And now onto WEST...

            Wave's End -- Starlit Tears

            A 'Compass Points' Side-Story

    And a Ranma 1/2 fanfiction

    Disclaimer: Takahashi's paints, my easel.

    ----------------------------

    [Chime: One]

    Dreams again.

    He wasn't lost -- never as he had been.

Ryouga.  Unless you're trying to surprise us...

    But this time... he didn't know where he was.

    Oddly, he still had no real sense of being _lost_... just not
knowing where he was.

And he had one thing to say: "Ranma, this is all your fault!"

    He wasn't certain how such a thing could be... so it must have been
a dream.

So this is when he starts losing his powers?

    ***

    [Fate's Question]

Fate: Just one question.  What came first, the chicken or the egg?
Ryouga: Why do I always get the hard ones?!!!

    Three sisters surrounded him, each in turn shifting to the last,
boggling him.

Sounds like the characters from UC.

    But beyond that, he knew who they were.

Man: Three incredibly ugly ladi... did I just say that out loud?

(As an answer, he got hit by three bolts of divine justice)

    "What do you want with me?"

    They froze, becoming static.

Ladies: Finally!  We got this damn tuner working!

    The eldest spoke first. "We simply need you to make a choice, poppet."

And thus we know she's a higher being with the way she said 'puppet'
^_^

    ***

    [Chime: Two]

    The grass was always greener.

Unless it's covered with snow.

    Not that he'd allow himself to believe that, anymore. It wasn't
really greener. Empty promises. The only real things in the world were
those that you crafted with your own hands. Real things.

What caused Ryouga to stop believing in his attacks?  Did this also
include the Breaking Point?

    Things that could be touched, carried...

    Not the flimsy ethereal stuff of dreams.

Ryouga's transition from a Neriman martial artist to a 'normal' one.

Did Akari have any sort of power that she (I'm assuming) lost?

    ***

    [Beacon]

Ryouga: Hey!
Ranma: He said 'b_e_acon', not 'bacon'.

    Sometimes, he noticed, his mind wandered.

    And with it, his feet, though never as far as he once had traveled.

    He shook his head, turning his attention back to the road, and the
call that drew him onward.

Seems to also have gotten some sort of direction sense...

    "Akari..." he murmured.

    ***

    [Chime: Three]

    How many chances, he wondered, to change a life?

    How many opportunities to change what he had done, what he had been...

    And try to make a better person of himself for it?

Ryouga: (Looking at the charred remains of a sumo pig): Maybe if I just
evade the situation and tell Akari that we won't have to worry about
running out of food for the next month... yeah, that's it!

    ***

    [Crone]

    "Firstly," she said, "we offer you the stuff of dreams. To make real
that which is... not."

Ryouga: So if I wave my hands like so, money will appear in front of
me?
Crone: No.
Ryouga: Damn!

    He blinked, moving to answer, but was hushed by a finger across his
lips.

    "Listen to all, then decide."

Ryouga: But what if I already made my decision and don't want to hear
it?
Crone: Too bad.
Ryouga: (Blinking) You never say anything good, do you?

    ***

    [Sunlight]

    She hummed softly, washing the dishes, and gasping slightly, as she

Sentence makes it sound like she was gasping along with humming.

thought on the thing she had bought earlier that day. And the answer it
had given her.

Akari: The message in the fortune cookie said 'Stick with your wife'.
But I don't have a wife... Now I know what I must do.

    Something that would change her marriage, she felt, and only for the
better.

Akari: Won't Ryouga be surprised when I splash him with the Spring of
Drowned Girl water.

    But he seemed so distant, lately...

Akari: I wonder why.  It's not like it'll split him into a male and
pig...

    ***

    [Chime: Four]

    "It's fading," he mused, eyeing the target before him.

... At the moment when a runaway Sumo Pig was heading towards him.
Talk about bad timing.

    He tried again, gathering his will, his anger, his depression, his
very _essence_... and throwing it all into one concentrated point.

    A ball of sickly light projected from his fingers, becoming
insubstantial and winking out before reaching the stone he faced. "Huh,"
he mumbled. "Maybe... maybe it never really _was_ real?"

He's not thinking that maybe he's no longer as depressed as before?

    ***

    [Mother]

    "We can let you grow in ways you had thought closed to you forever."

Considering that everyone else has said it... oh, well...

Ryouga: Can you make me big?
Mother: Well, we could make your breasts larger.  Does that count?
Ryouga: (Agitated) No!

    He nodded dubiously, remembering to remain silent.

    ***

    [Fireside]

    "Mmm..." she murmured contently, leaning into his arm, as he
enfolded her gently.

    He smiled, smelling deeply of her hair, and staring into the fire
they sat near. "I think... I think I'm happy."

Akari smiled, glad that she got a husband with such stamina.

    "Mm? I _know_ I am."

    ***

    [Chime: Five]

    He grunted, barely managing to lever the gigantic creature before
him over, pushing it back into the pen it had come from. "That's not
good," he muttered, catching his breath.

    "Dearest?"

    He shook his head, staring at his hands, ignoring the sweat that had
formed on his face despite the nearly constant winter of the last two
years. "I thought I was stronger..."

He's becoming human... Unfortunately for him, the pigs are staying the
same size.

    ***

    [Maiden]

    "We can give you back what you've lost. Everything you've had to do
without..."

    He blinked, considering. His lost strength, his power... all of that
could be returned to him?

I assume there's some sort of catch here.  Maybe he loses his direction
sense as well as regains his depression.

    ***

    [Impetus]

    "Dearest?" she whispered into the darkness, his form next to hers on
their small bed.

    "Mmm?"

    "I wanted to tell you first... you're going to be a father."

    He smiled, embracing her in the night, happiness overwhelming all
else for the moment.

And that probably throws away any chance of him wanting to regain his
powers, _especially_ if there's a catch.

    ***

    [Chime: Six]

    He nodded, dismissing her worried question. "Not as tough as I
thought I was."

This is after Akari's announcement?

    "Dearest?"

    "Everything is fine, I think."

Probably that last lingering doubt.

    ***

    [Hero's answer]

    "No..." he said, smiling. "It's not worth it. Sorry. I don't want to
be anything other than what I am. I'm... happy this way."

Nice to see him not risk possibly ruining the life worked hard for.

    In one voice, they returned, "As it will be."

    ***

    [Starlight]

    "Dearest?" she murmured sleepily, as he stirred near her.

Seems like he made his decision here.  Or in his dreams.

    "Nothing," he whispered, watching her outline in the faint light of
the stars, tears of joy blurring his vision. "I love you."

    "I love you too, dearest," she answered, moving to be closer with
him again.

Nice, waffy ending.

    ----------------------------
    Author's Notes:

    Hm... what to say? And here you thought that I hated Ryouga.

    I don't. But really, I think that he's got a much better chance of
living a 'normal' life than anyone else...

That seems to be why he made his decision.

    Bah. Short, and utterly pointless. Can fit anywhere within the
Compass Points universe.

Nice fic.  No real noticable mistake.  And it did show someone from the
Ranma cast who didn't change like the others.

Well, now onto one of your longer fics.

*Ginrai looks at UC, BoC, PoE and the new part of RI and chooses*

Ginrai: (Muttering to self) Choose one... yeah, right...

Sorry about that ^_^;

Ginrai
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