Nabiki unlocks the two large wooden doors to the yard and opens them wide. It’s early morning and a little over cast. A wind blows through her black, no-nonsense, business dress and makes her wish she had put on a jacket. She looks up and down the street. A man in a red jogging suit is runing down the side walk across the street. A bird swoops down to peck at an invisible crumb next to the doorway. Aside from that...nothing. Nabiki sighs.

She checks the thin, gold watch on her wrist. She’s early. The clients will be another five minutes at least. Rubbing her arms with her hands, Nabiki decides to go inside. She walks along the white gravel pathway to the wooden porch, where Uncle Saotome and Daddy would play shogi. Daddy seemed so happy then...

Nabiki stops on the porch steps and looks at the koi pond. There are still fish in it. One jumps up and splashes back in. It reminds Nabiki of Ranma’s fights with his father. It’s hard for her to think of a single time one of them hadn’t managed to wind up in that pond. Nabiki smiles slightly. Then turns around as the smile leaves her face...seven years...

She unlocks the entrance to the living room and slides the large doorway to the right. The TV that used to sit by the entrance is no longer there. Kasumi and Ono had put it in their new appartment next to where they worked. Kasumi had gotten her Phd. in Psychology and she and Ono work together now in a new building across from the school. Kasumi just had her baby a little over a month ago. A little girl. She named her Akane.

The low table where the Tendos and Saotomes used eat their meals is gone too. It had been repaired so many times from the abuse it recieved it apeared to have been assembled from some carpenter’s junk pile. When Nabiki took it to the dump it had fallen apart on the drive there. It had been held together by a few dabs of wood glue and...love. Both had become brittle and weak by that time. Now all that’s left of the table is a few scuff marks on the floor that Nabiki couldn’t quite get rid of.

She takes off her black pumps, leaves them on the genkan and walks in stockinged feet to the kitchen. Out of habit her hand moves over her head to lift up the fringe that usually hangs over the doorway to the kitchen, but now her hand passes through empty air. The fringe too is at Kasumi and Ono’s apartment. Nabiki lowers her hand slowly. She shivers. The house is so cold.

She opens up one of the upper cabinets. Inside there is a simple tea set next to several packages of instant tea. Nabiki takes out a ceramic teapot and places it on the counter. She opens a pack of Darjeerling and puts the bag in the pot. Then she moves to the stove. She stops. There was a time when the stove was always on. When there was always a kettle of water heating up. Nabiki smiles. The gas bills were horrendous... She thinks of how she had to make Ranma dress like a girl. Well...she didn’t have to. It was more like she was still a little miffed that he hadn’t been the man of her dreams and was still exacting her brand of revenge. It was so much fun having revenge on Ranma that it had become her favorite pastime...At least until Ryoga almost killed Akane with that belt of his...then she decided to take it down a notch. She was so childish then. She thought she was so mature but really she was still a kid. Now she’s twenty-four. Now she has a business of her own. Now she’s wondering what happened to that kid.

Nabiki grabs the kettle. Its bottom is pitch black from the stove. Gas is better to cook with but it’s murder on pots and pans. Kasumi explained this when Nabiki asked her why she kept buying new ones. Nabiki takes the kettle to the sink, and fills it with water. There are two basins in the sink and the hot water is heated in a unit on the wall. It’s pretty old and probably should be replaced entirely. Nabiki remembers when Ranma still had to pretend to be Ranko and his mother came over. He and Akane were cooking dinner when Akane made the microwave explode. A piece of the microwave hit the pipe on the hot water unit and, since it hadn’t been replaced in a while, hot water sprayed all over the room, and Ranma. Auntie Saotome barely missed seeing Ranma change forms. Nabiki thought the whole thing was hilarious. She didn’t believe for a moment that Auntie would really kill her own child. When she hesitated for so long before releasing Ranma from the contract after she found out, though, Nabiki no longer blamed Uncle Saotome for leaving on that training trip with Ranma. Ranma actually came near death a couple of times there...and Nabiki had laughed at him.

The kettle full, Nabiki puts it on the stove and turns it on. She crouches down to check the flame. Blue and licking the bottom of the kettle it somehow seems tired and cold...No, she can’t think of Uncle Saotome as a spineless coward anymore. Not after what he did. Nabiki shivers again.

She looks out of the kitchen window. She can’t see much, just the gray of the sky the roofs of a few houses and the tops a few streetlamps. The window is thin and horizontal.The curtain that used to be there is now at a storage facility four or five kilometers away. So are many blackened pots and pans and other things that are no longer being used. Nabiki is going to have to hold an auction soon. She is losing money on the storage.

She walks out of the kitchen and after a pause she goes up the stairs. She doesn’t quite know why. It’s just something she suddenly has to do. The second step from the top creaks. It always has creaked, except somehow Ranma could step right on it and not make a sound... Nabiki finds herself heading for her old room. The duck with her name carved in romanji that Mommy had given her for Christmas before she died...isn’t hanging on her door. It’s back at Nabiki’s apartment, in a box full of things she got from the house. The box is unopened. The door seems bare without the plaque. It seems unfriendly, and not as bright as it was. Nabiki opens it. Of course her room is empty. There is no stereo by the window, no posters on the wall, no clothes in her closet. Her bed is gone. So is her desk. She can almost believe that she never lived here...except for the marks on the walls from the tacks, the scuffs on the floor from the bed and desk, the dent in the plaster next to the closet where Ranma had pounded his fist in frustration after he had run afowl of one of Nabiki’s sneakier shenanigans...

She closes the door.

Nabiki walks woodenly to Ranma and Uncle Saotome’s room. This was where her savior slept. Now it’s empty. She opens the door. You can tell this is Ranma’s room because in the middle of the floor there’s a warped section where Ranma slept from all the water splashed on him. The dents, gouges and scratches were nigh impossible to fix. They all seemed to say Ranma Saotome lived here. Ranma was so much alive...And as for his father... The man was approaching middle age. Maybe he had just made a snap decision. Maybe at another time or place he would have left Nabiki to die. Maybe he thought Nabiki was Ranma and was only hoping to save his meal ticket...No, Nabiki thought, Say what you want about Genma Saotome. The man loved his son. You don’t risk your life for someone you don’t love.

Unless you think it’s someone else.

I should be dead now, Nabiki thinks, Not Ranma. Not Genma. Not Akane...

Nabiki can see the unmistakable marks of Akanes mallet in the wood now.

Suddenly...a sound: “Ranma no BAKA!”

Is that?...Nabiki runs to Akane’s door. Here there an imprint from where the wooden duck plaque banged into the softer wood of the door whenever Akane slammed it. Akane isn’t here. Akane is dead. It takes Nabiki a while to realize the screaming she hears is coming from the kettle, and not herself. She doesn’t move... though the sound is quivering jarringly through her skeleton. It ceases. Someone’s in the house.

“Tendo-san? Are you there?” It’s a woman’s voice. Nabiki recognizes it from the phone. She is one of the clients. A Shiroko Yaminaka. Nabiki is sure of it. When Nabiki spoke to Yaminaka-san she had to hold the phone a good ten centimeters from her ear. She wishes she could so easily escape it here. “Tendo-san?”

“I-I’ll be right down.” Nabiki’s voice cracks. She wills herself away from Akane’s door, down the steps. Her mother’s last words to her were for her to be strong. I will be strong, Nabiki told her mother. I will not cry, she thought to herself. This house must be sold. Kasumi can’t afford it and there’s no reason for me to keep it. I...have to move on. “Thank you, Yaminaka-san for coming, and for getting the water.”

“Oh don’t mention it.” Shiroko says tiredly. “My husband will be here shortly.” Shiroko is somewhat attractive. She looks a little like Kasumi except her hair is jet black, her eyebrows are unnaturally thick for a woman and her chin is somewhat more pointed. The most notable difference is how often she smiles, which is, judging by the faint lines creasing the bridge of her nose, not a lot.

Nabiki hates her.

“That’s nice. So why are you interested in the house if I may ask?” Nabiki asks.

“Oh, well, my husband, he thought we should get a bigger place and have his parents live with us.”

Just then, Shiroko’s husband walks in “Hey! You know there’s a koi pond here?”

“Yes, dear I noticed when I came in.” Shiroko gives Nabiki a look that seems to say “See? this is what I put up with.”

Nabiki wants to slap her.

“How’re ya doin’? I’m Ryu Yaminaka. This place got a dojo?”

“Excuse me?” Ryu looks a lot like Ranma except with bigger ears, blond hair green eyes, and no pigtail. He also looks about a decade older. Actually he doesn’t look anything like Ranma. Its just...

“This place...It’s got a dojo right?”

“Yes.” affirmed Nabiki, “Why do you ask?”

“I fancy myself a martial artist. I’ve always wanted a dojo and since I’ve come into a little money I figure why not? My parents would just love it here! ”

“Your parents wouldn’t love it anywhere.”

“Geez all the time with the negative energy! Would you at least look first?”

“I am looking and I see scuff marks on the floor, and the ceiling! It’s obviously needed repair countless times...”

“Ooh yeah I see what ya mean! Hey what caused that big patch?”

Nabiki looks up. They seem to be refering to the large section of newer wood in the ceiling. It covers the hole from when Taro had “dropped in” more than six years ago. The ceiling really looks more like a Picasso deconstructionalist piece than a mere top of a room. Nabiki brings her head down and speaks to Ryu flatly: “It was a yeti-octopus riding an ox carrying a snake and crane.”

“Oh,” says Ryu. “Strange, I didn’t peg ya for havin’ a sense of humor.”

“I don’t.” Nabiki is starting to get a little irritated at Ryu too. She shivers.

“Oh you poor dear! You must have made some tea to warm yourself up! It is a chilly morning isn’t it, dear?”

“Sure, yeah. I guess it is.” Ryu responds looking around at the rest of the room, “ I didn’t notice until you said somethin’, though.”

Nabiki takes in a breath. “I have enough for you both as well. Instant is all I have. You can have some if you want it.” She tries to smile. She can’t. There was a time when her face was plastic to be molded at her will and her emotions steady...still...frozen. Now... But thinking about it only makes it worse. She was being rude to her clients. That has to change, Nabiki thought. I can blackmail, I can backstab, I can make someone’s life hell...but I should never, NEVER be rude about it....Even if I want to scream and chase these people out of the house with a pitchfork.This image alows Nabiki to raise the corners of her mouth a fraction. “I’m sorry,” She says by way of apologizing for her curt invitation to tea, “I would be honored...if you would have some tea with me. I...have a lot on my mind right now.”

“What’re ya apologizin for?” Ryu asked, “Do I look like a guy who gives a damn about custom?”

“No.” Nabiki states looking at Ryu’s blonde hair...dyed blonde, “No you don’t.”

“Right. ‘Hang it all’ that’s what I say.”

“Ryu!” Shiroko lightly slaps her husband on the shoulder, “Please excuse my husband,” She addressed Nabiki, “He has some...unique...beliefs. I have to make him take off his shoes at the genkan all the time.”

“Hey! That’s only when we’re at home! A man should be able to wear shoes in his own house if he wants to!”

“I’ll bring you some cups.” Nabiki says. She goes into the kitchen and pours the tea, trying not to be offended at the thought of Ryu stomping all around the house in outside shoes. The kami know the house has had enough damage to make a few shoe scuffs negligible, and really she isn’t the most traditional of people herself...but still...She clinks the cups onto saucers and brings them out in either hand. “I’m sorry I don’t have cream or sugar.”

“Ah that’s fine. I like mine black anyway”

“I’m fine as well, dear.”

Nabiki hands them their tea cups and nods. She goes back into the kitchen Look at me! I’m Kasumi! The thought doesn’t make her laugh...it just makes her sad. She pours tea into her own cup and carries it to where the Yaminakas are standing. She had made a few provisions for visitors but Nabiki did not want the visits to run long. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to take staying in the house for very long. Unfortunately that meant having to see the Yaminakas looking nervously around them for a place to sit. “We’ll just drink as I show you around if you don’t mind.”

“Yeah sure.”

Shiroko nodded.

“Okay first off, as you can see this is the kitchen...” Nabiki showed the Yaminakas everything. The kitchen was so quiet now, when before it had been a hubbub of activity. She showed them Happousai’s room, which once had been filled with women’s undergarments and obscure herbs and scrolls, but Happosai had died shortly after it happened, and all the parephenallia had been sold, burned or put into storage. She showed them the furo, where Ranma and Akane had their first altercation. It was empty now, the water in the pipes cold, stagnant.

Nabiki opened the door to what was once her father’s room. “And this...” Nabiki took a deep breath before speaking again, “is the master bedroom.”

“Why’s it the master bedroom?” Ryu asked, scratching the back of his head. “Don’t look any bigger’n the other rooms...”

“My father lived here,” Nabiki snapped.

“We’re sorry, dear, we didn’t mean to offend you.” Shiroko nudged her husband.

“Uh yeah, no offense or nothin, I just thought it was kinda small for a master bedroom is all.”