The Photo of the Past
By Chmia
Author's Notes: Yet again, if this had happened in the real Ranma ½ story, it would have been mentioned more often. I've always been intrigued by the thought that Akane was not the only one in the Tendou house to have learned martial arts. I had always been skeptical that Soun would have recovered from his wife's death in time to teach Akane martial arts. Akane is about twelve before her flashback. I don't know how old Akane was when her mother died, so just assume she's only been in school for a year or two during the flashback.
Now, some parts may seem OOC, but keep in mind the girls are much younger in this story than they are in Ranma ½. While Kasumi is very mature in the manga, she is only in elementary school during the flashback. Akane has been very sick and has most likely only been in school for a year or two during the flashback, so she quite different from the temperamental, independent girl she is at sixteen.
+Story+
A pile of shoji pieces fell from Soun's dresser and clattered to the floor in a rainfall of wood. "Oh no, oh no!" The young girl gasped, three fingers perched on the prize in her father's closet. The top rung of the closet had been high up for her, so she had stood on her tiptoes and had accidentally bumped into her father's dresser. Akane fell back onto her heels and froze in place out of sheer fright. Naturally, she assumed, a spur of the moment decision, that if Soun did happen to walk into his room to investigate the noise he would not see his youngest daughter if she never moved a muscle.
After a few seconds of perfect silence, the brunette sighed in relief and bent over to retrieve the shoji pieces. Once the room was in order, she reached again for the photo album. It was successfully retrieved this time with no accidents. Akane stared at the musty, brown photo album in her hands with uncertainty. She did feel guilty about coming into her father's room without asking him and for taking his things, but she really, really wanted to find a certain picture.
She couldn't open it here, not while being in the room served as a constant reminder of her guilty actions. Clutching the photo album to her chest, the twelve-year old silently crept out of Soun's bedroom. Slowly easing the door closed, she peered down the hallway. It was clear. Akane ran down the hallway as fast as she could, flung open her bedroom door, and slammed it shut. The wooden duck plate bearing her name clattered against the door. Now safely inside her room, she placed the photo album on her bed and sat down beside it.
Akane had been so young when it happened. She could remember emotions and an action and place here and there from her childhood, but she couldn't remember her mother. Kasumi and Nabiki had been older, so they had spent more time with their mother and therefore could remember more. Kasumi had tried to describe what their mother looked like, but Akane couldn't wrap her mind around the words. Even if Nabiki suddenly began to talk about their mother more often, she was certain that Nabiki's words wouldn't be anymore helpful. All three of them knew not to bring up the subject around Soun. His emotions were fragile enough as it was and neither of them wanted to see their father in pain.
Sure, he cried often enough for the silliest reasons, but the pain from his wife's death was real. His eyes would glaze over, no doubt as a memory passed through his mind, and he would often excuse himself from his daughters' company. Akane had heard those sobs, quite different from the others. The sobs were quieter and were accompanied by low mumblings and gasps of breath while Soun fought for composure.
He had to have a picture of her. He just had to! There were none in the house, so the only place they could be was in his bedroom in the photo album. The youngest Tendou opened the front cover and carefully looked at each photo so as not to miss any pictures of the woman she longed to remember. She sat on her bed for nearly ten minutes coaxing each photo to jog her memory in some way. Then, Akane found a picture, not of her mother, but of Kasumi and their father in the dojo hall.
+Flashback+
It had only been two months after their mother's death, but the girls were trying to regain some order in their lives. Kasumi and Nabiki were attending school and engaging in a few after-school activities. Akane was staying at home where she was tutored by her older sisters, when she had the strength and patience to pay attention.
The eldest could never stay more than an hour or two after school before she would have to rush home to prepare dinner. Nabiki and Akane were too young to cook and her father had not started to leave his room, yet. It was so hard cooking all of the meals. She had no idea what she was doing and only had a used cookbook from a garage sale to guide her. When she went to the store, Kasumi would take the cookbook with her and would ask one of the employees to help her find ingredients for the recipes. There were so many ingredients that she did not know. Once she got home, she had to start right away with the meal. Sometimes the whole meal would come out wrong, so there had to be enough time to fix her mistakes.
Nabiki had joined an afternoon activity or two, but often she would simply spend time in the school's library. The afternoon activities only lasted for so long, because the school assumed a parent would pick up the children by five o'clock. That wasn't the case anymore.
It was easy to throw oneself into a book, especially the business books, because it would take so long to understand the principles. There was a hidden pleasure that she was only able to read at the public library, gambling books. Nabiki no longer received an allowance, because money was no longer being made through the dojo. She tried to use gambling to make her own money. Elementary school children only had so much money and Nabiki only knew so much about gambling and business. At six o'clock, Kasumi would arrive at the school's library to pick her sister up.
Akane was the only one who had not gone back to school yet. The youngest had fallen ill a week after their mother's death and had yet to recover. Her health would fluctuate between ill and almost better every week or so. Kasumi was beginning to become very worried about her little sister and her diminishing will to get better. Her once rambunctious, trouble-making sister hardly ever got out of bed and she refused to complete her homework. She was falling far behind.
One day, it became too much. Akane needed to get out of her bedroom. Sound refused to come down from his bedroom for dinner. Once Akane heard of this, she refused to come down as well. Kasumi and Nabiki ate their dinner silently in front of the television while two untouched dinner plates rested on the dinning room table. The plates were cleared and the leftovers were brought to Soun's and Akane's room to, hopefully, be eaten.
The door to Akane's room was slowly opened and her caregiver placed the plate on the bedside table. "Akane, I brought dinner," Kasumi whispered, placing a hand on her sister's shoulder to rouse her. "I even brought enough for D-Chan." Resting in her baby sister's arms was a tattered, blue stuffed duck. A hacking cough was her reply as the youngest pulled herself upright. "Thanks." Akane mumbled, after she had recovered from her coughing.
Akane spooned D-Chan her dinner and once he was "finished", then she would eat her food. "Akane… Well." Kasumi started to speak, but faltered when her sister looked in her direction. She looked so pale, weak, and burdened by grief. It hurt Kasumi to see half of her family so distraught by their mother's death and refusing to recover from the pain. It was a constant reminder of what had happened and sometimes Kasumi feared that her family would never recover. "Would you like to come to the dojo with me? You wanted to learn martial arts so badly before … a few months ago."
The cleared plate was cleaned by an eager, blue stuffed duck. He would need a thorough washing later. Once the child's toy had cleaned the plate, the plate was held out in the air for Kasumi to grab while Akane looked passively at D-Chan. "I guess…" Came the tiniest reply.
+Scene Change+
A half an hour later, Akane stood in the middle of the dojo clad in Kasumi's old blue training gi. She looked exhausted, despite the many hours she spent in bed, but still found the strength to look in aw at the weapons and scrolls fastened against the walls. Kasumi stepped in a few minutes later looking a little discouraged. Even to teach the youngest in the family martial arts, Soun still would not leave his bedroom no matter how politely Kasumi pleaded. Either it meant breaking her promise to Akane or it meant that she would have to teach her little sister herself.
Kasumi was frightened by the concept. She could mess up so easily and hurt her little sister. Soun had only taught Kasumi for a few years and he had only done so because as the eldest, Kasumi should be the one to inherit the dojo. Even with her mother's and father's encouragement, she had never been interested. Her dolls and doctor's kit had been so more entertaining. With luck, she would be able to teach the most elementary basics to Akane. Kasumi knew her hope would be dashed, but deep down she hoped that if Akane liked martial arts enough that Soun would come out of his bedroom to teach her.
Maybe, just maybe once Kasumi could teach her no more, little Akane would be so eager to learn that Soun could become their father again. He could take them to the park and she wouldn't have to take care of the family anymore and she could go play with her friends and Akane would get better and it would be just like it was before her mother died. Only … it would be without her. She wanted to cry, but Akane was looking at her so eagerly.
"I don't want to hurt you, Akane. Please tell me when to stop." Kasumi said. Akane nodded and clumsily tried to imitate the starting position she had seen her sister use a few months before. Her memory was hazy and she was still sick, so the position resembled something similar to a drunken monkey. Raising her hand to her mouth, Kasumi stifled a giggle. Her baby sister noticed and immediately looked crestfallen and self-conscious.
This is just what she had been afraid of! Kasumi gathered Akane in her arms and tried to stifle her baby sister's oncoming tears. "Oh, Akane. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you upset. Please, stop crying." It took a little bit, but she eventually did stop and clung to her older sister. Kasumi resolved to be more careful about how she reacted to her sister's attempts. Akane was still sick after all. Speaking of which, how was she supposed to teach Akane how to take a hit or fall if she was still so ill?
"Father first taught me how to fall, but I think we should do that later. Maybe once you are feeling better." Kasumi smiled sweetly and placed a hand on Akane's shoulder. Maybe she could teach her how to throw a punch. That was simply enough and shouldn't hurt. She had to think for a minute or two on how Soun had first taught her.
Her pupil lost her concentration and began to shift back and forth. Akane wasn't sure if this was as exciting as it had first looked.
"Akane, could you copy this?"
Akane's attention was brought back to Kasumi and the beginner's martial arts world. Her sister was in a peculiar stance that did not at all resemble what Akane had tried earlier. She scrutinized the position for a few moments, then began to copy her sister's position one limb at a time. After a minute or two, she looked up hopefully with a child's eagerness to please. "Like this?" This time, Kasumi did not laugh.
"Wow, that's really close." Kasumi said, quite pleased. "Let me fix it a little bit." She reached over and adjusted Akane's hands and pushed gently against her sister's back. Kasumi was feeling better about her skills as a teacher already. Akane giggled when her sister touched her and almost lost control of her position by trying to push her sister's hands away.
"That tickles!" She protested. Her teacher laughed and instead of trying to further fix Akane's position, she began to tickle Akane's sides. She was rewarded by squeals of delight and a cheerful gleam in her younger sister's eyes. Squirming out of Kasumi's grip, Akane ran away from her sister. Kasumi, caught up in childish delight, took off after her sister. It was only a few moments later and a couple feet away before the tickle victim began to cough. "Kasumi," she whined, "my stomach hurts."
Oh no! She should have known this would happen; she had been fearful of hurting her sister from the beginning. Kasumi rushed forward to hold her sister just as Akane began to bawl. The eldest sister looked ready to cry herself as she comforted her sister and gently rubbed her back. "Shh, it's okay, Akane. I'm sorry." Akane threw her arms around her sister's neck and tried to climb into Kasumi's arms to be carried, just like when she was a toddler. Kasumi struggled to lift her sister and was able to carry her to the door of the dojo.
+The Next Day's Dinner+
After her first lesson, Akane had spent a day recovering from stomach pains and exhaustion. Kasumi was startled by her sister's more vibrant appearance when dinner was brought up to the little girl's room. She was sitting up in her bed, while D-chan gracefully flipped through the air and pummeled Akane's pillows with kicks and punches. The stuffed duck's owner was playing the role of an announcer at the world-renowned 'Plushy Martial Arts Tournament.' Without a doubt, Akane's room would be hosting the tournament for several weeks.
Kasumi's giggles were barely muffled by her enthusiastic applauding of D-chan's victory over Akane's pillow. Setting the plate of food on Akane's nightstand, she asked, "Are you feeling better, Akane?" Her little sister scooted over to the side of her bed as Kasumi sat down next to her. After Kasumi was situated, she reached over for the dinner plate. This time, there was an extra spoon for D-chan, because Akane did not want to get duck germs all over her spoon.
"Uh-huh, I'm a lot better. Could we go to the dojo?" Akane asked eagerly. The plate of food had already been forgotten about by her young, excited mind. She was already getting up to crawl out of the bed when Kasumi pushed the plate in front of her. "Please?"
Her older sister frowned and shook her head at Akane's eagerness to abandon dinner. "You need to eat first, because you are still sick. I do not think you could get better in one day after having been in bed for two months." Akane pouted and flopped back onto the bed with her arms crossed over her chest. The food on the plate bounced and the rice bowl was knocked over onto the tray. The stuffed, toy duck fell forward onto the spilled rice, which caused both of the girls to laugh.
Akane picked up D-chan, cleaned his beak, and picked up her own spoon. "Maybe I'll eat a little. D-chan's hungry and I have to feed him." Of course, he was a finicky eater, so his mother ate most of his food.
To Be Continued