Hello all!

With this fanfic I am undertaking a very large project. A story with
many chapters and many parts to each chapter. The story's title is
"The High Cost of Loving." It will explore how high the cost of love
can be to the characters in Ranma 1/2. This was inspired by the
number of responses to "The Money Pit" and "The Visit."

Here is the basic ground rules for the stories:  1.) This series
starts after V35.  2.) Nodoka has not discovered Ranma's curse.
3.) V36, V37 and V38 of the manga do NOT occur (these stories take
their place).

I have this story, my current rewrite of "The Money Pit" and other
fics posted on my web page.  The URL is somewhere at the bottom of
this story.

============================================

Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction
"The High Cost of Loving"
"Chapter One - The Hero"
by Suds-kun (suds1964@tir.com)

============================================
Ranma 1/2 characters are created by and copyright Rumiko Takahashi.
Published by Shogakukan Inc. and VIZ Comm.
Story copyright Shaun Schillinger.
Intended for the sole non-profit use of R.T. fans.
============================================

Ukyou wiped the sweat from her forehead as she cleaned the griddle.
She looked up and watched Konatsu clean the tables. "He sure is a
hard worker." she thought as she continued scraping. "He did help out
quite a bit when I was sick. He needs to learn more about money
management, though." She grimaced at the memory of the 500 yen hidden
in the ?? yen okonomiyaki promotion.

"Are you feeling o.k., Ukyou-sama?"

Ukyou blinked her eyes and smiled, "Just thinking, Konatsu. Are you
done?"

"Hai! Everything is put away."

They both turned their attention to the knocking at the door. Konatsu
went to the door and looked out the window, smiled and opened the
door. In walked Ranma and Akane.

"Ran-chan! Akane! What are you doing here?" Ukyou quickly finished
cleaning her scraper and put it away.

"Yo, Uc-chan! Are you closed up yet?" Ranma said, avoiding the
question.

"Hai, I was getting ready to clean up and relax." Ukyou turned to
Akane. "Well, since _he_ won't tell me, what about you, Akane. What
brings you two here this late?"

Akane elbowed Ranma and scowled at him.

"Ite! O.k. Uc-chan, Akane and I were going to a late showing of a
Jackie Chan film and were wondering if you and Konatsu would be
interested in going with us."

"Oh! I've seen him on t.v.! I've never been to an eigakan before!
Ukyou-sama! Let's go!" Konatsu was almost jumping up and down with
joy, his long hair slightly bouncing.

Ukyou looked at the kawaii face, then Akane's and then Ranma's.
"Well, it _has_ been a while since I went out." she replied.  She
smiled as her mind began to wander. "Besides, I'm not going to pass
up the chance to set beside Ranma in a dark theater."

===

As the foursome stepped off the train, Akane noticed the headlines on
the newspapers for sale.

"Another gas attack? I hope they catch those sickos!"

Ranma noticed Akane's hands were clenched tight and beginning to
shake.

"The police will catch them, Akane. I understand it's some crazy cult
that is trying to take over the world, or something like that. Don't
let it bother you so much." Ranma reached for her hand and pried her
fingers open. "Were here to have fun, Akane. I don't want you to be
upset."

Ranma smiled at her and Akane returned a week smile at first and then
relaxed.

Ukyou looked on in shock. "What is going on here?" she thought.
"These two sure are acting strange."

The foursome commented on the different shops they passed as they
made their way to the theater.

===

"Hahahahahah" *gasp* "Hahahahah!" Tears were streaming down Akane's
face.

A very serious Ranma poked Akane in the side. "What's so funny?  This
scene is very serious! It's training!"

Ukyo sat between Konatsu and Ranma, with Akane on the other side of
Ranma. Both her and Konatsu smiled, it was quite obvious that Akane
thought Jackie Chan was doing a pretty good impression of Ranma.


The scene on the screen was that of Jackie Chan and an old man. They
were fighting over a piece of meat from their lunch. They each were
using their chopsticks to grab the piece and fend off the other.

===

Jackie was shoveling rice into his mouth, ala Ranma, when the old man
pointed at him. "Don't eat that rice, eat this." He pointed at the
plate of dried meat. Jackie grabbed a piece and as he picked it up,
the old man grabbed the chopsticks with his and slid them down,
dropping the meat back onto the plate. Jackie grabbed the piece and
the old man again slid it out of his grasp. Then picked it up himself
and popped it into his mouth.

Jackie humphed and went back to his rice. As he continued to shovel,
he looked down at the plate of meat. He quickly grabbed another piece
and the old man slid it off the sticks and into an empty bowl. Jackie
picked up the meat and the old man slid it off the sticks. The piece
fell into the old man's hand. Jackie kicked his hand and sent the
meat into the air and towards his mouth. The old man snatched it out
of Jackie's mouth.  Jackie tried to use his sticks to slide the meat
of the old man's chopsticks, but the old man let the meat slide down
the sticks toward his hand and pinched Jackie's nose with the other
end of the sticks.

The action increased with Jackie constantly chomping at the piece of
meat and the old man faking him out or switching the meat with a
stone. Eventually the old took pity on the starving Jackie and let
him have the piece of meat.

===

As the scenes changed and the eiga continued on to a more quiet
moment, Ukyou looked around. "Konatsu really is involved in the
eiga. Ranma looks just as interested, but what is he doing?" Ukyou
narrowed her eyes to look at Ranma and Akane. "He... he's got his
arm around Akane! What does that baka think he's do..."

Realization suddenly hit her between the eyes. "This was a DATE! They
asked Konatsu and I out on a double date!" Ukyou was angry at first
and was ready to punch Ranma when she saw Akane. Her head was resting
against his arm and shoulder.

Ukyou slid down in her seat, her eyes becoming moist. "What a fool I
am! They're trying to hitch me up with Konatsu! I want Ranma, not
Konatsu. Yeah, he's cute and treats me nice, but he's not Ranma!" She
looked at Konatsu, "Sorry, Konatsu, but my heart belongs to Ranma."
She wiped the tears from her eyes and noticed Konatsu doing the same.
"Nani?' she thought. "Can he read my thoughts?" She looked around and
saw Akane wiping her eyes. She looked at the screen and saw Jackie
kissing a woman.  "Oh, it's the eiga. What a relief."

Ukyou flinched a little as Konatsu laid his head against her
shoulder. She looked at him and turned back to the eiga. "Oh, why
not?" she thought as a small smile crossed her face.

===

The foursome entered the train station.  Ranma and Akane were in an
animated discussion.

"I don't act like that!" Ranma shouted.

"Yes, you do!" Akane retorted. "You'd fight over food, just like they
did."

"Well, I _am_ going to try some of his moves with the chopsticks. Pop
won't have a chance!"

The four stopped dead in their tracks. The hair standing on the back
of their necks. Time began to slow to a crawl. Ranma and Konatsu
moved towards Akane and Ukyou. The girls turned their backs towards
the boys as they tried to protect them from the explosion.

A rush of screaming people headed towards the exits as an ominous
cloud of gas emanated from a far corner of the station. Ukyou felt
Konatsu grab her hand and pull her to him, she noticed that Ranma had
done the same to Akane. The crowd of people was small and quickly
made their way to the exits.

Ukyou felt Konatsu let go of her hand, "Konatsu!" she yelled as she
watched him dash towards a group of children. Ranma was immediately
beside him. Konatsu tossed a child into Ranma's arms, he then tossed
the child to Akane, and she to Ukyou. Ukyou handed the coughing child
to someone else who then ran out the exit. As each child was passed
to her, she could smell the gas getting stronger. Her eyes widened in
horror as she realized that Ranma and Konatsu were closer to the
source of the gas. She watched as Ranma grabbed Konatsu's arm after
tossing the last child to Akane. The two of them were looking pretty
ragged and stumbled towards the exits after her and Akane.

"My akachan!" shouted a hysterical woman. Ukyou looked in the
direction she was pointing. A little girl stood by herself, crying.
Ukyou watched in slow motion as Konatsu broke free from Ranma's grip
and leapt towards the child. He quickly tossed the child to Ranma who
in turn tossed her to Akane.

Konatsu turned to look for more victims when a second, smaller
explosion occurred. Gas from the explosion caught him full in the
face. "Konatsu!" Ukyou screamed as Ranma jumped to Konatsu and picked
him up and jumped back. Akane grabbed both and dragged them to the
exit. Ukyou looked around and could see that they were the last to
leave.

Ukyou laid Konatsu's head in her lap as she stroked his hair. Tears
streamed down her cheeks. She could hear people screaming for help
and looked around. Her eyes came to Ranma and Akane. He was laying on
his side and coughing. Akane hovering over him, crying.

Ukyou looked down at Konatsu. His face was puffy and his breathing
was very shallow. He struggled as he raised his hand to her face and
lightly touched her chin.

"U...kyou...sa...ma...su...ki...da."

His hand fell back to his chest and Ukyou felt his body go limp.

"Nooooooooo!" she cried as she rocked back and forth with him in her
lap.

===

Ukyou walked into the empty room. There was a dresser against one
wall and a low table in the middle. There was an empty place near the
table large enough for a futon. She kneeled at the table and looked
at the newspaper laying there. The newspaper was a week old. The
headlines read, "Gas Attack Kills Young Man" "He Went Back to Get My
Akachan"

As Ukyou stood, a flash of color caught her eye. A bright blue bow
had fallen behind the dresser. She picked it up and looked it over.
She held it to her chest and then removed the white bow from her
hair.  She tied the blue bow around her hair and closed the door as
she left.

============================================

A few notes:

I have a video montage of fight scenes from a bunch of Jackie Chan's
movies, "The Best of Jackie Chan."  Two hours of non stop fight
scenes!  As you can tell from the story, one of the scenes made me
immediately think of Ranma and Genma.  ^_-

The first gas attack in the Tokyo subway occured on March 19, 1995.
It was the action of Shoko Asahara and his cult AUM Shinrikyo
(Supreme Truth).  Approximately 565 people were injured and five
died. There were other attacks over the next four months. A pipe bomb
and "mysterious fumes." Shoko Asahara used a 25 year old karate
expert, Yoshihiro Inoue, as an enforcer.

What do those words mean?
Ite                     = Ouch, Ow
Nani?                   = What?
Eiga                    = Movie
Eigakan                 = Movie Theater
Akachan                 = Baby
Ukyou-sama, suki da     = Lady Ukyou, I love you

The next chapter is "The Money Pit" there are five parts. I am
rewriting each part and it should have a different feel than the
originals I released a couple weeks ago. You can find them at the URL
below.

C&C is most definately requested!

--
suds-kun (Shaun Schillinger)
suds1964@tir.com
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/8222/
"THIS time, we didn't forget the graaavy!" Cat & Mouse to Dog