Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 and all character therein belong to Rumiko Takahashi. *sigh*
A/N: Okay, I know all my followers are waiting for an update to True Power or When Love Isn't Enough or Wrapped in Silk or (God forbid) the crossovers. However, I'm in the last couple weeks of my summer semester and finishing up my speech class in particular is occupying my brain a little more than I'd like. So, until the end of next week, I'll only be posting some one-shots that have been floating around in my head.
Life had never been easy for Soun Tendo. Coming from a respected family of martial artists, it had only been natural for him to pursue the Anything Goes school of martial arts when he heard about it. His family encouraged it, in fact, though his mother had been very clear about his responsibilities. By the time he began studying under Happosai, he was already courting young Kimiko Yakamoto.
Kimiko. She had always seemed nothing less than perfect to Soun. She was beautiful and spirited and found everything about him to be amusing. It was because of her that he had been able to remain with Happosai after his lechery had been revealed. Having come from a highly traditional family, that kind of behavior was completely abhorrent.
"He is quite skilled, isn't he? You were looking for a challenge, Soun-chan. Think of this as a challenge to accept the faults in others."
Oh, and she had always been wise. He could never forget that. However, as the years progressed, he hadn't realized how much of an anchor she was to his existence until she was gone and he was left flailing in the dark.
What would Kimiko have said about this mess?
"Father, I'm worried," Kasumi said softly.
Maybe that. Soun looked up at his eldest daughter and nodded. It was finally time for him to get involved. He had hoped that Ranma and Akane would figure out things on their own but this last spectacle, something he had worked very hard to align to his youngest daughter's fantasy wedding, was the very last straw.
"I'll speak to her," he assured Kasumi. "Is Akane in her room?"
Kasumi nodded and disappeared out of the door that led to the garden. Ostensibly, he assumed she meant to continue her cleaning effort of the almost completely destroyed dojo. With a heavy sigh, Soun walked up the stairs, reflecting on the past day. Though Genma had been somewhat forward-thinking in drugging his son, the Tendo patriarch had only been marginally surprised when Akane had agreed to the wedding without a fuss, before he even had the chance to tell her about the barrel of Nannichuan the Jusenkyo guide had sent. He had seen it – Ranma and Akane growing ever closer over time, usually when both he and his best friend left them alone long enough to sort through their feelings.
It would have been beautiful, Akane in her magnificent Western-style wedding dress and Ranma in a sharp tuxedo. As much as the occurrence pained him, he knew why his middle daughter had done what she did and he knew he was to blame. This dojo had flourished when it had been in business, keeping them in the black for years after the deep depression of losing Kimiko had caused him to stop teaching. And to think, teaching had been what his life seemed to thrive on before… Well, before.
He paused for a moment at the guest room, where Genma and Ranma both slept. The boy was nowhere in sight, though that could mean any one of a myriad of things, and his friend was passed out on the futon. After the Master has guzzled the contents of the Nannichuan barrel, Genma had likely claimed all the sake in the household as his very own. After all, this cure had seemed kind of like a once-in-a-lifetime thing, even to the uncursed Soun. He felt for his friend even as he felt the familiar rage directed at him for starting the series of events that had left the remains of the Drowned Man spring no more than a puddle on the floor of the dojo.
As he moved to his youngest daughter's room, he could hear her sobs, deep hiccupping sounds that indicated that she had been crying for at least an hour. He barely noticed as one hand lifted to rest over his heart but he could feel the tears in his own eyes. Every time one of his children cried, it always felt like his soul was being ripped in two, a sundering of his very spirit that he just couldn't abide. And Akane… Though she was a nearly picture-perfect copy of her mother, she was a fighter and extremely emotional – exactly like him on the inside, where it counted.
Without knocking, he turned the doorknob and let the door creak open. There were times when just walking into her room could be detrimental to his health – she was a female teenager, after all – but he thought she might want his presence this time. However, at first, he didn't see her. The room was dark and she wasn't on her bed or at her desk but he found her soon enough by the sounds of her pain.
"Akane-chan?" he called out softly.
"Daddy?" Then his arms were suddenly full of his daughter and he wrapped his arms more tightly around her as strong sobs shook her frame. He looked down at her and nearly broke into those same heart-wrenching cries himself but managed to hold himself strong, only allowing the tears to fall down his face.
He tightened his grip around his daughter slightly. "Sweetheart, I'm sorry. This is more than you should have to bear."
After a brief moment, Akane's cries tapered off and she looked up at her father. "Daddy, what… What are you talking about?"
Soun let his chin drop to his chest. "I know you never wanted this engagement. You've fought it every step of the way, both of you have."
She allowed herself to smile, just the smallest bit, but the expression on his daughter's face was like seeing the sun peek through the clouds. "If I didn't want it to eventually happen, do you think even my honor would have bound me for this long?" she asked him quietly.
For a moment, that mania that he shared with his oldest friend – the part of him that insisted that the schools could in fact be joined – broke through his barrier of sadness, causing him to grin. "Really? You love the boy?"
Scowling slightly, Akane hauled off and punched him in the shoulder. It reminded him of how strong she actually was and how much control she exercised on a daily basis. He had witnessed her shatter half a dozen concrete slats in a blow, a blow that left her fingers neither bruised nor scraped. Her punch left his skin with a slight stinging sensation, just enough to bring him back to himself, but there was no other effect. "Daddy!"
His grin shuttered down into a bemused smile. "A father can hope," he murmured.
After a moment, Akane shifted away from her father, her clenched hands suddenly tangling in front of her chest and her eyes downcast. He watched as tears began to leak down her cheeks again but he could tell that this wasn't the howling pain that he had encountered minutes earlier. This was many times worse, the quiet sadness of despair.
Soun knew that was one of his daughter's dreams. Oh, yes, her ultimate dream was inextricably tied in with taking over his school, which another year or so of training would make quite solid. But underneath that was a desire to be loved, to be loved in a way she didn't trust her own family for any longer. He was aware of his own weakness – the way he distanced himself from his daughters and how he wasn't emotionally strong enough to protect them like they needed – and he knew that Akane couldn't trust her sisters either. Nabiki was too mercenary to be trusted with intimate secrets and Kasumi's slightly ditzy nature and maternal solutions didn't exactly jibe with Akane's priorities.
"If Nabiki hadn't…" he began softly.
She shot her father a sharp look. "You know what the problem is, Daddy."
He breathed a heavy sigh, cursing the elder Saotome for perhaps the twentieth time that day. "The other girls."
Akane nodded. "But Ranma…" Her voice wavered slightly and he wondered what thought had passed through her mind before she cleared her throat. "Ranma needs to deal with it on his own. If it doesn't come from him, none of them will accept it."
Frowning, Soun passed a single hand through his long hair. "Do you think he can?"
She pressed her lips together until they were only a thin line and he could see the thick doubt in the expression. "Well, we'll see, won't we?"