8.20 pm 13/Nov/00
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Note- Here is my first original post to the FFML. Enjoy.
Path of the Wolf
A Ranma 1/2 fan fiction
By Jeremy Harper
Disclaimer - Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi and is used without her permission.
Part 2
I hate Japan.
It's a harsh thing to say about the country I was born in and, in all honesty, not entirely true. But it's not my home anymore. California is, and I hope to live there till the day I die. I've made a good life there, better than I expected. Perhaps better than I deserve. I wish I were back there now, teaching at one of my dojos or working as fight choreographer on some action film in Hollywood, instead of being here at the house of a man who, even after twenty years, I despise more than anyone that I ever met. I wish I wasn't here. I wish I were elsewhere. I wish I were anywhere... anywhere but here.
I shift uncomfortably in my seat as I glance briefly over at my chattering family. I turn back away, toying with my wine glass. I bring it to my lips and take a sip. It's a very good vintage- I know this objectively- yet it still tastes like an immiscible mess of oil and water, just as the few morsels of the fine dinner that passed my lips had been dusted with ashes. It's as if the very presence of Nabiki's husband poisons and pollutes everything for me. While around Ku- Tatewaki, as Nabiki insists on me calling him- even the air I breathe feels tainted, smelling as if I were in a reptile house at a zoo.
I sigh inaudibly. I know I'm being very rude, even childish. I came back to Japan to bury old grudges, to reconcile with my old life before it was too late. But no matter how hard I chide or cajole myself, repeating the mantra 'let bygones be bygones', I cannot find it within my heart or soul the capability to forgive Tatewaki Kuno. His crimes against me are too many and too great. The stupid announcement of his that made my life a living hell for half a year; his constant advances towards me, heedless of my protests with words and fists that I didn't want anything to do with him; his preemptory, cavalier belief that I belonged to him, not matter what my feelings; but most of all, the way he acted in the days following my return to school, after my... after my...
With a violent start I snatch up my glass and force down a great gulp of wine. I shut my eyes, trying not to tremble. Steady Akane... steady. Don't think about that. Don't think about that. You've kept it buried for sixteen years now- doing that has kept you sane- so for the love of the gods keep yourself from exhuming old ghosts...
In that case, slurs a voice in my head, you never should of come back here, Daddy being sick or not. It's hard NOT to raise old ghosts, when it seems that almost everywhere you go, everything you see or hear, reminds you of...
I cut off the thought with another drink, draining my glass of even the dregs. With slow deliberation I set the glass down and pour myself a fresh drink. I sip, forcing down the oily, watery wine, trying not to gag. I feel curious eyes upon me as I drink. I turn my head and find Kasumi gazing at me, her concern obvious on her guileless face.
"Are you all right, Akane?" She murmurs. I flash her a small, sickly smile.
"Yeah Kasumi. I'm just peachy." I whisper in a slight drunken croak. I blink- intoxicated confusion sweeping across me momentarily- and then smile again as my head clears. Kasumi looks at me with hurt reproach. I sigh in response and resignedly shake my head. I'm used to that look now, having seen it directed at me so often these past two week, but I'm not yet inured to it.
Our attention is directed to the head of the table when Ku... TATEWAKI... clears his throat.
"The butler hasn't answered my ring. This is most unusual. Remain here, honored in-laws, while I go investigate this irregularity. I shall return directly." He rises and starts to walk toward the end of the dining hall.
"Are you all right Akane?" Nabiki reiterates Kasumi's question once her husband is out of earshot. "You've been quiet all night. It's not like you."
I sigh again. "I'm fine Nabiki. Honestly. I'm just... feeling a little out of sorts, I guess."
Nabiki's lips pucker into a tight, sever frown. "No you're not. You looked fine this morning, BEFORE I invited you and Kasumi and Daddy over for dinner." Her visage softened as she looked at me imploringly. "Akane, please give Tachi a chance. I know you have a lot of ill feelings towards him, much of it justified, but I swear to you he's a changed man. He honestly regrets how he acted in the past, when we were young. He wants to make amends. Will you let him?"
I look at her, trying to find it within myself to agree. But I can't. I can forgive my family, for despite what had happened in the past I still loved them, even when I hated them. The same can't be said of Tatewaki. I shake my head, looking away from Nabiki, towards the far wall. "I'm sorry Nabiki."
Nabiki exhales sharply, openly showing her exasperation. "I thought that you'd have grown-up a little after sixteen years. I'm obviously mistaken. Once a brat, always a brat, eh little sister?"
I stiffen, my face flushing as if I had been slapped. Kasumi and Daddy look on, their disappointment and disapproval of my behavior almost visible auras about them. I sigh, shutting my eyes. I can't deal with this. I don't want to deal with this. I'm so tired of this. I start an apology, but it dies stillborn on my lips. I feel my anger rise, hot and blazing, and for the first time since I returned to Japan I don't attempt to smother it. Why should I bother to? My family certainly isn't willing to bother to admit their own culpability in what strained our relationship, while I've constantly capitulated and compromised and apologized from almost the moment I set foot in Nerima. I've given and given, while Daddy, Kasumi and Nabiki just take and take and return nothing but criticism and censure of my life and my ways. I came back here because Daddy was sick and I wanted to make peace with my family before it was too late. I returned despite old ghosts and the agony of remembrances because I thought my family was worth the effort. But they aren't... and they never were.
It's said that truth will set you free. I just wish it hadn't taken so damn long for it to free me.
With my anger freed by this satori, I turn to Nabiki to deal with her in the manner that she deserves. She starts at my expression, her eyes widening as she realizes that I've reached my limit. I rise, pushing back my chair, slapping my hands flat down on the table. I lean towards her, teeth bared. "Nabiki," I growl, "I've- "
A choking cry cuts me off, startling me out of my anger. As one my family and I look towards the dining room doors. I see Kuno standing before them, struggling with... nothing. It's as if he's pantomiming being strangled, grasping at empty air. Suddenly, impossibly, he is lifted off his feet, suspended six inches off the floor by the nothing that's choking him. He hangs there for a second, face beet-red, eyes bulging, hands clutching impotently at his invisible assailant. Then he is thrown with tremendous force back into the dining room, flying a good fifteen feet before hitting the ground, rolling across the hard wood floor before coming to a stop right behind Nabiki. "Tachi!" my sister screams out in horror, knocking her chair over in her haste to help her husband. Kasumi rushes around the table to help her, while Daddy sputters in shock. I continue to stare at the doors, looking on as a swirl of silvery motes glimmer into sight, dancing a spiraling clockwise pattern in the shadows. A voice booms forth from it, harsh and unyielding as raw granite. Something twinges in my heart. It sounds so familiar...
"Tatewaki Kuno... Nabiki Kuno... I am Okami-sama, and I have come to take your lives." The silvery motes expand, becoming a shimmering transparent plane cutting through the shadows. It blinks out, and in its place is a man... and it takes all my strength not to faint at the sight of him...
He's changed. By all rights I shouldn't even recognize him, dressed as he is in that black leather duster and heavy steel-capped boots, a great white scar slashing down the left side of his face, an eye dead and blind, his mouth twisted in a frightening, almost hungry looking snarl. But I do.
"Ranma..." I whisper as tears sting my eyes. "Ranma..." His gaze snaps onto me, his good eye a blazing orb of azure fire. I almost reel under its intensity. His expression seems to flicker for a moment then he looks back towards Kuno and my sisters, his face settling all too easily back into a mask of hate and ferocity.
Kuno groans as he sits up, supported by Nabiki and Kasumi. I can see by the fear and shock in their eyes that they recognize Ranma as well. Kuno shakes his head, clearing away the cobwebs of pain before he finally focusing on his attack. His eyes widen, and then fill with righteous anger and disgust.
"Saotome!" He snaps out hoarsely, staggering up to his feet, shaking off my sisters' hands. "You filth, how dare you invade my ancestral home and pollute it with your loathsome presence!" Ranma bows his head slightly, eyes half-closed, as if trying to recall something. He's grown out his pigtail into a full ponytail; it's draped across his shoulder, and he strokes it with a black-gloved hand as he muses.
"Saotome," he murmurs. "Saotome... You have no inkling of how strange it is for me to be called by that name, after so many years. Yes, I was Saotome once... but no longer." He looks up and Kuno blanches from the murderous fury confronting him. A battle aura, a fuilign flame darker than a moonless night, ignites around him. "Saotome is dead. You helped kill him. All that is left now is Okami-sama, and he has come to repay you for your actions."
"Saotome, Okami-sama, it does not matter what you call yourself. Filth is filth, no matter what it is named." Kuno rushes to a katana decorating the sidewall, snatching it up and unsheathing it, tossing the scabbard aside. "Now I shall deal with you as I would of the day I met you, if I had but known what you truly were!"
"Come and try." Ranma sneers. Kuno charges with a wild cry, sword held high. Despite a sedentary life he's still fast. The katana swings down at Ranma's head, the air cracking from the speed of its passing. Ranma stops Kuno's strike effortlessly, simply catching the blade flat between gloved palms. Kuno grunts, futilely trying to free his katana from Ranma's grasp... I'd think he'd have better luck pulling it from concrete.
Ranma chuckles. It is a disturbing sound, bearing the promise of imminent pain. "Pathetic. You would think that after twenty years you would have learned to innovate. I know quite intimately the power inherent in change and evolution. Let me show you." His aura flares and a bolt of black fire envelop the katana. Kuno screams, letting go and thrusting his hands underneath his arms. "Cuh-cuh-cold!" he gasps. Ranma lashes out with front thrust kick, striking Kuno square in the chest, again hurling him across the room. He lands in a sprawling, groaning heap. Nabiki cries out, running to aid her husband. Ranma watches silently for a moment, before non-chalantly snapping the katana over his knee.
"Muh... my honor..." Kuno chatters as he struggles to rise.
"As if you ever had any." Ranma tosses the broken blade aside and starts toward Kuno and Nabiki.
That's when Daddy attacks, leaping at Ranma with a flying kick. Ranma does not turn to look at him, simply swatting the kick down with a stiff block. As sick and old as he is Daddy is still skilled; he lands on his feet smoothly and attacks, lashing out with a flurry of punches and strikes. Ranma blocks them all, slapping them away one handed with contemptuous ease, not even bothering to face Daddy squarely or even look at him. He catches Daddy by the wrist and twists, stopping the futile assault. Daddy gasps, his eyes bulging and the blood draining from his face.
"And you dare call yourself a master, old man." Ranma releases his lock and blurs. There's a sound like a thunderclap, and Daddy flies into a wall, cracking it and falling to the floor face first. Kasumi screams shrilly, and runs to him, abandoning Nabiki and Kuno to their fate. Ranma ignores her, and moves forward.
Nabiki holds onto Kuno protectively, fearfully watching Ranma approach. "Why are you doing this, Ranma? Are you looking for revenge?"
"I told you, I am not Ranma. I am Okami-sama, and as for my motive it is one that you should understand quite well, Nabiki Kuno. I'm being paid to kill you." He laughs. "Though I will admit, I shall take great pleasure in snuffing out your lives. I do not usually find enjoyment in death, but this is a most definite exception."
I can't let this go on. Kuno I couldn't care less for, but I can't let this happen to Nabiki. I can't let her be killed. Even though I dislike her- almost hate her- she's still my sister. I can't deny the bond of blood between us. I vault over the table, putting myself between her and Ranma. He stops, seemingly drawing back into himself. Again some emotion flickers across his face, so fast that I can't identify it. He resumes his mask, and looks down at me coldly. It's all I can do to keep from fainting from fear. He looks so big, almost gigantic, looming tall before me; the palpable malevolence and hate that radiates from him beats down upon me like an avalanche. It is all I can do to keep from being swept away.
"Get out of my way, Tendo." He whispers. I shake my head defiantly, and he laughs again. Is... is that pain I hear? "Your family loyalty is admirable. Still the good, obedient youngest daughter, even after all these years, eh Tendo? Get out of my way. I won't say it again."
"No. If you want to kill Nabiki, you have to go through me."
"Easily accomplished."
"Then shut up and do it!" I throw a punch, and he blocks it. I gasp in pain; the aura he's generating... it's cold... so cold. It feels as if I thrust my fist into Artic water. He counters with his own punch, lightening fast, which I somehow miraculously avoid. He strikes again, and again. Amazingly I parry his strikes, hissing each time at the freezing contact, and manage to riposte with a kick at his head. He ducks it, spinning, his dodge effortlessly transforming into an attack as he sweep-kicks at my legs. I jump it, and he's up again almost before I touch ground, his fists a blur of black. I back-peddle away, waiting for a chance to counter. We continue to clash, moving faster and faster... and as each moment passes, and while I evade his assaults and counter when I can, hope slowly bloom within me. It's a funny thing to feel, considering the dire straights I'm in, but I know it to be true. My skill has grown since I was in my teens. I'm better than Daddy now, and -much- better than Kuno ever was, but I have no illusion about where my skill stands compared to Ranma's. By all rights he should have ripped through me as if I were rice paper, but he hasn't. HE'S HOLDING BACK... and the only reason I can think of for him doing so is that he still has feelings for me. If that's the truth, then I have a chance to save my family- though the gods know they... WE... don't deserve it - and maybe... maybe...
I avoid Ranma's flurry of jabs at my face and counter with a punch of my own. He grabs my forearm, his fingers clamping down on my flesh with implacable strength. I instinctively try to slip from his hold, even though I know objectively that it is a useless effort. Fear clenches my heart, nearly stopping it stock-still. I was wrong, been deluding myself. He was just toying with me, like he plans on toying with Kuno and Nabiki when I'm out of the way. I shut my eyes, gritting my teeth, hoping I can keep from disgracing myself when Ranma cripples my arm.
Then his hold on me is gone, as suddenly as it was applied. A harsh cry rends at my ears. My eyes fly open. Ranma stands ten feet from me, his breath coming in ragged gasps, holding a hand to his heaving chest. He stares at me, teeth bared and grinding as air hisses through them. The emotion that played so quickly across his face when he first saw me now open and plain for all to see. The snarling, lupine mask has crumbled and gone, leaving behind naked anguish, ineffable pain, and... love. Longing, unfulfilled love...
Oh, Ranma...
I try to steady my own erratic breathing and wildly beating heart as I take a step towards him. He unsteadily steps back.
"Ranma..." I whisper. He hisses angrily at me.
"Don't call me that! I am not Ranma. Ranma is dead! I am Okami-sama... no one else." He looks away from me, shutting his eyes tight as he stumbles backward, nearly falling over while I advance on him. "I am Okami-sama... Okami-sama!"
"If that's true," I begin slowly, "if Ranma is dead, and all you are is this 'Okami-sama', then why didn't you just knock me aside? You could of... easily. I saw how quickly you beat Kuno and Daddy and I felt how strong you are. By all rights I should be unconscious now, or dead, but I'm not. How can that be, if Ranma is dead?"
He doesn't answer me. He stops, bowing over before me with his hands clutched to his chest. He starts to tremble violently, as if in the throes of an epileptic fit. The black aura surrounding him falls apart, floating away in a flurry of disintegrating shreds. I'm standing next to him now, my heart racing and my throat clenched, trying desperately not to cry. Why did I listen to my family, so long ago? Okami-sama was wrong; Kuno didn't kill Ranma- I did. I changed a wild horse into a hating wolf, all because I was weak... too weak to think for myself, to feel for myself, to defy tradition and taboo and do what I knew then and I still know now to be the right thing, and stay with the man I loved more than anyone I had ever known.
Akane Tendo killed Ranma Saotome. But maybe... maybe Ranma isn't dead. Maybe he is just hiding. Hiding behind a fa�ade he calls Wolf Lord, to keep away the pain. I gave him that pain. Maybe I can sooth it, take it away. Coax Ranma out from behind his mask... Maybe...
Maybe...
I hope I pray I wish I dream...
"Ranma..." I reach out with a trembling, tentative hand.
"Don't touch me!" he snaps. I flinch away, tears starting to run from my eyes. I fight them back, gritting my teeth. I have no right to tears. Not yet.
"Ranma..." I begin again. I pause to swallow hard, the act hurting my throat. "Ranma, I'm... I'm sorry." Ranma's quaking eases slightly. He looks up at me, disbelief stark on his scared visage, the gaze of his mismatched eyes boring into my own. He slowly uncoils, rising to his full height, his shivering completely subdued.
"You're... sorry," he murmurs almost inaudibly. There is no sarcasm or mockery in his reiteration. I nod slightly.
"Yes. I'm sorry. I... I know how inadequate - how TRITE - that sounds Ranma, but... but it's the truth. I'm sorry... and I want to make amends."
"Amends? How?"
I pause for a moment, gathering my courage and giving a silent prayer to whoever will listen. "Spare Nabiki and Kuno." Ranma starts angrily at this sudden tangent, but undaunted I offer my bargain. "Spare them, and I'll do anything you ask of me. I swear it." Ranma freezes, stock-still, whatever retort he was going to hurl dead on his lips. He stares at me for a moment, looking strangely horrified, before he answers.
"Tendo, do you have any idea just what you are offering to whom? Are you blind, not to see what I have become? There are many people who would tell you that you'd be better off selling your soul to the devil than making such a promise to me."
"I don't care..." I answer with a whisper, closing my eyes as now I begin to shake. Something strains in my chest. Feelings and wants and desires I've kept locked in the strongest and deepest vaults in my soul batter against the walls of their prison. The walls crack and quake and crumble and these feelings fly out, free for the first time in a generation, rushing up through me like a geyser flume.
"I DON'T CARE I DON'T CARE I DON'T CARE!" I all but scream at Ranma as I cry in earnest, the tears flowing in quick rivulets down my cheeks. Ranma staggers back, gasping, and I fall to my knees, hugging myself tight.
"I don't care!" I scream through my sobs, looking down at the floor, watching my tears splatter on the wood. "I miss you and I love you and I don't care what you make me do. I deserve it. You were always there for me when I needed you, sacrificing your health, your dignity, your honor... even your cure... you'd give everything to save me from whatever trouble I gotten into. And on our wedding day, when everyone found out about your heritage and you needed me more than you ever did before... I wasn't there. I ran like a coward and left you alone in your pain. I'm so sorry Ranma, so sorry. I'm the one that hurt you, not my family. They didn't know any better. But I did, and despite that I listened to them anyway." I wipe at my eyes with the back of my hand as I finally begin to compose myself. I look up at Ranma, almost defiantly. "I don't care. I don't care about what you've become, or what you ask of me, or even if you refuse my bargain. I loved you. I still love you..."
I close my eyes, bowing my head with one final sob, and wait for Ranma's decision. All is silence, stretching through an indeterminable moment of time, and the only things in that moment that matters are Ranma, my guilt, his answer and myself.
I hear a sound, the soft tread of leather on wood. I hear it a second time, and a third. It stops, and I now feel hands softly taking hold of my shoulders, tenderly raising me to my feet. I open my eyes and see Ranma taking a step back away from me, his hands falling to his sides, his expression that of wonder.
"Ranma..." I whisper. He shakes his head, and smiles at me. It is not the fearsome, feral sneer he had flashed at Nabiki, but an honest, gentle smile.
"I never thought I'd hear anyone say those words to me, ever again." He says simply. His voice is hoarse and tired, but no longer possessing that cruel cast, harsh and raw to the ears. With his left hand he touches his right wrist, pulling apart the gunmetal buttons that bind his glove tight. He pulls it off, letting it fall unheeded to the floor. He reaches up with a scarred, hesitant hand to caress my cheek. I breathe in softly, in anticipation of his touch...
Over Ranma's shoulder I see movement. In the daze of my euphoria and hope it takes a moment to realize...
"DADDY NO!" At my cry Ranma quickly pivots around, just in time to take the full force of Daddy's jump kick square in the chest. The breath rushes out of him as he is sent flying through the air, landing on his shoulders before flipping over onto his face. He lies still for a moment, before pushing himself up on his forearms.
"What the HELL are you doing?" I scream at my father.
"Saving my daughter from this filthy dog's head and her own foolish notions." He gasps out in retort.
"I don't need to be saved! I don't want to be saved! What I was trying to do was save all of you from getting killed, and make amends - "
"There's no need for that!" Daddy snaps, cutting me off. "To even think of apologizing to him is beneath the dignity of you and your family. And I would sooner die than have a daughter of mine beg for my life to a burakumin."
"Daddy..."
"Be silent, Akane! Even after all this time you don't understand that he is a walking corruption, a blight unfit to be associated with our family, who are descendents of great and noble samurai. Your unnatural feelings for him have twisted your spirit, made you shameless and disobedient."
"I am not twisted! He is not filth just because of who his ancestors are!"
Daddy shakes his head. "If I had the slightest premonition of what he truly was, and what a hold he'd have over you even after all this time, I would of broken that freak eta's neck the moment I saw him!"
An ear-splitting roar booms through the room, splitting the walls and cracking the ceiling's plaster. I recoil, shrieking in surprise as I clap my hands over my ears. Daddy pales, slipping down to one knee. As one we turn and see Ranma standing upright, hands clenched tight and a devil's wrath upon his face. His battle aura has returned, twisting and spiraling around him, a pillar of black fire spouting from the depths of his anger and hate.
"Old man," Ranma declares, "you have signed your death warrant." Ranma cups his hands together, pulling them to his side. His aura flares sharply, and is suddenly drawn between them, forming a pulsating black sphere the size of a man's head. The sphere seems to suck and pull at the light, as if it were a shard of a black hole brought to earth. The room grows dim. It hurts my eyes to look at the, but I can't turn away. I can't even speak. The awful power of Ranma's anger and hatred roots me to the spot and cleaves my tongue to the roof of my mouth. I hear Daddy whimper in fear as he falls forward on hands and knees, bored down by Ranma's wrath.
Ranma chuckles mirthlessly. "Crouching tiger will not save you." He draws his hands back, and the sphere writhes, morphing into the image of a slavering wolf's head, thirsting for Daddy's blood.
I want to talk, to scream, to plea with Ranma. Tell him that my father isn't worth the effort. But I can't, because Ranma's terrible force of will holds me still. I can't... because I don't care. I spoke the truth to Ranma, before Daddy butted in, just as he always used to when Ranma and I were children. I don't care what Ranma does, even if he slaughters us all. It is no less than we deserve...
Ranma's going to throw the blast.
In a second my father is going to die.
I wait for it.
I love you...
And then the impossible happens: Deus Ex Machina. There is a sound of a rush and a blur of yellow and black throws itself at Ranma. The blur strikes him across the jaw, staggering him, the deadly wolf's head dispersing into nothing. The blur kicks, and for the second time Ranma is sent hurling through the air, crashing through the far wall.
I fall to my knees, gasping for air; I hadn't realized I had been holding my breath. Daddy slumps down flat on his face. In an instant Kasumi is there, trying to pick him up. I look up at the man before me. He's tall, rangy and Caucasian, with long bright blond hair bound in a ponytail, dressed in green and black fatigues.
"Who... How..." I ask stupidly. The man gestures at the doors behind me. I look to them, seeing for the first time Nabiki and Kuno standing there. Ranma must have hurt Kuno badly; he's leaning heavily on Nabiki for support. Ranma and I had been so focused on each other that we didn't even notice them move. I look back at our savior.
"Go! Now!" he commands in heavily accented Japanese. I recognize the accent. He's American. "I deal Okami-sama."
Kasumi somehow revives Daddy and starts to lead him away. I rise unsteadily to my feet. "Who..." I begin again, when Ranma's shout of outrage interrupts.
"CONNOR!" Ranma emerges from the hole his body made, eyes burning balefully, expression incredulous "CONNOR!" He throws himself at the man, this Connor, who in turn leaps at Ranma. They clash in mid-air and fall to the floor, all the while striking and blocking with unearthly speed. Then, almost impossibly, Connor pierces Ranma's defense, striking him in the chest with a thrusting double-palm strike that sends Ranma crashing back through the wall. Connor turns back to me, teeth bared in purpose and pain.
"Get out here! NOW!" Shocked and confused, I obey, rising to my feet and stumbling numbly for the doors, the last of my family to leave. I hear fighting start up behind me again. I turn when I reach the doors, just in time to see Ranma catch Connor in an armbar and strike him in the face with a vicious head-butt. Ranma pivots on his heel, turning the armbar into a throw and slamming his opponent to the floor. Amazingly Connor pops up into a sitting position immediately, trying to roll away, but receives a kick to the side of the head that sends him sprawling. Ranma turns toward me, striding forward, face flushed with fury and pain.
"YOU BITCH, YOU BETRAYED ME AGAIN! YOU LULLED ME WITH YOUR LIES SO YOUR BASTARD COWARD OF A FATHER COULD STRIKE ME DOWN!"
"NO! Ranma, I didn't know! I didn't want him to do that! Please believe me!"
"YOU GULLED ME! DAMN YOU TO HELL!" Ranma pulls back his hands, filling them with liquid jet. I stand unmoving, hands clenched to my mouth as I sob out my pleas.
"Ranma... I didn't... Ranma... please believe me... Ranma..." Ranma shuts his eyes, as he begins to shiver. He screams, releasing his energy. The ki blast scythes across the distance between us, missing me by scant inches, striking the wall next to me, punching a clean hole through it. Ranma bows his head... a strangled sob escapes his lips.
For the second time in my life I turn and run away from the man I love, weeping bitter tears, and damning myself for a coward every step.
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