No major debate this time. Just good ol' fanfic. And no problems 
with math or science or anything like that there...probably. :)

-----

    Ryoga Hibiki watched the sunrise from the eastern horizon. He 
felt a slight breeze as he stood and let the warmth flow over him. He 
shrugged his black motorcycle jacket off and began walking back 
towards the center of Shantytown. 
    On his way back, he paused at a medium sized boulder just outside 
of the main hub of the village.
    "BAKUSAITENKETSU!" 
    Ryoga left the pile of rubble behind...
    
    Akane was dead. Those three words kept running through Ryoga's 
head. Akane was dead. No one had been able to find her in the past 
three months after the release from the shelters. Akane was DEAD.
    Ryoga began running blindly throught the camp, blasting anything 
that got in his way. Akane WAS DEAD. She was DEAD and Ryoga had 
failed to protect her. Failed to get her to a shelter. 
Failed...failed...FAILED!
    A pair of hands stopped him.
    "Ryoga! Calm down!"
    Ryoga opened his eyes. Ukyou's face was before him. Her damaged 
face. The eyepatch just failed to cover the vertical scars that ran 
down onto her cheek.
    "Ukyou?" She put an arm around him. For a moment, Ryoga flashed 
back to the adventure on Togenkyo, back when the world was clean, and 
Akane...
    "Don't think about it!" Ukyou ordered sharply. "Dammit, Ryoga, 
everybody's suffered! Akane's dead! Nothing you can do will bring her 
back!"
    "I failed..." 
    A slap landed on his cheek. Ryoga looked up, startled.
    "Since when were you responsible for Akane?" Ukyou said harshly. 
"Everything was chaos before the bombs fell, Ryoga. Everything. We 
lost a lot more than just Akane. LOTS more," Ryoga thought he saw a 
tear roll down Ukyou's cheek, but she was turned slightly from him.
    "People die, Ryoga. Nothing can change that," she said softly.
    Ryoga looked at her. She couldn't be talking about...no...not 
TSUBASA?
    Ukyou turned back to him. "You need to find a release, Ryoga. One 
that doesn't entail running blindly through town obliterating 
anything that gets in your way. If you keep it in, you'll end up 
killing yourself..."

    Ryoga had realized she was right. So, he had fought for and won a 
seat on Shantytown's council and was put in charge of keeping guard 
over the city at night. But every sunrise, he would destroy one of 
the boulders that surrounded the outskirts of Shantytown, pick the 
largest remnant and take it back to his shack and add it to his 
shrine to Akane's memory inside.

    Ryoga walked back to the center of town. Thanks to the remains of 
Tokyo's six tallest skyscrapers surrounding the village, Ryoga always 
could find his way around. Shantytown wasn't THAT big after all. But 
he rarely ventured outside the ring of the six buildings, knowing 
that if he got lost, odds were he'd never return.
    The villagers were already up and beginning the mornings work. 
Even Ukyou was up early. He could see smoke rising from the makeshift 
chimney sprouting from the roof of Ukyou's shack. Ukyou almost never 
got up this early, only when--
    <Of course,> Ryoga smiled. <Ranma's coming,> Ryoga shook his 
head, amused. Although Ukyou pretended she wasn't interested in Ranma 
anymore, whenever he was due into town, Ukyou would be up at the 
crack of dawn making 'yaki like there was no tomorrow.
    Ryoga let an amused sigh escape his lungs. Ah, well, it meant he 
might be able to eat before the meeting of the council this morning.

------

    Sorry this installment is so short. I meant to write more, but 
inspiration has left me temporarily and I'm short on time. Oh well ^_^

                                            ---Erin 2.5