Standard disclaimer applies.

C&C would be nice, but not necessary.

--------------------------------------------
	Ranko could see herself sleeping again.  It was going to be another one 
of those dreams.  Again.  They always started this way, and she could 
never get through the futile inevitability of trying to wake herself 
before the nightmares began.  At least it was just a nightmare and 
nothing real, or was it?  It just seemed too real.  Too real to be 
imagined, she thought.
	There were voices, hushed and tight, behind her door.  They gradually 
increased in volume until they seemed right in front of her room, 
pounding the wood down with their clashing tempos and pitch.  Ranko 
watched herself stir ever so slightly from slumber.  She wanted to cry 
and scream back at the voices and tell them to stop.  She couldn't help 
but watch, transfixed and silent.  Suddenly a sound like a gunshot 
echoed through the room.  Ranko watched herself stir again, this time 
rising in bed to rub the sleep sand out of her eyes.  The door was 
thrown open and Ranko could see herself squint in the light sleepily 
peering about, the smell of cheap alcohol flooding her nose.
	"What's goin' on?" Ranko heard herself mutter in the dream.
	Mother was there, and Ranko could see herself try to see what was 
happening.  She could hear her mother sobbing, and her father muttering 
something.  Then the crying started, the endless crying and the praying 
from mother, answered only by father's drunken silence.  Ranko could 
vaguely make out her father's form in the shadowy side of the room she 
shared with her twin, Ranma.  There was a noise and Ranma said something 
unintelligible in his half-asleep state.  Ranko saw her mother crawl 
forward and plead for her father to stop, to leave them all alone.
	"Genma," she heard her mother plead.  "I beg you to stop.  Please don't 
take them away."
	It must have fallen on deaf ears because he kept coming for her.  Ranko 
could see herself tremble in fear as her mother fled to the master 
bedroom.  In an instant, Ranko found herself in her own body again, 
shadowed from the light by her father's towering form.  She could smell 
the stench of booze on him, and it flooded her senses, making her gag.  
He reached for her and as a giant hand reached out towards her, she 
screamed.  She screamed with all her might.  There was a flash of 
silver, a crash and the noise of glass breaking.  Then there she was, 
there was her mother holding her and rocking her, the tears mixing with 
her own.  
	Ranko looked up into the face of her mother, framed by the light of the 
harsh light of the hallway.  There was a black eye and blood trickling 
from her mouth and nose, and Ranko shook violently, shutting her eyes 
tightly and crying.  The tears wouldn't stop as she felt her mother 
rocking her and cooing, comforting, and stroking her hair.  
	Ranko looked back up again and saw her mother's face again, framed in 
the gentle light of the moon, proud and beautiful.  The softness of the 
light flooding Ranko's mind and washing away the dream.  The rounded 
face, and motherly smile eased the trembling and cleansed Ranko of the 
terror she felt only seconds ago.  Ranko reached up to touch her 
mother's face, the smooth, perfect, milk-white face smiling gently at 
her, holding her with gentle eyes and gentle beauty.
	Nodoka reached out to smooth the wild light-brown hair away from her 
daughter's tear-streaked face.  She held her daughter close and rocked 
her gently back to sleep, pushing a lock of her own dark brown hair 
behind an ear.  Ranko drifted back towards slumber, gripping her mother 
tightly.
	"It's okay, Ranko-chan," Nodoka cooed.  "It's all a bad dream.  It's 
just a bad dream."
	Ranko finally drifted back to gentle slumber, breathing deeply and 
evenly, a hint of a smile playing upon her lips.  Nodoka sighed in 
relief, and prayed that whatever it was that made her daughter cry out 
in pain and fear would never come back again.

	As the teacher's voice droned on and on, Ranko found it harder and 
harder to pay attention.  Only the casual elbow from her classmate, 
Akane Tendo, kept her awake, if it could be called that.
	"The spider's web is carefully constructed out of natural silk that 
possesses tensile strength comparable to that of a large steel cable," 
the teacher droned in a nasal voice.
	Ranko's eyelids started to droop again.
	"What's wrong with you?" Akane whispered as she casually elbowed Ranko 
into the world of the living, without the notice of the teacher.
	"Sleepy," Ranko mumbled.
	"I guessed that," Akane giggled.
	"�Didn't have�.g'night," Ranko mumbled as her eyelids dropped down over 
her eyes once more.
	"Each turn of the web and each connection are determined by a reflex," 
the teacher continued in his nasal voice.
	"Can you believe that?" Akane asked, a touch of awe in her voice.  "A 
spider does all that as a reflex."
	Ranko answered her question with a soft snore.  Akane poked her in the 
side again.
	"Aren't you listening?" she asked her brunette friend.
	"S'hard�" Ranko mumbled.
	"Does anyone know what this implies about instinctual versus mimicked 
behavior?" the teacher asked the class.
	There was a dull thud as Ranko hit her head on her desktop.

	Nodoka gently, but swiftly diced the tofu into smaller cubes for the 
soup.  As she carefully slid the small pile of cubes into the miso, she 
heard the front door close with a bang.
	"Ranko-chan, is that you?"
	"I'm home," Ranko called out to the kitchen.
	"How was your day at school?" Nodoka asked as Ranko stomped into the 
small kitchen.  "That good?"
	Ranko grumbled something unintelligible as she handed a small note to 
her mother.  Nodoka read it over and sighed. 
	"I told him already, mom," Ranko grumbled as she sat down at the table, 
shoulders slumped forward.  "Wasn't my fault.  I didn't have a good 
night."
	"That still isn't much of an excuse, now is it?" Nodoka admonished with 
a gentle smile.
	"I can't help it if I keep wakin' up in the middle of the night."
	"Perhaps we should talk to a doctor about it," Nodoka suggested.
	"No way!" her daughter retorted loudly.  "I don't need a head shrinker 
ta get me ta sleep right!"
	"Now, now Ranko-chan," came the gentle, matronly reply.  "You've had 
this nightmare off and on for a while now.  If it's the same one as 
before, I think you should see someone."
	"Nuh-unh!" Ranko objected.  "I hate head shrinkers!"
	"You've never been to one, Ranko-chan," Nodoka sighed.
	"Yeah, but I still don't like 'em," her daughter grumbled.
	Nodoka laughed gently.
	"Are you feeling awake enough for your exercises?" she asked.
	Ranko smiled and nodded eagerly.
	"Good.  I want you to do 200 cuts before we do anything, okay?" her 
mother asked.
	"Can't I start with battou?" Ranko objected.
	"You know you should always properly warm up before doing any of the 
forms, Ranko-chan."
	"Hai, okaasan."

	Ranko stared ahead serenely as her iaito split the air with a gentle 
hissing noise.  As she finished the set of cuts, she sighed in 
contentment.  Life was normal, and aside from the occasional passes made 
by people at her and Akane, she didn't want them to change - ever.  
Things were too comfortable the way they were.  She didn't want to grow 
up, watch people age or even watch herself age.  Everything was 
wonderfully perfect around her.  The small shrine and the cozy house she 
lived in were beautiful and she loved her mother too much to stand 
thinking of her growing old and passing away.
	The cuts flowed easily into the four nukitsuke forms.  Ranko flowed 
through each nuki and notto, letting her sword move and shift in the dim 
light of their yard.  The shadow of the small shrine played with the 
light on her sword, making the shining blade look like ripples on the 
surface of a pond.  Each cut was performed with a slow, deliberate 
precision that extended from the fluidity of movement.  Each form moved 
gracefully into the next, in a ballet of sword and wielder. 
	"Your nukitsuke is still slightly off," Nodoka admonished gently.
	Ranko looked to the back door of the house, where her mother stood half 
in the kitchen, and half out.  The only daughter of the Saotomes watched 
as the matriarch of the household quietly walked to her right hand and 
slowly, carefully moved it a hair's breadth downwards.
	"Remember that the tip must not be above your right hand, or too far 
below.  For now, it seems you want to put it along the line of your 
knuckles.  It must be slightly lower," Nodoka said quietly.
	Ranko nodded slowly.  She went through the nukitsuke once more, slowly, 
trying to concentrate on the slash it would make.  It didn't feel right.  
The light-brown haired girl grimaced visibly.
	"Ranko, what have I told you about that?"
	Ranko sighed.
	"I'm sorry, okaasan," she replied.
	"Don't be sorry," Nodoka said softly, putting a hand on her daughter's 
shoulder.  "The iai you perform is precious and pure.  When the time 
comes for you to correct yourself, I will tell you what to do - not 
before, not after.  It is important that you realize that, Ranko-chan.  
Do not hurt yourself because of your mistakes.  Learn from them, 
Ranko-chan.  Learn and grow wiser, just as I did when I was a girl."
	Ranko looked up at her mother and smiled.  Nodoka shared that smile and 
together they enjoyed the silence that ensued.  It didn't last very 
long.  Akane burst into the backyard, looking as though she'd run a 
mile.  
	"Ranko, Saotome-obasan, you have to come quickly!  Otousan just got a 
postcard from Saotome-ojisan!" she panted.  "He's coming here today!"

End 1
----------------------------------


	Ranko stared across the space of the table at Akane, who simply 
shrugged, pushed a lock of long black hair behind an ear, and looked at 
her oldest sister, Kasumi.  Kasumi shrugged in turn and directed a 
questioning look to Nabiki.  The middle sister simply sighed and looked 
over her father's shoulder at the worn, but legible postcard.  Ranko 
looked to her side, sending a questioning look at her mother who seemed 
to be meditating on something.
	Soun Tendo mused over the rectangular piece of cardboard.  Scrawled on 
the back was the kanji, 'will be back next week.'  Soun looked at the 
postmark and sighed.  He handed the postcard to Nodoka who read it in 
turn and then placed it on the table.  The Saotome matriarch shook her 
head and sighed.
	"So it's finally come to this," Nodoka sighed.  "The time we all have 
been dreading."
	Soun stared off at a dot on the wall behind Nodoka and Ranko before 
nodding slowly.
	"I thought he'd disappeared, coming to a horrible end somewhere 
unfitting a martial artist," he said quietly.  "I guess I'm wrong."
	Nodoka didn't respond immediately.
	"Perhaps," she replied in an off-handed mumble.
	Ranko quietly slid the postcard closer until she could read it.  The 
postmark was for the pervious week.  If the post-card was at all 
accurately indicating when her father would arrive, it meant it would be 
today.  She looked up at Akane who was quietly reading the post-card 
upside down.
	"That's today, isn't it?" Akane asked in a hushed voice.
	Ranko nodded mutely as the postcard made its way around the small 
dining table in the room.
	"Auntie Saotome, what are you going to do when he comes back?" Kasumi 
asked quietly.
	Nodoka's face hardened slightly.  She fingered the wrapped bundle by 
her side and frowned, but didn't reply.

	"Just what did your mother mean by that?" Akane asked Ranko.  The small 
brunette sighed and picked up a small manga of Aa! Megamisama! and idly 
flipped through it as Akane turned back to her schoolwork.
	Ranko seemingly ignored her, oblivious to anything but the manga.  She 
flipped the pages quickly, scanning just a few of the images and kanji.
	"Ranko?" Akane asked hesitantly.
	The petite brunette continued to ignore her.  Ranko picked up another 
manga and flipped through the pages as rapidly as she had with the 
first.
	"It's okay.  I understand," Akane said quietly, turning back to her 
homework.
	"You know how I told you Dad kidnapped my brother and disappeared?" 
Ranko asked suddenly.
	Akane nodded.  It had been in the news for quite some time - everyone 
knew about it.
	"Well," Ranko continued, "Mom kinda threw Dad out of the house.  With 
the family shinken to boot."
	Akane raised an eyebrow.  
	"You're kidding," she said.
	Ranko didn't answer, lost in the world of the manga again.
	Akane blinked, staring off into space for a second before turning back 
to her schoolwork with a slow exhale.  Ranko turned to an issue of X and 
skimmed the pages.  Silence blanketed the room, making it stuffy and 
unbearable in just a few minutes.
	"You finish the biology homework?" Akane finally asked, breaking the 
uncomfortable silence.
	"Yup," Ranko replied.
	"What did you say about the spider web thing?"
	"What spider web thing?" Ranko asked.
	"The essay we're supposed to write about the spider web thing.  The 
deal about innate behavior versus mimicked behavior?"
	Ranko thought for a moment before smiling sheepishly.	
	"Uh, I kinda forgot that one," the brunette replied.
	"I sometimes wonder how you ever finish your work," Akane replied in a 
tired voice.
	"Was that the thing the teach was talking about?" Ranko asked.
	"Well, it's where we were talking about how apes and other mammals 
learn primarily by mimicking.  They mimic and learn that way, versus 
animals like spiders, who do everything innately, like a reflex motion."
	"So what's the question?"
	"The question is whether you can say anything about the differences 
between the two," Akane replied.  "Small animals don't imitate parents 
or anything like that.  Bigger animals do."
	"Oh.  You mean, like people?"
	"I guess," Akane replied after a moment of thought.  "We do things 
after mimicking people.  That's how we talk and stuff, I guess."
	"I guess," Ranko replied offhandedly.  She returned to the manga at 
hand and entered into the quietude of reading.
	Akane slowly finished the homework, despite the slightly disturbed 
feeling the sudden silence gave her.
	"You want to go work out in the dojo?" she asked Ranko.
	Ranko sat in silence again.
	"Ranko?"
	Akane's friend slowly looked up from the manga, a puzzled look on her 
face.
	"You okay, Ranko?  You seem awfully preoccupied," Akane observed.
	"Oh.  It's nuthin' - I just have a lot on my mind," Ranko replied.
	"So you want to do some stuff in the dojo?"
	Ranko shrugged.
	"I guess.  I suppose I could do some of the open-hand stuff," she 
replied.
	Akane smiled.
	"You think we can spar today?" she asked eagerly
	"I dunno.  I'm a little tired from today.  I had to do all of the 
shoden waza for okaasan to see.  It wasn't hard, but she was really 
picky today.  I guess I was really sloppy this afternoon because she 
made me do them forever!" Ranko complained.
	"I'll go easy on you," Akane laughed.
	"Whatever.  Even tired, I could take you on," Ranko teased.
	"Oh yeah?"
	"You know the Saotome-ryu is way better than the Tendo-ryu," Ranko 
exaggerated.
	Akane laughed as the two slowly made their way to the dojo.  As they 
neared the back door to the dojo, Ranko made her way to the door, a 
puzzled look on her face, and put a hand out the door.  She frowned.
	"I didn't hear the rain clouds move in," she stated in surprise.
	"The weatherman didn't say rain was likely," Akane noted.
	Ranko shrugged and ducked out into the back yard, and sprinted to the 
dojo.
	
	A lone man standing under a store-front stared down the street.  His 
attention turned from the wet pavement to the girl that was crouched on 
the curbside, staring at the water running in small rivulets into a 
gutter nearby.  He cursed silently under his breath.
	"Ranma!" he bellowed.
	The girl didn't respond.
	"Ranma!" the man bellowed again.  He cursed under his breath again.
	The girl turned slightly to look at the man, slightly abashed, and 
downcast, yet the look in her eyes was blank, expressionless - her wet 
brown hair was plastered to her forehead in tangled ringlets.  The wild 
hair, messily tied back in a small, wet, pigtail.  She stared at the 
angry look in the man's face and whimpered softly, nearly inaudibly 
before rocking slowly, gently where she crouched.  The man growled and 
rubbed the bandana that covered his bald head.  He pushed his thin 
wire-framed glasses up higher on his nose and frowned.  He walked closer 
to the edge of cover, but did not walk an inch outside.  It didn't 
matter.  A passing vehicle sprayed him with water from the gutter as it 
swerved slightly to avoid a little boy splashing in the gutter further 
up the street.  The young boy's mother snatched him away, scolding him 
as she did so.  The boy simply pointed and giggled at the enormous, 
sopping wet panda down the street.  The panda stepped out from under the 
store-front, much to the surprise of the people around him, and boxed 
the girl's ears.  The large animal dragged her to her feet and pulled 
the girl along behind him as he walked down the street.

End 2

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