"Hurry...hurry!!" Kuno cried.

        They'd taken a bus to the mountains and had been hiking ever since.
The trail through the rocky crags and precipices was old and slippery with
the snow that was falling, even now. Kuno's drive to find Kodachi was
overwhelming, not leaving time for rest or food and the two older men
weren't in the best of shape as a result.

        "Ranma!" his father called from behind. "Tendo can't go much
farther like this! Neither can I!"

        Ranma wiped the snow from his vision, still *his* vision only from
luck. "Fuck," he growled aloud to himself. He could barely see Kuno ahead
of him, running pell-mell through the muck and the mush. This was
impossible! He couldn't keep up with Kuno -and- watch out for the old men
behind him, yet he knew that he might need their help with the time came.
Still... to be there when necessary or held back by the two of them...

        "Stop!" Ranma shouted at Kuno and was surprised when he paused for
a moment. "We gotta find someplace for Pop and Mr. Tendo! They can't go no
further!"

        "Then leave them, Saotome! They shall fare well in comparison to
Kodachi's potential fate, for what if I find that I am too late and she has
become e'en as the other? I must go! I must!" With that pronouncement, he
moved forward and Ranma's vision was cut off by the swirling snow.

        Ranma began to invent curse words as he struggled on, rounding a
corner. Finally! "Here!" he shouted back at the older men. "Get in here!
Stay here until the weather gets better... looks like there some kinda wood
in there an' it's outta the wind! I gotta go on, I gotta -DO- something!"
The wind almost whipped his words away even as his father and Akane's came
close enough to hear them.

        "Son!" Genma called. "We trust you!" With that, the two snivelers
ducked into the crevice, leaving Ranma alone in the cold wet snow.

        Ranma couldn't believe winter had come on so fast out here. It was
still fall in Nerima, almost winter, but not quite. Ranma clenched his jaw
as fat droplets began to seek ways inside of the warmth of his coat. At
this rate, he'd be a girl in no time. He ran faster, listening and watching
for something to lead the way, and then he saw it on the horizon, a pile of
stone and mortar that seemed to be crumbling uselessly on the mountain top.
That was one hell of a climb and he could see the bright blaze of Kuno's
jacket above him, the dark swath of his hair against the snow for one
shining moment before the wind whipped a sheet of white before his vision.
Well, time to get moving, or Kuno would get there before he did.

        The climb was long and hard and it slowed Ranma down and forced the
change of form when the wetly plopping drops slid inside his shirt. Still,
she struggled on, face squinched in determination. From the look on Kuno's
face, she was Kodachi's last hope. She HAD to hurry! Ranma shivered in the
wind, rushing through the snow that was beginning to drift in the path.
{Almost there,} she thought. {Almost there!}

        The scene that greeted her as she broke through the snow and into
the courtyard of the old stone temple filled her heart with dread. Kodachi
stood in the snow, cheeks flushed brightly as she glared defiantly at Kuno.

        "You must leave with me!" he cried. "Leave with me now or forfeit
your soul, woman!"

        "What is my soul if it loses for me my love?" she called back.
Ranma could see the feverish gleam, the growing pallor in her as she shook
in the chill wind. He knew the second she closed her eyes that she was
going to faint.

        Even as Kodachi began to crumple onto the windswept stones, Kuno
began to run forward, his bokken held before him. Ranma knew then what he
was going to do and the scene seemed to slow in her eyes. She began to run
but she knew that she wasn't going to make it before Kuno thrust the wooden
sword into Kodachi's still form; there wasn't going to be time! Still, she
ran, her entire heart pouring speed into her legs -- please, God, let me be
in time!

        It truly surprised her to see Romalov there before she could reach
Kodachi. Ranma knew that Romalov possessed a speed she could never match
due to his nature but she had not thought the vampire would sacrifice
himself to save Kodachi's life. Indeed, they had all expected the
doppelganger would leave Kodachi alone in this old stone temple to die a
dark, dank crimson death in the swirling snow that had overtaken the
mountains.

        "NOOOOO!!!!!!!" The scream came from the depths of Ranma's chest,
as if it was part of herself that had come between Kodachi and the wooden
blade of her brother. It ripped through Romalov's flesh easily, as if he
were nothing more than a wisp of smoke, and the tip came to rest gently
against Kodachi's breast, the force of the thrust canceled by the thickness
of Romalov's body. Ranma slammed into Kuno at that exact moment, driving
him to the frozen courtyard.

        "Kodachi..." The whisper was barely a gurgle as Ranma and Kuno
looked towards the vampire and the woman he'd claimed as his own.

        "R..Roma.. Romalov? My love?" The rising hysteria in her voice as
she woke to horror skittered with icy fingers down Ranma's spine.

        "Remember." His voice was hoarse now, almost gurgling. "Remember."

        With those words, he died, becoming limp in her arms even as she
moved to cradle him, her wailing cry of grief the sound of a woman who has
lost all hope, all light, all life. "Don't leave me, don't leave me, don't
leave me!" she cried again and again and again, demanding hopelessly for a
thing that could not now be undone. "DON'T LEAVE ME!!!" The body was
dissolving in her arms even as she sobbed so recklessly, turning blue now
in the thin green gown she'd been wearing when she disappeared with
Romalov.

        Kuno shoved Ranma away from him, moving to try and take the corpse
from his sister with tender hands. "Kodachi, you must give him to me."

        "No!" she refused. "No! You killed him, YOU killed him, you have
done this thing to me, Tatewaki! You and you alone!"

        She stood and laughed maniacally, a cacophony of grief and the
darkest of humors. The sound of it was mad and Kuno and Ranma alike
flinched away from her as she turned, gathered the thin skirts and ran
headlong for the stairs that led up to the wall surrounding the castle.

        Ranma was after her like a shot but the stairs were narrow and
slippery  with age and the ice that coated them so that she was afraid if
she tried to stop Kodachi, they would both go tumbling and Kodachi would be
hurt. She reached the top, turned and flung a bucket down at Ranma.
"KODACHI!! DON'T!!!" Ranma's high pitched soprano rang out, wanting to calm
her, make her safe.

        Kuno wasn't far behind Ranma and as they both stood on the walkway
they saw that they had Kodachi cornered, that she had nowhere to go. Kuno
spoke then, slow words, words that seemed to rip themselves from deep
within his heart. "Kodachi... sister dear. It was for your soul's
salvation, I swear it! It was a thing that _must_ be done and not a thing
in which I delighted!"

        "The salvation of my soul! Your belief in salvation has destroyed
my soul, left nothing to which I might cling but hanging ribbons of dread
where once was happiness! You have cursed me, Tatewaki! You have cursed me
to never ending loneliness, dark and clinging to me as dew clings to the
spider's web!"

        Ranma paled as he saw Kodachi stand on the edge of the ice-covered
wall, winds buffeting at her hair wildly and driving it across her almost
bare shoulders and her face so that it clung to those delicate coral lips.
"Kodachi! Don't!" she pleaded again. The ice was too slippery, even for her
-- there was no way to deliver Kodachi from that wall without both of them
falling. Still, she had to try!

        The tears seemed to be frozen streams as they slipped down those
round, pale cheeks, her hands in fists as she screamed at them, halting
Ranma's forward momentum. "I DEFY YOU!! I DEFY you BOTH and in defying
you," her voice became soft, so soft Ranma had to strain to hear it over
the whistle of the wind, "do I die."

        Those words had barely fallen from her cold lips when she flung
herself backwards, slipping slightly on the ice so that she fell too close
to the parapet and hit her head on the way down. Ranma heard the sickening
crunch, saw Kuno fall to his knees and begin to sob, reckless unrestrained
sounds of sorrow. She saw all of this as if she were someone else and not
herself, the first signs of going into shock.

        "Kuno," Ranma whispered. "Kuno. You've gotta come away now. It's
time t'go away. Go inside, wait for the others, get warm."

        "No! No, can you not see? I cannot leave her here in the cold, in
the dark! I cannot leave her alone! Kodachi is afraid of the dark," Kuno
moaned. "She fears it beyond all things and yet she faces it with brave
expression. Her entire world is dark now! Cold! I cannot leave her."

* * * * *

        "Kuno never got well. Seems like we spent an eternity in that old
temple trying to coax him out again but all he could think about was how
cold Kodachi must be, how upset because it was dark and she was alone. He
kept saying that he'd never left her alone in the dark, even when they
fought tooth and nail not an hour before. He's probably there still; last I
heard, there was some sorta religious colony started up there, touting
something about 'the eternal light of God's grace' or some such thing. If
he's still there, I hope he's happy.

        We buried Kodachi and what was left of Romalov not far from that
old temple. Amazingly enough, there was a hot spring nearby and the warmth
of the water made the surrounding area green year round, full of these
little white flowers I've always known as "Terazin's Tear Drops". Funny how
things like that come back to haunt you.

        Me? Well, that's another story. I kinda figured that if something
like that could happen to Kodachi, it could happen to one of the others,
too. It wasn't easy to break it to them, one by one, and there were some...
problems... getting Shampoo to understand; but everything was finally under
control. MY life.

        Now, we come to the close of the story. I close it this way, with
my own happiness, because I find a need for it. Perhaps telling this tale,
setting things straight, is what has finally given me that happiness. I
know only that I had to let someone know, to tell them what happened that
dark October, before it could be let go.

        Through the gods (or God, I suppose, depending on how you feel
about such things), all things may come to pass. I like to think that
somewhere out there, Kodachi and Romalov are together and happy as neither
seemed to be in life. Perhaps she will realize someone so loved her that
much was dared for her sake.

        Happiness is an objective thing. I've found mine and, with any
hope, the others have found theirs. With those words, I close these
writings. Perhaps you, too, will soon find happiness of your own.


Saotome Ranma."

* * * * *

[1]     Indeed, that's quick reasoning for Ranma, but it would be the first
conclusion to which *I* would jump.

[2]     For those of you who don't know, this refers to Chinese style
dresses.. this particular one is long black velvet slit cleanly up the left
thigh with silver highlights...

[3]     Ok, boys, I'm not going to lie to you here. -=*ALL*=- women want
diamonds. If a woman tells you she doesn't, she's lying because she doesn't
want to hurt your feelings or send you into a blithering panic. The fact of
the matter is that some women might want diamonds while others want rubies
or sapphires or emeralds or pearls but *ALL* women want precious stones
(and even semi-precious). They're nice when they come to proposals and
anniversaries, but you can give 'em all year round, too, you know. Not to
mention the sheer romance of the way he offered 'em. *sigh* ;)

[4]     You never know with Genma. He might think that he'll come into some
sort of money should Romalov die.. and since Romalov *isn't* a human.. and
they're accustomed to killing off demons, succubi and other such
creatures... It's a logical conclusion of sorts.

        Well, I imagine that you're all searching for answers concerning
what sort of vampire Romalov actually -is-. Answer? My sort, of course! ^_^
In _Dracula_, vampires come out during the day with lessened powers. The
same is true for many other canonical vampire tales (I don't have time to
look up all of them, but check "Camilla", a short story written by Henry
James, author of "The Turn of the Screw". Mark Mackinnon says it might have
been written by F. Sheridan LeFanu and it's entirely possible that he's
right. It's been years since I read it so don't come smack me if I'm
mistaken.) As for death, what can truly kill a vampire? Well, we've got a
list of things that we usually go through. Sunlight? Nope, not this go
'round. Fire? Maybe, maybe -not-. Anything that can turn into mist can
probably get away from fire if necessary. Cutting off the head? Depends.
Stake? Depends on what you're reading -- after all, Anne Rice's vampires
just aren't stakable... unless you're planning on setting them afire while
you've got them down. ^_- The best way to kill a vampire (or at least
render the creature reasonably harmless) IMO? My suggestion would be to
stake them to keep them down (or maybe to kill them; like I said, depends),
cut off the head, stuff the mouth with garlic, put the body and the head in
separate steel boxes loaded with rocks and filled with dogwood blooms
(well, that's an old superstition; I'm -pretty- sure dogwood is one of the
flowers that vampires cannot abide. Maybe it's the modern equivalent of
something older, I forget, it's been years since I did vampire lore...
supposedly, the dogwood is the tree upon which Christ was crucified and, as
such, is something of a "holy" wood. Don't take that for fact, it's just a
theory advanced in English 301, Senior Seminar, Gothic Literature. The
professor was the most WONDERFUL prof I've ever had -- everyone should have
an Oost in their lives!) and then sink the boxes in running water,
preferably separate rivers or some such. Even that probably isn't
fool-proof. If somebody actually managed to put them back together
properly, we might just have one pissed off vampire on our hands, ne?

        Vampires represent a great many things in literature, among them
masculinity, virility, sexual pleasure, passion, heat, perhaps even the
darkest side of our human natures -- the side that yearns for power and
-takes it where it can-. Romalov is a mixture of a great many of this
things, I suppose -- pleasure, passion, heat, virility, masculinity -- and
yet I don't think that Romalov is a person who delights in the powers his
nature affords. Indeed, Romalov is something of a romantic and he would
rather have his love taken freely than find that a lover had to be seduced
by something of his dark nature (at least, after he first meets Kodachi and
discovers the possibility of her as his soul mate). So why does he have sex
with her so SOON?, you're asking. (Well, maybe not, but I thought I'd tell
you, anyway.) Quite frankly, if it had been better than a century since *I*
had seen the person I loved, I'd be a little excitable about such things
and *I'd* probably jump the gun, so to speak. *^_^*

        Another thing that's probably being asked is, "Why the visible
change in Ranma? Why the diary style writing only at the very end?" Kodachi
and Romalov are both dead. They can't very well speak for themselves and
perhaps Ranma is piecing the story together little by little; I find that
writing about myself is easier in third person than in first. I always feel
sort of stupid writing in first person. Maybe Ranma does, too. As for the
change in Ranma, I think that, as a Ranma fan, I have a certain belief in
Ranma's integrity, his honorable nature. Watching Kodachi die *WILLINGLY*,
attempting to bring Kuno back to himself for so long, seeing such truly
horrible things.. That tends to change a person and -certainly- I feel that
Ranma would be changed by these things to an almost unreal extent. Ranma
characters escape injury *SO* often. Think about it -- how many times do
you see Ranma characters -bleed-? Outside of Ryouga's nose bleeds, of
course. I can count two out of all the ones that I've seen (fewer than I'd
like, the first ten or so, 3 or 4 in the second series, all of the Hard
Battles, both movies and all of the OAVs... Yeesh!):  Kuno bleeds when
Akane and Tsubasa smash him in "I Love You! My Dear, Dear Ukyou" and
Shinnosuke in "An Akane to Remember" -- and Ranma causes that,
frighteningly enough. Actually seeing someone DIE would change a lot about
Ranma, it would eat at him, wondering if he could have stopped Kodachi,
anything. When something like that gnaws at you, festers and weeps blood in
your soul, you tend to become highly introspective.. Perhaps even Ranma has
this quality!

        To close this ridiculously long, dry author's note, I'd like to
thank Jason, above all, as always. He spoils me rotten, tells me everything
that I write is good (even when it isn't!) and he's always there to make me
laugh or let me cry on him until his shirt's wet. I'd like to thank Mark
MacKinnon, too, because he lets me gloat after I pre-read for him
(Bwahahaha! I know what's coming next and you don't!) and he catches all of
the little subtle things that get slipped into some of my stories. ^_^
While I'm thanking Jason and Mark, tho, I think I'll go for the whole
Church of the Black Rose Mailing List -- you guys are *great* and I love
every last one of you! ^_^ For God's sake, Paul, don't make a challenge for
Christmas! I can see it now.. Instead of vampires or the Great Pumpkin,
we'll have Kris Kringle and the Great Turkey. Amusing, but how on -EARTH-
do you make Santa Clause -DARK-? Don't answer that. I'm sure between you
and Jonathan, you'll let me know, and then I'll NEVER get to sleep
Christmas Eve... ^^;

rls -- kodachi@surfsouth.com

10/31/97


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