Sometimes the difference is minor. This time a meager four inches, four inches that made a huge difference. I'm sure you are familiar with the situation, a young high school girl, Akane Tendo by name, turns at just the wrong moment. A moment before, a young man of similar age, one Ryoga Hibiki, had performed an amazing feat, turning a cloth belt into a razor sharp weapon with the intention of cutting his opponent, Ranma Saotome, in half. Disarmed with a well-placed kick, the belt blade spun through the air like a propeller. Ranma called out to Akane, and she turned to give him a piece of her mind. The belt blade came down, four inches behind Akane, right where her hair was whipped out behind her. It was a bad cut. The hair trim changed some things, most of all helping her get over her crush on the kind doctor Tofu.

Who knows what went different. Maybe Akane stood up straighter, maybe a gust of wind blew the belt a little closer. Whatever happened the belt fell four inches shorter. Not so grim dear reader, Akane was still unhurt, but the razor-like belt cut much closer, missing by less than a quarter inch. No matter how you view it, it's...

- A Closer Shave -

by Uriel Godfire

"...you and I are strangers!!"

Akane felt a breeze as the belt sliced past the back of her head. Everyone froze in shock. Slowly, she reached up toward what was left of her hair.

"A...Akane...", one of her classmates broke the silence. Realization struck.

"You all right Akane?" Ranma knew this wasn't good. It was close, too close. "Did it get ya? Are you hurt?" Only a blank stare in response.

"Looks OK to me."

"Ryoga!" Ranma was furious. "How insensitive can you be? Didn't you see how close that got to actually hurting her? Just look at her hair!" The hair at the back of her head was shaved very short, les than a pinky's width.

"Feh! she didn't get injured, did she? What's the big..." Ranma's fist slammed into his face. Ryoga flew back at least five meters before sliding to a halt. Ranma's female body just shook in anger.

"Did ya see that?"

"Wow man, she's like totally pissed."

"He deserved it, the insensitive jerk!"

"You'll pay for that Ranma!"

"Shut up and listen jerk! I don't care what kind of hell you've seen, it don't give you the right to put innocent people in danger!" Ranma's cold stare was enough to keep Ryoga down. "If this is the kind of person you really are, then you deserve whatever crap you've gotten yourself into!"

"Ranma...", a trembling hand came to rest on his shoulder. "It's all right." Akane's voice was quiet. "I just want to go home now."

"Sure thing Akane, I'm sorry."

Ryoga just stared up at the sky as the two walked away. Had Ranma been right? Had Ryoga lost all sense of what was important. Surely he didn't deserve all the hell he'd been through, but then she didn't deserve what almost happened, or even what did happen. She was even indirectly helping his cause of ruining Ranma's life, and what did she get? She got a brush with peril and a horrible haircut. Ranma couldn't possibly be right. The only thing to do would be to get lost for a while and think it over. He'd find the evidence to prove Ranma wrong and then he'd come back and make life for the villainous Saotome a living hell.

Ranma felt like hell. He couldn't shake it. It's a martial artists duty to protect the innocent. It's a martial artists duty to keep the fight away from the bystanders. It was his duty to protect Akane, and he had failed. It wasn't one of those huge failures, she wasn't hurt, but it was enough. To top it all off, it was his fault. He kicked the belt into the air, and he made Akane angry, and it was even him that had called out to Akane just before she turned around. This kind of thing wasn't supposed to happen. It was supposed to be just Ryoga and himself, not Akane. The worst of it was watching Akane walk down the street ahead of him. It might have been at least a little better if she was stomping down the street angry, that he could deal with. He could just take his lumps, and they'd all move on. Akane wasn't angry, she was quiet. Not crying, or dragging along, just quiet, with a blank look. Akane was still in a kind of shock, operating on autopilot, and Ranma didn't know what to do about it.

Akane stopped, the puddle at her feet reflected her face back up at her. A few hours ago it would have been framed by a full head of hair, and now there were only a few loose strands, uneven and hanging out from the sides. Where her ponytail would have been hanging over her shoulder there was now emptiness. She'd finally gotten it long enough, even longer than Kasumi's. She'd been growing it out for years now, no one thought she looked boyish anymore. That would all change now. It wasn't fair. The reflection was broken by a ring of ripples, then another. Some small part of her was aware of Ranma standing a little distance behind her, and a small voice tried to tell her not to cry in front of him, but she was past caring. With the tears slowly rolling down her cheeks, she ran home.

As Ranma walked in the front door of the Tendo home, he could hear Akane's door slamming behind her.

"Welcome home Ranma," Kasumi chimed from the kitchen. "Was that just Akane? She didn't sound too happy."

"Yeah." Ranma didn't really know what to say. How do you tell someone that their sister almost got a deadly spinning belt blade through the top of the head, loosing almost all of her hair in the process? Even worse, how do you tell that person that it was your fault?

"Well, there is still about an hour an a half until supper. I'll be in the kitchen if you need anything."

Ranma kicked off his shoes and headed up the stairs to his room. This was too much, he had a lot of thinking to do. Never before had it really occurred to him that people's safety was really at stake. Sure, he'd seen people get hurt before, he'd rescued people from rampaging beasts. It was always just what he was supposed to do, what true martial artists did. They fought other martial artists, and protected the helpless. There were no questions before, no reasons to ask why, or how come. For some reason, Ranma just couldn't stop thinking about it all. What was so different about what happened today with Akane, that it made him think? For probably the first time in his life, Ranma didn't know what to think.

Akane just sat in front of her small mirror. What was she going to do? Even before, her hair was longer than this, how was she going to fix this? A little part of her tried to get her to think about how close it was to actually hurting her, how close she came to serious injury, even death. That was a thought she was avoiding, covering it up with more trivial things like her haircut. First mother, then Kasumi had always cut her hair when she was younger, maybe Kasumi could do something about it now. Taking a deep breath to firm her resolve, she headed down stairs. Quickly and quietly past the kitchen and family room, she went around to the bath. Retrieving scissors, comb, hand towel, and the small hand mirror, she headed out back around to the kitchen. Just outside the kitchen, she hesitated. Kasumi was inside preparing vegetables for dinner, but this had to get done. She stepped in.

"Kasumi?"

"Yes Akane?" She hadn't even turned around.

"Well, you see..."

It's at this point that Kasumi turned around. It's also at this point that Kasumi freaked out. The bowl of vegetables went flying into the air, her hands flying up, "ah!"

Ranma had headed down stairs to talk to, well, anyone about what happened. Seeing Akane entering the kitchen with Kasumi, and hearing the surprise, he dashed into the room. With an amazing feat of agility, he caught the flying bowl, and all of the vegetables.

"I was wondering if you could fix it up?"

Kasumi was in shock, her mouth tried to respond, but her brain gave it no words to speak. The only word she could get out, "what?"

The first tear gathered at the corner of her eye, "I was..."

"It's my fault." Both girls finally notice Ranma's presence.

"but..."

"I was careless during a fight."

"but..."

"I'm sorry. Do you think its salvageable Kasumi?"

Akane and Kasumi just stared at Ranma. Kasumi took the scissors from Akane, then the towel. She looked at the hair. Akane just took on a sad, but maybe relieved look, Kasumi could fix this. Kasumi continued to look at the hair, so little that there was. Ranma and Akane waited patiently. Kasumi slowly handed the scissors back, and the towel.

"I'm terribly sorry Akane." She bowed deeply and quickly left the kitchen.

This is wrong. Kasumi was supposed to fix it. Everything was supposed to be all right. What is she supposed to do now? Her whole world is collapsing around her. A surprise fiancé, with a magical curse no less, is better than her at her own thing, martial arts. This strange guy pops up from nowhere to challenge him to a fight, and it's unlike anything she'd ever seen. Now with her hair all in a fix, Kasumi couldn't help her. She should be angry, she should be destroying cinder blocks, or beating on wooden dummies, but she can't. It keeps coming, so fast, just when she's about to get used to it, it changes. That's it, she's done.

The vegetables skittered across the floor and the bowl spun to a halt. The unconscious Akane Tendo caught in Ranma's arms.

"Kasumi? Mr. Tendo? Pop? Anyone?"