Parents And Children - Wild Dragons: After The Time [Episode 58103]

by Kender

In a room that she had specially set aside for it at her ancestral home, Kodachi Kuno was practicing. Dressed in a leotard, she was bounding and bouncing along a mat in a fairly regular routine. It wasn't to improve her skills or even keep them up.

She was doing it to work out some frustration.

After five years, she would have thought that she could finally relax, but it seemed that she still had to be on her guard. What had been something for the single act had become a matter of survival. If even one piece came out of the tower of lies then they would all pay the price.

And that wasn't something that she was prepared to allow.

Ever since they had taken away the life of the harlot who had stolen her beloved Ranma-darling's name, she had worked to get past that whole sordid mess. That redheaded wench whom her fool of a brother was still enamoured of had taken away the pigtailed boy, and then had dishonored it by using it when she married some foreign prince. But, as a matter of love, honor, and justice, she had avenged him on the ones who would spit upon his life, one that they had taken so readily.

Since then she had worked hard to get where she was. Her studies were taking her on the fast track to degrees in Chemistry and Horticulture, and her skills in her Art were second to none. The investments that she had made were paying their rewards quite nicely, including the funds that she had placed into Kuonji's business. There were quite a few young men whom she had noticed being interested in her beauty.

And nothing would damage the life that she had worked so hard to rebuild after what had happened to her darling Ranma. If anything did threaten to, then she would have to deal with it like any other weed that sprang up.


Sitting at the desk in her room, Akane went over the question from her Calculus assignment again and watched as it blurred before her eyes. No matter how much she focused, it just wouldn't resolve itself into something readable. It insisted on not allowing her to see what it said.

Throwing her pen down in disgust, she leaned back in her chair and sighed. Her mind simply refused to work on the problem at all. She found herself returning to the same thoughts time and again.

What was keeping her from doing it was fear. Not that she was afraid of making a mistake on the assignment. That at least she was certain that she could finish well enough. Nor was it with any of her other university courses.

Her fear was of getting caught for something that she had done five years earlier. After all that time, Ranma's death still haunted her. Back then, she had thought that there was no other way. The redhead had done something that she couldn't forgive, and she felt that she had to punish her for that. So, she and the other jilted fiancees had done what they had to do.

There were times that she could see the look in the redhead's eyes as she had realized what was happenning. That image came into her dreams even now, along with the rest. It was still crystal clear in her memory from beginning to end, and she wished to the heavens that it wasn't. Then perhaps she could shake the terror once and for all.

Something that her sister had inadvertantly intensified. With Nabiki's entry into the police academy, she was in a position to be trained in techniques that would allow her to pick up on possible crimes. The youngest Tendo already lived in terror of the possibility of the police asking about her, but now her own sibling was to be a cop, if only for a little while. It had been bad enough when she had told her that she would be a lawyer.

Her only hope was that Nabiki would continue to be clueless about the whole situation. As long as she didn't do anything that would hint at the biggest secret of her life, she would be safe. All four of them would be, and that was something that she had to make certain of.

After all, no one had caught on yet, and none of them wanted the possibility of that happening.


Bouncing in between the tables at the Nekohaten, Shampoo smiled at the boys and got the expected leers in response. It was quite good for her ego, though if they were just stupid boys. They still tipped well, appreicated beauty, and were generally harmless. So what if she stroked their oversized men's pride? Nothing really happened because of it.

Besides, none of them compared to Ranma...

Her smile froze in place and she slowed for a moment. Five years later and she was still comparing men with her betrayer. It was just that none of them had had the same skill, looks or courage that he had had. But he had turned away from her and become the girl who she had thought she was when they had faced each other on the Challenge Log. Someone so different from the boy that she had been so attracted to that sometimes she found herself considering them two different people.

Perhaps if she got out of this place with its many memories of Ranma, then she could put it all behind her. But for some reason, her great-grandmother continually refused to let them go back to the village. She would say things about 'creating an outpost', or 'seeing if there was anyone worthy of someone like you'. Which she didn't understand, but she did comprehend that the Elder wanted to find out who had killed her protoge.

That was something that Shampoo was certain would never happen. She and the other three involved had covered their tracks well enough that they were certain that no one would ever find out what they had done.

Pushing those thoughts out of her mind, she went back to serving tables of boys lusting after her while:

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(Posted Wed, 16 Jul 2003 02:16)


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