"Dear, I... I don't know what to do. I have tried everything I can think of to get them together. Ranma and Akane just have to get married. They have to. I don't know how much longer they have. If only you were here. You would be able to get them together. Without you, I j-just can't..."

Soun's hands fell to the earth as he could no longer control the emotional pain. He bowed his forehead to the ground and continued to cry in painful, whimpering, sobs for several minutes. The sun was setting, and the last rays of sunlight were streaking thru trees onto everything. Soun Tendo was on the outskirts of Nerima, in on the grounds of a Buddhist temple. More precisely, he was in front of the tombstone of his dead wife.

"I have to make sure the future of the dojo is secured, so I can do what is necessary protect them. I wasn't able to protect you, and I will never live a day without remembering that. I don't know if they are capable of protecting themselves when it comes. As both of us know, my dear wife, I have to protect them. Nothing is more painful than the loss of innocence."

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Broken Hearts, Mended Souls
By
Nuclear Twinkie

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Disclaimer: I don't own any right to the characters in this story. No rights to them at all whatsoever. Non-profit writing for fun is all this is. What else do I have to say? Well, you told me to say this so I wouldn't have to eat Akane's cooking. The horror! The terrible pain! The... Akane! Hi! What a nice day this is for... Akane put that down. Akane don't do it! Akane, NOOOO!! --SMASH--

{ } = Character Thoughts
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Akane grabs her backpack, rips open the door, and slams it as she thunders her way out of the Tendo household. She exits the gate and turns down the street. The angry look on her face is readily apparent to any who see her. Long-time neighbors and residents of Nerima quickly scatter and hide.

{I can't believe after all the times I have tried to cook for him he still insults me! Doesn't he know how hard I work to make good food? Just once I wish he would respect other people's feelings. He's acted like this since the first day I met him. The first night he stayed here, after the pervert saw me in the nude, he goes and insults me. At that point, he had never even seen me before. I still remember what he said too. "And I'm better built to boot."}

Akane stops momentarily, looks up at sky and screams, "AAARRRGGGHHH!!!" Her head drops down so she now looking at the ground. {Yelling actually helped a little. I think I'm starting to feel better...}

Akane suddenly looks up and starts walking to school again. {No I'm not. What is it with that idiot? One moment I think, impossible as it seems, we might be connecting; then the next he's back to his rude and obnoxious self. I thought he actually had some feelings for me. Why is he still always like this? I remember what happened on Mount Phoenix. I was hurt. I felt so helpless, and then I heard him. "I wanted to tell you that I love you!" I heard him say it. At least I thought I did. I was conscious the entire time, but wasn't able to move. When Ranma said that, I was able to move and react again. Later, he denied ever saying anything like that. Did he really say it? If so, did he really mean it?}

Akane stops again and sighs deeply. She doesn't seem nearly as angry anymore. She appears to be deep in thought, paying very little attention to the world around her as she continues walking to school. {I wish I knew. Sometimes he makes me so angry that I wish he never came to Nerima. I absolutely HATE him when he's like that! There are other times when it's different though. Those times, I wish that he... hope that he would...}

"Akane Tendo?" Akane slowly brings herself back to reality to see four boys in school uniforms now surround her. They don't appear to be Furinkan uniforms, and all the boys are wearing masks over their face to cover their appearance. They also seem rather large for high school students.

"Huh?" {Who are these guys, and what the heck do they want? I'm not in the mood for this today.}

"Are you Akane Tendo?" the boy in front of her says.

"Yes, I am." {What is this about? These guys better back off; I am REALLY not in the mood for this today. After dealing with Ranma, if these guys try and start a fight...}

Without warning, all four of the boys drop into fighting stances and immediately attack. Akane, being much faster and skilled than the boys attacking her, immediately defends herself. She jumps forward at the boy in front of her that was talking and passes him. Well, all of Akane but her fist passes him. Her fist gets the speed of her move and her strength into the boy's solar plexus. He flies into the air and lands in a heap about 10 feet behind where he just was.

{What the heck is going on? I thought this ended when Ranma defeated Kuno.} A second boy comes at Akane from her left side. Akane jumps into a spin kick and solidly connects to the second boy's head. He crumples to the ground unconscious. Akane lands facing the two remaining boys in the fight. One pulls a steel pipe and the other pulls out a knife. They both start to slowly separate as they cautiously advance on her.

{I don't know who these guys are, but I they sure aren't ordinary high school students. I've got to take care of them quick, and watch out for that knife in the process. I'll take out the guy with the pipe first so I can focus on that knife.}

Akane charges the boy, ducking under a swing at her upper torso. Now in a crouching position, Akane kicks a foot up into the boy's abdomen. As he goes flying backwards out of the fight, the fourth boy dives in and attempts to cut her with the knife. Akane rolls out of the way and comes up into a fighting stance.

{These guys are seriously trying to hurt me. Why?} Akane screams, "Why are you doing this?"

Without a word, the boy comes in for another attack. He attempts a straight, quick jab at Akane's stomach. Akane swiftly dodges to the outside and grabs the boy's arm before he can even finish the attack. Akane deftly twists the boy's arm until he drops the knife, and then throws him across the street into a wall. He slides down the wall unconscious.

Akane turns around to find the two boys that she left conscious have vanished. Akane yanks off the masks of the two remaining attackers. {I don't recognize either of these guys, and I would be willing to bet neither of them are young enough to be in high school either.} She quickly looks around and runs off to school. {This is serious. These guys actually tried to hurt me. I have to tell someone. Wait, if I tell Ranma, he'll be stalking me for the next two weeks just to make sure I'm OK. If I tell daddy, he won't even let me leave the house. I have to tell someone who won't freak out about this whole thing. Maybe Nabiki can help. If I can keep her calm long enough to explain nothing really bad happened, she would probably help me without blowing it out of proportion.}

Akane slows to a walk as she approaches the school entrance. {What's going on? Usually, the courtyard is fairly empty by the time I get here.} As she is looking at courtyard filled with students, she notes that most have moved onto the grass. Small groups huddle under what trees have survived Kunou and Ranma's battles. A few stand waiting by the main doors. {Fire drill? Broken water main?}

"Akane!"

{It's Yuka and Sayuri. They'll be able to tell me what's going on.} "Why is everybody out here? What's wrong?"

Yuka and Sayuri are standing near the entrance with a couple of other girls. They are all in school uniforms. Sayuri's dark brown hair tied into a ponytail with a red ribbon and Yuka's long, light brown hair hangs straight down her back.

Yuka looks unusually happy to see Akane. "I knew today was going to be a good day. Thanks for showing up early. I told you she'd be here, Sayuri. I'm going to go collect my winnings from Nabiki. Thanks again, Akane!" Yuka waves goodbye as she runs across the courtyard.

Akane is starting to look annoyed. {What a horrible day. I had to deal with Ranma, those guys, and now Yuka is acting really weird.} "Sayuri, could you please explain what Yuka was talking about."

"She was feeling lucky this morning and placed a bet with Nabiki saying you would be 15 minutes or more early today. The return on that bet is quite large I hear. She'll probably end up buying lunch for you today with the winnings."

"Early?" Akane looks up at the large clock on the front of the school. {Wow, I'm almost 20 minutes early. How did that happen? I guess between almost skipping breakfast and running all the way from that fight I actually got here on time. Not even on time, but 20 minutes early. I don't think I've done that since Ranma showed up. The idiot. Oh yeah, I need to talk to Nabiki. Wait, I can't do that here at school. I better wait until I get home today.}

"I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it for myself. I figured you would have gone off after Ranma this morning like you usually do." Akane turns and looks at Nabiki. She's in full business mode, with a serious, almost unemotional glare. There is a slight bit of surprise and shock hidden behind that mask of business-like efficiency.

{Go after... Wait, she's not thinking what I think she's thinking, is she? This is Nabiki, which means she probably is.} "Nabiki, why in the world would I go after that insensitive jerk? Especially after what he said this morning! He deserved to be hit into low earth orbit. I hope he landed a nice large body of cold water."

"Really? You're not even the slightest bit concerned about him?" Nabiki had that tone of voice that indicated she was teasing her sister, and enjoying it.

"Of course I'm not concerned about that jerk. Why would I be?" {Oh yeah, got to make sure Nabiki is home after school today.} Akane proceeds to grab Nabiki's arm and drag her off away from the other girls. Akane then whispers, "Nabiki, there's something important I have to talk to you about after school. Could you go home right after school today?"

A smile appears on Nabiki's face as she continues to talk in that same, teasing tone. "This doesn't have anything to do with your fiancé, does it?"

{Geez, she's still teasing me.} "Nabiki, it has nothing to do with Ranma. I just need to talk to you right after school today. It's really important. Please, sis?"

Nabiki's teasing tone disappeared. "OK sis, I'll be there. You're usually not this serious, Akane. Is something wrong?"

"Everything's fine, Nabiki. I'll talk to you later." Akane turns around and starts to walk back to her friends.

Nabiki looks at Akane as she walks away. {Yeah, right Sis. Everything's fine. Right. Only Ranma lies worse than you do. Let's see how much I can find out before tonight.} Nabiki Tendo, the girl with more connections than some crime bosses, purposely walks off with a fact-finding mission to complete.

Akane walks up to Sayuri to see Yuka is back. Yuka seems ecstatic about her winnings as she talks to Sayuri. "Sayuri, this is great! I got a 5-1 return on that bet, and I put down 2000 yen! Hi, Akane. Thanks again for showing up early today. Please let me buy you lunch. It's the least I can do."

{Well, at least Yuka is happy. I should be happy too. I'm just going to forget about Ranma and the bullies and worry about that stuff later.} "Thanks, Yuka. Wait, you just said 5 to 1 odds against me being here early? Which means you've got quite a bit of money. Hmm, which expensive restaurant should I choose for lunch?"

Sayuri starts giggling, as Yuka seems to panic. "Akane, I meant I'd buy you lunch here. Please don't make me take you to some expensive restaurant."

Sayuri, restraining the urge to giggle further, says, "Yuka, you're taking Akane out? I didn't know you were that way." This sends both Akane and Sayuri into another round of giggling.

Yuka now looks slightly hurt, even though it appears she is trying not to laugh with her friends. "Hey! It's not like that!"

Akane stops laughing and puts a hand on Yuka's shoulder. "We know Yuka. We were just teasing." Akane then puts both her hands over her heart and bats her eyelashes at Yuka. "It's just... this all so... so sudden."

"AKANE!!!" Yuka states loudly. After a second or two, all three girls burst into gales of laughter as they walk into school.

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Author's Notes: Thanks to Harold Ancell, Kit, and Roja-Cyd for help pre- reading this.

[UPDATED 05/09/02] Final draft. This is a major re-write of an earlier fanfic that did not start so well. I think this one is much better. Please e-mail me with opinions, criticisms, and suggestions. Please be constructive with all C&C. I don't mind being told what someone doesn't like, as long as they provide some direction to make it better. (ntwinkie@effectnet.com)