This story was written by Ronny Hedin. I am posting it because there is no other easily available website that this story can be read on. If the author of this story wishes to talk to me about the posting of it, contact me using the email in my profile.

| A TRAIL OF BLOOD |

As Genma ran wildly, his eyes trembled with fear. Though his glance darted quickly around him, he did not register the houses that he passed, one after another, just kept looking for that one thing.

He spoke quickly, almost incoherently, to himself.

"She's coming!"

That morning, he'd had the usual training session with his son, and as always, they had both ended up in the pond. Ranma ran off to school, but Genma had stayed outside for a while, and when he'd finally trudged inside to get some hot water, the mailman had already been there.

He shuddered at the memory. "She's coming!"

As Soun held up the postcard, a few drops of sweat ran down his brow, and his hands trembled slightly. He read aloud, his voice unsteady.

"I'm coming for a visit next Tuesday. I'll be arriving around 9'o'clock. Love, Nodoka."

"Today's Tuesday," Genma said, smiling confidently. "It's a full week until she comes. Why are you worrying?"

Soun nodded, his worry slowly dissipating. He threw the postcard away, as if to show that he couldn't care less.

His hands still shook, though, and after a short flight, the card landed on the floor beside the bin, where Kasumi bent down and picked it up. She was about to discard it, when she noticed something.

"Oh my!" she exclaimed.

"She's coming!" Genma ran faster.

"Look!" she said, pointing to the date mark. "Last week!" She shook her head disapprovingly. "The postal company has been really slow."

"Aaaah!"

Genma cried out, his voice betraying the deep fear he felt.

"She's coming. She's coming. She's coming. She's coming." As he crossed the street hastily, looking but not observing, he repeated the phrase like a mantra.

The truckdriver whistled along to the happy tune on the radio. The day was hot, and his attention was only half-fixed on the road in front of him. When he noticed the middle-aged man crossing, it was already too late.

The brakes screamed in vain as the front of the truck hit Genma with a thud. All around, people turned to stare. It was as if the world had temporarily stopped. The driver watched, paralyzed, as a few drops of blood flew from the now badly deformed body, touching the ground soundlessly.

The effect was broken when Genma hit the ground a couple of yards away, jerking a few times and then collapsing as he was enveloped by unconsciousness.

Less than a second had passed, but the driver could have sworn it took him a full minute to realise what had happened.

When he finally came to his senses, he removed his foot from the pedal, jumping out of his seat. A voice cried out, "Somebody call 119!"

When the ambulance arrived, it was already too late. No doctor in the world could restore the bloody lump of meat to life again.

Nodoka held the katana high into the air, her blood on the verge of boiling.

"Where is my husband?" she asked, her voice dripping with acid.

"Er..." Soun sweated, but finally managed to bring himself to his senses. "He's on a training trip." He smiled apologetically, inwardly congratulating himself for the clever excuse.

"But I sent a card over a week ago!"

"Yes, er, but, you see, it was late. In fact, it just arrived!" He kept smiling blissfully - that wasn't even a lie!

"Hmph." Nodoka lowered the katana, a disappointed look now on her face. "I suppose my son is with him?"

Soun nodded frenetically and smiled for all he was worth.

"Well, I'll wait here for a while. At least I'll get a chance to see his fiancee."

For a brief moment, the smile dissappeared, and the Tendo father stared at her in shock. At first he looked like he was about to protest, but he decided against it and kept nodding. "Yes, that's fine." By now, he was sweating heavily. "Kasumi, can you bring our guest some tea?"

"Yes, father."

"What? ... Yes, he lives here ... Hai." Kasumi turned around, smiling as always. "Father, it's for you."

Taking the phone from his eldest daughter, Soun sighed tiredly, wondering what his friend had done now.

"Yes ... yes ... I see." Tears started welling up in his eyes. "Yes, I'll come right away. Bye."

When he had hung up, he could no longer control himself. Streams of water, seemingly endless, flooded down his cheeks. "My old friend..."

Nodoka, of course, was immediately concerned. "Mr. Tendo? What is it?"

Kasumi just looked worriedly at her father.

Finally, they managed to calm him down enough to get a few coherent words out of him. "The police ... must go to ... to ... you should come, too..."

Suddenly, Soun stopped.

"Father?" Kasumi looked at him, worry evident in her eyes. "Where are we going?"

"Here." He turned towards the building entrance.

Nodaka looked at the sign above the door. She realised this could only mean one thing, but didn't want to believe it.

"Mortuary."

The doctor motioned towards the examination table. Atop it, a blanket, stained by blood, covered the shape of a human body. The stench of death was strong in the room.

"I'm sorry about this. The body is badly mangled, so we need your help to identify it. Not a pretty sight, I'm afraid. Are you ready?"

Soun nodded, and the man removed the blanket.

The river of tears that once again starting flowing was all the answer he needed.

Nodoka was fighting back tears, too. She hadn't seen her husband in ten years. Now she never would.

"Tomboy!"

As always, they had been fighting on their way back from school, and just as they entered the dojo, Akane gave Ranma a blow with the ever-present mallet.

It took him a moment to recover. The next shock was of a less physical nature.

"M... mo... mother..." Ranma stammered. Then, he saw the sad look in her eyes, and noticed the absence of a certain person. Anger started rising from within. "What's Pop done NOW?"

A few seconds of stillness passed before she could bring herself to speak. "Oh, Ranma ... I'm so glad to see you ... I only wish it could have been under happier circumstances." She sobbed silently.

"Ranma," Soun said to the boy, "Genma ... your father ... he's dead." Once again, he started crying.

Nodoka finally let her tears out, leaning on her son's shoulder. "A ... traffic accident ... earlier this morning."

Ranma held his mother, trying to comfort her. He would have cried, too, but he could not allow himself to do that. Not in front of his mother. Even if his father had not been the best of persons, he could not dishonor his memory by making his mother think he hadn't been raised to be a true man.

It wasn't easy, though.

Ranma lay on his futon, arms fold behind his neck. It was dark outside, but he could not sleep, just stare into the ceiling, thinking about what had happened.

If he'd been asked a few days ago how he would've reacted if he found out his pop was dead, he would probably have said that he couldn't care less.

He now realized that such wasn't the case. True, Genma had done some pretty nasty things - but he wasn't really a bad man. When he threw his son into the cat nest all those years ago, it was with the hope that Ranma would learn a devastating new technique. At Jusenkyo, all he had planned was some balance training.

No, he wasn't evil - just stupid. Stupidity was not something you deserved to die for.

The door slowly creaked open, and a face peeked in. Akane. Seeing that he was awake, she proceeded to enter.

"Ranma," she whispered, "I'm so sorry..."

"Hmph." He merely snorted. "Easy for you to say. You don't know what it's like to suddenly lose one of your parents..." He suddenly noticed that her face was assuming a red color, and realised what he'd just said.

"I'm..." His voice trembled. "I'm sorry. You do." Now that his mother wasn't there, his eyes watered slightly.

Akane sat on the edge of the bed, looking at him. She said nothing, but the look in her eyes were enough to show her sympathy.

"Mother ... How can I tell her now? Father's death is hard enough on her. If she knew ... no." He shook his head sadly. "No."

Akane looked at her fiance's sleeping body, a bucket ready in her hands. _It's good he finally managed to fall asleep,_ she thought, _but..._

"OW!" Ranma screamed as he was drenched in cold water, instantly coming wide awake. "Why'd you do that? Stupid tomboy..."

"Hmph." Akane snorted, turned around and walked out of the room, muttering to herself. "If you wanna be late to school, fine by me. Not like I care or anything."

"But Pop always wakes me up early to..." He realised what he was saying before he completed the sentence. "Pop always..."

Rushing out of his room and jumping down the stairs in a single impressive leap, he soon caught up with her, a slightly apologetic look on his face.

Ranma walked atop the fence, though slightly less care-free than usual, and Akane followed below. Halfway to school, they saw Shampoo biking frantically towards them.

Some things never change - or do they?

The Chinese girl always seemed happy when she saw her darling, and this time, her eyes almost visibly formed two big hearts.

Ranma cursed inaudibly as she neared them, and his fiancee stared irritatedly at the blue-haired girl. Didn't she even have the decency not to glomp on Ranma while he was still mourning his father?

Obviously, she didn't. "Darling! You happy?" she burst out as she approached.

This took the pair back slightly, and when he'd regained his senses, Ranma managed to say in a confused tone, "What?"

"Now stupid old man dead, he not in the way, trying to make Ranma marry dumb violent girl." She stuck out her tongue at the one mentioned. "Ranma and Shampoo can get married!" She threw herself at him.

"Go away, Shampoo." Ranma's voice was cold as ice. "Go away." He broke free of her embrace effortlessly.

The girls both stared at him in shock. Even if she wasn't about to admit it anytime soon, Akane knew he didn't really like it when that Chinese bimbo tried to catch him, but he'd never been able to get free that easy before!

Even if subconciously, she had probably realised long ago that her darling didn't care for her at all, the Amazon never allowed that thought to reach out of the deeply hidden part of her mind where it originated, instead making excuses to herself. "See you later!" She bounced away, keeping up the mask of happiness.

Happosai sighed.

The old man with the enormous white beard, wearing a Hawaii-shirt, managed to give him a curious look despite the dark sun-glasses. "What's up, buddy?"

"You remember my best student?"

"Yeah, sure do!" The other laughed. "You told me he turns into a panda! Ha!"

"He's dead." Happosai sighed again.

His old friend looked worriedly at him. It wasn't like Happo to care about anything. "Too bad."

"Yeah." The old lecher had a very depressed expression on his face. "Bastard didn't even have the decency to leave any daughters for his master to comfort!"

He immediately lost his serious expression.

"So," Happosai said when they'd stopped laughing, "how's things with your student?"

"Bah. Hopeless. He can hardly distinguish a girl from a boy," Kamesennin answered, a tired look in his eyes.

Ukyou's face lit up immediately when she saw Ranma enter. It lost some of its brightness when Akane followed close behind, but still, she was glad he'd decided to drop by.

They sat down at a table, Ranma sinking heavily into his chair. Noting this, Ukyou approached, looking worriedly at his tired face and bloodshot eyes.

"What's the matter, Ranchan?" She smiled, trying to cheer him up. "Your pop die or something?" Inwardly, she sighed. That would be too much to ask for.

"Yeah." Ranma nodded.

Ukyou's heart stopped for a moment. The bastard was gone. Dead. She had to restrain herself from shouting out her joy. Ranma's current state was proof enough he wouldn't like that.

"How sad," she said, trying to sound sincere.

She was saved from having to keep up the act when the door opened and a boy entered.

"Excuse me, but could you tell me the way to..." Ryoga never got to the end of the sentence. First, he saw that he'd entered Ucchan's.

Then, he spotted Ranma.

And Akane.

And Ukyou.

As so many times before, his blood-temperature increased rapidly. "Ranma..." he sputtered, "you bastard! Doesn't it bother you at all that your father is dead!?"

A stunning silence followed. This time, he'd gone too far.

When the lost boy himself realised that, he was lying in a heap of garbage several blocks away, slowly regaining consciousness.

Ranma cursed as he reached for a napkin to dry himself (now herself) off. "Did you *have* to do that? Clumsy tomboy!"

Akane, of course, didn't like being insulted, and smashed the empty glass into his forehead, producing a satisfying crunching sound. "It was an *accident*, OK?"

The argument was interrupted when, again, someone entered the restaurant. This someone was Ranma's mother.

"Ranko and Akane? Isn't Ranma with you?"

Akane was about to answer, but her fiance was quicker. "Sorry, he already left. He's probably on his way home."

"OK. See you later, then."

After she'd left, Ranma spoke up. "That was too close. A few moments earlier and she would've seen me transform."

Akane nodded. "You won't be able to hide it forever."

"After the funeral ... I'll leave." He sighed. "You'll have to tell the others."

"Leave?"

"Yeah. There must be a cure somewhere, and I'll find it, no matter how long it takes."

Atop the funeral pyre burned the remains of what was once Saotome Genma, and around it was gathered his family and friends - and some who were neither.

Nodoka stared at the burning body of her husband, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. How proud had she not been that day ten years ago, when despite her threats, despite his obvious fear of her and her katana, he had insisted he would take their son on a training trip to make him a real man?

How much did she not regret now that she had let them go? That she hadn't tried to find them earlier?

Unknown to all but her, another fire also burned. It was in Nodoka's house, and atop it lay a piece of paper, a contract signed ten years ago by her husband and son.

Ranma's gaze was also directed at the pyre. Even he could not hold back his tears now. His father, who had been his only family, the only constant in his life, for ten years. His father, who never had anything but what was best for his son in sight, too often staring himself blind at it. His father, who should've had many years left to live. His father - dead.

Ukyou didn't look at the fire, just at Ranma. She wished she would've been able to hold him, to comfort him, but how could she possibly do that when she had so many times herself wanted to take the life of the one being buried?

_Oh, Ranchan,_ she thought, _how can you be sad? Why can't you see what a bad man he was? Why?_

Even in death, he increased the distance between them.

Akane, too, looked more at Ranma than at his father, whom she had never really known.

She'd never seen him cry before. Most likely, no-one had. She had been crushed when her mother passed away, and she at least had one parent left, which Ranma almost didn't, but still, she was surprised. They never seemed very close before.

Soun was, as could be expected, a total wreck. After just a few minutes, he had to leave the funeral. Had it not been such a sad occasion, someone would, undoubtedly, have joked about his tears nearly putting the fire out.

Not even Happosai was unmoved. Genma had been a lot of fun. Admittedly, being locked up in a cave wasn't very nice - Genma, if anyone, should see that he never meant any harm.

During his long life, though, he'd seen a lot of people die, and one more didn't really affect him much.

The body continued burning. An hour later, the flames had mostly died down, and all that remained of Saotome Genma was a pile of ash.

Nodoka stared emptily at the letter in front of her.

"No..." she whispered to herself, "No ... not again..."

Suddenly, a determined look came to her face. "No," she said sternly. "This time, I won't let it happen."

She reached for her coat.

Ranma looked at Nerima, and the place where he'd lived for the last couple of months. He sighed. Despite all the trouble, it had been a good time. He wished he didn't have to do this, but he had to remove his curse. He couldn't risk letting his mother find out.

Not for his own sake, but for hers.

He took a final look at the Dojo, and walked off.

Ranma hadn't gotten far when he heard footsteps quickly approaching from behind, and a familiar voice cried out.

"Wait for me you *BAKA*!"