>From the Sacred Book of the Church of Kodachi:

A VOW OF WAITING

On that last day when you departed,
Snatched away from me by foes
I could not fight, or see, or even KNOW 'til later,
Then it was I vowed I'd wait.

And wait I did.
I could not seek revenge; some other had already found it.
I could not hold you, feel your living heart pound hard
against my own, as oft I'd dreamed, 
        and never would I now accomplish.

So I redistributed my energies;
I turned away from that which fate denied,
And focused rather on what I could do
To FIND, RECOVER that which had been stripped
        from me, and mine.

All my source of strength,
All my motivation,
All those thoughts which woke me in the mornings
Filled with purpose
Had been torn away,
And would have flown, 
Been gone, forever lost, forgotten,
Were it not for memory, determination, and a promise.

The witch had let it slip.
She knew it not, but I had overheard her little prattle,
speaking of your soul, of your entrapment, 
        and disclosing little bits
Of your RETURN.
'Twas then, with promise from an enemy that I decided I 
        would pledge my life,
My soul, my service, to the task of your remembrance.

You would return.
I knew it.
Whether it would be within my span of time, 
I did not know, or care.
That it would happen ONCE, at ALL, sufficed,
So long as there were someone there to meet you.
Could I not go myself, my representatives 
        would greet their bridegroom
And would treat him as were proper
For the mate of the Black Rose.

And so it's been.
I've trained, and practiced, and brought to me
hundreds of your devotees.
Though I will soon be gone,
They will remain.
They'll keep the watch.
They'll be there, when you need them, 
So that they may be to YOU 
        that which I always wished you'd be to ME.
A light in times of dark,
A firm support when all the world seems shaky,
A SOLIDITY to clutch amidst the currents of an 
        ever-changing sea.
I am to pass.
They are the present.
In the future, we will be as one.

Until the day that we shall meet again,
Fare well, my Ranma-sama.

-Kunou Kodachi  
Written ca. 2060 (?) [Undated partial manuscript] 

Coming soon in the Ranma 2096 fanfic series:

BLACK ROSE REQUIEM

 	   -Childra Jansen and Christopher Willmore-
 'Adventuress' and Theoretical Physics Major Extraordinaire...  
    "A happy ball is a stable ball'  - Prof Stott, PHYS 105
       ^_^***Childra*@RanmaMUCK | Ratiko@ManyMUCKs***^_^
Visit the Ranma 2096 home page! (In a state of constant update)
[CASKET] http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~marisa/2096.htm [C-Ko]