Disclaimer: Ranma Nibbunoichi © Rumiko Takahashi. Ah My Goddess © Kousuke Fujishima, Sailor Moon © Naoko Takeuchi and none are used with permission.

Author's Note: Within one of my other stories, which goes by the current title, Acknowledged, But Never Seen, Kasumi is portrayed as effectively invisible. As I said there, it's due to the fact Kasumi's role in most of the Ranma series is notorious for being nothing more than a living prop. She has no input in the overall narrative, her sub-plot with Dr. Tofu just… ends with no resolution, and her interactions with Ranma are minimal to the point that she could be written out of most scenes without difficulty.

This story portrays her as someone who did make waves and have quite the impressive resume… but her father failed to really raise her after crisis hit the family. But a series of odd events will give her a second chance, since a lot of people have been watching out for her, and she is about to find herself in a situation which will bring out a different Kasumi Tendou...

KASUMI'S NEW PET

Chapter 1: The Mysterious Cat

Once, Kasumi Tendou had been a straight-A student, her calm disposition and friendly demeanour earning her a lot of praise from her teachers and classmates as she didn't lord her intellect over any of them, in fact helping form a study group to help out the students who were having trouble. People looked over her transcripts with glee, knowing that she'd be a shoe-in for a prestigious scholarship at Todai University. However, after her mother's death, she abruptly dropped out of school.

The teachers had been mortified, with her father simply telling them the family was in a prolonged period of mourning. Those golden transcripts were stuffed at the back of a filing cabinet, the specially laid out lesson plan for that year discarded, and when weeks turned into months, the school accepted the truth. She wasn't returning to school. A discreet visit showed she'd fallen into the role of caregiver for her father, and had no ability or time to finish her education, something she was disappointed by.

The teachers visited the Tendo home, allowing her to complete her schooling, but even they admitted her grades were, even if they still were excellent, worthless, since her current situation would mean she'd likely be stuck at home for the foreseeable future. She was not to know her father had actively planned for her to fail to get into university, due to the nature of the Tendo-Saotome agreement requiring all his daughters be home when Ranma arrived. All she knew was that she ended school under a dark cloud.

According to one of her friends, who had attempted to offer to pitch for her to go to Nekomi Technical Institute, a fairly short commute from her home, she'd developed a 'fog' over her mind, which she didn't understand, only finding that, in recent times, she'd come to exemplify the 'typhoon mindset' of the typical Japanese citizen, with a level of ignorance that put many of them to shame, her former intelligence having evaporated as she became blind and dumb to what was happening around her.

Her youngest sister was drawing anyone even remotely interested in martial arts to her, something her father encouraged, while her middle sister was running some very dubious, legally, gambling operations, as well as stoking the fires of discontent within Furinkan High School to earn the house a few thousand more yen, according to her anyway. All Kasumi knew was that she kept two sets of books, and she suspected that the one she knew the contents of had been doctored.

Her middle sister's endeavours also meant a nice gentleman from the government came to talk with Kasumi about installing a cast iron ventilated box in a discreet corner of the kitchen, with a small electronic 'sniffer' wand clipped to the side. She had to check the mail with the wand, and anything it reacted to, she put in the box and pressed a switch next to it, a light turning on, the box sealing shut for a few moments, before the items she'd put inside had vanished.

All Kasumi knew for sure was that the box gave off a dull thudding sound, the venting belched a small amount of smoke, and Nabiki went very pale when she noticed. Kasumi wasn't sure why Nabiki didn't like the box, and didn't press it. Maybe it was the fact all the letters were addressed to her, and came from the same set of addresses.

Still, Things didn't change very much for her, and she'd come to accept how mundane her life was. She still kept contact with her friends in Nekomi, but the suggestion of her attending Nekomi Technical Institute had fallen on deaf ears. And not just because she had problems getting into anywhere due to having to explain she finished her schooling through home visits. Apparently, not many admissions people, even with the best grades ever in front of them, appreciated when you dropped out of school.

It was partially since they'd not offered the types of courses she'd wanted at the time, and partially since her plans had to deal with the fact that her youngest sister was prone to snap decisions or rushing things, which only lead to increasingly expensive 'mistakes', involving the long term hospitalization of people. Never mind the fact the letters Nabiki got from that set of addresses had increased in frequency. She couldn't leave them in this state.

In recent months, That was the only reason she sent back any offer made to resume her education unopened. Because her sisters were a full-time job. She was about to start breakfast, after sorting the mail, finding it blissfully quiet, when she heard a sound that brought her to look round the house. A cat meowing.

She adored cats. But, whenever Ranma heard one of those, she ended up discreetly getting rid of the feline intruder, at the behest of herself, over the course of the following day, before he began climbing the walls. Noting the lack of minor breakages from Ranma climbing the walls, she kept looking, to find the cat sat pawing at her vanity mirror. It had reddish-orange fur, white paws and a general forlorn expression. Two things immediately started warring in Kasumi's mind, the first being her urge to put the kitten in her lap and stroke it.

She'd owned a cat in the past, which had been almost as much a fixture in her young life as her mother. But the cat grew up, it grew old and it had a minor accident with a car. However, the house also had a very clear policy with them after the Neko Ken incident came to light, and that was the fact she had to get rid of them as soon as Ranma saw it. She then noticed a very dubious catch in that policy. Ranma wasn't here to see it, so she didn't have to get rid of it yet.

That's what brought her to be making sushi for that morning, with a bowl of off-cuts ending up put aside for the kitten, which was quickly becoming not-so-forlorn. In fact, it looked very happy with it's head buried in fish.

"I wonder where she came from?" Kasumi mused, "There's no collar, and most cats wouldn't get past the front door without being shooed out."

She sighed, looking towards the kitten, ready to tell it to leave, but not planning to do so within moments. She'd fed it, It didn't look like it would need a vet, so she had to have it out of there before Ranma made an appearance. The problem with her thoughts of sending it away was that it's head noticed her hand absent-mindedly stroking whenever it was in the right position. And if her hand strayed, it moved to make sure it was in the right position again.

"Look, Kitten, you can't stay here… Stop nudging your head like that… Wherever Ranma is, he'll freak out as soon as… I said stop it, Now you're purring..." Kasumi sighed, her attempt to tell it off turning into it purring as she stroked it soothingly, "Look, there's a house rule that we're not meant to… OK, Stop being adorable, I can't tell you off if you're being adorable..."

"Kasumi! What the hell are you doing? You know the house rules better than anyone!" Akane's voice snapped, causing the kitten to yowl and run for a corner of the kitchen as Kasumi mentally pouted and began to feign ignorance of the rule she was oh-so-close to completely negating under the force of uncontrollable cuteness that was the kitten.

"Umm… Is this about me being banned from challenging Father to shogi?" Kasumi asked, in reference to a particularly obscure house rule that started after she beat him cleanly five games to none, and had not even fallen for any of his tricks, "I don't think that applies right now, He's sleeping in..."

"No..." Akane began, Kasumi about to speak, "Nor is it the rule about using the sniffer wand to check my cooking..."

"I don't break that rule anyway, Ranma started doing it, and once or twice did actually use the box on some of your cooking. Destroyed a perfectly good pan or two..." Kasumi offered.

"I'm more talking about that kitten huddled in the corner of the room," Akane stated, "You were petting it, with clear signs you were going to keep it..."

"But… But… I like cats, You know I do, and it was being adorable!" Kasumi moaned, "How can I turn something that adorable and helpless out into the streets. It's obviously a stray, and it likes me..."

Akane pinched her nose. Even at her worst, Kasumi wasn't normally this oblivious. She clearly had no plans to get rid of the cat. Even worse, she could tell that, without the reinforcement of a terrified Ranma screaming 'CAT!' repeatedly, she wasn't even caving to the usual methods. Akane then paused, as she noticed something about that last fact. That there wasn't a terrified Ranma anywhere nearby screaming about the cat, only Kasumi getting it out of the corner with a strip of fish. There wasn't even the sound of him sparring with his father.

"We can't afford to keep a cat. Mainly since the big one, nominally called Ranma, will wreck the place as soon as he meets one," Akane stated, exasperated, pausing as she looked round, "Talking of my fiancee, where the hell is that pervert?"

"Maybe he already fled due to the cat..." Kasumi offered, Both Akane and, somehow, the cat giving her a look as if saying 'Really? You just suggested that?', "Look, until he reappears, The rule is absolute. If Ranma finds a cat in the house, we get rid of the cat. There's no rule that states what we do when he hasn't obviously seen the cat..."

"But, if he's fled due to the cat, doesn't that mean..." Akane began, "Wait, I'd have heard him screaming about the cat, and there's no signs of damage to the garden by his window… Shimatta…"

"Talking of damage, Your pet pig left trotter marks on your walls again," Kasumi stated, "Now, unless there is some esoteric style similar to the Neko Ken called Buta Fu or similar, I doubt it's Ranma having a phobia for pigs, so clearly the pig is setting him off some other way..."

"Stop changing the subject, You're not keeping the cat, and that is final..." Akane stated, before calling Ranma's name and heading out of the kitchen, as Kasumi got an old pet carrier out, sighing. She'd take it to the shelter later. She had to do some shopping that morning anyway. No-one figured out why they had sushi that morning. Which was lucky for Kasumi.

She looked towards where the kitten was snoozing on a towel, having discovered a really good area by the kitchen window for sunning itself. Yes, she'd remember to take the cat when she went shopping. She had no reason to forget. None at all…

That afternoon, Kasumi was out with the pet carrier, Akane having noticed that the cat was still there after lunch. She didn't appreciate that Kasumi was reading with a furry companion, Nabiki being too busy with her contacts trying to locate the wayward Ranma, while Genma and Soun were out, ostensibly to find Ranma. However, she knew better, having noticed them sat in a local bar, having drunk away the house's petty cash again, and she'd discreetly told Nabiki they might need some financial support on the land rates if they spent much longer 'looking'.

Thankfully, when she passed the bar on the way to the pet store, they weren't there. The fact the pet shelter was a good half hour walk the opposite direction to the bar was not her fault. Nor was it that she ended up walking into the pet store instead, having noticed a cute backpack that doubled as a pet carrier. It was on sale! And it was cute! No other reason! She only was in this area because she was double-checking the bar!

Fifteen minutes later, Kasumi was wearing the backpack, the cat's head poking out of the top somewhat triumphantly, as she thought about cat names. Kasumi then noticed the cat's head in her silhouette, and pushed it's head down, only for the cat's head to wriggle back up out of the opening. Kasumi then pushed it's head back down, only for it to pop back up with a fresh sardine in it's mouth.

"Bad kitty!" She declared, smiling slightly at it's antics. She knew it was a losing battle. She was even further from planning to get rid of the kitten, which moved the fish into a better position and swallowed it in a few gulps, Kasumi pushing it's head down, for a second fish to appear in it's mouth.

The kitten clearly loved this game. Plus the fish it got each time was a massive plus in it's book. As a result, though, Kasumi just went back to the fish market and got another bag, this one ending up joining a cat bowl and other basic needs in a carrier bag at her side. She clearly needed them. She wasn't making these detours just for her own enjoyment.

It was nearly an hour later when Kasumi arrived home, noticing only her shoes were sat by the door, heading up to her room and putting the backpack down, the cat tumbling out as she put the replacement fish in it's new bowl, and set up the litter box and scratching post, Kasumi smiling as it finished off the fish, it's new collar's bell catching the light. She was not getting rid of the cat. She had no reason to get rid of the cat. And anyone who disagreed, well, she would not be happy.