Author's Notes: This story is based mainly on the manga, not the anime. In fact, I have never seen any episodes of the anime. Actually, I haven't even read all of the volumes of the manga either. I've heard how the storyline goes and I've tried to keep things as accurate to the manga as possible, but if anyone notices any glaring errors during the course of this fic, please don't hesitate to correct me. This is only the prologue, but I already have a lot of this fic planned out and drafted. Please keep checking for updates. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: All characters used in this fic so far belong to the wonderful Rumiko Takahashi. I'm just borrowing them, I promise!
Prologue
As night fell on the Tendo Dojo, bedroom lights began turning off one by one. Soon, all of the occupants inside were sound asleep except for one girl who was still awake and writing. 18 year old Akane Tendo, the youngest of the Tendo daughters, sat at her desk with a pen in hand and her diary open in front of her. She steadily wrote her thoughts and feelings onto its pages, and only stopped briefly every now and then to sigh and look at a wedding gown hanging in her closet.
That was the gown she had worn on the day of her failed marriage to Ranma about a year ago. She had spent the days leading up to the wedding believing that Ranma loved her. He had told her so when she had nearly died at Jusenkyo. Then, on the day of the wedding, he took back what he had said. The wedding was mutually called off by both of them, but their fathers would not allow them to call of the engagement as well. Secretly, that had been fine with Akane. She didn't want to call of the engagement, not really. Akane had waited so long to hear Ranma say that he loved her. She was hurt when he took it back, hurt enough to cancel the wedding, but she still loved him nonetheless. Ranma, on the other hand, did not seem to care much about ruining the wedding.
Akane knew that Ranma could be insensitive at times, but she had always thought that deep down inside, Ranma felt the same way about her. There could be no other reason for the many times he had risked his life to save her. However, here they were, almost a year since the botched wedding, and nothing had changed in their relationship. Akane was so sure Ranma loved her too...maybe she was wrong?
"No I'm not!" Akane suddenly cried, slamming her diary shut. She clenched her fists in anger, as tears streamed down her face. "Ranma loves me too, I'm sure he does. He just can't or won't admit it to himself. He just needs something big to happen to make him realize how he feels!"
Akane's curtains swayed in the gentle breeze blowing through her window. If she had looked down at the ground below that moment, she would have noticed a dark black shadow gliding down the street.