A/N: This chapter begins at breakfast right before the final cut of the manga. I will be using some artistic flubbing concerning the dates of certain events. If you actually pick up on the discrepancies I'm sure you'll at least appreciate my attempt at keeping continuity and timing in check. Let the continuation begin. Please refer to the Prologue for content rating information. Special thanks to Compucles for pointing out time discrepancy (fixed!).

Disclaimer: The original work below is based on the characters and works of Rumiko Takahashi and Viz Media. I do not own the rights to any of this content, and am not benefiting financially from its publishing.

Silver Linings Dojo

by Kevin Mohaj

Chapter One: A Summer Shiver

Akane knew she slept in late as light of day was already reaching her bedside. She just rolled over. It's been two weeks since Jusendo and the nightmares began. When they returned two days ago she thought everything would be different. That the terror of Mount Phoenix would somehow magically bring about some semblance of balance in her world was disproven in the chaos of yesterday's failed wedding. Akane felt a rush of pain in her left hand and realized she just punched through her wall.

Why does it even bother me? I didn't really want to marry that idiot.

She rolled over and nursed her bruised knuckles dragging herself out of the bed.

And now I have to go to school after that… fiasco.

Akane opened her door and headed down the hallway towards the bathroom. She grinned despite herself as she placed the do not disturb sign on the door. Like the baka ever pays attention. Disrobing, she quickly soaped and rinsed herself off before a quick furo soak. Mindful of the time, Akane put her clean robe on and left the bathroom.

And she ran right into Ranma in his typical boxers and muscle tee. She felt his arms instinctively grab her shoulders through her robe as he steadied her. The shock of it all quickly gave way to rising anger.

"You can let go of me now…" she whispered threateningly.

Ranma backpedalled quickly, stopping against the hallway wall with his hands in a warding gesture. Akane closed her eyes and let her fury rage on waiting for the typical 'klutz' or other mean comment.

"Oi, sorry Akane. Wasn't payin attention" Ranma said in an even tone making her look up in surprise. She looked into his eyes for a moment, but quickly averted and stammered.

"Well… then… pay more attention next time…" she finished lamely.

"Will do" and with that he simply walked past her into the bathroom and closed the door.

Now, Akane expected a lot of things after Jusendo. Hell, she expected a lot of things after the wedding disaster yesterday. Whatever that was she certainly didn't expect. Was he just half-asleep? His eyes were glazed over. Akane started back towards her room, but given the… extremeness… of events lately she paused and looked back towards the bath. Without thinking she took a step towards the door but was broken from her reverie by a sudden chill that enveloped her. Strange, it's early but it shouldn't be so cold. Her eyes roamed over the clock on the wall and she yelped in shock and ran to her room to get ready for school.

Breakfast was a rushed affair that morning. Akane ate as quickly as she could while Ranma seemed to pick at his food and eat very little. Nabiki was eating with one hand grasping chopsticks while her other hand flew over a calculator. Nabiki was graduating from high school next week and was already accepted to the Tokyo University business school, which was no real surprise to anybody. After yesterday, Akane would give anything to not have another year of high school ahead of her. She still wasn't sure what to expect at school this morning. Kasumi gracefully entered the room and deposited their bentos on the table before looking at Ranma with a small frown.

"Ranma-kun, aren't you hungry?" she asked him softly.

Ranma looked up from his plate for the first time and Akane felt her breath catch as she really looked at her fiancée for the first time that morning. That glazed look was still on his face, but she now noticed how pale his skin was. Ranma shook his head at Kasumi and resumed picking at his plate.

"Not hungry today, but thanks Kasumi" he said softly. His words may have been soft, but the sound of three face faulting Tendo sisters wasn't.

Kasumi recovered quickly, ignoring the extended index and pinky fingers jutting from Nabiki and Akane's respective sides of the table. "Are you feeling alright, Ranma?" she asked, worry evident in her tone. She already had a hand against his head checking for fever.

Akane recovered in time to see Kasumi's hand pull back from Ranma's face almost like she was burned. Is he feverish? Maybe that's why he's been acting strange. Has Ranma ever gotten sick before? Kasumi was looking at Ranma with shock evident in her normally serene features. Before thinking, Akane put her own hand against Ranma's forehead. He's not hot with fever! He's freezing to the touch! Akane pulled her hand back with a shiver and looked at Ranma questioningly.

Ranma just shrugged and muttered "New technique. Think we are late for school."

Glancing at the time, having lost some due to face faulting, Akane jumped up and grabbed her Bento before rushing out of the house. Running down the street, Akane looked up at the fence and shrugged when Ranma wasn't there, then she suppressed a shriek as she looked left and saw him running alongside her. Now he is running beside me? Not showing off on the fence? Mentally tallying the strange morning's events Akane was getting more and more confused. What's with him today?

They reached the school without interruption and saw they had a few minutes until homeroom. There was no sign of Kuno this morning, whether that was a good or bad thing remained to be seen as the two teenagers rushed into the school and, more composed, entered their homeroom. The collective intake of breath from the other students informed Akane that yesterday's events were already well known to the school. She sighed and took her seat as Ms. Hinako called roll.

The hours passed by, exams were finished as it was the last week of school they mostly covered what they would be expected to overview during the term break. Akane snuck a glance towards Ranma when she noticed he was looking right at her with a small (but for once, not arrogant) grin. She turned around, blushing furiously. She felt his eyes staring at her, but before she could glare at him his gaze was already facing the front of the class.

Lunchtime bell rang and Akane joined up with Yuka and Sayuri at their favorite tree. Ranma was nowhere to be seen at the moment, which suited her fine. Glancing around, she didn't see Ukyo's okonomiyaki stand set up in its usual place. Probably waiting to ambush me with her bombs again she thought ruefully. She didn't even want to think about yesterday.

Unfortunately, her friends weren't at all ready to stop thinking about the failed wedding.

"So, did you guys just elope?" Yuka asked obviously expressing how romantic that idea was to her.

"NO!" she screamed before abashedly lowering her voice, "Of course we didn't elope."

"That's too bad. I can't believe Ukyo was throwing bombs at everybody. Have you guys rescheduled a date?" Sayuri took the conversational lead.

"NO." Akane was losing control of her anger and practically shouted: "Look my father had a cure for Ranma's curse and told me if we got married he could have it. That was the only reason we were going through with it!"

Heads started to turn towards the three girls; Yuka and Sayuri were shocked by Akane's outburst leaving them wide-mouthed like frogs. She looked at them and blushed when she shivered and noticed that the grass behind them was… frozen stiff?

The three girls jumped up and away from the tree, noticing Hiroshi and Daisuke running the opposite direction from the other side of the tree. The entire schoolyard stared in stunned silence as ice reached up the bark of the tree and into the limbs, until the entire tree was frozen and dead.

Akane came out of her shock quickly "What the hell was that?!"

Yuka let out a small squeak. Akane looked at her and followed her gaze towards the school gates where she saw Ranma walking away with his bag. Akane felt her heart sink.

Sayuri looked at Akane seriously for a moment, and then grabbed Yuka's hand. She hesitated, before turning to Akane and saying coolly: "I think Ranma had other reasons for going through with the wedding." The two girls turned and walked back towards class.

Akane just slumped to the ground in shame.

~~~k~m~~~

Ranma kept his face down as he walked absently down the sidewalk. He passed the busy streets of daytime Nerima, avoiding the market area; needing to just get away. Pausing in front of the local park his head fills with growingly unbearable memories. The heat of the day kept the large public area free of visitors, and Ranma was appreciative that at least he could think in silence for a moment.

His head filled with soft feminine giggles that unnerved Ranma.

Something funny? he thought angrily

'Gomen… but, 'think in silence' isn't exactly what you do.'

Ranma stiffened, her voice interrupting his thoughts was taking some getting used too. In response he distanced his thoughts from his physical body, forming the 'Soul of Ice' almost reflexively. She was quiet whenever he used the technique, giving Ranma time to think alone.

Ranma idly thought that he was going quite insane. Two weeks ago he slaughtered a minor Kami for threatening everything he held dear. Two weeks since Akane… died… in his arms. Two weeks since the voice started filling his thoughts. Hell, two weeks and not a wink of sleep.

Ranma was used to going long periods of time without sleep, growing up on the road you learn to find a safe campsite or risk dying in your sleep: when haven eludes you have to get used to spending a few days awake and alert. When your life is filled with Saotome Ranma levels of chaos with a thieving father constantly making enemies on the road, you get used to going up to a week without sleep. What Ranma wasn't used to were the vivid nightmares that started every time his eyes closed to rest. Well, that and hearing voices in his head.

He thought back to the voice. He thought he recognized her voice from a distant memory or maybe a dream; the voice also seemed to know every detail about him and his life. Except, where he saw only misery and abject chaos she seemed to find delightful ways of teasing him or pointing out his flaws. He probably could handle the voice without 'Soul of Ice,' he was used to insults and provocations from years of… well… insults and provocations from every person he seemed to meet; however, the voice was too capricious, too chaotic, for him to stand. When Akane said…the truth… he thought bitterly back at the school the voice cried out in pain and started sobbing. Ranma was so stunned by the feelings that he felt tears forming in his eyes before he recaptured the Ice Soul. The last thing he needed to top off the day of insanity was to be seen bawling after being publicly rejected and humiliated in front of everyone.

Ranma felt his breathing start to feel ragged, and opening his eyes he saw his breath coming out in mist. He looked back at the tree he was leaning on and was shocked to see it frozen solid. Great, he thought sarcastically, now I'm freezing everything around me without realizing it, which makes me seem absolutely insane, in order to stop voices in my head, which make me absolutely insane.

I think I need a shrink.

The only response was that too familiar giggling in his head.

Yes, Ranma thought as he walked away from the dead frozen tree, he was going quite insane.

~~~k~m~~~

Akane was having trouble focusing on anything the teacher was saying that afternoon. Her emotions roiled from shock to shame to anger: angry at herself for making such a public spectacle, ashamed by the disapproving looks the female body of Furinkan and the accusing looks of the males, and absolutely shocked by Ranma's reaction. She kept replaying the past two days in her head as if looking for pieces to some puzzle.

And it was pissing her off.

When the final bell rang Akane couldn't bear the sideways glances and accusing eyes of her peers: she promptly opened the window and leapt out of the school building, she hopped the fence and started walking the long way home. She avoided the busy hustle of the market area opting for the long route through the park home. She couldn't meet anybody's eyes… She felt like every soul on the planet had judged her all at once and found her wanting. Once Akane reached the park she let her eyes wander more as the heat of summer day kept the park empty for a few more hours. However, she saw a group of people standing around a grove of trees and her curiosity got the better of her. She gasped as she realized that a large tree in the center of the grove was frozen solid… not encased in thick sheets of ice like the tree at the school, but still leafless and dead… cold to the touch.

I don't understand. Why is he using the Soul of Ice so much lately?

Shame filled her as she started listing possible emotions that would warrant the complete removal of mind from body. She turned away from the park and walked home, no amount of brick smashing would remove the turmoil in her heart from today.

She reached the gate of her home and aimlessly wandered into the house. The house was unnaturally quiet. She put on house slippers when she noticed a note left from Kasumi stating she was at the market and would be back soon. Nabiki was taking a few prep courses at the local community college, and her father was probably playing shogi with Mr. Saotome in the living room. She sighed and morosely walked up the stairs, turning the corner she passed the guest room door and hesitated. She leaned in close to the door pressing the side of her head against it. She wasn't too surprised that the door was icy to the touch, and she tried just to hear if he was awake. She didn't think she could face him, or what he would do if she did.

Her eyes widened when she heard the soft voice of Ranma-chan inside the room crying. She felt everything in her sink… she felt like the wrenching sobs were drowning her in misery. The door seemed to regain its heat after the small mewling cries turned into hammering sobs. Akane slumped to her knees at the sound, a distant part of her realizing that Ranma-chan had released the Ice Soul as the heat of the door seemed to increase with each choking cry.

Unable to bear the sounds of such raw emotion, Akane fled to her room, feeling like a coward. She fell into her own bed and just lay down to sleep. She felt hot tears against her cheeks and in one instant she sobbing into her own pillow.

A/N: Reviews are welcome in all forms! I'm working ahead on this one, reviewing the next chapter as I post the previous. Hope you enjoy so far!