Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½

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Chapter 7: Mother's Insanity

"We're back!" Akane yelled.

"No!!!! Why!" She heard Ikuyo's father yell.

"She's my mother! You can't just go off marrying people when your still married!" they heard Ikuyo yell. There was thumping of running feet and her father tripped into view. Ikuyo jumped onto his back and dragged him out of the door Ranma and Akane had just come through. They heard the splash of water and a moo.

"Humph, that'll teach you." Ikuyo said as she walked back in. She was wearing a long red Chinese style dress and red versions of her usual shoes.

"What's the occasion?" Ranma asked as he got off Akane's back.

"My mothers coming back." She said happily.

"Your mother?" Akane asked.

"From jail?"

Ikuyo nodded.

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"I've longed to see my dear daughter again. That no good husband of mine. I'll wring his neck when I see him." Mother said.

*Flashback*

"Why, why must you take me have done nothing? Please! Give me my daughter!" a Young Tanaka called to her husband.

"You're a crazy woman! Go to jail for your bad ways!" a young Kojo yelled to his wife as he held a kicking and yelling seven-year-old Ikuyo. She was hitting him on the head with her clarinet and yelling.

"I want mama! Let go of me bastard! Take me to mama!" Ikuyo bit his hand and starting running to her mother. A policeman grabbed her and pulled her back. She started biting his arm and hitting him with her clarinet.

"Ikuyo! Ikuyo! Let me see my daughter one last time before you take me." She said to the guard. He nodded and Tanaka jogged to her daughter. Her husband came over and the policeman stepped away to let them have some privacy.

"Mama. You can't go." Ikuyo cried into her mother.

"You, husband, must promise me. You must promise that you will wait for me. Don't marry again until I'm freed. I still love you." She handed him a small letter which was wrapped in pink cloth. "When I come back please give this to Ikuyo."

"Mama! Mama! Don't go! We can kill Kiyoja together, mama!" Ikuyo yelled after her mother.

"I must go my daughter but, I'll see you again." She said as the police men dragged away the powerful miko into the carriage toward the jail.

"I-I love you too, Tanaka." Ikuyo heard her father mutter as he lowered his head.

*End Flashback*

"Marrying that monster." She said with clenched fists.

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"Hello? Is anyone home?!" Tanaka called through the house. She was wearing a green kimono and had a monks staff in her hand, stolen from one of the other prisoners.

"Hai!" came Akane's voice from the dining room.

She came in and stopped. "Who are you?" she asked politely.

"I am Tanaka, is Ikuyo or my husband here?" she asked.

Akane seemed to freeze.

"Who is it, Akane-chan?" Ikuyo came up behind Akane. She stopped dead in her tracks and stared at the woman in front of her.

Tanaka tapped the end of the staff against the hard wood floors and smiled at her daughter. "It's been a long time, my dear, Ikuyo."

"M-M" Ikuyo's eyes filled with tears as she ran to her mother. "Mama!" she cried into the taller woman.

Tanaka pattered her back and chuckled. "You haven't changed at all. Huh? What's this? You still have your clarinet?" she asked.

"Yeah." Ikuyo sniffed as she smiled at her mother. "I'm gonna kill Kiyoja."

Tanaka patted her daughters head and smiled. "I'll help." She said as she winked.

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"Come one, Pop! You can't stay in there forever!" Ikuyo yelled at him.

"NO!" he yelled.

Ikuyo kicked the door down and dragged him out. "What have you got against your own wife?" he asked.

"Kiyoja is my wife now." He said as he crossed his arms.

"Then you broke her promise. Where's the letter! Give it to me! No monster could be better then a miko as a wife. Stupid." She said as she pulled his toward the house.

"Let me tell you why I married again."

*Flashback*

"Hello, I saw what happened to your family. I am saddened for your loss." Kiyoja said. Her hair fell over her shoulders as she bowed to Kojo.

"Oh, thank you. Please come in." he said.

"Thank you." She followed him in and smiled as Ikuyo came running out to greet whoever was visiting. She stopped and glared. Clenching the clarinet in her hand she shook with anger. 12 years old Ikuyo took with a shaky hand three reeds and was about the throw them when her father grabbed her hand to stop her.

"Don't try and kill a guest." He scolded her.

Ikuyo snorted and turned as she wretched her arm out of his grip and walked back into the dojo.

She heard Kiyoja laugh evilly in the background.

*End Flashback*

"How's that a good meeting?" she asked dryly.

"Hmph. Your mother's a mad woman. Kiyoja's better."

"Yeah right! She killed my little brother and sent my sister and mother away! How's that good!"

"Excuse me." Tanaka said as she came around the corner.

Kojo gasped.

"My dear husband. Is this true?" she asked as she held the staff against her chest tightly.

"W-well. Tanaka. I've met a new woman." He said.

"Is she…beautiful?" she asked.

"No!" Ikuyo yelled.

"Yes she is!" he argued.

"Screw you! Your opinion doesn't count. Of course you'd say she's beautiful. You're under her spell!" she yelled at him.

"Am not!"

"Are to!"

"Excuse but…" Tanaka pointed the clanking staff at Kojo. "Since you broke your promise…you must die!" she swung it, narrowly missing his head. She swung again and again until she finally hit his head knocking him out.

"Crazy woman…" was his last word before he fell unconscious.

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Is that too short? Oh well. I love that I keep getting reviews. It's so much fun!!