I had no plans to write this, but since you asked for it.



Ranma - Years Away
------------------
     Part Two


	I see the confusion in your face.  You ask what I found so odd.
Well, I didn't tell you what happened next year.

	Exactly one year later, I saw the same girl sitting in the same
place, with an older woman next to her.  I went to speak to them, and she
remembered me from the previous year.  The older woman introduced herself
as Ukyo Saotome, Akane's daughter.

	I complimented Ukyo on her lovely daughter, and Ranma giggled. 
She smiled as she told me that Ukyo was not her mother.  Not wanting to
pry further, we talked for some time on unimportant things.

	She mentioned a family dojo.  It was difficult to contain my
shock.  How would you have felt, knowing you were sitting next the
daughter and granddaughter of the two greatest martial artists of all
time. 

	Yes, it was *that* Akane Saotome.  Yes I know I should have
figured it out, but how often do you meet the child of a legend?

	All my grandchildren studied at the dojo.  I had met the current
sensei of the dojo many times.  I knew him only as Saotome-sensei.  The
rumor was that he was cursed to live forever.  He looked no more than
twenty, yet I remember sending my children to study under him, over thirty
years ago.

	Ranma's smile turned sad.  She nodded once, then knelt at the
marker, and spoke softly, then left.

	I turned to Ukyo, asking her if I had said something wrong.

	I never saw either of them again, but I will forever remember her
words.  'As long as there are martial arts, there will be Saotome-sensei. 
As long as there is Saotome-sensei, there will be Ranma.  As long as there
is Ranma, there will be martial arts.'

	I don't know what she meant, exactly, but that day I made each of
my grandchildren promise to send each of their children and grandchildren
to the Saotome dojo.  Martial artists from Nerima saved the world once,
and if if needed, would do so again.  And maybe next time, the name
Sanzenin would be remembered with pride.