rogue1@netcom.com (Rogue1)
WARNING!
This story is NOT a typical Ranma story. It is dark and
depressing and has, in the words of some of my pre-readers,
"scared the hell" out of people. If you want to read that sort
of story, read on. If not, don't go any further.
"Ranma Saotome, prepare to die!"
Ranma scarcely looked around as the oft-repeated challenge
was hurled at him, followed closely by an umbrella-wielding
warrior.
"Yo, Ryouga," he said to his assailant nonchalantly.
"What's new?"
"You've made my life hell for the last time, Ranma!" Ryouga
growled, thrusting his umbrella forward.
Ranma merely ducked to one side. "What is it this time,
pig-boy? I haven't knocked you into any springs lately, told
Akane whatta pervert she has for a pet, or nothing like that..."
Ryouga barely listened to Ranma's talk, intent on skewering
his opponent once and for all. In truth, the challenges and
insults flowed without conscious thought. It was as much a part
of their moves as shouting "Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken" or
"Bakusaitenketsu."
A familiar red haze filled his vision. Every misfortune in
his life was the fault of this man. If nothing else, he would
see Ranma pay for all his suffering. He had trained hard for
this encounter and, just this once, he would not be shown up!
Ranma paused to make a face at Ryouga, confident he could
still dodge any move Ryouga made.
There! thought Ryouga, an opening!
Ryouga's umbrella slammed into Ranma's face, nearly
flattening one side. There was a sickening crack--
--and Ryouga sat bolt upright in his bed, clutching
sweat-stained sheets and breathing heavily. He stared
sightlessly at the far wall for several seconds, then focused,
realizing it had been a dream.
Beside him, Akane stirred. "What is it, Ryouga-kun?" she
asked sleepily.
Ryouga reached over and hugged her tightly, surprising her.
"It was nothing," he said. "Just a dream...."
"What about? It must have really gotten to you. You're
soaked with sweat..."
Ryouga looked at Akane. Her eyes were full of concern and
affection. Not wanting to trouble her, he shook his head
slightly and said, "I don't really remember." He then kissed her
on the forehead. "Go back to sleep. I'll be alright."
Akane looked uncertain, but nodded. As she settled back
down on the bed, Ryouga got up and walked across their tiny,
third-floor apartment to the balcony door.
It was freezing out, and a light drizzle was falling, but
Ryouga welcomed it as he looked over Tokyo. Compared to his
thoughts, it was warm and comforting.
"Five years, Ranma, to the day since you died and you still
plague my dreams," he whispered to the wind. He looked down at
his wedding ring. "Can't you leave me in peace even now...?"
On the road below, a figure with black hair and a red shirt
walked along a fence, unnoticed.
Ranma 1/2
LIES
starring
Ryouga
by
Jeffrey "Rogue1" Hosmer
All Ranma1/2 characters are the creation of Takahashi Rumiko.
"Ohayo, Ryouga-kun!" Akane greeted him cheerfully the next
morning. "Did you sleep okay? Any more bad dreams?" Soft music
played on the radio by the stove.
"No, not after that one... must have been because of what
day it is," Ryouga said, sitting down to the breakfast she had
made. He started eating without looking at it. Even after four
years of marriage, it was still the best way to stomach Akane's
cooking.
There was an uncomfortable silence. Ryouga looked up and
saw Akane was standing still by the stove, looking at nothing.
"Akane?"
With a start, she looked over at him and managed a wan
smile. "It's nothing, Ryouga-kun... just old memories." Her
hands wiped at her eyes. Ryouga went over to her and held her.
"It's OK, Akane-chan," he tried to comfort her.
"I'll be fine, Ryouga-kun... like you said, it must be
today. The anniversary of R... his..."
"You don't have to say it. I'm sorry I brought it up. Do
you want me to stay home today?"
"No... you can't afford the day off. I'll be fine. Maybe
I'll go visit Kasumi and Tofu-sensei, or Nabiki and Kunou."
Ryouga nodded. "That would be good. Say hi to them for me,
ok?"
Akane nodded.
Life sure has changed for me, Ryouga thought later that day,
as he carried a delivery to the next stop. Five years ago, I was
uncertain if I could win Akane's love, cursed with the body of a
pig half the time, and always lost. Now, Akane is married to me
and I can find my way. Thank goodness for that Spring of Drowned
Navigator.
He found himself slowing as he approached one part of town,
a small, out of the way, side-street that ran alongside a
drainage ditch. He tried to ignore it, but fate always seemed to
drag him here, year after year. A catholic nun, in the costume
of her order, was laying a bouquet of black roses on the side of
the road.
Could that be...? Ryouga thought, then hurried over.
"Kodachi-san?"
The nun looked up, and her serene face smiled warmly at him.
"Ohayo, Ryouga-san. It has been a long time, ne?"
"Um, yeah" Ryouga laughed nervously, hand behind his head.
"How are you doing at the convent? We haven't heard from you in
a while."
"I am doing the Lord's work," she replied calmly, "and He
has blessed me with good health."
"Um, what brings you here?" Talking to Kodachi made Ryouga
just as uncomfortable as it had before her... change. What does
one say to a nun? It was almost easier when she was crazy. Then
he remembered being chained to Ranma during the martial arts
gymnastics competition and cancelled that thought.
"I vowed to lay a bouquet of roses on the site of
Ranma-sama's death each year," she replied.
"Oh... right, it is today. It's been five years now, hasn't
it?"
"Yes, but we should not let our memories overwhelm us. I
know now that Ranma-sama's death had a place in the Lord's plan.
If he had not died, I would not have heard the Lord's calling. I
am sure He took Ranma-sama into His arms."
"Have you heard from your brother, recently?" Ryouga asked,
trying to change the subject. The shock of Ranma's death had
snapped Kodachi back to sanity, just as it had unhinged... well,
let's not think of her. But Kodachi was as obsessed with God as
she had been with Ranma. It was just more acceptable now.
Ryouga wondered sometimes how much she really had changed.
"Yes. He sends me voluminous letters, and pictures of my
niece and nephew. Fortunately," Kodachi laughed pleasantly,
"Nabiki-san writes a synopsis of his remarks, or else I would
never finish reading them. I am amazed how much like his father
little Mendou looks, and his sister Moemi looks just like
Nabiki."
"Akane thinks they are adorable, too."
"You and Akane have not been blessed yet?"
"She was pregnant last spring... but there was a
miscarriage..." Ryouga looked miserable.
"Oh, Ryouga-san... I'm sorry. I will say a prayer for her."
"Thanks, I--"
Ryouga broke off as, out of the corner of his eye, he
spotted something moving. Spinning around, he caught a glimpse
of someone wearing a red shirt run around a corner, a black
pigtail trailing behind the figure.
Ryouga's jaw dropped. Mindless of his delivery, he ran over
and looked up and down the street. There was no one there.
"Ryouga-san?"
"Did you... I saw... it was..."
"Calm down, Ryouga-san. I did not see anything. Are you
okay?"
"I thought I saw Ranma... for a second, running around this
corner..."
Kodachi looked sad. "It was just your mind playing tricks
on you, Ryouga-san. We all attended the funeral, remember? His
body has been cremated, and his killer is in the sanitorium, may
God have mercy on her soul."
"Yeah," Ryouga said, unconvinced. "It must have been my
imagination. Poor Ukyou, though... who'd have known she'd snap
like that?"
After leaving Kodachi, Ryouga trudged wearily along his
route. With a backpack slung over his shoulder, he almost felt
like he was back on that endless, meandering road of his youth,
trying to find his way. The only thing missing was his umbrella,
long ago tossed into the sea.
As if to remind him of that loss, it began to rain again.
Ryouga hunched over, cursing the rain, yet at the same time
gladdened. Every time he was hit by cold water, he rejoiced that
fate had brought him back to Jusenkyou five years ago and let him
use the Spring of Drowned Man to cure himself. The Jusenkyou
Guide had even showed him the Spring of Drowned Navigator, a
curse he could live with. And then he had been able to return to
to Tokyo in time to comfort Akane after Ranma's death... and to
testify at Ukyou's trial.
Poor Ukyou. Found cradling Ranma's corpse in her arms,
laughing incessantly, she had quickly been judged insane. It
made no difference, really, as since in a sanitorium was no
better than life in prison. And after flattening Ranma's skull
with her spatula, those were the only choices left.
"Your honor, I must protest. My client is in no condition
to take the witness stand."
"Objection noted, Mr. Kakuran," Judge Rito said, "but as
there are no witnesses to the crime, I must agree with the
Prosecution's request that she be allowed to speak. Have her
brought in."
Ryouga, sitting in the gallery next to Akane, squeezed the
sobbing girl's hand comfortingly. Then he had glanced over as
the bailiff had brought Ukyou in.
She was in a white straitjacket, one designed with extra
buckles and straps, all of them tied down securely. Her hair was
matted and snarled like the snakes of medusa and her eyes were
bloodshot and sunk low in her face.
Ryouga shuddered and looked away.
"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth?"
Ukyou giggled. "Hai!" she said brightly.
"Ms. Kuonji, we'd like you to talk about the death of Mr.
Ranma Saotome, if you--"
"Ranchan."
"Excuse me?" the prosecutor said.
"He's my Ranchan."
"I see... If you would--"
"Only mine now," Ukyou continued, her eyes moving furtively
around. "None of those other sluts can have him. He loves me,
and only me!"
"Miss Kuonji..."
It was then that Ryouga felt her eyes fall on him. He was
still looking away at the time, but he still knew she had seen
him. It felt like the eyes of God, or some other, more
diabolical, figure, had focused on him. Looking up, he recoiled
at the sheer malevolence he saw in her eyes.
"YOU!" Ukyou screeched, lunging forward out of witness
stand. Before anyone could stop her, she leaped towards the
gallery, as only a trained martial artist could. There were
screams and people ran as she slammed into Ryouga, the bench
splintering beneath them.
Raising his arms to protect himself, Ryouga recoiled as he
felt her teeth clamp down on his arm and tear away a strip of
flesh. The pain galvanized him to action, and he shoved the
shrieking, writhing madwoman off him. The bailiffs then grabbed
Ukyou from behind. Her face was splattered with his blood and he
thought she was chewing something even as she screeched.
"IT WAS YOU!!! YOU HURT MY RANCHAN! But I saved him...
saved him from all of them. Those sluts won't touch him now...
we can be married and have lots of babies... and you won't hurt
him anymore!" she spat, straining to get at him.
Ryouga shuddered at the memory, fingering the scar on his
left arm Ukyou had given him. He still couldn't reconcile the
cute okonomiyaki chef he had known with the homicidal beast that
had attacked him... and had good reason to...
Akane opened the door to her dark apartment and then sat
disconsolately on a chair, waiting for Ryouga to return.
Visiting Nabiki and Kunou was a mistake, she thought.
Seeing Mendou and Moemi had only reminded her of her own barren
womb and she had quickly decided not to visit Kasumi. Her older
sister was in that "glowing" stage, pregnant with her second
child, and Akane couldn't stomach the thought of seeing that.
Suddenly, she heard someone whisper something. She looked
around, but there was no one. It must have been her imagination.
"...kawaiikune..."
There it was again!
Akane spun around, looking frantically for the source of the
all-too familiar whisper.
"Tomboy.."
The bedroom. It was coming from the bedroom. Slowly, Akane
walked towards the dark room.
The room looked just like she had left it this morning,
except there was a small lump underneath the covers of the bed.
"What could that be...?" Akane wondered, moving closer to
the bed. It was then she noticed the dark stain spreading slowly
from the lump. Her heart shot into her throat and she pulled the
covers away.
It was a small black piglet, an orange and black bandanna
tied around its neck. A neck that had a large bloody gash in it.
It looked just like...
"P-CHAN!?" Akane screamed, or began to scream. Something
slammed into the back of her head and then there was nothing but
darkness.
Ryouga made his last delivery and slowly trudged along the
road home. He always felt depressed this time of year, like
there was an empty spot inside him he couldn't fill...
Or like someone was missing?
Thinking back to the old days, before Ranma's death, he had
to grudgingly admit that there had been good times in all of it.
Except Ranma always had it better. He always got the better
lunches. He was still human when cursed. He had Akane--!
Ryouga was panting with rage before he even knew what he was
doing. He forced himself to calm down, a part of him watching in
amazement. After all these years, to still carry a grudge
towards someone dead and buried was incredible.
After Ranma's death, it was like a cosmic pendulum had swung
back. Suddenly, things were going well for Ryouga. He found
Jusenkyou and a sense of direction. He managed to admit his love
for Akane and marry her.
Of course, not everyone profited. Mr. Saotome had been
forced to beg Happousai, the old lecher, to take him back as a
student so that they could stay one step ahead of Mrs. Saotome.
She had not taken the news of her only son's death very well, and
the last anyone saw of them, she was chasing Genma and Happousai,
katana held high.
Mr. Tendo had lapsed into a near-coma, bed-ridden and always
mumbling to himself. The weddings of his three daughters roused
him somewhat, but when Akane, because of the meories it evoked,
chose not to carry on the Anything Goes School, he had relapsed.
Kasumi now took care of him in the small home she and Dr. Tofu
kept over the clinic. And Nabiki and Kunou were now married and
raising children, as well.
Almost everyone else they knew had wandered away. Mousse,
Shampoo and Cologne had gone back to China, and had not been
heard from in three years. There even seemed to be fewer martial
artists in the Nerima district, much to the delight of insurance
companies.
"It seems Ranma WAS the root of all my troubles," Ryouga
mused. "But then, why am I still so angry...? Why can't I just
forget what happened?"
Akane woke up slowly, her head throbbing painfully. Someone
hit her? Yes, and now she was sitting in a chair, her hands and
legs tied. Lifting her head, she tried to focus on the room.
There was someone there, clad in a red chinese shirt she
knew, hair in a pigtail. She couldn't make out any details, but
those alone were enough to make her head spin.
"R-ranma...?"
The voice that answered her was deep and raspy. "Yo,
Akane... what are you doing with Ryouga?"
"You... you can't be Ranma... he's dead!"
"Do I look dead?"
"N-no..."
"Akane," the raspy voice continued, "help me."
"Help you do what?"
"I have to kill Ryouga, for doing what he did. It's all his
fault, y'know."
Akane paled. "No, you can't... I married him.... I..."
"I knew I shouldn't have gone to such a kawaiikune tomboy
for help," came the voice, offhandedly, and the figure started
toward her. "Guess I'll have to start with you..."
For a moment, Akane's old rage boiled up at that remark, but
then she saw the person walking towards her more clearly.
The figure definitely belonged to a female, and the clothes
were all the wrong size. Her hair was jet black, obviously from
poorly-applied dye, as the girl's skin was smudged with it. But
what froze Akane in her tracks was the face.
She knew it, and had known it well, once, but now it was
barely recognizable. The eyes were bloodshot and bulging,
glaring unevenly at her. The mouth kept twitching, as if trying
to smile, but it had forgotten how.
"U-ukyou!"
"Sorry, Akane, Ucchan's not here. It's just me, Ranma,"
Ukyou said in that raspy voice, which came from trying too hard
to deepen her voice. Then Ukyou smiled, showing teeth yellowed
from long neglect. "Trust a kawaiikune tomboy to forget her
fiance. Well, I'll fix that, after I deal with Ryouga."
Ryouga had just come into sight of his apartment building
when he felt a chill run up and down his spine. There, leaning
against his apartment building, just as if someone had put it
down and forgotten it, was a red bamboo umbrella.
Running over, he hefted it. It was as heavy as his old one,
constructed in the same fashion, but it showed no signs of use.
It wasn't the one he had thrown into the ocean five years ago.
Still, someone had left this here for him. Why?
That was when he heard Akane scream.
A mighty leap took him up to a third floor balcony, a few
rooms down from his. Well, that was easily fixed.
Akane didn't know how to deal with this situation. Against
normal opponents she was okay, nowhere near Ranma or Ryouga's
league, but good nonetheless. Being tied up in a chair watching
Ukyou, who was acting like Ranma and smiling like THAT at her,
was evoking a terror that threatened to shatter her grip on
reality into a dozen shivering pieces. She screamed.
"BAKUSAITENKETSU!!"
The wall exploded and Ryouga, umbrella in hand, stood there
in the cloud of dust. Ukyou turned to him and smiled even wider,
a feral glint coming to her eyes.
"Yo, pig-boy," she rasped. "What's new? I see you found
your umbrella."
Ryouga's eyes widened. "Ukyou?"
"Geez, you're as bad as my kawaiikune tomboy fiancee. I'm
RANMA! Guess I'll have to pound some sense into you!" She
launched herself at Ryouga.
Instinctively, with reflexes so ingrained in him that they
would never disappear, Ryouga blocked the attack with his
umbrella. "Why, Ukyou? Why are you doing this?"
"It's all your fault!!" She spat, hands turned into to claws
raking towards his face. Her eyes were more focused now, and her
voice sounded like something approaching a normal tone for her.
"I SAW YOU DO IT!! He would have loved me, but you ended it!"
Ryouga froze. The umbrella was knocked out of his hands and
she was on him.
This was no battle of martial artists now, with trained,
reflexive moves countering each other. Ukyou was pure,
unrestrained hatred. She clawed and bit him, leaving bloody
wounds across his arms and chest. Ryouga grunted as the pain
flared up in several places at once. He tried to block, but she
seemed to be everywhere.
"You've made my life hell, Ryouga! Now, I'm going to return
the favor!" she snarled, hands reaching for his eyes.
Ryouga ignored the pain, he had suffered worse in his life,
and managed to get his legs wrapped around Ukyou's. He twisted
his body over to the side, rolling along with Ukyou, until they
hit a wall. Ukyou's head bashed against it and Ryouga took
advantage of the distraction to break away.
Ukyou recovered quickly, however, and scrambled to her feet.
She glared at him and Ryouga saw nothing of that cute okonomiyaki
chef in her. There was nothing but hate and recrimination, dark
madness bubbling over it all. He shuddered but tried desperately
to speak to her.
"Ukyou... please, don't do this... we were your friends--"
"LIAR!" Ukyou screeched. "You were never my friend! You
planned it all, ruining my life by taking my Ranchan! You
thought no one saw, but I saw... you hurt him, with your
umbrella... I saw it... but Ranchan was tougher than you... he's
all mine, all mine..." Ukyou's voice softened into a hideous
parody of a girl in love. "And we'll be married and have
beautiful children..." Her voice deepened again, growing more
hateful, "As soon as we KILL you! Then everything will be
alright again!"
She leapt at him and Ryouga dodged desperately. The
umbrella caught his eye as he moved. As Ukyou turned to charge
him again, he leapt for it, fingers scrabbling for the handle.
With an unearthly screech, Ukyou swooped down on him.
Ryouga's hand found the umbrella and swung it awkwardly, but
powerfully. It connected solidly with the side of her face,
breaking her jaw and knocking out some of her teeth. Even worse,
her neck twisted around sickeningly, with an all-too-familliar
cracking sound. She dropped like a doll whose strings have been
cut, smashing through a wooden table to lie whimpering and
moaning on the floor in a pool of blood and drool.
Ryouga looked at the bloody body lying there, and then at
the blood that was splattered all over his umbrella, chest, and
hands. A terrible realization dawned on him. So much blood...
blood that added to what was already on his hands and would never
wash away. He wailed in anguish then, like a tortured soul, or a
man who's come full circle in his own damnation.
Akane cringed as she heard that sound. Worried that Ukyou
had hurt Ryouga, she pulled at her bonds, heedless of the pain,
until she wrenched a hand loose. She then untied herself and
walked unsteadily over towards her sobbing husband, who was
begging Ukyou to forgive him.
"Ryouga? Are you OK?" came Akane's voice.
Ryouga looked at her with eyes that looked like they had
seen hell, haunted eyes.
"She..."
"It's over, Ryouga-kun... I'll call the police and they'll
take her back to the asylum..." But Akane knew Ukyou wasn't
going back.
Ryouga just kept shaking. "What's wrong?" Akane asked.
"She was just like me..." Ryouga said.
"N-nani?"
"All those times I came after Ranma," Ryouga said in a
horrified voice, "all those attacks of vengeance... I blamed him
for everything that was wrong, you know... like she blames me..."
"Don't say that! You're sweet and kind and gentle! I
wouldn't have married you if you were like that." She hugged him
fiercely.
"But I was like that, Akane-chan... I lied and lied and
lied to myself, blaming every problem in my life on Ranma's head.
He never asked for it. I was the one who wouldn't stop. If he
beat me, it was because he cheated, I would tell myself. Another
lie. He accepted all that, he put up with it, when he could have
done any number of things to me... and I... I can never ask for
his forgiveness..."
"Shhh... he's at peace now. It's not your fault."
Ryouga looked at her, and something in her froze at the look
of despair in his eyes. She silently willed him not to say
anything more, somehow knowing it would end any chance of
happiness for them.
For a long moment, the silence stretched on, then Ryouga
spoke. He never knew what drove him to say it. Perhaps it was,
as he liked to believe, his own conscience finally at work. But
it is also possible that he felt he had to punish himself for his
sins. For all sins require pennance.
"But it -is- my fault, Akane... it wasn't Ukyou who killed
Ranma..." He took a deep shuddering breath, not looking at
Akane, who was looking at him in slowly dawning horror, "...I did
it."
Akane froze, her arms dropping to her sides. "No..."
"It was an accident... he left himself open, made me mad...
I swung my umbrella and... I broke his neck."
Akane quivered. "No... you're lying..."
"I ran after that... I didn't know Ukyou was there... I
threw my umbrella into the sea and tried to get as lost as I
could... and I found myself in Jusenkyou, where I could be cured
and even find a sense of direction..."
"Cured?"
"I... was cursed when we first met, Akane..."
The horror and disgust on Akane's face grew more pronounced
as she looked at his bandanna and at him and several years worth
of missed clues and observations flew at her from the recesses
off her mind. The dead piglet in their bed, the bed they had
spent so many nights on in a loving embrace, drove the point
home. Ryouga's words were only a final confirmation.
"I... was P-chan, Akane."
Akane's heart seemed to stop. Any feelings she felt toward
Ryouga shrivelled and died in an awful furnace of rage at that
moment.
"You... you -slept- with me, as a pig!? You watched me
dress, take baths, listened to me talk with my girlfriends... all
of that?! And I thought Ranma was a pervert!!" Her anger was
burning white hot now. The man she had thought was so nice and
kind, whom she had almost convinced herself she loved and whom
she HAD convinced herself to marry, was nothing more than a bunch
of lies strung together. And this pervert... this MURDERER was
behind it all.
"I'm sorry, Akane-ch--"
"DON'T CALL ME THAT! I -NEVER- WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!"
With that, Akane ran crying out of the room, tearing the front
door off its hinges as she left. She would recover, in time,
perhaps... but her heart would forever bear the scars of his
betrayal. Her love had been based on a lie, how could she ever
love again?
And Ryouga's heart lay shattered in a million pieces,
leaving a void that was slowly filling with a dark sludge of
guilt and misery. The last lie was gone, and the truth, the
emptiness of his life, was more than he could bear.
Ryouga just sat there until a low, burbling, chuckle caught
his attention. It was Ukyou, laughing through the ruin of her
mouth. The sound was horrible. Her neck had been broken in that
last blow he knew, but she must have also broken a rib or two for
there was a red froth visible at her lips, a sure sign that a
lung was punctured. Ukyou was drowning in her own blood.
"Wellom... ooo... Heww, Ryo-aaah," she said in that awful
gurgling voice, still laughing. He could only watch as she
coughed up blood and slowly suffocated, her foam-specked lips
locked in a hideous smile.
Welcome to Hell.
8 December 1995
--
Jeffrey Paul Hosmer
rogue1@netcom.com
4001 Old Quarry Terrace
Alexandria, VA 22306