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           MANCHUKUO'S FEMME FATALE: KAWASHIMA AKANE
     
     by: Adrian Wong

A tragic Ranma fan fiction / historical drama regarding the
Japanese invasion of China during World War II, and Kawashima
Yoshiko's (now played by Akane) involvements in these blood
stained pages of history.  

Special thanks to Gary Kleppe, my loyal proofreader who helped in making
this fiction more or less grammatically correct. :-)

Note: All major characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi.  All
deceiving schemes and slaughters
that China had suffered through in this fan fiction were obtained
from history books in libraries. 
Hopefully, this piece of work
can teach people of all nationalities the horrors of war.  

Major Characters: 

Akane (Kawashima Yoshiko)

Soun (Prince Su)

Genma (Mr. Kawashima)

Ranma (Lieutenant Amakasu)

Herb (Genzu Zabu)

Ryoga (the boy in the Chinese circus)

The principal (Commander Tanaka) 

Mu Tsu (The last Chinese emperor)

Xian Pu (The last Chinese empress)

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                          B O O K    2

                       C h a p t e r    1

     1913, two years after the overthrown of the Manchu Dynasty.

     "I am Chinese, not Japanese!"

     The tomboyish little girl pouted, tearing at the white
kimono strapped to her body by a thick, red belt that was tied up
at her back.

     "Princess Scarlet, please behave yourself!"  The head of the
maids begged as she struggled to stop the child from tearing the
kimono.  The little girl was strong for her age.

     Little Princess Scarlet continued to thrash around.  She was
still as clueless as a sheep.  But deep down inside, perhaps she
could sense the painful path that would come with this foreign
dress.  The child continued to struggle, against the red belt
tying in her kimono, against fate.

     "I don't like this dress, Mommy!  It's . . . weird!"

     "Please, Scarlet, behave yourself."  The mother of the
little girl chided gently, and the child grudgingly obeyed.  The
woman led the little princess to her father's room.

     He was Prince Su Soun (I know that Soun is a Japanese name,
but bear with it for the sake of the story. . . please?), the
head of this huge family.  Had the Ching Dynasty not been
overthrown by the Chinese National Government, the Su family
would have been the closest to the Chinese Emperor's bloodline.  
He kept his hair long, and had a mustache on his dignified face. 
The man saw the little girl and smiled.

     "Come here, Scarlet."

     The little girl step up to him, sulking a little.  Soun
smiled.  Of all his children, Scarlet was certainly the one with
the strongest drive and fighting spirit.  He knew his decision
was the right one.

     Or he thought he knew.

     "Scarlet, you do look dignified in this kimono."  The man
looked at his daughter, smiling a bit sadly.  "You will need to
be as strong and capable as you can be Scarlet."

     "Why, daddy?"  The child asked, clueless.

     "Because from this day on, you will be carrying the lifelong
responsibility of reviving the Ching Dynasty."  Soun said in a
serious tone of voice as the child looked more confused.  "You
are the most capable of all your brothers and sisters, Scarlet. 
That's why I have to send you to a good friend of mine, who will
teach you how to carry out your duty."

     The little girl blinked as her father took out a picture and
showed it to her.  The picture was yellow and dull, showing a
strange new face to the child.  It was a bald, stocky man in his
early forties.  A pair of glasses was on his face, giving him a
scholarly look.

     Kawashima Genma, a member of the Black Dragon Society of
Japan.  A sharp opportunist, this originally penniless man
befriended Prince Su with his big talk about reviving the Ching
dynasty by uniting the Chinese aristocrats, the Mongolians and
the Japanese in getting the empire back from the Chinese
Republics.  The plan appeared to be simple enough: by marrying
Princess Scarlet to the son of the Mongolian General, Babao Zabu,
the Manchu and Mongol bloodlines could be strengthened by their
union.  Together with the outside aid of the Japanese, the Ching
Dynasty could rise once more!

     But was it really THAT simple?

     To Soun, who was feverish in his hope to revive a past
dynasty, it didn't matter as long as his dream could come true. 
As Princess Scarlet was taken away under the care of Genma, the
prince felt no worries for his daughter other than that their
plan might backfire in the last minute.

     So innocent little Princess Scarlet was put under the care
of a Japanese stranger, whom she had to rely on for a long time. 
The man legally made the Chinese Princess his adopted daughter,
by a new name that would eventually shock all of China.

     Kawashima. Akane.

     In Matsumoto, Japan, the little girl was forced to learn
Japanese, which she soon became fluent with.  Day after day,
Genma would lecture Akane about the importance of reviving the
Ching Dynasty, to have the Manchukuo aristocrats stood up in
pride once more . . . all of which imposed a sense of duty but no
sense of morale onto the girl.  

     After what seemed to be a long time, tragic news was
carried to Akane by Genma.

     "Akane . . . there is more bad news, you must be strong ... your father has
just passed away on February 17 at Lushun."   
   
     Akane's dark eyes looked watery as the news hit her, and she
bit down hard on her lower lip.   But that, and the trembling of
her frail body, was about it.  There was no tears, no wailing, no
sobbing . . . not like the time when her mother had passed away.

     After all, her father wouldn't want to see her cry: it was a
sign of immaturity and weakness that Genma had demanded her not to
succumb to.
     
     Genma looked at the growing girl and nodded approvingly. 
"Everybody is waiting for you to grow up and be somebody."

     That's right.  Her father had died, and her foster father
hadn't been able to make much progress in reviving the Ching Dynasty. 
But Akane, she was a blossom before its bloom, a mystery before
its revealing.  She could turn into anything.

     Akane was beginning to mature.  The girl was getting more
and more like a woman as months drifted by like snowflakes.  She
was very competitive in the area of physical abilities, which
could be shown by the fact that she was the only girl who was in
the kempo club at her school.  At first, the coach wouldn't allow
it, saying that women were not meant to be fighters.  He had to
eat his own words when the teenager defeated him right in front of
the whole class within seconds.  The girls all looked at her in
awe as the boys all fell for her "unrestrained and forceful
charisma".  After all, almost no other girl in her era could have
the guts to do half the things that she did to compete with
men.

     Yet like all other girls at that stage of their lives, she
fell in love for the very first time.

     "Yaaahhh!!!!"  A punch that was meant for a boy struck a
tree, snapping it in half.  The boy somersaulted in midair, and
landed lightly behind his attacker.

     "Not bad . . . but still not good nearly enough, tomboy." 
The boy smirked.  He wasn't handsome in the traditional over
six-foot samurai style.  Rather, he was medium build but lean and
well proportioned.  He was no more than seventeen, and had
braided his long hair into a pigtail, which went oddly with his
Lieutenant's uniform. An air of mischief was pasted on his
slightly androgynous face as he looked at the frustration on his
attacker's face.  The ribbon on her waist-length long hair was
shaken off during their fight, and her large, dark eyes were
flashing fire.   Not that he would say it out loud, but she was
really cute when angry, outstanding among all the other timid
females of their time.

     The girl glared at the only boy who could ever beat her in
combat.  "Ranma, you jerk!"  She rushed over to him and began
attacking with a rapid combination of punches and kicks.  Ranma's
agile body dodged them all, and in an unexpected move darted in
to trip up the girl.  The girl landed on her rear.

     "Heh, your reflexes are still too slow."  Ranma smiled.  It
rapidly faded as the girl began to cry.  "Hey, Akane..."

     "Leave me alone, JERK!"  Akane rubbed at her eyes as Ranma
extended a hand to help her up, guilt written all over his face. 
In a fluid motion, Akane grabbed the hand and flung Ranma at a
tree, almost knocking him out.  She leapt up onto his back and
pinned him to the ground.

     "Do you yield?"  she asked with clearly no tears in her
clear and amused eyes.

     "To a tomboy like you?!  I'd rather . . . OUCH!!!"  Akane
began twisting on his arm.  "What was that?"  she asked in a mean
voice.

     "All right!  I yield!  I yield!!"  Ranma yelped, and was
released immediately.  "That was a dirty trick."  He winced as he
straightened out his arm.

     "You're just dumb, jerk."  Akane hmphed as she stood up and
looked down on him.  "How they would let an immature baka like
you to be a Lieutenant of the 50th Inflammatory of Matsumoto is
beyond me."  

     "That isn't the only thing beyond yo- ACK!!"     
     
     Akane's elbow silenced him immediately.  Looking at this
boy, still rubbing his jaw, Akane couldn't help but smile.  Ranma
was strong, a whole lot stronger than her.  The fact that this
powerful, arrogant boy would have to lower his pride and get
beat up by her made the girl feel... powerful, like she was the
master in charge and he the headstrong but subduable slave.  Even
though neither of them would dare to openly admit it, they had been
in love ever since they had first met months ago. 

     Amakasu Ranma, as a lieutenant himself, had once went to one
of those meetings at Kawashima Genma's house to discuss the
political turns of the eastern world.  In a group of men ranging
from middle-aged to downright old, the teenager really stood out
in the meeting.  Akane had been surprised by the fact that he
could be a lieutenant even though they were of the same age, and
asked him about the connections that he had.  The boy had
indignantly replied that it was his skill in all forms of combat,
not any connections, that had earned him his post.  With her
curiosity being risen, Akane challenged the boy to a kempo
match.

     The boy won the match AND her heart within five minutes.

     And as for Akane . . . Well, at least she had won his heart
as well.

     Ranma looked curiously at Akane's smiling face.  As if out
of nowhere, a cute looking lunch pack appeared in Akane's hands. 
Ranma's eyes widened.

     "No . . . not that . . ."
                    
     "I spent an entire morning making these for you, so don't
you dare refuse!"

     Ranma looked at the seriousness on the girl's pretty face,
and resigned himself to his fate.  Opening the lunch pack, he saw
several rice cakes in it.  He gingerly picked up one of them and
took a bite.   An horizontal thunder passed through his head as
he tasted it.

     "It. . . it's. . ."

     Akane leaned forward, expectantly.  "Yes?"

     "It actually tasted NORMAL!  How did you do it?!"
  
     <BAKA!!!>  Akane fumed.  Couldn't he have said that it
tasted GOOD instead?  He really knew nothing about girls.  But
still, it was a compliment, considering how less insulting this
remark was than the one he gave last time regarding her sushi
bars.  A slight smile showed on her face as she looked into
Ranma's eyes.

     "I did it by reminding myself of the bet that we once had."

     "You mean the one about how I said a kitchen disaster like
you will never be any man's wife?"

     Akane gritted her teeth to force down her anger.  "Well?"

     Ranma looked clueless.  "Well what?"
          "Now that I can actually make food that you can admit to
like..."  Akane's face flushed without her knowing it.  Ranma
flushed as well as he realize what Akane was talking about.  "You... you
mean..."  Akane simply turned her head away in her
teenage shyness... something not likely to happen again after
what would happen that night.  She gathered up her courage and
looked him in the eye.  "Ranma, do you think that I will...
make a good woman for a man?"

     Ranma steered himself as he looked at this beautiful
creature in her first flower of youth, his heart soaring with
excitement and happiness.  Kami!  Finally this day had come.  
"Akane, you will make the best woman that a guy like me could ever
hope to have." 

     Akane flung her slender arms onto him and hugged him with
all her strength, which would have strangled a normal man.  "From
this day on, you will be my man, and I your woman."  She
whispered in a voice trembling with happiness.   Ranma responded
by giving her a quick  kiss on her ear.  Finally, their barrier
of pride had been overcome.  

     Even though an infinitely larger barrier would separate them
again as night fell over.


     Akane was smiling as she headed home.  Finally, she knew for
sure that what she had felt for Ranma was mutual, and that he
would be her man from now on.  Not long from now, she would be
making him lunch everyday, making him dinner every night: just
like an ordinary woman would.   The thought itself made her smile
as she headed into the house.

     "Akane!"  Genma's voice called out to her.

     Akane was startled out of her daydreaming.  She saw the
number of shoes at the front door, and immediately knew what was
going on.

     "I'm coming!"    

     As she pushed open the door of the guest room, everybody
turned to her direction.  Obviously, Genma was having another one
of those political meetings again.  She was once again in the
world of men.  Akane bowed to them, displaying her manners.

     A pair of eyes were glued to her face.

     Actually, just about every pair of eyes there with ages
below thirty were glued to her face.  Most of them were from the
Black Dragon Society, a group of Japanese that focused on
solving the Manchu problem and getting the Chinese Emperor to be
in power again.  These men were all dying to have Akane's hand in
marriage.  After all, she was an aristocrat with a noble
bloodline.  Marrying her would guarantee power and wealth. 
Besides, she was attractive in a headstrong and unrestrained sort
of way: the type that Japanese men liked the most. 
               
     However, all of these Japanese men were all destined to lose
to a shy, handsome, Mongolian youth with long white hair tied up
in a high ponytail.
     
     Genma turned to Akane, a smile planted on his face.  "Akane,
don't you remember him?"

     Akane looked hard at his blushing but still handsome face. 
She could have swore that she had seen him somewhere before, even
though she couldn't quite place it. 

     "He is the second son of General Babao Zabu of Mongolia."

     Herb Zabu.

     The shy, cute little boy who was once her classmate in
elementary school.  Both of their fathers were involved in the
same scheme to revive the Ching Dynasty, by their children were
still innocent and oblivious at that point.  Later, he went to a
military school to be trained.  How did he manage to keep his
long hair?

     "There . . . isn't it great to see your childhood friend
again?"  Genma turned to Akane, trying to read her expression.  

     Akane was still smiling politely, but Genma could tell
immediately that it was a bit forced.  The formality of this
reunion was making her suspicious of something more.

     That night, just as Akane finished her bath, Genma called
her to his room.  As usual, whenever he had some outstanding
views regarding the oriental political situation, Akane was his
first listener.

     She was wearing a loose kimono that served as her sleeping
robes.  Genma was looking long and hard at the girl, making her
slightly nervous.
     
     His opening sentence surprised her.  "Akane, have you ever
thought about getting married?"

     "No-"

     "According to the traditions of your country, it is about
time."

     "My country?  You mean . . ."

     "I mean China."

     Akane was startled.  Something wasn't right.  "But I am
Japanese now-"

     Genma cut her off.  "What?!  Do you want to marry a Japanese
man?"

     So THAT was what this talk was all about!  Akane knew about
the "duties" imposed on her that would prevent her from marrying
someone that was less. . . helpful in Genma's plan.  The
innocent, headstrong teenager was no match for the devious, older
man.

     Genma carried his point further.  "Amakasu Ranma?  That boy
is just a commoner lieutenant."

     Akane tried to defend him.  "What do you mean?  He is only
seventeen, and ALREADY he is a lieutenant.  Eventually, he will
even rise to the position of the colonel . . ."

     "THAT will take at least thirty years."  Genma
stated flatly.  "You are going astray, Akane.  Donn't you
remember your duty to revive the Ching Dynasty?

     Akane asked in a weak voice.  "And?"

     "By marrying Herb Zabu, your clan can join forces with the
Mongolians, and regain the Chinese Empire from the Republic of
China."  Genma stood up, drilling his eyes into her.  "THAT is
your duty to Prince Su, your father!"

     Akane was deep in thought.  What should she do?  It was
either her father, who had shipped her here and spent his entire
life in this endless quest, or Ranma, whom she genuinely liked. 
Should she chose duty, or love?  The latter was certainly more
tempting.

     Genma frowned as he looked at the indecisive girl in front
of him.  He couldn't believe it.  The center of his plan was
trying to resist her duties at the most crucial stage of the
plan!!   "Have I not taught you about honor?  About duty?  About
looking at things in the big picture?"

     "But . . ."   

     "Love is NOTHING when compared to the fate of a nation."  He
said.  Akane, still thinking, didn't answer.

     As Akane shifted her position, her lose kimono opened up a
bit, unconsciously showing some cleavage.  At Genma's angle, he
could see the slight curves of her developing body.  Light
flashed in his glasses.  
      
     He was already fifty seven.  Akane was just a maiden of
seventeen.  Even with his teachings implanted into her mind, the
girl was still able to fight them.  She was full of life, and
would probably abandon her empty duties and chose a path of her
own sooner or later, leaving him an old man and a failure.

     And he wouldn't have that.

     She was hesitating because she wouldn't go all out,
because she had wanted to save something precious for her love. 
Genma gritted his teeth.

     If that factor was taken away . . .

     "Virginity is also nothing, when compared to carrying out
your duty!"

     Shocked out of her thoughts, she looked up and saw Genma
rushing over.  Genma was the one who taught her her kempo skills,
and he was naturally more skilled than she was.  Immediately the
lower half of the kimono was ripped open as the girl was pinned
down onto the floorboards.  Akane looked at his bloated, lust
filled face in disbelieve.  Her own adopted father?!  Within a
minute, she was already his woman.

     As he violated the girl that was brought up by himself,
Genma continued to lecture her like he normally would.

     "You are an aristocrat, and I a warrior . . . An aristocrat
cannot rule the world alone . . . neither could a warrior . . .
With our blood mixed together . . . our child . . . will be . . .
a dragon among men . . ."

     Akane continued to stare at his panting face in disbelieve
as the night stretched on.   
          
     The date was October 6, 1924.

     A day in which she had gained her first feel of love in the
afternoon, and lost it by night.

     Had it not been for that night, the world wouldn't have had
a woman who had risen to her peak and dropped to rock bottom all
within twenty years, getting killed at the age of forty-two. 
Trapped in a glamorous but painful dream, in which nothing was in
her control, Akane ended up as a hated demoness, a scapegoat of
the politics of her time.

     Had it not been for that night, she would have turned into
an ordinary housewife.  She would even have lived longer.

     Had it not been for that night . . .

     Before dawn, way after the deed was done, Akane slowly rose
up from the floor that she was left on.  A new, eerie light
shining through her dark eyes as she walked into her room and
began to dress.

     In the morning, a small barber shop in the country side had
just opened for business when a beautiful, heavily dressed Akane
walked into the store.  The traditional kimono, with a large,
flowery ribbon tying up right below her chest, gave her slender
body a very feminine grace.  Her long hair was tied up in a high
bun, with lose strands flowing naturally down her temples.  The
barber greeted her with some vigor.  After all, that barber shop
didn't had a lot of customers.

     Akane handed him a camera.  Standing in front of a bush of
blossoming flowers outside the store, she told him to take a
picture for her.

     "Miss, please give a smile."

     Akane, her face cold yet beautiful, didn't do as she was told.

     FLASH!!

     Facing the mirror of the barber shop, she undid her bun. 
Waves of rich, dark hair flowed down to her back.  The barber
hesitantly picked up his scissors.  "Are you sure that you want
a short hair cut?  Your long hair looks so beautiful"

     Akane nodded as she stared into the mirror from her seat. 
The barber began cutting, turning locks of lively hair into
lifeless waste.

     Akane stared at her image as her hair got shorter and
shorter.  Even if she was a woman, she would be a MAN among
women, with the advantages of both sexes.  She would love and
trust no one, and would never had to be betrayed again. 

     . . . would never have to be ravaged against her will again.
     
     In the afternoon, after he was off duty, Ranma went to the
forest that he and Akane met in daily to spar, a smile on his face.

     The smile vanished as he was almost shocked out of his skin
by the sight that was waiting for him there.

     "Even you can't recognize me anymore."  The boy... no...
girl said, without a hint of emotion.  Wearing a men's white
kimono and  wooden slippers, with a boy's hairstyle, Akane looked
overtly masculine.

     "What happened to your hair?!"

     "I tried giving it a trim and messed up."

     He didn't believe her.
 
     Akane handed a photo to him.  "This is for you to remember
me by."

     Ranma looked at the photo, then back at her.  "What
happened?"

     "Nothing that you could have prevented."  Akane turned and
began to walk away, but Ranma grabbed her hand.  "Akane, tell
me!"  

     "Fine.  I am here just to say one thing: It's over between
us!"

     Ranma felt like he was splashed with ice water.  It's over? 
But it just formally started yesterday!  After just one night,
his girl had turned into a boy, and everything was over.

     "I don't care how much you have changed, Akane, but I won't! 
This is absolutely insane and out of the blue.  I mean . . . even
a war could be more predictable than this..."

     "That's right."  Akane said evenly.  "I am doing this for
the war between the Chinese aristocrats and the Chinese Republic, for
the revival of the Manchukuo.  Compared to them, THIS is
nothing."

     Ranma looked at the determined expression on Akane's face as
his heart ached.  "You are just a girl-"

     "Even a GIRL can be somebody in a time like this!!"  Akane
snapped, losing a bit of her previous cool.  "Just let me be,
Ranma.  This is my destiny, my decision . . . and nobody can stop
me!"

     Ranma was beginning to get angry.  "You stupid tomboy!  Just
because you look and act like a guy doesn't mean that you can
actually be one!  Every ordinary woman wants to settle down, raise
kids, and live out her ordinary lifen happiness.  Why should
you want to be different?!  Why?!"

     Akane looked at the hurting Ranma, forcing herself not to
relent.  She needed to love NO ONE but herself!  "Because I am a
tomboy, and an incurable one at that!  Just go and leave me!!"

     "All this time I had been waiting for you to be my woman..."

     Akane laughed coldly.  "I have no parents, no family, nobody
but myself to rely on.  I will NEVER truly be anybody's woman. 
Even if I die, I will die at MY own hands!"

     Ranma gritted his teeth.  Was that how it was going to be? 
Driven by rage and no longer thinking rationally, he took out his
gun and gave it to her, saying the words that he would have
regretted saying till eternity.

     "Die then!!"

     Akane took the gun and immediately shot herself at the
chest, dark eyes staring coldly at him...

     Ranma was stunned as blood gushed out of her wound, straying
on the white kimono in patterns that reminded him of a blossoming
flower...   He immediately hugged her tight to himself,
frantically trying to stop the bleeding as tears steamed down his
boyish face.

     "I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."  The boy whimpered without
a trace of his usual "manliness".

     Akane's heavily lashed eyes closed ever so slowly as her
consciousness began to slip away.  "I... don't... owe...
you... anymore..."  
     
     As she lost consciousness, her movement caused the "V" shape
of the kimono top to open up, where Ranma saw a scarlet mole
shinning eerily on her blood stained breast: a most intimate
secret that even Genma didn't know about was revealed to him for
the first time.

     She truly didn't owe him anymore.



E n d    C h a p t e r    1        
                                 


Gary Kleppe
kleppe@execpc.com, http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe