DISCLAIMER: Relatively standard stuff. Existing characters are properties of the people who made them up. Mitsuki, and several other characters are mine, and so's the story, hence ownership and copyright of them belongs to me. Contact me at [email protected] if you want permission to use anything I've written for whatnot purposes.
LOVE
By
Raymond Cooper
Chapter 1
** Love Sucks **
Two women, in their twilight years, sat on the porch of an old-style dojo as the sun headed down into its mid-afternoon position. Both sat, serenely, hands folded in their laps, staring out at times long-since past. Memories of people now gone, places now built over by concrete and steel, enemies that were now as infirm as they themselves. Memories of smells long dead in the world, such as daisies and roses, of rain on dirt and dry cement, the smells of a partner in the heat of passion. Noises, too, were missing. Those of children playing, cars, trains, and birds. It was the birds that the silver-haired woman missed most, with children a close second.
She turned to her companion, who despite her advancing years, still had a head full of magnificent red hair. The other was sitting silent, still, motionless... yet poised, as only a lifetime of service to ancient, now dead, arts could entice one to sit. The silver-haired woman knew the other still practised, still taught - it was one of the specialties of her generation that they attempted to continue. She knew, for example, that Xian Pu had attempted to continue the arts of the Amazons after the Indo-Chinese Conglomerate had bulldozed and plasma-bathed the village to make way for new multi-level cities. But, like most of the others, Xian Pu was gone now, too.
The other finally turned, noticing the gaze of her companion, or perhaps only now deigning to acknowledge it. "It has been a while since we were all last together."
"Those of us that remain," replied the first.
"Yes." The redhead fell silent again. Not for the first time, the first felt jealous of the other, jealous of her ability to hide from the wrinkles that time wrought.
"What does the future hold for us?"
The redhead was silent for a time. Then: "The future... ahhhh, my old, dear friend. We won't be around to see it. Well, much of it. And you should be glad of that. This world we live in now," she gestured to the north, where NeoTokyo was taking place, growing up in kilometres-high spirals and towers, "will get worse."
"Maybe you made the wrong choice. You know, about what you said to that Setsuna girl."
The redhead shook her head. "Nope. That we're all sure of. Perfect peace and happiness? Must be fought for. Mistakes must be made for us to learn. I learnt a lot from her friends."
The silver-haired woman turned to the sun again. "I remember."
"All you remember of that time was how I hurt you."
"I remember more than that. I... I just... it has been a while."
"Indeed."
The two were silent, regarding each other and the environment around them. In the distance was a belch of fire. The sound took a number of seconds to reach them, and when it arrived, it was a low, dull rumble, like a distant earthquake. The redhead cocked her head to one side, listening intently. "The planet can't take much more of this."
"The overpopulation?"
"Everything. It is going off like that even more often now than before. Thankfully, people are beginning to notice. But too slow."
Both nodded sagely. Then the redhead looked down between them. A Go board lay there, pieces arranged in battle from the last, final game, aged and weathered. To both women, it meant so much, the pieces arranged like this. Both of their fathers had perished in the spots they now occupied, the Go board between them. This last game lay forever unfinished. The redhead reached down, picked up one of the pieces, turned it over and over in her fingers. "If only they'd taken up another hobby. Something less dangerous. Like playing tennis with live grenades or something."
"I know how you feel," said the silver-haired woman. "It's like they both should still be here. I feel them sometimes. My abilities are lapsing as I grow older. I can barely pick up a ki signature now, let alone differentiate them. And I feel them from time to time." She paused. "I feel all of them."
"You're the last now, Akane."
"I'm so lonely, Ranma. I'm the third one."
The redhead put the piece back down, and moved over to her friend's other side, wrapped an arm around her shoulders and drew her into an embrace. "You're very welcome to come stay with Hotaru and I, you know. We'd love to have you."
"You've heard about the dojo, then."
"The demolishing? Yeah. Come on, our place is always yours. You know that."
"Ranma?" Akane looked up, eyes glistening with small drops of water. "Ranma? Can you tell me a story? Of how it was before it all got so bad and dark? Before everyone was dead?"
"You want me to continue on from where I got up to last time we were together?" Ranma asked, and Akane nodded. "Okay, then. You know, every story has a beginning, a middle and an end. This is the middle... but I'm going to start at the end of it, tell you where it went to before I tell you how it got there."
"Why?"
"To make it more interesting."
"Oh, okay..."
"So. We're talking about love, aren't we? So let's pick it up from there. Love. My first sexual experience. Nervous, knowing I shouldn't be doing this, feeling so wrong, so bad... and yet it was so good."
******
And then, at the moment of release, Ranma's head exploded and he toppled lifelessly onto Mitsuki. She blinked, once, automatically wiping the bone fragments and brain portions from her eyes, heedless of the numerous small injuries to her face caused by chips of bone, then started screaming.
******
Usagi heard the screaming, woke with a start. Her clock said it was 2AM, definitely not the time for screaming. She pulled her pillow over her head, tried to go back to sleep. But Obviously Mitsuki was having a great time with whatever guy she'd dragged home... wait, Mitsuki hadn't gone out... oh no...
She bolted from her bed, headed out the door for the stairs. The other senshi on the second floor were beginning to poke their heads out of doors, and at the bottom of the stairs, outside of Ranma's room, was Hotaru, looking inside with a look of complete and utter shock on her face, her skin a paler shade of alabaster than normal. She stepped back, shaking her head slowly, hesitantly. "No, no, he'd never -" she said, before Usagi reached her, pulled her away from the door so she could have a look herself.
One glance was enough to confirm her worst fears: a naked Mitsuki lying under a blood-soaked Ranma.
But... there was a gap where his neck and head should have been. Like something was missing.
That was about when Usagi noticed the stains on the walls, red, grey, white. His head had just... exploded. She turned to one side quickly and vomited the contents of her stomach up just as the other senshi reached the doorway. There was a shocked silence.
Then several other stomachs evacuated meals from earlier. Hotaru slid down the wall, holding herself, screaming and sobbing at the same time, making a weird hiccupping sound. Mitsuki continued to scream inside the room, as if she was a child, woken up from a bad dream. Usagi felt like that herself.
Ami changed into her senshi form, bringing down her visor to check the room through the safety and slight removal from reality this offered her. Streams of numbers and characters scrolled past her eyes and she worked the whole room over. Her glance fell on a packet of pills next to the bed, and she almost glanced away again, until numbers in red started flashing. There was a reaction in them, something bad. Something dangerous. Dark Kingdom dangerous.
But would a monster inhabit the pills of a person suffering multiple personality disorder? No, likely not. Which meant, most likely, that this was a secondary effect of something.
Mercury gave a start as she remembered Ranma asking her something a while ago, something about a powder that was supposed to do something to him or to the senshi. She'd scanned him, and found a small parasitic spore form of a Dark Kingdom monster. She had thought she had removed it... but obviously not. Perhaps it was still gestating in him now, because the energy signature from the pills was the same as she'd found on Ranma. Yet, his body showed no trace of it. Strange. She took Hotaru and Usagi aside, dragged Makoto along too to take care of the younger senshi while she tried to talk to Usagi, tell her what she'd found.
"But... but she blew his head up!"
"Not her," Mercury said again, trying to keep bile down and her tone level. "Understand that. She had a bad reaction to a Dark Kingdom monster. A spore that infected her medication." She continued to explain, until most of the senshi were around her, listening to her calming words. One by one, they realised what had happened. One by one, their anger and shock turned to pity, to sorrow, and to compassion. They all knew of Mitsuki's problems. They knew she'd been taking her medication religiously for the last six months. They knew, too, that for some reason, Ranma had been more and more attracted to her of late. That had the effect of making Hotaru a little more insistant for his time and attention, but no one had thought it would come to this. And with her medication tampered with... well, there were very destructive personalities within Mitsuki's head. She did her best to keep them contained, and Ranma had been trying to help her with them... but still...
And while they knew she was responsible, they found that they couldn't blame her.
Police were called, statements made, photos taken. Then the body was removed. They wouldn't have believed that Mitsuki could have exploded Ranma's head, and they were certain no one else in the house could have done it... so they left with no further action taken against the young women.
And so, when Hotaru stopped crying, and dried her eyes, while Makoto and Minako helped clean Mitsuki off, Hotaru said, "Someone has to tell his family and friends." And she stood up, walked out of the dorm, in the early hours of the morning.
******
Hotaru walked the streets of Nerima, and felt a presence behind her. Familiar, comforting. Like an old friend, wrapping an arm around her, drawing her into a tight hug, kissing the top of her head. She turned, but nothing. For a moment, using the techniques Ranma had taught her, she thought it was her boyfriend, her sensei... her former boyfriend, her ex-sensei, she reminded herself. He was gone now, paint on the walls in his room. She felt her eyes tear up, and once more, she wiped savagely at them as she had done several times since leaving the Ai Sou.
A few minutes later, she felt another familiar presence behind her. She turned, quicker this time, to see Tatewaki Kuno behind her, hand on his bokken. "These early hours before school times are not a safe time for a Goddess such as your fair self to be traversing through," he said. "For there are many dangers that -" Kuno shut up suddenly as a bike tyre impacted on his head, bounced, and the Chinese girl riding it make an excellent landing on the road in front of him.
"Aiya! Stupid speech-boy get out of Shampoo's way! Shampoo -"
A chain whistled through the air behind the Amazon, and she turned, grabbing it, pulling Mousse into view. "Wah! Shampoo! Do not run from the fates of love!"
"Shampoo not running! Shampoo biking! Very fast!"
"Shampoo! The Amazon Elders have confirmed it! We must mar-" Mousse got no further, for the chain he had sent hurtling at Shampoo flew back at him, wrapped around his neck and choked him tight. He fell to the ground gasping, grabbing for the chain to loosen it enough to breath. Shampoo made good her escape, noting that the girl had left the area already and was heading for the Tendo residence. That wasn't good. Shampoo hadn't recognised her at first... but she did now. She had been there that time she had nearly been killed, been with her Ranma. And she had been there other times, too, as well as attending Furinken High. This wouldn't be good. Curious, she pedalled after the younger girl.
"Why strange girl go see Tendo's?" she asked, curious.
Hotaru didn't so much as glance in Shampoo's direction. "Gather your friends. All of them. Everyone who knew Ranma. Get them to the Tendo Dojo before I get there." She didn't slow down, just kept moving steadily towards her destination. Shampoo glanced even more curiously at the girl's face, then decided something felt really wrong about this situation, and did as she had been asked.
******
Everyone was gathered within the dojo's hall in record time. The strange girl whom everyone had seen around or knew personally in some cases was standing towards the front.
When Akane entered, the girl, Hotaru, stiffened slightly. Akane wondered what was going on, and why no one was attacking her, especially after everything she'd done, both to Ranma, to Nabiki, to her. She could see Nabiki was chomping at the bit to cause a fight here... she had never gotten over that betrayal. Another Tendo sister hurt by Ranma.
Although that wasn't completely true, Akane reflected. He had done the best he could to disentangle them with their friendship intact, she had to admit that. He had tried to make everything right, and he'd taken the blame for the split, even though somewhere deep down, Akane knew she'd been a large part of the cause. Ranma had still helped out when he could, even though he didn't have to. He obviously considered her to be a friend... a very good friend, at that. He'd helped out with Kasumi, kept that quiet, made the others keep quiet. And while Akane was still angry, she knew that was because she was still hurting.
What she felt was strange was that Hotaru had called everyone together. Absolutely everyone. Ukyou and Shampoo were huddled over near Cologne. Happosai was brooding with suspicious bulges in his pockets, wanting to bond with his new haul of panties, but curiousity was too much for him. Or something. Akane found she didn't like the look on his face. Or Cologne's, for that matter. Kasumi served drinks with a smile, but she was quiet. Nabiki glared at Hotaru. Ryoga stood nearby with Kuno's hand clamped to his shoulder to stop him from going anywhere. Kuno's sister, Kodachi, was also nearby, dressed in a dress for a change. Even Miss Hinako was there, glaring at all the delinquints around her, without her being able to do anything about it. And her father and Ranma's were sitting behind them all, staring out the back forlornly at their Go board, wanting desperately to get into a game.
It wasn't until the door slid open one final time that Hotaru looked up, sadly. Akane wondered at that, and turned to see who had just entered. Nodoka Saotome, Ranma's mother.
It was then that Akane knew this was going to be bad. Hotaru's next words confirmed that.
"Ranma Saotome... is dead."
******
The grief hit everyone in different ways. Akane felt like she'd been punched in the stomach, and sank to her knees. While she pretended she didn't care much for him, she did love Ranma. She knew that they wouldn't be able to stay together... but she did love him still. And she wanted to see him one last time to tell him that, to his face. Not through innuendo, not through actions, through three simple words.
******
Ryoga's first thought was, Now Akane is free! Then the words impacted properly, and he found himself staring into space, half a grin on his face, that drooped slowly into a frown, then a shocked expression as his shocked-into-immobility brain fought to catch up. It failed. His rival for affections, his rival for love... his best friend, now and forever... was gone for good.
******
Kuno had expected something of this when he had observed the people turning up. Yet, no doubt, they would not be as emotionally strong as he, and would need someone to show them how to handle their grief. He stood, tall, in an actual heroic pose, honouring the fallen foe and comrade in arms in the manner of a warrior. Yet a tear glistened at the corner of his eye. His sister clung to his shoulder and cried, but Kuno felt that was more for the fact one of her playthings was now beyond her. He wrapped an arm around Kodachi, held her tight. Maybe now she could heal from abuses long-since past. Maybe now, he could, too.
******
Shampoo nodded gravely. She, also, had expected as much. She comforted Ukyou while Cologne closed her eyes and contemplated. The loss of Ranma's genes for the Amazon tribe was a great loss. She had hoped that he would return to Nerima, but as time passed... and as the conflicts between the people training under her and those under Ranma grew... she had known somewhere that he would never marry Shampoo. This girl in front of them would have been the one. She opened her eyes to find Hotaru looking directly at her.
"We will talk. Soon," Hotaru promised. And right then, Cologne knew, somehow, she was responsible for Ranma's death.
******
Genma continued to stare dumbly at the young girl, Nodoka at his side. Then Soun burst into tears. Nodoka took the news stoicly, then spoke. "I assume you will return his body for funeral arrangements?"
Hotaru shook his head. "I would like to arrange them, if I may, Mrs Saotome. Although everyone is invited."
Nodoka considered this. "That would be good. I... am sorry. For your loss."
"Not merely mine."
Nodoka nodded. "True. And thank you. For informing us yourself." She paused. "May I see the body?"
Hotaru looked slightly green at that suggestion, and shook her head. "I'd rather you remember him as in life, than as he is now."
"This is also sound advice, but I fear... I must see the body."
Hotaru nodded. "I'll arrange it with the hospital. But the funeral will have to be a closed-casket one. He'll be cremated afterwards. The ashes... will go to you and your husband."
"Thank you." Nodoka bowed slightly.
******
Happosai was quiet in his corner. "Ranma's dead." Never again would he feel those soft, luscious breasts, never again would he be able to steal his panties or bras... or swimwear... never again would he see that bright chirpy face... never again... "Oh, Ranma..."
******
Everyone in the room shivered, feeling something. Those more aware... turned to stare at each other dumbly. The ki signature was very familiar.
But everyone passed it off as a weakness of grief, feeling a loved one close to oneself.
After all, people didn't return from the dead.
Ranma Saotome didn't walk this Earth any longer.
******
The funeral was held several days later. All of Ranma's friends from Nerima showed up in formal dress, apart from Kuno, who honoured his fallen comrade in a battle uniform from the kendo club with a troop of kendoists behind him, also in uniform at attention. His family, likewise, showed, Nodoka standing tall and proud and firm, honouring the memory of her son, the man known as Ranma Saotome.
On the other side of the casket were the senshi, Mitsuki standing behind them, the saddest and most upset of the lot. Some wondered why she was so upset, looking so guilty. From what they had heard, it had to be some mighty fierce warrior who had killed their former friend, not this purple-haired woman. Hotaru stood slightly apart from the others, in between the senshi and the Tendo family. Soun's tears threatened to put everyone to shame.
Akane noticed the girl standing slightly apart from her friends, and moved to stand beside her. Her hand gripped Hotaru's. "No hard feelings," she said, throat choking closed on her as the younger girl looked up, upset. "I mean... you know... with Ranma. I was... stupid -"
"No, you weren't," Hotaru said. "But there's time for that later. For now... thanks for the company."
Akane nodded kindly, and turned back to the simple ceremony Hotaru had organised. She noticed a blond-haired man enter the parlour and stand behind the Nerima crowd. He was dressed in a black suit, but with a white shirt underneath, and a light blue tie. He wore black gloves on both hands, and kept his eyes on the casket. Akane noticed Hotaru had seen him when her hand suddenly clamped down hard on Akane's. She'd have to find out what that was about afterwards.
But for now, the celebrant cleared his throat, and began to speak.
******
The funeral passed quickly for Hotaru. She had noted Yoshihiro standing opposite before the celebrant had started, and his eyes had been rooted to the casket, as if he hadn't really believed that Ranma could be dead. When the celebrant had finished, and eulogies had been completed for Ranma, the crowd mingled. Hotaru tried to look for Yoshihiro, but he had that nasty habit of fading into crowds. She wasn't sure if he'd left or not yet. That wasn't good.
What was worse was when she turned around to check if any of the other senshi had noticed him, and found him smiling down at her. "Child," he said, "Why so down? This is a time of reflecting on the good moments of his passing."
"What are you doing here?" Hotaru threw at him, angrily.
"Honouring a fallen foe."
"That's a lie!"
"Is it? Or perhaps you'd feel better if I told you I was here making sure he was really dead. You know, because I'm this all-powerful 'bad guy', and he was the only one of you with perhaps enough power and skill to defeat me. Perhaps." Yoshihiro shrugged. "But I really did come to pay my respects to the dead."
"You'd have us all dead," Hotaru snarled, "if you had your way!"
"Of course. But it wouldn't be through underhandedness, would it? I don't like all that sneaking about. It's what got Natsumi into trouble in the first place." Yoshihiro paused, turned to the casket. "But Ranma is gone now. A pity, I no longer feel I have a challenge here."
"A challenge?" Mitsuki spoke from behind Yoshi, and he half-turned to note the senshi were standing behind him, angry at this intrusion into their day-to-day lives. "All of us together, we're more than a match for you. Dark Kingdom scum!" She spat at him. Rei moved slightly to one side. The other senshi took her lead, spread out, ready to engage the enemy.
"Scum? I think not. Royalty, perhaps, your better, definitely. Single-minded?" He directed a grin at Mitsuki, who fumed. "Of course."
The room had by now fell silent, aware there was something going on. Those with the ability to detect ki noticed some interestnig patterns forming in the room, knew there was about to be a big fight. And they also readied themselves, somehow innately aware that the man the girls Ranma had lived with were facing off against was an enemy.
Yoshihiro snorted. "Truly. None of you pose a threat to me whatsoever."
A voice behind him said, "Oh? Is that so?"
******
Ranma fell silent in her recounting of the story, remembering. "And that was the end of the middle. It was a long story. It was a hard and painful story. But that was when it got better for us all. We all found our centres after that moment, that one indefinable moment that everyone had. The sense of doing right. Justice. Good. Yoshihiro in his way... was a force for good. A driving force behind evolution of the species. We will get there one day, Akane... one day. Because of that moment. A moment of love."
Akane smiled, remembering the moment. "You're growing sappy in your old age."
"And you enjoy fairy tales too much for my liking." Ranma stood suddenly. "I'm sorry, Akane. I've... I've got to go."
Akane nodded, distant, still in happy memories of when her sisters were alive. Ranma left, sliding the partition doors to the patio closed as she went inside.
Akane turned, feeling a presence behind her. "Ranma?"
The young Ranma she knew oh so very well, the male Ranma, crouched there, smiling his crooked smile. "Heya, Akane. How's things?"
"They're not... as good as they used to be."
"I can see. I know."
"I... know why you're here."
"Do you?"
"You're dead, aren't you?"
"At the moment," Ranma conceeded. "Being dead... well, it's different. You get to like it."
"I'll get to like it before you, you mean."
Ranma nodded. "Sorry, Akane. But it's time."
"Yes."
And the years melted away. Akane stood before Ranma then, as young as he appeared. "I suspected as much. You... always knew things after that day."
"Yes."
"And you knew things today."
Ranma merely nodded. Then he gestured to the doors behind him. "Akane - it's time. Your mother... your father... Kasumi... Nabiki... Shampoo... the others. They're all in there, waiting for you."
Akane stepped towards the door, then hesitated. She turned back, stormed up to Ranma, wrapped her arms around him and kissed him soundly, passionately, hotly. She pulled back, looking down at her feet. "I'm sorry, Ranma. I... had to do that. Once." She looked up. "I do love you, you know. I always did. I didn't mean to push you away like I did."
Ranma stopped her with a finger to her lips. "Shush. I know, Akane. I love you, too. And now... now... go on. Through the door. Be with your family, where you belong."
She nodded, and this time, there was no hesitation as she strode through the door.
Into the greatest love of all.
SAILOR MOON SAYS:
Gah. I hate computer crashes. Well, six weeks without a computer is character-building... according to my parents. I know that to be a crock from experience ;)
This is the first part of Love, the second arc from my Ranma/Sailor Moon/Love Hina crossover fic. It tells of the end of this arc, actually, as you might have noticed. I hope you enjoy what leads up to it... I enjoyed writing this. A lot. Surprising, really. One good thing about the six weeks it took to get me a new computer is that I had been discarding ideas for this arc willy-nilly, and it let me get some ideas in line for this arc's story in toto...
As always, feel free to email me with comments, queries, etc. I can also be found on IRC, on dalnet servers, #anime channel from time to time. I'm Misato__Katsuragi (long story, but it's where all my Misato's come from).
Anyway, next chapter, picking up from the beginning. I've got a lot of ground to cover this arc, as you might notice. Oh, I do so hate hard drive crashes that take *everything* with them! All my notes went with it :(
LOVE
By
Raymond Cooper
Chapter 1
** Love Sucks **
Two women, in their twilight years, sat on the porch of an old-style dojo as the sun headed down into its mid-afternoon position. Both sat, serenely, hands folded in their laps, staring out at times long-since past. Memories of people now gone, places now built over by concrete and steel, enemies that were now as infirm as they themselves. Memories of smells long dead in the world, such as daisies and roses, of rain on dirt and dry cement, the smells of a partner in the heat of passion. Noises, too, were missing. Those of children playing, cars, trains, and birds. It was the birds that the silver-haired woman missed most, with children a close second.
She turned to her companion, who despite her advancing years, still had a head full of magnificent red hair. The other was sitting silent, still, motionless... yet poised, as only a lifetime of service to ancient, now dead, arts could entice one to sit. The silver-haired woman knew the other still practised, still taught - it was one of the specialties of her generation that they attempted to continue. She knew, for example, that Xian Pu had attempted to continue the arts of the Amazons after the Indo-Chinese Conglomerate had bulldozed and plasma-bathed the village to make way for new multi-level cities. But, like most of the others, Xian Pu was gone now, too.
The other finally turned, noticing the gaze of her companion, or perhaps only now deigning to acknowledge it. "It has been a while since we were all last together."
"Those of us that remain," replied the first.
"Yes." The redhead fell silent again. Not for the first time, the first felt jealous of the other, jealous of her ability to hide from the wrinkles that time wrought.
"What does the future hold for us?"
The redhead was silent for a time. Then: "The future... ahhhh, my old, dear friend. We won't be around to see it. Well, much of it. And you should be glad of that. This world we live in now," she gestured to the north, where NeoTokyo was taking place, growing up in kilometres-high spirals and towers, "will get worse."
"Maybe you made the wrong choice. You know, about what you said to that Setsuna girl."
The redhead shook her head. "Nope. That we're all sure of. Perfect peace and happiness? Must be fought for. Mistakes must be made for us to learn. I learnt a lot from her friends."
The silver-haired woman turned to the sun again. "I remember."
"All you remember of that time was how I hurt you."
"I remember more than that. I... I just... it has been a while."
"Indeed."
The two were silent, regarding each other and the environment around them. In the distance was a belch of fire. The sound took a number of seconds to reach them, and when it arrived, it was a low, dull rumble, like a distant earthquake. The redhead cocked her head to one side, listening intently. "The planet can't take much more of this."
"The overpopulation?"
"Everything. It is going off like that even more often now than before. Thankfully, people are beginning to notice. But too slow."
Both nodded sagely. Then the redhead looked down between them. A Go board lay there, pieces arranged in battle from the last, final game, aged and weathered. To both women, it meant so much, the pieces arranged like this. Both of their fathers had perished in the spots they now occupied, the Go board between them. This last game lay forever unfinished. The redhead reached down, picked up one of the pieces, turned it over and over in her fingers. "If only they'd taken up another hobby. Something less dangerous. Like playing tennis with live grenades or something."
"I know how you feel," said the silver-haired woman. "It's like they both should still be here. I feel them sometimes. My abilities are lapsing as I grow older. I can barely pick up a ki signature now, let alone differentiate them. And I feel them from time to time." She paused. "I feel all of them."
"You're the last now, Akane."
"I'm so lonely, Ranma. I'm the third one."
The redhead put the piece back down, and moved over to her friend's other side, wrapped an arm around her shoulders and drew her into an embrace. "You're very welcome to come stay with Hotaru and I, you know. We'd love to have you."
"You've heard about the dojo, then."
"The demolishing? Yeah. Come on, our place is always yours. You know that."
"Ranma?" Akane looked up, eyes glistening with small drops of water. "Ranma? Can you tell me a story? Of how it was before it all got so bad and dark? Before everyone was dead?"
"You want me to continue on from where I got up to last time we were together?" Ranma asked, and Akane nodded. "Okay, then. You know, every story has a beginning, a middle and an end. This is the middle... but I'm going to start at the end of it, tell you where it went to before I tell you how it got there."
"Why?"
"To make it more interesting."
"Oh, okay..."
"So. We're talking about love, aren't we? So let's pick it up from there. Love. My first sexual experience. Nervous, knowing I shouldn't be doing this, feeling so wrong, so bad... and yet it was so good."
******
And then, at the moment of release, Ranma's head exploded and he toppled lifelessly onto Mitsuki. She blinked, once, automatically wiping the bone fragments and brain portions from her eyes, heedless of the numerous small injuries to her face caused by chips of bone, then started screaming.
******
Usagi heard the screaming, woke with a start. Her clock said it was 2AM, definitely not the time for screaming. She pulled her pillow over her head, tried to go back to sleep. But Obviously Mitsuki was having a great time with whatever guy she'd dragged home... wait, Mitsuki hadn't gone out... oh no...
She bolted from her bed, headed out the door for the stairs. The other senshi on the second floor were beginning to poke their heads out of doors, and at the bottom of the stairs, outside of Ranma's room, was Hotaru, looking inside with a look of complete and utter shock on her face, her skin a paler shade of alabaster than normal. She stepped back, shaking her head slowly, hesitantly. "No, no, he'd never -" she said, before Usagi reached her, pulled her away from the door so she could have a look herself.
One glance was enough to confirm her worst fears: a naked Mitsuki lying under a blood-soaked Ranma.
But... there was a gap where his neck and head should have been. Like something was missing.
That was about when Usagi noticed the stains on the walls, red, grey, white. His head had just... exploded. She turned to one side quickly and vomited the contents of her stomach up just as the other senshi reached the doorway. There was a shocked silence.
Then several other stomachs evacuated meals from earlier. Hotaru slid down the wall, holding herself, screaming and sobbing at the same time, making a weird hiccupping sound. Mitsuki continued to scream inside the room, as if she was a child, woken up from a bad dream. Usagi felt like that herself.
Ami changed into her senshi form, bringing down her visor to check the room through the safety and slight removal from reality this offered her. Streams of numbers and characters scrolled past her eyes and she worked the whole room over. Her glance fell on a packet of pills next to the bed, and she almost glanced away again, until numbers in red started flashing. There was a reaction in them, something bad. Something dangerous. Dark Kingdom dangerous.
But would a monster inhabit the pills of a person suffering multiple personality disorder? No, likely not. Which meant, most likely, that this was a secondary effect of something.
Mercury gave a start as she remembered Ranma asking her something a while ago, something about a powder that was supposed to do something to him or to the senshi. She'd scanned him, and found a small parasitic spore form of a Dark Kingdom monster. She had thought she had removed it... but obviously not. Perhaps it was still gestating in him now, because the energy signature from the pills was the same as she'd found on Ranma. Yet, his body showed no trace of it. Strange. She took Hotaru and Usagi aside, dragged Makoto along too to take care of the younger senshi while she tried to talk to Usagi, tell her what she'd found.
"But... but she blew his head up!"
"Not her," Mercury said again, trying to keep bile down and her tone level. "Understand that. She had a bad reaction to a Dark Kingdom monster. A spore that infected her medication." She continued to explain, until most of the senshi were around her, listening to her calming words. One by one, they realised what had happened. One by one, their anger and shock turned to pity, to sorrow, and to compassion. They all knew of Mitsuki's problems. They knew she'd been taking her medication religiously for the last six months. They knew, too, that for some reason, Ranma had been more and more attracted to her of late. That had the effect of making Hotaru a little more insistant for his time and attention, but no one had thought it would come to this. And with her medication tampered with... well, there were very destructive personalities within Mitsuki's head. She did her best to keep them contained, and Ranma had been trying to help her with them... but still...
And while they knew she was responsible, they found that they couldn't blame her.
Police were called, statements made, photos taken. Then the body was removed. They wouldn't have believed that Mitsuki could have exploded Ranma's head, and they were certain no one else in the house could have done it... so they left with no further action taken against the young women.
And so, when Hotaru stopped crying, and dried her eyes, while Makoto and Minako helped clean Mitsuki off, Hotaru said, "Someone has to tell his family and friends." And she stood up, walked out of the dorm, in the early hours of the morning.
******
Hotaru walked the streets of Nerima, and felt a presence behind her. Familiar, comforting. Like an old friend, wrapping an arm around her, drawing her into a tight hug, kissing the top of her head. She turned, but nothing. For a moment, using the techniques Ranma had taught her, she thought it was her boyfriend, her sensei... her former boyfriend, her ex-sensei, she reminded herself. He was gone now, paint on the walls in his room. She felt her eyes tear up, and once more, she wiped savagely at them as she had done several times since leaving the Ai Sou.
A few minutes later, she felt another familiar presence behind her. She turned, quicker this time, to see Tatewaki Kuno behind her, hand on his bokken. "These early hours before school times are not a safe time for a Goddess such as your fair self to be traversing through," he said. "For there are many dangers that -" Kuno shut up suddenly as a bike tyre impacted on his head, bounced, and the Chinese girl riding it make an excellent landing on the road in front of him.
"Aiya! Stupid speech-boy get out of Shampoo's way! Shampoo -"
A chain whistled through the air behind the Amazon, and she turned, grabbing it, pulling Mousse into view. "Wah! Shampoo! Do not run from the fates of love!"
"Shampoo not running! Shampoo biking! Very fast!"
"Shampoo! The Amazon Elders have confirmed it! We must mar-" Mousse got no further, for the chain he had sent hurtling at Shampoo flew back at him, wrapped around his neck and choked him tight. He fell to the ground gasping, grabbing for the chain to loosen it enough to breath. Shampoo made good her escape, noting that the girl had left the area already and was heading for the Tendo residence. That wasn't good. Shampoo hadn't recognised her at first... but she did now. She had been there that time she had nearly been killed, been with her Ranma. And she had been there other times, too, as well as attending Furinken High. This wouldn't be good. Curious, she pedalled after the younger girl.
"Why strange girl go see Tendo's?" she asked, curious.
Hotaru didn't so much as glance in Shampoo's direction. "Gather your friends. All of them. Everyone who knew Ranma. Get them to the Tendo Dojo before I get there." She didn't slow down, just kept moving steadily towards her destination. Shampoo glanced even more curiously at the girl's face, then decided something felt really wrong about this situation, and did as she had been asked.
******
Everyone was gathered within the dojo's hall in record time. The strange girl whom everyone had seen around or knew personally in some cases was standing towards the front.
When Akane entered, the girl, Hotaru, stiffened slightly. Akane wondered what was going on, and why no one was attacking her, especially after everything she'd done, both to Ranma, to Nabiki, to her. She could see Nabiki was chomping at the bit to cause a fight here... she had never gotten over that betrayal. Another Tendo sister hurt by Ranma.
Although that wasn't completely true, Akane reflected. He had done the best he could to disentangle them with their friendship intact, she had to admit that. He had tried to make everything right, and he'd taken the blame for the split, even though somewhere deep down, Akane knew she'd been a large part of the cause. Ranma had still helped out when he could, even though he didn't have to. He obviously considered her to be a friend... a very good friend, at that. He'd helped out with Kasumi, kept that quiet, made the others keep quiet. And while Akane was still angry, she knew that was because she was still hurting.
What she felt was strange was that Hotaru had called everyone together. Absolutely everyone. Ukyou and Shampoo were huddled over near Cologne. Happosai was brooding with suspicious bulges in his pockets, wanting to bond with his new haul of panties, but curiousity was too much for him. Or something. Akane found she didn't like the look on his face. Or Cologne's, for that matter. Kasumi served drinks with a smile, but she was quiet. Nabiki glared at Hotaru. Ryoga stood nearby with Kuno's hand clamped to his shoulder to stop him from going anywhere. Kuno's sister, Kodachi, was also nearby, dressed in a dress for a change. Even Miss Hinako was there, glaring at all the delinquints around her, without her being able to do anything about it. And her father and Ranma's were sitting behind them all, staring out the back forlornly at their Go board, wanting desperately to get into a game.
It wasn't until the door slid open one final time that Hotaru looked up, sadly. Akane wondered at that, and turned to see who had just entered. Nodoka Saotome, Ranma's mother.
It was then that Akane knew this was going to be bad. Hotaru's next words confirmed that.
"Ranma Saotome... is dead."
******
The grief hit everyone in different ways. Akane felt like she'd been punched in the stomach, and sank to her knees. While she pretended she didn't care much for him, she did love Ranma. She knew that they wouldn't be able to stay together... but she did love him still. And she wanted to see him one last time to tell him that, to his face. Not through innuendo, not through actions, through three simple words.
******
Ryoga's first thought was, Now Akane is free! Then the words impacted properly, and he found himself staring into space, half a grin on his face, that drooped slowly into a frown, then a shocked expression as his shocked-into-immobility brain fought to catch up. It failed. His rival for affections, his rival for love... his best friend, now and forever... was gone for good.
******
Kuno had expected something of this when he had observed the people turning up. Yet, no doubt, they would not be as emotionally strong as he, and would need someone to show them how to handle their grief. He stood, tall, in an actual heroic pose, honouring the fallen foe and comrade in arms in the manner of a warrior. Yet a tear glistened at the corner of his eye. His sister clung to his shoulder and cried, but Kuno felt that was more for the fact one of her playthings was now beyond her. He wrapped an arm around Kodachi, held her tight. Maybe now she could heal from abuses long-since past. Maybe now, he could, too.
******
Shampoo nodded gravely. She, also, had expected as much. She comforted Ukyou while Cologne closed her eyes and contemplated. The loss of Ranma's genes for the Amazon tribe was a great loss. She had hoped that he would return to Nerima, but as time passed... and as the conflicts between the people training under her and those under Ranma grew... she had known somewhere that he would never marry Shampoo. This girl in front of them would have been the one. She opened her eyes to find Hotaru looking directly at her.
"We will talk. Soon," Hotaru promised. And right then, Cologne knew, somehow, she was responsible for Ranma's death.
******
Genma continued to stare dumbly at the young girl, Nodoka at his side. Then Soun burst into tears. Nodoka took the news stoicly, then spoke. "I assume you will return his body for funeral arrangements?"
Hotaru shook his head. "I would like to arrange them, if I may, Mrs Saotome. Although everyone is invited."
Nodoka considered this. "That would be good. I... am sorry. For your loss."
"Not merely mine."
Nodoka nodded. "True. And thank you. For informing us yourself." She paused. "May I see the body?"
Hotaru looked slightly green at that suggestion, and shook her head. "I'd rather you remember him as in life, than as he is now."
"This is also sound advice, but I fear... I must see the body."
Hotaru nodded. "I'll arrange it with the hospital. But the funeral will have to be a closed-casket one. He'll be cremated afterwards. The ashes... will go to you and your husband."
"Thank you." Nodoka bowed slightly.
******
Happosai was quiet in his corner. "Ranma's dead." Never again would he feel those soft, luscious breasts, never again would he be able to steal his panties or bras... or swimwear... never again would he see that bright chirpy face... never again... "Oh, Ranma..."
******
Everyone in the room shivered, feeling something. Those more aware... turned to stare at each other dumbly. The ki signature was very familiar.
But everyone passed it off as a weakness of grief, feeling a loved one close to oneself.
After all, people didn't return from the dead.
Ranma Saotome didn't walk this Earth any longer.
******
The funeral was held several days later. All of Ranma's friends from Nerima showed up in formal dress, apart from Kuno, who honoured his fallen comrade in a battle uniform from the kendo club with a troop of kendoists behind him, also in uniform at attention. His family, likewise, showed, Nodoka standing tall and proud and firm, honouring the memory of her son, the man known as Ranma Saotome.
On the other side of the casket were the senshi, Mitsuki standing behind them, the saddest and most upset of the lot. Some wondered why she was so upset, looking so guilty. From what they had heard, it had to be some mighty fierce warrior who had killed their former friend, not this purple-haired woman. Hotaru stood slightly apart from the others, in between the senshi and the Tendo family. Soun's tears threatened to put everyone to shame.
Akane noticed the girl standing slightly apart from her friends, and moved to stand beside her. Her hand gripped Hotaru's. "No hard feelings," she said, throat choking closed on her as the younger girl looked up, upset. "I mean... you know... with Ranma. I was... stupid -"
"No, you weren't," Hotaru said. "But there's time for that later. For now... thanks for the company."
Akane nodded kindly, and turned back to the simple ceremony Hotaru had organised. She noticed a blond-haired man enter the parlour and stand behind the Nerima crowd. He was dressed in a black suit, but with a white shirt underneath, and a light blue tie. He wore black gloves on both hands, and kept his eyes on the casket. Akane noticed Hotaru had seen him when her hand suddenly clamped down hard on Akane's. She'd have to find out what that was about afterwards.
But for now, the celebrant cleared his throat, and began to speak.
******
The funeral passed quickly for Hotaru. She had noted Yoshihiro standing opposite before the celebrant had started, and his eyes had been rooted to the casket, as if he hadn't really believed that Ranma could be dead. When the celebrant had finished, and eulogies had been completed for Ranma, the crowd mingled. Hotaru tried to look for Yoshihiro, but he had that nasty habit of fading into crowds. She wasn't sure if he'd left or not yet. That wasn't good.
What was worse was when she turned around to check if any of the other senshi had noticed him, and found him smiling down at her. "Child," he said, "Why so down? This is a time of reflecting on the good moments of his passing."
"What are you doing here?" Hotaru threw at him, angrily.
"Honouring a fallen foe."
"That's a lie!"
"Is it? Or perhaps you'd feel better if I told you I was here making sure he was really dead. You know, because I'm this all-powerful 'bad guy', and he was the only one of you with perhaps enough power and skill to defeat me. Perhaps." Yoshihiro shrugged. "But I really did come to pay my respects to the dead."
"You'd have us all dead," Hotaru snarled, "if you had your way!"
"Of course. But it wouldn't be through underhandedness, would it? I don't like all that sneaking about. It's what got Natsumi into trouble in the first place." Yoshihiro paused, turned to the casket. "But Ranma is gone now. A pity, I no longer feel I have a challenge here."
"A challenge?" Mitsuki spoke from behind Yoshi, and he half-turned to note the senshi were standing behind him, angry at this intrusion into their day-to-day lives. "All of us together, we're more than a match for you. Dark Kingdom scum!" She spat at him. Rei moved slightly to one side. The other senshi took her lead, spread out, ready to engage the enemy.
"Scum? I think not. Royalty, perhaps, your better, definitely. Single-minded?" He directed a grin at Mitsuki, who fumed. "Of course."
The room had by now fell silent, aware there was something going on. Those with the ability to detect ki noticed some interestnig patterns forming in the room, knew there was about to be a big fight. And they also readied themselves, somehow innately aware that the man the girls Ranma had lived with were facing off against was an enemy.
Yoshihiro snorted. "Truly. None of you pose a threat to me whatsoever."
A voice behind him said, "Oh? Is that so?"
******
Ranma fell silent in her recounting of the story, remembering. "And that was the end of the middle. It was a long story. It was a hard and painful story. But that was when it got better for us all. We all found our centres after that moment, that one indefinable moment that everyone had. The sense of doing right. Justice. Good. Yoshihiro in his way... was a force for good. A driving force behind evolution of the species. We will get there one day, Akane... one day. Because of that moment. A moment of love."
Akane smiled, remembering the moment. "You're growing sappy in your old age."
"And you enjoy fairy tales too much for my liking." Ranma stood suddenly. "I'm sorry, Akane. I've... I've got to go."
Akane nodded, distant, still in happy memories of when her sisters were alive. Ranma left, sliding the partition doors to the patio closed as she went inside.
Akane turned, feeling a presence behind her. "Ranma?"
The young Ranma she knew oh so very well, the male Ranma, crouched there, smiling his crooked smile. "Heya, Akane. How's things?"
"They're not... as good as they used to be."
"I can see. I know."
"I... know why you're here."
"Do you?"
"You're dead, aren't you?"
"At the moment," Ranma conceeded. "Being dead... well, it's different. You get to like it."
"I'll get to like it before you, you mean."
Ranma nodded. "Sorry, Akane. But it's time."
"Yes."
And the years melted away. Akane stood before Ranma then, as young as he appeared. "I suspected as much. You... always knew things after that day."
"Yes."
"And you knew things today."
Ranma merely nodded. Then he gestured to the doors behind him. "Akane - it's time. Your mother... your father... Kasumi... Nabiki... Shampoo... the others. They're all in there, waiting for you."
Akane stepped towards the door, then hesitated. She turned back, stormed up to Ranma, wrapped her arms around him and kissed him soundly, passionately, hotly. She pulled back, looking down at her feet. "I'm sorry, Ranma. I... had to do that. Once." She looked up. "I do love you, you know. I always did. I didn't mean to push you away like I did."
Ranma stopped her with a finger to her lips. "Shush. I know, Akane. I love you, too. And now... now... go on. Through the door. Be with your family, where you belong."
She nodded, and this time, there was no hesitation as she strode through the door.
Into the greatest love of all.
SAILOR MOON SAYS:
Gah. I hate computer crashes. Well, six weeks without a computer is character-building... according to my parents. I know that to be a crock from experience ;)
This is the first part of Love, the second arc from my Ranma/Sailor Moon/Love Hina crossover fic. It tells of the end of this arc, actually, as you might have noticed. I hope you enjoy what leads up to it... I enjoyed writing this. A lot. Surprising, really. One good thing about the six weeks it took to get me a new computer is that I had been discarding ideas for this arc willy-nilly, and it let me get some ideas in line for this arc's story in toto...
As always, feel free to email me with comments, queries, etc. I can also be found on IRC, on dalnet servers, #anime channel from time to time. I'm Misato__Katsuragi (long story, but it's where all my Misato's come from).
Anyway, next chapter, picking up from the beginning. I've got a lot of ground to cover this arc, as you might notice. Oh, I do so hate hard drive crashes that take *everything* with them! All my notes went with it :(