#akane also becomes the reason why the couple stops arguing

[pedi-bug]

ok, ok, I have this terukaneaoi au where akane dies and wakes up in the 80s and to which he then continues living life in the past (after many confusing realizations) and then meets the schools messiest relationship known to man in the process; teru and aoi, everyone knows how much arguments they get into yet they still look great together. akane somehow manages to get close to aoi (with the help of nene since akane kinda got attached to her since shes the only one to know about his situation). aoi is interested by akane and wants to know more about him while akane is like, literally in love.

while with teru, he finds out about this and like the great boyfriend he is, he of course, somehow (intentionally) meets akane and gets really angry at him. (he's just jealous; he really cares about aoi and is just afraid she will leave him), akane is confused, aoi stops teru from doing anything else and from then on, anytime aoi hangs out with akane (which is a lot of the time since aoi has no one else she actually likes to hang out with unless it's akane or nene) teru comes along.

akane and teru have a rocky view of each other but teru eventually becomes fond of akane (which takes a long while, in the meanwhile they have lots of petty arguments and relentlessly make fun of one and another, aoi has to force them to get along).

[zecretsanta]

FIC: Never Have to Say Goodbye

to: @juricha-art

from: @interabangs

Happy Holidays, juricha-art! I chose your Sigma/Diana prompt because they deserve so much happiness together after everything they��ve been through! Just to let you know, there is some angst in here, and a couple mentions of Diana’s ex and Delta. but I made sure to give the lovebirds the happy ending they deserve! Bonus D-Team family feels at the end, too. Hope you enjoy!

Sleep had become more of a passing acquaintance to Diana in the past few years. Between her duties at the hospital – and her fitful tossing and turning before heading to DCOM – she hadn’t been getting much of it.  She would’ve been surprised at how quickly she slips into dreamland, if she weren’t so exhausted. She vaguely registers Sigma gently lowering her into bed, and lifting the thick, cozy comforter over her as he tells her, “Everything is going to be all right.”

When her eyes open, slowly taking in the small, dark room she’s in, she blinks a few times, and rubs at her lids.

The first thing she can tell is that she’s alone. She’s in a single queen-sized bed, and in what she gradually remembers is a motel room.

Her attention turns to its layout: door and window facing her with the curtains spread out, tiny television resting on a small cabinet just shy of five feet away from the foot of the bed.

Lifting her head from the soft downy pillow, Diana half turns around, still waking up as she looks at the bathroom and closet behind her.

It all comes rushing back to her as she sits up in bed, clutching at the collar of her red sweater.

After Carlos had shot Delta, Diana fainted right there in the desert. She’d known Delta had imprisoned her, imprisoned all of them. She didn’t blame Carlos for making the hard decision. But she couldn’t fully process her son’s death, and she had barely felt Sigma picking her up as the others argued what their next step was.

The rest of the day is a blur as Diana tries to recall it, sifting through her memories like holding a pan and trying to look for gold. She pulls her legs out from under the motel bed’s comforter and draws her knees up to her chest, breathing deeply like Rebecca had advised her, what felt like several lifetimes ago. And technically, it was true.

One breath in through the nose, hold it for five seconds, then exhaling through the mouth. It’s a technique that had helped calm Diana when she stayed with Rebecca, trying to find her footing and escape from the man who had caused her so much pain.

Try to look at the positives, she tells herself, continuing her breathing exercise in her large motel bed. And she walks through each of them: she’s alive. She’d found her daughter and love of her life, who are both also still alive. All the Decision Game participants, except for Delta, made it out alive. There is no Radical-6 in this timeline. Diana would never have to worry about that, or… him, again. She hadn’t been able to stop Delta from achieving his twisted plan with the Decision Game, and even though she had felt some instinctual maternal instinct toward the elderly man, she knows, as much as it pains her to admit it, that Carlos had made the best and safest decision for the group.

The fact that Diana, and the others, had all lived, is a miracle. They’d formed a shared goal in the aftermath of Delta’s death: stop the terrorist in this timeline. Diana knows she can begin her new life with her family, the family she remembers losing in a timeline she doesn’t want to dwell on right now.

She brushes her hair behind her ears, wondering where Sigma and Phi are. Searching through her murky memories of the previous day, she senses the bumpy ride of the van from DCOM, out in the middle of the desert, to civilization.

Diana recalls snatches of conversations in the van ride: some heated words from Eric to Akane, Junpei snapping right back at Eric, Sean’s questions from the middle seat, and Carlos’s calm, measured tone from the driver’s seat.

Diana remembers Sigma holding her hand as the van speeds over sand first, then pavement, and how warm his touch was, how his sturdy frame supported her as she sank against his side, half-awake, wondering where they were going.

“We need to hole up somewhere for a bit,” Phi had assured Diana when she could hear other cars driving next to the van, the occasional honk, and more conversation from up front as Mira tells Eric and Junpei, “Oh, knock it off already.”

“That’s going to be fun to deal with,” Diana remembers hearing Sigma mutter to Phi, and Junpei had said, “Hey, I heard that, back there!”

Diana laughs a little in bed, interrupting her own breathing exercise as she realizes the absurdity of their situation.  She takes in another breath, and finds the last piece of gold, the last memory of the previous night.

Sigma had carried her from the van to her room, whispering to Phi, “We’ll explain everything to her in the morning, okay? Right now, she needs to get some sleep.”

“Are you really going to sleep with her tonight? Don’t you think that’s a little… forward?”

Sigma had paused in the middle of the hallway, and his stance changed, his shoulders slumping a bit. Diana had stirred then, opening her eyes, and Sigma said, “Sorry, Diana. We’ll let you get some rest.”

The last thing Diana remembers is Sigma tucking her into bed and closing the door quietly behind him. Phi had said something outside the room, but Diana can’t quite remember it.

She chews on her lower lip, chasing down the memory and trying to uncover it before she goes looking for Sigma and Phi.

Just as she’s still trying to remember, she notices something on the floor in front of her door, that hadn’t been in the motel room when she’d woken up.

Her eyes now adjusted to the dim light, she peers at the object half illuminated through the crack by the exterior hallway lights.

It’s a piece of paper.

Then, all at once, Diana remembers what Phi had said when Sigma closed the door:

“Do you really think things will work out between you two?”

Diana swings her legs out from under her, and she takes the six steps to the note under the door.  She’d been so preoccupied with trying to calm herself down and remember how she got from the desert to the motel room, that she wasn’t even aware of anyone stopping by her room and sliding the note under her door.

With slightly trembling hands, Diana opens the folded note. She flips on the room light, blinking rapidly and wincing before peering down at the note.

Diana,

I’m sorry for everything that has happened to you. I wish I could take it all back, somehow, even though part of me will forever be grateful to have met you. If only it had happened under better circumstances.

Please understand I want all the best for you. Take care of Phi (she needs it.) I’m sure you both have a lot to catch up on.

Lo All the best,

S.

When she finishes reading it, Diana steels herself to take another calming breath or two.

Then she slips on her shoes – Sigma must have taken them off before tucking her in – and she wrenches the heavy motel door open, dashing out into the cool night air.

Her skirt is wrinkled all over, one of her flower clips is halfway down the back of her hair, her shoes are back in the room lined up neatly next to the door – Sigma had probably taken them off before laying her in bed –

– And she realizes that she doesn’t have the keycard to her room just as the door slams shut behind her.

But Diana doesn’t care about any of that.

She races down the hall, around a corner, and then, all the way down the end of the longer hall, she sees Sigma standing in front of an elevator.

She calls out his name, but her voice is nearly unrecognizable from recent lack of us.

Then, after clearing her parched throat, she tries again, “Sigma!”

He turns, and his eyes widen.

“Wait!” Diana cries out, and runs over to him as he stares at her, completely shocked. “Where are you going?”

He blinks once, then again before saying, “Diana! I didn’t wake you up, did I?”

“No, I was already awake. And then I saw this.” She hold up the note. “What does it mean? Are you… are you leaving me? Are you leaving Phi?”

Sigma looks away at her question, glancing up at the floor the elevator is on. They’re on the fourth floor, and the elevator is still on the first one. “Should’ve taken the stairs,” he says, as if talking to himself. “So that’s what I get for being lazy, huh?”

“Answer the question,” she says, a little more harshly than she meant to, so she adds, “please. Where are you off to?”

He stares at her for a few more seconds before he schools his stunned expression into an indiscernible one, looking up at the elevator numbers on the top of its metal frame. “I can’t tell you that.”

“Why not? Are you leaving for forever?” Tears spring to Diana’s eyes, and a pit forms in the bottom of her stomach. “I thought maybe we could…” she trails off, then, not really certain how she wants to finish the sentence.

He shakes his head. “I’m sorry Diana, but I don’t think that would be a good idea right now.”

“What? Why?”

He sighs, pushing the button for the elevator again. “I thought I’d be the type of person who could never yell at you the way I did, when we were in the decontamination room. I…” His voice drops to a decibel just above a whisper as he shuts his eyes. “I thought I would never be the kind of person that could hurt you.”

“But I hurt you too!” she protests. “And I had less of a reason to.”

Sigma rakes a hand through his hair. “I was just as bad for you as… he was.”

“No!” Diana takes a step forward, raising her free hand to put it on Sigma’s arm, maybe in some desperate attempt to anchor him to the floor. But she stops, when she looks at his face, at the combined mixture of guilt and self-loathing twisted in his usually handsome features.

She puts her hand down. “That’s not true, Sigma. I remember what happened too. We were both so scared, and confused… And I remember you said you were sorry, and then you comforted me when I needed it the most.”

Sigma doesn’t answer, but Diana notices that the elevator is still stuck on the first floor, so she keeps going.

“Do you remember how patient you were when we found out that I was… expecting? You gave up half your rations for me, for months. You were so stubborn about giving up your portions that I had to feed you a couple times so you wouldn’t pass out. You gave me footrubs when I complained about walking, you let me have my own time in the healing room when I said I needed space.” Tears streak down her cheeks at the memory of his kindness.  “And you did… so much for me when I couldn’t think about anything else but touching you. I couldn’t have survived in there without you, Sigma. You did more than I could ever ask for, you did everything you could for Phi and…” Diana’s eyes burn a little as she shut them, unable to say Delta’s name. “For them.”

When she looks up at Sigma, she can see his own eyes watering.

“That doesn’t make my actions right,” he says, lowering his head. “You’ve already been through too much pain. I don’t want to risk the chance of putting you through any more of it.“

The elevator arrives on their floor with a rapid ding! that makes Diana crush the note even more.

Then, before she can stop to think, she dashes into the elevator, and turns to face Sigma before he can enter.

His hard, resolute stare softens into curiosity. “What are you doing?”

“I don’t want you to go!” she protests. “After everything we’ve been through, you can’t just leave like this!”

His mouth curves up into a half-smile, and that gives Diana a bit of hope. “Technically, I can,” he says, thumbing the elevator button before the door can close between them. “It doesn’t mean I want to leave. But if this is what it takes to help you recover from everything you’ve been through, then so be it.”

“Do you remember what I said, about you being a coward?” she asks, and Sigma’s smile vanishes, instantly answering her question with his haunted expression. “I was completely wasted when I called you that,” she continues, stepping forward. “I wanted to hurt you. See? I wish I didn’t say those things either, or treated you horribly when you were just trying to make sure I was eating. But I did. And now we’re here. Now we can fix it, Sigma. We can put that all behind us, and move forward, together.”

She takes a step toward him, standing between the elevator doors.

He takes her free hand, the one not crushing the note, and pulls her out into the hall without hesitation.

More tears roll down her flushed cheeks as she squeezes his hand, letting the elevator doors close behind her.

“I don’t know what to do if you leave,” she says. “Phi’s here, and I’m so grateful for that. I’m glad that we found our daughter. But I still want to be with you. Do you… do you not want to be with me anymore?”

He looks at her for a long moment, that stretches as far down as the motel hallway, and Diana’s heart sinks into her stomach as she begins to think that he -

“Of course I want to be with you, Diana,” he says, enveloping her with his arms as she sobs out of relief. “I’d love nothing more than getting to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“I feel the same way,” she says, sniffling, her voice muffled by his chest. “We can work through this, all our crazy time traveling problems, together.”

Even though she can’t see his face, she knows he’s smiling again, and they sway on the spot in front of the elevator, crying as they tighten their embrace.

“I’m glad you didn’t take the stairs,” Diana whispers to him, clutching his back.

“Me too. Apparently, laziness and outdated wiring does pay off sometimes.”

She laughs, then looks up at him. “Um, Sigma?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you get a room tonight too? I kinda… locked myself out of mine.”

“Oh.” His eyes widen in realization. “Oh! Well, uh…” His face flushes a little, exactly how she remembers it did when she kissed him in DCom, and he clears his throat. “Uh, yeah, I got a room, though I wasn’t planning on stay in it for long. Akane has your keycard, since she figured you would be sleeping all night. But since she’s with Junpei now, we probably shouldn’t bother them.”

Diana laughs a little at Sigma’s bashfulness, despite them having spent many nights together themselves in another timeline. “Don’t worry, I don’t have any funny business in mind. Not tonight, anyway.”

“Not tonight,” he agrees. “But it would be good for us both to get some rest. Is that all right?”

Diana sighs happily as she hugs Sigma once more, then lets him lead the way to his room. “Most definitely.”

—————————

When Diana wakes, she’s delighted to feel Sigma pressed up behind her,  his strong arms embracing her around the side. Not too tight to give her enough space, but in a comforting way, and much more secure than the blanket in her previous room when she’d woken up alone.

She shifts eventually, turning over to see him as he begins to wake up himself. “Hi,” she says.”

He leans forward, pressing gentle kisses into her hair. "Hi.”

“Wanna go downstairs?”

“Yeah, I just need another minute.” He stretches, and she laughs at the sight of his large form nearly taking up the other half of the bed. He relaxes, and hugs her to his chest again, enveloping her in his warmth as she breathes in his scent. “This is everything I’ve ever wanted.”

She buries her face in his chest. “Me too.”

“I’m not so sure I can get up now,” Sigma tells her.

“Ew, perv.”

“Ahhh!” Sigma yells, and Diana sits right up.

“Phi?”

Their daughter shuts the small cabinet under the TV at the foot of the bed, rolling her eyes. “Knew I should’ve waited until you both came down for breakfast,” she grumbles.

“What are you – are you trying to look for my wallet?” Sigma asks.

“Actually, it’s not your wallet I’m looking for,” Phi says with a smirk. “Akane got it for you yesterday with her Crash Keys funds, remember?”

“Well, yeah,” Sigma says, sitting up in bed along with Diana, “but didn’t she give you some money too?”

“I’m afraid not,” Phi says, shaking her head as she crosses her arms over her chest. “Akane said that the cash she gave you last night should be enough to cover all three of us, and I wanted to get a soda from the vending machine. So where is the wallet, old man?”

“Oh, so this is where it starts, huh? Now you’re asking me for allowance?” Sigma asks, reaching behind him to fumble around in the bedside table drawer. He pulls out a brand new wallet, takes out a twenty dollar bill from the thick wad of cash, and holds it up.

Phi groans, “Please don’t tell me I have to go over there and get it. Not if you’re both naked under there.”

“We’re not naked, Phi!” Diana says, flipping the comforter off her and Sigma.

“No, my eyes!” Phi cries, holding her arm up to shield her vision.

“Don’t worry, Phi – look, we’re wearing clothes!” Sigma says, and Phi slowly lowers her arm.

“Okay,” she says, trying to pretend she hadn’t lost her cool and collected demeanor. Diana can’t help but stifle a giggle as Phi rolls her eyes and stomps over to Sigma’s side of the bed, snatching the money out of his hand as he grins at her smugly.

“This means you’ll be mowing the lawn, right?”

“Hah hah. Last I checked, you don’t even have a lawn to mow.”

“Oh, we’ll have one eventually,” Sigma says, turning to Diana with a soft smile, his eyes filled with hope for the future. 

When Diana returns his smile, there’s a moment of silence before Phi asks her quietly. “So, um… does that mean you want us to be a family?”

Diana turns to look at Phi, and, seeing her daughter’s face, the mixture of guarded longing and incredulity, she can’t help but jump off the bed, rushing to join her and giving her a hug.

“Oh, Phi,” she says, her voice breaking, “of course I do!”

Phi stiffens for a second, then relaxes into her embrace. “Good,” she says. “I’m glad you do too.”

“I thought you didn’t want us to be a family,” Sigma says to Phi from the bed.

“Well, of course I did, but I wasn’t sure if you wanted to!” Phi says as she hugs Diana back.

“But the way you were talking last night,” Sigma says, stumbling over his words, “I just figured you wanted me to leave.”

“What?” Phi blinks at him, and laughs. “No, I didn’t want you to leave, you old geezer. I just wanted you to make sure you know that this is what you really want. I don’t… I don’t want either of you to end up getting hurt. Not again, not after everything we’ve been through.”

“You don’t have to worry about us, Phi,” Diana says. “We’ll be fine. But I don’t think we’ll all be able to settle down until we stop the terrorist and save everyone.”

“She’s right,” Sigma says, getting up off the bed and joining Diana and Phi. “I don’t know if we’ll ever be anything resembling a ‘normal’ family. But maybe that’s okay. Maybe we don’t need ‘normal.’ Maybe we can just be… us.“

Diana clasps her hands together, tearing up. Sigma puts his arms around her and Phi, and Diana’s chest swells with all the love she has for him and their daughter..

“Okay,” Phi agrees, sounding as relieved as Diana has felt since Sigma decided not to leave. Then, Phi adds hurriedly, “Let’s just… try to keep it to the three of us for now, all right?”

Diana laughs as Sigma hugs both her and Phi closer to him. “Promise.”

[sally-mun]

I know I mentioned in another recent post that I really want to get back to doing my “shows,” but before I can get started I have a couple of other things to finish first, one of which is working on zines. The one I’m currently working on is a Ranma ½ zine, and it’s been an interesting experience -- both because of working on the zine itself, and because of my own history with this series.

That’s right, it’s time for another rip-roarin’ Sally-mun ramble!

My first encounter with Ranma ½ was on my 15th birthday. A friend of mine, one of the only other anime fans I knew because it was still relatively unknown in the US, got me the second graphic novel, which is as much as had been officially translated at the time. Going into the story with no context was confusing to say the least, but it also intrigued me enough to look up whatever info I could find on the few stray bits of internet that covered the series, and it was enough to get me hooked.

That said, I also had kind of a difficult time being a fan, because I honestly didn’t like Ranma himself. Like, at all. I found it confusing that the author would write the protagonist to be so blatantly and outwardly unlikable, and as a result I found myself just sort of looking past him and trying to follow the lives of the other characters. I was appalled at the sort of things he would say to Akane; his constant jabbing that she’s not cute, she’s stupid, no one will ever like her because she’s a tomboy, his frequent judgements of her body... I gotta say, they really resonated with me. I couldn’t help putting myself in Akane’s shoes, and in a weird way I felt personally hurt by his insults. I really admired Akane’s strength and the fact that she never let his bullying get to her, because I know it probably would’ve destroyed me. And this is just the way he treats her; I was equally uncomfortable with the way Ranma antagonizes and harasses several other characters in the series as well. I loved the series and I enjoyed following it, but there was always this uneasy feeling inside of me anytime Ranma opened his mouth.

The last time I read or watched this series was probably in my early 20′s. I worked really hard to track down all the DVD seasons (which were exceptionally rare and expensive at the time), and once I completed my set, I felt such a relief and satisfaction that I put the story down and, it turns out, I hadn’t picked it up again since. It’s been a decade or so since I was actively engaging with this series, so when I got accepted to work on this Ranma ½ zine, I’ll admit that there was a part of me that felt a mild degree of panic. Yes, I’m still a fan, but I’m not very deep in the weeds right now; I honestly wasn’t even sure if I could decently write the characters, including and especially Ranma himself. In fact, I realized, I didn’t want to write about Ranma. I didn’t want to write about a character that I probably wouldn’t willingly spend time with in real life.

In the end, however, none of that mattered, because I signed on with this zine and I needed to be an adult and honor that commitment. Since it’s been such a long time since I’ve read or watched this series anyway, I decided to binge on the anime again for the first time in all these years. And this is why I’m writing this long-ass post tonight, because even though I’m only a couple seasons in right now, I have been absolutely shocked to find that my perspective on this story has completely changed. My teenage self can’t even believe I’m saying this, but I seem to have switched sides. I now find Ranma extremely sympathetic, and Akane to be the bully.

Although there is still a part of me that feels for her when Ranma really digs in with his insults, it pales in comparison to how upset I get with Akane over her treatment of Ranma. The fact that she’ll purposefully go as far out of her way as possible to paint Ranma as a jerk is honestly something that’s interfering with my enjoyment of the show. She does have her nice moments here and there, but if any opportunity arises for Akane to scream about Ranma doing something allegedly reprehensible, she’ll take it -- no matter how many people point out the very simple and innocent alternate explanations.

With Akane relentlessly campaigning against him, it honestly comes as no surprise anymore that Ranma snaps at her and antagonizes her. It’s about all he can do to vent his frustrations sometimes, and if she’s going to depict him as a jerk no matter what, he may as well let off some steam in the process. Ranma’s situation is difficult enough just having to deal with his curse, but then to also get forcefully engaged to someone who intentionally sees the worst in him? If anything, I’m now surprised at how much he holds back. He could easily be as nasty to her as she is to him, but he actually takes it kind of easy on her, all things considered. And don’t forget, he rarely gets a break from her; they not only live together, but also go to school together. They’re in each other’s faces all the time. I’m pretty sure I’d have had a few choice things to say to her too if I were in his shoes.

It’s even more frustrating when you consider that she doesn’t even have a good reason TO be treating him this way. This all started because of a mishap that was nobody’s fault. Ranma’s not at fault, Akane’s not at fault, NO ONE is at fault here. Ranma had no reason to believe that anyone (let alone Akane) would walk in on him getting out of the bath, and Akane had no reason to think a boy would be in there. I’m sure she felt embarrassed and violated and wronged, and I DO feel for her in that regard, but that is not his fault. If, IF, IF we’re going to assign fault to anyone, it could honestly only be hers, because one could argue that Akane could’ve at least knocked or announced herself prior to joining Ranma (as a female) in the bath. Furthermore, she doesn’t even acknowledge that this mishap went both ways, as Ranma points out himself that she got a good long look at him, too. He was just as exposed as she was, but she immediately disregards his point and tells him “it’s different when a girl sees a boy,” whatever that means.

Akane is too stubborn to admit to herself that she’s the only one you even could assign blame to, too hypocritical to acknowledge that she wasn’t the only victim, and too immature to just let the damn thing go. It’s a really bad mix that becomes the driving force behind her relationship with him from day one. Akane wants retribution for the crime she’s convinced herself that Ranma committed, so she INSISTS that he’s a no-good pervert because she’s mad that no one was on her side that day. If she couldn’t convince them then, then by god she’s going to convince them eventually, which is why she just will not fucking stop trying to paint Ranma as a perverted jerk. She takes any opportunity she gets to show off his allegedly bad intentions, because to her it’s just another step closer to getting people to see she really was justified on that first day. And Ranma is forced to keep tolerating this, day in and day out, regardless of what he does or doesn’t do.

So what does all this mean?

I think this means that this series is exceptionally well-written, more than anything. At the time that I first discovered this series, I was only marginally younger than Akane herself. I related to her so strongly that I was only capable of seeing the situation from her side, and only able to relate to her emotions and her experiences. As I stated in the beginning, I felt like Ranma’s insults hurt me personally, rather than just empathizing with Akane for him hurting her. This tells me that, for all of her faults, Akane is exceptionally on-point for a girl in her mid-teens. Yes, she’s being immature and petty and unreasonable, but she’s also only 16. That’s how we are at that age, and sometimes it’s easy to forget about that once you grow past it. Teenage years are that shitty point in your life where you feel like you’re so sure that you’ve FINALLY got everything figured out, when in reality you aren’t even capable of understanding the depth of how much you don’t know. Akane holds her grudge against Ranma because she’s so sure she’s right, and she’s determined to find validation for that if it’s the last thing she does, because that’s how most of us viewed the world at 16.

But that’s one of the things that makes my revisit to this series so extraordinary: Akane’s not able to grow and change, but I am. I’ll never be able to view the series the same way I did as a teenager, because I’ve had so many new experiences and so much time to grow since then. I can certainly remember the point of view I had and why, but I’ll never actually have that same view again. I’ve learned so much more about the world, about people and relationships, about morals and ethics... all kinds of things that she can’t, because she’s necessarily frozen in time as a character in a story. Akane doesn’t get to evolve with her readers over the years, and it makes for a fascinating snapshot of where I was mentally and emotionally at that time.

I think the biggest and most critical difference between then and now is my self-esteem. When I first connected with this series, I had basically no love for myself and no confidence that anyone else would ever see anything valuable in me. I was in a place where it was not only very easy for words to hurt me, but for those words to stick with me, sometimes for years after the fact. Ranma, despite simply being a character in a book, was effortlessly able to hurt me on a particularly deep level because that’s how delicate I was at the time of reading it. He hurt me so much that I was completely unable to see his point of view; all I could see was someone being cruel for seemingly no reason, and as such I saw Akane’s treatment of him as completely justified.

20 years later, however, it now reads as a completely different story. I don’t share Akane’s kneejerk reaction to these situations anymore, and I’m more focused on thought process and reasoning. I’m more able to recognize when I’m missing information and need to investigate more, more accountable for when I’ve done something wrong, and more willing to let small things go. Hell, I have a better understanding of what “small things” even are. When I was Akane’s age, none of the incidents happening in the story seemed like small things, but now? Now I just don’t have time for that kind of minutia. It’s... wait for it... childish. Because teenagers are still children, no matter how much we didn’t want to admit it at that time.

But that’s part of the genius of how this series is written. Not only did I instantly fall into the same mental trap as Akane when I WAS her age, but now that I’m not anymore, I look back on it as just kids getting wrapped up in their microcosm of the world. No matter how much I get frustrated at Akane for being horrible to Ranma, I can’t not admit to myself that she’s not an adult yet, so in some way it’s me being the unreasonable one by trying to hold her to adult expectations. She’s still got a lot to learn because she’s still just a kid. I literally used to be just like her at one point in my life. If I was able to mature past that sort of behavior, then I’d like to think that, if Akane were able to age, then she probably would one day too.