "Well, there *is* one thing we could do about that." "What?" "Beat them to it." * * * * Juku couldn't find Akane *anywhere*. She wasn't in the dojo with that guy she was always talking about. She wasn't in the yard or her room. Maybe she was washing up after her workout. He opened the door to the changing room. That boy was attacking his sister! He was about to jump in to defend her when he realized that it wasn't a fight. They were *kissing*, yuck. "Hey, mom says it's almost time for dinner." Juku said. The two broke apart quickly and blushed badly. "Uh...sure. Say squirt, don't say anything about this to mom, okay?" He frowned. He didn't like keeping things from mom. "Why?" He asked. "Umm..." "Because we want to tell her ourselves." Ranma said. "Oh, okay. You better hurry." * * * * Akane let our her breath as her little brother closed the door. "What a pain he can be. Was he this bad before?" She asked. "Uh, he's only nine and your mom..." "Oh! We was never born." Akane exclaimed. "I should have realized..." She grabbed Ranma and gave him a warm hug. "It looks like I owe you for my brother's life as well as my Mom's." "It's a martial artists duty to help those in need." Ranma said. Akane let him go and poked him in the nose. "You are entirely too nice for your own good." * * * * Ranma and Akane had just sat down when Kimiko came in from the kitchen. "Nabiki just called. They should be home soon, so I'm going to hold dinner for a few minutes. Akane, maybe you should tell Genma about the situation with Ranma's trip back to save us. I tried to explain it to him, but I'm afraid I was having some difficulties." "Sure mom. What do you want to know uncle?" "I don't really understand any of it. How could Ranma have saved you when he was only six years old?" "Oh, well that Ranma wasn't six years old. He was..." Akane glanced at Ranma for confirmation. "...17, right?" "Yup." Genma just looked more confused. "But the boy is barely sixteen now. How could he have been seventeen ten years ago?" "Hmm...well he couldn't have been normally. Maybe it would make more sense if we described it from Ranma's viewpoint. Interrupt me if I mess up, okay Ranma?" Ranma nodded. "Ranma came here to the dojo, and found that my mother had died when I was young. He was sixteen then, and it was probably today that it happened." Genma interrupted. "But Kimiko is fine." "Mom is fine now, just hold on and I'll get to that. Now Ranma lives here for about a year, so he's seventeen years old. Somehow he gets something magical from the school's Grandmaster that lets him travel back in time." "That Nanban mirror." Ranma said. "Okay, I never knew what it was." Akane said, glancing at him before continuing. "Anyway, Ranma uses this mirror to jump back in time to just before Mom and I were involved in a car accident. The same accident where my mom had been killed saving me." "Now Ranma didn't get any younger when he jumped back. At his point there are two Ranma's at the same time. A six year old Ranma with you, and a seventeen year old Ranma at the place the accident happened. Two different people who are, in some strange way, also the same person." Genma nodded, looking slightly less confused. "The seventeen year old Ranma saves me from the car, and so my mother is not killed. He stayed around long enough to explain to mom who he was and how it happened." Akane paused and slugged Ranma gently on the arm. "He also charms the socks off the little six year old girl he'd just met." Genma was nodding harder now. "I think I undertand, but why does Ranma remember all this? Why isn't he seventeen again? Or twenty-seven." "That I'm less sure about. What I think happened is the mirror or whatever it was tried to take Ranma back to the place he'd come from. Mom said he told it to 'take him back'. But it couldn't. The place Ranma had come from didn't exist any longer because he'd changed too many things. So it took him as far as it could, and somehow combined the seventeen year old Ranma with the now-16 year old Ranma." Ranma hadn't really had a chance to think about all this, but Akane's explaination fit everything he knew about what had happened. It felt right too. He nodded to let Akane know she'd gotten it right, at least as far as he could tell. His father was about to ask another question when someone came in the door. "We're home!" Called Nabiki's voice and she and an older woman walked into the room, both in Kendo garb. "We won!" The girl cried out in an excited voice and ran up to hug Akane. Ranma heard Akane say something to her sister, but didn't really hear it. He was focusing on the woman standing there looking at him. It hadn't been that long to him since he'd seen his mother, and this woman seemed just like when he'd seen her last, except she somehow seemed more alive and vibrant than before. "Ranma? Husband?" The woman said. "Ranma!" She repeated, and hurried over to him. Ranma stood and his mother gathered him into her arms and cryed on his shoulder, repeating "My son, my son" for a few minutes. Then she switched over to his father and did much the same thing. Things were confusing for a time. Nabiki continued to speak excitedly to Akane and her mother about about the match, Nodoka cried on Ranma and Genma some more, and Soun sat watching everything with a big smile on his face. Once his mom had switched her hug exclusively to his father, Ranma sat down next to Soun, who looked over at him thoughtfully. After a moment he leaned over and spoke quietly to Ranma. "So son, tell me. Are you really from the future?" He asked. Ranma had to think about it, he had defintely come from a time past this, but things were so different now. "More or less, Mr. Tendo. Things were pretty different so I guess it's more like I came from a different future." "They're different because you saved Kimiko's life?" Soun asked in a low voice that barely reached Ranma over the general hubbub. "I guess, I haven't really had time to think about it. For me this has all happened pretty fast." "I owe you son." Soun said in a low, but now fierce voice. "More than I can ever replay." "It's a martial artists duty to protect..." Ranma started. "Crap." Soun interrupted him. "A martial artist's duty does *not* include jumping back in time and changing their own future. I--my family--owes you everything." "That's not going to matter in a few minutes, is it?" Ranma asked. "Excuse me?" Soun replied. "The engagement? I'll be part of your family soon. If you really feel you owe me you can hold off announcing the engagement until Akane and I get a chance to tell everyone something. Say after supper?" "I...certainly son." Soun answered, sounding a bit confused. He was about to say something else when Kimiko interrupted. "All right everyone, please sit down and eat, we can continue this after dinner." Kimiko looked over to where his mother was still clinging to his father. "Or after bedtime, as the case may be." There were a few snickers around the table at that, and his mother blushed slightly. "Please, Kimiko, you know me better than that." Nodoka protested. "Yes, I know you Nodoka. But still, I think you can wait that long." Kimiko replied sweetly. Nodoka blushed a bit more at that and there were a few more snickers before Nodoka let go of Genma and sat down with great dignity and with incredibly fine manners, began to eat. Her `wounded pride' act only lasted until she saw how her husband and son were inhaling the food. "Genma! You're eating like an animal!" She scolded. * * * Dinner conversation was mostly taken up by an account of the day Ranma saved Akane as told from three different viewpoints. Ranma blushed more than a little at some of Kimiko's and especially Akane's comments about him. Ranma also gave a very abbreviated summary of his travels with his father, with the emphisis on Ukyou, the Nekoken training, and their time in China. Soun and Nodoka gave Genma some dirty looks at the story about Ukyou, and *everyone* glared at him when Ranma described the Nekoken training. "So you turn into some kind of mindless killing machine when you see a cat?" Nabiki asked. She sounded curious rather than worried or horrified. "It's not as bad as that." Ranma said, looking down at the table. and playing with his pigtail. After a moments silence he continued. "It takes more than just seeing a cat. I've got to be trapped by one or something. Once I go into the Nekoken, I'll only attack if I'm really angry at someone. Just have everyone but Akane stay out of my way." "What about Akane?" Kimiko asked. "Umm...well, she seems to be the only one who can calm me down. If she's not around the only thing that snaps me out of it is triggering my curse." Akane seemed inordinately pleased that she was the one who could handle him in Neko mode. Everyone else was interested in the curse. That, of course, required a demonstration. At least this time it didn't involve being thrown into the pond. After dinner was cleared away and Ranma and Genma were returned to their normal forms, his father looked over at Mr. Tendo and cleared his throat. Mr. Tendo held up his hand to stall him and looked over to Ranma. "Ranma, you had something you wanted to tell us?" He asked. Ranma nodded and opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He had no idea how to bring this up. He looked over at Akane for help. They'd talked about this a little, but it had been more fun kissing her than talking. "Want me to tell them?" Akane asked, giving him a warm smile. Ranma just nodded. Akane flung herself at him and gave him a big hug. "Oh, daddy! Ranma asked me to marry him!" She squealed. Ranma was too distracted by the girl in his arms to pay much attention to the group facefault. === END CHAPTER 1 ===