Authors Notes: Thanks to Drifter950 for an idea that I will incorporate into the next , and I'm sorry to say, probably final chapter in this tale. FTFCHRIS is correct, I suppose I let their final night in 'Yesterday' be a bit on the lackluster side. I actually went back and made a small modification to Ch 16 based on his comment. TFCHRIS is also correct that Kasumi originally did push Ranma away, but like Ranma, she grew through this story as well.

Even though this fic is almost done, I'm seriously considering doing a sequel. I'll give more details after the next chapter. I like the idea, and I have to admit, I'd like to continue this story with a sequel, only because I've really enjoyed how well Ranma and Kasumi came together.

As always, thank you very, very much for all the kind reviews. I've said it before and I'll keep on saying it, it has really helped motivate me to try to write the best story I could. When I started this story, the one thing I vowed was that I'd finish it because I hate stopping in the middle of a great story when the author has left it for one reason or another.

Chapter 20

The next morning's meal saw a repeat of the day's before routine, only this time Kasumi was in the kitchen making breakfast for Ranma. After the morning meal the real fun began.

"So Pop, when is Mom coming over?"

"She said she'd be here mid-morning. I'm not sure why you seem so eager to see her."

Ranma ignored his father's question. "You sure about that Pop, I wouldn't want to have another...discussion with you?"

Genma made warning signs, "No, no, she'll be here."

"Good. Hey Kasumi wanna spar for a bit before Mom gets here?"

"Certainly Ranma, let me change and I'll join you in the dojo"

Nabiki turned to Akane and her father and whispered. "Now this we gotta see. Kasumi sparring with Ranma?"

"He'd better not hurt my baby!" Soun began to wail.

"Hey Ranma, mind if we watch" Nabiki asked.

"Sure, just stay by the door and you should be all right."

They followed him into the dojo and waited for Kasumi to show. In a few minutes, she came in wearing some Chinese style clothes that fit her well, but let her move with ease.

"Nice outfit sis! I wouldn't have thought it your style, but it actually looks quite good on you. Souvenir from the Amazons?" Nabiki asked.

Kasumi glanced down at her outfit. "Why, thank you Nabiki. These are all we had to wear for a time, and I found I rather liked them. I believe these are silk."

Yeah, and worth quite a pretty penny I'd guess thought Nabiki. "Very nice" she concurred.

Kasumi had a cup of water in her hand which she handed to Ranma. He dunked his hand in the water triggering the change, and re-adjusted his outfit. He turned to their audience. "We alternate, one time with me being male, the next female. Our last spar was with me being male."

"Why is that?" asked Soun.

"With nobody else to spar against, at least this way Kasumi had to learn some variation on her attacks and defense, plus it keeps me in shape as well."

Soun nodded. "Hmm, I see, good idea Ranma. Please continue."

The two girls went to the center of the dojo and took there positions. The three Tendo's expected to see some beginner level sparring with Ranma teaching Kasumi a few moves. Akane had told Nabiki that Kasumi had gotten in a 'lucky shot' the other day, so they didn't expect to see too much. Just the fact that Ranma was sparring with their sister was enough to have them want to watch.

There was no signal from the two women, one moment they were facing each other, the next they were quick blurs within the dojo, only becoming easily visible when they hit a wall or floor to change direction. What they witnessed made Akane and Nabiki sit on the floor, and Soun vow to resume his training after such an inspirational display of skill. The only time the two girls on the mat seemed to be vertical was when they both began. Once they started moving, it was as if gravity was turned off in the dojo. The blur of kicks, thrusts, blocks and blows came from all angles at any time. There was no pause in the combat, it was a continuous flow of energy, with both Ranma and Kasumi bouncing off walls, ceilings and floors and at some time hovering in the air. The cracks of blows made all three of them wince, but they could tell by the smiles on the occasionally glimpsed faces of Ranma and Kasumi that they were both having a great time.

Eventually, Soun sat down with his daughters and stared at the continuing display of the Art that dwarfed anything he had ever witnessed before. Since they were indoors, Ranma and Kasumi had agreed to avoid special techniques and Ki based attacks out of concern for the dojo. Never the less, they were making support beams creak as they continued to bounce off the floor, walls and ceiling.

They continued with the display for over an hour. Akane no longer felt bad that Kasumi had managed to hit her the other day, now she felt bad that she was so hopelessly outclassed by her formerly quiet sister. It's not fair, he never, ever even started to help me train, and now look at Kasumi...

Several time during the practice, Nabiki and Akane exchanged looks of disbelief. The two girls and Soun knew that the two of them had to be gone longer than a month. It was hard enough to see how much better Ranma had gotten, but to see Kasumi at this level was beyond belief!

When it was finished, the two fighters stopped in the center of the dojo and bowed to each other, then walked over to the three on the floor. Nabiki noted that neither one of them seemed to be sweating or breathing heavily.

Soun, surprisingly, was the first to speak. "Kasumi, Ranma, never have I seen such a display of skill in my entire life. I'd dare say that even the Master couldn't keep up with the two of you. When Genma and I promised to join the schools, I never thought that I would be so impressed, and so surprised that it was my oldest daughter to do so. It would be my honor to recommend the Master to certify you both."

Ranma grinned and said, "Thanks for the compliment Mr. Tendo, but Happosai has already certified me. I beat him yesterday in a match while everyone was out. Kasumi has the paperwork in our room."

Nabiki had a look of pure horror on her face. She jumped up and shouted. "You what! How could you? Do you know how much I could have made from taking bets on that fight?" She turned to her older sister. "You let him cost us a fortune!"

Ranma just shrugged, and Kasumi said "Sister, the fight wasn't for money, it was for Ranma to have the right to teach Anything Goes."

Nabiki just stood there looking wounded, and Akane's temper was at a medium boil by now. "You jerk! All that time you wouldn't fight with me, and then you go off with my sister and teach her!"

As she reached up over her head, Kasumi cleared her throat and stared at her younger sister. Akane stopped in mid-grab and glared at Kasumi, trying to bluff her way into pounding Ranma once again. Instead of the kind, passive look she used to see in Kasumi, she now saw steely conviction that caused her to slowly lower her arms.

Kasumi relaxed and spoke to her sister. "Thank you Akane. Ranma and I were placed in a unique situation, and I asked him to teach me. It took a long time for me to convince him, her to train me. I'm sure if you had been patient, he would have done the same for you."

Akane could only stare at her sister. "Are you kidding, he's a jerk! He doesn't care for anybody but himself."

Nabiki stood there shaking her head. "Akane, even you know that isn't true. How many times has he helped you out, or some of his other friends. Oh he may be a dumb jock, but he's not a jerk."

Akane was about to respond to Nabiki when they heard Nodoka come into the house.

"Hello. Is anybody here?" They saw Nodoka approaching them, and Ranma quietly groaned to Kasumi.

"Now Ranma" she whispered, "you know you're going to have to do this."

She turned his head and whispered back "Yeah, but it doesn't mean I'm going to like it."

Nodoka came to a halt standing above Nabiki and Akane. She gave a quick disapproving look to Ranma and said "Ranma, it's good to have you back, but why are you...as you are?"

"You mean being a girl? 'Cuz it was my turn to fight Kasumi as a girl, it gives her practice fighting two types of opponents." He knew what was coming, so he might as well not avoid it. "Why?"

"We've talked before about your condition." She made a sour face at the word 'condition'. I know I've accepted this curse, but I don't think you should be so comfortable with it. I'd expect you to try to maintain a proper image as much as you could."

Ranma sighed, he knew he would have to face the same old ghosts when he and Kasumi returned, and this was one of the most unpleasant.

Nodoka noticed the subtle signs of her son's posture becoming more tense, but chose to ignore the warning signs. "Son, how are you going to be the best Martial Artist in the world if you remain a girl? You need to focus on your image if you want people to take you seriously. You may be good, but I fear you are lacking focus..." she frowned at her son turned daughter, and waited for her reply.

Now if Nodoka had just seen the display that Ranma and Kasumi had put on, she would have never uttered those words, but the fact was, she arrived just a few minutes late. Instead, her unthinking analysis crystallized Ranma's understanding of not only what she wanted now, but how she came to this decision. It had been a long time since she thought about the days leading up to their banishment, and now was the time to explain it to everybody.

Ranma looked up at his mother unflinchingly. "Mom, long ago, I realized that I was becoming something I didn't want to be, a One-Trick-Pony". He saw the look of incomprehension shadow her face. "It means somebody who is single-faceted, they only do one thing well, and can't really do anything else." Ranma paused as she sought out the right words. "The worst thing was, I was trapped in a cycle I couldn't break out of. I may have realized that I was too focused on Martial Arts, but the commitments, no the problems" she corrected herself " that I had to face every day kept me locked in a trap I couldn't get out of. Oh, I may have realized I had a problem, but it would have taken a miracle and a lot of time to break me free of the vicious cycle I was in." She looked around at everybody. "Kasumi and I weren't sure to tell you how much happened while we were gone. One thing I think you do need to know is that we were gone longer than the month you thought we were gone."

Nabiki arched an eyebrow. "Ranma, I'd believe it may be a bit more than a month, after all, that display that you and Kasumi gave earlier is proof enough, but you couldn't have been gone that long, you don't look any different than you did a month ago."

Kasumi decide to jump in, knowing that Nabiki would be more likely to believe her on this topic. "Nabiki, we were there for over twenty-two years. For some reason we didn't age in that world, but we were there for a very long time."

Ranma could see the look of disbelief on their faces, but continued her explanation. "The miracle that I needed to break me free of this place was that scroll, and the time I needed to get my act together occurred while we were trapped there."

Now the looks of disbelief were replaced by looks of doubt, with a few whispers between some of them.

"That's right" Ranma continued, "we were there a long time, but to you it was only a month. I learned a lot while I was there." She grabbed her wife's hand "Actually, we both learned a lot, but what I learned started the week before I left, and I realized what that week meant while I was gone."

Akane interrupted, "Wait, when you said you were married, I thought you just brainwashed Kasumi the first week, grabbed a ring, and then boom!, you decided you were married."

"Brainwashed?" she said incredulously.

Now Akane was on familiar turf. "Yeah, you know, hypnotized her, found some diabolical potion, something like that. There is no way the Kasumi I knew would have married a pervert like you. She had way too much class to lower herself to your standards. Humph!" She crossed her arms in front of her, waiting for Ranma to deny his pervertedness.

What she didn't expect was for Kasumi to come to his aid. "Akane, it was nothing like that at all. We had been living with each other..."

"WHAT!" they all cried.

Kasumi raised her voice just a bit, but for her it was yelling. "Would you people get control of yourselves! Of course we lived together. There was nobody else! Do you expect I'd live in a house all by myself, with no pets, no noise, just sit there in silence? Ranma was the perfect gentlemen, almost too perfect." She turned to her and smiled. "I thought he'd never come around, I was getting a bit worried."

Ranma's blush said a lot. "Ah, come on Kas-chan, I just didn't want you to think I was some kind of pervert..."

"That you are not." She said, and turned to Akane again. "I have never known a more chivalrous man, no matter which form he was in. You were a fool to mistrust him, and I thank the Kami every day that you did so. As for 'lowering' myself to his level, I have never known a more thoughtful, caring and kind person. I consider it the greatest of honors that he feels the same about me. All he needed was a little trust to bring out his good points"

Nabiki couldn't contain herself any longer, and really didn't want to hear Akane go into another of her rants. "Go on, go on, tell us about the rest. Akane, let them finish!"

Kasumi continued her tale. "Well, it took a while before he ever showed any romance, and he required a lot of encouragement. With time he finally let his feelings show and then one day..."

-- Flashback--

He pulled out the small black felt box and opened it, showing the heart-shaped diamond ring inside. "Kasumi Tendo, will you marry me?"

Kasumi stared at the beautiful ring. Leave it to Ranma to find an unconventional ring that said more about his feelings than words ever did. Ranma didn't know what type of rings most people got, he just picked one that he thought she'd like the most.

Several conflicting emotions surged through her. On the one hand, she wasn't that surprised. She'd been hoping for this moment for quite a long time. Her stay with Ranma had shown her that he was a wonderful person, full of life and excitement. Whether they stayed here or returned didn't matter to her, she'd be happy anyplace if it was with Ranma.

On the other hand, she was overjoyed that he'd come to make this decision. Unlike his earlier life, where people were constantly driving him and coercing him and his decisions, in this world, she knew he made this decision on his own. She had always been careful to not push him into this path, if he did this, she wanted to know that it was all his idea. The fact that he'd done so meant so much to her.

She reached down and took the ring. "Yes Ranma, I'd be honored to be your wife." She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. When they came up a few moments later, Kasumi said "Tradition has it that you put the ring on my finger."

"Oh" he quickly said. "I'm sorry." He took the ring from her and placed it on her finger.

She looked down at the sparkling ring, and then back at her fiancée. "Does this mean I'm now part of the fiancée brigade?" she laughed.

Ranma quickly grew serious. "Bite your tongue Kasumi. They aren't and never could be in your league. What happened before was due to my ignorance, but that won't happen again. You are my one and only, my first true fiancée. You are the only girl I have ever asked to marry me, and you'll be the only one I'll ever ask."

Kasumi glowed with the praise. Before their time here, Ranma would have never been able to be so open and honest about his feelings. She knew what Ranma had been through, and knew how much the words meant. "Then once again, I accept. I'll be your first true fiancée, and I'll be your wife. I couldn't be any prouder to be Kasumi Saotome."

-- End Flashback --

"...and that's how we became engaged." Kasumi finished. "We got married nine months later."

"Wait!" said Akane, "who married you?"

"Well nobody actually, we kind of married each other" Kasumi responded. "It seemed the right thing to do. We wanted to be married before...other things...occurred."

"Wow" Nabiki breathed. She turned and punched Ranma in the arm. "Not bad Saotome, didn't think you had that kind of class in you. Not bad at all."

Akane had grown extremely quiet as the reality of the situation had set in. Ranma had finally chosen, and it wasn't her. She hadn't tricked her sister, they'd actually fallen in love.

Ranma wanted to get things back on track. "The point is, I've been gone a long time, and I've had a lot of time to think things out."

She turned to Soun. "Mr. Tendo. I feel I have fulfilled the promise that my father made for me so long ago. The schools have been joined."

She heard her father start to dance behind him and quickly added. "However, I should let you know that Kasumi and I are not planning on staying here. Nerima is not our home any longer, it hasn't been for a long time, and aren't planning on staying here for much longer. If we stay, not only will the Nerima madness start up, but every Martial Artist wanting to make a name for themselves will show up wanting to fight, and I don't want that kind of madness anymore. I want to start a new life with Kasumi, Akane and whoever she chooses can have the dojo."

There was a shocked silence all around. Ranma and Kasumi not staying? Ranma not wanting the dojo?

Ranma's mother was the first to step in, and promptly inserted her foot in her mouth, possibly proving that the Saotome foot-in-mouth disease wasn't just from Genma's side of the family. "Ranma, I understand from your father that you and Akane were promised to be married, and that you would take over the dojo. Your attitude is most un-manly about this, and I suspect that Kasumi may be an unwelcome influence on you. It seems you are shirking your original responsibilities, and it also seems like you are accepting this curse you have far too easily. First, I demand you change back this instant! Second, since you don't have any marriage papers, the marriage didn't legally take place, and you can still marry Akane as you are obligated to do."

Kasumi could feel the chill emanate from her husband's arm. She knew she was using the Soul of Ice technique to keep her anger in check. She had a hunch it wouldn't work...

"ENOUGH!" she yelled. When she did so he used an Amazon technique to put Ki into her voice that made the listeners have little choice but to follow his instructions. Even her mother cringed at the outburst.

She glared at her mother. "Mother" she began. "I am as old as you are, and I dare say much better informed that you are. It's very simple really, Kasumi is my wife! I make my decisions, and I am leaving, and none of your or pop's dreamed up honor claims mean squat to me!"

"Now son, you don't know what you're saying. The Art is your life, you don't want to walk away from having a dojo at this point." Genma saw his retirement plan continuing to crumble. It was bad enough that the insurance companies had demanded their payments back once word got around that Ranma hadn't died, but now his plan of living off his son and the Tendo's was vaporizing as well.

"Quiet!" she shouted again. "I'm not saying I don't care about Martial Arts, I do. It's just that I have more to live for than just that." She looked at Kasumi. "I have her. She's the most important thing, and because of her I have many things that give me pleasure. I like to cook, I like medicine, I like working with wood, I like to go on walks for no reason, and yes, I still like Martial Arts, but the Art doesn't drive my life anymore, I control it. I don't need to wander the earth looking for any more Martial Arts techniques, I know enough to last me my lifetime, I want to have a life with my wife now, and I'm not sure what comes next, but WE" she squeezed Kasumi's hand for emphasis. "will decide, not you, not mom, only us."

"Ranma, you will not talk to me that way..." Nodoka began.

Ranma cut her off. "Mom, I said it before, it is very simple. You get to choose, accept me as I am or leave me alone. You get to choose, but you don't get to control. I'm not anybody's puppet, or plaything" she glanced at Nabiki and Akane "anymore."

He looked to see if anybody was going to try to argue anymore. On hearing silence, she decided she'd add a second tirade. "And another thing, I'm not the only one that was treated poorly around here, Kasumi's not takin' it anymore either. We'll pull our weight around here until we leave, but she isn't your maid and cook. She won't take it, and I'm not lettin' her take it any longer. NONE of you deserve her! Hell, all any of you cared about was that once she came back your free maid and cook service would begin again."

Soun started to argue. "Now see here Ranma, Kasumi was just taking care of the house, she is the oldest after all."

Ranma whipped around to face Soun. "Look, I respect you for raising your daughters without your wife, and you did manage to produce Kasumi, but Mr. Tendo, you all slacked off and let Kasumi here do all the work around this house. Oh sure, it let you have fun with Pop, Nabiki and Akane could have fun at school, but where was Kasumi going? Nowhere! It would have meant that each of you would have had to help out more, and that just wasn't going to happen was it?" There were several uncomfortable movements from the audience, but nobody disagreed.

"Look, we're still you family, but we're not the same people we used to be. If you treat us poorly, we're going to tell you to take off! We both learned so much while we were gone, there isn't going back to the way things were. I've taken care of most of the loose ends, and you guys are the last threads. It's your decision."

She turned to Kasumi and said "Come on Kasumi, lets go for a walk, I've had enough of this for a while."

They turned and left the dojo, leaving a stunned set of family behind them.

--

After Ranma and Kasumi left, Nabiki was the one to break the silence.

"Well, I've seen enough. I believe 'em. I don't think they've told us everything that happened there, but I think what she said is true, our little Ranma and Kasumi have grown up."

"Nonsense, they are just confused, we need to just straighten things out." started Genma.

"Are you really that big of a fool?" Nabiki hissed.

"Nabiki, I don't think that is a proper for you to address my husband" Nodoka interrupted.

Nabiki turned to Nodoka. "Your husband is a fool, I've known if ever since I met the man. The only thing he's done right is somehow, someway raised a kid that's worth a thousand times what he is. The problem is, that kid grew up all of a sudden, and he's not going to be bossed around anymore."

"I'm sure my son is just confused after his ordeal." Nodoka replied.

"If you believe that, then you're as big a fool as he is." She quipped.

"Nabiki!" Soun said. "How dare you talk to them that way!"

She looked at her father, and a weariness set in. "Daddy, you'd better accept that things have changed, a lot. Kasumi is going. Ranma is going. Sister here is going to want to cook, much of my income will be lost. Most of you will blame Ranma, and in some way I'm obviously not too happy about it, but in general, I'm proud of the boy, and Kasumi too, for growing one hell of a backbone. You guys can live in denial, but I'm not going to." She also left the dojo, leaving only Akane with the adults.

Akane finally stood up, and quietly walked back to her room, leaving the parents to babble amongst themselves. They'll never accept their decision she thought. They'll argue all night long and convince themselves that they are right and Ranma is to blame. Kasumi said they fell in love... I may not trust Ranma, but Kasumi has never lied to me. I guess I got what I often wished for, I guess Ranma will finally just leave me alone. She slowly made her way upstairs and closed her door.

--

Ranma and Kasumi returned from their walk full and happy. After their walk around town, the two went back up to her room to talk.

"So Kasumi, how do you think it went?"

Kasumi bit her lower lip, then spoke. "About as well as we could expect. Aren't you glad I made you practice?"

"Yeah, you were right. We couldn't just schedule a confrontation like that, we just had to be ready for it." He sat down on the bed next to her. "There was no way I could have done that without your help."

"Well thanks", she gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "You know that without clubbing them over the heads with it, they would never accept us as we are. They would have just tried to force us back into our old roles and then they would have hounded us forever."

"Yeah, I just hope Mom and Pops can get their act together. I'd hate to have to walk away from them, but I'll be dammed if they don't accept us for what we are now. I'm not my father's pawn anymore!" he growled.

"Ranma, I'm proud of you. You never would have made a tough decision like this before and dealt with the consequences. Lucky for me, you couldn't do it with the fiancées and look where it got you. Sometimes, you just can't please everybody no matter how hard you try, and when you still try, you just hurt everyone."

"Thanks Kasumi, you're right as always" he said.

Kasumi propped herself up on one arm. "So who else do we have to talk to before we leave? Are you going to talk with that Kuno boy?"

Now it was Ranma's turn to plop down on the bed. "You know, I've given it a lot of thought. Cleaning up this mess is a lot of work, but it's worth it for the people I care about one way or another. Kuno and his sister are a different story. They are as wacky as Shampoo and Mousse, and I know that no matter what I tell them, they'll forget about it the next day. It's just a waste of time and I'll only get frustrated. I think our best course of action is to just leave 'em here and be done with 'em. If they become a problem later on, we'll deal with them then."

Kasumi leaned back down and lay against Ranma's side, snuggling up into his arm. "You are probably right, you never had any luck with them before, I doubt it will be different now. I suppose that just leaves Nabiki. Do we talk to her tomorrow then?"

He groaned. "I suppose so, I'm still worried about her. I'm glad you're handling that one."

She flopped back on the bed. "Don't worry, I can take care of Nabiki. I always have..."