Me again...here's another I wrote earlier.  (I have at least one more that
I want to clear out before I start writing something new - and hopefully a
little longer).  Anyway, thanks to everyone who responded to my last post.
Here we go again...

-Saotome Laura

----------------------
                                 Revelation

   I walk down the street with my best friend next to me, looking for the
   man we both call "Master." For years, we have suffered indignities
   from this man; humiliation, pain, and retribution. He has starved us,
   left us to take punishment for his crimes, made us bow before him. We
   have tried everything to get out of his grasp, but he always returns,
   like some never-ending nightmare.

   But no more. Today, it ends. My friend speaks. "Happosai, the source
   of all this evil...now he shall be brought to justice! Now is the time
   to take revenge for all he has done to us!" I reply the only way I
   can, in writing: *Never again shall we bow to him.* And I mean it.
   Never again.

   Suddenly, a kettle comes out of nowhere. The man I hate, the man I
   would do anything to get rid of, the man I must call "Master," pops
   his head out of the kettle and speaks my son's name. "Ranma,
   you...you..." Without thinking, I strike. The shriveled thing leaps
   out of my swing, causing me to instead hit my old friend. For an
   instant, he notices us. "Hm? What are you two doing here?" he gets out
   before my son manages to do what I could not. Suddenly, his attention
   is all on Ranma again. I seethe. After all we've done, after all we
   try to do, we are still no more of a threat to him than a child.

   My son speaks, and I am jolted out of my thoughts by the words he
   says: "Come 'n' get me! I'm no teddy bear like my old man!"

   His words knock the breath out of my chest. Teddy bear? Is that how he
   sees me? I know that I haven't been the best of fathers, and I know
   that my son doesn't like me much. I can accept that, even if I don't
   like it. But I had always thought that Ranma at least respected me.
   I'd always believed that sometimes he thought I was a monster. But not
   a _joke_.

   I strike out in a rage again at the source of this indignity to end
   them all. The one who had caused me to become a fool in my son's eyes.
   The kettle crumples, and Tendo speaks. "So...it is done..." I merely
   stand there. Could it have been that easy?

   A moment later, my question is answered. The remains of the kettle
   explode as Happosai's battle aura flares. I am knocked backward into a
   wall and lay there, silently. The action continues around me, but I do
   not notice. Instead, I am trapped in a memory that my son's words
   brought back. (I'm no teddy bear like my old man...)

   ***

   *SLAP!* "Do it better, boy! How do you think you're going to carry on
   the Saotome School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts if you can't even
   block a punch right?" "I-I..." *SLAP!* "Get off the floor, Genma! Or
   do you plan to sit there and cry all day like the pathetic weakling
   you are?" *SLAP!* "Now, try it again!" "B-but, dad..." *SLAP!* "I told
   you to try it again! You're seven years old, Genma. Don't act like a
   baby." *SLAP!* "You're not worthy of being called a Saotome!" *SLAP!*
   "If only I'd had a _real_ son, not a stupid crybaby like you!" *SLAP!*
   "Weakling!" *SLAP!* "Idiot!" *SLAP!* "Joke!" *SLAP!*

   ***

   I shake my head to clear the memory. Looking up, I see Happosai, the
   man so like my father in all the worst ways, his battle aura flaring
   across the sky. And I see my son, at sixteen braver than I ever was.
   His voice cries out, defiant. "You freak! I'm not afraid of you!"

   (I'm no teddy bear like my old man...)

   I have had enough. No more bowing. No more groveling. No more attempts
   to get approval from a man that doesn't deserve my respect. I stand up
   and push my son out of the way. *I, too, have my pride.*

   Every ounce of ki I can muster, every smidgen of anger, every touch of
   hatred, all pours into my battle aura. I feel myself growing, until my
   aura is as tall as the hated man in front of me. My eyes flicker to
   the boy at my side. For the first time in a long while, I see
   something in his eyes as he looks at me...something like admiration.
   For one moment, I feel strong again.

   Then he speaks. "Pop...what are you going to do?" I freeze. What _am_
   I going to do? I've never really done anything like this before...And
   suddenly, it's gone. My ki is used up, and I sink back to the ground,
   spent. *I...leave it to you, son...* And just like that, the look in
   Ranma's eyes is gone, replaced by a more familiar expression, that I
   now recognise as contempt. "Aww, why'd you bother gettin' big like
   that if there was nothin' you could do with it?" He sees me as a joke
   again.

   Which is, I realize, exactly what I am.

   __________________________

   Author's Notes:

   I always thought Genma kinda got the short end of the stick in most
   fanfics.  Heck, I've seen fics where he's been murdered, and even Ranma
doesn't really care.  But I've always had kind of a soft spot for him...he
seems to me to be just a father doing the best he can with absolutely no
idea what it means to be a good parent.  I firmly believe that Genma had
either no male role model while growing up and therefore took Happosai to
be the model of fatherhood (shudder) or else had an abusive father, in
which case I'm surprised he didn't turn out worse.  Not that I'm trying to 
excuse some of his behavior toward his son (especially the cat-fist
training), but I think he's not the monster that some people seem to think
he is.

   All characters are the property of Rumiko Takahashi...etc, etc (insert
   standard legal stuff here...)

   In case you didn't catch it, this scene is from "Fathers Know Best,"
   Viz GN #6, Part 7.  

   As always, C&C ecstatically welcomed!