Path of Destiny: Part One: Flawed Nobility

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma 1/2 (Like I could be so lucky). The character's names and likeness along with locations are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am only borrowing the characters and plan on giving them back when I'm done. All other characters and places that don't appear in the actual series (Anime and/or Manga) are of my own creation and are my property. Enjoy.

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Chapter One: Disappearance

The sun was shining on a somewhat peaceful landscape, when a roar broke through the air; "You jerk! Why did you have to say that!?" A frustrated girl with short, blue-black hair was yelling at a baggy pile of wet clothes, having thrown them and their owner into the river a moment ago. A red-haired girl with a long ponytail stands up in ankle-deep river water saying,

"I only said that I can't believe our parents still think I'm going to marry a violent tomboy, when I don't see that happening in this cen-," her words were cutoff by a few flying school books.

"I'll show you who's violent," said Akane, thru clenched teeth, "I don't want this marriage either, but I don't see any way out of it, so just live with it!"

"Well, I'd hate to see how long it would take for your cooking to kill me, that is if you don't first," Ranma snapped back, dodging one of the other girl's kicks.

Akane stops mid-kick when she realizes something, "Ranma, why didn't you catch my school books instead of dodging them?"

"Huh?" she wondered. She finds the books in the river, soaked to the seams. "They look fine to me," she told her, handing them over.

"They are not fine, you insensitive creep!" Akane said, with growing fury.

Instincts told Ranma to move, because when she looked down from the fence, Akane's fist made a splash where she had been standing in the river. "Man, you are violent," said the girl with the ponytail, unconvinced by her anger. Without waiting for an answer, Ranma heads towards the Nekohanten (Cat Cafe) for some hot water.

'Jerk,' Akane thought, 'I'd like to see your face if I was never here in the first place. You'd most likely have five or six girls; maybe ten or twenty; swooning over you, not that I care.' She wondered why she thought that. She always denies any feelings for him, but she knows that Ranma; although a jerk; can be sensitive and caring whenever she was in trouble.

Shaking of the feeling of helplessness, Akane stomps off around the corner to school.

A dark-haired guy with a ponytail walks out of the Nekohanten with a girl with long purple hair clinging onto him. "Get off me," he says.

But she doesn't budge. "Please Airen, stay with Shampoo," she pleads," I be much better wife then violent tomboy, you see."

"I'd rather be back on Nekoken (Cat-fu) training then marry you," Ranma retorts, hoping Akane would overhear.

"Fine, go with violent tomboy, see if Shampoo care," she cries, letting him go.

"Thank You," he tells her.

A sad Shampoo reenters the Nekohanten, as Ranma discovers that Akane isn't anywhere to be seen. 'Where is she?' he thought, 'she normally walks with me to school. Did I really offend her that much?' He hopes she's not too far ahead. 'Girls,' he thinks, going around the corner, but...

Ranma knows the school is a straight shot from the Nekohanten, but he does not see Akane anywhere. He goes thru the front gates, when a slightly older boy with short brown hair steps in front of him. The older teenager was dressed in a kendo outfit and had a wooden sword at his side.

"Where is the fair maiden Akane, you cur?" he asks with a hint of annoyance.

"I don't know, she went ahead of me," replies Ranma.

"Ha, figured," Kuno spats at him, "Now listen Saotome, thee better treat thy fair Akane better, unless thou wants the Blue Thunder to unleash his wrath upon thee. You don't deserve such a beauty, such a lady, such a goddess, you dog."

That did it. "I don't know what your saying, Kuno, but I deserve her more than you do!" Ranma told him, as rage swept over him. 'Wait, did I just say that I do like her; although she is cute,' he pondered.

Always unsure of his feelings, Ranma never really can tell Akane how he feels about her, afraid of her reaction to those words. So, instead he tries to hide it in his insults, and ends up getting more hurt than she does. But this was different, he never speaks his true feelings for her in public, much less to Kuno, who has openly expressed his so-called love to Akane, many times.

"You didn't answer my question, Saotome," Kuno stubbornly replies, "Where is Akane?"

"How thick can you be? I don't know where she is!" repeated Ranma.

"Maybe he doesn't," speculates the older boy, "Very well, good day, cur."

"Whatever," sighed the younger teenager.

He starts for the front door when another teenager; about Ranma's age, with short black hair and a yellow bandana wrapped around his head with a traveling pack on his back; comes walking into view, away from the school. "Excuse me, which way is Furinkan High?" he asks, without noticing who he is talking to.

"It's on the other side of town, sonny," replied Ranma.

"Oh, sorry," responded the boy, giving a shrug. Then he realizes who it was he got his answer from. "That's not funny, Saotome," he tells him.

"Sure it is, P-chan," Ranma retorts.

Flinching at the word 'P-chan', he charges at his rival. "Don't call me that!" he booms, as his punch hits air. "Wha? Where'd he go?" he says, looking around confused.

"Jeez Ryoga, you do have a bad sense of direction," called Ranma from a nearby tree branch.

"Yeah, well it's not like I can do anything about it," an annoyed Ryoga shot back.

Ranma doesn't try to stifle a laugh; when he feels a sharp pain in the back of his head. Even though he has always had a good sense of balance; from all those years training with his dad; but that still doesn't help him when he lands flat on his back from his perch. "Ohhh," he groaned.

"Hey, Saotome, you feeling okay?" Ryoga asks, a trace of worry in his tone.

"Yeah, I'm okay," lied the boy.

"Yeah, right. You always seem to land on your feet, not your back," replied his rival, sage-like. Ranma knew Ryoga was right. In all their matches, Ranma was more likely to land feet first from one of Ryoga's attacks then on his back. "So what's wrong?" he repeated.

"I don't know why, but when I laughed at you, a painful thought crossed my mind. Usually when I do make fun of you, Akane is right there to defend you, not that you need it, P-chan," answered Ranma. Before his rival could get mad, he fires a question his way; "By any chance, did you see Akane go into the school?"

"Why?" wondered Ryoga.

"Because you were walking straight down this street, while I was around the corner," replied the boy.

Ryoga responded with, "I think I saw Akane walking around the corner, and I was going to say hi, when someone passed in front of me."

"That's it?" said Ranma, starting to feel stupid. 'Why did I ask this idiot about Akane, when I would just see her in class,' he thought.

Ryoga snapped Ranma's attention back to him, "Hey, Saotome, I wasn't finished."

"Sorry," apologized Ranma.

"Well, when I looked back," he continued, "she wasn't there anymore."

"From here to the front door is at most a two minute walk," said Ranma, saying what was on his mind, "Well longer for you anyway." He holds up his hand to calm Ryoga down. "But someone passing in front of you takes at most two seconds."

"Yeah, you're rig-," started Ryoga, before Ranma interrupted him, "Are you sure you saw Akane?"

A puzzled look ran across his rival's face, he replies, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure." At that moment the late bell rang.

"Thanks," Ranma says to Ryoga before heading for the doors.

"Anytime," he called back. Before he could turn fully around, Ryoga says to himself, "Huh, he didn't hit me today, something has to be on his mind." He had just finished his sentence when Ranma slapped him in the back of the head. "What did you do that for?" he asked, turning around.

"That's," Ranma answers, "For reminding me. And this," he says, grabbing Ryoga's arm, "Is so you don't get lost on the way to the front door."

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Inside the classroom, he finds out that Akane isn't there either. "It turns out she never came to school today," Nabiki tells him. "But she also didn't return home." Nabiki had answered Ranma's thought, that maybe she turned back.

'Where could she be?' He pondered at this thought throughout lunch, not touching his food. His two friends; Daisuke and Hiroshi; tried to understand what was wrong with him.

"Come on man, you gotta eat," Hiroshi says, trying to sound encouraging.

"Nah, I'm not hungry for some reason," he lied. He knew well enough that he was hungry, and that Kasumi always makes a great lunch, except... 'Why can't I get Akane out of my head?'

He consulted with his subconscious. 'You do care for her right?' his mind asks.

'Well, she is cute when she smiles, and I like her hair the way it is now,' he replied.

Then another voice calls out, 'I do care for her and her family, very much so.' The voice was his heart.

His mind steps up, 'There you have it, Ranma, you do care.' And with that he returns to reality with Daisuke and Hiroshi staring at him.

"What?" he asks them.

"Dude, the bell rang a minute ago, but you didn't answer us," Daisuke tells him.

"Yeah, you went all hazy-eyed on us," added Hiroshi.

"Sorry," Ranma mumbles. "Hey, maybe Akane'll be home when schools done," he included with his apology.

"Never know," responded Daisuke as all three got up to return to classes.

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Overall, Ranma's day had been very uneventful when he got home. When he walked into the living room, Kasumi asks, "I got a call from school saying that Akane didn't show up today. You didn't say anything to her?"

"No," Ranma said flatly.

"Oh, sorry about that, Ranma, but Nabiki called me before lunch, and she asked if Akane came home," Kasumi told him.

'So that's how she knew Akane didn't go home,' he thought to himself, remembering the earlier conversation he had with Nabiki at lunch.

"Um... Ranma?" said Kasumi, staring at the floor, "Could you please go out and look for her? For me?"

He nodded. He couldn't understand what kind of power Kasumi had over the household, but he didn't want to upset her by saying no.

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After nightfall, Ranma wanders back to the Tendo dojo having no luck in finding Akane.

'You better be back home by now, Akane,' he tells himself, 'or else I don't know what I do.' A fleeting thought in the back of his mind says, 'If not, please be okay.'