Chapter 3: When He Was Engaged

"What?" Ranma asked in shock.

"You can't be serious." Akane added angrily.

Genma and Soun nodded their heads in agreement simultaneously.

"We're completely serious." Genma said.

"Saotome and I took a long time to talk this over while we were waiting for Ranma to recover." Soun added. "Your future, as well as the future of the Anything-Goes School of Martial Arts must be secured. Therefore, even though Ranma is in no state to perform his duties at the moment, we've made the decision that your previous engagement will remain in effect for the foreseeable future."

Ranma and Akane wanted to pound their fathers into the floor for bringing this up now of all times. They ultimately held back from doing anything, but only because they knew better than to risk any further damage to the house.

The two had been extremely apprehensive when Soun said that he and Genma needed to talk to the two about something important. Despite this, Ranma and Akane still followed the two upstairs to Ranma and Genma's shared room so they could talk in private. Right before they could begin however, the four had been greeted by an unexpected guest, P-chan, who had rushed into the room hoping to see Akane. For obvious reasons, P-chan had been anything but enthusiastic at seeing Ranma up and about again. In fact, he appeared to be absolutely enraged by Ranma's very presence as he wasted no time in lowering into a stance and springing forward at him to attack his face. Luckily, his surprise assault was thwarted by the combined efforts of Soun and Akane who scooted him out into the hallway and closed the door before he could get back inside.

Unfortunately, that had been the highlight of the meeting thus far, as Genma and Soun dropped this bomb on Ranma and Akane about their engagement the moment that the four of them had sat down. This infuriated the two to no end. This was all that their fathers ever seemed to care about when it came to them. These two men saw fit to forcibly engage their children all in the name of carrying on their precious dojo. They never once bothered to ask Ranma or Akane if it was what they truly wanted, instead slapping them together in the hopes that it would ultimately work out in the end somehow. Ranma and Akane had trouble admitting that they had really grown on each other over the last several months, but there was no proof that this wouldn't have happened on its own without an engagement hanging over their heads. Events such as these always set back these developing feelings, as they were constant reminders to Ranma and Akane that they were subject to the wills of whatever their fathers desired from them.

"Now, we understand that you two may be feeling a bit upset by our decision." Genma said.

"A little upset? "That's what you want to call it?" Akane asked angrily. I'm outraged. You honestly expect me to remain engaged to and eventually marry a six year old child?"

"Yeah." Ranma added. "Being this way ain't exactly my greatest dream come true, but the fact that it would possibly act as a break from all of my engagements was an unexpected perk. I mean, you can't exactly expect someone who's almost fully grown to marry a six year old. That by default means that I should be free of not just this engagement, but all of my other ones as well. You really expect me not to get angry even when you want to take this potential freedom away from me?"

"Listen." Soun answered. "While it is true that we expect the two of you to remain together, we never said anything about you needing to get married at this time."

Ranma and Akane quickly became confused upon hearing this.

"Huh?" they asked.

"What you two said is perfectly valid." Ganma answered. "No one as old as you two in their right mind would ever remotely consider hooking up with a child of any age. People who do are perhaps the worst kinds of monsters that exist in this world of ours, and we would never think of allowing anyone in our family to end up as one of them. What we're proposing is something very different."

"Essentially, think of this as more of a long-term contingency plan." Soun added. "Akane, you still being engaged will allow you to fend off any other potential men seeking your hand for the time being. If I recall, it was the very existence of your engagement to Ranma which caused all of those boys to stop attacking you on your way to school every morning, correct?"

"Um, yeah. I guess so." Akane answered.

"And Ranma, this will benefit you as well." Genma said. "There's no telling how long it will take for you to find another cure. Even if you are never able to do so, the effects of the mushrooms aren't permanent. At the very most, you'll only have to wait ten additional years before you return to being sixteen years old and once again reach an appropriate age to become eligible to marry Akane once more."

Akane gritted her teeth just a bit.

"You really think that I could ever be okay with something like this?" she asked. "You honestly expect me to wait that long to get married? And what of Ranma. Even if we do end up having to wait for another ten years, the fact is that while he'll be sixteen again, I'll be twenty-six. There'll be a ten year age gap between the two of us. What would people think of it? Who's to say that we'd even want to get married again after all that time?"

"It's not exactly unheard of, Akane." Soun answered. "I fell in love with your mother specifically because she was older than me."

Akane leaned back slightly. Hearing stories about her mother always caused her to lower her guard. Soun brought up memories of her infrequently, but this was one little tidbit of information that she had never heard from him before.

"Really?" she asked.

"Indeed." Soun answered. "When I first met your mother, there was an eight year age gap between us. Most people would never expect a young man in his prime to fall in love with a woman much older than him, but I did. There was a certain charm to her maturity and level-headedness which greatly complimented my immaturity and impulsiveness. I found myself drawn to her, and we soon became inseparable. In time, we fell in love and tied the knot. Soon afterwards came Kasumi, and then Nabiki, and then you, Akane. So much happiness came from our union, and I thought that it would last forever. No amount of words can describe the level of heartache I felt on the day that she finally passed away from her illness. It hurt so much knowing that I would be forced to live out the remainder of my days without her. Despite that though, I will never regret the years that we were able to spend together. They were the happiest times of my life, and they never would've happened if I had been held back by stigmas related to age gaps in relationships."

Akane was struggling to hold back tears at this. She had very few memories of her mother due to how young she was when she passed, but the day of her death was one that she could never forget. She could remember crying and asking why she couldn't see her mother anymore, as well as all of the hugs and comforts that came with Soun, Kasumi, and Nabiki explaining the concept of death to her. She had always wondered if she would've grown up to act more feminine if her mother had been there to act as her guide, though she had learned over the years that there wasn't much of a point in fussing over it anymore.

"That being said, all of this age altering chaos over the last week has led Saotome and I to a great realization." Soun continued. "I mean, look at what Ranma and Ryoga managed to do to this house. If the two of you had been even a single year older, the six of us might have been left homeless by all of this madness."

"Anyway, seeing all of this gave Tendo and I a lot to think about." Genma added. "After much deliberation, we came to the conclusion that we may have rushed things when it came to our plans for you two to get married."

Ranma and Akane's mouths dropped open. Their fathers were actually admitting that they had made a mistake regarding their engagement. It was like something out of a bizarre fever dream.

"What he means to say is that we've realized that when we decided that the two of you would be married, we failed to take into account whether or not you two were actually mentally mature enough to handle it." Soun continued. "Ranma, your lack of a real childhood and especially your lack of experience dealing with women left you ill prepared for the sudden task of having a fiance. And Akane, your inability to handle anyone who acts immature is what causes your anger to flare up every time Ranma fails to think about what he says or does. It's a volatile combination, and yet we've seen a great deal of progress as you two have gotten to know each other."

Soun began to tear up.

"I was so happy earlier when I heard you say that you had realized that you need to be more attentive to what others are saying and try to keep your emotions in check from time to time." he said. "It always warms my heart so much to see that my little girl is growing up in more ways than one. And you could make even more progress with the right amount of time."

Akane's eyes widened.

"Wait, so are you really saying that…you think that these ten years will actually help us mature a bit more?"

"Precisely." Soun nodded. "Even if you have to wait another ten years, a lot can happen in that time. You'll have graduated from college and will likely be starting the dojo. You'll have lived a full life, much in the same way that your mother did. On top of that, you'll still be more than young enough to start a family and be old enough to meet your grandchildren someday should they ever be born. And I'm sure that you'll be the envy of all your friends for having such a young stallion as your husband. All of your mother's bridesmaids certainly wished that they could be marrying someone as young as I was during our wedding."

Akane looked down slightly and began to blush. Although she hadn't been sure of what to think of her father's crazy plan until now, everything that he was saying made perfect sense. In the worst case scenario that Ranma wasn't able to find a cure, she wouldn't be expected to marry him for quite a long time. She would be able to use that time to do wherever she wanted to do, and mature as a person in the meantime. She already knew that she needed to work on herself a bit more, so perhaps this would be the start of a golden opportunity to do so. Her engagement could always come later, and hopefully Ranma would benefit from the extra waiting time in a very similar way as well.

Genma turned to look at Ranma.

"Ranma, my boy. This will also be of great help to you." he said. "It pains me to say it, but our long training trip together did not have as positive of an effect on you as I would've wanted. You may have very well become one of the greatest martial artists of your generation, but it came at the cost of virtually any kind of social skills necessary to make it through the real world."

"Gee, you think so?" Ranma asked sarcastically.

"That's exactly the kind of thing that I'm talking about." Genma continued. "You spent so much time around me and only me that you failed to learn how to interact with anyone else. On top of that, I admittedly wasn't the best role model. I taught you how to run away from unpaid restaurant and hotel bills, I scarred you mentally for life because I was too eager for you to learn the Cat-Fist technique, and I always moved us to a new place right when you were on the verge of actually making friends with people your own age. Despite your many months of progress here, you haven't exactly matured very much. This could easily be mistaken as teenage anxiety, but the simple fact is that you really don't know how to act mature."

Genma suddenly bowed the entire front half of his body on the ground.

"Despite that, you are not to blame for your behavior," he continued. "It was my job as your father to raise you to act properly, and I obviously didn't do a very good job of it. I hope that you can forgive me someday."

Ranma was truly unnerved by this display. He never would've imagined in a million years that his father would actually be taking responsibility for anything, least of all how he raised his only son. Despite that, Ranma's guard was still up. He knew that Genma would say or do anything to get what he wanted, as there was clearly something that he wanted.

Genma sat back up and smiled.

"Plus, imagine how much more that you could learn with another ten years of training under your belt." he continued. "I've taught you constantly since the day we left on our training trip, and at this point there is little more that you can still learn from me. Even so, there is always more that can be taught, especially to someone who is willing to learn it. If you're this good now, you'll truly be unstoppable in another ten years. I've seen you master techniques that I never could've dreamed existed, and just think about how many more are still out there that are yet to be discovered. Ranma, I believe that by the time you eventually turn back to normal, you'll have truly earned the title of Master of the School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts. When that happens, I can die happily knowing that the dojo will be in good hands with you and Akane leading it."

Ranma's anger increased with every word that came out of Genma's mouth. As soon as Genma had finished speaking, Ranma angrily slammed the floor with both of his hands. The others jumped a bit at the suddenness of the action.

"Is that all that you ever think about? The best way of carrying on your stupid dojo?" Ranma asked angrily. "You know, you're right when you say that I'm screwed up in the head because of your stupidity, I'm just amazed that it took you this long to admit it. You took me away from Mom, forced me into a ridiculous seppuku pledge, pounded it into me for sixteen years that nothing mattered except The Art, and on top that forced me into more engagements than either of us could ever be expected to keep up with. And now, you think that a simple sorry is going to make up for it? Well, you're wrong."

Ranma got up and started walking towards the door.

"I never asked to inherit this dojo, and I certainly never asked to be engaged to anyone." he continued. "No amount of words will ever be able to convince me that you mean anything you say. To you, everyone and everything is simply a means to benefit you in some way. You could never be the greatest martial artist in the world, so you stuck me with that burden instead. No matter how well your intentions may be, another ten years of being raised by you will likely screw me up even more. I've spent too long being who I am for anything to change, so don't expect it to happen now. You'd be better off giving up on any dreams you had, because I'll never be able to live up to those ridiculous standards that you ever set for me."

Ranma was about to open the door when Genma suddenly grabbed his ankles.

"Ranma, I swear to you that I'm not saying this because of some ulterior motive." he pleaded. "When Ryoga hurt you, there was a time when it seemed like you weren't going to make it. That awakened something inside me. For the first time ever, there was a very strong chance that I might actually lose my only son, and that terrified me. I admit that I've taken you for granted and used you for my own ends more times than I can count, but all of that stops now. I just want what's best for you, you have to believe me. At least think about it."

Genma almost had the look of sad puppy dog eyes while staring up at Ranma, but Ranma was unfazed by it. He had seen Genma use that same look on numerous people throughout his entire life. It was never sincere, and yet a small part of Ranma had always wanted to believe that his father could change. Even though Genma had always let him down in this department, that small part of Ranma was still begging him to give his father one more chance.

"I'll think about it. But I really need to be alone right now." he said as he flung the door open.

Ranma began to walk down the hallway. All of a sudden, he felt a pain in his right arm out of nowhere. Crying out in pain, he saw a very angry P-chan biting him and refusing to let go. Ranma felt his anger surging again.

"Urgh, I'm in no mood for this, Ryoga." he yelled as he slammed P-chan into a wall.

P-chan quickly let go of Ranma's arm as he made contact with the wall. A large bruise formed on his forehead as Ranma made his way down the stairs. The door to the bedroom opened and Akane, Soun, and Genma stepped outside.

"Did I just hear Ranma mention Ryoga?" Akane asked.

Akane quickly put her hands to her mouth upon seeing P-chan lying injured on the floor. She wasted no time in rushing over to him and cradling him in her arms.

"P-chan." she cried out. "Oh, poor baby."

Akane gently felt around the bruise, which caused P-chan to let out a few squeals of pain. Akane immediately looked up, her temper beginning to flare.

"Ranma." she said angrily.

As Akane began to head downstairs with P-chan, Soun and Genma reflected over what had just transpired.

"You weren't lying, Saotome." Soun said. "Ranma really is starting to act more his age. In a manner of speaking that is."

"Yes indeed, Tendo." Genma replied. "He was never that mature to begin with, but now his behavior surprisingly fits his new form. Only time will tell though to see how long it lasts though."

"Well, in any case, it's very clear that he has a lot to gain from spending some time stuck like this." Soun continued. "Let's just hope that he doesn't get into any more trouble. I don't think that the dojo can handle it."

The two friends immediately laughed at this little joke for a few seconds until a small piece of the ceiling fell right in front of them. They immediately jumped back in surprise upon realizing that they had almost been killed by something so bizarre and looked at each other with worried expressions.

"Um, maybe we should cut it with the jokes about the dojo falling apart." Soun said. "What do you think, eh Saotome?"

"You're right." Genma said while nodding. "Truer words have never been spoken."


As soon as Ranma made his way downstairs, he flung open the front door of the house and stepped outside. He was making his way to the front gate when Akane quickly burst through the door herself.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" she asked angrily.

Ranma sighed and turned around.

"I'm really not in the mood for this right now, Akane." he said. "Can this wait until later?"

"It can't." Akane answered. "Why were you picking on P-chan? Just look at him."

Akane held out P-chan so Ranma could clearly see the large bruise on his forehead. Ranma simply scoffed at the sight.

"You really don't know anything, do you?" he asked. "He attacked me out of the blue as soon as I left the bedroom."

"Oh, and that was really a reason to slam him into the wall like that?" Akane asked angrily.

Ranma gritted his teeth slightly.

"If only you knew the truth about who that actually is." he thought.

"Whatever happened to him, he had it coming. Believe me." he said. "I'm out of here."

Ranma slowly pushed his way through the gate.

"Hey, don't just walk away while I'm talking to you." Akane yelled.

"Look, I want to be alone right now." Ranma said. "Anything to get out of having to listen to you yell at me so much."

Akane's face turned bright red.

"Well if that's how you feel then fine, go then." she yelled. "Just don't expect me to come and rescue you again."

"Wouldn't have it any other way." Ranma said. "I didn't need you then, and I certainly don't need you now. I mean, what kind of man asks a girl to fight his battles for him, even if that girl is actually an overly muscular and uncute tomboy like you."

"Go to hell, Ranma. I hope that you die out there. That'll really teach you a thing or two." Akane yelled.

Ranma hmphed and pushed the gate open.

"And to think that I actually believed that you were cute before." he said loudly. "Guess that shows what I know."

Akane's anger immediately faded upon hearing this. Almost every conversation she had with Ranma always went like this. The two would trade barbs back and forth until one or both of them inevitably wound up storming off. However, Ranma rarely ever gave Akane any sorts of compliments. The times that he did always managed to turn Akane's mood around due to them leaving her confused as to how she should feel.

"Did he…really just say that he thought that I was cute?" she thought. "Was I overreacting again?"

Ranma slammed the gate behind him and began to make his way down the street. As Akane continued to stand on the porch in confusion, she failed to notice a small figure slip out from under the house's crawlspace and jump over the back fence.

A few seconds later, P-chan began to regain consciousness. When he saw the sad expression on Akane's face, and noticed that Ranma was once again no longer around, he began to squirm. His actions surprised Akane who quickly let go of him.

"P-chan?" she asked.

P-chan quickly sprinted into the house and headed in the direction of the bath. Because of Ranma and Genma's frequent uses of the bath, there was always a decent amount of water left inside for later reheating as a means of saving money on water bills. P-chan knew that if anyone had been using it within the last hour or so, the water would still be just barely warm enough to do its job.

P-chan rushed into the bathroom and climbed up onto the edge of the tub. After hesitating for a moment, he jumped inside and disappeared beneath the surface of the water. Within a few seconds, Ryoga emerged from the tub with a look of determination on his face. He wasted no time in drying himself off and retrieving his pack, which he had stashed away in one of the bins above the laundry machine. After about another minute, he was fully dressed.

"Ranma, you truly are despicable." he said. "You've put me through absolute hell more times than I can count, and I could brush that off for the most part. However, you've gone way too far this time by making Akane cry. She's upset because of you, and don't think that I didn't hear the way that you reacted to the news that you two would still remain engaged. She's always deserved way better than a jerk like you, and now it seems that my time has come to ensure that this finally happens."

Ryoga flung his bag over his shoulders.

"There's no way that I'm letting you come back this time." he continued. "Without Akane there to back you up, I'll finally be rid of you once and for all. Ranma, today is the day that I kill you for real."

Ryoga quickly rushed out of the back door of the house and jumped the fence so he could get onto the street. Although he had absolutely no idea where Ranma was or where he was heading to, Ryoga simply took off running in whatever direction he felt was the correct one. If he could find Ranma completely by chance once, he could do it again.

Shortly after he left, Nabiki walked through the front gates of the dojo and noticed Akane standing there with her worried expression. Confused and also a bit concerned, Nabiki walked over to her.

"Hey there, Akane." she said.

Akane looked up upon hearing these words.

"Oh, hey Nabiki. Welcome back." she answered.

Akane's face suddenly fell upon seeing Nabiki's appearance. Nabiki's uniform looked to be a bit damaged and wrinkled, while her normally neat hair was also disturbed in a few places. Akane didn't know what to make of it.

"Where have you been? she asked. You kind of just disappeared once school let out for the day. More importantly, what's up with your appearance all of a sudden? I don't recall you looking like that the last time I saw you."

"Let's just say that I was getting the money necessary to pay the contractors." Nabiki answered. "You don't need to know the finer details."

"Okay, if you say so." Akane said with a hint of unease.

"It may not be the most pleasant means of doing so, but I know some real perverts out there who are willing to pay through the roof for some of the stuff I have to offer." she thought. "I despise having to meet up with them, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Plus, I couldn't exactly let those photos of Ranma as a child just lie around collecting dust. As long as we're living under the same roof, I'm going to milk him for all that he's worth."

"But, enough about me, what about you?" she asked. "What's up with that sad expression of yours? Is Ranma still out of it? I was so sure that he would finally wake up today."

"No, that's not it at all." Akane answered. "Ranma actually did wake up. I greeted him as soon as I made it back home."

Nabiki let out a small smile at this.

"That's good news." she thought. "My main cash cow is back and better than ever. Even if it means that I'll have to make a few more trips, the prize that I receive will make it more than worth it."

"Then what's with the unhappy look?" Nabiki asked. "You should be celebrating, we all should."

Akane looked back down.

"Well, I did at first. All of us did." she answered. "But…I overreacted and pushed him away again."

"What stupid thing did he do this time?" Nabiki sighed.

"You see, Dad and Mr. Saotome sat the two of us down and informed us that our engagement was still on." Akane answered.

"Just like them." Nabiki thought. "Do those two ever think about anything else?"

"I take it that you two didn't exactly take that news very well?" she asked. "I certainly wouldn't want to get married to a kid ten years younger than me."

"Actually, I did." Akane said. "I was skeptical at first, but Dad's reasoning was surprisingly sound and he ultimately won me over. He pointed out that he and Mom had an eight year age gap, and that's what caused them to be so perfect for each other. Plus, we wouldn;t even need to get married right away. We could wait until Ranma is sixteen again, even if that takes another ten years. Ranma didn't handle the idea nearly as well as I did."

"Let me guess. He threw a fit, stormed out, and announced that he wanted to be alone for a while, right?" Nabiki asked.

"Pretty much." Akane answered. "Mr. Saotome did his best, but Ranma just wasn't swayed by his reasoning whatsoever. I guess since he knows how selfish and conniving his father can be at times, he can't exactly be won over by his words anymore. Anyway, when he stormed out he slammed P-chan into a wall and gave him a pretty nasty bruise. I got so upset at him for doing this that I flew off the handle and didn't listen to any of his apologies or the reasoning he gave for justifying his actions. And just when I told him before that I was going to start making more of an effort to not do that. Now he's off who-knows-where and I have no idea when I'll have a chance to apologize to him."

Akane suddenly looked up as a firm, familiar hand placed itself on her shoulder. Turning around, she noticed that it was Soun, who had a bright, reassuring smile on his face.

"Don't worry, Akane. Everything will work itself out." he said.

"Okay Dad, I'll let you take over from here." Nabiki said. "I was nervous about not coming home right away to see the progress on the house, and it seems that my instincts were correct. Seems like it's up to me to whip those contractors back into shape to make sure that they finish on time. The sooner that we can get them out of here, the better."

Nabiki walked past Akane and Soun and slammed the front door behind her. Her voice could be clearly heard from inside the house, even with the door closed.

"Hey you lazy bums, you'd better be giving it your all." she yelled. "I told you that if you finished today, I'd be willing to pay in cash. Well, I got it right here. This is all of it, plus a little extra if you manage to get done on time. But you're not getting a cent if you can't finish according to the contract that we all agreed to. It said that you would be done today. Not tomorrow, not next week, today. So if I were you, I'd get to work if you still hope to get paid and spend all of this cold cash on whatever bar you plan on spending the next few days in."

All of a sudden, the house was full of sounds of people hammering, screwing, and sawing away. Soun smiled at this. Nabiki always knew the best way to get what she wanted. It did well for everyone to have someone in the house with a clear business-oriented head on their shoulders. He honestly didn't know how he would manage once she eventually moved out within the next few years.

Soun looked back at Akane.

"I understand that you must be feeling bad about what you said to Ranma." he continued. "Please know that you're not to blame, nobody is. You two have always fought as your secret language for saying that you care about each other. I'm sure that Ranma's just as eager to apologize as well. Just give him a few hours to calm down. Once he gets back, the two of you can hug and make up all you want. I'm certain that by then he'll want to do the same."

"But Dad, the last thing that I said to him was that I wished him dead. And as he is now, there's a very likely chance of that happening." Akane said. "I mean, he was almost killed by Ryoga with very little provocation just a few days ago. He's made a lot of enemies that would surely be willing to do just as much harm to him if he's unlucky enough to run into them out there. If he really is killed for real this time, it'll make me feel like I'm somehow the one responsible for it. I don't know if I'll be able to handle that."

Genma quickly opened the door and stepped outside.

"Don't waste your time worrying about such nonsense." he said. "When it comes to life or death scenarios, Ranma is like a cockroach. He may get beaten down again and again and again, but he always finds a way to come back from the brink stronger than ever before. I truly thought that he was done for a few days ago, and yet he still managed to beat the odds. On top of that, he has one less threat to deal with. Ryoga is long gone, and I doubt that there's anyone else out there who would genuinely want to inflict harm on him the way that he did. Anyone in that category who's not a rival would likely just be some random pervert on the street that he could beat down without even batting an eye."

"Yeah I suppose, but even so…" Akane said while staring out at the street.

Genma put his hand on Akane's other shoulder.

"He'll be fine." he said. "Ranma knows how to take care of himself. Besides, where else is he going to go? With his newfound age, I doubt that he'll be able to make it very far. Even if he disappears on us, I sincerely doubt that he'll be gone for more than a day or two at the most. He still needs to adjust to all of this, and when that happens he'll come straight back here. Besides, what's the worst thing that could possibly happen to a six year old martial arts prodigy anyway?"

Genma laughed at his poor attempt at injecting a little humor into this scenario. Akane forced a smile on her face, even though she still felt a bit uneasy. She quickly resumed looking out at the street with worry.

"Ranma, please be safe." she thought. "When you're ready to come back, I'll be waiting."

End of Chapter 3

1/24/2024

Special thanks to my biggest supporters: Homura VanRoyen, sudowiki

Hi Everyone. I know that it's been almost two weeks, but here is the third chapter. It's been a very productive week for me ever since I finished up my most recent chapter of The Oyama Project. This story has been moving along so fast that I might have three chapters to post from this week of effort instead of two like last time. From now on, I'm going to spend the entire week working on as many chapters as I can, and then post them all within a few days of each other towards the end. Now that they story is preparing to kick into high gear, I hope that this schedule will leave all of you satisfied.

Let me start off by saying that this was a particularly difficult chapter to write. Content that involves Ranma and Akane's forced engagement isn't something that I'm particularly fond of, but I felt that it was necessary to address given Ranma's recent circumstances. I tried to make Genma and Soun's arguments as logical as possible, and found a few interesting ways to tie what they said into many of the themes that this story will cover as time goes on. I know that Akane had a brief relapse in her behavior, but no one is perfect. She wants to change, but that has to happen in baby steps, and at least she realizes that she overacted. Akane is a difficult character to write for when you're trying to balance the way you expect her to act with any potential growth that you might want her to go through. The Akane in the original fic that this one is based off of acted very out of character at times, and I did my best to fix that which led to many of this additional scenes.

This leads me to another issue that I've had so far with my writing. As painful as it is to say, I find that writing a pure Ranma fic is actually quite challenging. This is due to the fact that Rumiko Takahashi has always made a point to always create deeply flawed characters, even if this decision made series like this one ripe for potential fanfiction. I try to stick to characters personality and motives as closely as possible to the source material when I'm writing, but the delicate nature of this series character's flaws makes it difficult to do this without making them seem like stereotypes. Since it's only the start of the story, I take comfort in knowing that these flaws can be addressed further down the road, but it makes it hard at first since I still have to work out the logistics of all those flaws, even if I know how they will eventually be resolved. I included a few clues in this chapter for how some of these flaws will be addressed, but you'll have to guess to what I'm referring to.

Even though this chapter was another smaller, contained, slice-of-life chapter, I promise that this will not be the case with the next one. This one was a bit shorter than my already short previous chapter, but the next chapter is much longer and more action oriented by comparison. It represents one of the fastest things that I've ever written because of how excited I was to do so, and at this point it only requires a little bit of editing before it's ready to be released. I will try to release it in about three days, and I hope that you'll enjoy it as much as I have.

For those of who who are on the fence about continuing with the story, I hope that you stick around for just a bit longer. Ranma will leave Nerima in just two more chapters, and once that happens I can finally begin telling the story that I've been so eager to share with all of you. Exciting things are on the way, so stay tuned.

Please be sure to like and comment on this chapter as any feedback you give me is extremely helpful to me as an aspiring writer

If you enjoy what you've seen so far and you're interested in seeing more, consider checking out my other stories.

I'd like to thank you all for your encouraging likes, follows, and comments, and stay tuned for Chapter 4, coming soon.