Ranma walked down the dark Nerima night. The slow quiet
and alltogether too still air brought an eerie depressing demeanor
to the evening. He let out a tired groan as he clutched his aching
side. The bruise from the area that Akane had kicked him was still
a bit tender though he could live with it, he'd had much worse. The
pain however still dug into him with each stagger.
        He had been at Ukyo's place recovering for about the past
three to four hours, maybe more. She said that she had found him
unconscious and then brought him home to help patch him up. When
he came to he was a real mess, and in some serious pain. Normally
he wasn't in such bad shape from one of Akane's kicks. He'd usually
be a bit hurt, but nothing major. However, Akane'd really nailed
him that last time, and Ranma had forgotten to roll with the impact
when he hit the ground. He'd paid for that little error in the huge
amount of time time it took to to patch him up. Most of the time
spent at Ucchans was simply 'untieing' him. It was a slow and
painful process, one Ranma especially hated. He shuddered as he
remembered the particularly painful process of dislodging his head
from his armpit.
        He remained completely silent the rest of the slow walk
home. He played the events of the day back in his mind, realizing
again how truly screwed up his life was. The thing that bothered
him the most was that he didn't even get the chance to kill Masaki.
He thought of the many many painful ways to extract revenge on the
one who caused all this misery. It was simply one of his worse days.
Suddenly however, Ranma's train of thought de-railed as he approached
the dojo. He realized he was thinking only about himself, and his
revenge, not the person who really mattered. In a rare moment of
true selfless thought, he wished that all the horror of the previous
day would've happened to him instead of his involuntary fiancee.
"Akane didn't deserve this.." he muttered. "What evil has she ever
done to anyone?"
        Ranma quietly opened the door to the dojo, when he saw a
female slihouette emerging from the shadows of the damp night. Though
he couldn't see the facial features, Ranma knew by the way she walked
who it was. It was the person who had lived through hell and brought at
least two others with her. She was Akane. She slowly and aimlessly
walked barely making any notice of the world around her. Akane then,
acknowledged Ranma slightly and changed her course to meet him by the
door. Her eyes were still red and swollen, but her face had much more
color then the last time he had seen her, some some 6 hours ago. Akane
wasn't visibly crying, but she was definitely still sniffling a little.
She suddenly stopped, then slowly raised her head to speak to the man in
front of her.
        Ranma gulped as she walked up to him. He had absolutely no idea
what to say. He looked down at Akane and saw why she was no longer crying,
it wasn't hecause she didn't want to. It was simply that she didn't have
it in her anymore. Akane slowly looked up at Ranma and stared again. He
just looked down at her with a somber apologetic look. Akane swallowed and
started to speak just as suddenly stopping. Then, slowly, she formed two
words. "I'm sorry."
       Ranma couldn't understand it. It couldn't be Akane speaking to him
at that moment. She rarely apologized and to him she had no reason to at
all. "Why?" Ranma was almost angry. "You didn't do anything. It was my
fault." He lowered his head. "And I couldn't do a thing to stop the asshole
who did it to you." Ranma then realised the he too was acting completely off.
He never admitted that anything was his fault. Maybe, as some sort of cosmic
irony, tragedy brought the real self out.
       "You were right." Akane turned her head and tried to avert her gaze.
She sighed remembering the fight she had had with her sister. A tear flowed
down her cheek. "It was Nabiki. She was the one who...." Akane paused, she
thought that she would begin to cry again. But it was not so. Anger began
to overtake her, making way for hatred. She continued her sentence. This
time with a touch of venom in her tone. "She was the one who took the
photographs. She's the one that betrayed me." Ranma heard the words just
fine but was having troubles actually understanding what she had said to him.
        "So it WAS her!" Ranma screamed at the completion of his computations
"I'll kill her! So help me god I will!"  Ranma seemed even more furious now
than Akane.
        As he stood fuming in the cool night breeze Akane slipped into
the dojo quietly. She paused at the steps and slowly began to ascend them.
'I can't believe this!' Akane thought. 'And she dares call herself my
sister!' Akane could only think of the pain she had experienced that day,
and with each remembrance of the scene her hatred grew more intense. 'I
hope I never have to see her again as long as I live!' She stopped in
front of Nabiki's room and noticed the door was open. It rarely was.
Acting on some compulsion she couldn't explain she walked into her older
sister's room, and was surprised to find it in total disarray, the cabinets
were open and clothes and such were out of place or gone. She surveyed the
room slowly until her eyes came upon a sheet of paper next to a large amount
of yen. She picked up the paper and read Nabiki's note with a much
indifference she finished it and simply didn't care. Until.
        Until she could've sworn she heard Nabiki's voice in the back of her
head. It said to her:

        "Congratulations sis, you just got your wish."

        Ranma 1/2: The Long Hard Road
                Facades
                Part 2
                  by
               George Mori