(saotome@micron.net)

Ranma 1/2: Love Doesn't Just Happen
Written by Mark Eymer

Chapter 1: "Broken Promises"
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        In a badly lit back room of the Nekohanten, a hunched figure stood 
over a large, black pot.  Ingredients such as herbs, spices, liquids, and a 
small bottle with a label written in badly scrawled Chinese littered the 
table that sat against the far wall.  A staff tapped across the floor as the 
figure crossed to the table, picked up an ingredient and returned to the pot.  
The figure held a small handful of cherry blossoms above the pot and dropped 
them into the liquid, which had suddenly become a strange, violet color.

        As Cologne stepped into the scarce light provided by the single
window, she chuckled as she looked over a leather-bound book.  Her concoction
was mixed, all that was left was for her to feed it to the appropriate party.
She quietly chuckled, "We will catch you yet, future son-in-law..."

--------------------

        A bird flew onto the lower branch of a tree outside the Tendo home
and began to sing its praise to the world.  A fish jumped in the small koi
pond which sat near the house, the sun shining its radiance through and off
of the reflective, watery surface as well as the slick scales of the fish
itself.  The leaves of the plants and trees which decorated the back yard of
the Tendo estate rustled in the slight breeze that blew across the Nerima
district of Tokyo, Japan.

        All things of this nature went unnoticed to Ranma Saotome as he sat,
deep in thought, on a large rock which resided beside the koi pond.  His
body was an established presence within the yard.  His mind, on the other
hand, was busy thinking of persons and places far beyond the walls of the 
dojo.

        Such an accutely trained mind as Ranma's did not miss the entrance of
another presence as someone walked out into the yard and proceded towards
him.  His thoughts shifted back to the here and now as he used his keen
senses to discern the identity of the new presence without actually having to
look.  Without much effort he recognized the person as his mother.

        Nodoka looked on at her son as he stared out over the Tendo pond and
out into the noonday sky.  She noticed how deep in thought he seemed and idly
wondered what possessed his attentions.  A boy like Ranma, who had two
fiancees as well as two other self proclaimed wives, a strange curse which
transformed him into a female when hit by cold water and reversed the effect
with hot, and an astounding mastery over the martial arts, was hard to occupy
in any type of thought.

        Ranma had been trained with the heightening of instinct in mind.
Running on instinct only limited the output of the brain.  If you had time to 
think in a fight, you also had time to be caught off guard by a wayward blow. 
Ranma had exceeded her wildest dreams by not only being able to fight relying
completely on instinct, but also being able to think through battle plans,
possible weaknesses, and find flaws in the opponents technique in the midst
of battle.

        "Hello, Mom. Can I help you with somethin?" Nodoka jumped at her
son's voice.  She wondered how he did that...

        "The only thing you can help me with is to tell me what possesses my
son's thoughts at this moment." Nodoka couldn't have been more surprised when
her usually closed mouth, head strong, and guarded son turned to face her on
the rock which he sat upon and informed her.

        "I'm thinking about Akane, Ukyou, Shampoo, and Kodachi, Mom."  Ranma
suppressed a groan as he recounted his thoughts for his mother.  "I don't
know what to do about them, Mom.  On one hand I guess I kinda like the
attention, even if I do get clobbered because of it... but, we're almost
outta high school and..."  Ranma paused, not quite sure how to convey his
thoughts.

        Nodoka motioned for Ranma to continue.

        He sighed and obliged, "And... I mean... well, I just want it to be
done with.  I wanna finish it, once and for all."

        Nodoka silently walked over to her son and sat down beside him.
She looked at him sternly and asked, "And which will you choose, Ranma? For 
the end of this escapade lies in your choice of a future wife."

        That stopped Ranma short.  He had done a great deal of thinking about 
that very thing.  On one hand his heart went out to the one person he kept 
pushing away, the person whom he called uncute and unfeminine, and the person 
who clobbered and hammered him mercilessly for the tiniest infractions and 
also called him a pervert and an idiot.

        He could admit to himself that he truly loved Akane, although
admitting it to himself and admitting it to her were two different things,
entirely.  His feelings for Ukyou were a little different...

        Ranma had no doubt in his mind that he loved Ukyou, but it was a
different love than the way that he loved Akane.  He simply loved her as a
friend, no more and no less.  Truthfully, he wouldn't give up his friendship
with Ukyou for anything, it was one of his most precious possessions.

        Shampoo was an excellent ally to have on one's side and a very good
friend, also.  Those things made him reluctant to ruin that friendship.  He
had grown very attached to the colorful, Chinese amazon.

        Kodachi, on the other hand, was just plain insane.  Ranma could live
his whole life with no regrets or sadness knowing that he'd never have to see
her again.

        The main reason the decision between fiancees, promised or self
proclaimed, was so difficult was because he had such great friendships with
each girl, with the exception of Kodachi Kuno, of course.  He didn't want to
endanger those bonds by hurting his best loved friends with his decision.

        But now... now that the wedding that his father and Soun Tendo had
planned for him had been ruined... that turned the tables.  Truth be told,
Ranma was actually disappointed to see the whole ceremony ruined by his two
favorite friends.  It had hurt.  Badly.  His time was running out and he was 
rapidly tiring of the game, which was what it truly was, a game.  More
accurately, it had been a game.  A game which had ended when lives were
endangered by a bad decision on his friends' parts.  It was time to make a
decision... time to stand up and choose for himself and for his chosen's 
happiness.  It was time to end it.

        For the life of him, he couldn't come up with any plausable way to
outwardly express his extreme distaste for the attentions aimed his way.  He
also could not come up with the self motivation to endanger his closest and
most guarded friendships.  The bridge was nearing, but he was not yet ready
to cross it, no matter how much he mulled it over in his mind.

        "Ranma?  Are you listening to me?" His mother's voice shook Ranma out
of his mental reverie.

        "Yeah, Mom?  What is it?"

        "You never answered my question, Ranma.  Which of your fiancees will
you choose?" Nodoka looked at him with a prying gaze, as if she was trying to
read his exact thoughts.

        Ranma paused for a minute before he answered, "I don't know, Mom, I
truly don't know.  Kodachi is definitely out, and I can safely say that I
won't be choosing Shampoo. Past that all I can say is that I don't want to 
hurt anyone."  Ranma looked to the ground and continued, "That's why I didn't 
end this when it started, they were all such good friends... I never wanted 
to hurt any of them," the last part was barely audible as Ranma whispered it.  
"What am I gonna do?  I've gotten myself in so deep... and then what happened 
at the wedding... it hurt...  To have my two closest friends try to destroy 
something that was special to me..."

        Nodoka looked at her son thoughtfully and sympathetically, such a
complicated series of events for one so young...  Nodoka sighed and addressed
her son's problems as best she could, "I understand your fears, Ranma... but,
and I think you'll agree with me on this, the time has come for you to make a
decision. Putting it off will only make the wounds deeper.  Do it for
yourself, do it for the one you love, and do it for the friendships you 
can salvage.

        "I know that your engagement to Akane is one of family honor, but..."
Nodoka drew a deep breath before she continued.  "But... I will not see my 
son's happiness and peace of mind shattered because of 'family honor' or a 
stupid promise which is your father's fault."

        She paused for a second to collect herself and her thoughts and then
continued, "Only someone with honor and courage can face their own fears...
and I see you as an honorable and also compassionate person, Ranma.  Make
your decision... and stand by it.  Whatever you choose, I'll be behind you
one hundred percent."

        Ranma audibly swallowed and nodded to his mother.  "Alright, Mom..."
He sighed and looked to the ground once more, "I'll do it."  When Ranma
raised his gaze, Nodoka was surprised to see a fire of resolution and
determination burning brightly in his eyes.  "I need to talk to some people,
first... before I make my choice..."

        Ranma certainly had a lot of thinking to do.  Any way you cut the 
cake, someone got the smallest piece.  People would be hurt by his decision.  
He would just have to decide who he didn't want to hurt, and who he could 
afford hurting.

        Nodoka nodded to her son, "Ranma, you have truly become a fine man.
Your father, dishonorable as he is, did a good job with you."  Ranma gave her
a sideways smile as he stood and walked back into the Tendo home, leaving
Nodoka alone with her thoughts.

--------------------

        "Oh, Akane... It's as if, even here, I can hear your melodious 
voice..."  Ryouga had been lost for days.  Who knew Nerima was so far from 
Osaka?  He quietly walked, looking at his feet.  He knew in his heart that
love would eventually guide him to the Tendo Dojo.
        
        "Wha...?" Ryouga stammered as he tripped over something.  He looked
up and silently took in the scene before him.

        A chill wind blew over the barren wasteland of ice and snow, bringing
up a small mist of loose snow.  The sunlight was blocked from the area by a
multitude of large, dark clouds which seemed to circle the area, ready to
swallow up anything that was stupid enough to venture there.  Sheer mountains
of white, frigid matter raised into the sky along the horizon line of the
frozen terrain.

        Ryouga rose as if in a daze and looked back along the way he'd come.
He was greeted by the sight of more white wasteland and a trail of footsteps. 
His.  Ryouga groaned and continued on his journey.

        He was suddenly stopped when he bumped into something.  He looked up
and noticed a candy cane striped, red and white post sticking out of the 
snow. He examined the post more closely and noticed a sign which read 'South 
Pole.'

        Ryouga asked the sky something he had asked it many times in the
past, "Where in the world am I now?!"

--------------------

To be continued, edited, revised, and re-released upon completion...
Then I get to do the other chapters, too. Yipee!

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Writer's Notes:

A quick timeline for you all so you get how I work on fics. This probably
isn't too accurate seeing as I can recall at least five other nights that
I've spent AWAKE, not sleeping, working on this damned thing. And what have I
got to show for it? I damn fine fic plan and virtually NO fic itself. Damn I
hate writers' block.

March 2-
 Began planning for this fic. Messy but it'll serve it's purpose.

March 12-
 Starting writing this. Also came down with a serious case of writers' block.

March 24-
 Picked up the fic again and added to the plan as well as the content of the
 fic itself. More of an editing and self check session if you ask me, but I
 did add (and delete) a few details that needed to be there (and didn't). As
 for a release date? I'm hoping for before the year 2000. This writers' block
 is hell.

June 7-
 I finally decided to pick this fic up and revised what I had. Man oh man am
 I a messy typist. Not to mention I had to switch half the verbs from present
 progressive to past tense. Must not overlook that next time. Spelling checks
 out as well as I can tell. Maybe I should get a prereader...

Well, after even more revision and editing I'm realeasing this measly 11k or
so fic to the FFML for comments. I swear that I have a terminal case of in-
curable writers' block. Don't you hate that feeling? You know what you wanna
do with a fic but not how to get there using good plot and such?

Anyway, anyone who wants a copy of the plan for this fic can simply mail me
(privately) and ask for it. I need help in that area, as well, not to mention
on how to accomplish what I already have down IN the plans.

As soon as I get a good 30-50k rough draft of the first chapter here, I'll
release the unedited version to FFML. After that I get to collect comments,
edit, and revise. Please help me out NOW so I can avoid a little of the work
ahead of me. C&C is greatly appreciated. And for those of you wondering, yes.
The Fanfic Reviews have been stopped. It's a lost cause. I had too much to do
between school work, work, having a life, and reading/watching Ranma 1/2.

Thanks for reading,

Mark Eymer
(saotome@micron.net)


Ranma 1/2 and its characters are the property of Rumiko Takahashi