DiScLaImEr:  Rumiko Takahashi and a bunch of rich corporations own all 
the characters in this fic.  My use of them in no way is meant to
undermine those claims, and suing me would be a huge waste of time.
If, for some reason, you actually think this meager tribute to RT's
genius deserves to be further distributed, you may do so, so long as
you: a) reprint this disclaimer; b) give me credit (blame?) for the
story and; c) don't actually sell it (Yeah, like that's a concern!).
And now, on with the fic.

  Muchos Apologies:  The delay between chapters seems to be getting 
worse.  I'll try to work on it, but no promises....

  As always, C&C, MST's, or any other form of reassurance that I'm not 
just pissing into the wind, here, are appreciated

*****************
* Illuminations *
*****************

**************************
* A Ranma 1/2 Fanfiction *
**************************

***************
* By Freemage *
***************

*Author's Note:  This story draws on both the anime and the manga.

 This is a dark story, with several sexually suggestive scenes,
 although no outright Lemon scenes.  If such material offends or
 disturbs you, please consider not reading this story--Unless, of
 course, you like being offended and/or disturbed....

  Thoughts are denoted by {X}, text by [X].*

                   ***************************
                   * Chapter Thirteen        *
                   * Communication Breakdown *
                   ***************************

   The door to the Tendou household slid open.  Ranma-chan walked
 through and just stood, staring at the occupants of the living
 room, her eyes unreadable.

   The Panda was sitting across from Soun Tendou, engrossed in
 the game of Shogi on the board in front of him.  Soun released
 his Demon-head every time the Panda tried to make a move he
 didn't care for.  Ranma-chan's eyes paused on the pair for the
 briefest of moments before moving the third person in the room,
 Kasumi.

   The eldest Tendou daughter was carefully arranging flowers in
 a vase.  She looked up at the soaked red-headed girl.  "Oh,
 dear, Ranma, you'll drip all over everything.  Wait right there
 while I get you a towel and some hot water."  As she reached the
 kitchen door, she paused and looked back at the heir of the
 School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts, a question in her eyes.

   "Did Akane find you?  She seemed to be in an awful rush to
 catch up to you earlier...."  Kasumi's voice trailed off as
 Ranma just stood, eyes not really focused on anything at all.
 Looking unusually flustered, she wandered into the kitchen.  If
 Onna-Ranma noticed her departure, she gave no outward sign.

   "There you are!"  Akane's furious shout caused Ranma to glance
 at the stairs.  "What's the idea of coming home so late?  You've
 got a lot of nerve!  What happened, did Ukyou kick you out of
 your little love-nest once she found out what an absolute jerk
 you are?"

   Soun Tendou chose that moment to interrupt the conversation,
 Demon Head flaring at full strength.  "What's this?  You've been
 off womanizing again?  Have you no shame at all, Son?!"

   Ranma-chan looked at the Tendou patriarch, unimpressed.  "Back
 off, old man, I'm not in the mood."

   Even as the demonic visage faded as a result of Soun's
 confusion, Akane's blue battle aura began to coalesce about her
 as she drew forth her trusty mallet.  "First you run off with
 Ukyou.  Then you come back at this hour.  And then, you insult
 my father."  She hefted the hammer over her head.  "Ranma, why
 don't you just DIE!!" she cried as she brought the weapon down
 in a vicious arc.

   Ranma caught the hammer and held it.

   Akane blinked.

   Ranma-chan stared at her.

   Slowly, Ranma drew the hammer's head down so it was level with
 her chest.  For the first time, Akane saw the pain in her eyes.
 "Ranma, what... how?"  She wasn't even sure how she should
 phrase the question.

   "Like I've always told you, Akane, I don't like fighting
 girls.  It doesn't mean that I can't if I don't feel like
 getting beat on, though."  Akane flinched back, stung by the
 anger in Ranma's voice.  "Of course, I shoulda known better than
 to come back here, to the warm, loving embrace of my 'family',
 just 'cause one of my best friends is dead?  Right?"

   Akane felt like she was swimming in murky water, with no sense
 of up or down.  "Dead...?  Who...?"

   Ranma-chan, voice dripping with pain and anger, cut her off. 
 "Ukyou.  She was on that ship.  The one that blew up.  She was
 leaving, for good, because she thought she'd put me at risk if
 she stayed."

   Onna-Ranma glanced at the hammer.  "Thanks for being there for
 me, Akane."  Looking over at their fathers, she shot out
 savagely, "Don't look so glum, you two.  After all, that's just
 one less 'complication' for you two old farts ta worry about the
 next time you try screwin' around with my life, right?

   "I'm outta here."  She walked out of the doors and jumped to
 the neighbor's roof, effortlessly.

   Akane stared, shocked into numbness, as her fiance bounded off
 into the night.  "Ranma, I'm sorry...."  Her voice failed her at
 the same time as the last of her self-control, and she fled back
 up the stairs to her room.

   Kasumi came back into the room, carrying a couple of large
 bath towels and a steaming teakettle.  "Oh, did Ranma leave
 again?  He's so active."  She went back into the kitchen.

   Soun and Genma were totally speechless.

   ***********************************************************

   Ranma-chan sat on a roof and stared at a house.  Her mother's
 house.  {*My* house,} she reminded herself, {if it wasn't for my
 shit-stupid father and his shit-stupid promises and her damn
 family honor.}

   She clenched her eyes shut, hard.  "I won't cry, I won't cry,
 I won't cry."  She repeated the mantra until the urge was under
 control.  {I'm not gonna find what I need here.}

   Standing up, she dusted herself off.  {I'm beginning to wonder
 if having a screwed-up family is a requirement for being a
 martial artist.  My folks are total lunatics, Akane's pop has
 all the emotional control of a two-year-old--and he's getting
 worse.  Shampoo's folks care about her so much they let her get
 dunked in the Spring of Drowned C-cat and come after me to
 Japan, and Ukyou's dad...}  Her thoughts broke off, disjointed
 by a pain too recent to just ignore.  "Ukyou, I'm sorry.  I
 never wanted any of you to get hurt."  And now the tears did
 come, and she let them.  "I'm so sorry."

   ***********************************************************

   "I'm so sorry, Ranma...,"  Akane said to the moon outside her
 window.  "I didn't know...."  She broke into another sobbing
 fit.

   {Ukyou.  I can't believe she's dead.  It wasn't even two weeks
 ago that she sent him that Okonomiaki after the Guide died. 
 Another death.  And all three of the Kunous.  And Nabiki nearly
 died, too.  And the Amazons are gone.  What's happening to us? 
 And what's going to happen next?}  Alone in her misery, Akane
 slowly, fitfully, fell into a troubled sleep.

   ***********************************************************

   Ranma-chan woke up coughing.

   {Brilliant, Saotome.  Sleep on a roof in soaking wet clothes
 all night, just 'cause your widdy biddy feelings got hurt.  Keep
 this up, and you'll end up as stupid as the Panda.}

   She leapt down to the street and made her way back to the
 dojo.  Sighing, she berated herself, {C'mon, you know what
 you've gotta do, so you might as well take it like a man--even
 if you don't look the part just now.}

   ***********************************************************

   Akane came down to breakfast listlessly, her eyes puffy and
 red from crying in her sleep all night.  She sat at the table
 and just stared, unseeing, at the breakfast Kasumi put in front
 of her.

   Soun and Genma-Panda ate quietly, not commenting on either
 Akane's dishevelled appearance or Kasumi's running monologue on
 how Akane should really try to keep up her strength.

   Akane herself was also ignoring the litany of feminine virtue,
 instead focusing her attention inward.  {I hope that idiot comes
 home.  If I have to go out and find him, that'll make this even
 tougher.}

   "... and you know, Akane, I really think you need to think
 about what kind of--Oh, look, everyone.  Ranma's back."  Kasumi
 changed tracks mid-sentence as the redhead landed softly on one
 of the koi pond's boulders.  Both fathers remembered chores that
 needed doing in other rooms of the house, and Kasumi took their
 plates into the kitchen.

   Ranma-chan walked over to the table and picked up the
 teakettle, using it to effect her transformation.  {I'm gonna
 need ta be a guy for this.}

   "Ranma, I'm..."
 
   "Akane, I want you ta know..."

   "...I'm sorry," they finished, in unison.

   "I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions," Akane said.

   Ranma replied, "And I was wrong, too.  I was mad, and hurt,
 and you were just an easy target.  Forgive me?"

   Akane shot him a faint smile.  "Only if you forgive me, too."

   He grinned back, briefly, then let it fade.  "God, Akane, it's
 such a mess.  What are we gonna do?"

   {We!  He said we!}  The thought ripped through Akane's mind,
 and she set it aside to consider its implications later.  "Well,
 we need to figure out what to do about Ukyou.  I mean, we have
 to get in touch with her father, get some of the kids at school
 and her regulars together for a memorial service.  It's the
 least we can do."

   "Yah, you're right," Ranma responded.  He thought for a brief
 moment, then continued, "Can you handle the memorial?  You're
 better at that kinda stuff.  I'll take care of getting in touch
 with her father.  I can beat the information outta Pop."

   Akane looked at him, confused.  "Couldn't you just ask him?"

   He shot her another grin, this one looking more like the Ranma
 she remembered from before things started to go bad.  "Yeah, but
 my way's more fun."

   "Oh."  A flicker of amusement passed over her face as Ranma
 got up and walked out, munching on a roll, and it returned when
 the shouting and pounding started.  She stood and went over to
 the kitchen door.  "Kasumi?  Do you think you could help me with
 some things?"

   ***********************************************************

   Ranma led the group heading to the memorial service.  The
 others (Akane, Kasumi and the two fathers) understood,
 instinctively, that he needed a little space right now.  He had
 been withdrawn for the last two days, and all attempts at
 breaking him out of it had proven unsuccessful.

   His mind was in a kind of numb shut-off mode, unable to even
 attempt to grasp what they were about to do.  He just plodded
 along, unthinking.

   If Ranma's mind was a blank slate, Akane's was a chaotic
 maelstrom.  {Oh, Ranma, I know this is hard for you... Please,
 please, try to see that I'm hurting too... If I could bring her
 back to you, I would--Schemes, better cooking and all... Just
 don't shut me out--}  Her thoughts were cut short when a large
 paw violently shoved her aside.

   When the cold water struck Ranma's back, everything he had
 been holding inside bubbled up to the surface.  Ranma-chan
 turned, prepared for violence.  And stopped short when she
 realized that her father was now in Panda form.

   "This is too much...," she said, in a low, dangerous voice,
 "Not only do you try to ruin my life every chance you get... Not
 only do you completely let me down every time I count on you...
 Not only do you entangle everyone in your schemes, no matter who
 gets hurt... But now, on the way to a memorial service of one of
 my best friends, the third one I've been to in a month, you pull
 this... this SHIT!  I am gonna introduce you to a whole new
 world of hurt, you worthless piece of--"  Her vow of violence
 was cut short when Akane grabbed her arm and spun her around to
 see...

   Her mother.

   "Ranko-chan, is that you?  Oh, dear.  I would have hoped that
 you could have worn something a little more traditional..."
 Nodoka said, her voice trailing off as she looked disapprovingly
 at Ranma-chan's dark suit, now soaked and ill-fitting.  Then she
 looked over the redhead's shoulder.  "Now, I know you are all
 attached to that animal, but really, a memorial service is no
 place for a panda--even one in a mourning outfit."

   Later, Ranma-chan would speculate that the only thing that
 kept her from losing control right there and then was a total
 inability to choose between laughter, tears, screaming and the
 total obliteration of everything she could lay her hands on.  As
 it was, she simply nodded dumbly.

   "You're right about the clothes, Auntie Saotome, but I, umm...
 didn't really have anything more appropriate to wear...."  As
 her voice trailed off, a small, hidden gleam came into her eyes.
 She continued, "But you know, Akane, she's right about 'Mr.
 Panda', too... Why don't you _send_ him back home--I don't think
 it would be a good idea to just let him wander around, and we
 don't have time to walk him back to the dojo..."

   Akane had caught the stress Ranma-chan had placed on the word
 "send" a little before Genma-Panda, and was now striding rapidly
 towards her target a little faster than the stunned
 aquatranspecieist could backpedal.  {This one's for Ranma, you
 tub of lard!} she thought to herself as she whipped out her
 mallet and struck Genma-Panda with an uppercut swing.

   The group watched, with varying degrees of contentment and
 consternation as the hapless creature sailed in a high arc
 before coming down several blocks away with an audible splash.

   "Right in the koi pond.  Accurate as ever, tomboy."

   Akane whirled around and stared at Ranma.  She could have
 sworn that in the banter she had heard subtle undercurrents--
 admiration, approval, maybe even affection.  {Is that how he's
 always meant it?} she wondered, confusedly.  Outwardly, she
 decided that it would be best if she didn't do anything too
 dramatic until she was sure.  "Baka," she muttered, before
 returning to the group's previous course.

   The rest followed suit, once more somber at the task ahead of
 them.

   ***********************************************************

   {I'm beginning to think it's a law somewhere that in order to
 be a martial artist, you first have to have a father who isn't
 worth his weight in shit.}  Ranma-chan's reasoning stemmed from
 the crumpled telegram she held in a clenched fist.

   It was a fairly short document.

   [Mr. Saotome--
      In re: to your letter notifying me of the "death of
      my daughter, Ukyou", I must inform you that I have no
      daughter by that name.  Please refrain from any 
      further contact.  Respectfully,
                                   --Mr. Kuonji]

   {How could he?  How could that miserable excuse for a father
 not even show up for his daughter's own memorial service?}  As
 she thought about it, her aura actually began to luminesce about
 her.

   "Ranma, please," Akane pleaded, gripping her arm, "I'm upset,
 too, but there's nothing we can do about it right now that won't
 just make things worse.  Please...."  She sighed with relief as
 the aura flickered out, but her respite was short-lived as she
 looked into the redhead's eyes and saw the same ice she had felt
 on the night Ukyou was injured.

   "OK, Akane, you're right.  But," Onna-Ranma continued, her
 voice low and dangerous, "this ain't over.  Ukyou deserved
 better, and I'm gonna make sure she gets it."

   Frightened by this side of her fiance, Akane simply nodded,
 mutely.  {I hope I can steer him from doing anything too
 drastic,} she thought miserably.  {I need to talk with Nabiki.
 She might have some ideas....}

   The assemblage began the hard task of saying farewell to a
 friend.

   ***********************************************************

                           End Chapter 13


   Anyone upset about the long time between chapters should blame Gary
  Kleppe.  After all, he's the one who told me I should rely on fewer
  summaries.... ;)  I do want to thank him for his steadfast
  comments, tho'.  I also want to thanks all of you who have found
  this stuff worth reading this far.

--Freemage  


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