Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma 1/2, nor claim to.

Chapter 8: A New Day:

"The tension is here, between who you are and who you could be, between how it is and how it should be." Switchfoot: Dare You to Move

"But I have Kendo Club tryouts today!" Sakura shouted.

"Oh well." Ranma replied.

"Oh well?!" Sakura stood up at the table, slamming her rice bowl on the table. "This is the only day, and there are tons of people trying to get on the team! Just let me stay later today, and I'll take three days afterward!"

"No."

"NO?! Doesn't getting up an hour early and making breakfast for everyone get me anything?!"

"It makes up for the yelling."

"What yelling?!"

"Open your ears, and you'll hear it, Sakura." Akane replied, walking into the living room.

"Don't tell me you agree with him, mother!"

Akane sighed, sitting down next to her husband, and taking her bowl of rice. "All right, I won't say anything."

"Everyone is expecting for me to be there! I can't just not show up!"

Ranma shrugged. "Oh well."

"Oh well! . . ." Sakura sighed, before shaking her head, and sitting back down. "You know I'm just going to stay anyway and go to tryouts instead of coming home."

"Yeah, I'd been thinking about that." Ranma replied, turning to his wife. "Hey, Akchan."

"Yes, Ranchan?" Akane said, turning towards him.

"How stupid do ya think it'd be for Sakura not t'come home right after school?"

"Pretty stupid. How long do you think?"

"Four weeks, probably."

"Oooo, that would probably mean that even if she got on the team, she couldn't go to practice."

"Nope."

Sakura slammed her bowl down again. "Aw, forget it! First you take my soap, then my Kendo, why don't you stop dawdling and take my sanity!"

"We need something for tomorrow."

- - -

Auska sighed happily as she slid further down into the water. It was warm, but not too hot. She grabbed her bar of soap, and began merrily scrubbing her arms.

After a few minutes of cleaning, she was ready to get out and get ready for school. She reached over taking the edge of the bathtub, and began to pull herself out, when she slipped. Sliding back down, she knocked over the assortment of bottles on the edge.

She snatched up most of the bottles, collecting together a random assortment of hair care products, and stacking them back where they were. One of them slipped away, unfortunately, and plopped down into the water. Auska turned around, splashing water everywhere, before grabbing the purple bottle, and putting it back where it belonged. She spun around again, and reached to get out of the tub.

"Huh? That's odd." She sloshed the water around with her hands. "Where did all these purple bubbles in the tub come from?" All the water had been ringed by a large number of purple soap bubbles.

Reaching back, she grabbed the bottle that had fallen in the water. It was a purple bottle of shampoo; it was the kind her sister Sakura used. Opening it up, Auska smelled the inside. "Mmm, cherry blossoms! That's so cool! . . . I guess I spilled some, and all these bubbles appeared!"

The entire bathtub was full of bubbles, before they slowly began to pop, and disappear. "Wow, that's powerful shampoo!"

"Auska? Are you still in there?" Joseph asked from outside.

"Be out in a second!"

- - -

"Good morning, Sakura!" Sauske said, smiling, as he took his eat at the table, his whit neatly tucked and buttoned for school, and his hair in it's usual absolute mess.

"Shut up." His sister replied quietly, shoveling more food into her mouth.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

Auska bounded down the stairs. "YAY! Breakfast's ready!"

Sakura passed her sister her food, smiling slightly, before sliding back into her seat. There, she began brooding again. "Stupid parents!" she thought to herself. "I get up early to make breakfast and they won't even let me stay at school for Kendo tryouts just because some stupid girl with stupid traditions has to marry my brother! It's so stupid!"

"Come on, Auska, Amy, Joseph." Akane said loudly, standing by the front door. "It's time for school."

The three called children walked out, taking up their bags, and walking out the door. "Be back in a few minutes, Ranma."

"Okay, see ya!" he shouted back from the living room.

- - -

"Bye, Dad!" Sauske shouted as he followed his sister out the door. He heard his father shout a reply, but he was already sprinting to keep up with his sister. "Hey, Sakura! What's the rush?!"

Sakura said nothing as her brother hopped up onto the fence behind her, and sprinted up next to her.

"Sakura! What's wrong?! Why are we running so fast?!"

"What's wrong?!" Sakura shouted, glaring at her brother. "How about the fact that I have to miss Kendo Club now because your fiancée is trying to kill you?!"

"Trying to kill me?" Sauske asked, unsure of what her sister meant. "Since when?"

"After you left, she comes back, shouting about revenge, or something, and if I hadn't stopped her from going off after you, . . . who knows what she was going to do!"

"Why would she want revenge?"

"Don't ask me, I'm not part of your crazed lover's quarrel or anything! . . . Wait, she was saying something about being disrespectful . . . I don't know, she was blabbering on a lot, saying how much she hated you, generally."

"Oh." Sauske replied, still unsure what had happened last night.

The two siblings ran in silence for a while, before Sauske spoke up again. "I'm sorry for getting you grounded, and keeping you from going to Kendo Club tryouts, Sakura."

She sighed, and her pace slowed. "Forget about it, Sauske. It wasn't your fault." There was another long pause. "I'll figure something out."

The boy nodded as they ran into the school grounds and slowed to a stop.

- - -

"It's kinda weird, ain't it, Akchan?" Ranma said offhandedly as they kept washing the dishes.

"What, Ranma?" She answered slowly, stacking another cleaned bowl onto the counter.

"Oh, y'know, Shampoo and Mousse comin' back to Nerima, Sauske gettin' engaged to Aki, . . . reminds ya of back when we were their age, don't it?"

Akane paused, before giggling a bit, taking up another bowl.

Ranma paused, before turning to her. "What is it? . . . What's so funny?" Akane said nothing, but continued her giggling. "C'mon, tell me what it is? Please?"

"Well, you just reminded me of something." Akane replied, scrubbing out the inside of the bowl. "That's all."

"What was it, Akane?"

"You probably wouldn't be interested."

Ranma sighed, shaking his head. "You're just goin' to keep torturing me with this all day, aren't you?"

"You really want to know?"

Ranma nodded enthusiastically.

"Well, okay." Akane slowly let her hands down, putting the bowl back into the water. "SURPRISE!" She swung the bowl up, spaying cold water all over her husband. He stepped back instinctively, but was still soaked all the front side of his body.

Ranma swung back forward, shaking the water out of her newly red hair. The curse of Jusenkyo was free again, and Ranma had reverted to her female form for the first time in five years. She shot an ice-cold glare at Akane. "What was that for?!"

Akane burst out laughing. "You asked what I had remembered. I had almost forgotten what my 'wife' looked like."

Ranma paused, before sighing, with a small smile behind it. "I guess this is what I get for falling in love with a crazed tomboy, huh?"

Akane smiled more. "Try falling in love with a perverted transvestite. It's much harder."

- - -

"I didn't forget, Ganko! Jeeze, calm down already!" Hojo shouted, leading his friends out to their usual eating spot, underneath one of the big trees out in the school grounds. He sat down in a spot of sun, as Sauske sat across from him, his back to the tree, and Mayu on his left, Ganko, his right.

"I'm just reminding you, Hojo."

"Well, I don't need you to remind me! I haven't forgotten them for a whole month!"

"Just deal already." Ganko replied indignantly, before glancing up. "Mayu? . . . Mayu? Maaa-yuuu? Hello? Maaaaa-yuuuu? Anybody there?"

Mayu didn't stir, still staring at the center of the grass, not hearing her friend's comments, her long blond hair trailing over her shoulder.

Hojo gently elbowed Ganko, before softly speaking. "Leave it to me." He paused a moment, before taking a deep breath, and shouting. "Hey, Mayu! Hurry up! It's your turn!"

"Huh?" Mayu said, glancing up, before fumbling her hands around trying to find her cards. "What? What happened to my hand, and . . . what are we playing, anyway?"

Hojo and Ganko glanced at each other, before turning back. "Are you feeling okay, Mayu?" Ganko asked slowly, eyeing her carefully.

"Huh? Why?"

"You've never been this quiet since . . . hell, you've never been this quiet, far as I can remember!" Hojo blurted out.

"Oh, well, um, I was just thinking."

"Since when do you do . . . urk!"

Ganko smashed the back of Hojo's head with her bento box. "Moron."

There was a pause, before Hojo looked back up again, and noticed something else. "Sauske? What's with you?" The boy was staring off into space, just like Mayu was a moment before. "Did your mother make your lunch again?"

"Huh?!" Sauske replied suddenly, before shaking his head. "Oh, no, that's not it. My sister made this for me."

"Oh." Hojo replied, sitting up again. There was a long pause. "Well, then what were you thinking about?"

"Oh, nothing really, just . . . um, well, it's not important."

"Come on, you can tell us." Ganko said, leaning in. "What's going on, you two?"

Mayu paused, before sighing. "Its, um, just about yesterday."

Sauske went pale. "She . . . knows about Aki?! How?!" he thought to himself.

"What, was there more to the science project than schoolwork?" Hoko asked, before snickering. That was followed by a bento box to the back of his head, and a fist to the front of his head.

"Absolutely NOT, Hojo!"

"PERVERT! DOUBLE MORON!"

Hojo twitched a bit on the ground, before sitting up, shaking his head, smiling. "Hey, hey, come on, I was just joking. Unless, of course, I was right, then I would mean it," there was the sound of a small box of food being lifted to strike, "but we all know that's not true. So, what did happen?"

"Well, . . . have you ever seen Sauske fight?" she asked slowly.

"Of course!" Hojo said back quickly, beaming. "He beat the crud out of some kid named Naruto! . . . hey, that reminds me; Sauske, did you ever have that rematch he swore to bring to you?"

"Hojo, we fight every day."

"Oh."

Mayu turned towards Hojo, incredulous. "Wait; you've seen him fight before?! How come you never told me about it?!"

"What, you haven't?" Ganko said, blinking.

Mayu glanced back between them, before sighing. "Why am I the only one who didn't know?!"

Hojo shrugged. "Eh, it's not important. Sure, he's a great martial artist, but does that have to be . . . wait a second. Sauske." The boy in question hopped up an inch, before turning to Hojo. "What were you thinking about?"

Sauske was about to think of something to say, when three faces leaned towards him. "Uh . . . well, um, you see, it's . . . um, well, it's . . . um . . ." his mind drew a total blank, and his eyes began to wander aimlessly.

Hojo noticed his eye movement, turned around, and guessed what he was glancing to. "Oooohhh, I see." Hojo turned back, a sly smirk on his face. "I would never think you would think that, Sauske."

"What?! What is it, Hojo?" Mayu asked loudly. Sauske turned back to him, completely unsure what he was thinking.

"So, what did you two do, huh?"

"What are you talking about?" Sauske asked, blinking.

Mayu and Ganko leaned in closer. "Yeah, Hojo," Mayu continued, now very focused again, "what is it?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Hojo said, still with his sly smile. "Sauske listened to us, and asked Keira out on a date. When are you going out?"

"Really?!" Mayu said, as Sauske leaned back, blushing. "Where are you two going?!"

"Wha . . . what are you talking about?!"

"Come on, Sauske! We can tell by how bad you're blushing that that's what's going on! So come clean and tell us; we promise not to tell anyone, all right?"

"I . . . I don't know what you're all talking about!" Sauske said, blushing more.

"Something wrong, Sauske?" Ganko asked innocently.

"What do you mean?" Sauske replied.

"You're really blushing."

His face turned redder. "I am not!"

Hojo smirked more. "Did you kiss her?"

SMACK!

"STOP TALKING ABOUT ME BEHIND MY BACK, YOU PERVERT!" Keira shouted from across the school yard, her cheeks a pale crimson.

Hojo jumped up, turning around, and shouted back "WHY DO YOU KEEP THRWOING ROCKS AT ME?!" He rubbed the back of his head, and they stared each other down for a while.

Slowly, they broke eye contact, and sat down. "Triple moron." Ganko muttered.

"Four-year olds." Mayu mumbled.

Sauske slowly slid away from the tree. Fortunately, the distraction Keira caused kept everyone from noticing how far back he jumped when Hojo said "kissed". At this point in time, that was on the bottom of his list of things to talk about, only higher than "fiancée". He had gotten really lucky. "Well, I think you three are thinking there's more to this than what happened. I'm just really tired, so it's been tough to focus. That's all."

The other three looked up at him. It sounded true . . . and false. "Well, then let's play." Ganko said suddenly, snatching the cards and dealing out hands.

- - -

"What was that about, Keira?" her friend Chidori asked, as Keira sat back down with her food. "What did he say this time?"

The ninja-girl turned to say something, then froze, and began to blush vibrantly. "It's not important."

The other girl sitting with them, Kagome, shook her head. "No, wait. Lemme' guess. It's about Sauske . . ." Keira blushed brighter, "something that hasn't happened . . ." Keira blushed more, "hmmmm . . . I'm guessing . . . he said you kissed him."

Keira was completely red in the face, and she turned away in a completely failing attempt to hide her blush. "Wrong . . . he asked if I had kissed him yesterday."

"He did?!" Chidori exclaimed, huddling in. "Did you?!"

"NO!" Keira asked, some of the red fading. "I mean . . . no, I didn't."

"Why were they talking about that anyway?" Kagome asked, looking up and over at the four teens sitting at the base of the tree, now happily involved in their card game.

"I don't know. I can only hear that loud-mouthed Hojo from here; everyone else is too quiet for me to hear them unless they shout."

"Did you ask him out yet?" Chidori broke in, smiling.

Keira slid back an inch, before hunching in to protect her secret. "SHHH! Is that all you can think about?!"

"That's all you talk about."

"Wha . . . not really, but . . . anyway, no, not yet. I . . . I just haven't gotten to it yet."

"Still stalling?" Kagome shot in.

"That's not it at all!"

"Keira." Chidori said, with an annoyed tone.

"Fine. So I'm stalling; you try going up to Yoh and telling him you have a crush on him, and see how easy it is."

"Touché."

- - -

"Well, Akane, I'm going." Ranma said, sliding open the door.

Akane walked out, brushing her hair behind her ear. "All right. See you in a while, Ranma." He smiled, walking down the path and out to the road. There, he turned, and began his trek to Shampoo and Mousse's new home.

Akane smiled, watching him go, with a small wave of goodbye. When Ranma disappeared from sight, she turned back, walking into the house. "I guess it's all up to me now."

After cleaning all of the floors in the house, Akane finally took a break. She sat down at the table with her tea, letting the aroma soak into the room. Glancing up at the nearby clock, she sighed to herself. Everyone is going to be home soon. She took a long sip from her cup, before letting her shoulders drop. "Better enjoy it now." She thought to herself.

" . . . bwee . . ."

Akane glanced up, looking around. That sound she had just heard faded away, and so she turned back to her tea.

" . . . bwee . . ."

Akane jumped up, angry at the new sound for some reason. She couldn't tell what it was, but it sounded very familiar. "Probably the front door." She muttered to herself, walking out into the hall.

" . . . bweee . . ." THUMP!

"Whatever it is, it's banging on the door." She thought silently, and grabbed the front door, and flung it open, looking out. Nothing.

"Bwee . . . . eeeee!"

Akane looked down, and there was a frightened little black piglet. Not any ordinary piglet, though. This one had a bright yellow bandanna tied around its neck. Her little P-Chan.

"Hello, Ryoga." She said coldly, picking him up. "Lost again?"

"Bwee." The piglet squealed, nodding.

Akane held him for a moment, then sighed. "Come on, I'll get some hot water." She brought him upstairs to the bath, and left him on the floor. "Wait here." She commanded. Ryoga sat, unmoving, as Akane left the room.

Five minutes passed by. Nothing.

Another five minutes passed. Nothing.

Suddenly, the door swung open. Akane walked in, carrying a small stack of clothes, a large metal basin, and a kettle of hot water, the steam flowing out the spout and flooding the room. "All right, here you go, Ryoga. I have some of Ranma's clothes you can borrow for a while, too."

After placing everything on the floor, and filling the pan with the hot water, Akane left, closing the door behind her. Ryoga sped over, clambering up, and rolling into the water. Once human again, he stood up, and grabbed the clothes Akane had gotten him. Then, he left the room out the door Akane had gone through.

Akane grabbed him by the arm. "Come on, let's go, Ryoga." Ryoga was dragged away, down the stairs. "I'm guessing you want someone to walk you home, right?"

Ryoga, still being pulled through the house, nodded. "Bu-but you, um, you don't, uh, need to, Akane, if you, er, don't want to."

"It's fine, Ryoga." She replied, dragging him out the door, and closing it. On the door was a note left for her children, and with the house now taken care of, she led Ryoga away.

After several minutes of walking, Ryoga was finally able to wrench his arm free from Akane's grasp, and he followed her as they walked through the streets. He rubbed his arm through Ranma's red shirt, but said nothing.

The silence continued for several minutes, as they passed people, buildings, and places that each had their own distinct memories. Too many of them, both Akane and Ryoga noticed, were not the ones to think of right now. Too many had P-chan.

Ryoga couldn't hold it in any longer. "A-A-Akane?" The girl turned her head just enough to see him with one eye. "I-I just wanted to . . . say sorry for . . . the whole P-chan . . . thing."

"Ryoga, I know. You've told me that hundreds of times already." She replied, turning back away from him. "Besides, it was a long time ago."

"Do . . . does that mean you really do . . . forgive me?" he asked, as if saying it quickly would get him in more trouble.

Akane half-glanced back. "Forgiven? Yeah. You're forgiven. But that's all."

"Mea . . . meaning?"

"Meaning I still hate you."

Ryoga felt that ice bolt go straight through his heart. After a moment, though, he recovered. "All right."

Akane glanced back more, a questioning and angry look on her face. "What does that mean? Were you really expecting me to completely forget about all that?"

"Well, no . . ."

"Good! Because I'm not going to. You lied to me, Ryoga, and took advantage of me! I still hate Ranma for not doing more to tell me sooner! So what are you expecting me to do?!"

"I just thought . . . um . . ."

"Look, Ryoga! It's over. It happened a long time ago. Now, do yourself a favor and stop bringing it back up, so you have a one in a million shot that I'll actually forget it completely, and we can go on living happily, OKAY?!"

"Um, okay." Ryoga whispered back, shrinking from the woman's rage.

"Good!" Akane shouted, and turned back away. Almost immediately, her anger broke down to shame. All those memories came up again, having been buried as deep as they could go.

She was ashamed to have missed it all. Ranma's insults at Ryoga, giving away his secret; the bandanna tied around the pig; the strange appearances of one, and then the other. Why had she been so stupid?!

She shook her head, trying to force away the last memory or P-chan and Ryoga she had buried. But it came back anyway. The silence behind her only made the thoughts more powerful and clear. There were no distractions. She didn't want to remember the time she found out the truth. The only problem was, she did, and it wouldn't stay away any longer.

Next Chapter: The story of Akane, Ranma, and P-chan is revealed, and Ranma's newest fear takes place while he's away.

Well, that's another chapter done. And to say the same clichéd every writer uses: please give me reviews. I've got more story to come, and I'm open to suggestions and comments. Anyway, on with the reviews:

Sleepingbear: Wow, two reviews! Thanks for taking the time to write all that up, and I'm glad you liked this story so far. As for there being to many characters at once, I can understand that, but it's not easy when almost every character has a number of brothers and/or sisters. And as for the adults, that's something I haven't thought much about in detail, like the Kunos, but I'll try to have them play more active parts in the story. And as for the upcoming events, including the curses and how they got them, along with Aki and everything else, well . . . you'll just have to wait and see.

Hibiki Ryoga:

Age: 38

Occupation: Assistant trainer at Unryu Ranch.

Strength: 5

Stamina: 4

Speed: 2

Ki: 3

Aura: 1

Special Techniques: 2

Ryoga has gone through a lot since he met Ranma, and has gone through much more since Akane and Ranma finally agreed to their engagement. As for his appearance, he grew a quarter of an inch, his hair has grown out a tiny bit, and his body has become a labyrinth of scars, with more injury stories than anyone else from Ranma's childhood has. Including Ranma.

As for his martial arts growth, he has grown at a phenomenal level, almost equal to the amount of growth Ranma has made. His physical strength is over twice the level of before, and his endurance has grown in proportion. While this has allowed him to remain on par with Ranma, he has not been able to learn any new techniques beyond the Bakusai Tenketsu and Shi Shi Hodokan, along with his specialized weapons, the weighted umbrella, the bandannas, and the ribbon belt sword.

Over the years, and after many of the issues following Ranma and company were settled, Ryoga continued to battle with Ranma, if less for revenge, and more for the simple challenge of it. And while Ranma has won almost every one, Ryoga has been able to keep up with Ranma, even as he creates new techniques that Ryoga has no idea were possible. While Ranma uses his creativity and ingenuity to design new techniques, adjust older ones, and fight in ways never before seen, Ryoga uses what he knows, and then subtly adjusts it to compete with others' ingenious attacks.

While battling with Ranma has contributed much to his fighting over the last two decades, many of the injuries he has lived through were caused by Akane. After she discovered the fact that he was P-chan, and after it all sunk in, Akane spent most of her meetings with him on the attack. Eventually, however, she has begun to remain calm around him, although they both try to never meet alone, which often causes more arguments than anything else.

The other person greatly affected by the revelations of P-chan was Akari, who was engaged to Ryoga at the time. The whole turn of events between Ranma, Akane, and Ryoga bothered Akari, and so their relationship was almost shattered over the course of the next several months. However, through the suffering and trauma, things began to work out, and after seven months, Akari had forgiven him almost completely. After several more months, they were married, and life went on.

Out of that broken and mended couple came two sons, Kite and Naruto. And while there were never any real problems, their family was a bit unusual. The main reason was that Ryoga still had no sense of direction. That meant that his possibility of being with his family was completely random. While his ability to find his way around his home has improved, Ryoga still consistently gets lost, which means the family is quite used to being separated. However, whenever Ryoga is around, with the exception of a fight or two with Ranma, his whole life revolves around being with his family.

In short, Ryoga has changed as much as the world around him. He has gained a family, gained a new level of martial arts power, and gained many memories that he sometimes would wish to forget. This is not to say that all of Ryoga's life was suffering. Quite the opposite; however, the darker days have a tendency to stand out more prominently. But despite a few family problems, Ryoga's life has finally found a place to finally relax in.