[Ranma/Rumiko Takahashi][FanFic] Moving On
Richard Beaubien
Richard Beaubien Presents...
A Rumiko Takahashi Short Fic...
Moving On....
****
It had been almost a year, and still she cried when she visited this place.
She thought she would of gotten over the pain a lot sooner, but it didn't
go away. It was always with her, and it would always grow when ever she
revisited this place. And sometimes she would sit and cry, cry like she did
when she first heard the news....The news of her husbands death...
The death of Ono Tofu...
The illness was a surprise really, for Tofu knew of all the ancient and
modern ways to treat illness and other afflictions. But as Kasumi soon
found out that illness can strike even the most healthiest of people, and
can ignore the most trusted remedies. For reasons unknown by his doctors
Tofu had managed to contract Lung cancer. And Tofu had tried his best to
fight it off, using all the knowledge he had to delay his death. But karma
was against him, and on a night almost a year ago his illness claimed him.
Ono Kasumi cried that night, cried almost the entire week. And ever since
the somber Buddhist ceremony she still managed to cry when ever she visited
her husbands resting place and shrine.
But she wasn't crying this time, though she still felt pain for the loss.
This time she just stood in silence as she lit a piece of incense, placing
it down next to the flowers on the shrine. And as the sweet smell reached
her nose Kasumi managed one more tear before she turned to leave, silently
whispering gomen as she left the shrine, perhaps for the last time.
****
"Are you sure about this Onnechan?" Akane asked in a concerned voice as she
finished packing the last of Kasumi's suitcases.
"Yes I am, I need to get on with my life."
"But why not come home, why not stay..." but Akane's questions where
stopped by a stern look from Kasumi, one Akane had never seen her use
before.
"I can't go home, there are too many bad memories there. Plus father isn't
exactly the most comforting person in the world though I still love him to
death."
"Well if you think so," a small frown crossed Akane's brow, to be quickly
be replaced by a slight smile. She hoped this masked the feeling of dread
that she had felt, that Kasumi had changed a bit because of the death of
her husband. That she might not be ready to go out and live on her own,
especially in a district far from her home in Nerima.
"Don't worry I'll be fine, and with Nabiki looking over the rest of the
investments Tofu had I shouldn't run into too many money problems."
"Yeah, Nabiki is one of the better people to have manage your money. Still
I find it odd that Tofu would own something like this...."
Kasumi slightly smiled as she replied to this statement "Well Tofu was a
bit odd." The smile faded slightly as she started to remember him, and
there plans together, the family they where going to raise. But that was in
the past and she had to live for the present. Her smile returned as she
started to head for the door, "Ranma-kun, is the truck loaded?"
"Hai, though that dog of yours won't get into the truck!!"
"Just let me handle it!! Tofu-san, get into the truck" Ranma looked on in
amazement as the large white dog started to bound towards the truck,
getting in at the command of Kasumi. "You just have to know how to handle
him."
"Sure, anyway we're leaving now!! See you later Akane!!!"
"By Akane-chan, I'll be sure to give you a call later."
Akane waved goodbye from the front door of the house as she watched the
truck drive away, feeling that she was waving good bye to the older sister
that she used to know. "Good luck Onnechan, good luck"
After a few minutes of driving Ranma turned to look at Kasumi and finally
decided to ask the question that was bugging him since the move. "So are
you sure it's okay for you to do this? Are you sure Tendo-san won't be mad
at you?"
"Why would he, he's got you to look after him and run the dojo."
"But he may be worried about you, after all he only cares."
"I know, but it's time I did something for myself." A small wistful sigh
came from Kasumi as she laid back into the seat. Ranma just looked over at
her and smiled.
"Yeah, you owe that to your self. And we owe that to you..." And with that
Ranma pulled the truck onto the freeway and started to drive towards
Kasumi's future.
****
"Are you sure this is the place?"
"Hai, this is the address that I was given."
"What a rundown little dump," Ranma mumbled to himself as he unloaded the
truck.
"Well, it does need a bit of fixing up. I'm sure it's nothing I can't
handle."
"Sure....Anyway what room does your stuff go into?"
"The managers room Ranma-kun!!"
"Okay, here I go!!!" Ranma yelled as he picked up the coach with one hand,
still showing the slight streak of macho pride he still had. Kasumi
couldn't help but smile at this, Ranma had changed a lot but he still kept
some of his old, less desirable habits.
"That's it!!! I Really am Leaving this time!!!" a voice Kasumi didn't
recognize yelled, interrupting Kasumi's train of thoughts.
"He's actually going to do it this time..."
"Nahh, I think he's just bluffing..."
"A poor pathetic man....Blaming his Ronin status on others..."
"It's because of you of that I'm failing all of my entrance exam's. If
you'd just stop have drinking parties in my room or peeping on me!!!"
Kasumi frowned as she listened to the argument, wondering what caused it in
the first place. But then that really didn't matter, for she had to stop it
no matter who ended up starting it in the first place. After all having
tenants argue was no way to run a boarding house.
With that in mind she slowly entered the house and walked upstairs to see
the source of the argument. What she saw was a young man arguing with an
middle age woman, a middle age man, and a young woman in less than decent
lingerie. She suddenly cleared her throat causing the debate to stop, and
waited until all eyes where on her before she started to talk. "Excuse me,
but I'm the new manager here and I was wondering what was going on here?"
"Ah...The new manager. Well forgive us for not throwing you a proper party
but we where to preoccupied with this young man here who seems to want to
leave us...."
"YOTSUYA-SAN!!!" The young man yelled as he placed a hand over the older
man's mouth. The two of them started to whisper for awhile before Kasumi
finally heard the word's beef bowl mentioned and saw Yotsuya's lips curve
into a smile.
"Err, am I interrupting?"
"No, no your not...ah..."
"Kasumi, Ono Kasumi" Kasumi replied answering the young man's question
before he could ask it. Her lip's took on a slight smile as the people
around her (besides the young man) all began to look at her with a
questioning gaze.
"Well that's a nice name, Kasumi-san!!! My name's Yusaku, Godai Yusaku. And
allow me to be the first to welcome you to Maison Ikkoku Manager...."
(A Beginning?)
*****
Hmm...All of this started because of a slight debate me and a couple of
friends had while watching some Raw Ranma 1/2 episodes (we where playing
magic too at the time...:P). Essentially we started looking at how most
Ranma 1/2 characters seem to be combinations of the Urusei Yatsura
characters. Though I didn't mention it at the time, I thought Kasumi seemed
to be like a more naive Kyoko Ohtashni (from MI). And I thought Kasumi
would become a lot like Kyoko in the manga if she was put through a trauma
she couldn't just ignore....So thus the idea came and I decided it would
make a great short fic....
Hope you enjoyed it...
Ja ne!!
Richard Beaubien
----------------
Suzuki Arimi, Mizuno Ami, Aya-san forever!!!! WAI!!!
Fanfic homepage http://www.anime.usacomputers.net/~beaubird