Here's the second of the two epilogues for "Relentless", also 
posted on the  website. C&C is most welcome.

And this is it. It's been a lot of fun.

- Grayson Towler
http://www.talesfromthevault.com/relentless

               =========================
                      RELENTLESS
                A Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction

                   By Grayson Towler
               =========================


-----------------------------------------------------------
                       EPILOGUE TWO:
                  Kimagure Orange Ryouga
-----------------------------------------------------------

Ukyou could hear Ryouga's breath quicken. She touched him 
gently. "Just calm down, sweetheart. Take it easy."

"Take it easy," he repeated, swallowing hard. "Right."

He moved forward, but she held him back with a hand to his 
chest. "Not so fast, not so fast. Don't rush things."

"Right... don't rush," he agreed. "Sorry... just got a little 
excited..."

"I know." She smiled and stroked his hair. "Give it a few 
seconds more."

"It should... slide right in, right?"

She did a quick check. "Should be fine. Are you ready?"

"Yeah..."

Ukyou rested her fingers against him, feeling his pulse pounding 
through his skin. She carefully guided him where he needed to 
be. "Okay, sugar... now's the time."

He gulped, sweat trickling down his face.

"That's it," she whispered encouragingly. "That's perfect."

"Yeah?"

"Oh yeah. Just take it slow... nice and easy..."

"Nice... and easy..."

"And... flip it."

"FLIP!" he shouted. His arm jerked up like a catapult, spatula 
held tight in his powerful grasp. The okonomiyaki took off like 
a rocket, launching from the portable grill into the clear blue 
expanse of the Tokyo summer sky. 

Ukyou shielded her eyes against the sun as she tried to track 
the trajectory of the okonomiyaki, but eventually lost it in the 
distance. She sighed, then let out a little giggle.

"Zzzzt," she spoke into her hand, imitating a static burst. "Uh, 
ground control? We have a U.F.O. sighting... unidentified flying 
okonomiyaki. Permission to do a space walk to ascertain the 
toppings?"

The joke elicited a laugh out of Ryouga, although she could tell 
he was frustrated. "Damn," he muttered. "I blew it again."

She squeezed his arm affectionately. The point of the exercise 
wasn't really to teach him to cook, although that would be a 
nice side benefit. Ryouga went through life kind of like a human 
wrecking ball - any time he got excited, he tended to break 
something. Whether he was happy or upset, you could usually 
count on Ryouga to lash out and pulverize something in the 
vicinity, whether it was a wall, a lamp post, or Ranma. His 
self-control in a fight was superb - it was just in everyday 
life that he had problems. They were making some progress, at 
least - this time, he'd managed to slide the spatula under the 
okonomiyaki before losing his cool.

"Don't worry, sugar," she told him. "We'll get those hair-
trigger reflexes under control. After all, you don't want to 
accidentally break Akari in half on your honeymoon."

She felt him tense up, and immediately regretted what she'd 
said. He turned away from her, his head down.

Ukyou leaned against his back. "I'm sorry, sugar. That was 
supposed to be a joke."

"Please..." he whispered. "Don't say that."

"I'm sorry."

"You know it's you that I love," he told her, his voice thick 
with emotion.

"I know. I know, sweetheart."

And she did know. She couldn't even blame him for the situation 
that had arisen with Akari - that was as much her doing as his. 
After she had finally come to realize her feelings for Ryouga 
during their trials against the Reikoku, Ukyou had envisioned 
all sorts of possible ways things might pan out with Akari. 
She'd imagined the other girl as a rival, possibly an enemy, and 
had tried to think of every conceivable way she could approach 
the conflict with Ryouga's would-be girlfriend.

But she hadn't imagined that she'd ever become Akari's friend.

If Ukyou had recognized Akari that day, a couple weeks after 
they'd all gotten back to Nerima, things might have been 
different. But the one look she'd ever seen of the girl had been 
a glimpse of a severely battered photo that Ryouga carried with 
him in China. It hadn't been clear enough... and she hadn't 
recognized the girl in the park that day.

It had been one of those scenes that looked to get ugly - three 
bullies with time to kill, picking on some poor pasty-faced geek 
wearing some weird candle-holder headband. First there'd been 
the mocking taunts, then came the shoving. Ukyou had been pretty 
sure where that was headed, and had been about to do her duty as 
a martial artist by stepping in to protect the weak... when 
suddenly, this girl had showed up.

She wasn't a fighter. A seasoned veteran like Ukyou could tell 
that just by the way she moved. She was young and still pretty 
small - she was probably only half of what the biggest guy in 
the bully pack weighed. But she'd marched right up to the 
ringleader, put herself squarely between him and the little 
geek, and laid a first-class smack across his cheek.

"You just stop that right now!" she'd commanded in a clear, 
ringing voice. She'd planted one hand on her hip and jabbed her 
finger at the ruffians. "Picking on a helpless guy like that... 
you should be ashamed of yourselves!"

Later, Ukyou would come to understand that Akari had developed 
this fearless attitude while training half-ton sumo pigs. 
Compared to the animals she dealt with on a routine basis, these 
punks were downright puny. And while any of them could've 
flattened her in one hit, the righteous confidence of her 
presence had been enough to back them down. The three of them 
had slunk away like whipped curs.

Martial artist or not, the girl clearly had guts. Ukyou had been 
so impressed that she offered to buy the girl an ice cream. 
She'd discovered a young woman who was cheerful, bright, and 
thoroughly good company - a perfect tonic for someone who had 
spent the last several months of her life being pursued halfway 
across Asia by a relentless monstrosity. The two girls had ended 
up spending the whole day together, hunting down hidden shops, 
sneaking into a movie theatre, throwing coins in the new 
fountain out on the edge of town. It had been one of those 
charmed summer days, with bright sun and just enough wind so 
that even the air in the city smelled clean when you breathed it 
in. Ukyou hadn't felt so relaxed and light-hearted in ages.

Then, as they'd parted with promises to meet again tomorrow, the 
girl had told Ukyou her name. 

The young chef had spent a very confused evening trying to 
reconcile her visions of a rival with the reality of the new 
friend she'd made. She'd made plans to confront Akari the next 
day - not harshly, but to tell her the truth about her and 
Ryouga. These plans had evaporated like morning mist when Akari 
had tromped into the restaurant that morning, laden with beach 
gear and beaming with anticipation of spending another day with 
her new friend. 

<I can tell her later,> Ukyou had thought, and she'd taken the 
cart down to the shore with Akari. Afternoon melted into 
evening, and while Ukyou kept telling herself that she needed to 
talk to Akari about Ryouga eventually, she hadn't wanted to 
spoil such a lovely time. Somehow, that "eventually" had never 
come. 

Even when Ryouga had gotten back, it had just been so easy for 
them to become a trio. Akari still thought of herself as 
Ryouga's girlfriend, but she was never too pushy or demanding of 
him. He hid behind his intrinsic shyness, and Akari didn't ever 
try to get rid of Ukyou so the two of them could be alone 
together. Instead, the three of them went everywhere together, 
each enjoying the others' company in good and difficult times. 
Whether she was helping out with the okonomiyaki cart or their 
schoolwork, Akari always seemed to have time for both work and 
play with her two dear friends.

<I think it's because I went to boys' schools,> Ukyou thought. 
She'd missed out on having any girls as friends for so long that 
when she finally found one, she couldn't bear to risk that 
friendship. <It's like having a little sister. I... don't want 
to hurt her.>

"I'll tell her," Ryouga said quietly.

"Ryouga..."

"I'll tell her today," the Lost Boy insisted. "She has to know 
sometime. The longer we wait... the more it'll hurt her."

"You're right," Ukyou agreed, feeling miserable. "It's not fair 
to her to keep on thinking that you... and she..."

"No. Not fair to any of us."

She turned him around so she could look at his face. "Just go 
easy with her, okay? Try to... spare her feelings."

He looked as dismayed as she felt. "I'll try. I'm not very good 
with words..."

This was undoubtably true. "I'll help," Ukyou promised, although 
she had no inkling of what she might say to Akari to soften the 
blow. There had to be some way they could let Akari down gently 
without losing her as a friend. 

Both of them stood there, lost in their own thoughts as the late 
afternoon market-goers milled about, until a voice rang out over 
the soft hubbub of the crowd. 

"Ukyou! Ryouga! There you are!"

Both young fighters looked up at once to see Akari waving 
vigorously at them from further down the street. Once she was 
sure that she had their attention, she turned and looked back 
the way she'd come. The gesture was extremely familiar to Ukyou 
- it was the exact same sort of motion that both she and Akari 
routinely did when checking on Ryouga to make sure he hadn't 
wandered off. <That's strange,> Ukyou thought.

After she'd checked on whoever was standing out of sight, Akari 
pelted toward the okonomiyaki cart, a look of wild excitement in 
her eyes. "Guys!" she called as she skidded to a halt. "You're 
not going to BELIEVE this!"

"Um... Akari?" Ryouga began. "There's something I... uh..."

Heedless of Ryouga's stuttering attempts to get her attention, 
the young pig-trainer reached out and took each of them by the 
hand. "Come on, come on! This is the most amazing thing..."

"What?" Ukyou asked.

"Just wait!" the small girl replied, grinning ear to ear. 
"Follow me..."

So they followed, letting her lead them by the hand as she 
sprinted down the street. Ukyou flashed a helpless look at 
Ryouga - this wasn't the first time things had gone this way. 
They'd both resolved to tell Akari about how they really felt 
many times before, and yet somehow they always managed to get 
sidetracked. <Why is it so hard to talk to people?> the chef 
wondered in exasperation.

They rounded the corner, and Ukyou heard Ryouga let out a gasp 
of astonishment.

At first, she didn't see what the big deal was. The only thing 
really to see on the sidewalk was a couple - a man and a woman, 
middle-aged but fit, holding hands as they waited. Then, several 
details clicked into place at once about the two. The man - a 
respectably dressed businessman with a yellow and black tie - 
had set his briefcase down to hold onto a mailbox, as if he were 
anchoring himself to one spot. She had seen Ryouga do this 
hundreds of times. The woman - assuredly an artist, judging by 
her portable easel and sack of brushes - stared about through 
large round glasses with the same disconnected look she so often 
saw on Ryouga's face. She had thick, unkempt hair, worn-out 
shoes that had clearly seen a lot of miles... and was that a 
hint of fang at the edge of the woman's smile?

Comprehension dawned. <No way...> she thought, her eyes going 
wide. <Are these...?>

"MOM?!" Ryouga erupted. "DAD??"

They oriented on his voice immediately. The man - Ryouga's 
father - collected his briefcase and began to walk forward. But 
the Lost Boy and his mother took off like bullet trains on a 
head-on collision course. Mrs. Hibiki's easel and brushes 
tumbled to the sidewalk as she left them in her wake, charging 
forward with arms spread wide to embrace her son. The shockwave 
when they connected blew Ukyou's hair back off her face. 

"My baby!" Mrs. Hibiki cried in delight. She swept Ryouga off 
the ground and spun him around like he weighed no more than a 
feather. "My little Ryouga!" Though she was significantly 
smaller than her son, she still tossed him high into the air 
like a rag doll. He laughed like a loon as she caught him, threw 
him high, and then caught him again.

<So this is where he got that from,> Ukyou thought, a huge grin 
spreading across her face. She remembered Ryouga tossing her 
around like that in China when he found he'd been cured of his 
pig curse. 

Akari turned to her, giggling and wiping a tear away from her 
eye. Ukyou smiled back, caught up in the delight of this 
thoroughly unexpected family reunion. She watched as Ryouga's 
father approached, only to be caught up in a completely 
unbalanced family hug that sent all three participants tumbling 
to the ground, howling with laughter. Onlookers gaped and 
whispered, but the Hibikis didn't care. 

They finally managed to sort themselves out so they were all on 
their feet. Ryouga stood between his parents, his arms around 
their shoulders in an embrace that was almost desperate in its 
affection. "Mom, Dad..." he said, his voice choked with emotion. 
He turned them to face the two girls. "This is Kuonji Ukyou, and 
Unryuu Akari. They're... they're my friends."

"I'm very pleased to meet you," Ukyou said, bowing. To her 
surprise, Ryouga's mother trotted right up and gave her a 
crushing hug, ruffling her hair as she did.

"I'm so happy to meet Ryouga's friends," she said as she 
released Ukyou, beaming. "I'm Hibiki Yumiko."

Ryouga's father, at least, was a bit more formal. He bowed and 
smiled warmly at them. "And I'm Hibiki Takeshi."

"They're my parents," Ryouga said.

"Really?" Akari asked, feigning wide-eyed innocence. She and 
Ukyou laughed together. "Who could have guessed?"

- - - - -

"... so then on the same day," Akari said, leaning forward as 
she told the story, "Ranma comes to Ukyou and asks her to be in 
HIS wedding party!"

Ukyou blushed, but she laughed with the rest of them. 

"But..." Ryouga's father asked, taking a sip of his beer to wash 
down another swallow of noodles before he spoke, "But wait. 
Isn't the groom's party all supposed to be boys in a Western-
style wedding?"

"Well, Ranma can be a moron," Ryouga pointed out sagely.

Ukyou thumped him. "I do a pretty good impression of a boy when 
I put my mind to it," she explained. "In fact, Ranma thought I 
was a boy for years..."

"He must not have had any idea that Akane would ask Ukyou to be 
a bridesmaid," Akari continued, nibbling on a steamed bun. "It 
surprised me, too. I mean, there are times when I thought you 
and she would kill each other, Ukyou."

The young chef shrugged. "We've worked some of that out. I think 
this was a kind of peace offering."

"So which are you going to be?" Akari asked, giving Ukyou a sly 
look. "Bridesmaid or groomsman?"

Ukyou snorted. "Tell you the truth, I'd rather be in Ranma's 
party that Akane's. Although if it is a peace offering, I 
probably should accept..."

"What about you?" Ryouga's mother suddenly asked her son.

"What?"

"You could be a bridesmaid now!" she said brightly. "Why don't 
you?"

"MOM!" Ryouga burst out, his face reddening. "K...knock it off!"

The bespectacled Hibiki sighed and rested her chin on her hands. 
"It's just so interesting now to have a son and a daughter at 
the same time. I'm still getting used to it."

"Better than a son and a pig," Ryouga muttered.

"Hey!" Akari yelped. "Don't pick on pigs, Ryouga!"

"Uh... sorry."

"Anyway," Akari continued, "I think it's wonderful that Ranma 
and Akane are going to get married. It's perfect - they're both 
completely mad, after all."

"Mad?" asked Ryouga's father. 

Akari spread her hands. "Look at what they're going to do for 
their honeymoon! How many couples would choose to go to a big 
fighting tournament for a romantic getaway? Ranma and Akane have 
entered themselves as a tag-team in that thingy... that 'King of 
the Iron Fish' tournament."

"That's 'Iron Fist!'" Ryouga corrected indignantly.

Akari winked at Ukyou. "Are you sure?" she asked innocently.

"Nobody would make an 'Iron Fish' tournament," he insisted.

"What kind of iron is it, then?" the cute farmer asked. "Might
it be pig-iron, perchance?"

Ryouga finally understood he was being teased. "Pfeh," he 
snorted. "You dope."

Akari giggled. "Still, I guess it's what they want to do." She 
sighed and leaned back. "I wonder what my honeymoon is going to 
be like?"

The people at the dinner table all reacted differently in the 
silence that followed the young pig-trainer's question. Akari 
herself stared dreamily off into space, momentarily lost in her 
own romantic musings. Ukyou and Ryouga exchanged a pained look, 
forcibly reminded once again of the love triangle they had 
managed to get themselves into, and how powerless they felt to 
resolve it. 

Ryouga's parents watched their son and Ukyou with keen interest, 
observing and assessing their reactions. They glanced at one 
another - the look that passed between them was a confirmation, 
as if they were silently concluding a conversation they had been 
having in private before. 

The stretch of silence ended when Mrs. Hibiki clapped her hands 
sharply together. "Well!" she exclaimed loudly, startling the 
younger guests, "I think I need to have a little quality time 
with my boy. Care to go for a walk, Ryouga?"

"Huh?"

"Um... just the two of you?" Ukyou asked. "You sure you won't 
get lost?"

"It's okay," Mrs. Hibiki assured her. "We'll take the dog. Come 
on, Shirokuro!"

"Okay..." It was true that the dog had a sense of direction, 
unlike the rest of the family. She could probably be counted on 
to keep her owners from wandering off.

With an energetic yip, the black-and-white dog bounded to her 
master's side. Mrs. Hibiki hauled Ryouga to his feet. "Come on, 
girl," she commanded to the dog. "Let's go outside!" With that, 
she followed the little mutt as she skittered along the wooden 
floor towards the back door, her somewhat confused son in tow.

Ukyou blinked as she watched them disappear down the hall, a 
little surprised at how abruptly Mrs. Hibiki had decided to 
abscond with Ryouga. She turned to Akari, who also seemed mildly 
befuddled, but it was Ryouga's father who spoke up.

"Miss Ukyou," he said. "Miss Akari."

"Sir?"

He took a deep breath, as if bracing himself for a difficult 
task. "I think there are some things I need to talk to the two 
of you about."

- - - - -

Ryouga grimaced as his mother popped him in the ribs with a 
quick jab. "Come on!" she taunted, weaving around like a boxer. 
"What's the matter, Ryouga? You afraid of your little-bitty 
mother?"

He blocked another body-blow and backpedaled. "Mom!" he scolded. 
"Come on... we just ate. I don't want to spar with you right 
now..."

She chased him across the dirt, throwing more a combination of 
snapping punches at into his defenses. They'd barely reached the 
vacant lot adjacent to the Hibiki home before she'd started into 
attacking him. Shirokuro sat at the edge of one of the enclosing 
walls, wagging her fluffy tail and watching.

"Come on, Ryouga," his mother urged. She feinted high and struck 
low, trying to kick his legs out from under him. "You must've 
learned something since we last fought!"

"Mom..."

"Bring it on, little man!" she teased, trying to tattoo his 
kidneys with a flurry of kicks. "You afraid of this old lady?"

"You're not that old... OW!" 

She finally landed a substantial hit on him, threading a punch 
through his defenses to catch him square on the nose. His head 
snapped back under the impact, and he lashed out reflexively in 
retaliation, pounding his mother with a thunderous uppercut. 
Hibiki Yomiko tumbled through the air, slammed hard by the force 
of the blow, and smacked into the stone wall.

"Aaah!" Ryouga cried in dismay. "Mom! Are you all right?"

Mrs. Hibiki pulled herself out of the vaguely mom-shaped crater 
in the wall, grinning hugely. "Whoo! Now THAT was a punch! You 
have gotten stronger, little one."

He fretted around her anxiously. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean..."

"Tut-tut, I'm just fine," she assured him, patting him on the 
shoulder. A moment later, she'd pulled him into a judo-throw, 
slamming him into the ground with terrific force.

Ryouga landed spread-eagle on the dirt. "Uff! Mom! That was 
sneaky..."

She raised her fists and did a little footwork dance. "You can't 
be done yet, Ryouga. Let's go some more!"

The Lost Boy rolled to his feet, dusting himself off as he rose. 
"I... sorry, Mom. I'm just not much in the mood to fight right 
now. I just..." he trailed off, looking around the vacant lot, 
lost in thought.

His mother lowered her fists and stepped forward, placing a 
soothing hand on his arm. "Something wrong, son?"

"This vacant lot," he said quietly. "This is where I challenged 
Ranma to a final battle back then. It seems... it's only been a 
few years, but it feels like so long ago. I showed up a little 
late to the match, and he was gone. I went off to find him... 
ended up in China. My life changed a lot during those years." He 
turned to his mother. "And I haven't seen you at all. Not once, 
all that time."

"Ryouga..."

"I missed you so much. You and Dad... I missed you." His voice 
didn't shake as he said that, but tears rolled freely down his 
cheeks.

His mother wrapped her arms around him, pulling his head down so 
she could cradle it against her shoulder. "My boy... my darling. 
I missed you too, Ryouga."

His tears soaked through the worn cloth of her shirt, but he 
didn't care. "I know we all have a bad sense of direction, but I 
don't understand why it took so long to see you again. The most 
we'd been apart before then was a month or so. Either you or 
Dad... one of you was always there for me. But not after that 
day."

She stroked his hair and held him, saying nothing.

"I... I know it's not your fault," he whispered, sniffling. "I'm 
not blaming you, Mom. It's just... I don't understand."

He felt his mother's sigh as much as he heard it. She gave him 
one warm squeeze, then released him from her embrace. She stood 
there, facing him with her hands on his shoulders, her eyes 
hidden beneath her bangs in the way he'd see her do hundreds of 
times when she was composing her thoughts. He waited in silence, 
knowing that she was preparing to say something important.

"Coming of age," she finally said. "Ah... yes. That's the 
hardest time for a Hibiki. I remember it well."

"Mom?"

She raised her face so she could look into his eyes, her gaze 
clear and purposeful from behind her thick spectacles. "For a 
Hibiki, the passage between childhood and adulthood is a path 
that must be walked alone. It's a hard time for the young one... 
and hard for the parents, too. We couldn't be there even if we 
wanted to, my son. I'm not sure why it's that way, but that's 
part of your heritage."

"My heritage?" Ryouga repeated, confused. 

"Ryouga, did you ever wonder?" she asked. "Did you ever wonder 
how two people like your father and me, who both have such an 
awful sense of direction, could get together and marry?"

The Lost Boy scratched his head. "Um... well, now that you 
mention it, that does seem pretty weird. How did that work?"

"It didn't," she replied.

He shook his head. "I don't get it."

"I mean," his mother said, "that only one of us had a bad sense 
of direction when we got married."

Something clenched in Ryouga's chest. "Wha... what does that 
mean?"

"There's some family history of the Hibikis that you don't 
know," the little woman explained. "But the time has come for 
you to hear it. The fact that we have found you again means 
you've come of age... and now you must know."

So she told him. The crescent moon rose in the sky as Hibiki 
Yumiko spoke to her son, there under the city sky in an empty 
lot near their family home. She spoke and her son listened, 
hearing for the first time the ancient story of his family 
name... and slowly coming to understand what it all meant to him 
today.

Eventually, he couldn't take it anymore.

"I... I can't!" he moaned, hands clenched in his hair as he 
shook his head back and forth. "How can I... how can I ask 
anyone to..."

"Ryouga!" his mother called.

"It's TOO MUCH!" he wailed, and with that he ran. He didn't 
bother looking where he was going - when did that ever make a 
difference anyway? The wall gave beneath him in a spray of 
shrapnel as he ran through it, ran off into the darkness, as if 
his legs could carry him away from the truth he had just 
learned.

Shirokuro whined and padded up to Yumiko Hibiki, who stood and 
watched her son disappear into the night. "Don't worry, girl," 
the bespectacled woman told the dog quietly. "We don't have to 
go looking for him this time. He'll be back soon. I'm quite 
certain of it."

- - - - -

"It was about six hundred years ago now, give or take," said 
Hibiki Takeshi to his two listeners. Ukyou and Akari sat with 
their tea in front of them, attending the words of Ryouga's 
father as he unveiled the story of the Hibiki family to them. 
Ukyou wasn't sure why this was going to be so important, but he 
had seemed very determined to tell them this history.

"The Hibikis were a proud samurai clan," he told them. "There 
arose a mighty warrior from the family, whose prowess and 
battle and strategic skill elevated him to the status of 
general. This General Hibiki won victory after victory on the 
battlefield for his lord. His secret, it is said, was his 
perfect sense of direction."

"What?" Akari exclaimed.

The dark-haired man smiled. "Yes, I know. But it's true... they 
called him 'Human Map Hibiki,' due to his intimate knowledge of 
the countryside. It was said he knew the territory in Japan 
better than any traveler or scholar. By using the features of 
the terrain to his advantage, this General Hibiki devised 
cunning strategies and ambushes to confound his foes, always 
gaining the edge over his enemies with his superior knowledge of 
the land."

He took a sip of his tea before continuing. "But tragedy befell 
him. One day, he returned home from leading his lord's armies to 
find that his home had come under attack by his enemies' agents. 
Hired cutthroats had infiltrated his estate, slaying his wife 
and children in their sleep."

"That's awful," Akari whispered.

"The local constables were no match for the attackers," the 
elder Hibiki continued. "And all the truly skilled warriors were 
with General Hibiki. Had he been back home, a man of his 
strength could have easily dispatched such vermin. 
Unfortunately, he was miles away when it happened. All he could 
do was mourn."

Ukyou trembled, thinking about what it must've been like. In her 
mind's eye, General Hibiki looked like an older Ryouga... and 
his murdered wife looked like her.

"The general asked to leave the service of his lord," Ryouga's 
father continued. "Permission was granted, and he wandered alone 
in the countryside, seeking shrines for prayer and meditation to 
find an answer for his grief. Always the question haunted him: 
'What use is it to know where I am all the time, if I cannot be 
where I am needed?' His gift seemed so hollow and useless to him 
compared to his loss, to his grief of not being able to protect 
his beloved wife and children."

Mr. Hibiki shifted his tea cup around, considering. "We are not 
sure what happened next. Some say a god heard his prayers, some 
say it was a sorcerer or a fox spirit... we do not know. But we 
do know the results. This ancestor, General Hibiki, lost his 
sense of direction. In return, he gained a blessing and a burden 
- his wanderings would take him to where he was needed most."

"Where he was needed most?" Akari asked. "What does that mean?"

"It means that when trouble arose," Mr. Hibiki explained, "he 
was drawn to it. When those he loved were in danger, he would 
find himself by their side, ready to defend them. Though he 
might spend weeks lost and directionless in the countryside, 
this Hibiki could know he would be there to save the ones he 
cared for from peril. So it was true of him... and of all 
Hibikis that followed."

"Ryouga," Ukyou gasped. "You mean..."

"The gift grows as the Hibiki ages," he said. "As the child 
grows into adulthood and passes through trials of fire, the 
Hibiki nature strengthens. But surely you have seen it in 
Ryouga. How often has he appeared at critical times, seemingly 
out of nowhere, to aid his friends?"

"Constantly," she admitted.

"More than he should, if he were truly lost," Ryouga's father 
asserted. "He has passed through the hardest time, in these 
years of adolescence. Those are years he had to walk alone. It's 
been very hard on his mother and me... these are the only times 
we knew we would not be there for him when he needed."

"Wait a minute," Akari interrupted. "Okay, so I understand why 
you would have a bad sense of direction. But his mother? She 
wasn't born a Hibiki..."

"Actually, she was," Hibiki Takeshi said. "I was the one born to 
another family. I chose to take the name of 'Hibiki' when I 
married Yumiko."

"And the curse... began to affect you too?" Ukyou asked.

"Curse?" he replied. "I don't really think of it as a curse, 
Miss Ukyou. A responsibility, to be sure. I had to become strong 
enough to handle the life that I was to lead. Becoming a 
traveling salesman was easy, but improving my martial arts 
skills to deal with the trouble I would encounter as a Hibiki 
was more difficult."

"But..." Akari's voice rose a little bit. "But wait. Why didn't 
she take your name? Could she have? Would that have meant..."

"It would have meant that she would have developed a normal 
sense of direction," he replied. "Yes. If she had chosen to 
leave behind her family name, she would have also left behind 
the special gift that comes with it. As I said, it is not a 
curse. Each Hibiki makes that choice when they decide to marry, 
whether they will continue to live this life that they have 
known... or set down the burden and live normally."

"He could do that then!" Akari exclaimed. There was a definite 
undertone of fear in her voice now, poorly masked by a veneer of 
forced optimism. "He hates his bad sense of direction. If he 
married... if he took his wife's name..."

"Ryouga's mother is telling him the truth as we speak," Hibiki 
Takeshi told them. "He will have to decide in his heart if he 
wants to remain a Hibiki."

"Why would he?" the small girl demanded. "If it means he's 
always lost..."

Ukyou spoke up. "Ranma would be dead now if it wasn't for his... 
his gift, as you put it. Akane too."

"And others as well, I expect," Mr. Hibiki said. "My son has 
helped many people in his travels, sometimes without even 
knowing how important his intervention was. A Hibiki is a wild 
card of sorts, a factor of chaos that cannot be predicted. Our 
presence has been known to avert even long-foretold doom."

"But it's hard," Ukyou asked, her own heart beating fast as she 
absorbed what he was saying. "It's hard on you, isn't it? How 
much are you apart from your wife?"

Hibiki Takeshi closed his eyes and let out a long, weary sigh. 
"It can be hard. It is often a lonely life. Sometimes it's weeks 
or months that Yumiko and I are separated."

"And if Ryouga has children," Ukyou speculated. "When they come 
of age..."

"Yes," the elder Hibiki affirmed. "He and... his wife... will have 
to both go through what we just did. Years of separation. Years 
of not being able to help a beloved son or daughter."

"I could do it!" Akari pronounced. Her lower lip quivered, her 
fists trembled, and tears glittered at the corners of her eyes. 
"For Ryouga... I could endure anything!"

Ryouga's father looked into her eyes. "Can you?"

"Yes!" Her voice cracked when she said it.

"Your life as you know it would end," he told her gently. 
"You will find yourself on the road for long stretches, weeks 
and months at a time, with no way to predict when you will 
return. Your farm and your animals would be left alone. Our 
neighbors take care of our dogs... but your sumo pigs are a 
different matter. Who is qualified to take care of them?"

"I... I could..." She trailed off.

"I had to abandon my family business when I married Yumiko. I 
became a traveling salesman. But I had a brother who took over 
after I was gone. You're an only child, aren't you, Akari?"

She sniffled and rubbed her eyes angrily. "But it won't matter!" 
she exclaimed, turning to Ukyou with a desperate look in her 
eyes. "If he gives up being a Hibiki, it won't matter! Right? 
Right?"

Ukyou shook her head. Her own throat felt so tight she could 
barely speak. "You can't ask him to do that, sweetie. He has to 
be the one to decide that."

"Whoever marries Ryouga," the elder Hibiki said, "must be 
willing to accept either decision. She must be ready to become a 
Hibiki and join him along that life, or she must be willing to 
give him her name... and accept the consequences if a time comes 
when he fails to be there to protect the ones he loves."

"That's not FAIR!" Akari cried. "It's not... it's not..." 

Ukyou moved to her side and put her arms around her friend. 
Akari collapsed against her, balling up fists full of Ukyou's 
shirt in hands as she wept. The young chef felt tears of her own 
trickling down her face. She had never wanted to break Akari's 
heart. 

"I... think I'll leave you two alone," Mr. Hibiki said. He rose 
and quietly made his way out of the room.

"I can't do it," the little Unryuu sobbed. "Leave my farm... give 
up all my sweet little pigs... always being lost and lonely..."

Ukyou stroked her hair and pressed her cheek against Akari's 
head.

"I love him... but it's just too much... it's too much..."

"It's okay," Ukyou whispered. "You don't have to be ashamed of 
that."

"Why?" Akari moaned. "Why, why, why can't we go back?"

"Go back?"

The girl pulled back from Ukyou so she could meet her gaze, her 
eyes shining with tears of pain. "You remember that day? It was... 
it was the World Music Festival. It was so beautiful... so many 
colors and sounds and people from all over. You and me and 
Ryouga... we were so happy..."

"Yes," Ukyou agreed.

"Those girls from Ireland taught us how to do that dance," Akari 
reminisced, her smile so heartbreaking that Ukyou could barely 
stand it. "We were so good... they let us up on stage. They played 
the fiddles and we danced... the three of us arm in arm together. 
People clapped and gave us flowers... Ryouga was so red! Like the 
roses! But he smiled... he laughed with you and me..."

"I remember," Ukyou said, wiping her eyes. "That was... that was 
great."

"I want to go back!" Akari wailed, throwing herself into Ukyou's 
arms. "I want to go back to that day! Why can't it stay that 
way? Why can't we... can't we just stay like that?"

Ukyou held her friend close as Akari's body convulsed with sobs, 
and spoke in a choked whisper. "Because time won't let us, 
honey. It goes forward, no matter what we want... unstoppable and 
relentless. All we can do is adapt to what it throws at us next. 
That's all... that's all we can do."

Akari had no answer for that, except to hold onto her beloved 
friend and let her heart break. Ukyou rocked the little farmer 
back and forth, holding her close as the sadness flowed through 
her body, smoothing her hair embracing her like a sister. The 
tea they hadn't finished grew colder in the ceramic cups on the 
table, and Akari's sobs grew softer and softer as her grief 
slowly spent itself.

Finally, the small girl spoke in a quiet voice. "Will you be 
able to do it, Ukyou?"

"Do what?" she asked.

"Become a Hibiki. If that's what he chooses."

Ukyou pulled back, startled. "Akari...?"

The pig farmer gave her a sad, apologetic smile. "I'm not... I'm 
not stupid, Ukyou. I know you have feelings for Ryouga."

"You do? I mean..." The okonomiyaki chef felt completely off-
balance. "How... how long have you...?"

Akari shrugged, as if it didn't matter. "A while. I didn't know 
what to do about it when I figured it out. I love you both so 
much. I didn't want anybody to get hurt."

Ukyou let out a pained little laugh. "Akari... I'm sorry. I 
didn't... I wanted to somehow..."

She shook her head. "Don't. It's okay. Just... do you think you 
can? If you do get married..."

The young fighter held her friend's hand. "I think so, Akari. 
Nabiki and Konatsu have the restaurant now... I don't need to be 
there. I can travel with my okonomiyaki cart, like my father 
did. I don't have anyone depending on me, like you do."

"But you'll be away from him so much," Akari pointed out. "And 
when your kids grow up..."

"I know. It's not going to be easy."

"You love him?"

"Yes," she answered without hesitation.

Akari nodded. "Don't... please don't forget about me."

Ukyou gripped Akari's hands tight in hers. "I will NEVER forget 
about you. You are too important to me, Akari. You're my little 
sister. I won't leave you behind."

Fresh tears rolled down Akari's cheeks, and her voice was still 
filled with pain, but she smiled all the same. "Better not. I'll 
sic my pigs on you if you do."

- - - - -

Ryouga ran for hours, charging through the night without any 
thought to where he might be going. He felt like a fool, but he 
couldn't face the prospect of asking someone he loved to take up 
this wandering life. Yet there were people he cherished who were 
still alive because of him, because he was a Hibiki and had been 
there when they needed him. He could protect the ones he loved 
by staying the way he was... but how could he ask anyone to share 
that burden?

It was too much to think about. Better to run away. Better to 
get some distance. Better to let his benighted sense of 
direction take him on a long journey, where he might find his 
answers on the road in solitude. He pelted through the streets 
of Tokyo as the moon crept its way across the sky.

Finally, the surge of emotion began to release him from its 
grip. It was very late now, and he was starting to feel tired. 
He slowed down to a walk, looking around at his surroundings for 
the first time in hours. There was a patch of grass over there 
beside a tree stump that looked soft enough. He could settle 
down there and sleep until morning...

As he approached, he saw that someone else seemed to have the 
same idea. 

He stopped, and the figure turned towards him. A familiar white 
ribbon caught the moonlight, and eyes he knew so well met his 
own.

"Ukyou..."

"Hey, sugar."

The Lost Boy looked around, recognition setting in. He was 
standing in the vacant lot adjacent to his house... right back 
where he started.

He took a step back, ready to run again. Ukyou held out her 
hand, beckoning him with a gentle smile. "Don't go, Ryouga," she 
called to him. "Come here and lie down beside me."

Ryouga trembled, but he went to her. She took his hand and 
pulled him down to the grass, and they lay back together side by 
side, their fingers entwined. 

"There's something... I have to tell you," Ryouga said.

"Your family history, right?" Ukyou murmured. "Your father told 
us. Me and Akari both."

"Akari?"

He heard the grass shift as she nodded. "She's asleep in one of 
the guest rooms now. Had a good cry after we heard the news."

Ryouga swallowed. Part of him felt miserable at the thought of 
Akari in tears, but another part felt a sudden surge of joy, as 
if the path to freedom had finally opened. "Then... she... is she..." 

"She's not ready to become a Hibiki," Ukyou said. "She's let you 
go, sugar."

The joy he felt quickly disappeared behind an eclipse of 
foreboding. "And you... I can't ask you to take a life like that."

"You don't have to," she told him, her hand warm in his. "I've 
made my own choice."

"You have?"

Her voice was soft, and she spoke with such tenderness that he 
felt like his heart would melt. "Hibiki Ukyou sounds fine to me. 
Kuonji Ryouga does to. Either way you want it, my love. I'll be 
with you either way."

Ryouga propped himself up on his elbow, and she rolled over on 
her side to face him. He wanted to speak, to say something that 
might tell her what he was feeling in his heart, but he seemed 
to have forgotten all words. All he could figure out to do was 
to kiss her.

That was all they needed.

Ukyou and Ryouga lay together in the darkness, each lost in the 
other's eyes, each found in each other's heart, bathed as one in 
the silver light of the moon and stars.

- - - - -

                      end of epilogue 2


-----------------------------------------------------------
                      AUTHOR'S NOTES
-----------------------------------------------------------

The title of this epilogue is taken from "Kimagure Orange Road,"
which more recent anime/manga fans may not be familiar with. It
is a classic love triangle anime, and one of the first anime to 
make a dent in the American market. I chose it, of course, 
to match the love triangle situation of Ukyou, Ryouga, and 
Akari.

"King of Iron Fist" tournament is a Tekken reference.

We never meet Ryouga's parents in the manga, but they are 
described to us as both having the same wretched sense of 
direction that plagues Ryouga. I wanted to provide my own 
possible explanation about how two people so afflicted could 
actually meet each other and get married.

COMING SOON:  Final thoughts from the author on "Relentless."

COPYRIGHT STUFF:  All the Ranma characters belong to Takahashi 
Rumiko, and are licensed in America by Viz Communications.    

GRT - May 2005
Thunderstruck_comic@comcast.net

All existing chapters of this story may be found at:
http://www.talesfromthevault.com/relentless





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