Rage Part Four
Akane was sitting across from her father, his face a wet sheet of tears but he was not bawling. Other than the tears, he was a stoic and proud figure. Nabiki and Kasumi were off to the side of the room, along with Tofu and Ranma. Ranma was sitting by himself with an unreadable look on his face. Akane had started to scowl in his direction, but caught herself. Now was not the time to give in to her emotions. Genma was curiously absent. Even more curious was that nobody seemed to care.
Nodoka sat across from Akane beside Soun; if Ranma's face was unreadable then he had been taking lessons from her. The only indication of her mood was the look in her eyes as they refused to look upon the youngest Tendo daughter for any length of time.
The Soatome family blade and the Tendo Family blade both lay on the table between them.
Akane was having some trouble taking this seriously, the gravity of the situation not having crashed into her yet. She expected that to happen sometime after the blade was in her stomach or she asked herself where she was going to sleep tonight. Right now she was doing her best to keep her eyes on her father to keep from glaring at Ranma's mother.
"Akane Tendo, my daughter, your actions tonight have brought shame and dishonor to your family and fiancé. As fitting a family heritage as an Ancient Samurai family, we still honor the edicts of the Bushido code, the way of the warrior." The tears continued to fall but did not interfere with his speech.
"In ancient times, the Way would demand your life for such an offence, 'Death before Dishonor.' We live today though, not in the ancient times, so you are not required to take your own life to satisfy honor."
"Instead, you may remove yourself from this house and family taking with you the stain on our family honor."
"Do you have anything that you wish to say before…?"
It was on the tip of Akane's tongue, to decry Ranma and place the blame for all of this on his shoulders, but it died there on her tongue as she looked upon both her father and his mother in turn. Nabiki's words came back to her as she gazed upon the adults across from her.
Nodoka was exihibiting an iron will resolve to see this through as well as an expression that said that she was prepared to dismiss anything but what she wanted to hear.
Soun, her father, was his old self before mother died, with the façade of an iron spine firmly in place while his mask clearly showed the cracks of his true emotions. Soun never liked to discipline his daughters, he always left it too his wife.
Akane took a deep breath and as calmly as she could; spoke
"I apologize for my behavior earlier, it was uncalled for and unexcusable. I ask for your mercy." Akane's acting skills were pushed to the limit as she attempted to say the words and make them sound sincere.
Nodoka took her time before responding to the teenager's plea. Nailing Akane with a look that was invasive, looking for something in Akane. When she finally spoke, Akane jumped slightly at the sound.
"Mercy was asked and I am not heartless, you shall receive it. Honor still has its demands and this is how it shall be satisfied…"
It was raining, narrative casualty has its demands and one of them is whenever something emotional is happening, it rains. It was much later, the situation with Akane had been resolved to everybody's satisfation, or rather, Nodoka's satisfaction while everybody else were still in shock over how things had changed.
Ranma was not at home, instead she was under her bridge, just out of the rain, giving in to what her mother had referred to as unmanly. She was having a good cry and dealing with the sense of loss she now felt. An Akane shaped hole that was no longer filled and left Ranma in deeper pain than she had ever felt before.
After an hour of hiding, Ranma started to make her way home.
Things had not gone as Akane had hoped. Currently standing outside the Tendo Dojo holding a suitcase hastily packed with whatever clothes she could grab, she was angry, but too shocked to really act on the anger.
The plea for mercy was heard and taken into account by Nodoka and after a brief discussion with Soun and Tofu, it was decided that Akane would be declared Ronin until both her and Ranma were married, to other people.
After that, she was rushed up to her room and told to grab what she thought was necessary before being shunted out the door. Looking around, she could see the neighbor's windows as hidden figures drew themselves away from her attention. The loud proclamation of Soun's at the door had surely informed the neighborhood of what had happened.
With one last sigh, Akane, just Akane, turned and walked away from her old life and into the unknown.
888
"We apologize again for the events earlier, doctor."
"Apology accepted, I am just sorry that it had to happen at all."
"As are we, but the consequences of certain actions could no longer be ignored."
"Speaking of consequences, I would like to speak to Ranma tomorrow after he's had a good night's sleep."
"Why do wish to speak with my son?"
"It has been an emotional night for us all, more so for him than anybody else. I just want to make sure that he isn't adversely affected by this any more than necessary."
"I see. He shall be sent to you after breakfast."
"Thank you. Good night."
888
Ranma wasn't in bed asleep, but was rather on the roof staring up into the sky. If any one could see his face, they would have seen a troubled young man. Tears silently leaked from his eyes while doing his best to hold them in.
"I thought I would find you here, Soatome." Nabiki's voice whispered into Ranma's ear. Ranma silently regarded her for a second.
"We haven't had a chance to talk after everything that's happened. I wanted to say…" Ranma wasn't even looking at her at this point.
"I wanted to say that I was sorry. For everything that has been done to you ever since you got here."
"…"
"I know its not much, but today's shown me some things about myself I didn't like, things about my family I refused to see."
"She's gone."
"Yeah, I know."
"Do you know what the crazy thing is? I don't know if I should be happy or sad about it. Part of me is relieved that she's gone, another part is expecting her to come back and hit me again, and another part wants her too.
So, am I engaged to you again?" Ranma changed subjects suddenly and wearily.
"That would be the unspoken consensus." Nabiki said.
"Do me a favor then…"
"What?"
"Give me a little time to think. A couple of days to sort myself out."
"Sure, Ranma."
888
Akane was walking slowly, not quite sure of where she was going except away from her old life. The ringing of a phone scared the daylights out of her, especially since the phone seemed to be in her suitcase.
A quick investigation revealed Nabiki's cell and a brown envelope. Akane answered the cell before opening the envelope.
"Hello?…"
"Akane," Nabiki's voice hissed into Akane's ear. "I can't talk long, so listen carefully. In the envelope is all the information that you'll need to survive the next few weeks. I'll call you again on this phone when I have something more for you. For now, just survive and know that I love you despite what's happened."
Before Akane had a chance to reply the line went dead.
Inside the envelope was some money and an address.
Without a better idea of what to do, Akane started to seek out the address.
888
"I'm concerned about your health, Ranma." Tofu said to the young man sitting in his office. "Yesterday was a major event and I think it would be best if you were to talk to somebody about it."
"What's to say, Doc?" Ranma didn't look good, the bandage on his wrist was fresh, but was still needed and the bruises from the day before had barely faded.
"Ranma, it is obvious that something is troubling you, I've never seen you this unbalanced, not even during the weakness moxibustion incident. You aren't healing like you should be, and I mean like a normal person, I've seen you heal worse damage than this before my eyes, yet these bruises seem to linger." Tofu admonished Ranma.
"It's a lot of things, Doc. A lot of it is…was… Akane." Ranma started hesitantly.
"I know that what we had was wrong. I never wanted to be with her, but everybody made it out that what we had was perfectly normal, so I continued to put up with her and the abuse. I'm not as stupid as some would make me out to be, I did as much verbal abuse to her as she did to me, but she always resorted to hitting me.
Do you know what its like? To be in a situation where you know its wrong, but everybody around you says that you're wrong, that it's perfectly natural?"
Doctor Tofu sat and waited for Ranma to continue.
"It was weird, at first, she never wanted anything to do with me until something threatened to take me away, then she would fight like hell to keep me. Either that or it just seemed like that."
"I haven't been feeling well since before the wedding, I killed a godling for her and I thought that she wasn't coming back. But she did. After the wedding was when it started to get bad, really bad. I would always get caught in some sort of embarrassing situation and Akane would hit me or call me names, but after the wedding, I just had to show up for her to blow up. Akane would decide to cook and then hit me for refusing to eat her cooking Before she even stepped into the kitchen."
"I think that it is safe to say that Akane isn't going to be abusing you any more, Ranma." Tofu started to say.
"But what about me? What's to stop me from acting like I did with my next girlfriend? I'm sorry, I can't have a girlfriend. My next fiancé? I couldn't stop myself with Akane! You know that Nabiki is my newest fiancé? Confirmed it last night."
"I'm sure that Nabiki is a fine girl…"
"You don't get it! I don't want Nabiki! I didn't want Akane! I never wanted Shampoo! I can't make myself want Ukyo! I never wanted a fiancé! I don't want to get married! I never knew any of these girls before I was suddenly betrothed to each of them and each one expected me to drop everything and live out their fantasy lives for them! What about me! Don't I get a say in this?
I can't just tell any of them that I don't want them. I've told each of them as much too many times as it is. They don't listen to me. I'm the pivot in everybody's lives and no matter where I swing, somebody is going to get hurt or upset. It's tearing me apart and nobody seems to care."
Tofu was a little speechless as Ranma's sudden rant winded down. Maybe things weren't as good for the martial artist as Tofu had been led to believe.
888
Ryoga was lost. This was his usual state of affairs, so it didn't bother him. Ever since he had gotten back from Jusendo and played his part in the failed wedding of Akane and Ranma, Ryoga had wandered.
Right now, Ryoga was looking for the Akari's Farm. He knew where it was, but not how to get there. So he was asking directions.
"Excuse me, miss? Do you know the way to AKANE!