Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Forever Bound ❯ The Shadows of Failure ( Chapter 3 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]
Forever Bound
Chapter 3, The Shadows of Failure

Author's Notes: Hey everyone here's chapter 3! Thanx so much all my wonderful readers and my pre-reader Kei, the knight. I'm soooo glad that people like my story. In case you want to know, I already had this story written on paper and was getting ready to type it yesterday when I looked in my planner and remembered a science project I had due! Okay, the rest of the chapters should be coming along more constantly now (that is if my teachers don't decide to spring anymore projects on me). Send all comments and critisism to silverflame_maiden@hotmail.com.

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma 1/2, Rumiko Takahashi does.

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The old principal stood nervously in front of the 22 kindergarteners of class 2b. They all seemed to have either curious or bored looks on their faces. The principal cleared his throat and said, "Okay, um...I would like to introduce you to your new teacher for the rest of the year...Tendo Akane." Akane walked brightly into the classroom with Belldandy following close behind. Mr. Mizuno, the principal, smiled once at her and left closing the door silently behind him. The whole class straightened up at the radiant smile of their beautiful teacher. Akane's hair was in a thick french braid with tendrils of it hugging her face and her eyes dazzled brilliantly at the kids making them take in a breath.

"Hello, my name is Tendo Akane and I'm your new teacher. This is my daughter, Tendo Belldandy and she's your new classmate," Akane said sweetly as she moved to sit on her desk and gestured to Belldandy to find a seat. Many students moved over to fit room for their cute new classmate. Belldandy bounced to a corner of the room and sat down next to a rat-tailed haired boy.

"Hi! My name's Belldandy, what's yours?" Belldandy asked enthusiastically at the boy.
The boy looked at the cute girl before him in utter shock as the rest of the class. The same surprised thought through all 22 heads *She's not afraid of him!*

"The name's Cay Xi," he said proudly.
"Hi Keichii-chan!" Belldandy smiled at Keichii and turned to face towards the front of the class. Keichii felt himself smile back at her, inspite of himself.

Akane and cleared her throat to get everyone's attention.
"Okay, I'll start by telling you about myself and then we'll begin. I was born and lived most of my life in Nerima and I went to Furinken High..."
"Hey, isn't that the school that had all those wierd fights and things happened a couple of years ago?" a student interrupted as the other kids nodded in the affirmitive.

Akane's smile grew as she said, "Do you remeber the name of the fiancee of the one who always got in trouble. The one who always got kidnapped and had to fight a herd of boy's every morning."
"Yeah! Her name was... Tendo Akane?!" Several kids exclaimed as others stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

Akane twirled around cutely and said, "One and only! Now, after I left Furinken, I moved to Paris to become an actress. Although I am good at acting, all my life I have studied martial arts and my family owns the Tendo Dojo Training Hall."

At the mention of Martial Arts, Keichii's interest perked up and asked, "What kind? Kempo? Kendo? Or...ugg...Karate?"
"Yes, actually all of them. The style of my art is Anything Goes. I study it and so does Belldandy."

Keichii's eyebrows scrunched up at the mention of the familiar form of Martial Arts. *Now where did I hear that before...?* He didn't get to dwell on this longer, however, as the thought of a sweet girl like Belldandy studying it. Another thought crept into his mind that she would even be good enough to beat him. This bothered him so much that he decided to challenge her. Keichii stood up smiling and said in a mocking tone, "I Cay Xi, challenge you, Tendo Belldandy, to a Martial Arts competition!"

Belldandy giggled happily and thought *Finally, I could fight someone other then Mommy...* The class stared once again speechless from their new teacher to the two crouching martial artist. One student raised his hand and Akane just waved it off saying, "Oh, I'm going to allow this. Just this once, that is if no one is to get hurt?" Akane shot a questioning glance at Keichii and he grunted in the affirmative before he gave a high kick at Belldandy's shoulders.

Belldandy barely dodged the blow and was about to throw several punches at Keichii's abdomen, but Keichii was quicker. Keichii danced around Belldandy's blows like a firefly and made a kick at Belldandy's open stomach. Everyone watched in horror as they saw Belldandy fly straight out one of the windows.

Keichii was about to jump out and catch her since he knew his endurance was probably stronger then hers and could take a fall that high, however he was too late. Before anyone could even blink, Akane moved as a blur and jumped out of the window, catching Belldandy and as she kicked a part of the wasll, flip back into the classroom.

The room burst in applause as Akane told everyone to take their seats and she began. When Keichii took his seat, he took a glance at Akane's breathtaking form as words flowed from her mouth and thought *She looks so familiar...sort of like the Blue Lady...*
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Akane grabbed her books and stuffed them in her bag as she heard the school bell ring. She grabbed Belldandy's hand, but before exiting through the door said back to her class, "Class, I guess you'd need to know that I won't be here int he afternoons because I have another place to go to. I would really love to meet your parents, but I don't think I can. Be sure, though, to tell them what a wonderful teacher you have." She gave a wink at her class before running out of the classroom dragging Belldandy behind her.

The class blushed at Akane's departuring words and continued to put on their coats. As soon as Keichii was finished putting on his coat and book-bag he smiled and jumped out of the window. As always he fell into two strong arms before he reached the ground.

"So, I heard you had a new teacher today. How was she?" the handsome man said jokingly at the blushing boy.

"Oh, she was *absolutley* wonderful, dad. She has this beautiful face and these sparkling eyes and she's really smart too. She even knows Martial Arts!" Keichii exclaimed excitedly as he jumped up and down besides his father. He knew a warrior shouldn't act like this, but he couldn't contain himself. His father laughed at his son's antics.

"A Martial Artist in Nerima? Well I'd never thought, I'd live to see the day, " the man said with a slight spark in his old weary eyes.
"Dad, you want to know a secret. Promise not to tell?" Keichii whispered excitedly. The man nodded silently with a huge grin on his face. He was always amused by his son's secrets which usually weren't that important, like where he kept his lucky shirt, but just important to him all the same.

"I think she's perfect," Keichii yelled happily as he grew a faint blush.
The man laughed out loud, "I think somebody has a crush on their new teacher."

Keichii's eyebrows scrunched up again in this cute pouty look and he said as he laughed, "Oh dad, I love the teacher and all, she's nice, but I wasn't talking about *her*. I was talking about her *daughter* Belldandy." With that he gave a sigh and jumped into his father's car. He never had gotten used to these car vehicles yet and was still edgy around them, but his father had insisted they needed it. *Why would you need a car when you could hop roofs* Keichii always wondered.

With one final laugh, Ranma drove off with his son down the empty street.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Akane sat silently on the park bench looking at her daughter run around and play on the swings. Ukyo looked intently at her silent friend and sighed. Ukyo patted her bulging 7-month belly contentedly as Akane looked at her.

"It feels wonderful, doesn't it?" Akane asked wistfully.
"Huh? What?" Ukyo asked.

Akane stared back at the children playing and said softly, "You know, having a kid, watching it grow. It's just one of those wierd special things that make you feel all warm inside. I know you know, it's not stupid because your experiencing it right now. I guess it doesn't really matter who the father is, just as long as you love her...your child...everything will be alright in the end."

Ukyo put her hand on Akane's arm, "You can still have another kid, you know. You just need to open up and give them a chance. You'll be surprised to know how many guys love you."

Akane smiled again, this time a sad small smile, "It's not that I don't try Ucchan. I do... I date and date and date and none of them even come close. I only loved two men in my life. One man who married another leaving me with heartache and Belldandy's father. It's ironic really, how the second man that broke my heart, Belldandy's father, just happened to come and comfort me when I was heartbroken from my first love thinking the world was coming to an end even though there were others there to support me. They say "First Love Never Dies", but isn't it true that "Love is Lovlier The Second Time Around". Ucchan, I won't give up...I'll raise Belldandy and I'm sure that someday someone else will be able to solve the puzzle to my heart. After all, two others have done it flawlessly."

Ucchan stared sadly at her best friend and for the first time in a long time felt the familiar memories engulf her.
#####Flahback########
Ukyo sat crouched in the corner of her ruined resteraunt sobbing. All her pots, pans, chairs, and tables were thrown all over the resteraunt. *It didn't matter anymore. All this was for him...only him...and he was gone* Why did it hurt so much? He has only been gone a week, it wasn't supposed to be this way! She wasn't supposed to hurt, her pain should be gone. After all the knife already cut itself in her heart, but what she didn't know or want to know was that you will continue to hurt and die if you do not pull the knife out and clean the wound. Yes it will hurt, but it will heal. Ukyo either bothered to forget this fact or simply did not care anymore.

As Ukyo looked up she saw Akane staggering in front of her resteraunt. She gasped in horror as she saw Akane collapse helplessly onto the streets. Ukyo picked up Akane's uncouncious form with her spatula and hefted her into Ucchan's. After awhile Akane groggily got up and asked where she was.

"Your in Ucchan's, sugar. You okay, you took a pretty bad fall out there."
Akane gave her a weak smile and said, "Y-yeah, Ucchan I'm fine." Ukyo smiled a little at the pet name until she realized it wasn't Ranma that called her that. Anger flared in her at anyone, besides, Ranma that called her that.

She picked up her battle spatula and shouted with tears down hert face, "Don't call me that! Your not him! Only Ran-chan can call me that! Get out! Get out!"

Akane stood up definantly then and shouted back with the same fire in her eyes, "He's gone Ukyo! He's left, your Ran-chan left! He left you, he left me, he left all of us for that...that...that Chinese hussey that didn't even deserve him!"

Ukyo collapsed sobbing while she whispered almost to herself, "He left...no he couldn't have...I was his Ucchan...his best friend...he was supposed to be here with me...by my side...always....but he left...that bastard...that jackass...that...my honoroble Ran-chan."

Akane grabbed onto Ukyo and sobbed violently as well, "He left Ukyo...he left...he left me all alone again...no more smiles...no more teasing...no more Ranma...he's gone...I l-loved him...he was the only one to protect me...to understand...now he's gone...forever...my sweet honoroble Ranma."

After awhile Ukyo and Akane stopped and Akane said softly, "He's gone, Ukyo...and we're all that we have left to survive...we need to stick together...Ryo-chan helped me understand that...we're all alone again like before he arrived in our lives...the difference is now we have others who understand."

Akane wiped a tear from her eye and said, "Friends, Ucchan?"
Ukyo smiled as she smiled also, "Best friends forever, Ne-chan."

Ukyo started to pick up the broken pieces of her resteraunt and heart with the help of Akane, her best friend. Ukyo stood next to her Oknominkai with 'I love Ran-chan' on it. She gave a smile and threw it in the garbage can with a loud thunp.

"What did you do that for?" Akane asked quizzically.
"Oh, nothing. I just finally pulled the knife from my heart and cleaned the wound,"
Ukyo said sadly.
#######End of Flashback##########
Ukyo smiled sadly at Akane's retreating form. She picked up her own daughter, Ryoko, and followed after Akane. *Someday, Akane...you'll forget all those that hurt you and love again...* she looked at her quiet daughter who probably wouldn't be here if not for Akane *...you deserve that much*
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