As promised, here's the sequel/explanation to 'Giri'. My thanks to all who
gave me some C&C on it, and especially those who told me they liked my
writing. I wonder if it's a coincidence that this comes out on All Hallow's
Eve...
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[NINJO]
Ranma was dead.
There was no way to dispute this simple fact. He had plunged a knife in his
own abdomen and had subsequently been beheaded.
Ranma was dead.
And Ryoga was furious.
============================================================================
Ryoga had finally made his way back to Nerima. He'd been on the roof,
meaning to sneak in the bathroom window and turn back into his cursed form,
when footsteps down below had caused him to freeze and hide. From his vantage
point, he hadn't been able to see who it was, but his position was perfect
for eavesdropping. He had been as shocked as everyone else when Mrs. Saorome
had seen her son, but his consternation had a different source: he was
afraid she'd be so honour-bound she'd insist on holding her son's wedding
right then and there. He had remained hidden during the subsequent events,
at first puzzled, then stunned by what he was witnessing.
============================================================================
And now he was enraged.
*HOW DARE HE! THAT JERK! ALL THIS TIME HE'S BEEN TOYING WITH AKANE! I KNEW
he didn't love her, but THIS? To WILLINGLY ruin his engagement! To
DELIBERATELY string these girls around! How dare he play with people's
feelings like that, the COWARD! That spineless WIMP! Just because he doesn't
have the GUTS to honor his father's agreement, he's ruined EVERYBODY's lives!
Curse you. Wasn't it enough that you ruined my life, did you have to wreck
everybody else's? If you weren't dead, I swear I'd...*
Ryoga's anger has pretty much died out. Seeing someone disemboweling himself
had had a very sobering effect on him. Now all that remains is a profound
sadness, and a strange kind of unease.
*But...*
Ryoga's face twists in confusion.
*But it wasn't really like that...was it? I mean, sure he had all kinds of
trouble with Akane, but deliberately making her hate him? And Shampoo? And
Ukyo? Was he really making them chase him? IT JUST MAKES NO SENSE! If he was
so desperate to get out of this stupid engagement thing, why didn't he just
say so? He had plenty of opportunities to end the engagement. But he never
took any of them. What kind of a person sets out to ruin his engagement, and
then passes the chance to end it?*
Ryoga was getting frustrated again. It just didn't make any sense.
*Unless...*
Ryoga suddenly feels a surge of embarassment.
*Unless he was lying...OF COURSE! How could I have been so slow!*
He chuckles ruefuly.
"Of course", he mutters. "It's another one of his stupid tricks, like those
disguises, or that line he fed Akane, with the onsen mix. He was lying all
along. Making us believe he had ruined his engagement. Arrrgh! Every time!
Every single time! I always fall for his lies. But I guess this one must have
been pretty good. Everybody believed him. He must be laughing..."
And then it hits him, like a fist of ice squeezing his heart.
*B-but...he's DEAD! He LIED and then he...he killed himself...but why, WHY?*
Most people who knew Ryoga considered him a bit stupid. They were wrong.
While it was true that he was extremely gullible, and that he had the world's
worse sense of direction, and a terribly volatile temper, those few who knew
him well knew he wasn't anywhere nearly as dumb as he appeared to be. After
all, dumb people usually don't figure out how to make rocks blow up by poking
them. This particular problem, however, was rapidly looking more and more
like some form of ridiculously obscure Zen koan.
*This make NO sense at all! If he was lying, why'd he kill himself? He HAD to
be lying. His explanation just wasn't true. He might have been a jerk, but he
just didn't do ANYTHING to ruin his engagement. He's...he was... constantly
trying to get Shampoo to stop chasing him. And I've never really seen him do
anything to make Ukyo believe he'd marry her. And he's never been really mean
to Akane...he's even saved her life a few times, like when she was possesed
by that ghost doll...SO WHAT COULD HAVE POSSIBLY MADE HIM KILL HIMSELF?*
Ryoga absently looks at the roof shingles he's crushed, racking his memory
for some clue he might have overlooked. While turning into a pig has it's
dissadvantages, being Akane's pet had allowed him in the past to learn a lot
about the Tendos, most people at the dojo having a tendency to overlook him.
But, try as he might, the answers seem less and less evident.
*Why seppuku? I mean, his life wasn't miserable, or anything, so why commit
suicide? Sure, he had the curse...and Kodachi DID want to marry him...but to
kill himself? It's just...well dammit, HE'd NEVER do that! But...he did. So
he had to have some reason...A reason so good he couldn't tell anyone about
it. A reason that made him lie to everybody...And I just can't see it.*
Ryoga takes a few breaths to calme himself. He's not used to heavy thinking
like this, but, for some reason, he feels a strange compulsion to solve this
mystery. Another question suddenly occurs to him...
*Why now? Just last week everything was normal...well...as usual, anyways.
He said he wanted his mother to be there...But...he's seen her before. So
why wait until today? Did anything happen since her last visit? When was the
last time she saw him, anw-waitasec!*
Ryoga starts to get excited.
*Him! She saw him! That's what was different this time; he wasn't a girl!
Well that's it then! It's because of that promise he made! He thought he
wasn't manly enough, so he killed himself*
Ryoga frowns.
"That makes no sense," he mutters, "he'd never do that."
He shivers, and looks around, noticing for the first time that the sun has
finished setting, and that the moon is high in the sky.
"How long have I been here," he wonders, "maybe I should leave?"
But something stops him, a strange feeling of...duty? Like if somehow,
someone had stay here, had to understand.
*That CAN'T be the reason. There's no way he'd kill himself over some stupid
contract his dad had him sign a dozen years ago! I mean, who would? It was a
stupid promise, anyways. Nobody in their right mind would expect him to honor
it, what with the curse and all...Well maybe Mrs. Saotome would be that
honorable...but with Mr. Saotome in charge of my education, I'd be out the
door and halfway to Nagasaki before you could finish saying 'good morning'.*
A thought suddenly stops him.
*I wonder how much living with his father ruined him...He was honorable, in
a way. He never told Akane about me. And that time when he nearly killed
himself with Ukyo's sauce, so she wouldn't worry...Heh, if he'd lived with
his mother, he might have turned out like Kuno...*
He sighs in frustration.
*If only he hadn't lied so well, or if he'd left some king of clue...*
Ryoga stops, a faint hope dawning...
"A clue...could he?"
Ryouga feels a fresh wave of excitement wash over him.
*Let's say I'm killing myself for a reason so secret I can't even tell my
parents, and that I wanted someone to know why I did it...I might try to
leave a clue...but where, how? I'd have to make it real subtle, so that
someone who isn't looking for it won't see it, but it has to be something
the right people will see...So where would I hide it? Did he say anything to
anyone before the ceremony? Well...he talked to Akane, but that was the same
lie he used later...The ceremony...there's something about it...but I can't
see what...Could he have done something wrong? Well...no...as a matter of
fact, as far as I know he did everything perfectly, just like in the old
stories...he even wrote a poem and all...*
Ryoga frowns again, perplexed.
"He wrote a poem...something about that...he wrote a poem...he WROTE a poem.
That's it!"
Ryoga is feverish, his thoughts race, nearly out of control.
*He wrote it! By himself! I saw him, he took the brush, and he wrote the
poem, and it didn't suck or anything...But...he's awful at that kind of
thing...his grades are horrible, and there's no way he'd come up with a real
poem off the top of his head like that. So...he had already written it
before...he probably practiced it, or got it from some book. And that's the
PERFECT place to hide some kind of message! But...what does it mean? It's
pretty straightforward...dead cherry blossoms...and the tree...I guess he
could be the blossom...'fallen before it's time'...and the tree would be
what...his father? Or...his parents, maybe...*
He scratches his head, confused.
*That doesn't help...but if that's not a clue...what is? He didn't say
anything else...Damnt it...if only he hadn't made so much sense! There's
nothing out of place, not a word, not a move...the whole thing couldn't have
been done better if he'd choreographed it! It's all neatly tied up like a
present...except...except the last part. But...he probably wasn't making
much sense by then...was he? That sounded familiar somehow...what WAS he
talking about? Of course. Jusenkyo. That must have been the story of the
spring he fell in...strange...his last breath, and he talks about THAT.*
Ryoga stops, lost in memories of Jusenkyo, and of the day he too was
changed. But, with a shake of his head, he returns to his thoughts, with a
new sense of urgency...he senses, somehow, that he's close to the truth...
*Unless...unless he wasn't babbling. What if THAT was the clue? What if,
somehow, even after cutting himself open, he was still following some kind
of plan...But then, that would mean...*
He slaps his palms with his fist, frustrated...
*Again the contract! Everytime I think I have it, I get back to that dumb
piece of paper. The curse, the contract; his mother, the contract...But it
doesn't fit! Why should he care if he wasn't 'manly' enough. He wasn't about
to kill himself for that. For someone else, maybe, but to kill himself
because of that stupid curse...ridiculous! Nobody even had time to talk about
the stupid contract. And nobody cares about it anymo- WAIT!*
Ryoga's hands are trembling. It's there, close, so close! A though...a
word...the idea hovers for a moment, half-formed, waiting only for something,
anything, to give it form...
His whisper echoes eerily through the night, "Nobody had time...".
He understands.
*So that's it. He didn't kill himself because he HAD failed. He killed
himself so he wouldn't, no COULDN'T, fail. Now I see it! It all fits so well,
it's perfect!*
Ryoga is crying. One by one the pieces fall into place. For one instant, he
can only feel sadness for his rival's predicament, and admiration for his
courage.
*He knew...he knew that if his mother ever saw him as a man, she'd be bound
to discover his curse...And he knew that if THAT happened, she'd consider it
a failure of the contract...with all those times he was cooking, and dressing
up in girl's bathing suits...and he, he understood the consequences. Why
didn't we think of that? Why is it that none of us ever stopped to ask
ourselves what she'd do if she found out...what she'd do, not to him, or to
his father...but...to herself?*
Ryoga thinks of all the times Mrs Saotome complained about Akane's cousin
being a tomboy...and the efforts she deployed to make her more feminine.
*She'd have killed herself too! She'd have helped her husband and her son to
their graves and then she'd have followed them in death! And THAT'S what the
poem meant...the blossom dies SO THAT the tree lives on...HE dies, so that
THEY live! His life ends, so that his family might continue...THAT'S why he
had to die BEFORE anyone remembered the contract, and WITHOUT anyone thinking
about it, ever. So he did...and because everybody believed his lie...his
parents WILL live, and, if they have other children, the Saotome line WILL
continue.*
The last piece falls in place. A terrible sadness fills Ryoga.
*And I can never tell anyone, because if she ever learns the truth, she'd
kill herself, and Ranma's death will have been for nothing.*
********************************************************************************
And that folks, is what was going on...
If you are curious, there were 8 clues to this solution (Ryoga spots only 3
of them)
To wit: The title of the story.
Choosing Kuno as a second.
The Poem.
The reference to 'continuing the family'.
The discrepancies in the sepukku ritual.
The reference to the contract.
Ranma's final words
and the final image
There is also another point, which Ryoga missed, a lie inside the lie, if
you wish...you figure it out...
L
ater,
Trav
eller