I jus' wrote this for fun. I'll probably fix it up since this could be expanded
into a full story. But in the meanwhile, enjoy ^_^
I haven't come up with a title yet. I'll jus'  put somethin' in to make it look
apeallin'..


Jeffrey "OneShot" Wong


Ranma 1/2: A memorable past


     Nabiki was sitting on the bench in the park, her visage sullen. She had
had a terrible day at school today. She felt like she wanted to scream.
Today must have been the worst day in all of her career as a business woman.
She hadn't been able to con a single person out of their hard earned cash.
Not only that, she had lost a large some of money when she found out that
her locker had been broken into. Luckily for her, she always carried some
extra money with her. And to top it off, today was her birthday, and no one
had remembered it. Not even her father.
  "I can't believe I have only 1000 yen" she muttered to herself. This was
the least amount of money she ever held in years. She had always had more
money "I can't even buy a decent meal with this"
  She had contemplated conning Kuno into buying her her meal, but he never
showed up in school today. He must have came down with the flu that has been
floating around. Ranma and Akane had came down with the flu also, the both
of them staying home.
  Nabiki looked at her watch. It was about four now. She should be back at
the house by. Her father would start getting worry if she wouldn't be home
beofore four.
  "Excuse me" came a soft voice.
  Nabiki turned around to face a little girl whose head was no higher that
her waist. The girl looked as cute as a button.
  "Yes?" Nabiki asked. She gazed intently at the little girl. The girl had
short brown hair with a haircut similar to her own except the bangs were
longer. The little girl reminded Nabiki of herself when she was young. That
brought a smile to her lips.
  "Can you please help me?" the little girl asked "I seem to have lost my
wallet" She seemed scared, like she was going to be in trouble.
  Nabiki looked at her watch. She had plenty of time "Sure. What's it look
like"
  "It's completely red, and it has black stuff on it that holds it together"
she said, looking up at Nabiki with pleading eyes, almost at the verge of
tears.
  "You mean velcro?" Nabiki smiled to herself. She remembered she didn't
know what the name of that stuff was until she was older than this girl. She
even remembered once owning a wallet like that. It was her first wallet.
  "Hai" she said.
  Nabiki nodded and started searching around the nearby shrubbery while the
little girl searched some adjacent bushes. As she did this, she smiled to
herself. She remembered when she had lost her wallet when she was young. She
had been very scared. It wasn't the fact that she would never find it, but
of her father thinking she wasn't a big enough girl to give money to.
  Nabiki was on her hands and knees when she spotted the wallet nearby. She
crawled up to it and picked it up. As she was about to tell the little girl
the good news that she found it, a little note fell out.
  Although she shouldn't have looked, Nabiki's curiously got the better of
her, and she read it. It read 'To my darling. Happy birthday'
  Nabiki smiled as she read that. What were the chances that the little
girl's would have the same birthdate as her? It must have been slim. The
note itself seemed a bit strange. She, too, had remembered receiving a note
that resembled this. If was read differently if she remembered correctly.
The note given to her had also came with a 1000 yen bill.
  "I found it" Nabiki said as she slipped the note back into the wallet,
getting off her hadn and knees, handing it to the little girl.
  "Arigato" the little girl said. Nabiki watched as the little girl quickly
looked through it, only to start crying.
  "W-what's the matter?" she asked, a bit concerned.
  "Someone took my money" the girl said between sobs. She looked so sad it
tore at Nabiki's heart. Nabiki had lost her money today, and she felt like
crying. But her will, and her reputation had kept her from doing so. If she
were like this little girls, she would have surely have cried.
  "How much was in there?" Nabiki asked, not really knowing why.
  "1000 yen" the little girl replied, deperately trying to stop the tears
from flowing freely "It was given to me as a present"
  Nabiki came up with an idea "Maybe it fell out of the wallet. I'll go
check the bush again. You wait here"
  She quickly got on her hands and knees and crawled into the bushes, making
sure she was out of the little girl's view. Once she was sure, Nabiki took
out her own wallet and took out her 1000 yen bill. She smiled to herself.
This was the right thing to do.
  "I found it" Nabiki said,  crawling back out and getting to her feet. She
handed it to the little girl as she sqeaked in glee.
  "Arigato" she said "I'll always remember you for your help" she quickly
truned around and ran toward the horizon, disappearing around a corner.
  Nabiki sat down on the bench, a smile on her lips. The gleeful 'thank you'
the little girl had just made her day. It seemed like her day wasn't so bad
afterall. This one scene had brought back memories, memories of when she had
lost her own wallet when she was very young, only to have some nice lady
find it for her. She couldn't really remember how the lady looked like.
  The lady had found her wallet for her, and when Nabiki found out there was
no money, she, too, had started to cry. The lady had told her that the money
might had fallen out, and then crawled into the bushes, only to find the
money.
  After she had given her the wallet, Nabiki had to quickly depart, her
father probably worried sick after she had ran off for look for the wallet.
  The scene that had just played out felt like it had happened to her
before, except she had been that little girl at the time.
  Sighing, Nabiki proceeded toward home.

<End for now>

-OneShot
Jeffrey Keith Wong: oneshot@ascensionet.com
If you're interested in reading all my fanfics, check:
http://www.rit.edu/~jkw7063/fanfic/index.htm 
http://www.ascensionet.com/oneshot/index.htm
The latter site has been updated recently.
"There are two types of roses in this world: One is 
where you stop to smell. The other is reading this"