Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Are You Happy or Not? ❯ Such a Way of Life ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Are You Happy or Not?
----------------------------------------------------
A Ranma ½ Fanfic
by V. Zhao
----------------------------------------------------
Disclaime r: I do not own Ranma 1/2 or any of its characters. I am
also not taking credit for WWII. I will only take credit where credit
is due. Song belongs to Alec Su. Lyrics translated by me.

Author's Note: I write this at a time when a country is grieving and
I along with it grieves. I grieve not only for the American people; I
grieve for the whole world. I write this to remind us of war. To
remind us of something horrible that should never have to happen no
matter how angry we are. To remind us of hardships and suffering that
comes from hatred. And so I give you my new piece Are You Happy or
Not much based on China during WWII. Thank you for taking the time
to read this. My heart goes out to the families of the victims of the
horrible crimes committed on 9/11, 2001. May this day live in our
hearts. May this day forever leave us with such a feeling of world
unity against hate and violence. Let us live in PEACE.
----------------------------------------------------

I just want to know if you're happy or not
Have you found that someone who understands you?
Close your eyes and the wind will blow
Perhaps it's just the season

I can't walk down that street since you live there
Perhaps it is only my heart that feels so old
Where we went wrong in the past
Can we go back and just say we're sorry?
After all these years, I can still remember
All those promises I owe you

I just want to know if you're happy or not
Have you found that someone who understands you?
The sun is rising over the horizon
Can you see it with your eyes?

That bit about breaking up was your wish
Those words you said to me I have stored in my heart
Where we went wrong in the past
Can we go back and just say we're sorry?
The people I've loved still live in the memories
I've never had the chance to say goodbye

The ones I loved aren't here
I can't forget about caring for you
I just want to hear your voice

Where we went wrong in the past
Can we go back and just say we're sorry?
The people I've loved still live in the memories
I've never had the chance to say goodbye

I just want to know if you're happy or not
Have you found that someone who understands you?
Close your eyes and the wind will blow
Perhaps it's just the season
----------------------------------------------------

Ch apter 1: Such a Way of Life

I have lived through much in my life though it was a relatively
short one. Love? Yes, I have loved. Hate? Yes, I believe I have hated
even more. Happiness was a rare find in my days when the sky was
falling so carelessly on top of my home, my family, my life. Such a
thing called happiness was a luxury. Fear, however, haunted every
corner of the Earth. Fear haunted my dreams at night. It consumed me
with its darkness and enveloped my very soul.

My children come to me every spring with offerings, symbols of
respect for the dead. I regret that I had left them. I regret that
they had never learned to love me. Never learned to see that their
mother suffered for them. They live in a world where everything I had
known is irrelevant. I had known pain.

You come to me now asking for something. Asking for a story. I
shall give my story if only you promise to treasure it as if it
were your own. There was nothing more that I would have liked than to
have lived. Let me live in your memories, live in your souls. Give
life back to me for a few moments as I remember the days when the
world was palpable to me. It's a love story. Just a simple love
story.

Gather around, my children. Gather so I may give you my love,
give you my pain, give you my fear, give you my life.
----------------------------------------------------

"Sh ampoo!" cried Cologne as she looked through the bustling
village for her great-granddaughter. "Shampoo! Where are you, girl?"
The old woman hopped on her staff across the dirt road and into the
courtyard of the family house. "Shampoo, there you are."

A purple haired girl sat at her dresser mirror putting various
trinkets delicately into her tresses. Her cheeks were flushed as she
fingered the gold pieces that dangled festively from her head.
Tomorrow would be a great day for her for it was to be her wedding
day. In a small village such as this, or even anywhere, a wedding day
would be one of the most important events in a girl's life. A girl
in those days would only leave the house for three occasions; her
birth, her wedding, and her death. Such a sheltered life was expected
for any proper young woman who married into a respectable family.

At the green age of sixteen, she was being married off to a
rich family named Li. They're son, a young man of eighteen, had seen
the purple haired beauty laughing gaily one day with a cousin when he
had peeped over the great wall of the Zhou family confines and
immediately grew smitten. The engagement had been quite orthodox
where the parents of the Li boy requested to meet the girl in
question. And with the mother's approval, the girl would be
proclaimed acceptable for a bride.

After months of shopping for her dowry, she was from a
well-to-do family after all, she had finally arrived at her big day.
Of course she did not know her future husband well; she wasn't
expected to. The only thing that she had to do was to obey her future
husband no matter what and prove to be raised by an elite family. The
way she would carry herself in the next phase of her life will not
only define her own honor and dignity, but her husband's as well.
This duty was very important in the social structure of those days.

"You silly girl," Cologne sighed as she rested in a chair next
to the elaborate dresser. "Stop playing with your jewelry and listen
to what I have to say."

Shampoo dropped the jade earrings she was holding up against
her ears and turned questioning eyes towards her elder. She knew this
was the final lecture she would be given. After all, she was to leave
before dawn the next morning for the matchmaker's house and then be
married into another family. The thought made her sad so she did her
best to pay her full attention.

"Your mother is a wonderful wife, dutiful, honorable, and
capable." The old woman voice became reminiscent of a time long gone.
"I'll have you know that your father truly made a good choice of whom
to marry. She was the finest girl in the village at that time. Every
eligible bachelor went knocking at the great gates of the Zhang
household. However, she would never let any man in. I asked her many
years later why this was so. 'Mei Rui,' I said, 'Mei Rui, why are you
so stubborn when all those suitors were banging at your door?' Not
that I was complaining. She did choose my Da Swin Zi after all. You
know what she said? She just smiled at me and said in the most calm
voice, 'My mother taught me to always wait for the best.'

"So you see, your mother was a great lady. In my day it was
rumored that her mother was actually a Gege from the Imperial Palace
who had run away with a man she had fallen in love with. People who
had visited the Zhang house had always thought your mother carried
herself like a princess. And you know what? The rumors were true. She
was the daughter of the Golden Emperor's daughter. Do you realize
that you have Imperial blood in your veins?" Cologne looked at her
great-granddaughter skeptically as if she doubted that she was worthy
of such an honor.

"Now you are being married off to another family. You must
remember everything that your mother had taught you, remember how
she carried herself with such great dignity. You must carry yourself
in the same manner. Remember that you are the Golden Emperor's
great-granddaughter. Always obey your husband no matter what he does.
I won't lie to you about life as a wife. I wish you luck that your
husband will be warm and loving. But even if he is not, even if he
may throw tantrums and hit you, you will carry yourself with honor.
You will never let yourself lose face. Never let your husband lose
face. Life as a woman is not easy. This is your duty. This is your
life."

The old woman stared at Shampoo meaningfully for a few moments
letting her words sink in. She had already seen many years ago the
lines on her great-granddaughter's face would telltale her life of
suffering. When she was young, perhaps four, she had asked a fortune
teller to visit the young girl and tell her of her life so she may
prepare her in the proper. What the fortune teller saw was shocking.
She had such a life of bitterness and abuse that Cologne had almost
wanted to kill the girl right then to save her from her future. Mei
Rui stopped her before she could put her hands on the cleaver in the
kitchen. Her granddaughter-in-law held the smiling toddler in her
arms and exclaimed that all creatures had the right to live no matter
how much suffering they would experience. In a way, Shampoo's mother
had both given her life and saved her life.

Shampoo nodded and vowed to her great-grandmother that she
would be an obedient wife to Li. She watched as the old woman's eyes
grew misty with tears. "Oh, Great-grandmother, don't cry. It's bad
luck for the bride's kinsmen to cry on her wedding day."

Cologne sniffled and patted Shampoo's hand as she rose up on
her cane and prepared to hobble out. Before she closed the door
behind her, she turned around and said for the last time, "Remember
what I said. Let that guide you through the voyage of life."
----------------------------------------------------

"O h, you look so beautiful, Zhou xiao jie." The stout
matchmaker primped and poked at her headpiece until it was perfectly
placed on top of her graceful purple head. It was true; she looked
absolutely ravishing in her red wedding attire. She could barely
recognize the reflection in the mirror that of a grown up lady
wearing rouge and lipstick. The woman in the mirror looked nothing
like her. She was a carefree, burdenfree girl who never bothered with
heavy makeup and stifling dresses. With the nature grace of her
mother, Shampoo had always looked exquisite in even the plainest of
cotton dresses.

That morning her mother had waken her up long before the sun
had risen and requested a word with her. She sat by her bed and
smoothed her forehead with an affectionate hand. "Daughter," she had
said in her sweet, tranquil voice that the whole household longed to
hear every day. "Daughter, this belongs to you." With her slim, white
hand, she held out a golden hair comb with the Imperial Dragon
cast at the top. The elaborate design of the dragon was encrusted
with jade scales. "My mother gave it to me the day I got married. Her
mother gave it to her the night before she ran away from the Palace.
And now I'm giving it to you."

Shampoo had looked into her mother's face with the comb in her
hand. Her mother's face was free of aging and untroubled like that
of the Goddess of Mercy. She had never been close to her. The job of
bringing her up had always fallen upon her great-grandmother's
shoulders. However, at that moment, there was a distinct bond between
them that made Shampoo feel like her heart was sinking into her toes.
Though she had never really been by her mother's side, she had also
never left her mother for even a whole week before. The thought of a
whole new lifestyle had just occurred to her at that moment. She
would no longer be in the comforts of her own home; she would be an
outsider serving a different family.

The voice of her mother flowed into the night like liquid
silver, cool and unwavering in the crisp air. "Daughter, I want you
to know that your mother loves you, pains you." Her eyes grew dreary
as if a few courageous clouds had dared to shroud the full moon's
luminosity. "Perhaps my purposeful neglect was not as well-thoughtout
as I thought it would be. How I wish I had known you, Daughter. The
neglect, however, will make you a stronger woman, and more ceceptable
to this new arrangement. It will help you survive when your
surrounding walls crumble. Nothing lasts forever, Daughter. Nothing.
If anything ever goes wrong, if times are hard, I want you to sell
this and feed your family."
----------------------------------------------------

Shampoo clutched the solid gold comb in her hand as the
carriage stumbled down the road. Dawn was fast approaching but the
air still wreaked of the chill of the night. Her breath came out in
puffs of steam in front of her face. How impermanent those little
clouds were, living a life of only a few seconds before it
disappeared and dissolved into nothing. She had taken advantage of
the life she once had. Oh how she missed it when she no longer had
it.

Now the carriage was at the gates of the Li Household. A
servant announced the bride's arrival with his practiced cry. She was
helped out of the cart by a faceless servingman and lead next to the
bridegroom. From under her heavy veil, she could not see him, nor his
flickering eyes, nor his triumphant grin. They bowed to the heavens,
the earth, and then to each other. And that began another chapter of
her young life.
----------------------------------------------------
End of Chapter 1
Notes: Seems like a lot of babbling now, but I promise it'll get
better. Ranma may not come in till Chapter 3. Really, I hope you will
continue reading for the plot. If you haven't caught on, Shampoo's
hubby is Mousse. Ok, that's it for Chapter 1. Please review!