It had once been a proud dojo, planned to be built by the hands of Soun Tendo right after he and his new wife had been given the funds by their families to build it.
After two hours, real workers came by and with the direction of Kimiko Tendo, actually built the house and dojo while Soun dug in the yard. That hole eventually became a koi pond.
For over twenty years, it had been a home, a sanctuary, a memorial to a proud woman, and one of the few places where the style of Anything Goes had held any honor.
Now, it was one of the many scorch marks around the Nerima district.
The outer wall was cracked from heat exposure, reduced to rubble in others. The house was no longer standing, just a few stray pieces of burnt wood remained.
There had been no deaths, even though Kasumi had delayed her own departure to quickly grab her mother’s urn. But despite that, all of them had survived.
But they were all that survived; the urn, the people, and the clothes on their backs.
The rest had gone up in an instant inferno that had spots on the ground already changed to glass.
Soun sat on his knees, continuing to face the charred lot, his eyes crying slow tears.
Kasumi stood beside him, trying to comfort her father.
Nabiki was already on her phone, trying to ensure what friends and associates she had hadn’t died in the Phoenix God’s attack.
Akane was almost as bad as her father, seeing her home destroyed by the same creature that had almost taken her life; it was a nightmare made real.
Putting away her phone, Nabiki sighed. There had been three people whom she hadn’t been able to make contact with. Either they were dead, or their own searches were preventing her from making contact.
“Don’t worry, Father,” said Kasumi, rubbing the elder Tendo’s back. “Everything will be fine, you’ll see.”
Shaking her head at her older sister’s eternal optimism, she opened the phone for one last call, hoping that the lines weren’t tied up already.
Besides, if he was still alive, it would be the one place he would head to, if for nothing else than to say goodbye.
Plus, it was the only probably place they had left where they might find a place to stay until this new mess was cleaned up.
She looked at the number and dialed Nodoka Saotome.
Hearing Nali scuttle near the door, Ranma sighed, as he tried to shift slowly to his full were-cheetah form. It seemed anything that looked near a weresmilidon frightened her for some reason.
He had a good guess. After all, before his ... shift ... during the fight against Saffron, he had had a fear about cats, even though logically he knew they couldn’t harm him.
Fears like that tended to stay with you, no matter how silly you knew they were.
“You can come in, I’m full cheetah now,” said Ranma quietly, trying not to disturb Sheila anymore than what his shift had done.
Nali peeked though the small opening of the door, releasing a sigh of relief that even Ranma heard. “I need to check her wounds.”
Ranma nodded, preparing to wake her up, before stopping. Turning to Nali, he simply said one sentence. “I know.”
“Know?” she asked, a bit of fear in her voice.
“I know the fear,” he said. “You know I’m nothing like the ones that made you afraid, but the fear ... it’s just too strong to ignore.”
Nali tried not to shake at his words. “How...?”
“We all have fears,” said Ranma, rubbing Sheila’s neck, and sending the tiny were-jaguar into a slight purr. “The trick is not to let them win.”
Turning to face her again, he held out his hand. “I’ll help. I’m Ranma Saotome, a were-cheetah and a weresmilidon. Wanna be friends?”
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by The Demented Redhead
(Posted Sat, 28 Oct 2006 07:36)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.