Sorry for those who were confused. This is an alternate universe not the
future.

"We would never have been so ungrateful if we were in their situation,
would we Tendo-kun."

YOUTH IS WASTED ON THE YOUNG: chapter 2

    Nodoka was left fuming on the path as the woman called Ranma carried her
fainting mother inside, trailed by an anxious and tearful Soun. "But what
about your Panda? Is it a gift for mother?" She called after them.
    Ranma's voice echoed back, "You must be Nodoka, right? He's... well...
he's for you actually."
    Nodoka looked down at the small Panda still lying stunned in the mud
beside the front path. *What would I want with a pet Panda? Oh well I better
get you cleaned up anyway. Goodness, I hope its house trained* Deliberately
avoiding looking at where the other two were fussing over her embarrassing
mother, she hoisted the Panda up the stairs and into the bathroom.
    It seemed to came back to its senses when she turned the cold shower
head on it, struggling in her arms. "Now you settle down or I'll just drop
you in the bath. And the water's very very hot. You wouldn't like that now
would you?" If she didn't know better she would have thought that it
understood her, the way it became so still and cooperative. "Well you're
definitely a male. I think I'll call you 'Mr Panda'" She could have sworn
it was blushing.
    "There all done." The panda seemed to heave a sigh of relief and Nodoka
giggled. "But you've got me all dirty instead. Just stay there while I clean
up." she said pulling her blouse over her head. "Stay. Stay." In fact Mr
Panda seemed inclined to sit in the corner and make choking sounds.

    Downstairs, a recovered Akane and a handsome middle-aged man in Chinese
clothes and a long black braid sat watching the sun go down. "So that's how
it was." she said.
    They were both silent for a while.  "I was so sorry to hear you'd lost
your husband."

    Somewhere in the wilderness of Australia a haggard man in a bandanna
calls "Akane! Akane darling... Children?" and wanders on.

    "...I just kept hoping that they'd at least find a body, but... life
goes on. The children took it very hard though." Akane tried to shake off
the sudden darkening mood. "So, whatever happened to your wife?"

    In a run-down Osaka okonomiyaki joint a middle aged woman chops
vegetables angrily, glancing up once in a while to glare at a picture on
the wall. The right hand side shows a younger her looking radiant in a
wedding kimono but still very obviously pregnant. The man on her arm is
almost completely obscured by the various sharpened kitchen implements
embedded in the picture. "Think you can leave me behind do you?" she growls
to herself.

    "I'd really prefer not to talk about it..." Ranma trailed off. To their
relief before either had time to put their foot in their mouths again. They
were interrupted by a piercing scream from the bathroom.
    Nodoka had been washing her hair (after all there were guests), her eyes
closed, while the panda pressed desperately against the far wall, trying to
avoid the splashing water. "...I just wish Mummy was less silly. No matter
how respectably I behave she'll always find some new way to embarrass me. I
mean this engagement. Actually you've probably met this Genma, Mr Panda. I'm
sure he's quite nice, for a martial artist, but I'm just not interested in
boys that way." she continued dreamily as she washed the last of the soap
away from her eyes and incidentally hosing the cowering panda with hot water
as she put down the shower head. "I've always dreamed of a more mature man,
a truly manly man. You know, a man amongst men." she said, turning back to
face... a completely naked boy trying to sink into the wall. Silence reigned
for a few seconds before the boy leapt for the door followed by Nodoka's
enraged screams "Pervert!!".
    Akane was rather surprised to see a wet naked boy swoop through the
room, grab Ranma's backpack and out into the garden. Ranma just put his head
in his hands and said "That was Genma Saotome, my son. Sorry about this."
    Upstairs Soun rubbed the slap mark on his cheek as he tried to calm his
sister, this time from outside the bathroom door, as she quickly got
dressed. His face soon settled into what his friends called 'Soun's demon-
head' glare as he thought of some pervert spying on his sister. It would be
his pleasure to bring the full and terrible vengeance of the Tendo clan down
on this miscreant. This he swore.

To be continued (when I think of something)

                                                        Ross Gilbertson