Subject: [FFML] Ranma Fanfic new character
From: "Gary Ee" <garyee@mbox4.singnet.com.sg>
Date: 2/7/1999, 3:15 AM
To:
Reply-to:

The Tendo Chronicles 
Chapter One: Footsteps in the Snow.
First Draft-written by Psychos R' Us

First Fanfic alert! If you've got C&C, you can send it to
jolly_rog@hotmail.com please send constructive criticism. Don't just say
"you suck", say "you suck because....". Flames are welcome; we've got to
start the barbecue somehow.... 

Psychos R' Us Charter Members

President until execution or parole: Mechmorph
"Can I stop writing now guys?" 
"NO! <Whip! Whip! Whip!> "
<Sniffle, sob...>

Chief Editor and master of all he surveys: Ramrod
"I am now your lord and master. Bow before me you insignificant mortals,
mwah ha ha ha!"

Co-author:Skull 13, the one that always comes back.
"What does this button do?"
"No don't touch that!"
<Boom>

Chief critic: Francind
"You guys killed Akane? Where's that mallet?! Authors no baka!!!!!"
<Wham! Wham! Wham!>
"Medic...."

Disclaimer: The Ranma Half Characters are the sole property of Rumiko
Takahashi and are used without permission. Any references to any other
source material is also copyrighted by their respective owners. Their use
in this story is not a challenge to their ownership. Please don't sic your
lawyers after my eternal soul, cause that's about all I have to my name. 

Author's notes: The character Tendo Akodo is NOT my avatar! I'm nowhere
near him in temperament or personality. If you see a character running
amuck with a chainsaw in this fic, take a wild guess whose avatar it is,
heh, heh. This character is actually an almagam of Himura Kenshin (from the
anime Rurouni Kenshin), Tendo Nouma (from Richard Lawson's superb "Magic"
series), Guo Jing (from the Chinese novel Return of the Condor Heros) and
Tendo Kasumi (If you don't know where Kasumi comes from and have been
reading Ranma fics, you need help.). 

Conventions:
" "- Dialogue. You'll have to guess from context who is talking because
putting 'He said' or 'she said' tends to get rather tiresome.
< >- Thoughts
*- Reference or word that will be explained later.
* *- Foreign language, usually Chinese.
[ ]-sounds
-----------------

The scene is a modest house somewhere in the vastness of China. Presently
it is autumn and the ground is covered by an orange carpet of fallen
leaves. The house seems to be permeated with an almost palpable aura of
joy. A couple exits the house and leaves with laughter and sunshine
trailing in their wake. Both move with the subtle grace known only to the
best dancers and martial artists and they radiate the sheer bliss that is
young love.

A month later

Winter has fallen and we see the same house and yet the happiness that once
saturated the air is gone replaced with a deep sadness. The man exits the
house but his counterpart is nowhere to be seen. The man is swathed in a
white cloak and steps unflinchingly into a howling blizzard. His once
graceful movements have become slow and halting, his back, which was once
ramrod straight has become bent with sorrow. As he trudges aimlessly into
the bitter cold we hear his voice softly singing a haunting melody:

And now I'm all alone again
Nowhere to turn, no one to go to
Without a home without a friend
Without a face to say hello to.

And now the night is near,
Now I can make believe she's here.

Sometimes I walk alone at night
When everyone is sleeping
I think of her and then I'm happy
With the company I'm keeping
The land goes to bed 
And I can live inside my head.

On my own 
Pretending she's beside me.
All alone I walk with her till morning
Without her
I feel her arms around me
And when I lose my way I close my eyes 
And she has found me.

In the moonlight, the snow shines like silver
And the lights are misty in the river
In the darkness the trees are full of starlight
And all I see is her and me forever and forever.

And I know it's only in my mind
That I'm talking to myself and not to her
And although I know that she has died
Still I say there's a way for us.

I love her 
But when the night is over
She is gone, the rivers just a river
Without her the world around me changes
The trees are bare and everywhere the streets 
Are full of strangers.

I love her 
But everyday I'm learning
All this time I've only been denying
Without her my world has halted turning
A world that's full of sorrow such that I've
Never known
I love her, I love her
I love her, but only on my own.

--------------

Winter had come to Nerima, blanketing the land with a shroud of freshly
fallen snow. Underneath the pristine white landscape lay a district that
was accountable for much of the chaos that plagued this section of the
Tokyo megalopolis (of course the Tomobiki area had its fair share of
insanity too.). At the moment the early hour and constant snow meant that
the Nerima district settled into a near unsettling calm that was starting
to drive some of its residents insane.

Ranma paced back and forth in the living room of the Tendo Dojo, the very
picture of impatience.

"Argghh.... How much longer is it gonna snow?! First it snows all night and
then a blizzard comes out of nowhere. Yeesh, I'm so bored, I'd welcome
school!"

Akane walks in holding a steaming mug of tea she had proudly brewed
herself. Too bad she only managed to pour one mug's worth of tea into a
lead lined pewter mug custom made to withstand Akane Culinary DisastersTM.
(Nabiki got sick of paying for replacements after Akane's "Teas" ate
through the last eight sets of teacups) The 'tea' burned a hole straight
through the teapot on its journey to the center of the Earth before she
could fetch another. (YOU try to find a Pewter lead-lined teapot and see
how long it takes for YOU to find one. If so contact Nabiki, she's been
searching for one these last few months with no success). 

<This time Ranma's gonna like my tea for sure. Sesame oil, salsa sauce and
avocado juice should make for a refreshing drink when brewed with
Varianyah* Tea. Even its color's kind of soothing, a light lilac. >

"Here's some tea Ranma."

"Thanks Akane."

Due to his current state of mind (all three brain cells were preoccupied at
the moment) Ranma did the worst possible thing when confronted with Akane
holding food. He did not look before consuming it. The poor fool downed the
entire mug in one gulp.

"Gak!"

Akane watched as Ranma's skin alternated colors so rapidly that he looked
like a human rainbow. After approximately thirty seconds of Akane-induced
agony, Ranma had recovered enough to speak.

"Akane why in the heck didja try ta poison me!?"

"Baka! I spent ten minutes brewing that tea! The least you could do is
appreciate it!"

"You Kawaiikune Tomboy! You can't even boil water, let alone brew tea!"

"Ranma no Baka!!!!!!!!!!!!"

<Oh crap! Akane's doing her 'battle-aura of death' thingie. This is gonna
hurt.>

Akane pulled her mallet Much Destructive Force version 1.0 (MDF-1) from
hammerspace and used it to send Ranma into the Troposphere courtesy of
Akane Airlines (like we haven't seen her do that a billion times before).

-----------------

Elsewhere in Nerima, Ukyou was cleaning the grill, preparing Ucchan's for
another day of business. She took one look out of the window and saw the
howling blizzard outside. Deciding that she wouldn't have very many
customers for the time being, she sat down with a nice mug of tea and began
to read the morning paper. Of course this scene of normality couldn't last
long in Nerima. Ukyou took one more look out of the window and sighed.

"At least I don't have to worry about school today. Even Yuki no Onna*
wouldn't go out in a blizzard like this."

Understandably, she was rather startled by a light rap on her door. With
whitened knuckles desperately gripping her combat spatula, she opened the
sliding door slowly. There was no one at the door. Growling, she slammed
the door shut and started back towards the grill. Again came the same soft
but firm rap on the door, again no one at the door. Ukyou is usually one of
the more even-tempered of the Ranma regulars. Heck, next to folk like Akane
and Ryoga she looks about as calm as the Dahlai Lama. However Ranma's cute
iinazuke* had just about had it with people playing pranks on her at seven
thirty in the morning. When the rapping came a third time, she hefted her
combat spatula with Serious Intent To Harm. She threw open the door and
screamed, "Alright! Whoever's out there better come out now before I go out
there and put you in traction!"   

"Ahem."

Ukyou's eyes went "Piku, piku." a few times as she blinked in confusion.
There WAS someone standing in front of her door. He was swathed in a white
cloak that served to camouflage him against the snowy backdrop. Realizing
that she had just slammed the door twice in the face of a total stranger
Ukyou quickly apologized.

"It's alright, I guess you couldn't see me against the snow. Could you tell
me the way to the Tendo Dojo?"

Ukyou blinked several times after hearing this question. Not that it was an
uncommon one, Ryoga asks it all the time when he gets close enough to
Nerima that people around him actually understand Japanese. People asking
to find the Tendo Dojo tend to be potential iinazuke or enemies that Ranma
had somehow picked up. Some people get into trouble because they can't keep
their mouths shut or because of their crummy tempers. Saotome Ranma got
into trouble just because he was Saotome Ranma. Ukyou wasn't too sure if
she should answer this fellow's question. After all, what if he wanted to
hurt her Ranchan? 

Ukyou took a few moments to analyze the person before her. The voice was a
deep baritone, way too deep to be female, so he probably wasn't an
iinazuke. Probably, since with the Nannichuan around one could never be too
sure. The hood of the cloak was drawn up so she could not see his face.
Now that she had a closer look at him, she realized that he had a pair of
weapons strapped across his back in an 'x'. One was a cudgel of solid iron
as thick as her fist and about a meter and a half long that would have
given even Ryoga trouble to lift. Another was a slim spear with a
nasty-looking tip that looked as fine as a needle. Add up all the clues:
Male, has weapons that looked capable of inflicting grievous bodily
injuries and stands in howling blizzard without any apparent ill effects.
Ukyou's brain processed all this information in about three milliseconds
and came up with one conclusion-martial artist. 

Martial artists looking for the Tendo Dojo almost invariably want to pound
her Ranchan six ways from Sunday but she wasn't too worried. Ranma had
proven time and again that he could defeat all comers. Still, she owed
something to the stranger for making him wait so long in the snow. 

"It's six blocks down this street, hang left at the next intersection and
keep walking until you get there. Can't miss it."

"Thank you, miss."  

As the stranger turned to leave, a gust of wind cause his hood to become
askew and allowed Ukyou to have her first glimpse of the stranger's face.

<Ranchan?!>

The stranger disappeared into the snow before Ukyou could react. The person
in the cloak had worn the face of her fianc� Saotome Ranma.
Her brain started to shutdown when she realized that he did not leave
footprints in the snow....

------------------

Kasumi hummed to herself while she skillfully used a Ginzu knife to slice
the carrots into near molecule thin disks as she worked her magic in the
kitchen, preparing yet another delicious, nutritious and inexpensive meal
for the Tendo family. Many had judged her simple-minded when faced with her
apparent obliviousness to all the chaos occurring before her. In truth she
maintained the fa�ade so as to better reign in the tempers of her two
sisters and their houseguests. 

So much had changed when their mother died. Nabiki withdrew into herself,
putting up emotional barriers and never letting anybody get too close.
Akane, always a spitfire, developed a hair-trigger temper that was
sometimes terrible to behold. And her father... He, well he always was a
bit emotional but the loss of his beloved Kimiko had shattered his spirit.
Gone was the perpetually smiling man that she had known as her father. In
his place was a broken shell that desperately tried to hold on. He tried to
present a strong front to others but the fact of the matter was that the
slightest thing could upset his emotional equilibrium and bring him to
tears. Tendo Soun could no longer teach effectively in the dojo anymore and
without Nabiki's efforts, the Tendos would have crossed the line into
abject poverty years ago.

Of all of the Tendos, perhaps the one most affected by their mother's
untimely demise was Kasumi herself. She still remembered her mother's last
words to her at the hospital....

"Kasumi-chan?"

"Hai, Okaasan*?"

"When I am...gone, your sisters will depend on you a lot Kasumi-chan. As
the eldest, you will be the woman of the house and it will be your duty to
aid your father in raising your sisters. Be strong Kasumi-chan, for my sake
and the sake of the family. I know you will make me very proud."

An eleven year old Kasumi, face slick with tears simply nods and grips her
mother's hand, praying to any God who cared to listen that her Okaasan
would be alright. 

---------------

Several days later, young Kasumi stood before her mother's grave as they
interred her remains. Her father had a plainly devastated look on his face
as he watched the somber ceremony. Kasumi had made sure that he had taken
his anti-depressants before they came. Ten year old Nabiki just stood
there, her entire body rigid, her expression entirely stoic save for the
tears trickling down her face. Eight year old Akane kept tugging on her
eldest sister's dress and was asking when Okaasan would be back. 

Kasumi still heard her mother's voice in her ears. <You will be the woman
of the house.....will depend on you....Be strong Kasumi-chan.> Kasumi held
her tears in check, at the tender age of eleven she vowed that she would
cast off her childish ways and be a proper lady. Just because Okaasan was
gone did not mean that her sisters ought to grow up without some sort of
maternal presence. If it fell to her to be the surrogate mother of her
sisters, so be it. 

The young Kasumi felt a gentle hand touch her shoulder. She turned around
and came face to face with her older cousin from China. He whispered to
her, "It's alright if you let it all out. Believe me I know, I've been here
myself. " Kasumi's control over her tears fled as she sobbed on her
cousin's shoulder. All he did was pat her on the back gently and make soft
cooing sounds, trying to console her. After her tears had dried up, she
felt a lot calmer. The pain was still there but grief did not threaten to
overwhelm her anymore. Her cousin just smiled a sad, sweet smile and walked
away, leaving her to come to terms with her loss in private. <That's why I
like older men, they're so much more mature. >
 
---------------------

Up to this day, Kasumi has tried to be the best combination of elder
sister/mother that she possibly could. She fulfilled the household duties
that her mother once did. She kept the household together in more ways than
just spring-cleaning. Early on, she did retreat to a world of her own to
escape the pain of losing her mother. But time heals all wounds and soon
she came out of that state. However she found that her sisters tended to
treat her differently when she appeared to be "zoned out" so she never let
her recovery show itself in her demeanor. She found that she could defuse
arguments and tense situations with her very presence and a few oblivious
sounding phrases. She did not like the deception, although it was a benign
one it was a deception never the less, but she did so for the sake of the
family. Sometimes, she just wished that she had someone to talk to, someone
to confide in. She had no close friends and although she was attracted to
Dr. Tofu, he became an incoherent wreck around her, forestalling any
attempts at conversation.

She was a steadfast rock in an ocean of insanity, an island of stability in
the chaos that seemed to plague the Tendo household. For her sisters, she
had always been a shoulder to cry on, someone to confide in. Sometimes
Kasumi wished that she had someone of her own to confide in.

----------------------
Nabiki sat in her room trying to find a way to balance the family accounts.
Despite all her best efforts, it seemed that they were going to be in the
red again this month. It was tough enough to support her sisters and
father, as they had no real regular source of income. Now that they had two
freeloaders under their roof, she had to find extreme measures to make ends
meet. The martial artist of the month seeking to defeat Ranma also resulted
in collateral damage to the Tendo property that made Nabiki almost wish
that she knew martial arts herself. Then she could pound those creeps
before they did any damage to her home.

When her mother fell ill all those years ago, most of the family's money
went into trying to save her. Now all the Tendos had left was an empty
dojo, a few investments made in better times and a financial whiz by the
name of Nabiki Tendo. Nabiki had given out loans, organized betting pools
and sold some marginally legal pictures in order to keep her family
financially soluble but recently profits had been down and Nabiki wracked
her brain for a new viable source of income that she could exploit.  

Nabiki felt the weight of her family firmly on her slim shoulders. To
accomplish what she must, she manipulated people and did quite a few nasty
things to a few good people. Truth be told she did enjoy matching wits with
people to separate them from their money but there were some lines that she
did not cross. She blackmailed people for information or favours, not
money, she never tried to trick anybody into purchasing information that
was useless to them and she never used violence to try and extort money
from the more timid students. Even so she was hardly well liked at school.
Her friends called her the 'ice-queen' and few boys dared to get close to a
known pecuniary vampire. Most of all Nabiki was lonely, many despised her
for what she did but did not understand why she did it. The closest thing
she had to friends was Yuka and Sayuri. Most of Furinkan's male population
had, for reasons even they could not explain, chose to pursue her youngest
sister. Little did they know that she felt a little twinge of envy every
time someone tried to bribe her to help them get closer to Akane.  

--------------------

Tendo Soun and Saotome Genma sat calmly at the Shogi board as each tried to
cheat his way to victory. Both of them truly wanted what was best for his
children but neither would be upheld as a model parent. Soun was
ineffective as a father, he could not give his little girls the guidance
they needed, they had always assumed that it would be Kimiko's job to raise
the children while he supported them through the family dojo. Now Kimiko
has passed on and he could not step into the dojo without being reminded of
her. All he could give them was his love and pray that it would be enough.

Genma's exploits as a father probably would be upheld as a model someday.
That is as a model of extreme incompetence. In essence, Saotome Genma was a
coward and it showed. He ran away from his wife under the pretense of
training his son because he was afraid that she would see him someday as
the coward he was and reject him. He had cheated and stole to raise his son
because he was afraid of hard work. 

His only vindication was his son. If he trained him in the Art and made him
a Man amongst Men then maybe his sins could be forgiven. But even in this
all-important task he had failed. He had engaged his son many times over
for food and forgot about it afterwards, inevitably causing complications
in Ranma's life later. He tried to train his son in the seemingly
invincible Neko-ken and wound up having Ranma develop a psychosis at the
ripe old age of six. Ranma's social skills were sorely lacking and even he
could see that his son was not happy. If only he could get Ranma married to
Akane then maybe the two could provide him a grandson with whom he could
start over...

-------------------

The figure in the white cloak was walking slowly trying to rationalize to
himself his decision when a red streak fell from the sky right at his feet.
Curious he dug through the snow and was rewarded with a Ranmasicle TM. The
figure held up Ranma easily at arm's length and spent quite a bit of time
examining his face. Shrugging his shoulders he continued walking, his long
journey about to end at last, shouldering Ranma as if he were a sack of
potatoes.

-----------------

Akane was not in a good mood as she proceeded to demolish enough stacks of
bricks to make the floor of the Tendo dojo look like a quarry. If one thing
defined Akane, it was anger. Normally she was a rather sweet girl but even
her classmates knew that if Tendo Akane was doing her eerie
battle-aura-of-doom, it was best to head for the nearest bomb shelter.

<That baka! I spend so much time making him tea and he doesn't appreciate
it! I try to be a good fianc�e and cook something for him and he pretends
that it's some sort of toxic waste. Why can't he civil for once?>

Half an hour later most of Akane's anger had evaporated and she was getting
a little concerned about Ranma's whereabouts. She was about to search for
him when there was a knock on the compound door. Akane went to the gates of
the Tendo compound ready to give Ranma a tongue-lashing for making her
worry. She summoned her ever trusty MDF-1 and kicked down the door.

"Ranma where in the Hell have you...er hi."

Akane almost facefaulted when she realized that she was hollering at a
complete stranger. 

"Let me guess, this is Ranma?"

The figure presented her with the semi-conscious Ranma who still needed
help to stand straight. He was mumbling something about violent tomboys as
he massaged a lump on his head the size of a golf ball. 

"Thanks pal, didn't want ta freeze my butt off in the snow. How didja know
that I live here anyway?"

"Actually that was plain luck. I came here in search of a Tendo Soun. I am
Tendo Akodo, pleased to meet you."

Tendo Akodo threw back the hood of his cloak and allowed the baka and
tomboy their first unrestricted glimpse of his face. Akane's mouth opened
and closed rapidly like a goldfish in heat when she was totally baffled by
his remarkable resemblance to Ranma. 

"Gee, you're one handsome fellow."

"Err... Thanks Ranma."

[Whap!] "Baka! You're just saying that because he looks like you."

"He does?"

"Now that you mention it, I do bear some resemblance to young Saotome-san."

Akane just shook her head. She figured that it was a guy thing that men are
generally clueless. She left Ranma to entertain their visitor as she went
to get her father. After using a crowbar to pry her father from his eternal
shogi game, Tendo Soun was reunited was the nephew he had not seen for
almost eight years. Now if he could only remember where he had seen this
young chap before....

"Ojisan*, I am Tendo Akodo, your nephew from China the son of your elder
brother Tendo Matsu."

"Ah yes, young Akodo, the son of my dear departed brother." [full Soun
Tendo Wail!TM ]

"Ojisan, I will be staying in Tokyo for an undeterminable period of time
and I was hoping that I might find a place to stay under your roof."

Soun's brain began to short-circuit when it contemplated feeding yet
another free-loader under his roof. When Akodo noticed the smoke coming out
of his ears, he quickly added, "Of course I'll be able to pay rent." In an
instant all of Soun's tears evaporated as he hugged his nephew in an
avuncular manner.

"Of course son, welcome to the family."

"But Ojisan, I'm already one of the family."

"Of course you are, I've not seen you since Kimiko passed on...." [more
wails]

Witnessing the standard Tendo Soun method for dealing with stress, Akodo
sweat-dropped big time.

"Is he always like this?"

He got his answer when Ranma and Akane managed to nod in perfect synchrony.
       

"Nabiki! Kasumi! We have a guest!"

The other two Tendo sisters reluctantly answered their father's summons.
The last time that something like this had happened, one of them wound up
engaged.

"I would like you to meet your cousin Tendo Akodo from China. He will be
staying with us for a while."

Kasumi and Nabiki took their time to examine the eldest Tendo of their
generation. Despite his resemblance to Ranma, Kasumi had the strangest
feeling that she had met him before. It was a fleeting sensation, an image
just brushing the tips of her conscious mind, but just this light touch
seemed to infect her with a sense of melancholia. 

The gears in Nabiki's mind were turning merrily along as she tried to turn
this cousin of hers to profit. If he had just as many girls chasing after
him as Ranma had then perhaps she could reap enough money to secure the
Tendo's future. Why did he want to stay with them? Was he on the run or
something?

"Let me show you to your room Oniichan*," Kasumi replied with her usual
unshakable cheer. Tendo Akodo simply smiled at her and followed in her
wake. There was something in that smile that almost caused Kasumi to
falter, she knew him now, the guy at Okaasan's funeral!

------------

Nabiki sat in her room dressed only in her pajamas, going over the next
month's budget, financial whiz or no, this was developing into a major
migraine. She reverently wished to avoid another fiasco like the last time
that they ran out of money. That no-good money-moocher was ready to
practically sell Ranma to Kodachi of all people in order to keep himself
well fed. 

<Knock, knock.>

Her train of thought interrupted, Nabiki looked up from her records and
swore that if the guy behind the door did not have a good reason for
bothering her, he'll be in debt until the sun goes nova. 

She opened the door and saw a most familiar face in the doorway.

"Ranma what is it this time?"

"Nabiki, I understand that you handle the finances in the family."

The deeper voice clued Nabiki in that she was speaking to the Ranma
doppelganger, Tendo Akodo.

"I trust that this will cover the rent for some time."

Akodo handed Nabiki a gold ingot the size of a chicken egg. Nabiki simply
gaped at the small fortune that nestled in her palm. The firm weight of the
ingot was the only anchor holding her to reality as her brain was doing
cartwheels at unexpectantly coming across this much money. Long after Akodo
left, Nabiki still stared at the metallic surface trying to convince
herself that what was happening really occurred. Somebody just gave her a
huge sum of money out of the blue. Normally she had to fight and claw for
every Yen and the Tendo's financial salvation just drops into her lap.

Hurriedly she emptied her little safe of the rolls of Ranma-chan and Akane
shots and placed the gold ingot reverently inside. The cynical part of her
mind assured her that when she had it evaluated the next day, it will turn
out to be nothing more than a hunk of iron pyrite. Too flustered to
continue her calculations, Nabiki turned off her table lamp and tried her
best to get some sleep.

------------