A Panda's Dream pt. 1
Excellsior@attbi.com

Takahashi owns. In general, but more specifically the Ranma
Universe. I do not.
This is a four part series, I'll post the next tomorrow.


There was something romantic in a first impression that appealed to
Akane, a breeze drifting through towns and forests on its way to
the sea. An unexpected knock sounded through the sleepy house
during dinner, and she was the first to rise from the table and
make her way to the door, opening it casually. She immediately
noticed the panda.

"Hello, I'm Ranma Saotome. Am I supposed to be talking to you?"
Akane quickly broke her gaze from the black and white animal who
stood looming against the deepening night, to the much smaller girl
who stood to the left. She seemed almost ghostlike next to the
giant beast, like she would vanish into the dusk shadows.

"I'm Akane Tendo." She paused, no way to answer the girl's
question. She stared at the girl, at her intricately stitched
Chinese clothing that seemed to be a few sizes too large, the shirt
hung down past the waist to the thigh. It covered dark blue silk
pants that billowed out around the ankles, tied with twine to close
around a much smaller leg. A backpack was lying on the wooden
boards near the door. Akane could make out a dirt stained bedroll
tied on top of thick, creased leather, worn by sun and usage; it
was damp. Akane noted it must have been raining earlier, and in a
flash connected it to the steady pitter-patter she had heard
earlier in her room, when she had been lying on her bed waiting for
dinner to be called. Long red hair framed a normal face; the girl
must have been close to Akane's sixteen years, but her glazed blue-
gray eyes made her seem otherworldly. It was as if she only saw
blurred outlines of the real world, perhaps there was an entire
cast of legends and myths behind the disconnected stare.

This happened in a heartbeat, and then Akane was talking. "Are you
looking for our dojo?"

"I could be." The girl shrugged. "Figures you'd have a dojo." She
looked around, expressionless, noticing the moss on the roof, the
stains on the walls, and the freshly washed floor of the entrance
area.

Akane furrowed her brow in disbelief, and leaned forward to study
the girl further. "This isn't some prank, is it? Do I know you from
school?" The girl only shook her head.

Soun Tendo's voice called out from the dinner table. "Who is it?"

Nabiki Tendo, Akane's elder by a year, had made her way to the
doorway where her sister was talking with the strange girl. She
shouted back a response. "Someone named Ranma Saotome, Daddy!"

The middle-aged Soun Tendo sprang into action, running as fast as
his dignity would allow. He quickly arrived at the door, and after
a moment's goggle at the panda, wrapped his arms around the stunned
girl in the doorway. As he spoke, he lifted her up in a bear hug.
"My boy, you don't know how happy I am to see you! If only my wife
could see this day!" The redhead was a half-meter off the ground.
Nabiki, Akane, and the oldest sister, Kasumi, stared in confusion
at their father's familiarity and how he mentioned their mother.

"Please, Ranma my boy, come in! But tell me, how's Genma doing? Why
isn't he here?"  Soun let Ranma down, and led the girl into the
house, with the sisters dutifully following behind, Akane and
Kasumi shooting befuddled glances between themselves. The panda
lumbered in last, shouldering the backpack. Soun sat down a meter
away from the forgotten dinner table, the uneaten food left to grow
cold. Ranma also sat down, joined by the three girls, who
maintained a respectful distance between Father and his new friend.
Ranma looked, impressed by the well-kept garden she saw in the yard
outside the house, big for Tokyo. And then she noticed the dishes
that remained on the table. She realized with a start that she was
hungry.

"Umm, you wouldn't mind if I had that?" Ranma dipped her head to
indicate the table.

"Certainly not, my boy, Kasumi could warm it-" He broke off, as
Ranma walked over to the table and started eating. Only after a
moment of reflection did Soun realize that Ranma had instantly
pulled out her own pair of chopsticks, from who knows where, and
was using them to methodically place what lay on Nabiki's plate
into her mouth. The lacquered wood moved slowly and precisely.

Nabiki's plate was soon without food. The motion stopped, and Ranma
slowly wiped her utensils clean with a cloth napkin. Then her hand
dipped near her pants, and after negotiating the overhanging folds
of her shirt, flicked her hand and the chopsticks were gone,
dropped into some silk pocket. "Can he have some too?" Ranma
pointed to the panda. "I mean, if you all are done..." She stopped,
letting the Tendo family complete the thought.

Soun broadly smiled, his eyes dancing warmly. "Of course, my boy!
But that's not why you've come."

"Why have I come then?"

"You honestly mean you-" he paused, in disbelief. "You don't know?
Where's Genma, anyway?"

The girl shrugged. "Lost him in China." She looked over to the
panda, and the mess he had made by trying to eat sukiyaki noodles
with his clumsy paws. Kasumi looked incredibly upset.

"How do you lose your father?"

"It's quite easy," Ranma deadpanned.

"What?" Soun sat up straight, his face deathly still. "What was
that?"

 "What do you want me to tell you?" Ranma responded carelessly.
"That he died a noble tragic death, fighting an evil that defiled
the Saotome clan's honor? That his death was a befitting sacrifice
to the Art?" Ranma snorted. The Tendo girls stared.

"My father told me to come to the Tendos. And here I am."

Soun slumped, abandoning the fate of his old friend. "Well, Genma
and I long ago made a pact, that our children would marry and carry
on the school of Anything Goes Martial Arts." As he spoke, he
became animated, the previous tension dropping away. "And so here
you are, and I offer you my daughters. Kasumi, age nineteen.
Nabiki, age seventeen. Akane, age sixteen. Whichever one you pick,
she's your fiancee." His voice quaked with a remembered energy.

No one spoke.

Ranma appraised the girls. But neither her mouth nor her eyes
revealed anything, and she was motionless, listening to the Tendo
girls rustling their clothes and the panda's deep rhythmic
breathing.

Nabiki finally spoke. "Daddy, Ranma isn't a boy."

"Whatever do you mean, Nabi-" Soun looked closely at the girl, and
froze.

Nabiki rolled her eyes.  "Well, there goes the fiance thing." She
unhurriedly rose to her feet and walked away. "I wonder what's on
TV."

Kasumi walked over to her father with concern. "Are you all right?"

Ranma got up and looked at the panda, gauging the mess he had made
at the table.

"Does he have a name?"

Ranma turned around to see Akane standing close by. She shook her
head. "No, not really."

"You don't call him anything?"

Ranma turned around to study the girl. She was average height, wore
tan shorts and a dark gray t-shirt complete with an unfamiliar
logo. Long dark hair was tied into a bow, with strands to the left
and right free to hang. She was waiting patiently for an answer.

"We don't use names. We know who we're talking to." An odd smile
formed on Ranma's lips.

"Hmm." Akane and Ranma stood motionless, bodies turned facing the
panda. "Why were you in China?"

"Martial arts training." Whatever had prompted the smile had gone,
leaving a blank stare.

"Really? I practice some too. Wanna spar?" Akane broke her gaze
from the panda and turned towards Ranma.

"Not really."

"What?"

"I'm not really into fighting."

"Come on, it'll be fun." Akane's expression was pleading.

The panda watched the exchange, large eyes masked by dark rings.

Ranma sighed. "I guess."

Akane took Ranma's hand and they moved towards the door. Soun's
voice reached them.

"Ranma, you-" Soun waited for the girl to face him before
continuing. "You will stay with us, we're all very sorry about your
father." The words came halting and formal.

Ranma nodded briefly. Akane pulled her towards the dojo, and Ranma
thought she heard a heavy, mournful sigh from Soun. Or maybe it was
just the panda, steadily pushing and pulling at the night air.

--

They entered the dojo, their bare feet quietly padding against the
wooden floor. Akane looked down at her clothes. "I'm not really
dressed for this, so maybe only a little match."

Ranma stood straight, her body motionless. "Fine by me."

Akane looked at the girl's curious stance. Akane noisily readied
herself, and getting no reaction from her opponent, opened with a
punch. She looked away, not wanting to hear the sound her fist
would make hitting into Ranma's lean body. Akane braced her fist
for the impact.

Her fist swished harmlessly through thin air. Akane focused her
eyes, finding no trace of Ranma, until her eye caught something
above her. She blindly kicked upwards, but once again hit nothing.
She felt her shorts tighten against her rising leg, and Ranma
landed, somehow melting around the blow. Akane recovered and used
her momentum to punch, but Ranma wasn't there. She struck again to
where Ranma had leaned, but a shift and Ranma was again out of the
way. Akane grunted in frustration, her mercy gone, and she charged
against Ranma. Her fist stretching out, out, out-

Akane fell forward onto her hands, her enemy nowhere. She lay
there, breathing, hearing a quiet chuckle from behind her. She
whirled to face Ranma, her anger ready, but stopped; she saw the
laughter on the redhead's face. Ranma offered her hand and Akane
pulled herself up. But the laughter wasn't between them; Ranma's
eyes made that clear.

 "Well, I'm just glad I wasn't beaten by a boy."

Ranma stopped laughing. Akane's smile shrank in response, and after
a pause she unhurriedly left the dojo, quick enough to be
purposeful, slow enough to be polite. Ranma followed suit.

--

Akane had gone to her room, leaving Ranma alone near the stairwell,
in the foreign house. After watching her climb the stairs and
disappear into the upstairs hallway, the redhead stood for a
moment, thinking.

She looked down a corridor and saw the room she had been led to
earlier.

The panda sat on the edge of the porch, his haunches on the edge of
the wood, his paws barely touching the damp grass. She stepped
through the wide open door that connected to the outside garden,
and walked to the end of the wooden planks till she stood next to
the resting animal. She stretched, noisily yawning in the crisp
night air.

"Ranma?"

She turned around to see the eldest girl holding a towel. "Wouldn't
you like to take a bath?"

"Not really."

"Ranma!" Her voice had a sharp edge to it, and she smiled. "You
must be all sweaty from the workout." With that, she forced the
towels into Ranma's hands.

Ranma returned the way she came, looking into the rooms until she
found the furo. She entered, and prepared herself for the bath. The
chill from the cold water made her more than happy to enter the
warmth. She slid open the door and climbed in. She sighed, her body
pleasantly relaxed, eyelids closed against the steam. Light and age
had faded the blue tile, but it was clean and elegant regardless.

She felt her bottom slip and her body slouched, further submerging
her into the warm water, up to her neck.

The outer door slid open, and Ranma's body tensed, sending ripples
flowing out into the ceramic walls that confined the water. She
heard the door shut, and traced the movement of the person as
clothing rustled, and the wash bucket was filled. The person gave a
female grunt as the cold water splashed from the bucket down the
person's body, splashing against the floor. Then the door to the
furo was opened, and Ranma took a glance.

"Ranma!"

Ranma quickly turned her head away, a slight red tinge on her face.
"Hello again."

"Shy?"

"Well," Ranma started, but never finished.

After a bit, Akane continued. "It's okay, you'll get used to it.
I'm always having to share with Kasumi or Nabiki."

"Those were the names," Ranma half muttered.

"Not good with names?"

"No, not really."

"Do you even know mine?"

Ranma shook her head sadly.

"Well, that's okay." Akane smiled and raised a hand to Ranma's
shoulder. "Just get used to the bath for now." At the touch, Ranma
looked at Akane and smiled, trying to focus her attention at a
point on the wall a meter behind Akane, and after a moment,
retreated back to the other direction. The hand lingered, then
dropped back into the water. Moments passed, in what could be
comfort and ease.

"What was it like in China?"

"Hmm?"

"I mean, well," Akane paused, "you were there at least a few weeks,
right?"

"Yeah, maybe a month or two." Ranma raised her head; her eyes
glazed on a wooden plank a half-meter below the ceiling. "We
thought it was beautiful."

"We?"

Ranma glanced over to Akane. "Yeah, the panda."

"The panda," Akane acknowledged. She knew there was something in
those two words beyond explanation; it was instead the lilting tone
of Ranma's voice and the soft, dream-laden look in her eyes. It was
a whole different world, bridged only by Ranma's memories.

"So you're gonna stay here for a while?"

"Might as well. Don't have anywhere else to be."

There was another silence. Ranma felt the gentle pulse of the water
against her skin; it was constant and relaxing.

"You came here expecting to be married?"

"No, my father didn't mention anything like that. He mentioned that
I should come here. It wasn't his last words or nothing, he didn't
really have any of those, not that it would've helped him any."
Ranma paused, mildly wondering at what she was revealing. "Anyway,
one of the things he told me was that I should come here. It was
lucky that he said that when he did."

"What happened?"

"Oh, to my father? A few days later he fell at one of the training
grounds we visited."

"Hmm," Akane returned expectantly.

Ranma threw her head back, resting it against tile slick from the
furo's steam. She continued, head pointed at the ceiling. "So you
go to school?"

"Of course." Akane gave the redhead a strange look. "You're not
joking, are you?"

"I knew you went. I guess I'll go to yours."

"I suppose you should. Everyone says you should get an education."

"Who?"

"Silly." Akane gave a short smile. "You know. People."

"Well, I dunno why. But I'd rather not stay in this house everyday."

"Kasumi would keep you company. And Father."

"No thanks."

"I wish I had the chance to do nothing for a few days."

Ranma dropped her palm onto the water to watch the ripples flow
outward. "Why doesn't your sister go to school?"

"She's done. She never did all that well, after Mother died. She's
really quite good with cooking and taking care of the house."

"That's right, she was nineteen."

"You know, I wanted to be like Mother, like Kasumi is now. I was
the youngest, but Mother trained me to cook and care for the house,
I guess I was her favorite, up until the end."

"When she was too sick?"

"No, it was weird, like she suddenly changed her mind and decided
that Kasumi would be the one to carry on the dojo. Kasumi was
really happy, as she'd always been mad that I'd been the one to be
taught by Mother. I dunno what it was, Mother seemed to change,
became more business-like around Kasumi, and friendlier around me,
much warmer than she'd ever been before."

"I guess she figured she needed your sister to take over right
away."

"Yeah, but she had always been so intent on me carrying on for her,
and suddenly she decided that I wasn't fit for it. Like she'd
rather I do something else. So Kasumi replaced her, and here we
are, still living with it years later."

"Yeah, it was like that with my Father near his end, although we
didn't know that, he started to lecture me about morals and stuff
that he used to call a waste of time. Some days we didn't even
fight, I guess he was just getting old."

"Ahh," Akane murmured, impressed. "I wish I was like that with my
father." She suddenly looked at Ranma. "I'm sorry that he had
to...to be gone", she finished awkwardly.

"Don't be." Her eyes focused on Akane's. "There's nothing to be
sorry about. I didn't listen to his last few talks, I just accused
him of not following through with our plan, I told him that he'd
lost the will to see me to the top. I struck him a few times, but
even that didn't rouse him."

No response came from Akane.

Ranma splashed the water with her fingers. "This is nice."

"The bath is one of my favorite things."

"Whenever we'd stay in a temple or at another dojo and Pop and I
would use their bath. Sometimes we'd go to one place over another
just because we heard one had better baths."

Akane smiled, and looked at her fingers. "I think I've stayed in
too long."

Ranma leaned over to see the wrinkled skin. She held up her arms,
her mouth smiling. "I'm even worse."

Akane reached to feel the grooves that ran through Ranma's hands.
She traced the channels, and she pushed against them, feeling the
protrusions melt back into Ranma's skin. She removed the pressure
and they reformed. "Alright." Akane rose, sliding open the inner
door and stepping out into the colder air. Ranma followed and the
two stood shivering.

Ranma jerked when she felt something scrape her back, but turned
around to find only Akane, toweling Ranma's shoulders, then moving
on to the back of the waist, then Akane's arms reaching for her
stomach. Ranma turned one way, then the other, to allow the other
girl to continue. When Akane was done, she took the offered towel
and began to do the same to Akane. When they both were dry, on went
clothes, Ranma's Chinese outfit and Akane's light blue pajamas.
Akane, then Ranma, tried to dry their damp hair with the towel. The
towel was hung up, the lights were turned off, the door was shut.

--

Ranma moved up the stairs, Akane on her heels. Reaching the top,
she stopped, causing the girl behind her to stumble.

"Ranma!"

"Oh, sorry Akane." Ranma walked away from the stairwell. "But I
don't have a place to sleep."

A large growl came from further down the hallway.

"Ah." Ranma walked towards the noise. She gave a big yawn and
stretched her arms behind her back.

"Good night, Akane."

"Good night, Ranma."

She had made her way to the room with a panda, and after seeing an
empty bedroll there, slid the door shut and turned out the light.

"Good night."

The panda grunted unintelligibly, a soft acknowledgement.



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