Without You
I don't own Ranma ½ or the characters, however any OCs in here are mine!
"First, allow me to explain the university to you," Uncle Shihiro began.
"Please do," nodded Akane, leaning back against Nabiki's bed.
Uncle Shihiro shifted his position on the stool for a moment as he ran a hand through his hair. "Well, it's called the ----'s University of the All the Arts, which literally means all the arts. This school teaches musical, theater arts-if you are interested, literature arts, and-amazingly enough-martial arts."
"Wow," Akane muttered in amazement with her mouth gapping open.
"I kind of thought you would be interested in the whole martial arts aspect as your major, or even your minor if you wanted," Uncle Shihiro continued on, scratching the back of his head. He seemed as though he was trying to remember something written out for him while adding his own little comments, still the information was music to Akane's ears.
"That's great!" she smiled, very pleased that her uncle had applied her, even without her permission. "But why did he and how am I to pay for such a school?" Akane immediately began to wonder.
It was a fairly well known fact that the Tendo family didn't make much money to start with but ever since the Saotome's had taken up residence with them that there had been even less money. Plus, their money was now going to their insurance since their rates had skyrocketed because of the constant strings of Ranma's rivals destroying the place.
"As for payment," Shihiro spoke up as though the video image of Akane's uncle had just read her mind. "Payment will be provided by me and Lorain."
"What?!" Akane shouted but then she realized that everyone else in the house had probably heard it. Quickly she covered her mouth and repeated her question, this time softly. "What?"
"Excuse me?" came Aunt Lorain's voice from behind the camera. "Uh-huh, that is not how it goes…Kamui, take the camera." There was a lot of jiggling of the image as the camera switched holders. "Got it?"
"I've got it mom," assured Kaumi, straightening the camera.
Kamui was Akane's half-American, half-Japanese cousin and he was about Nabiki's age, perhaps slightly older. Then there was the younger cousin, Matsu, who had to be only about ten or eleven years old by now.
I wonder what they look like now, Akane thought since the last time she saw her baby cousin was when he was a baby.
On the T.V. screen, Akane watched as her American aunt joined her uncle's side. Her aunt was a rather young woman and one would not have thought that she would be the mother of a nineteen or twenty year old for she appeared to be either thirty-nine or forty years of age. Aunt Lorain was a fiery redhead with an Irish lineage and grass green eyes that should have belonged to the Lucky Charms Leprechaun.
"Akane honey," the woman's Japanese was off and a bit broken.
At least hers is better maintained and more easily understood than Shampoo's, commented Akane, not even repressing the smile that appeared on her features.
Once again, Akane's attention returned to the T.V. to listen to what her aunt had to say. "I will be paying for your expenses while you live with us," Lorain stated while her husband sat on the stool looking off to the side in that 'I had nothing to do with this' expression on his face.
"What?!" Akane shouted once more and this time Kasumi knocked on the door, causing Akane to pause the video.
"Akane is everything alright in there?" came the eldest Tendo's soft, concerned voice from the other side of the door.
"Everything's fine Kasumi, I'm fine, there's nothing wrong here," assured the younger sibling. At least there was nothing wrong until Aunt Lorain just told me that she plans to pay for my college fees.
"Okay," Kasumi said, "just let me know if you need anything."
The Tendo youngest daughter smiled at her sister's ability to openly offer any form of help when asked for. "I will," promised Akane and she waited to hear her sister's footsteps go down the stairs before continuing the video.
The play triangle appeared on the screen once again and the frozen picture came to life as well.
"I know this may come as a shock but I have money invested and my in heritance to use," Aunt Lorain proceeded to explain in that gentle voice of hers. One could almost have said that she was a blood relation of Kasumi's with her ability to calm almost anyone and make stressing things sound more carefree.
"Buy why use it on me?" wondered the niece softly. "Why not on Kamui or Matsu, why me?" The question was really nagging at her now because she was just their niece and the boys were their children, so why were her aunt and uncle so eager to help her?
"Don't you worry about our boys, Akane. Kamui is currently paying his way through with the inheritance given to him by my father, isn't that right Kamui?" assured Aunt Lorain as she tilted up her chin to look at her son over the camera.
Kamui did answer his mother, "Yeah, so don't worry about it too much coz. My mom has this all figured out, trust her judgment." His voice was rather deep but it held his mother's cheerful disposition to it and it just made Akane smile slightly to herself.
What choice do I have but to trust them? Akane questioned, sighing in defeat as she hung her head a bit.
"Okay, now your Uncle will tell you about the training he plans to put you through," Lorain told her niece through the video camera. She stepped out of the picture, leaving Akane's exasperated Uncle Shihiro sitting on the stool with his arms crossed over his chest.
"Oh, so now it's my turn to talk, is it? Are you sure you don't want to interrupt me again?" Uncle Shihiro inquired with a bit of bitterness in his tone.
"Shihiro-," warned Aunt Lorain from behind the camera.
Wow, Akane thought with a ghost of smile crossing her lips, that almost sounds like Ranma and I. Almost anyways. There a noticeable hint of amusement in her voice thoughts.
"Alright, Akane, as you read, I want to train you for a couple of years. In your letters over the past couple of years you have often expressed an observation in your training level and habits. Due to Ranma's appearance, apparently, you have become lax in your work outs and find yourself not improving much or not at all," Shihiro explained as a father about to give her a priority lecture.
Akane let out a groan as she shook her head ruefully, "Here it comes."
"Also, you have mentioned on numerous occasions over the years of your frustrations in Ranma's lack of sparring," mentioned her uncle, catching Akane off guard but gaining her full attention again nonetheless.
The older man on the screen cleared his throat again.
"Sorry, I have a tickle in my throat," he told her, rubbing his throat a bit. "So, since you do not seem to be getting the training experience that you want and/or need, I want to take you under my wing, so to speak."
There was a pause which Akane supposed happened because her uncle had assumed she would need a few seconds to recover from any shock that she might have felt, which was none at the moment.
"You would be training with, but not limited to, me, Kamui, and Matsu. Yes, my youngest boy does practice the Anything Goes style and he is quite good at it. So, if anything I figure it would beneficial to both of you to improve and get experience with changing your styles should you need to," continued Uncle Shihiro but Akane only half listened to the last sentence.
"Matsu is training?" Akane wondered aloud in disbelief. "He can't be more than ten or eleven years ol…well, then I suppose he would be training. I had started about the age of four so he ought to be pretty good if that's when he had started at that age too."
Figuring all that out, Akane returned her complete attention to what else her uncle had to tell her about her training.
"Of course, you would be training with my other students at the dojo three times a week." A lopsided grin crossed Shihiro's features which made him seem a bit younger than what he was. "I have two students who I would like you to meet, should you come to stay with us that is."
Of course I'm coming, the young Tendo's thoughts shouted excitedly. Just watching the video was making her want to go to the States even more, even if it was just to train with her relations.
"Oh," came Kamui's voice, snapping Akane from her thoughts. "You're going to have her spar with them?"
"Sh-sh!" directed Shihiro, putting a finger to his lips for silence.
"'Them'? Who are these students and what makes them so special?" Akane questioned in intrigue and suspicion. Students from her uncle's dojo who were obviously under her Uncle Shihiro's highest respect intrigued Akane, she wanted to meet these students and she wanted to spar with them.
"I cannot promise you that you'll be as strong, fast, and powerful as Ranma or his fiancées but I can promise improvement in your art," vowed Uncle Shihiro.
At least he's being honest and not making any promises that he can't keep, smiled Akane. She had her own experience a couple of times in the past when someone had promised to make her smarter or understand something better or even control her temper better, but it had been empty promises because she still had problems with her temper, she wasn't smarter, and her understanding of most things were limited.
"Um, honey, the battery's running low," Aunt Lorain announced, causing Uncle Shihiro to look off to the side for a moment.
"Fine, okay then…um..." he coughed a bit in a way that meant he didn't know what else to say. "Mail us a reply, by express if you can…oh, and record an interview of yourself in English, as soon as possible. The university wants to know how good your English understanding is. The questions are on the back of my letter so just answer those and…be yourself," advised Shihiro. "Love you sweetie."
The image remained on Uncle Shihiro for a few more seconds as Kamui and Aunt Lorain's whispered voices could be heard in the background. Suddenly, the image turned back into a snowy black screen, announcing the end of the recording.
"Wow," was all Akane had to say. "That still doesn't tell me how they knew about my rejections from colleges. I just sent them my letter two weeks ago and it normally takes a few months before they receive it. So, how did they…?"
There was a sudden knock on the door, making Akane jump a little bit.
"Akane, are you done with that video yet?" came Nabiki's voice on the other side of the door.
Rolling her eyes and letting out a small groan, Akane turned off the T.V. and got up to go to the door.
"Yes, I'm done," she replied, turning around and ejecting the tape before she forgot it. No good to let Nabiki get her hands on it and use this to get more money from Ranma or someone else.
Hiding the tape behind her back, Akane opened the door to find Nabiki with her hand raised to knock on the door again.
"About time sis," grinned Nabiki, eyeing the hand that was hidden behind Akane's back.
"Let's go model," sighed Akane, she hated to do this so much that she just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.
