Pride Comes Before the Fall

Chapter Four

{While the Tendos and Genma slept...}

Kasumi exited the residence for the final time, with her traveling bags on her back and shoulder and a roll-on suitcase in her hand, dressed in a pair of slacks and a sweater, rather than her usual dress and apron. She turned around and looked at the place she had called home ever since she was a child. She had many good memories in Nerima, but now, the severity of the recent bad memories is beginning to outweigh the good.

Her family was on a one-way path to destruction and they didn't even see it coming. Kasumi sighed to herself. 'I should have said something in Ranma's defense,' she thought sadly as she remembered her role in driving Ranma away. 'If I had said something to try and stop Uncle and Auntie Saotome from disowning him, then none of this wouldn't have happened.'

Kasumi may have acted like the perfect housewife, but she wasn't by any means stupid. Ranma had acted honorable when Ryoga showed up, but her father and Genma had ordered her to keep Ryoga's curse under wraps in an attempt to bring their children together. That plan had backfired.

And the incident several days earlier...

Ryoga Hibiki is a burakumin. Her family - but more importantly, her younger sister - had dealings with the untouchable. Akane would receive the worst of it, given the fact that she was engaged to him following Ranma being disowned. They even made love on several occasions, with Akane giving herself to the King of Getting Lost willingly.

It was a miracle that her father did not disown Akane for doing the nasty with Ryoga.

Kasumi turned from the house and headed for the train station, where she would meet up with several of her high school friends, one of which whose parents were record keepers in the Japanese goverment.

Kasumi had everything planned out. She would simple leave Japan and start over. Another of her friends was the owner of a popular beach resort in Lanai City Hawaii and had offered Kasumi a job. Kasumi had called and had asked if the job offer was still on the table, and decided to pack once the answer came back as yes. She would spend time raising money for a one-way plane ticket while her friends here give her a new identity, a favor owed to Kasumi Tendo for a past debt.

Before Kasumi headed for the train station, she decided to make one final visit

{Ninjuin-Temple}

Kasumi stood before the marker that contained her mother's name - Amaya Tendo, beloved daughter, wife, and mother.

Kasumi sighed. "Mother...this will be the last time I will come and visit you. I am leaving Nerima. Things have gotten bad here. Father had not been the same since you had passed on. I have tried to hold the family together for many years, even when Ranma was a guest in our home." She sighed. "I should have said something to stop Genma and Nodoka from disowning their son. But I didn't. I thought that by disowning Ranma that we were preserving our own honor. Now, after what our family had been put through, and what I have lost, I finally see that we were the ones without any honor, not Ranma. Given the recent events that have happened here, I thought that it would be best that I leave for good." She bowed. "Goodbye, Mother."

As Kasumi picked up her bags, she felt the presence of someone nearby. When she approached the gate, she froze in her tracks.

She could recognize the Chinese Maoist uniform and matching cap anywhere.