Hi,

Just forwarding this for Patrick, who seems to have had trouble posting
this fic. Of course, his original post probably will get through at the
same time. Hope it doesn't cause too much trouble.

-------- cut here --------

Hello, I tried mailing this to the ML but I have no idea
if it made it or not as I have received no feedback.
I thought I would send this to you as you had already
asked for the other parts. I hope you like. Please give
me some feedback before I post this on RAAC


        	Sugar and (Sp) Ice

Part 4

A Ranma � Fanfic
All Ranma � characters copyright Rumiko Takahashi
and are used without permission. No insult is intended.
*   Means Panda signs
 #  Means English is being used.
[  ] Means thought baloons


	He sat in the waiting in the darkness. He wasn't sure who was going
to come
but he knew someone would. Music played quietly in the in the background but
he wasn't listening.
[why didn't I tell her?]  [Why did she freak like that?] the last thought
revolved around in his
head. [Why? Of all of them, Nabiki is the most likely to listen first and
blow up second.] [Why didn't I tell her?] Around and around his thoughts
drifted as Mura sat there miserably.
	With a sudden bang the door slammed open. Mura looked up to see a
female
figure outlined with a red battle aura standing in the doorway. A male
figure could dimly be seen behind her. [Great. The 'Dirty Pair'. Just what I
need now.] [Go Away.]
	Akane stalked into the house, Mallet-sama appearing in her hands.
"You. I'm
gonna..."
	"Go ahead Akane." Mura said wearily. "You too Ranma. Go ahead and
pound me.
I won't even try to stop you. Why should I?"
	Something in his voice caused Akane to pause. "How could you do that to
her?" She asked in a slightly quieter voice. "How could you? Do you know
what you meant to her?" Akane's voice was steadily rising again and tha hazy
red blur of her aura seemed to brighten.
	Mura sat straight up. "Do you know how much she means to me? For
once, ONCE,
she wouldn't listen! She acted just like the rest of you! I tried to tell
her but I couldn't!" Mura was in full blown babble mode at this point and
really didn't care. "You have no idea how many times I've tried to tell her.
To tell any of you. Even if I had, would any of you listened?"  Mura pointed
towards the table where a pile of hypodermics and ampules sat. "Do you think
I like living like this?" His voice started to rise and very quickly he was
yelling. "Do you think I like this? Do you think my brother likes being in a
wheelchair because of it?!  Do you?!" Mura stopped yelling and swept the his
arm across the table top.
Everything except one of the ampules were sent crashing to the floor. Mura
picked up the lone ampule and glared at it for a moment before hurling it
towards the door. Ranma acted on pure instinct and snagged it out of the
air. Mura never even noticed as he was starting to rant again. "I hate this!
I hate it.I hateit, Ihateit, Ihateit. I. Hate. IT!" He wound down yet again
and just looked at them. "You want to beat me up? Go ahead. I won't even try
and fight back." Mura's voice became almost a whisper. "Just tell her that I
love her. I always will. I always will. Until I die." Mura's voice trailed
off and he put his hands behind his back, sticking his hands into hs belt.
"Go ahead. Now I can't fight back."
	Akane just stood there looking at him. She wanted to hit him, she
really
did. He just stood there calmly waitng for her to do it. It suddenly dawned
on her that he would let her beat him to death if she wanted to. The mallet
disappeared as quickly as it  had appeared.
She turned away and headed out the door. "Come on Ranma, let's go home."
Without a word he just turned and followed her.

	[Home... Nabiki...] The tears fell.

	Akane walked along slowly. For a change Ranma  walked alongside of her
quietly. He started turning the ampule in his hand. He didn't know why he
was carrying it around or even why he had bothered to catch it when Mura
threw it. [I was starting to think he was okay. Well, as okay as anyone who
likes Nabiki could be...] At the thought of Nabiki he frowned. [No one has
ever seen Nabiki like this.] In a way, it scared Ranma that Nabiki could be
so devastated. Like Kasumi, Nabiki never changed, but this time she had.

	"What are you doing Ranma?" Akane asked. When she saw the ampule
she almost
hissed at him. "Get rid of that!. What are you doing?!"
	He turned the small bottle around in his hand and held it up in
order to
try and see the label that was on it. By the light of a streetlight he could
make out some small typed words but one in particular seemed to stand out.
"Akane, you know I'm not to good with in English class..."
	What does that have to do with this Ranma?" She asked exasperated.
	"Akane... what does 'In-su-lin' mean?"
	Akane stopped dead in her tracks. and just looked at Ranma "What
did you
say?" The words came out in a squeak. "What did you say?"
	"Duh...I asked you what In-su-..." She ripped the bottle out of his
hand
and stared at it. For a moment it looked to Ranma as if she'd been hit with
her own mallet. All of a sudden she took off running back towards Mura's
house.
	"He's not a druggie Ranma! He's diabetic!" She yelled over her
shoulder as
she ran.
Akane hit the door at a dead run and slid to a halt in the middle of the
room. "Mura you idiot!"
	"Hello Akane. You forget something? Come back to beat my ass
maybe?" Mura
said without even bothering to look up at her. Ranma stepped into the
doorway at about the same time and stepped up behind Akane.
	"Mura, you are an idiot."
	"Gee... Thank you Ranma. Would you leave now? I'm busy being miseable."
	"Mura, you complete and utter idiot. You're not a druggie you have
diabetes."
	"No shit Akane. That's what I was trying to tell Nabiki when she
told me to
go to hell."
	"You BAKA!" Akane screamed into his face. "Nabiki thinks that you are a
druggie! She doesn't know that you're a diabetic!  She thinks you're into
the drugs, not that you're sick! If you had just told her..."
	"I tried to tell her Akane. I tried. You have no idea how many times I
tried. How do you tell someone that you love that you have a disease?"  Mura
stood up and glared at Akane and Ranma. "My brother has it so bad that it
messed up the blood vessels in his legs. He got gangrene!" Mura's voice
started to get louder. "They had to amputate Akane."  Suddenly Mura's voice
dropped real low. "The doctors came in and cut off the feet of a seven year
old kid, Akane." He saw the look of shock and disgust cross her face. "They
had to Akane. He would have died if they hadn't. There was no choice."
Mura's voice was choked. "How do I tell her that that may happen to me?"
Tears were starting to fall down his face. "Do you know what's kept me
going? The School. When I found out that I had diabetes I was old enough and
skilled enough to use my chi. Hoturi wasn't." Akane looked confused at the
way the conversation had changed.
	"He uses his chi to control his sickness Akane." Ranma suddenly
spoke up.
He turned to Mura. "That's also why you don't do chi blasts ain't it? You
can't afford to."
	"Yes Ranma, That's why. I have a fairly bad case diabetes. I have
to use my
chi in addition to the insulin." Mura stopped talking and just looked at
them. "Now what?" He finally asked.
	Akane grabbed him by the hand and started dragging him towards the
door.
"Now we go to Nabiki. You have to tell her. I'll make her listen if I have to."
	"She doesn't want to see me Akane." Mura said. "And, anyway your father
told me to never come back."
	"I'll handle father Mura. You just tell Nabiki that you love her.' She
stopped pulling at him and looked him square in the face. "She loves you
Mura."  He looked shocked at this comment. "She does!" Akane insisted. "Do
you think that she would have been so upset if she didn't?"
	"Akane's actually right for once man." Ranma said. Akane looked
ready to
smack him for that 'for once' comment but she let it go. "Nabiki only gets
excited about two things. Money and you." [I still think that it's money
first ...] For a change Ranma didn't say what he was thinking. The strain
hurt him, but he didn't.
	Mura let himself be pulled along by Akane. He started thinking that
he just
might be able to salvage something from this mess.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

	The Tendou house was in shambles. Ranma, Akane and Mura stopped in the
gateway and stared. Soun stood on what was left of the porch bawling his eye
out. Genma stood nearby with his head down. It looked like an entire side of
the house had been punched repeatedly by a giant fist. A small wizened old
man stood off to the side quietly. Kasumi was standing behind Dr. Tofu with
her left arm in a sling. Unusually for him, Dr. Tofo did not look flustered
at the nearness of Kasumi. It was probably because he was to busy trying to
treat...
	"Nabiki!!" Mura burst past Ranma and Akane and ran to where she was
lying
on the porch.Soun started to say something, but after seeing the look on
Mura's face thought better of it Mura didn't dare get to close as Dr. Tofu
was very busy working on her. "Who did ths?"
Mura's voice was very low and very deadly. "Who did this and where is he?"
	Soun started to back up frantically "W-W-Well y-y-you see..."
	"It was Pantyhose." Stated a small voice from behind Mura. He instantly
wirled and stared at the little prune looking man.
	"Happosai." The name was said flatly, with no emotion. Happosai
actually
started to back up before he caught himself.
	"Well yes, I am master Happo..."
	"Shut up." Again the words were spoken with no emotion. Happosai
started to
sweat. There was no reason for him to be frightened of this striplng but he
was. "Nabiki- " Here Mura's voice cracked a little. "I was told that he was
chasing after you, and why."
	"Well yes..."
	"And he followed you here. Why did you bring him here?" The words were
quiet and deadly.
	"I got tired of playing with him and thought Ranma would like to. Ranma
wasn't here."
	"Hey! It's not my fault!" Shouted Ranma. Instantly it became yet
another
seen of people blaming Ranma  when he hadn't even been in the area.
	"I said, where is he?!" Mura finally yelled, stopping the argument
for a
moment.
	"He's out looking for me." Happosai said in a small voice. "I was busy
earlier making a strategic withdrawal in Akane's underwear drawer. The
arguement instantly started again. This time it looked like it wasn't going
to stop.
	Mura stepped back and went over to where Kasumi was watching Dr. Tofu.
Kasumi started to say something when she was interupted.
	"Is she going to be okay?" Mura couldn't take his eyes off of the
pale form
of nabiki lying there.
	"We... Tofu-san is not sure yet Mura. Mura..."
	Again he interupted her. "I'm a diabetic Kasumi. If anything happens...
Tell her that. Tell her I loved her." With that he was gone.

	Kasumi looked at Nabiki for a moment and then over to where
everyone was
arguing. She nodded her head briskly. Time to stop this now. She walked over
and simply said one word. "Enough." The argument stopped in mid babble. No
one messed with kasumi when she actually got THAT tone in her voice.  Akane
blinked and looked up from the still form of Happosia that she had been
beating on. "Nabiki is stll injured and all any of you can do is fight."
Kasumi started to frown. The atmosphere instantly changed to that of a
concerned family. Akane looked around for a moment.
	"Hey! Where's Mura?"
	"Kasumi started to smile again."Oh, I think he went to find Pansuto."
	"What?! he's doesn't stand a chance against him! Come on Ranma!
we've got
to stop him."

	They arrived at Mura's house to late. The door was wide open and the
light's were on. On the table was a pile of chocolate wrappers and an empty
box of cake rolls. A almost empty 2 litre bottle of soda sat nearby.
"Akane." Ranma pointed to a small table off to the side. "What does this
mean?"  There was a neat line of five ampules and five syringes on the
table. They were all empty. Akane walked over woodenly and  picked one up.
She dropped it as if it burned her.
	"He's overdosed himself Ranma." She said with dread. "I think he's
trying
to kill himself."
	"Then why the Munchies?" he asked perplexed.
	"I don't know Ranma, I just know we have to find him. And soon!"

 	[I'll find him.If it's the last thing I do, I'll find him.] Mura
stalked
the streets looking for someone. He had no idea what he looked like but he
knew he'd find him. Even for Nerima he was an unusual sight. It wasn't every
day that a glowing martial artist ran down the streets yelling for pantyhose.

	Akane and Ranma searched but they always seemed to be a ways behind
him.
{Think Akane... We want to find Mura. Mura wants Pantyhose. Pantyhose wants...]
"Happosai!!"
	"Huh? What? Where?" Ranma looked wildly around for the little pervert.
	"No, Ranma. Look, we want to find Mura. All we to do is go back to the
house and he'll follow Pantyhose to us." Ranma ran along trying to figure
out  her logic. It took him a minute or two but he finally got it.
	"Pretty good Akane." He said. he couldn't quite stop himself from
adding
"For you."
Akane stopped and glared at him. "Look Ranma, I'm really in the mood to hit
something right now. Pantyhose is at the top of my list. Do you want to be
second?" Ranma backed off quickly. [Man. Akane is pissed. She must be a lot
more worried about Nabiki than I thought.] Ranma wasn't too worried about
her. He knew that Tofu was an excellent doctor from personal experience.

	They got to the house just in time for round two of the
Pantyose-Happosai
debate.
The battle, such as it was, consisted of Pantyhose chasing Happosai around
the yard while trying to hit him.They sttod in the courtyard watching this
for a moment. Akane was just about to jump in and clobber them both with her
Mallet when a sudden chi blast knocked Pantyhose to the ground.
	"Is... Is that Mura?!" Akane asked stunned.
	A figure jumped down from the far wall and headed towards
Pantyhose. He was
dressed in some sort of ritual uniform.Akane didn't recognize it at first
due to the weird black battle aura of his. Then she realized it was
completely white.[He expects to die.] Then she saw his face. His eyes
literally glowed with power. Suddenly the battle aura flared to a bright
crimson. The colour of blood.
	"What the...? Who are you?" Pantyhose asked getting back up to his
feet.
Pantyhose was answered by another chi blast that threw him back twenty feet.
	"That's my boy." Happosai piped up from the sidelines. "Good form.
Ranma,
are you watching this?" He asked taking a drag on his pipe. Without uttering
a word, Mura whirled and blasted Happosai as well.
	Suddenly it was a three way fight between them. Pantyhose came in
with a
spining thrust-kick that he knew had broken ribs. Mura's expression never
changed. [He's not human. He can't be human.]  As Happosai hit him, [And it]
he thought to himself, He let himself be thrown back to the Koi pond. He
came up in all of his Jusenkyo splendor to be greeted by another chi blast.
	Mura's left arm hung limply, his ribs were a burning agony,he could
barely
see. He ignored it.[Nabiki, Nabiki, Nabiki] He said to himself over and over
again. It had become a mantra. All that mattered any more was to take down
the bastard that had hurt Nabiki before he died. He had no illusions that he
was going to survive this. He'd used his chi for so long to help control his
diabetes. [Now I'm using this damned disease to fuel my blasts.] He didn't
know how much longer he had before he used up all of his bodies resources.
It wouldn't be much longer. He raised his arm prepared to blast the 'Thing'
that come out of the koi pond a second time.
	"Ranma! You've got to stop them! He's killing himself.!" Akane
screamed at
him. Silence fell on the battlefield for a moment. Mura half turned towards
the sound of Akane's voice, his entire arm glowing with chi.
	"Mura. Don't. Please" The voice was low and weak. It stopped Mura
in his
tracks. There in the doorway was Nabiki. Kasumi and Tofu were suporting her
but she was there.
The glow of chi went out in Mura's eye's and he staggered as if hit. The red
battle aura faded
down to a dull black before disappearing altogether. He managed to get
almost two steps towards her before he collapsed. His eyes never left her
face until he could see no more.His last concious act was to reach towards her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

	He awoke slowly. The pain was terrible but he fought against it. He
heard a
gasp and felt a small hand grab his. He forced his eyes open and saw Nabiki
sitting in a chair next to the bed he was in. [Hospital. Bed..] He stared
up at Nabiki's face. It was red and puffy and stained with tears. She looked
loke she hadn't slept or bathed in days. She was the most beautiful thing
he'd ever seen. "H-How long...?" He started sweating from the effort of
trying to talk.
	"You've been in here for twenty-three days. Mura. You've been in a
coma."
	[Diabetic coma.] He thought to himself.  [Hell... I didn't think
I'd live]
"Pantyhose?" he asked.
	"Ranma finished him off. And then he kicked Happosai into orbit for
leading
that thing to our house. It wasn't worth it Mura. It' wasn't worth what you
did to yourself." She started crying  and lowered her head to his chest
holding him.
	"You." He croaked. "You're worth everything to me."
	"Oh, Mura you baka.I want you alive. For me."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

	"Thanks for coming Hoturi." Mura said to his brother as he started
getting
dressed.
	"Not a problem big brother." Dad would have been here but he has that
merger going on and he just couldn't get away. I've been staying with the
Tendous. They're... interesting."
	"That they are little brother, that they are. They're good people
though."
	"I didn't say they weren't Mura, I just said that they were
interesting."
Hoturi looked up as Nabiki enetered the room. "I did want you to know that I
took care of the damages to their house. it's as good as new." At Mura's
look of gratitude he snorted and looked away. Anyway, Mom made me promise to
tell you that you can come home when ever you're ready to." He stopped
talking as it was obvious that Mura wasn't listening to him. He took in the
way that he was staring into Nabiki's eyes and wheeled himself out the door.
"I'll tell phone mom and tell her that I think you're already home."
	As they held onto each the words of his brother sifted their way
thru to them.

	"Yes. I am Home."

	"Yes. You're Home."


End of part 4


Author's Notes:  Well, first thing I would like to do is thank everyone from
the ML who sent me feedback, criticism, comments and encouragement.
I have to appologize. In a way this did become a self insertion story.
It didn't start out that way but shortly after I finished part one I was
diagnosed
as a 'boarderline' diabetic. The story just kind of went there. For those of
you
who wonder: yes, diabetes can lead to the blood vessals of the legs being
affected to the point that gangrene sets in. It can also lead to blindness
and heart
attacks. Hoturi's problems are all too real. The stunt of using chi to
'control' the
disease, and using the sugar overload and insulin to fuel Mura's final
attacks were
all my own. I am  sure that Mura would not really stand a chance against
Happosai and Pantyhose in any kind of regular fight. To be honest I see Happy
acting more like a goalie and just kicking them both back into play. Mura
really
did not really care what happened to him. Fanatics/Beserkers are VERY
dangerous.
They don't care what happens as long as they get their target.  Mura was on
overload and knew it. That made his chi blasts much more deadly because he
knew
it was killing him. He didn't care.

Patrick
pvander@vvm.com
Now LoneStar, you will realize that Evil will allways
triumph over Good... because Good is Dumb.

--

Ronald Chan                                 rc@chan.mail.org
AI Mediaworks - Home to Maximum Manga!!!    pocket_knight@kami.com
http://www.geocities.com/~pocket_knight     gx683@cleveland.freenet.edu