"You're still too young to be thinking about things like that," Kasumi had
offered once when Akane had come to her for advice. Her words had rung true
in Akane's heart, but something else kept resurfacing, wanting to prove her
sister's words wrong. If only�

Gotta be careful... Your ellipses... are being converted by whatever
WP/email program you're using.

The royal blue sky of afternoon was now glowing dark crimson, as the
drifting white sands of the clouds above faded into dark shadowy streamers
that pointed themselves towards the setting sun. Ranma drew the crying girl
in his arms towards him, not knowing what else to say or do. Everything
will change all right, and there was nothing he could do about it. Akane
would be leaving in the fall, though they still had the summer together.
But at the moment, that fact just didn't seem to make him feel any better
about her leaving.

Big problem here, Japanese schools run from April to March with summer
break in the middle of the school year. So they'd be finishing High
School in March and have about two weeks before starting College in early
April.

Otherwise, it was a nice little story.

-=-
Jim Lazar

E-Mail - mailto:jimlazar@earthlink.net
Home - http://home.earthlink.net/~jimlazar
FanFiction - http://home.earthlink.net/~jimlazar/anime
-=-
     Kasumi found her father cradling her mother in his arms. He
had run out of tears to shed long ago, but the expression on his face
told the story. Kasumi calmly slid the door closed and knelt down
facing her father and mother, tears started flowing from her eyes.

     After several minutes of silence, Soun asked with a scratchy
voice, "Kasumi dear. Will you please say goodbye to your mother and
then go get Mr. Saotome?" He didn't look up at his daughter once.

     "Of course, Father," Kasumi said. She stood up, took one of her
mother's hands in hers, and said a soft, "Goodbye, Mother. I'll keep
my promise."

Ranma-ototo: Please Save My Family - Part 2
3rd place, Aug 1998 Mini-Series, Best of Ranma Fanfiction Awards