Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ characters. They are properties of Rumiko Takashi and Viz Video. I hope it is mine but sad to say that they aren't. So please don't sue me… I don't have the resources to pay for it.

Author's Note:

I'm very thankful for those who have read and reviewed my first fanfiction. I'm sorry for the grammatical errors that you had encountered in my previous fic. For this one, I will bear your advices in mind so that I will commit less mistakes. However if I ever did commit those mistakes again please pardon me for my imperfections. I also want to warn you that this is the second time that I'm going to use narrate as the third person. Omnicient was not really my thing because I usually do my stories with the first person. So I apologize if I ever commit any pronominal errors. I'm babbling now, am I? Maybe I should stop now and let you go on reading …

Prologue: Rebellion

The door was a little ajar but the dimness hides the whole room from the world. It was after all 'the room' that servants and even Ranma was intimidated to enter. His grandfather was the first one to occupy the place then passed down onto his father and might be on him in the near future. It is bound to happen since the house along with the families wealth would be given to the first son of the family.

He looked intently at the door before entering. It has an intricate design and the wood is still at its best even after almost fifty years. Ranma pushed the door effortlessly then closed it.

The room was decorated elegantly. The walls hanged with authentic paintings of famous painters ranging from Michelangelo to Picasso. The leather chairs were carefully chosen to fit the executive ambiance that the room presents. His father seated at the corner near the window, puffing his special cigar on his desk was a single folder with something written on it. However, Ranma was unable to read it because of the poor lighting in the room. The single lamp desk that was illuminating the whole place was located at the farthest corner.

"Father, I'm here," he said loudly. It was an announcement that need not be said for it was rather obvious but it was customary for him to do such a thing for formality and breeding ask him to.

"Where were you this afternoon? Didn't I ordered you to be here today because I'm going to introduce you to a friend of mine?" the old man asked calmly without giving a look on Ranma's direction.

"I had known but I had an engagement that I needed to attend to," he said plainly.

"What is more important than our business? It couldn't possibly be a ten million business deal since I had called your secretary and she said you had no meeting the whole day."

"I had come to my comrade's birthday celebration."

"Who is this friend of yours that seemed more important than my orders? Is he a son of a CEO? Does he come from a well off family same as you are? Is he, Ranma? Answer me!"

"No, father."

"So you've spent your whole day on a worthless person… Now, how can I leave you the CEO position when you couldn't even be responsible for your actions and follow an order?"

Ranma did not answer. He had prepared himself for the impending anger that his father was about to blow on him ever since he took a step inside the room.

"You have embarrassed me. You've made a fool of me in front of my colleagues and no one does that to Genma Saotome except you, Ranma. You have failed me once again…," Genma said with every word spoken with authority.

To everyone, Genma Saotome is a generous man that people look up to. He has every man's desire: wealth, power and fame. However, it's all just a façade to fool everyone. One thing that is real about Genma is that everyone to him is worthless unless you can be of use to him.

To his children, he is a dictator commanding their every action. On Ranma, being the heir of the entire Saotome Company, Genma is very strict and brute. Since Ranma learned to walk and talk, Genma made known to him and everyone around him that Ranma will carry on the family businesses. This knowledge became a burden to Ranma which not only restraints his actions but also chained him to do his father's wishes. Genma forced Ranma to grow up and become a man of both refinement and intellect even in such an early age. He thought him to be obdurate, telling him that ones feelings are distractions, hindrances to his success. But thanks to his mother, Ranma had been saved from believing that false belief. For every malicious idea that Genma tries to inculcate on Ranma, his mother, Nodoka would refute it by teaching Ranma the right way. She taught Ranma to be respectful and value other people.

Ranma had been educated by the best and been regarded as one of the men when he was just eight years old. His future was set and that is taking over the Saotome Company. On his scrawny shoulders laid the future of the company and the lives and families of the company's employees. He had long accepted this cruel reality, that he wasn't just like an ordinary boy and that many depended on him. He had learned it the hard way when one day, he escaped his entire bodyguard's scrutinizing eyes when he was seven years old. For that entire day, he was so happy to be free from his tight security that he spent the whole day savoring it. However, by the time he had returned his whole squad of security along with his most trusted servants was relieve from their duties because of his escape. Since then he had tried to follow his father's orders afraid of the consequences of his disobedience.

However, this time Ranma had enough. He could accept all the responsibilities and being push around with orders but he could not get himself to agree to his father's decision on engaging him to a total stranger. His mother's pains were enough for him that he no longer wants to see someone go through the same pain. He doesn't want to be stuck on a loveless marriage just like his parents have. Marriage for him is never an obligation neither is responsibility but it is a choice, a decision for both the participant to make for it is a lifetime commitment. It was then that Ranma started to disobey his father.

"If you have not arranged something like that then you wouldn't be embarrassed."

"How dare you speak to me like that?" Genma said then landing a hard blow on his son's cheeks.

"Admit it father. If I had appeared this afternoon, it wouldn't be this petty excuse that we would be arguing about tonight instead it would be my engagement to their daughter," he spat on his father's face. The blow he got had urged him to fight back.

"Why is that a bad thing, son? I just want you to have a better future. For you to have a good wife that comes from a decent family and for me - to be free of all the qualms that may cause the downfall of our business is not a bad thing. The Saotome business would also be secure for the next twenty or thirty years."

"Yeah, it's always been like that. Always about the family business."

"What do you expect, son? That I would let you marry a nobody. What would we get from that? Nothing! Which is why I've been reminding you to choose your friends or the people you mingle with. And never let your emotion interfere with business because nothing is more important than the business."

"That's why you're offering me as a sacrificial goat just to assure the future of our company," Ranma exclaimed.

"I'm just thinking of your future, son. You can't actually hate me for doing that, right?"

"Yeah, why would I hate you? After all, you're just thinking of My Future. A future that I should be deciding, not you or anybody else but only I because after all, it's MY FUTURE and MY LIFE. So what I do with it is not your business," Ranma cried furiously.

"Why you ungrateful son of a bitch!" Genma said as he raises his hand to hit Ranma again.

With the impending blow coming toward him, Ranma did not move. He had waited for it to land because it would be the last thing that his father would ever do to him. He had already made up his mind. After his confrontation, he would leave everything behind even though it breaks his heart leaving his mother and sister. He wants liberation from his father's claws and he won't have it if he would stay behind. A normal life, that's what he dreams to have and he can have it as soon as he is out of that place.

As the blow came, Ranma quietly exited the room. He went to his room and packed a few of his things. He brought with him a photograph of himself, his mother and sister, a reminder of the persons he would miss in this place.

Walking out from the place was a major relief for him. He left a note-bidding farewell to his mother and sister. And as he stood in front of the mansion's gate, he gave one look at the prison cell that he once called home. Then he grins sardonically at the place before walking away to some place other than the place in front of him.