Subject: [FFML] [fanfic][r1/2] Last Summer
From: Myrriden
Date: 4/22/1998, 3:46 PM
To: ffml@fanfic.com


	This is something I came up with when I was _really_ depressed,
and it wasn't too bad.   This is the only one I'm gonna do, c&c
appreciated.  Don't hurt me...

	Standard disclaimer crap, Thanks Takahashi for your grand
inspiration and the ability to rip up your characters and force them to do
my will!  Bwahahahahaha!
	(excuse me)

---------------
Last Summer
By Myrriden
---------------
	It was that summer that Ranma died.  That very night when he had 
finally kissed Akane on his own.
	It had been so strange. Ranma and Akane had actually been getting
along very well for over a week.  Then he died.  He just...died.
	They had found Ranma the next morning laying there with a small
contented smile on his face.  He was cold by the time they found out.
Genma had tried awakening him, then startled, had felt for a pulse.  He
yelled out at the top of his lungs when he found none.
	Tofu said that it was caused by a tumor in Ranma's brain.  A tumor
which probably was the cause of Ranma's recent headaches and weak spells.
He hadn't considered headaches important enough to go in to see Tofu
about, so he just popped some aspirin and forgot about it.
	Searching through his personal belongings, they found a journal.
It had nothing extremely private in it, just recollections of the day's
events, until about three days before Ranma's death.

--------------------
	I think Akane and I have finally settled some of our worst differences.
She's been really sweet to me lately, and I've tried to watch what I said
around her.  Maybe this marriage thing is going to work after all.  She
really is a sweet gal.  Damn this headache!  If these headaches keep up,
I'm going to take Nabiki's advice and go to Sensai Tofu.
-------------------

	Akane had cried when she saw this.  She had cried even more when
she saw the last entry.  Ranma had written it before he had fallen asleep
that night.

--------------------
	'I've noticed that I've been really weak lately.  I know what is 
happening to me now.  I'm dense, but not stupid.  I'm dying.  If anybody 
ever reads this little journal, then I have to let you know that I loved 
everybody in this house.  Maybe tommorow I'll be able to tell you
personally, maybe not.   
	Kasumi;  You are warm and giving, and I've really appreaciated all
that you've done for me these past years.  I love you like this big sister
you are.  
	Nabiki; you hide your loving side to much behind that ice
exterior. But don't worry, we all love you just the same.  
	Soun;  You're a great bud, even if you did try and stick Akane on
me like she was glue coated.
	Pop; Believe it or not, I love you.  Over the years you did 
everything you could to try and improve upon me.  Some of this was
just pure greed, but some of it was done for love.  
	Mom;  Please forgive me and dad, and I hope someday you two have a
beautiful child to take over the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial
Arts.  Please.  
	Akane;  I really do love you.  I love you more than you'll ever
imagine; but don't let this stop you from living a full life.  I know
several people who would love to have you at their side and call you wife.
Namely Ryouga.  
	Ryouga; Tell Akane our little secret.  Love her a lot,
man, she deserves it.  I hope that someday you find a good friend to help
you with your depression issues. 
	Shampoo;  I really care about you, and I hope you find another man
to take my place.  Here's a suggestion:  Give Mousse something that makes
him forget his fascination with you for a few hours, and then challenge
him.  You may be surprised at the results.  
	Mousse;  Kick her ass, man.
	Ukyo; You're my best friend, and I love you very much.  I never guessed
	that I would just die on you like this, and I'm truly very sorry.  
Please have a good life, and a nice long happy one.  
	Well, this had been a pretty long journal enry.  Pop's rolling
around 'cause of the light.  Heh.  I hope I'm just being paranoid about my
death.  Oh God!  Please let it just be that.  But if it isn't I want you
guys to burn my body, and take my stuff to split amongst yourselves.  
	Oh yeah!  Two more things.  Give my deoderant and cologne to
Ryouga.  He may need something 'cause of those long walks of his, and Akane; 
you might want to buy a tracking collar so that you never lose the wacko.
Also...in the closet there is a small hidden spot in the lower left hand
corner. Take what's inside and give it to Happosai.  
	Well...Ranma Saotome signing off.
-----------

	And that was all.  Akane broke down and cried.  Ranma had
loved her all that time, yet she always cursed him and berated him. So
what if he had been such a numbskull, and so thickheaded.  It was just
his way.  That was Ranma.  That was Ranma's way.
	Everybody had different reactions to the letter.  Some had been
surprised that Ranma knew he was dying.  Soun and Genma just sat,
thinking...considering.  Nabiki had gone to her room; later strange
noises, suspiciously like sobs, emanated from it.  Kasumi had just given a
gentle smile, and prepared Ranma's favorite dish in honor of him.  
	Ryouga, who appeared much later that day reacted with great
shock which startled the family.  "Ranma's dead!?"  He screamed.  With
a snarl of maddened rage, he had nearly torn down the Tendo training hall.
It took the collected efforts of Genma-panda, Soun, Mousse, _and_ Shampoo
to hold him down long enough for him to calm.  Then he had begun to cry.
The group just left for him to contend to his feelings by himself.
	Through this all, Akane was oblivious.  She had taken the death of
Ranma even worse then Kodachi, who had locked herself into the school and
fired razor edged ribbons, lethal knives, as well as spiked clubs at
anybody who dared come near.
	Shampoo reacted with an immense grief of the death of her love,
a grief which partially ended when she did as Ranma recomended and took
away Mousse's feelings for her, and then challenged him.  The end result
was rather quick, and Mousse defeated her easily.  
	Ukyo had merely gone on with her life, though she was immensly 
sad.
	They did, of course, burn the body.  All of Ranma's friends and
foes attended the funeral in grievance, except Kunou who considered it a
sign of the Gods.  Even Kirin, and the other Seven Lucky God's Martial
Artists, and the famed descendants of the Musk Dynasty, Herb, Lime, and
Mint.  The most surprising visit was the entrance of Mr. Tarou, who
claimed he kinda liked the fem-boy.  But they all watched as the body
burned in silence.  The only one among the assorted group who was not
present was Akane, for she sat in her room alternating between periods of
weeping or deep thought.  She only emerged to eat, and for toiletries.
Things had changed dramatically.  Ryouga had lost one of his most dear
friends, and suffered a depressive blow to the heart.  Mousse realized he
had had his one life's wish granted, but regretted that he had lost one of
his best friends, albeit unrealized, to grant that wish.  The death
affected even Happosai, who sacrificed the special bra given to him by his
favorite student, Ranma-chan, on his funeral pyre.  He said that the bra
would only make him sad, and ruin his great hentai ways.
	Two nights after the pyre, Akane was in her room in a deep
meditative thought.  Outside her door she heard a loud squeal, and opened
it to find her long lost P-chan.  He had finally come back to her.  Crying
in joy, she had lifted the blushing pig up to her chest, and kissed his
small head.  She then carried him into her room and set him on her bed.
	"I'm glad to see you again, P-chan.  You don't know how lonely
I've felt since...you haven't heard, have you?"  P-chan looked her full in
the eyes.  He seemed to give her a message that he indeed heard.  Akane
began to cry again, and hugged the pig close to her.  "He's dead, P-chan!
He's dead, and there's nothing I can do about it.  He told me to go on
with my life, to marry Ryouga..."  P-chan's ear perked up at this.  He had
not heard that before.  Ranma was giving his most beloved treasure away?
	Maybe he hadn't been such a bad guy after all.
	"...But I can't marry him.  Sure, Ryouga is sweet and all, but
he's...not my type I guess.  I love Ryouga like he was my big brother.
Always there to comfort me and love me when I'm sad."  She gazed fondly
down at the black pig.  "Kind of like you."  She raised the pig to her
nose and gave him an Eskimo kiss.  "I love you as well, P-chan."
	P-chan sighed.  He just had to do this.  Wriggling his tiny rotund
body, he finally leapt out of Akane's startled hands and dashed to the
bathroom, amazingly getting it right on the first try.  Akane watched as
he started the hot water in the tap.  She gasped as she suddenly realized
something.
	"P-chan, you aren't..."
	P-chan submerged himself, and an instant later a very embarrassed
Ryouga sat there.  He grabbed a towel and covered himself, then turned to
Akane.
	"Akane, I'm sorry I never told you.  It was wrong of me to do that
to you, but I always loved having you so close, and just being with you.
I like the feeling of being loved so much."  Ryouga cast his eyes down,
"That's what Ranma meant about 'our little secret'.  I went to China to
avenge myself against him all those years ago, but instead fell into the
pool of drowned pig.  I've always blamed it on Ranma cause he accidentally
pushed me in."  He looked back up to her.  She was waiting for him to
continue.  He took a deep breath, "Akane, I love you dearly, but not as
you love me.  I love you as a woman.  It had always pained me the way that
Ranma treated you,"  His eyes close and misted from the recollection, "Of
always watching you fall asleep crying."  He patted his chest, "It hurt in
here."
	He sighed again, "I've never betrayed your trust in me, even
though it wasn't actually in _me_ but in P-chan.  I never said anything
about what happened in there.  Can you forgive me?"
	"What is there to forgive?"  Akane asked quietly.  Ryouga cocked
his head slightly.  "Ever since I was a child, I had always wished for a
pet who was loyal and trustworthy, " she smiled, "Instead I get a pet who
loved me more then I deserved, and wanted only to avenge imagined insults
against me on the person they thought hurt me most.  What's more, that pet
was able to change into an incredibly handsome man who also was in love
with me."  She smirked, " The Gods have been kind."
	Suddenly the smirk vanished, and Akane threw herself into his arms
and sobbed against his chest.  Ryouga held the trembling figure in his
arms. He hugged her lightly, yet for all he was worth.  Silently, of so
silently, he thanked the departed Ranma.  For once Ranma had one something
right.
	Suddenly Akane tensed, and reached up to grab his shoulders.
Looking up with fear-filled eyes she asked, "You didn't tell anybody about
the sausage, did you?"
	Ryouga flushed, and stammered, "Uh...no.  That's...uh...just
between you and me, Akane."

	Seven years passed.  Akane held good to her word, and had married
Ryouga.  He was trained in the Anything Goes Martial Arts program by both
Genma and Soun, and then was considered a worthy adopted son by Genma,
even though he and Nodoka had a lovely girl of four years, the younger
Aunt of Akane and Ryouga's own five year old boy.  They sometimes even 
recieved letters from Xian Pu and Mu Tsu, and their one child, which told
them how things were going in the village.  Shampoo was about two months
away from a second child.
	Kodachi had come to terms with Ranma's death by becoming a nun.
Indeed she had moved to the Vatican in Rome to study.  She was currently a
very dedicated missionary in Southern Africa, spreading the word of God.
She even seemed sane, though dangerously depressed.
	Ukyo's restaurant had grown into a multi-country conglomeration
when she had married Tatewatki Kunou, and had hired Nabiki as her business
associate.  She had a son about three, and was raising him fine, though
she was slightly a harsh mother.  The years with bastard such as Tatewatki
had hardened her into a cold woman.
	Kasumi had finally given up her life with the Tendo's to marry
Tofu.  She now lived with him, and helped him in his clinic.  Tofu had
been deleriously happy for over a month, but soon settled down to love her
properly as a man.  He loved her increasingly for every little thing,
especially the three perfect children she had given to him.

	They all rejoiced as one in the precious gift there once comrade,
foe, and love had given them.  The gift they now held in their own hands,
the happiness they knew inside.

	The gift of

	Utopia.