Disclaimer: Don't own Ranma ½
Fanfic by Silwiyard
Sun on a hill
Nabiki trudged onward up the hill while holding her little sister's hand. The sun was pounding the ground with heat waves as it hung high in the middle of the sky.
Even with the broad-rimed hat that she had on, it was unbearable. She squinted her eyes as she looked at silhouette of her older sister leading their father.
Deciding that it would not do to be left behind she pulled Akane's hand to get her to speed up.
Whose brilliant idea was it to place the tombstone of their mother up on a hill?
A little voice answered.
You know it was a joint decision between Kasumi and you.
Nabiki mentally scoffed and made a resolution that her final resting place should be on flat ground and with a tree next to it to provide shade, after all it wouldn't do
that her guests should come sweating, panting, and turning shade of red best reserved for a Ferrari. She much preferred Lamborghini's anyway, red was such gaudy colour
in her opinion, a nice yellow or chrome is what a car should be. There was no excuse for poor style even when showing off the vast amount of wealth you had in getting such a car.
Regardless it had been exactly one week since the death of mother, Akane still asked for her occasionally before remembering and then run crying into Kasumi's arms.
Their father was an absolute mess he had cancelled all his martial arts classes indefinitely and spent his time staring at the koi pond while holding a picture of his wife.
Such was his state that Kasumi and Nabiki had had to ask an aunt to help them arrange the funeral and the tombstone. Which brought her back to her original point; why
had they decided to place it so far up the hill? Kasumi said something about how mother would be happy that her tombstone was able to look over most of Nerima.
Frankly if mother wanted to look over Nerima, she was much better doing it from heaven at least there she got a bird's eye view.
Back when they were at the hospital and had just received the news of her death, Kasumi had stepped up to comfort their family and to try to restore order. She took Akane and
went to call their relatives and mother's friends, as she asked Nabiki to look after father. Nabiki shuddered as she remembered looking into her father's eyes as he tried to understand
that his wife was no longer among the living. It was horrifying to watch as the small crack that had been created in his psyche due to mother's illness, grow and crack a once
proud man into a shadow of his former self. Nabiki knew that in that moment father also died a bit and all that remained was daddy.
Out of all three sisters she seemed to be the least affected by the death and the subsequent funeral. In fact some of the older members of the family had made some disparaging
comments about her due to her impassive face. She had remained unaffected by the gossip. Maybe it was the shock or it still had not sunk in but her mother's death had not made
her break down like it did with the rest of her family. She loved her mother however their relationship was not as close as those of her sisters. After all, in their family, she was the one
who spent the least time with her. Kasumi did all the household chores with mother when she was not in school. Akane being the youngest was simply daddy and mommy's little baby and
therefore received a capital share of their time. Nabiki besides being the middle child was also very independent and private; therefore she simply did not spend as much time with them
or require that much either. She was old enough to not begrudge Akane the attention she received, but knew that she did resent her a little. She was honest enough with herself to not
try to ignore those feelings and simply accepted them. So she had learnt to entertain her insatiable curiosity by reading any books she could get her hands on, especially any manga, and
by listening in on people to find out their secrets. "Knowledge is power" she had read in a book of quotations and was the motto she lived her life by.
Breaking out of her thoughts she noticed that Kasumi had finally stopped at the tombstone. They all gathered around, lit incense sticks, and clapped their hands as they began to pray.
Discreetly she took a peek at her father and wasn't all that surprised at the amount of tears running down his face, it reminded her of the Victoria falls which she had seen on TV. She
watched as Kasumi turned towards the origin of the small rain shower and tried to comfort him. Her attempts were sadly not working and the rain shower was nearing a crescendo and
developing into a monsoon, when Akane grabbed his hand and declared:
"Don't worry daddy I am still here for you."
Nabiki widened her eyes in shock at Akane's actions, which stopped the waterworks, and saw Kasumi give a smile to their father that said it all. Though Soun ignored the smile and only
focused on Akane. Nabiki was still watching their father as Kasumi turned to Akane, and was able to see how a small spark of life returned to his eyes. Something about his gaze
and smile felt amiss to her so she resolved to keep an eye on him.
"Thank you Akane, thank you. Thank you."
Soun repeated, like a goddamn parrot. Sometimes Nabiki asked herself how she could be related to him.
Soun then turned to Nabiki and Kasumi: "let's go home, we will visit mom again another day."
Nabiki stared at him and saw the light in his eyes dimmed. She dropped her gaze and turned to her sisters. She did not really understand what would happen to their family,
however one thing was certain. Things had changed drastically in all of them and it was permanent.
