Ryoga: Lessons best unlearned
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Ryoga: lessons best unlearned.
This story starts about two years after vol.38 of
the manga.
prolouge:
Ranma Saotome walked into the pleasant home. "Oh Ranma, is
that you?" rang a familiar pleasant voice.
"Yea, I knocked but there was no answer, I hope you don't mind," he said
to the young lady who was standing on a ladder reaching for something on
a high shelf.
"Oh, not at all, Ryoga will be so pleased to see you," squealed Akari
from her ladder.
"Well it has been a while, he hasn't been through Nerima in the past few
months, and I was in the area," said Ranma cheerfully as he waited
patiently for her to come down.
"Well, he went out to feed the pigs for me three days ago...he should
be back any time now!" she said turning on her side and starting down the
ladder, "You can be here when I tel..." she took a bad step.
Ranma reached to catch her, but it was to late, she landed on his head
and the two collapsed in a heap; after a few moments she pushed herself
up with her arms and groaned in pain. Something hit the floor behind her,
Akari turned to see Ryoga staring at the two wide eyed the gift he had
brought her rolled by her leg and settled to the floor.
"Good bye," he said softly and turned away before rushing out the door.
Akari looked at him and checked herself...She was sitting on top of the
equally shocked
Ranma's crotch her dress draped over them. "No," she said in horror.
Ranma leapt up and chased after Ryoga.
A few hours later Ranma returned and tried to comfort the histerical
girl. "Calm down Akari, look you can stay with a friend of mine in
Nerima. When he comes back well talk to him," he said softly. She looked
at him like a frightened deer.
"What if he doesn't come back?!!" she sobbed.
"You think he'd let me get away with that? He'll come to Nerima looking
for blood in a few weeks and we can talk to him then," said Ranma trying
to sound light. Akari knew better, he might have enjoyed fighting with
Ryoga from time to time; both of them did, even though neither would ever
admit it, but Ranma knew Ryoga was very dangerous when he was like this,
if he lost it could mean his life.
Ranma walked into Ucchans with Akari beside him. Ukyo looked at him
oddly. Konatsu was the first to notice the condition of the youg girl.
"What happened?"
"Ucchan, I need a favor," said Ranma with a serious look.
After the story was told Ukyo looked at the crying girl and put her arm
around her.
"I'd let her stay with me and Akane but..." said Ranma looking guiltily
at Ukyo.
"You don't want Ryoga to show up and find her there," finished Konatsu.
Ranma nodded.
"Of course we'll take her in for a while, but why did you bring her? Her
father..." asked Ukyo.
"He'll need her here to convince Ryoga, he isnt very likely to listen to
him in the state he'll be in when he does show up," said Konatsu, Ranma
once again nodded silently.
Akari settled a bit, she seemed to take a small comfort in the way
everyone was talking about how upset he'd be about her.
Three weeks later some where in the Great Plains of North America...
Ryoga looked at his surroundings with a passing eye. He had boarded a
plane using most of his money in Japan after he wandered into an airport.
He didn't care where he was he knew he would end up in Japan again in a
few months at most, then Ranma would pay for his crimes.
The anger seethed in him as he went to his hands and knees gripping his
chest from the pain. "It wasn't enough to take Akane away, but Akari...my
wife...my family..." he growled into the dirt.
"PERFECT SHI SHI HOKOU DAN!" he cried decintegrating a large hill he was
standing on and anything around it for almost a quarter of a mile. He
struggled to his feet and walked on temporarily relived of his burden and
feeling completely drained. He walked through the ashes of the hole he
had placed in to the hill and stopped. An unbelievable dread filled his
heart. He stared silently at what lay before him, Akari, Ranma, they
didn't matter any more nothing did. He walked on in silent horror.
After a moment he stooped down and picked up a small delicate piece of
plastic, a doll's head it was charred and almost unrecognizable. His eyes
burned with tears and he fell to his knees in the center of what was left
of the trailer park he had very nearly vaporized.
Near him a small skeleton grinned at him from its melted 'Big wheels'
plastic tricycle, another larger sat on a melted chair and seemed to feed
a tiny incomplete baby skeleton with its invisible breast.
Every where around the single blackened strip that went through the
center of the trailer park where skulls and pieces of bone, and a few
skeletons. The remains of the more than one hundred residents of the
trailer park and their homes, all families that once lived in it, not a
single survivor. Ryoga screamed as the lights and sounds of emergency
vehicles screamed in his ears growing ever louder.
18 years later...
36 year old Ryoga Hibiki walked into Tokyo international airport once
again he sighed and looked around. A part of him wanted to stay and
wander around Japan again as he had in his youth, but he knew he would
not. He would see them again. The people who he fought and lived with
during the best years of his life, his friends his family, the people he
no longer deserved to know.
Often he wondered about them, how their lives were going, things like
that, but in the past 18 years the only thing he saw of Japan was the
view from the airport windows. He prepared to board a plane not knowing
where he was going in the world and not caring. He approached a ticket
booth and was greeted by a perky young girl of about 17 years old.
"Ohaiyou gozaimasu," he said pleasantly noting the time.
Miyuki sat at her computer and smiled as her last customer walked away.
"Ugh, I hate acting this way," she grumbled as she flashed her fake
smile.
"Hey it pays the bills," said her friend from beside her at the
neihboring computer.
"Is that all you think about Kari-chan?" she grumbled.
"Well that and your brother, I all ready know what I'm getting you for
your birthday next week, but what can I give him?" Kari sighed, "and
should I wear pink or black negliege when I give it to him?"
"Ugh, don't make me sick." grumbled Miyuki.
"I won't have you rideculeing my engagement!" growled Kari, she noticed
the man approaching the counter. "OOh Kuwaii." she squealed totally
forgetting about the conversation.
"He's more than twice our age Kari," said Miyuki sounding disgusted.
"You always get the cute ones," grumbled Kari as he approached Miyuki.
"I thought you were engaged," said Miyuki from between her fake smile.
The man seemed slightly unnerved by her smile and greeted her politely.
He handed her his passport and smiled weakly. "Wow you've really been
around," commented Miyuki as she Idly noted the list of countries on the
computer.
"I travel constantly," said the man. Kari looked at the man's passport
over Miyuki's shoulder. She stopped looked at the passport, then the man
and then the passport again. She began to make strange noises as if she
was trying to say something but was to shocked to get it out. "You are so
weird Kari-chan," Miyuki grumbled under her breath.
"Well, here you go Mr. Hibiki enjoy your fl..." Miyuki stopped
mid-sentence, she went completely pale. She looked at the passport and
then the man.
"O...OOOUYA...OOYAJJ..." she stuttered.
Ryoga looked at the strange girl and became very uncomfortable, she was
looking at him oddly and had gone pale. "She's far to young for me to
know her," he thought looking at her as she stammered helplessly.
The girl jumped over the counter and grabbed him by the waist. "DADDY!"
she cried. "What?!!" yelled Ryoga looking dumbfounded.
Ryoga sat with the girl in a small cafe just outside the airport. "I've
always wanted to meet you," said the girl looking at him with tears in
her eyes.
"But I can't be your father," said Ryoga looking at the girl who grinned
back flashing her fangs at him. "It isn't possible," he said coolly.
"I can prove it," she said getting excited and slamming her fist on the
table.
"I left Akari years ago," he said looking at the girl oddly.
"You left the day Mom was going to tell you about me and Ryu," she said
saddly.
"I had a reason for leaving Akari," said Ryoga defensively.
"Mom talks about you all the time, still after all this time," said
Miyuki looking sadly at him.
"I'm not your father kid, it's more likely your Saotome's kid," said
Ryoga bitterly as he got up to leave.
"I'm not uncle Saotome's kid," said Miyuki looking at him saddly.
"Think what you like I'm getting the hell out of here as fast as I can,"
said Ryoga coldly as he walked away.
"Jusenkyo curses are hereditary," said the girl calmly as she looked
down sadly at her plate.
Ryoga stopped cold. "Pig?" he asked not turning. Miyuki nodded. Ryoga
looked at the girl with a sort of disgusted horror, not at her but at his
own actions. "I never knew, I'm sorry...I" he started before the words
finally just died in his mouth. "You have a brother?" he asked trying to
calm himself.
"Yes. He's my twin," she said with a small sad smile.
"I guess I should meet him," he said looking at her in wonder. "I have
kids?" he thought.
"I don't think he will be very friendly, he never forgave you for
leaving. I doubt if he's home any way," she said quietly.
"The other hereditary curse," said Ryoga bitterly with a small
laugh.
"Yea," she said mimicing him with out even realizing it.
"Your mother?" asked Ryoga.
"She remarried a few years ago, a vetrenarian in Hokiado," said
Miyuki noticing the saddened reaction.
"I'm glad she got on with her life," said
Ryoga.
"There is so much I want to ask you!" said Miyuki.
"Shoot," said Ryoga.
"What?" asked Miyuki.
Ryoga laughed "It means go ahead and ask, American slang."
"Why did you leave us?" asked Miyuki with a pained exspression, it was
obvious she was afraid of the answer she might get from him.
"I suppose I do owe you and your mother an exsplination," said Ryoga
coolly.
"That's not all you owe her," said another voice from behind them.
Ryoga winced and turned to face who he already knew who was there. "Hello
Ranma,"
"Hello Ryoga," answered Ranma; standing next to him was with the young
girl who was next to Miyuki in the Airport.
"What do you want?" Ryoga asked angrily.
"An exsplination," answered Ranma.
"To you? The man who took every thing from me?!! My first love! MY
WIFE?!!" growled Ryoga as he sat down again, Ranma looked at Ryoga
saddly.
"You never came back. You never learned the truth," said Ranma.
"The truth doesn't matter to me anymore, nothing does," said Ryoga
saddly.
"Ryoga you-" started Ranma.
"You honestly think I would have just walk away from that? beleive me I
had every intention of coming back for you and beating the life from
you," said Ryoga with tears in his eyes.
"Ryoga?" said Ranma looking confused.
"Something opened my eyes to what I was, too what we were. How many lives
did we destroy in our mindless battles? I stopped careing about you and
Akari the day I lost my soul, the day I became a killer," Ryoga looked
sad and hardened.
"Ryoga?" gasped Ranma looking at him in horror.
"Dad?" said Miyuki.
"Oh man," said Kari. Ryoga looked at the people around him, then directly
at his daughter.
"I don't deserve to be your father," he said saddly. "After I walked in
on Ranma and Akari I went to America, I wandered for who knows how long
letting my rage and falling deeper into depression, I thought I was in a
deserted wilderness. It was the biggest perfect Shi Shi Houkou Dan I had
ever made, it destroyed a large hill, and the trailer park behind it,"
Ryoga's eyes seemed to glaze over as he told this story. The others
looked on in silent horror. "I killed 114 people mostly women and
children, everyone in the park not a single survivor. They said it was
struck by lightening, I told them I did it, but they didn't beleive me, I
was commited for three years after that. I was never punished, I got away
with murder." Ryoga looked at the others.
Ranma backed away from the look in his eyes and covered Kari's eyes
instinctively. Miyuki was in tears. Ryoga continued oblivious to those
around him "I realised what I was, how many suffered because of our
mindless battles? How many injured or killed because of our carelessness?
Stray weapons, debris, careless energy blast? So many I couldn't count.
All because I was to stupid to look at what I was doing, because I was
blinded by Rage to the suffering I was causing, I swore never again to
take up the arts, I have honored that to this very day," Ryoga looked at
his hands and sobbed.
"It wasn't because of us then," said Miyuki with a sad look in her eyes.
"What?" said Ranma.
"Ryu beleives that he left us because he found out about us," said
Miyuki.
"I never would have left in the first place had I known," said Ryoga
sadly. "I am truly sorry I left your mother alone to raise you," he said
trying to smile.
"She was never alone Ryoga," said Ranma.
"Thanks but I'd better go now, my flight leaves soon," said Ryoga getting
up.
"Ryoga," said Ranma looking at him sadly.
"Don't go!" said Miyuki.
Ryoga turned to her. "I'm glad you grew up well but I don't belong here
any more. Every one has gone on with their lives," said Ryoga looking at
her saddly.
"But I just found you I don't want to lose you again Daddy!" she said
through her tears. Ryoga looked at her sadly.
"I...I...I promise to try to see you whenever I am in Japan," he said
finally. "I want to meet your brother," he said still unsure.
She broke away and nodded with a weak smile. "We have to get back to work
Miyuki-chan," said Kari softly and lead her away.
"You should talk to Akari," said Ranma.
"I'd like that but not by just showing up," said Ryoga as the two headed
towards the airport.
"I'll set it up for you if you want, and Ryoga...we never did; It was
just a bad fall," said Ranma calmly. "For the first time in my life I
believe you Saotome," said Ryoga wistfully.
"So that Kari she's yours?" said Ryoga with a smile.
"Yea, looks just like her mother did at that age doesn't she?" said Ranma
with a smile. Ryoga nodded.
They arrived at his flight and Ryoga took Ranma's hand. "You really gave
up the arts?" Ranma asked tenatively, Ryoga nodded solomly.
"I'll see you around," said Ryoga.
"Your not coming back are you?" said Ranma.
"I haven't decided yet," answered Ryoga after a moment.
"If you do come back get in touch with me and we'll have lunch at
Ucchan's or something."
"She's still doing that?" asked Ryoga.
"You kiddin? It's a franchise now she owns one of the largest restaraunt
chains in Japan. Konatsu runs that one now in a sort of silent
partenership,"
Ryoga snorted in reply and smiled at his old rival. "I meant what I said,
if fate brings me back to Japan." with that Ryoga walked through the door
and into the plane. Ranma noted with some amusement that it was the plane
on the opposite side of the hallway from where he had brought the man,
which was about three feet away from the entrance to the plane he was
supposed to be on.
"Some things never change," he noted. "I guess I better pick Kari-chan up
from work. Her mother will kill me if we're late again," said Ranma to
himself watching the plane leave.
Ryoga sat down next to a very attractive woman in her late thirties. The
woman made an annoyed face as she was forced to move her laptop so he
could squeeze in to the seat next to her.
"Hello," he said sitting in his chair. The woman ignored him. He idly
watched the baggage being loaded below him from the window. The woman
looked at him for a moment and then turned away shaking her head.
"Hello again Mr.Hibiki may we have your ticket to make the necessary
changes?" said a pleasant stewardess. Ryoga handed her his ticket and
smiled. He had made a small fortune in investments over the course of his
travels, and because of his frequency of flying they tollerated and
respected him and his direction sense. His children might not ever see
him again but they would be well provided for from now on.
The woman next to him was staring at him oddly. "It figures all it takes
is one little meeting with someone from Nerima," he said sounding
slightly amused. He extended his hand "Hello Ukyo
It's been a while," he said pleasantly as the plane rose into the air.
--------------------------------------- Finis.
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