Well...no sense in dragging this thing out any longer. Might as well
end it...


	Chapter 25: The End of the Journey

	The Magic Knights, Lantis, Hikari, and Mokona walked through the
business district of Nerima, headed for the Tendou dojo. Mokona
hopped slightly ahead of the group, happily singing away as it
bounced across a street. 
	Unfortunately, Mokona didn't know to use the crosswalk.
	"Mokona! No! Look out!" Hikaru shouted. 
	"Pupupupuu? Puu--PUU!!!" Mokona shrieked in terror, as a huge truck
barreled down upon it. The white rabbit desparately tried to get out
of the way, but it was too late.
	Hikaru screamed, and Fuu and Umi looked away, as what was left of
Mokona was thrown down the street by the wheels of the semi. Lantis
looked moderately ill, and Hikari began howling mournfully.
	Tears streamed down Hikaru's face as the others led her away from
the site. The truck hadn't even slowed down. Mokona's jewel, cracked
and darkened, crunched pitifully as another car ran over it.
"Mokona," the redhead sobbed mournfully, dropping to her knees on the
sidewalk. The others knelt around her, and hugged her as she cried
herself to unconsciousness. 

	The Tendous had been surprised to see the group return, carrying a
semi-conscious, weeping Hikaru. Fuu explained the situation while
Lantis and Umi put Hikaru down to rest in Ranma's room. 

	Genma stepped quietly into the room, and turned a gaze of disgust
upon the fitfully sleeping redhead that had once been his son.
*This...is a disgrace*, he thought as he watched tears drip silently
down the girl's face. *My son, crying over a dumb animal...I can't
bear this humiliation. Forgive me, my son...* 
	Silently, Genma approached the sleeping girl. He withdrew a small
bundle from his gi, and unwrapped it, revealing a sheathed tanto.
Drawing the dagger, he silently knelt beside Hikaru, and calmly slit
her throat. Wiping clean and resheathing the blade, Genma quickly
packed his few meager possessions into his backpack, and slipped out
through the window, fleeing into the night.

	*****

	Lantis held the two sobbing girls as the three of them stood over
the grave of Shidou Hikaru...which, for the first time in two years,
actually held a body. Umi and Fuu knelt beside the marker, and lit
sticks of incense at the head of the grave. 
	"I can't...believe she's really gone," Umi said.
	Fuu nodded, sniffling. "It seemed like nothing would ever happen to
her, not after the last time..."
	The girls broke down in tears again. Lantis silently helped them to
their feet, and led them away. 

	It would be several days until they thought to mourn Ranma also.
Lantis left Japan a month later, seeking to find a way to return to
his own world in China. None of them would ever know how the others
fared in Cephiro, but it no longer mattered.
	For them, the adventure was at an end.

	*****

	"Okay, what the hell was that all about?"
	Three girls loomed menacingly over a figure seated in the shadows in
a darkened room, with a single beam of light illuminating a round
table.
	The figure shrugged. "Well, you know what today is..."
	"Yeah, but...that was really, really cruel!"
	A fat, white form bounced up onto the table. "Puu!" it said angrily.
	"Sheesh..." the figure said. "It's not real! It didn't happen!
You're all fine, everything's normal. Chill out!" 
	"You frighten me sometimes. How can you sit there and be so smug
after doing what you just did?"
	"Simple," the figure said, leaning forward, the shadows falling from
his face. His purple hair glistened under the lone source of
illumination in the room, as his eyes twinkled mischeviously. "It is,
after all, April Fool's Day." The Eternal Lost Lurker laughed
maniacally, as the three girls standing around him grew enormous
sweatdrops. 


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Haraheri  wanpaku  kintoun
Yama hodo  takusan  suiheisen
Deatte, wakarete, deatte, wakarete
ta-i-he-n
Aa mou,  Kami-sama mo tsurani yo ne!
...gomen

Ooo...  manpuku zenkai power!
Dete koi  tobikiri zenkai power!

---
The Eternal Lost Lurker
"My name is Don Roberto de Lurker. I am the
world's greatest fanfiction writer. I have written
more than 1,000 pages of fanfiction. 
--Okay, maybe not."
EternalLostLurker@worldnet.att.net
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Garden/9502

Dope on a Rope: The ideal Father's Day gift
Order now at the drug dealer nearest you
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